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Battles and Massacres of the Black Hawk War

The Black Hawk War of Utah 1847-1873: The following events are arranged chronologically according to date.

IN BRIEF WHAT WAS THE BLACK HAWK WAR ABOUT? A very brief synopsis.

HOW THE BLACK HAWK WAR BEGAN Our most read article by Phillip Gottfredson..." saying it was the "will of Satan" that was the driving force behind the Indians defending their rights to their own land...? That's a crock. In the words of Dr. Floyd O'Neil "You can't stretch a rat's ass over a rain barrel." The paradox is that the "saints" were in total denial that they were intruding upon land that had been settled centuries before by the Utes'.

CHIEF WALKARA 1847-1850 Ute Chief Walkara Aka (Walker) Uncle of Black Hawk.Walkara's vengeance was also fueled by previous events that unfolded at Battle Creek when his family was murdered, and Fort Utah where his kin were brutally attacked and beheaded.

INTERVIEW OF CHIEF WALKARA BY INTERPRETER MARTENAS 1853 Statement, M. S. Martenas, Interpreter, Great Salt Lake City, July 6 1853, Brigham Young Papers, MS 1234, Box 58, Folder 14, LDS Archives. Will Bagley Transcription

FORT UTAH AND BATTLE CREEK 1849-50 Committing the worst kind of atrocities upon the Native American inhabitants Jim Bridger offered Hickman $100 for the head of Chief Old Elk.Barely in his twenties, young Black Hawk is witness the murder of his family and the decapitation of his 50 kin.

Note: The Bear River Massacre occurred in 1863, scholars are reporting that some 500 Shoshoni were brutally murdered in Utah near Tremonton. I have not yet written about this event. This was the worst massacre in US history. This event was covered up and was not discovered until 1973.

GRASS VALLEY MASSACE 1865 Over a dozen Ute women and children murdered.

THE MURDER OF CHIEF SANPITCH NEAR MANTI 1866  Wounded, the Ute chief makes his escape only to have his throat slit near Moroni.

CIRCLEVILLE MASSACRE 1866  One by one their throats were cut. Three children escape and take refuge in nearby cave.

EXCERPTS From Indian Depredations in Utah 1865-1873 First hand accounts of the battles they fought.

DIAMOND CREEK BATTLE JUNE 26, 1866 Ute Chief Mountain, Black Hawk's brother, wounded. Research finds discrepancies in the story!

THE OLD PEACE TREATY TREE Black Hawk promised their friendship would last, as long as water continued to run in the creek. The creek is still there, and running with water.

CHIEF BLACK HAWK WOUNDED in battle at Gravely Ford - But..."Black Hawk's good fortune again befriended him."

BLACK HAWK DIES the LDS CHURCH LOOTS GRAVE

EXAMINATION OF BLACK HAWKS PHYSICAL REMAINS Published by permission from the NAGPRA. Black Hawk passes over in 1870, then for some strange reason his remains were put on public display in the window of a hardware store in downtown Spanish Fork, Utah, and later in the Church museum on Temple Square as a curiosity.

The Story of Ute Leader Nuch - better known as "Black Hawk."

Commentaries and Perspectives on the Black Hawk War

Phillip B Gottfredson has spent many years living among the Native American Indian people. He spent many hours listening to their stories, and what it means to be Indian. "These are the people who paid the ultimate price, and we owe it to them to know who they are and their side of the story" said Mr. Gottfredson.The following accounts reflect some of the lingering affects of the Black Hawk War as the American Indian peoples of Utah continue, in many ways, to suffer from perpetual generational-trauma and discrimination. 

LEGACY OF THE BLACK HAWK WAR  by Phillip B Gottfredson The one question these accounts do not answer is the Indians side of the story.

SECRET OF THE BONES "These people were seated and shot at close range," Rood said. Forensic study of the remains of the victims of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

ASSIMILATION and the Legacy of the Black Hawk War  Stripping of the Ute Identity. An overview of the Black Hawk War legacy, of perpetual demoralization of the First Peoples of Utah.

TERMINATED UTES Parents of one family with minor children contacted a Utah Attorney who told them he would stop this forced sale and told them he would meet with them in front of the First Security Bank the next morning.

Another Tea Pot Dome “There is sure to be some who will disagree with what is written here and even retaliation by someone, somewhere, because of what is in this piece. This Article is but a brief History of the Uintas Heritage which is being disposed of systematically and is compiled from private oral interviews!” - Illa Chivers

OUR STORY IS COSMIC It is a lesson that America should learn and live by. Great nations are judged by how they treat their indigenous people.

COMMENTARY by Phillip Gottfredson  A collection of commentary on various subjects related to the the Black Hawk War of Utah and the Native American peoples.   

INDIAN EDUCATION FOR ALL Utah lagges behind several other states in its efforts to educate American Indians, according to a report from the Utah American Indian/Alaska Native Education State Plan Advisory Committee.

