________
SEP 30 INDEX OCT 02
________
________
from The Spokesman-Review
Slaughter of horses leaves lasting mark
What many people consider one of the most brutal, inexplicable and traumatic acts in the mid-1800s war between the U.S. government and Native Americans of the Inland Northwest wasn’t about the loss of human life. It had to do with horses. On Sept. 8 and 9, 1858, approximately 800 horses belonging to tribes of the area were slaughtered by the soldiers of U.S. Army Col. George Wright along the banks of the Spokane River near what would become the border between Washington and Idaho. In 1946 the Spokane Pioneer Society, with help from the Sons and Daughters of Pioneers of Washington and some local citizens, erected a monument that notes that Wright and his troops captured the horses and to “prevent the Indians from waging further warfare he killed the horses on the bank of the river directly north of this monument.” The 8-foot-tall granite marker sits along the Centennial Trail about a mile west of the Gateway Park visitors center and a truck weigh station off Interstate 90 (exit 299), as close as could be determined to the exact spot where the killings occurred.
________
No comments:
Post a Comment