The Rogue River War, though short-lived, was a bloody and terrible conflict. It is not so much a single war as many conflicts combined. There's the Yakima Native American War, the Battle of Hungry Hill, the Cayuse War, and more. It could also be said that the Rogue River War started earlier and ended later than previously believed due to the conflicts included before and after the war. The war was started indirectly by the discovery of gold in southwestern Oregon. White settlers began moving into the Rogue River Valley and usurped Native lands. Many people thought the war was unnecessary, even General John Wool and Superintendent of Indian Affairs Joel Palmer who played a major role in the war. Many valley natives chose to accept the changes that came with the miners and settlers. The population of the Rogue River Valley was divided between Toquahear and Tecumtum. Those who followed Tequahear ran to seek refuge at Table Rock in 1853 as they faced extermination declared by Major Lupton speaking of him and his men said “they were determined to teach them a lesson which they would not soon forget, and induce them to remain the reserve (Schwartz 89).” Tecumtum, like Tequahear, also wanted to live in peace with the whites, but when they lynched one of his sons and attacked a peaceful Indian village he had enough. He took his followers and retreated to the nearby mountains and fought the whites for a year saying he would rather die fighting for what is right than have him and his people killed for nothing when the whites felt like it (Allen). May 1855, a lone miner was murdered and it is suspected that the Takelmas did it. Two companies of militiamen marched into Kerbyville in revenge... middle of paper......razed to the ground, and were attacked once again; after three days of continuous fighting, reinforcements arrived for the colonists with a cannon. Some volunteers from Portland sailed to Bradford Island where they found many Indians sitting cooking food who at the sound of a trumpet fled and were massacred. Eleven Indian ambush leaders were captured. Among these, nine were hanged including Tecomeoc, Sim Lassels and Old Skeen. The other two, Jim Thompson and Captain Dan Baughman, escaped and ran into the mountains and later to Vanderpool Place where they rested until the troops left. On the twenty-third of April with five hundred and thirty-five men camped in a meadow known as Little Meadow found a group of Native Americans between them and Big Meadow. Four days later they attacked the party suffering only one casualty, while the Indians suffered thirty.