RUSSELL MEANS A controversial patriot of the Lakota Nation. The following speech was given by Russell Means in July 1980, before several thousand people who had assembled from all over the world for the Black Hills International Survival Gathering, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It is Russell Means's most famous speech.

THE LAND OF THE LAMANITES That the Lamanites, American Indians, would become a "white and delightsome people" and would be forgiven of the sins of their forefathers. Can you say Vitiligo?

LIFE AMONG THE UTES 1872 Told by Peter and Hans Gottfredson - Profiles the humor, generosity, character and superstitions of the Native American people.

SALT LAKE TRIBUNE ARTICLE BY HISTORIAN AND COLUMNIST WILL BAGLEY 2002 "Thanks to organizations like the Sons and Daughters of Utah Pioneers, we have literally thousands of diaries and autobiographies in which the people who lived Utah’s history tell us what they saw and felt. Few of these histories are as valuable as a Danish immigrant’s (Peter Gottfredson's Indian Depredations in Utah) account of Utah’s Indian wars."

PROMISES BARAK OBAMA HAS MADE TO THE AMERICAN INDIAN PEOPLE "My American Indian policy begins with creating a bond between an Obama administration and the tribal nations all across this country. We need more than just a government-to-government relationship; we need a nation-to-nation relationship, and I will make sure that tribal nations have a voice in the White House."

Reasearch and Muses

Among the following accounts you will find a detailed timeline of the war, copies of spurious and manipulative treaties, along with maps detailing the Black Hawk War battle grounds and Indian populations, and other related insights into Utah's dusky past.

Historical events

WHERE DID SANPETE GET IT'S NAME by Lyle Fletcher Sanpete Messenger As told him by Phillip B Gottfredson

MEMORIAL OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF UTAH Brigham Young paid his all Mormon militia one and a half million dollars from church funds to "get rid of the Indians" in Utah territory. Later he was reimbursed by the United States Congress.

DETAILED TIMELINE of the Black Hawk War  From 1847 to 1909

THE EZRA BOOTH LETTERS It is well known that the ostensible design of the Mormonites in settling in the western part of Missouri, is to convert the Indians to the faith of Mormonism. In this, the leaders appear to have in view, as a mode, the Jesuits of the 16th century, who established themselves in South America, by gaining an entire ascendancy over the hearts and consciences of the natives, and thereby became their masters.

THE NAMES A list of some 640 names both Indian and non-Indian that are mentioned in Peter Gottfredson's book Indian Depredations in Utah. You might find your ancestor in here.

THE DOCTRINE OF DISCOVERY It gave the kings and princes of Europe the right to "discover" or claim land in non-Christian areas.

TREATIES OF THE BLACK HAWK WAR Contrary to popular folklore, there were no treaties made between Mormon settlers and the First People. Yet virtually every town in Utah lays claim to treaties being signed in their town that concluded the war. These claims are simply not true. Dr. Floyd O'Neil University of Utah said, "They were only agreements. Only the federal government had the authority to make treaties with the Indian people." These phony treaties were divisive and used to coerce and deceive the Indians into giving up their homeland to the LDS Church before the United States government took it.

BRIGHAM YOUNG ON HIS "PROPER WAY TO TREAT THE INDIANS " Treat them kindly, and treat them as Indians, and not as your equals." -1854

FACTOIDS OF THE BLACK HAWK WAR Facts of Chiefs, warriors, and etc. of the Black Hawk War

TIMOTHY H. O'SULLIVAN'S MANIFEST DESTINY Racial and Cultural Discrimination at it's worst!

MAPS

1866 Map of the Black Hawk War Created by Phillip Gottfredson    See where the battles took place during the war! Courtesy notice: We think we have corrected the display problems with this map page. (I hope this one is working for you folks, this is an expierment,)

The following maps will display regardless of screen settings, but may be slow loading.  

1. Tribes of The American Indian Nation map.  

 2. Tribal Locations in America Past and Present Map

Source Material for the Utah Black Hawk War Documentary Film Project

P. GREEN AT THE CIRCUS "The man who takes the tickets at the circus eyed me suspiciously as he let me pass in on a green ticket. As near as I could read what mind he had in I his head he feared I would be eat - pronounced et - up by some of the rude and voracious animals which helped to make his circus a howling success."

PETER GOTTFREDSON IN THE INDIAN CAMPS   He was keenly aware of and witness to the exploitation that encircled him and the Native people he loved and respected as his own.

PETER GOTTFREDSON'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 1857-1874  by Peter Gottfredson (Auto-Biography) "One sailor was not working to suit the Captain, he picked up a rope with a heavy hook in the end, and from behind struck the sailor on the head with the hook, killing him instantly. I stood close by watching..."

EULOGY to Peter Gottfredson 1938 "He was a busy man and the men who think of Peter Gottfredson are the men who think of the grandness of his character."

GREAT GRANDFATHER PETER GOTTFREDSON by Phillip B Gottfredson.