USU Bear River Massacre researchers dig deeper at site without lifting a shovel
Flowers were hung on posts overlooking the site of the Bear River Massacre on Monday, Sept. 26, 2016, near Preston, Idaho. About 250 of the Shoshone people were killed during the U.S. military attack.
A memorial near the Bear River Massacre's site is shown Monday, Sept. 26, 2016, north of Preston, Idaho. About 250 of the Shoshone people were killed during the U.S. military attack.
Dreamcatchers and other items hang from a memorial tree Sept. 26, 2016, near the site of the Bear River Massacre. About 250 of the Shoshone people were killed during the U.S. military attack.
Sweetgrass is tied to a memorial tree Sept. 26, 2016, near the site of the Bear River Massacre. Sweetgrass was used by the Shoshone Nation for "smudging," which is a process to cleanse the soul. The Shoshone would rub the smoke of sweetgrass over their bodies for the ritual.
The location where the Shoshone's people lodges were at the time of the 1863 Bear River Massacre is just beyond the barbed-wire fence, in the folds of the hills.
An educational sign shown Sept. 26, 2016, overlooks the area where the Bear River Massacre occurred in January 1863. About 250 of the Shoshone people were killed during the U.S. military attack.
Two professors at Utah State University are taking a deeper look into the ground of an infamous historical site without even lifting a shovel.
The pair’s research is taking place in the rolling plains north of Preston, Idaho, where the Bear River Massacre — the U.S. military’s deadliest attack on American Indians — happened Jan. 29, 1863. That morning, about 200 soldiers under the command of Col. Patrick Connor attacked the Shoshone people, Smithsonian Magazine says.
Two-hundred and fifty Shoshone were killed, including at least 90 women, children and infants.
Out of respect for the Shoshone people, USU anthropologist Molly Cannon and archaeologist Ken Cannon didn’t want to excavate the location. But thanks to ground-penetrating radar and other technologies, the husband-wife team has been able to form clearer picture of the massacre without disturbing its site.
The Cannons are working to secure more funding to continue the project, which started in fall 2014 and wrapped up in fall 2015. A large part of its goal has been to identify specific locations on the plot of land — for example, the destroyed Shoshone village and the camp where soldiers treated their wounded.
Ken Cannon said their work has been especially meaningful because researchers have gotten to directly communicate with the Shoshone about it.
“We can essentially touch the archaeological record in ways that would be hard to do if we were dealing with 9,000-year-old hunter-gathers,” Ken Cannon said. “It has a much more personal aspect.”
Shoshone Tribal Vice Chairman Darren Parry said while some tribal elders are opposed to any study of the site, the younger generation — including seven tribal council members who voted to allow the research — are in favor of it.
“We don’t want them to take a backhoe in there and start digging up things, but with modern technology, it makes it possible to do a lot of that work and not be invasive,” he said.
Ken Cannon said their research has been supported by the Shoshone people.
“We are dealing with an important part of their heritage and for them to trust us with that, it is something we value and we take very seriously,” he said.
BRIANA SCROGGINS/Standard-Examiner
Dreamcatchers and other items hang from a memorial tree Sept. 26, 2016, near the site of the Bear River Massacre north of Preston, Idaho. About 250 of the Shoshone people were killed during the U.S. military attack.
The Cannons’ non-invasive process began with walking around the area and doing a visual scan for artifacts. They had to work around an alfalfa harvest and bovine rotations, since the site it on private property. And while that activity alters the site, it can also turn up artifacts that would have otherwise remained in the earth.
“It does disturb it, it does move artifacts around potentially, so that is an impact depending on how deeply the ground is plowed,” he said. “We have to take that into consideration.”
The two then use a magnetic gradiometer, which detects iron particles in the soil. The device detects particles that have been disturbed, which can help map out points of interest below.
Finally, ground-penetrating radar sends a signal into the ground that’s reflected back to a reading instrument.
“What the instrument is doing is reading that reflection for changes below the ground’s surface that are due to objects,” Molly Cannon said. “That could be anything from metal objects to changes in the soil texture itself.”
Ground-penetrating radar has been around for decades, but Molly Cannon said archaeologists started using it in the 1960s.
Ken Cannon said the endeavor was funded by a $35,000 piece of a $50,000 grant from the National Park Service through Idaho Historical Society State Archaeologist Ken Reid. Ken Cannon estimated another $35,000 was put into the project in volunteer hours, USU Archaeological Services funds and the Cannons’ own bank account.
BRIANA SCROGGINS/Standard-Examiner
Darren Parry, vice chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, poses for a portrait near the site of the Bear River Massacre on Sept. 26, 2016.
Parry hopes the Cannons’ research will let more people know the massacre happened and give federal agencies incentive to protect the site. He said he’s done between five and 10 interviews with media outlets since the research began.
“It has really helped get the story out, and that’s what we want to do,” Parry said. “We want to tell the story from our perspective.”
So far, the only artifact researchers have uncovered is a bullet that may have been used in the massacre. Thanks to underground mapping, historical documents and the Shoshone’s oral history, the Cannons are painting a clearer picture of the event.
However, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
Molly Cannon said that’s partially because the Bear River’s course has shifted about 500 meters south since 1863. As roads and dams were built, there have also been other geological shifts, she said.
“We’re bringing a suite of instruments and studies and different areas of expertise to look at mapping where the different features of the massacre took place,” Molly Cannon said.
The two are hoping for another $50,000 grant to continue their research, but because of the National Park Service’s funding cycle, the earliest they’ll be back in the field is fall 2017.
“We’ve spent a lot of time out there, but we’re still kind of scratching the surface,” Ken Cannon said.
Contact education reporter Anna Burleson at aburleson@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @AnnagatorB or like her on Facebook at Facebook.com/BurlesonReports.