1871: Date Creek Massacre (1 Jan 1871 Jahr – 1 Feb 1871 Jahr)

Beschreibung:

Within Prescott there were many cases of planned genocide. White soldiers and Mexican scouts would tell the Yavapai people that they would make peace with them and give them many gifts. These statements were very promising and made the Yavapai hopeful for a more peaceful future as large portions of their tribe had been killed by the settlers. However, these were false promises that were made to gather entire tribes in one area and massacre them. Date Creek is one location where this occurred.

"East of Prescott there is a place in the rocks. We call it ‘Kawauwa. That means, “no one can get through here.” That place is steep. Only one way to get in and out. The White people get the Tolkepaya (one of the four tribes of Yavapai) together there, and the scout tells them to drop their bows and arrows, all their things. So they do. They drop their bows and arrows. Some got long spears. We call those pasatohe…They drop those spears. Some of them have heavy wood for throwing. We call it sotat. They drop that, too. Another scout takes brush and puts all that stuff in it and burn it.”

“Then the soldiers said to the Tolkepaya, “Come in, We’ll talk.” So the Indians believe it and go in that Kawauwa. They go in, go in, go in — the whole bunch of them. The place where you can go out is not very wide. Like a gate. In there it is like in a rock corral. And when all the Indians are in it, they shoot them down.”

“Lots of Tolkepaya got killed at Date Creek. At the mouth of Date Creek there is a canyon. Lots of Tolkepaya lived in there. There is water and the people made a ditch that planted corn and squash and everything. That time the Tolkepaya used to go down with the Yuma and work with the Mexicans. That’s why they understand the Mexican talk so good. So a Mexican scout tells the Tolkepaya to get together at one place in Date Creek. White people did to them, like to the people in Skull Valley. Tell them, they are going to make friends, going to give them houses, going to give them wagons. The Tolkepaya believe it. They get together there and the soldiers kill them. Some of them don’t believe the scout. “We go up in the hills and wait,” they said. When they stayed over in the hills they heard shots go on. So they took off. But when the soldiers had left, they came down and a pile of dead bodies and burned them.”

“When I was a little boy, my uncle Pelhame sometimes took me over there. My uncle was from over there. So I saw the place where they burned these people. You see the ashes. It is still there down at Date Creek.” -Yavapai Elder (Oral History of the Yavapai).

Image 1: Date Creek (Hakaonwa) in 1978 near the location of the massacre.
Image 2: Date Creek today.

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