The war was precipitated when a young Nlaka'pamux woman was raped by a group of American miners, in the area of Kanaka Bar. The Nlaka'pamux retaliated by killing several of them, decapitating the bodies and dumping them into the river; they eventually were to be found circling in a large eddy near the town of Yale, the main commercial centre of the rush. This alarmed the thousands of miners lining the riverbanks between there and Kanaka Bar. For some time in the months leading up to this incident, tensions had rose due to increasing conflict between indigenous people and the encroaching miners. Conflict broke out amongst the parties when a group of goldseekers sparred with a party of Indians that had previously killed several white men and dumped them into a pool in much the same manner as the incident at Yale. Due to the reputation of the Nlaka'pamux, the riverbanks north of Yale were emptied, as miners in the thousands fled south to the relative safety of Spuzzum and Yale.