Fort Pueblo Massacre  The Fort Pueblo massacre was a retaliatory attack that occurred on December 25, 1854 against Fort Pueblo also known as "El Pueblo", a settlement on the north side of the Arkansas River, mile west of the mouth of Fountain Creek, above the mouth of the Huerfano. It followed the deaths of Chico Velasquez and others who died after having been given blankets saturated with smallpox by US authorities during the American Indian Wars. Coalition forces of over 100 Muache Utes and Jicarilla Dindes (mostly Muache Utes) under the leadership of Chief Tierra Blanco (Spanish for "White Earth") led the attack against Fort Pueblo, killing 15 men (mostly native Mexicans, and 1 Canadian), and capturing one woman, and two boys. Later on, the Muache killed the woman (Chipeta Miera) south of Pueblo at the Salt Creek. 2 women and 1 man survived the joint military operation, and the two boys who were captured, eventually returned. Benito Sandoval, brother to Teresita and Juana Maria Sandoval, was the Comandante of Fort Pueblo in December 1854. The Anglo-American builders left Fort Pueblo in 1849. Fort Pueblo was inhabited exclusively by native Mexicans from Taos, New Mexico, and their families, and 1 native American woman in 1854. In 1854, the Arkansas River divided the American/Mexican border. David Meriwether, the Governor of New Mexico, and Kit Carson passed out smallpox infected woolen coats to the Muache Utahs at a major meeting at Abiquiú, New Mexico on the Rio Chama in October 1854. Several Muache chiefs who had accepted the blankets caught smallpox and died, including Chico Velasquez. The Muache joined the Jicarilla Dindes in an attack on Costilla. 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. Tierra Blanco casually walked into Fort Pueblo on December 25, 1854, went right up to Benito Sandoval as he did many times before, and talked to him. Benito had traded vegetables and goat's milk with the Muache and Dindes before. Benito Sandoval and Tierra Blanco were friends, and Tierra needed for Benito to keep thinking that.