The Battle of Kelley Creek, also known as the Last Massacre, is often considered to be one of the last known massacres carried out between Native Americans and forces of the United States, and was a closing event to occur near the end of the American Indian warfare era. In January 1911 a small band of Shoshones were accused of rustling cattle and then killing four stockmen who went to investigate the dead cattle. A posse of policemen and citizens was sent to track the band, who were found encamped near Winnemucca, Nevada, in a region known as Kelley Creek. A largely one-sided battle ensued on February 25 that ended with the direct deaths of nine people, eight Daggetts and one posse member. At the time the affair was briefly characterized as a Native American revolt, though it is now mostly regarded as a family's attempted escape from law enforcement.
The posse of J.P. Donnelley.
Site of Deserted Indian Camp February 8, 1911
Site of Deserted Indian Camp where bodies of Stockmen were found at lower right 1911
Bodies of the four stockmen as found at the Indian Camp Left to right:Harry Cambron, Peter Erramouspe, John Laxague, Bert Indiano
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming
Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho
Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah
Goshute: western Utah, eastern Nevada
Rabbit-Tail or Moragootch (information varies).
A Shoshone encampment in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, photographed by W. H. Jackson, 1870
Reported picture of Mike Daggett February 26, 1911
Sheriff Charles Ferrel with the surviving members of Mike Daggett's family (Daggett's daughter Heney (Louise, 17), and two of his grandchildren, Cleveland (Mosho, 8), and Hattie (Harriet Mosho, 4))