Fanning the flames of mistrust
The emigrants, many of whom had never met Native Americans, were nervous or suspicious of people whose culture was so different from their own. This sometimes led to emigrants shooting at natives simply out of fear. Some reports even cite emigrants using indigenous people as target practice.
Newspapers in the east would report any conflict as “massacres,” which helped increase the distrust and tension as emigrants traveled the Oregon Trail. Historic records show Native Americans killed around 362 emigrants, mainly in the area west of the South Pass, along the Humboldt and Snake River areas, or the southern end of the Willamette Valley. But the records also show that emigrants killed 426 Native Americans.
