The Hells Canyon Massacre Explained

During the 19th century, there was a rise in the number of people emigrating from China to various countries around the world. It's estimated that up to 2.5 million people left China, many from the Guangdong province, fleeing both "intense conflicts," like the Opium Wars and the Red Turban Rebellion, as well as "harsh economic conditions." And as stories began to circulate of those who'd gone to America and came back with an abundance of wealth, whether through gold mining or employment, some Chinese people decided to set out across the Pacific to find their fortune.

The discovery of gold in California led many Chinese immigrants into the gold mining industry. Some people in the Guangdong Province in China called "the faraway land" where gold nuggets could be found on the street Gum Shan, or Gold Mountain, But as the Library of Congress notes, those who made it to the United States found that Gum Shan "was an illusion. Mining was uncertain work, and the goldfields were littered with disappointed prospectors and hostile locals."

Often, this hostility quickly turned violent and dozens of Chinese gold miners lost their lives at the hands of Americans who didn't enjoy the competition, were racist against Chinese people, or both. These attitudes were present even before the implementation of the Chinese Exclusion Act and they only got worse after the act was passed. This is the Hells Canyon Massacre explained.

It's estimated that over 100,000 Chinese people, mostly men, came to the United States during the second half of the 19th century for the Gold Rush. Many who immigrated were young married men who came as contract laborers or free laborers "under the credit ticket system." Some who immigrated to the United States ended up working in the gold mining industry. Mae Ngai writes in "The Chinese Question" that by the end of the 1850s, Chinese miners represented up to 25% of the population in California mining districts, despite being only 6% of the state's population.

However, according to "Glass Ceilings and Asian Americans" by Deborah Woo, mining had its dangers, some of which weren't even associated with the act of mining. "Chinese who competed with white miners in the more productive or lucrative mining sites were beaten, shot, and otherwise forcibly removed, their campsites burned." By 1862, there were at least 88 known murders of Chinese people in California. And justice was rare, since the testimony of a Chinese person was considered inadmissible, per the ruling of People v. Hall (1854).

In 1850, anti-immigrant sentiment in California led to the Foreign Miners License Law, which charged all non-U.S. citizens $20 per month and targeted Latin American miners as well as Chinese miners. Many left the mining industry due to the tax and although the amount was reduced in 1885, the Foreign Miners License Law remained until 1870, according to "Asian American Society."

Although the violence against Chinese people escalated after the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act, there were numerous riots and massacres fueled by sinophobia over a decade before the act's passage. One notable example includes the 1871 Chinese massacre in Los Angeles, which left at least 20 Chinese people dead, some of them as young as 14, and is considered to be "one of the worst instances of a mass lynching" in American history.

According to The New Yorker, a "model for ridding communities" of Chinese people was known across the West Coast as the Tacoma Method, named after an 1885 riot in Tacoma, Washington. White people in the city of Tacoma reportedly set a deadline and told several hundred Chinese residents that they had until November 1 to leave the city. After the deadline passed, a group of white vigilantes with pistols and clubs hunted down the remaining Chinese residents on November 3 and "herded about two hundred Chinese on a muddy march to the train station." Those who couldn't afford train fare were forced to jump onto a freight train or walk for days along the tracks.

The Tacoma Method writes that although 27 white men were indicted for the expulsion of Chinese residents from Tacoma, none of them were convicted, and "in many ways, the city thought of them as heroes."

Although it's not clear exactly when the Chinese gold miners led by Chea were ambushed, it's believed that sometime around May 1887, they were attacked by a group of seven white horse thieves; Bruce "Blue" Evans, J. Titus "Tighty" Canfield, Frank Vaughn, Robert McMillan, Hezekiah "Carl" Hughes, Hiram Maynard, and Homer "Omar" LaRue. The group of horse thieves was led by 31-year-old Evans, and History Cooperative writes that the oldest was Maynard, at 38, while McMillan was the youngest of the group at 15 years old.

The Oregon History Project writes that Chea's group of miners were reportedly ambushed by Evans' men and shot as they tried to run away. After the massacre, the bodies were subsequently "mutilated in a most shocking manner" and thrown into the river. But according to the "History of Asian Americans" by Jonathan H. X. Lee, this was just the beginning of a brief killing spree.

10 Chinese people were killed during the first massacre and after eight other Chinese miners stumbled upon the site, they were subsequently murdered as well. Evans and his men then reportedly traveled to another camp of Chinese miners and killed 13 more people. Over the course of two days, it's believed that at least 31 Chinese people were slaughtered. This 2-day slaughter became known as the Hells Canyon Massacre or the Snake River Massacre.

Estimates for exactly how much gold was stolen from the massacred Chinese gold miners vary. According to an article published in the Oregon Scout in 1888, all of the money and gold dust amounted to "between $4,000 and $5,000," or between $122,000 and $152,500 today. Meanwhile, the New York Times writes that the gold was worth as much as $50,000, or $1.5 million today. The gold dust was reportedly given to J. Titus "Tighty" Canfield who was supposed to sell it for them, but Canfield reportedly "skipped the country, and the rest of the parties got nothing."

History Cooperative writes that Chang Yen Hoon, the minister in charge of China's legation in Washington, D.C., even notified Secretary of State Thomas F. Bayard of the massacre in February 1888. However, Bayard reportedly replied that Chang's letter was "confusing and even contradictory."

In March 1888, Chang also submitted a claim seeking compensation for crimes against Chinese people in the state of California as well as several territories. "The claim was for $346,619.75, of which $100,000 would be indemnification for forty deaths — or $2,500 per death." However, the claim didn't include the Hells Canyon massacre, since "no accurate information is yet received." The United States ended up approving a compensation package of $276,619.75, although it's disputed whether or not the compensation was actually paid.

The murder trial for the massacre of the Chinese gold miners lasted three days and was held in August 1888 in Enterprise, Oregon. During the trial against Maynard, McMillan, and Hughes, Vaughn reportedly changed his story. Although in the grand jury indictment he claimed that the other six men were "acting together," during his deposition Vaughn "shifted all the blame to Evans, Canfield, and LaRue."

The trial lasted from August 30 to September 1 and Maynard, McMillan and Hughes were all found not guilty by the all-white jury. George Craig, a rancher who attended the trial, stated that "I guess if they had killed 31 white men, something would have been done about it, but none of the jury knew the Chinamen or cared much about it, so they turned the men loose," per History Cooperative. And during the trial, nobody asked the men about what happened to all the gold that they'd stolen.

According to In Pursuit of Gold, after the trial "all of the court documents mysteriously disappeared only to be found in 1995," over 100 years later.

The story of the massacre was brought back to public attention in 1995, when court documents relating to the murder trial were discovered by author R. Gregory Nokes in a courtroom safe in Wallowa County. And according to judge Ben Boswell of the Wallowa County Court, the hidden nature of these documents wasn't accidental. "The records were more than just lost. They seem to have been hidden. Somebody intentionally tried to keep this story from happening. Someone intentionally caused people to forget," per The Lewiston Tribune.

East Oregonian reports that in 2005, Snake River cove, where the massacre occurred, was renamed Chinese Massacre Cove. And on June 22, 2012, a granite memorial was also installed at the cove and dedicated to the victims of the massacre. The memorial reads "Site of the 1887 massacre of as many as 34 Chinese gold miners. No one was held accountable," written in English, Chinese, and Nez Perce.