Black Hawk Productions

Presents

 

From These Silent Ashes

 

Filmmaker James Fortier

 

 

Updated: 06/28/2008

A Documentary Film Of The Black Hawk War Of Utah

Producer/Researcher Phillip B Gottfredson 7 years ago began a journey to find the answer to a single question, "what is the Utah Indians side of the story of the Black Hawk war of Utah."

 

Members of the Ute Indian community come together and tell the story of the Utah Black Hawk war with advise and council from tribal leaders, Forrest Cuch, and Larry Cesspooch; in co-operation with most noted scholars and historians in the state of Utah, Will Bagley, Floyd O'Neil, and Robert Carter. The film will be directed by 3 time Emmy winner Mr. James Fortier of Turtle Island Productions.

 

"We hear the words "Black Hawk War" and immediately we think of the good guys being attacked by savage Indians, and the heroic deeds of generals, effrontery men, gallantly coming to aid of stranded defenseless settlers. The stuff of folklore and legendary tales of the old west. The rhetoric has been brilliantly managed to give us a misrepresentation of the truth.

 

Thousands upon thousands of lives were sacrificed in the Black Hawk War, and now we don't even think about the war.

 

There are many stories that need to be remembered such as the Circleville massacre, the Fort Utah battle, the Bear River massacre when some 300 people slaughtered, and among them old men, women, children, all were brutally murdered and for the simple reason they were Indian.

 

There's the story of Old Bishop, an Indian man who was called by that name because he resembled a bishop at Fort Utah. He was murdered by three men who had accused him of stealing a shirt. Unarmed, he was shot, his stomach cut open, disemboweled, the cavity filled with rocks and his body thrown in the river.

 

Within the Ute tribe there were many brilliant leaders, Wah-kara, Colorow, Tabby, to name a few. But there's one man that stands out above all others, and that was Noonch. Settlers called him "Black Hawk." The name is not Ute, nor was "Antongua,"  another name he was called by early Spanish trappers. But what is extraordinary about Noonch, was he ability to cope with extreme hardship and personal tragedy from his youth, yet he immerges as  one who led peace efforts that ultimately brought the war to a conclusion before he died in 1872. His ability to make decisive strategic moves in the face of overwhelming adversity speaks loudly of his moral courage and humanity.

 

We have a responsibility to show the pain, we shouldn't sanitize the history."

 

Phillip Gottfredson explains, " learning that my great-grandfather had spent most of his life living in the Ute camps during the war I became interested and began a seven year long search to understand what his experience was. Peter left behind two records of his experiences totaling a thousand pages of firsthand accounts of the Black Hawk war. Later I became aware that this aspect of Utah's history had been ignored and left out of school curriculum, that's when I realized the value of Peter's account and that the Ute need to tell their story."

 

As Mr. Gottfredson's interest in his great-grandfather and the war continued to increase, "I read every book I could find, and the more I read the more questions I had. Soon it became obvious to me that all these accounts of the war were written by the victors and I wanted to know what is the Ute's side of the story?" Mr. Gottfredson found little written material that would satisfy that question, "I really had no other choice, I had to talk to the Ute."

 

Mr. Gottfredson made the right decision to ask the Ute what their side of the story was, "I ran smack into a brick wall. I was very naive to think all I had to do was find some Utes and they would simply sit down and tell me their story." Though disappointed and often discourage, yet determined, "I understand, the Ute have been so demoralized and suffered every kind of injustice,  I do respect the fact it is difficult for them to talk about their past."

 

Phillip Gottfredson and James Fortier

 

Four years passed since Mr. Gottfredson had begun his research when he was introduced to Forrest Cuch, a member of the Ute tribe and the Executive Director of Indian Affairs. While Phillip had serendipitously found his way to Oregon and was living with a Shoshone family, there he was mentored by Mala Spotted Eagle who, along with his wife and circle of Native friends, welcomed him into their community. "I will always be grateful to Mala and Sky for teaching me about their culture. I spent nearly two years with them and had the honor of participating in their traditional ceremonies and life-ways."

