April marks another anniversary of the Camp Grant Massacre, an event that should be familiar to the citizens of Tucson. The 1871 vigilante attack was organized and led by prominent Tucson citizens, including two early mayors, William Oury and Sidney DeLong. The slaughter of over 100 Aravaipa Apache women and children and enslavement of another 28 children was followed by a nationally publicized trial, in which a Tucson jury found the defendants innocent of any crimes.
While the Camp Grant Massacre has been extensively documented by historians, the city of Tucson seems to want the event hidden in the shadows of the past. To date, there has been no official recognition of the massacre and no historical markers memorialize the horrific events that transpired. It is long past time for Tucson to formally acknowledge the Camp Grant Massacre as a truly regrettable, but nonetheless important, part of our civic history.
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Drew Colenbrander
East side
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star.
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