Marias or Baker Lake Massacre
Niistsitapi Monument
On January 23,1870, soldiers commanded by Colonel Eugene Baker killed 173 Blackfeet Indians in a surprise attack on Heavy Runner's camp near here on the Marias River. The strike was in retaliation for the killing of Malcolm Clarke at his ranch near Helena in 1869. A man of peace, Heavy Runner had no quarrel with the US Army. His people did not participate in Clarke's killing nor were they hiding the perpetrators of the crime. Waving his good conduct papers and medals, Heavy Runner was the first casualty of the Baker Massacre that cold January morning. With most of the men away hunting in the Sweet Grass Hills, the soldiers fired into the lodges where women, children, and elderly slept. The soldiers took more than 100 prisoners, but once they realized many were infected by small pox, released them with no food, clothing or shelter in subzero weather. Many refugees froze or starved to death seeking shelter in nearby camps or at Fort Benton. Ironically, the soldiers were in pursuit of a hostile bandied by Mountain Chief, who was camped several miles downstream at the time of the attack. The Baker Massacre profoundly impacted the Blackfeet people and is very much alive in tribal memory.
This monument also recognizes all of those thousands of children who did not come home from residential schools. As we are now learning the truth about what residential schools were, and what they hoped to accomplish, we have the opportunity to come together and support each other as a community. We had 2 residential schools in our area, St. Paul's, and St. Mary's. As recorded on Canada's Truth and Reconciliation website there were recorded 75 student deaths, and we can not find a list for the St. Mary's residential school, but know that they had many out breaks of different diseases which no doubt had fatal outcomes.