 

"But, this story is not about me, or my g-grandfather Peter. And though I am deeply honored to have such noted scholars on our team as Will Bagley and Floyd O'Neil, I have learned that historians each have a unique perspective of those trying times. And certainly that perspective will be reflected in the film. Finding the right people who are empathetic toward the Native people, and are balanced in their views; who are compassionate and sensitive, is the hallmark of our project. But the key element lies with the Ute. This is their story as told through Native eyes.

 

As I continue to learn from the Native people what it means to be an Indian, I am still shocked and disgusted by the injustices and discrimination that they face each and every day not only from the general populace of Utah but the state and federal government. I am sickened every time I have heard "we have given the Ute every chance to succeed, yet they choose to live off the government, and live in poverty." What kind of choice have they been given? To conform to white man's beliefs or walk knee deep in the blood of their people? To give up their land, children, culture, traditions or die?

Seven years of research has gone into finding the answer to the question, what is the Ute's side of the story? "Clearly, if their story is to be told, it will have to be they who tell it."

 

Filmmaker James Fortier on location Uinta Reservation

 

Choosing the right stories for the film From These Silent Ashes that would meet the standards set by the family of Black Hawk, ones that would also invite and engage the viewer, many times this caused Mr. Gottfredson to get bogged down in historic relevancy. "There are thousands of Utah Indians who could tell their story but will never get the chance. They are the people who made the sacrifice, and we should see who they are and what they are doing. And if you can't see into their lives you can't feel it. We owe it to these Native people to feel it."

 

Because Ute history  has been omitted from school curriculum, or sanitized, and trivialized; consequently Utahan's Indian and non-Indian have a distorted sense of where they have come from. It is then natural for the Native people to believe that their tragedy has little or no importance in the history of Utah. Even worse our children are being taught that genocide is acceptable when religion is the justification for doing so, is simply outrageous! This is demoralizing and the source of resentment, and anger, which contributes to social divisions within society, and for thousands it undermines hope and prospects for a better future.

Both Indian and non-Indian who do not recognize names like Black Hawk, Wah-kara, Arropeen, Tabiona, Kanosh, Sanpitch, Tabby, Ouray, Colorow, and events such as the Black Hawk War, Fort Utah battle, Circleville Massacre, or the brutal Bear River Massacre, and what they represent; have no sense of true history the reality of Utah.

"Brave generals, military tactics, stolen cattle, naked savages living in stick huts, are the trite and stereotypical themes common in the victors accounts. While gruesome details of the Black Hawk War attest to settlers beheading Indians, Indian skulls being sold to medical institutions for scientific examination go unnoticed. There was torture, murders, and as thousands died from disease, hunger, hopelessness and despair; many were buried in mass graves, graves that would later be looted and the contents thereof considered as trophies, grave looters heralded as heroes with their pictures on the front pages of newspapers, as funerary objects and bones were traded for profit. Their corpses and body parts were publicly displayed, hung from corners of buildings for entertainment, and in two separate interviews I was told Utes were placed in cages and taken into the mountains where they were left to die.

Stories of frightened children being taken from their homes and families and placed in distant Christian boardinghouse schools, where they were often physically abused, and harshly punish should they speak their own Indian language. Many died and buried on school grounds in unmarked graves. Others were forced into slavery, while some were brutally murdered.

Our documentary film From These Silent Ashes begins with the Black Hawk war, and explores the legacy of the war how it continues to play out in the lives of the Ute to this day. A story that has never been told. "I think of all those lives, many died never knowing why. From their now silent ashes I hear their voices crying in the wind. It's time to heal, and at long-last be remembered."

Mr. Gottfredson states, "Personally I am aghast that our fellow citizens living in this age are being treated with such indifference. And that we, we who live as neighbors to indigenous people know so little of their lives. We can say "that's all in the past and we just need to forget about it" but it would be criminal to do so."

 

"The Ute need a hero, and Black Hawk is our man," is the message of Forrest Cuch.

