The attack followed the deaths of Chief Chico Velasquez and others who died of smallpox after having been given blanket coats which the Muache believed had been deliberately contaminated.
In April 1854, soon after the Battle of Cieneguilla in the Jicarilla War, Messervy was acting Governor of the New Mexico Territory and also superintendent of Indian affairs.
On April 29, 1854, he wrote to Commissioner of Indian Affairs George Washington Manypenny[7] "But as they have commenced this war I am determined unless otherwise instructed from your department to listen to no terms of peace from them… the best interest of this territory and the highest dictates of humanity demand their extinction or their settlement in pueblos.
In spite of their differing linguistics, the Jicarilla Dindes and the Muache Utes fought side-by-side because they were historical allies, and because they were closely related by intermarriage.
[5] After the shooting contest had commenced, Benito Sandoval invited Chief Tierra Blanco and his Muaches and Jicarillas back inside the Fort to feast.
The Muaches captured Chepita Miera, a married Mexican woman, but they killed her soon afterward, at the Arroyo Salado ("Salt Creek" in English), just south of Pueblo.
The companies (sometimes groups volunteers led by Lieutenant Colonel Ceran St. Vrain and Kit Carson) engaged in pitched battles, but also in surprise attacks.
Juan was restored to his mother two years after the Fort Pueblo Massacre after she paid the Mexican speculator $300 in cash and merchandise, including a Hawkins rifle.