Bloody Island Massacre - Lake County (May 15, 1850) was a Indian Wars and Frontier Conflicts engagement fought in California, 1850. It was a Union victory.
The Bloody Island Massacre occurred in the context of indigenous enslavement and abuse in California. A number of Pomo people had been enslaved by two settlers, Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone, and confined to one village where they were starved and abused until they rebelled and murdered their captors. This rebellion by the enslaved Pomo triggered a violent response from U.S. authorities.
In response to the murder of Kelsey and Stone, the U.S. Cavalry launched a military action against the Pomo on May 15, 1850, on what was then an island in Clear Lake called Bo-no-po-ti or Badon-napo-ti (Island Village) in the Pomo language, located at the north end of Clear Lake in Lake County, California. The engagement resulted in mass casualties among the Pomo population.
The Bloody Island Massacre represents a significant instance within the wider California genocide. A U.S. Cavalry operation killed at least 60 of the local Pomo. However, Major Edwin Allen Sherman's July 1850 report claimed substantially higher figures, contending that approximately 400 warriors were killed and drowned, with as many more women and children who drowned after plunging into the lake through fear, resulting in approximately 800 Native Americans found dead in Clear Lake. This massacre exemplified the violent suppression of indigenous resistance and the broader pattern of genocide against California's native populations during this period.
Approximate location. The nearest recorded settlement is shown; the exact site is unrecorded.
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