 

 

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Gottfredson Aligns Talent With Film Project

Director/Producer

JAMES FORTIER

Winner of Three Emmy Awards

 

Background

James Fortier established Turtle Island Productions in 1995 as an independent full service media communications company with a variety of broadcast, cable, and corporate clients, while also specializing in Native American and First Nations productions. James is an award winning Writer/Producer/Director/DP working primarily in video, television and web site production. He has just completed “Pulling Together,” a feature length documentary about the Muckleshoot Indian tribe’s cultural revival in the Pacific Northwest’s Tribal Canoe Journey. James was the Associate Producer and Writer for the 5 -Time Emmy Award winning “Waasa-inaabidaa: We Look In All Directions,” a six-hour national PBS documentary series focusing on the history of the Ojibway people of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The series also received the Best Documentary Feature Award at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. He was also the producer for the companion web site at www.ojibwe.org. James, who is Métis-Ojibway originally from Ontario, also directed, co-wrote, and was the Director of Photography for the documentary “Alcatraz Is Not An Island,” and received an Emmy for his directing. “Alcatraz…” also received the Best Documentary Feature Award at the 1999 American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco, and was selected by the prestigious Sundance Film Festival in 2001. He was the Co-Producer and Co-Director of the Alcatraz Occupation 30th Anniversary Celebration/Concert and Cultural Event on Alcatraz in 1999. He also wrote, produced, and directed “Voices For the Land,” a PBS documentary for WDSE, Duluth, MN focusing on environmental issues in Minnesota. In 1995 James was the Director of Photography for the dramatic short video “Looks Into the Night,” starring Tantoo Cardinal, which was awarded Best Dramatic Short Video at the 1996 American Indian Film Festival. James was also the Director of Photography for “We Hold the Rock,” a short video which is part of the new permanent exhibit on Alcatraz Island commemorating the 1969 Indian occupation of the island. In 1998, James worked with Cree filmmaker Lorretta Todd on her award winning CBC documentary on the life of Chief Dan George. James is currently the Director and DP for “Spiral of Fire,” a 90-minute episode of the Native American Public Telecommunications/PBS series “Indian Country Diaries” to air nationally on PBS in 2006. James is currently the Co-Producer and DP for the documentary “American Lynching.” He is also the Co-Producer and DP for “Green Green Water,” a feature length documentary focusing on the devastating cultural and environmental impacts of Manitoba Hydro dam developments for Cree communities in northern Manitoba (www.greengreenwater.com).

Since 1987 James has provided his skills for hundreds of productions for broadcast, cable, corporate, industrial, and educational clients including TBS, CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN, CBC, PBS, Knowledge TV, E-CHANNEL, Sci Fi Channel, History Channel, Apple TV, Hewlett-Packard TV, Intel, Electronic Arts, Cisco, Visa, and many more. Recently, Jim was the DP for “Stay Tuned,” a documentary series pilot with host Peter Coyote. James was also recently the DP for the documentary series “In America,” produced for the International Channel, and the DP for the PBS series “Great Museums,” shot in HDTV,
as well as for a documentary on the history of the Presidio in San Francisco.

James taught video production workshops for Native American high school students at the 1997 Native Americas International Film Expo in Santa Fe, NM. He has also been active working behind the scenes for the American Indian Film Institute in San Francisco, CA. He has appeared as a guest speaker at SFSU, USF, ASU, Brown University, Syracuse University, KQED Television, and the Banff Television Conference discussing aboriginal filmmaking, and his articles and interviews have appeared in several Bay Area and national publications. James was twice a recipient of PBS’s Emerging
Filmmaker Fellowships, including the prestigious PBS Producers Academy Workshop at WGBH in Boston.

On a personal note, James was born in Nipigon, Ontario, Canada. He has strong ties to his Métis and Ojibway relatives in Thunder Bay, and Nipigon, Ontario, and on the Pic River Ojibway First Nation Reserve. He was raised near Chicago and moved to California in 1983 to finish film school at San Francisco State University where he completed course work for a BA in Broadcast Communications Arts and has operated his own production company since1987, establishing Turtle Island Productions in 1995.

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Forrest S. Cuch, Director
fscuch@utah.gov
Division of Indian Affairs
July 2007

 

Forrest is an enrolled member of the Ute Indian Tribe. He was born (1951) and raised on the Uintah and Ouray Ute Indian Reservation in northeastern Utah. He attended public schools until grade nine wherein he attended and graduated (1969) from Wasatch Academy, Mt. Pleasant, Utah. In 1973, he graduated from Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah, with a Bachelors of Arts Degree in the Behavioral Sciences.

