[January 29, 2018] Learning how to be a better, more informed leader is often gained through the intense study of the history of significant events. In the U.S. Army, for example, junior officers study the Mỹ Lai Massacre in Vietnam as the epitome of failed military leadership and how shame was brought upon the United States because of it.
Many have spent a lifetime studying massacres, atrocities, and violence across history, within cultures, its causes and its aftermath, and how leadership (or its failure) contributed to it. In the study of massacres in particular we are told of the difficulty in determining the details surrounding the incidents; as the perpetrators work hard to erase evidence.
While the study of massacres and such is important from the perspective of any historical event, it runs much deeper as to the contributing factors and background leading up to it. Justifications of mass killing, torture, and violence against humans has been given but rarely do they achieve a societal level of approval.
For example, on this date, January 29, 1863, the 3rd U.S. Regiment California Volunteer Infantry destroyed a village of Shoshone Indians in southeastern Idaho. Known as the Bear River Massacre, we can see the same logic to explain away the end results of a massacre. In this case, Shoshone Indians had sent raiding parties out to steal, murder, and variously terrorize the territory under their domain.
In this massacre, soldiers appeared to lose control. After killing most of the men and many of the children, they raped and assaulted the women. Those who resisted were shot and killed. Officially, the expedition’s commander, Colonel Patrick Connor, estimated the death toll at 224 “warriors.” Like we see in other cases, there was a large difference in the number and type of Indians reported killed by Connor and of those reported by locals who walked the ground shortly after the massacre.
The concept of a massacre, its meaning and emotional overlays, lack of precision in its definition, and varying degrees of legality in any given culture, make for a difficult time for those who study it for lessons in leadership. If we were to travel back in time to see for ourselves those actual events taking place, the recorded history would probably shock us at how far it is from what really happened.
What we can conclude is that sometimes it was the leadership of those present who made the decision to commit a massacre and sometimes it was the failed leadership that allowed it to happen. While both matter in the study of leadership, the latter (failed leadership) is of great interest when learning from the horrific mistakes of others.
Incidentally, the massacre marked the final significant influence of the Shoshone nation upon that part of Idaho. The area became a staging area for additional settlements and the friction between the Mormons and Colonel Conner continued for many years. Chief Sagwitch and his tribe eventually allied with the Mormons and many joined the LDS Church and Colonel Connor was deemed a hero for this event.
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