The story of the west is a mix of pride and shame.
Emigrants came
from abroad seeking freedom, led by a belief that as Christians they had a
right to take possession of discovered countries, provided those
countries were inhabited by non-Christians. Christian supremacy rationalized the
decimation of the American Indian culture, saying they didn't
believe in God and the Bible, and are therefore "heathens" and
"savages". All the while, the Indian people struggled to remain
themselves.
Before the emigration of 1847 when
Mormon colonists arrived in the lush green valleys of the Shinning
Mountains then inhabited by the Yuhtas, one of five bands that split
off from the Nokoni (Shoshoni) centuries before. The Yuhtas, or
Ute as the white man would call them, in 1541 acquired from the
Spanish explorers, led by de Soto, a magnificent animal they would
name Sherri wan'qua or the Dog God. The Yuhtas would soon master the
horse, leave the land of the sun and return to the home of their
ancestors in the fertile valleys of the Rocky Mountains. They
transitioned from sustaining themselves on small birds and animals
to hunting large game, elk, deer and buffalo.
The horse then was sought after by
all the Indian tribes which quickly brought the Shoshoni Utes Nation into
power. They became the pivotal source and supply of horses to all
the other tribes. Once they acquired the gun they were a fierce and
proud people.
Just a brief genealogy of the
Shoshone People: They were first called the Chickimec (the Dog
People) then there was two divisions, the Chickimec became the
Nokoni; the Aztec, and Hopi (Moki). The Nokoni became the Shoshoni
Nation which split into five bands, the Snake, Bannock, Ute,
Comanche and Paiute.
Following the invasion of the
Conquistadors who robbed them of their gold and enslaved a good
number of them, then came the fur trappers. During the years of the
1700's to the early 1800's trappers would all but empty the rivers
and streams of Oregon, Idaho and Utah of the beaver population.
Literally millions of pounds of pelts would be shipped to Europe
making fur merchants wealthy beyond belief. During this time
and subsequent years to follow the British, French and Americans
would divvy up Indian land, waging war against each other when
necessary to gain control.
Through it all the 16 bands of the worn torn Utes
and Shoshone would emerge victorious having survived wave after wave of
Euro-invasions. So when the Mormons arrived in 1847 and settled in
the arid Salt Lake valley the valley had long become the crossroads of the west as trappers,
explorers and the like passed through on their way to Oregon, and
California. But an old medicine chief Wuna Mucca of the Ute had
prophesied the coming of the missionaries decades before their
arrival. And come they did, to worship God almighty, to save the
heathens from hell, and get rich.
As Americans, and citizens of Utah, when we look back at our history
we want to find the heroes and stories of our ancestors that are
inspiring. But the story of the Black Hawk war in Utah is brutal and
bloody—one of the most inhumane wars in American history.
The early
settlers are portrayed as people who were fair-minded and of good intentions when they came
to Utah. And upon arriving they were confronted by Indians
whom they judged
as barbaric wild savages who terrorized the settlers.
The Utah Indian people didn't have any particular animosity toward
early Mormon pioneers only that they were invading their land, whereas, according to the Book of Mormon, the
church
believed they had a divine obligation to convert Utah's American
Indians to Mormonism, according to church doctrine, and in so doing
the so-called "loathsome" Indians would become a "white nd delightsome people" and would be forgiven of the sins of
their forefathers. (Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 5:21-23) According
to church doctrine, the nature of the dark skin was a curse, the
cause was the Lord, the reason was because the Lamanites "had
hardened their hearts against him, (God)" and the punishment was
to make them
"loathsome" unto God's people who had white skins. Ezra Booth
wrote the following in the early 1800's: "In addition to this,
and to co-operate with it, it has been made known by revelation,
that it will be pleasing to the Lord, should they form a matrimonial
alliance with the Natives; and by this means the Elders, who comply
with the thing so pleasing to the Lord, and for which the Lord has
promised to bless those who do it abundantly, gain a residence in
the Indian territory, independent of the agent. (meaning government
Indian agents)"
Note: November 8, 2007 LDS Church leaders make a change in the Book
of Mormon. (see
here) (also see Vitiligo
and skin disorder
here)
Recent DNA studies of the exact origin of the American Indian people
have scientifically proven that they came from northeast Asia. Over
150 Indian tribes and 6000 individuals have been tested. Dr. David
Glenn Smith University of Calif., Dr. Dennis O'Rourke University of
Utah, Dr. Stephen L. Wittington, and LDS Church anthropologist and
scholar Thomas Murphy have publically stated that there is no
archeological evidence, no historical evidence, no linguistic
evidence and no DNA evidence that proves the American Indian people
are descendents of Israel, and that would prove that the Book of
Mormon is not a history of the American Indian.
