View source for Klamath River Wars

{{Campaignbox Indian wars and conflicts of California}}

'''Klamath and Salmon River War''', or '''Klamath War''',<ref name="Bledsoe">[https://archive.org/details/GR_328 <!-- quote="Tribes of the Kamath River.". -->  Anthony Jennings Bledsoe, Indian wars of the Northwest: A California sketch, Bacon & Company, San Francisco, 1885; Chapter VI The Klamath War. pp.153–176]</ref> or '''Red Cap War''', or '''Klamath River Massacres''', was an [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indian]] War which occurred in [[Klamath County, California|Klamath County]], [[California]] from January to March 1855.  The war began from incidents between local settlers and local Indians and a rumor of an Indian uprising against the miners along the [[Klamath River]] by the [[Yurok people|Yurok]] and [[Karok]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American tribe]]s.  Local miners wanted the Indians armed with guns and ammunition disarmed, anyone trading them to the Indians whipped and expelled from the County and any Indian found with firearms after that time was to be killed.  Some of the Indians, mainly a group called the "Red Caps", refused to disarm, and hostilities began between them and the miners.  Troops from the [[California Army National Guard#Formation of the California State Militia and its early years|California State Militia]] and [[U. S. Army]] eventually stepped in.<ref name="Bledsoe" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/redw/history6c.htm |title=REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK, History Basic Data, VI. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KLAMATH RIVER RESERVATION (continued), C. THE EXECUTIVE ORDER of 1855, 1. The Red Cap War |access-date=2011-12-29 |archive-date=2012-11-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121128054019/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/redw/history6c.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> The conflict resulted in killings on both sides.<ref>{{Cite web |title=THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KLAMATH RIVER RESERVATION |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/redw/history6c.htm}}</ref>

The massacres of Native peoples along the Klamath River are considered to be part of the [[California Genocide]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Benjamin Madley|title=An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ya0ODAAAQBAJ&pg=PP234|year=2016|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-18217-0|page=234}}</ref>  The U.S. government issued an Executive Order creating the Yurok Reservation along the Lower Klamath River, compelling the indigenous population to cease resistance and relocate.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Red Cap War |url=https://nwgenocide.omeka.net/exhibits/show/red_cap_war |website=Northern Western Genocide Project}}</ref> This fighting is not to be confused with the [[Rogue River Wars]] which occurred in southern [[Oregon]] beginning in 1851 with fighting from June 17 to July 3, 1851, then again from August 8, through September 1853, and then again during 1856 from March to June.

== See also ==
{{Outline|Outline of the California genocide}}

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Conflicts in 1855]]
[[Category:Wars between the United States and Native Americans]]
[[Category:1855 in the United States]]
[[Category:Massacres of Native Americans]]
[[Category:Indian wars of the American Old West]]
[[Category:History of Klamath County, California]]
[[Category:1855 in California]]
[[Category:California genocide]]


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