Yuma Crossing
Immediately after the Mexican–American War in 1848, the U.S. Army built Fort Yuma here to protect travelers from Indians raiding the area. It was the center point of conflict in the Yuma War of 1850–53. From 1864–1890, the fort and nearby facilities was the main army base to support the US Army's efforts to control the Indians throughout the greater southwest.
Yuma War
The Yuman tribe was small compared to many other North American groups. On average a Yuman village consisted of around eighty to 250 men and women spread out along the far western Gila and southern Colorado Rivers. Following the Mexican Cession and the California Gold Rush, American settlers headed west and many crossed the southern portion of the Colorado River, through Yuman territory. To exploit this opportunity, the Yumas established a ferry near the confluence of the Gila and the Colorado Rivers to transport American settlers from Arizona to California. In early 1850, Texian scalphunter John Joel Glanton and his gang of twelve men attacked their Yuma ferry and occupied the area. They then robbed and murdered both Americans and natives as they traveled around and across the river. In response a Yuman war party attacked and massacred Glanton's gang, killing nine, only four escaped. Those killed were scalped and burned in a large bonfire. California responded with the Gila Expedition, raising a militia of 142 men, only raised when they were paid six dollars a day, to fight the Yuma instead of panning gold. Setting off on April 16, the Gila Expedition entered what is today Arizona only to be defeated in September after a series of skirmishes. The expedition was a failure and due to the inflated prices caused by the gold rush, cost the State of California 113,000 dollars, a sum which nearly bankrupted the state.