Meanwhile, during the 1850-60's when the Utes refused to assimilate into Mormon
culture, the settlers’ response was to decimate them. The Utes were
not given a choice. No one asked them if they wanted to give up
their culture and embrace the ways of the white man. Indeed, if they
had had a choice, I am certain they would have chosen to keep their
own way of life.
Peter d'Errico, Legal Studies Department, University of
Massachusetts/Amherst wrote:
"Papal authority is the basis for United States power over
indigenous peoples but this fact is not generally understood, even
by lawyers who work with federal Indian law. This is due in large
part to the sophistry of John Marshall, one of the greatest figures
in the pantheon of the U. S. Supreme Court in 1801. Marshall
borrowed from Papal Bulls the essential legalisms needed for state
power over indigenous peoples. He encased Christian religious
premises within the rhetoric of "European" expansion:
JOHNSON v. MCINTOSH, 21 US 543 (FEBRUARY, 1823) -- On the
discovery of this immense continent, the great nations of Europe
were eager to appropriate to themselves so much of it as they could
respectively acquire. Its vast extent offered an ample field to the
ambition and enterprise of all; and the character and religion of
its inhabitants afforded an apology for considering them as a people
over whom the superior genius of Europe might claim an ascendancy.
The potentates of the old world found no difficulty in convincing
themselves that they made ample compensation to the inhabitants of
the new, by bestowing on them civilization and Christianity.
Steven Newcomb said it succinctly:
"Indian nations have been denied their most basic rights ...
simply because, at the time of Christendom's arrival in the
Americas, they did not believe in the God of the Bible, and did not
believe that Jesus Christ was the true Messiah. This basis for the
denial of Indian rights in federal Indian law remains as true today
as it was in 1823.
Johnson v. McIntosh has never been overruled. "Christian
discovery" remains the legal foundation for United States
sovereignty over indigenous peoples' lands. But it is concealed, as
most foundations are, because Johnson v. McIntosh acts as a
laundromat for religious concepts. After Marshall's opinion, no
lawyer or court would need to acknowledge that land title claims in
United States law are based on a doctrine of Christian supremacy.
From that time on, in law and history books, "European" would be
substituted for "Christian," so that schoolchild and lawyer alike
could speak of the "age of discovery" as the age of "European
expansion."
- by Peter d'Errico, Legal Studies Department, University
of Massachusetts/Amherst, American Indian Sovereignty: Now You
See It, Now You Don't.
I have sat and listened to Indian elders who said: "The message
of Indigenous America is connection, relationship, and unity. All
people are one. One of the direct, living descendants of Creator.”
Chief Joseph said, “We have no qualms about color. It has no
meaning. It doesn’t
mean anything. When we are together we are one. Nothing can break it
(the connection).” This is the same message Chief Sitting Bull
conveyed when he said, “The heart knows not the color of the skin.
This is an ancient traditional teaching. It still lives among our
true traditionalists everywhere. The power of forgiveness is greater
than hate; love vanquishes condescension and discrimination. That is
the power our elders, our true traditionalists hold."
Historical accounts tend to look right through the spiritual
and humanitarian teachings of Indigenous people. Writers are often intent on
depicting them in the worst way possible. In 1894 one Mormon “saint”
gives this explanation, "In those early days it was at times
imperative that harsh measures should be used. We had to do these
things, or be run over by them. It was a question of supremacy
between the white man and the Indian." - Indian Depredations in
Utah.
But who ran over whom? Many white settlers couldn't care less about
the Indians, and rarely acknowledged that they were intruding upon
their land. Native people were plundered to
near extinction. (Please see account of
John Lowery
also
Ute Account)
Christian crusaders’ mandate was to convert the Indigenous people and believed it was
their divine duty to save their souls from Hell—to have dominion
over them, their land, and so its riches. The Black Hawk War of Utah
is a classic example of a model of systematic conquest—one which had
evolved over the centuries since Columbus that I call: "The 12 Steps
of Conquest."
The 12 Steps of Conquest:
Step #1 Dehumanize them.
Step #2 Demoralize them.
Step #3 In the chaos, exploit them.
Step #4 Build forts and take control of their land.
Step #5 Interrupt their food supply.
Step #6 Take control of the people, using violence when necessary.
Step #7 Ban their culture by forcing their children into boarding
schools.
Step #8 Remove them from the land and place them on reservations.
Step #9 Extinguish all their rights, making them wards of
government.
Step #10 Assimilate them in to western culture.
Step #11 Sanitize history, make the decimation of the American
Indian amusing tales of the Old West, with half-truths, platitudes,
and omissions; placing all the blame on the victims. Grant amnesty
and exonerate the perpetrators as being innocent of any wrongdoing.
