INDIAN RUSTLERS OF By THOMAS the year 1911 a sensational event punctuated the news of the western United In States. In February, four wealthy California ranchers were found murdered and mutilated in the rugged High Rock Country of northwestern Nevada. Evidence presented at the inquest THOMASN. LAYTONreceivedhis doctoraldegreein anthropology from Harvard Universityin 1971. Currently AssistantProfessorAnthropologyat California State yDominguezHills, he wasformerlyDirectorof University the Nevada State Museumin Carson City, Nevada. He has directedarchaeologicalinvestigationsthroughoutthe Great Basin sinceJ 965. The author would like to thankJames E. Ayres, Clifford BrownyWilliamMurray, Philip Rasch and David Hurst Thomasfor their assistancein preparing this article. 366 THE HIGH ROCK N. LAYTON suggested that the men surprised a small band of Indians butchering branded cattle. The Indians were later identified as Mike Daggett and his family of twelve, members of the loosely organized, hunting and gathering Shoshone tribe of northeastern Nevada and southeastern Idaho. The frightened Indians overwhelmed and killed the lightly armed cowmen, covered the bodies with snow and headed east. The incredible news of the massacre of four respected stockmen spread rapidly. It seemed an impossible anachronism that in 19 1 1 "wild" Indians were still loose on the heavily grazed Nevada range. For a short while the Massacre of 1911 in Nevada captured the imagination of the American public. Live Native Americans had long before