©Black Hawk Productions, LLC

 

 

Introduction

History as it is written by the victors gives very little insight to the Native American Indian. While writers of our time are meticulous in their depictions of their own feel-good accounts, what they write of the Native peoples is often scant, brief, and disingenuous. It is a fact that many scholars who write Indian history rarely ask or care what the Indians they study have to say about their work, nor do they asked how they would analyze, interpret, or if they have their own version of the particular story they are writing about.  It is the mission of Black Hawk Productions therefore, to the best of our ability and knowledge to re-examine and decode the myths of Utah's Black Hawk War from the perspective of the Indian peoples as far as they have been willing or able to assist us. But, if the true story of the Indian peoples of Utah is ever to be told, it is they who will need to tell it.

Black Hawk Productions website explores the story of an extraordinary Ute leader known as Chief Black Hawk. A man whom history has mistakenly overlooked and forgotten. Chief Black Hawk, a martyr, his ambition was to find peace for his people, a "mission of Peace" that resulted in his death.  We explore the consequences of this tragic time, it's legacy of racism, generational trauma, continued demoralization, and human rights issues American Indian peoples of Utah face today. We sincerely hope you will find our work interesting and informative.

The documentary film The BLACK HAWK WAR: Utah's Forgotten Tragedy  will, for the first time, reveal the truth of one of the darkest chapters in American history. For Utah's American Indian peoples, the war meant the loss of their inheritance and heritage. It was the end of a sacred time—a time to be honored, remembered and never forgotten.

Black Hawk Productions

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decoding The Myths Of

The Black Hawk War In Utah

“Until the lion tells it’s story, the glory will always go to the hunter.”

 

 

A Brief Synopsis

by Researcher Phillip B Gottfredson

"We took from them almost all of their land--the reservations are just a tiny remnant of traditional tribal homelands. We tried to take from them their hunting rights, their fishing rights, the timber on their land. We tried to take from them their water rights. We tried to take from them their culture, their religion, their identity, and perhaps most importantly we tried to take from them their freedom. And what is so amazing about this whole story is that we failed. We failed after hundreds of years of trying to take everything from American Indians. We failed to do that. They are still here and there's survival; that great saga of survival is one of the great stories of all mankind." - Dr. Daniel McCool University of Utah

There is no mystery or a plethora of complex reasons why the Black Hawk War happened, it's very simple really, the Native Ute Indians of Utah were being set-upon and victimized by the United States Government and, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints---the Mormons. The truth regarding the history of the war has since been cloaked in brilliantly managed rhetoric by the victors who blame and demonize the Ute Nation in every conceivable way, and decoding this aspect of the accounts between the Government, Church and the Native peoples is when the story becomes woefully strange, imprecise and convoluted. Such is the nature of the business of masquerading the truth. “Until the lion tells it’s story, the glory will always go to the hunter.”

There are always two sides to any war. People say, "that's all in the past we just need to get over it." Like their forefathers before them, the descendents of the predominate culture of Utah refuse to acknowledge the cruel mistreatment of Utah's American Indian peoples. That demoralization and racism have become institutionalized. Utahan's say it's the Indian people who are to blame, "we have given them every opportunity to succeed...it's their own damn fault."

But, what is the Ute Indians’ side of the story? And, why has their history, their account, their interpretation, their version been purposely ignored and long omitted from school curricula and historical accounts?

When people are denied access to their own history by educators and institutions as the American Indians of Utah have been, when their children are forced to accept solely the victors point of view, when cultural traditions and customs of the American Indian are systematically replaced by western beliefs; when they are denied their right to speak their own language and denied their religious freedom, when they are repeatedly denied equal access to justice and protection under the law, when these things happen it then becomes cultural genocide. And this is the very reason why the Black Hawk War of Utah has been by design forgotten. 

"The Time has come when Indian people need to stop being victimized. They need to tell their story and demand that it be told accurately." - Forrest S. Cuch Former Director of Indian Affairs/Member of the Ute Tribe

"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." - Member of the Ute Tribe

Christian expansionists attempted to reason with the Indian people saying they had the right to take possession of their land because the Indians were heathens, non-Christians, who didn't believe in the bible or Jesus, the Messiah. And this is the basis for the denial of Indian rights in federal Indian law today, based upon the metaphor that the American Indians are the Canaanites or pagans in the promised land. These arcane elements of reason have long been the mentality of Christian supremacy upon which so many millions of dollars have been spent and so many thousands of lives wrecked. - Steven T. Newcomb Indigenous Law Institute

The early settlers are portrayed by the victor’s accounts 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 described as “friendly toward the Mormons” but later they were inaccurately judged as barbaric wild savages who terrorized them.

The truth is Utah Indian people were a vibrant productive culture, and didn't have any particular animosity toward early Mormon pioneers, only that they were trespassing on their land, whereas, according to the Book of Mormon, the church believed they had a divine right to the land and an 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 and 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.

