The Keyesville massacre was a mass killing which occurred on April 19, 1863, in Tulare County, California during the Owens Valley Indian War.
A mixed force consisting of American settlers and a detachment of the United States Army's 2nd California Cavalry Regiment under Captain Moses A. McLaughlin killed 35 indigenous Californians from the Tübatulabal and Mono peoples "about ten miles from Keysville, upon the right bank of Kern River".
[1] In early April, Lieutenant Colonel William Jones received a petition from citizens of Keysville and vicinity asking military protection from Indian depredations.
He forwarded the petition and notified his superiors in San Francisco of the action he was taking: CAMP BABBIT, Near Visalia, Cal., April 8, 1863.
: Sir : I have the honor herewith to forward a petition from citizens of Keysville and vicinity asking military protection from Indian depredations.
They are expected to arrive this evening, and will leave on Saturday or Sunday morning, passing by the way of Keysville through Kern River Valley.
The captain will halt a few days in the upper end of the valley, where the difficulties are said to exist, and investigate the matter, and if the position of the Indians should be found as favorable as represented, if deemed advisable will give them battle.
Colonel: I have the honor to report that in obedience to instructions dated Camp Babbitt, near Visalia, Cal., April 10, 1863, and signed Lieut.
I informed Doctor George, Mr. Herman, and others, citizens, that I would visit the camps early in the morning, and that they might accompany me and vouch for such Indians as they might know.
Forage can be purchased in Tulare Valley and forwarded to Keysville, from which point the Government teams can bring it to Camp Independence, having water and grass at intervals upon the road, of not more than fifteen or twenty miles, while upon the Los Angeles road from Tehachapie Canon by Walker's Pass, a distance of over fifty miles, there is not a blade of grass and the water unfit to be used.
[4]The village where the Keyesville Massacre occurred has been identified by Tubatulabal people as being on Tillie Creek, near the North Fork of the Kern River, now under Lake Isabella next to what is now Wofford Heights.