Early primary sources mention the irony of the planned duel to the prison. This marker incorrectly states that Lincoln did not write “the” letter. From the Alton, IL side, looking at what was Bloody Island. I walked the trails, made note of foliage, and generally got a feel for the place. I imagined being on the ferry boat-operated by horse-powered windlass- with Lincoln and Shields as they made their way from Alton, IL to the island and an unknown fate.
It is impossible to know for certain where the original “field of honor” was, but it’s easy to imagine. For one, channels and roadways have been added to the Missouri side, so the island is practically a peninsula today. To each of them, I asked the same question: Do you know where the park’s name originated? Not one person knew the answer-that Abraham Lincoln faced a duel on those shores, long before he knew that he was risking the future of this great country.īoth human intervention and the brushes of time and nature have changed the area a great deal during the 176 years since the duel. For that, you have to cross the river to the Alton, IL shore and find the two information markers.ĭuring my research for ABRAHAM LINCOLN’S DUELING WORDS, I visited the “island”, camera in hand, and found only a few park goers casting their lucky lures into the Mississippi. Unfortunately, there is no marker on the property to explain the park’s name or its historic significance. Louis, Missouri-smack-dab in the Mississippi River- is a lovely fishing/picnic/nature-rich park called The Lincoln-Shields Recreation Area. Every May, the Robinson Rancheria Pomo Indians in Clear Lake County hold a sunrise ceremony and other events to remember those killed at Bloody Island.Approximately twenty-five miles from St. “Bloody Island” also known as the “Clear Lake Massacre,” was one of many government-sanctioned slaughters of Native Americans under California’s official policy to exterminate Native Americans. In the words of Captain Nathaniel Lyon, who led the attack, “the island became a perfect slaughtering pen,” as the Indians had no way of escaping soldiers and an onslaught of heavy artillery. Many Pomo fled the ranch to an island, known as Bo-no-po-ti in the Pomo language, where Indians gathered every April for fish spawning season. Bent on revenge, Kelsey’s brother rounded up a posse and began indiscriminately killing Indians. After the murder, Pomo tribe members killed Stone and Kelsey. What is not disputed is that after the lashing, one of the white settlers shot the youth in the head. Another said that the young Pomo man had insulted Kelsey’s wife. One report said he had been sent by his aunt to beg for more wheat. There are different versions of what led to the punishment. One day, Stone gave 100 lashes to a young Pomo man. Those who resisted were whipped and lashed. The two men sexually abused Pomo women and children, including the wife of the local Pomo Chief Augustine. They were known for their brutal mistreatment of their workers, doling out starvation rations of four cups of wheat each day and refusing to allow the Pomo to fish on the land to feed themselves. The seeds of this bloody conflict can be traced back to 1847 when two white settlers, Charles Stone and Andrew Kelsey, bought a cattle ranch where they kept several hundred local Pomo men as slave laborers. One of the few survivors was a 6-year-old girl named Ni’ka, later known as Lucy Moore, who hid in the bloodied waters and survived by breathing air through a reed.
Many women and children were stabbed with bayonets. Cavalry, working in concert with white vigilantes, slaughtered the Indian men, women and children who had taken refuge on an island north of Clear Lake in Clear Lake County.Īs many as 200 Pomo were killed on the island and in the surrounding area. In retaliation, government troops from the U.S. After being enslaved and starved by two white cattle ranchers for more than two years, members of a Pomo Indian tribe rose up and killed their vicious captors.
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