This week in 1871, an Arizona vigilante group massacred a camp of sleeping Apache Native Americans, who were seeking peace w/ the US. The group raped, killed & mutilated 144 ppl—almost all women & children—w/ another 29 children captured & sold into slavery. #CampGrantMassacre 
The slaughter was systematic, they used war clubs to kill those asleep in their wikiups & rifles fire from the hills above to shoot down those trying to flee the camp below. At the time of the attack, many of the men were off hunting game for an upcoming celebration.
In 1871 bands of around 500 Apache came into Camp Grant to make peace. The bands had been attacked and harassed by the US Army since the end of the Civil War in 1865 & they were on the verge of starvation.
local newspapers called for the extermination of the Apache, many in Tucson, Arizona were angry that Lieutenant Royal Whitman had brokered a peace. Locals feared peace w/ the Apache would deprive them of US government contracts to wage war against the Native population.
100 people who participated in the massacre were put on trial two months later. It took the jury just 19 minutes to pronounce a verdict of not guilty for everyone involved.
Western Apache groups soon left their gathering places near Tucson in fear of subsequent attacks. As pioneer families arrived and settled in the area, Apaches were never able to regain hold of much of their ancestral lands in the San Pedro River Valley.
One participant in the massacre, Sidney DeLong, was elected the mayor of Tucson, Arizona. Over the years, many streets and institutions were named after men directly or indirectly involved in the massacre. Today, there is still no memorial to mark the site of the massacre.
