Alma Massacre

The Alma Massacre involved a raid on United States settlers' homes around Alma, New Mexico on April 28, 1880. At least 41 people were killed during or immediately after the raid.

Details
During the event Chiricahua Apache tribal members were led by Victorio. They attacked a silver mine near the town of Cooney in the Mogollon Mountains. At the town they killed three, and then caught up to a fleeing party of three that included Sergeant Cooney. The Apaches then killed 35 sheepherders in the nearby area. Victorio and his men left the area when U.S. Army troops from Fort Bayard arrived.

Memorials
There were two memorials erected to commemorate these events. Sergeant Cooney's brother and others dynamited out a rock tomb where they buried Sergeant Cooney, and a hundred years later in April 1980, Dave Foreman and others of Earth First! erected a monument in the Gila Wilderness to honor Victorio's defense of the mountains, crediting the memorial to the non-existent New Mexico Patriotic Heritage Society.