In 1971, Forrest married Carla Giles, a Wampanoag businesswoman from Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Forrest and Carla have one son, Cameron, who works for Ute Energy, the Ute Tribe’s own energy development company.

After graduating from college, Forrest served as education director for the Ute Indian Tribe for the period of 1973 to 1988. During this time, he developed many educational programs, which greatly benefited the Ute people, including efforts leading to the publication of the tribe’s history book, A History of the Northern Ute People, University of Utah Press, 1982. More recently, Forrest was editor to the fall 2000 publication of A History of Utah’s American Indians, Utah State University Press.

In 1988, Forrest served as planner for the newly recognized tribe, the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), Gay Head, Massachusetts. His primary responsibility was to design and develop the service programs to be contracted by the tribe from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the federal agency assigned to oversee the tribe’s operations. Forrest acquired nation-building experience when he became responsible for a long-range strategic plan for the tribe. He was responsible for managing the first two major building projects constructed on tribal lands, a multipurpose building and an access road. He also served as tribal administrator during the period of 1992 to 1994.

In 1994, Forrest was appointed social studies’ department head at Wasatch Academy, Mt. Pleasant, Utah. As department head, Forrest managed the social studies’ department, developed a multi-cultural program and taught a full load of classes.

In October 1997, Forrest accepted his current position as executive director, Utah Division of Indian Affairs. He sees his present job as a major challenge with primary emphasis on educating Utah leaders and the general public, not only calling attention to the ancient presence of American Indian people in Utah, but also their present and enduring plight as citizens with very unique contributions yet to be made to modern day society. Forrest served as a trustee, representing American Indians on the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Forrest gives many presentations on Ute History, Utah Indian History, American Indian History, Indian Education, Economic Development on Utah Reservations, and other related subjects.

Contact: Forrest S. Cuch Executive Director Division of Indian Affairs

324 South State Street, Suite 500 Salt Lake City, Utah 84114

(801) 538-8808 Fax: (801) 538-8803

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Dr. Floyd A. O'Neil

Floyd served as director of the American West Center from 1986 to 1996. He coordinated oral history projects of various ethnic groups in the West, including the University of Utah's role in the Doris Duke Oral Indian History Project. He has worked with over two dozen tribes in the western U.S. to produce tribal histories and other materials for schools. Although officially retired, he is in the office daily. He is the author of numerous articles and the editor of several books.

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Will Bagley

Education
Bagley attended Brigham Young University in 1967-68, and then he transferred to University of California at Santa Cruz, where he obtained his B.A. in History in 1971. While at UCSC he received the California State Scholar and President’s Scholar awards. He considers an integral part of his education a trip he took in 1969, on a homemade raft of logs and barrels, on the Mississippi river from Illinois to New Orleans. After graduation he spent three years in North Carolina studying the local Blue Grass music and culture, and playing in a band.

Bagley has published extensively over the years and is still active. He is the author of books and of many articles and reviews in professional journals, such as the Western Historical Quarterly, Utah Historical Quarterly, Overland Journal, The Journal of Mormon History, and Montana The Magazine of Western History. His column, History Matters, appeared every Sunday for four years (2000-2004) in The Salt Lake Tribune.

As a member of the Utah Speakers Bureau, Will Bagley has made dozens of presentations throughout the state. He has given academic papers at the annual conventions of the Western History Association, the Mormon History Association, Sunstone Magazine, the Oregon-California Trails Association, the Communal Studies Association, and the Center for Studies on New Religions. He participated in Claremont McKenna College’s “The American West” lecture series. Mr. Bagley was a Research Associate at Yale University’s Beinecke Library in 2000 and has served as a historical consultant for National Geographic magazine, the National Park Service, the Wyoming State Historical Preservation Office, the Nevada Humanities Council, and for more than a dozen documentary films that have appeared on A&E Television, the History Channel, and PBS. He has worked on historical interpretive design for the Bureau of Land Management.

Will Bagley is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Utah Rivers Council, Westerners International, and the Oregon-California Trails Association. He currently serves on the boards of the Friends of the Marriott Library at the University of Utah and the Utah Westerners. He established The Prairie Dog Press in 1991 to publish A Road from El Dorado. The press eventually expanded into a consulting business that has handled book design and typesetting, publishing, historical research, and contract writing. The press has worked with the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Marriott Library, the History Channel, and PBS.