Step #12 Take away their reservations.
Besides superior weaponry, the settlers had another weapon—disease.
Measles, Smallpox, Tuberculosis, Cholera, and Scarlet Fever spread
epidemically from the settlers among the Indians and, at times.
intentionally. There were times disease-contaminated blankets and
food were given to the Indians. Quoting from the book Violence
Over the Land by Ned Blackhawk, "Colorado Governor David
Meriwether, in 1854, had engaged the help of the Tamouche band of
Utes to participate in a manhunt for a suspected murder. Being paid
each with a gray cloth coat... decorated handsomely with red and
yellow braid. These Ute leaders returned home fashionably attired in
tailored officer's clothing." The book goes on to say, "They
had also contracted smallpox, and many came to the conclusion that
the Superintendent was the cause of the disease being among
them...everyone that received a coat died." This is one of many
accounts that attest to a kind of bio-warfare against the Utes.
Interesting side note, an English physician, Edward Jenner, in 1796,
took the fluid from a cowpox pustule on a dairymaid's hand and
inoculated an 8-year-old boy. Six weeks later, he exposed the boy to
smallpox, and the boy did not develop any symptoms. Jenner coined
the term "vaccine" from the word "vaca" which means "cow" in Latin.
By 1800 about 100,000 people had been vaccinated worldwide, which
could have been shared with the Indian people but of
course wasn't.
War records can account for only a fraction of the Indian deaths that were
due to battles. A few accounts testify to the poisoning of food,
water and germ warfare. Brigham Young is quoted as saying,
"You can get rid of more Indians with a sack of flour, than a keg
of powder." Just how many did he get rid of?
Brigham Young acknowledged an alarming rate of decrease of the
Indian population. He was pleased when he was quoted in a Denver
newspaper saying: "Just three out of three hundred Indians remain
from the time we first arrived in the valley."
A 1909 government census bore testament to Brigham's observances. By
1865, when the Utes gave into war, the white population had
dramatically increased to about 60,000.
According to historical records, the Ute population of Utah at the
time of the arrival of the Euro-settlers is estimated to have been
30,000 to 40,000. Some scholars say their population could have been
as high as 70,000. But, a 1909 government census reported the Indian
population had dramatically declined to just 2,300! The
question we have to ask is, why has this been ignored, and left out
of school curricula and church cannon? This is why historians
have dubbed it: "The Secret War of the Mormons." This
is a colossal human tragedy, and one that should not be ignored or
forgotten. It would be criminal to do so.
"We forget that our ancestors, both Indian and non-Indian, lived
close together—that our children grew up with each other. And that's
what makes this story so difficult to talk about and remember. But
if we are going to understand who we are, then we have to understand
and remember the Black Hawk War."
-Historian Will Bagley
White people say,
"We have given the Indians every chance to succeed, yet they choose
to live off the government, and live in poverty. It's their own damn
fault."
What kind of choice have they been given—to conform to Christian
beliefs or walk knee-deep in the blood of their people? To give up
their land, children, culture, traditions or die? Clearly, our
education system has failed us miserably in teaching the truth.
Educators, historians and authors need to break the habit of
over-simplifying, trivializing and denigrating the tragic past of
the First People of Utah. One sad fact is that up until the year
1950, 150,000 Indian children were forcibly taken from their homes
and placed in boarding schools.
The truth regarding the history of the Black Hawk War has since been
cloaked in brilliantly managed rhetoric to discredit the Native
people in every conceivable way. Twenty-six
years of Utah's Indian history has been ignored and left out of
school curricula. The decimated lives of some 40,000 Native people
has simply been swept aside.
The Year of 1847
At first, Mormon pioneers settled in a region of Utah known as Salt
Lake, that belonged to the Goshute, one of the Shoshoni families, but was considered by Shoshoni a
no-man's land. The arid conditions of the Great Salt Lake Valley
were not suitable to sustain a large population.
Settlers soon moved 30 miles farther south into a lush and fertile
valley, knowing beforehand it was prime land in the heart of Ute
territory, Mormon militia soon demonstrated to the Ute their prowess
as a ruthless people who had every intention of robbing them of
their land.
While thousands more settlers came into the territory between the
years 1847 and 1873, tensions between the Indians and non-Indians
grew exponentially. With the completion of the transcontinental
railroad in 1869, the white population exploded, sealing the fate of
the Ute. Ute Indian elders told me, "there was a time when our
people were happy and content living in the majestic mountains and
fertile green valleys of Utah. Then the Mormons came, and our people
were killed—the old, the young, the children, women—and many taken
to reservations where many more would die."
Continued...
Part 1|2|3|4
