Ceremony planned for 150th anniversary of Bear River Massacre

In this Jan. 29, 2010 photo, the National Historic Landmark where the Northwestern Shoshone suffered a massacre in 1863 is seen near Preston, Idaho. Tribal members descend each year to the burial ground near the Bear River where soldiers felled hundreds of their ancestors in one of American history's bloodiest but little remembered massacres. (AP Photo/Jessie L. Bonner)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A special ceremony is planned Tuesday to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Bear River Massacre in the Cache Valley just north of the Utah-Idaho line.

The Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation plans a presentation at 11 a.m. at the site of the deadly tragedy near Preston, Idaho, about 100 miles northeast of Salt Lake City. A Daughters of Utah Pioneers’ historical marker designates the spot on U.S. Highway 91 near milepost 13.1

As many as 500 women, children and tribal elders were killed Jan. 29, 1863 when Col. Patrick Edward Connor led the California Volunteers in an attack on a friendly encampment of the Shoshone near the confluence of the Bear River and Beaver Creek.

The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990.

To learn more about the massacre, visit the <a href=”http://www.nwbshoshone-nsn.gov/culture/history/massacre.htm#content” target=”_blank”>Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation</a>.

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