Greene–Jones War
The Greene–Jones War was an ongoing Appalachian Mountain clan feud in the United States reputed to be second only to that of the Hatfield–McCoy feud in scale, duration, and number of persons killed. At least sixteen people, including one child, were killed during the course of the feud, and many others were seriously injured. The feud took place primarily in the border areas of Hawkins County (formerly part of Sullivan County, North Carolina, one of the earliest Tennessee counties and said to have a large Melungeon population), Washington County, Claiborne County, Hancock County, Tennessee (created when Hawkins County, Tennessee was subdivided), and Lee County, Virginia, not far from Cumberland Gap, the narrow Appalachian Mountain pass sometimes called The Wilderness Road leading into Kentucky.
Colfax County War
The event that triggered much of the war, was the murder of Reverend Franklin J. Tolby, a staunch ally of the settlers and squatters opposing the Maxwell Land Grant Company. He was found murdered in Cimarron Canyon on September 14, 1875. It was quickly assumed that someone from the company was responsible, and the blame was pinned on a gunman named Cruz Vega. Vega and his family were originally sided with the Hispanic settlers in the area, and his uncle, Francisco Griego, was one of the leaders among the Hispanic people during the conflict. However, they soon shifted sides when Griego and his family were faced with charges of killing three cavalry men in an altercation in a card game, and also implicated in the suspected murder of another soldier on June 1. The Santa Fe Ring was said to have blackmailed Griego and his family in exchange for dropping the charges the family would have faced.