View source for Alma Massacre

{{Use mdy dates |date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox terrorist attack
|title=Alma Massacre
|image_size = 
|image=
|caption=
|location=[[Alma, New Mexico|Alma]], [[New Mexico]]
|date=April 28, 1880
|time-begin=
|time-end=
|timezone=
|type=[[Mass murder]]
|fatalities=41
|injuries=
|perp=[[Apache]] warriors
}}
{{Campaignbox Apache Wars}}
The '''Alma Massacre''' involved an April 28, 1880, [[Chiricahua]] [[Apache]] raid on United States settlers' homes around [[Alma, New Mexico|Alma]], [[New Mexico Territory]].  At least 41 people were killed during the raid.

== Details ==
The Chiricahua Apache raiding party was led by [[Victorio]] during his 1879–1880 [[Victorio's War|guerrilla action]].  The party first attacked a silver mine near the present-day town of [[Cooney, New Mexico|Cooney]], in the [[Mogollon Mountains]] on April 28, 1880.  At the mining camp, they killed three. They then caught up to three men fleeing the area, one of whom was former Sergeant [[James C. Cooney]] of the [[8th Cavalry Regiment|8th U.S. Cavalry]], killing them all.  Following the initial attack, the Apaches went on to kill another thirty-five people in the area, mainly sheepherders and their families. The ''[[The Santa Fe New Mexican|Weekly New Mexican]]'' reported on May 10 that "one hundred thousand head of sheep...were scattered or killed."<ref>{{cite news |author=<!-- None stated --> |date=1880-05-10 |title=Voiceless Victims |newspaper=[[The Santa Fe New Mexican|Weekly New Mexican]] |page=4 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/583284263/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url-access=subscription}}</ref>  Victorio and his men left the region when U.S. Army troopers from [[Fort Bayard National Cemetery#History|Fort Bayard]] arrived.<ref name="WPA">{{cite report |last=Totty |first=Frances E. |title=The Alma Massacre |location=New Mexico |series=Folklore Project, Life Histories, 1936-39 |type=manuscript |publisher=[[Federal Writers' Project]] |date=1937-12-03 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/wpalh001321/}}
</ref>

== Memorials ==
There have been two memorials erected to commemorate the events.  Sergeant Cooney's brother and others dynamited out a [[Cooney's Tomb|rock tomb]] where they buried him.<ref name="WPA" />  In April 1980, [[Dave Foreman]] and [[Earth First!]] erected a monument in the [[Gila Wilderness]] to honor Victorio's defense of the mountains, crediting the memorial to the non-existent "New Mexico Patriotic Heritage Society."<ref>Wall, D. (1999) [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ud3wLi83YSEC&pg=PA43 ''Earth First! and the Anti-roads Movement: Radical Environmental Movements and Comparative Social Movements;''] (at [[Google Books]]); Routledge; London; pp. 43-44; {{ISBN|978-0-415-19063-3}}; citing Manes, Christopher (1990) ''Green Rage: Radical Environmentalism and the Unmaking of Civilization''; Little, Brown and Company; Boston, Massachusetts; page 73; {{ISBN|0-316-54513-9}}; accessed ???.</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Catron County}}
{{Wild West}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alma Massacre}}
[[Category:1880 in New Mexico Territory]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1880]]
[[Category:1880 murders in the United States]]
[[Category:April 1880]]
[[Category:Massacres of the Apache Wars]]
[[Category:Battles involving the Apache]]
[[Category:Chiricahua]]
[[Category:History of Catron County, New Mexico]]
[[Category:Native American history of New Mexico]]
[[Category:19th-century military history of the United States]]
[[Category:Massacres by Native Americans]]