1991 Evans Manuscript Prize.
Wagon Award 1993. Highest award for service to the Utah Crossroads Chapter of the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA).
Stephen F. Christensen Award for Best Documentary from the Mormon History Association for 1997.[citation needed]
1997 Best Article of the Year from the Mormon History Association.
1998 T. Edgar Lyon Award for Best Article of the Year in Mormon History from the Mormon History Association.
1998 First Place, Non-Fiction Book, and Publication Prize, Utah Arts Council Original Writing Competition.
1999 National Certificate of Appreciation for special efforts in historic preservation, Oregon-California Trails Association.
2001 Utah Military History Award from Utah State Historical Society.
2002 For the book Blood of the Prophets. Utah Arts Council’s Original Writing Competition Publication Prize, the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award, the Denver Public Library’s Caroline Bancroft History Prize, Westerners International’s Best Book Award, the John Whitmer Historical Association’s Smith-Petit Best Book Award, and the Western History Association’s John W. Caughey Prize for the year’s most distinguished book on the history of the American West.

List of books by Will Bagley
Editor, A Road from El Dorado: The 1848 Trail Journal of Ephraim Green (Salt Lake City: The Prairie Dog Press, 1991).
Editor, Frontiersman: Abner Blackburn’s Narrative (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992).
Roderic Korns and Dale L. Morgan, eds., West from Fort Bridger: The Pioneering of Immigrant Trails across Utah, 1846–1850, revised and updated by Will Bagley and Harold Schindler (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1994).
Pat Bagley and Will Bagley, This is the Place: A Crossroads of Utah’s Past (Carson City, Nevada: Buckaroo Books, 1996). A children’s book exploring Utah history.
Bagley, Will, ed. “A Bright, Rising Star”: A Brief Life of James Ferguson, Sergeant Major, Mormon Battalion; Adjutant General, Nauvoo Legion. Spokane, Washington: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 2000.
Bagley, Will. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002.

Blood of the Prophets
Mountain Meadows massacre series
Fanchers' and Mormons' backgrounds
War hysteria · Conspiracy and siege
Massacre · Trials · Remembrances
LDS public relations · Depictions
Precursors
Haun's Mill massacre · Mormon pioneers
Paiutes · Kingdom of God (LDS) · Utah War
Blood atonement · Plural marriage
Legacy in culture
Brooks · Bagley · Burying The Past
Banner of Heaven · September Dawn
Bagley wrote the book Blood of the Prophets, which deals with the Mountain Meadows massacre. Blood of the Prophets is the winner of the following awards:

Spur Award, Western Writers of America
Caughey Book Prize, Western History Association
Caroline Bancroft History Prize, Denver Public Library 
Co-Founders Best Book Award, Westerners International.
2003 Best Book Award, John Whitmer Historical Association
Brigham D. Madsen, a fellow Utah historian, wrote: “While the word ‘definitive’ is often overused, this account of the killings merits that distinction. Bagley’s book ranks as a Mormon historical classic.”, Western Historical Quarterly.

The New York Review of Books praised the work as “an exhaustive, meticulously documented, highly readable history that captures the events and atmosphere that gave rise to the massacre, as well as its long, tortuous aftermath. Bagley has taken great care in negotiating the minefield presented by what remains of the historical record.”

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 LARRY CESSPOOCH

Ute Spiritual Storyteller/Filmmaker

Larry Cesspooch Ute Country
(Whitebelly) Uintah & Ouray Reservation

"The Creator has a purpose for everything in this life.
We are all given gifts by the Creator to accomplish our life mission."

Cesspooch considers himself a messenger, a Modern Storyteller, much like the Traditional Ute Storytellers, but uses modern and traditional technology to tell his stories.

He produces his Stories to help others understand native Culture and Spirituality. He especially enjoys working with the youth.


SUNDANCE INSTITUTE FRIENDSHIPS

Cesspooch enjoys visit with friend Robert Redford,
Sundance Institute Director After the Filmmakers Lab, June 2002.