"When the Ute failed to assimilate into Mormon culture, the answer was to exterminate them." - Historian Robert Carter

It was in 1850 Mormon apostle George Albert Smith declared that the Indian people "have no right to their land" and he instructed the all-Mormon legislature to "extinguish all titles" and get them out of the way and onto reservations. This set the stage for the infamous Black Hawk War that would follow.

 

	Forrest S. Cuch - Former Director Of Indian Affairs	Will Bagley - Historian/Author

It Was Question Of Supremacy

Brigham Young's victory was perhaps a hollow one for, in order to fulfill his dream, he had to destroy a civilization. He complained it was "cheaper to feed them than to fight them," as he was spending millions in church funds equipping his private army to war against them. Brigham paid his Generals as much as $300 a month while soldiers were being paid some $16.00 a month to rid the land of it's Indian inhabitants. Then in 1866 the United States government reimbursed Brigham some 1.5 million for military expenses.

Brigham Young was quoted by the Denver Rocky Mountain Newspaper as saying, "You can get rid of more Indians with a sack of flour, than a keg of powder." Just how many of the some 70,000 Indians did he get rid of? By 1909 the U.S. Census reported that the Indian population had decreased to just 2300.

The gruesome beheadings of some 40 Ute corpses in 1850, heads stacked in boxes, and hung by their long hair from the eves of buildings at Fort Utah, has long been ignored, "You didn't see the Indians beheading the Mormons." - Historian Robert Carter

"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." - John Lowry 1894

In 1853 Ute leader Walkara told interpreter M. S. Martenas, "He (Walkara) said that he had always been opposed to the whites set[t]ling on the Indian lands, particularly that portion which he claims; and on which his band resides and on which they have resided since his childhood, and his parents before him—that the Mormons when they first commenced the settlement of Salt Lake Valley, was friendly, and promised them many comforts, and lasting friendship—that they continued friendly for a short time, until they became strong in numbers, then their conduct and treatment towards the Indians changed—they were not only treated unkindly, but many were much abused and this course has been pursued up to the present—sometimes they have been treated with much severity—they have been driven by this population from place to place—settlements have been made on all their hunting grounds in the valleys, and the graves of their fathers have been torn up by the whites." - 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
 

The Names "Black Hawk" and "Antonga"---Are They Utes names?

The name "Black Hawk" is not a Ute name. It was a name Brigham Young, in jest, called the Ute's leader. So it became that Brigham Young’s supercilious term, 'Black Hawk,' is the name by which he is now most commonly known. To the Mexicans he was known as "Antonga", also not a Ute name. Chief Black Hawk was known to the Utes as Nuch, he was so named in honor of his people the Nuchu, a name sacred to the Utes.

Before Chief Nuch died in 1870, deathly ill from a bullet wound he received over a year earlier at Gravelly Ford while attempting to rescue a fallen comrade, he traveled 180 miles by horse and visited every Mormon village to apologize for the pain and suffering he and his warriors had caused. He said to them, "you broken your promises, stolen our land, killed our children, men and women, and spread disease among my people." He then asked for forgiveness and pleaded with the settlers to do the same, and end the bloodshed. "You didn't see that happening on the part of the settlers", said Forrest Cuch, "So it took a greater man to do such a thing. And that's what is overlooked in the victors’ accounts."

"It was white history that wrote it--that he surrendered. And no, a man like that don't surrender. He'll come to terms with reality. I'm done, we're done, we, we did what we could, we're done. But it gets written differently... And like any of us, I think you get to a point where it's like any war, you get in and you do what you've got to do. And maybe there's a family there, and you killed, killed their kids--you, as a human, that thing we all are, is going to at least make you say I'm sorry." - Larry Cesspooch/Member of the Ute Tribe

 

Post War Relations

Was the Black Hawk war saga over? The Mormons got their Indian land and the Transcontinental Railroad had come through. Black Hawk died in 1870. Ninety percent of the Indian population had died since the Mormons arrived in 1847. Fifteen hundred Utes were forced to walk to the reservation in the Uintah Basin where they were abandoned, and 500 more died from starvation in the first year. Were the whites satisfied? No, not yet.

On September 20, 1919, an article appeared on the front page of the Deseret News with the headline, "Bones of Black Hawk on Exhibition L.D.S. Museum." Deep within the article, the writer explains that first, the remains of Black Hawk had been on public display in the window of a hardware store in downtown Spanish Fork, Utah. Then Benjamin Goddard, the man in charge of the L.D.S. Museum, acquired the remains for public display on Temple Square. For decades, the remains of Black Hawk, and those of an Indian woman and a child, were on display in the church museum on Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.

Just 49 years had passed since Chief Black Hawk had been laid to rest in 1870 at Spring Lake, Utah, when members of the LDS Church plotted the robbery of his grave. Accompanying the article is a photo of William E. Croff standing in the open grave, grinning ear to ear, while holding the skull of Nuch (Black Hawk). While the living descendents of Nuch were outraged, their voices fell on deaf ears. Seemingly without conscience or remorse church leaders condoned the practice, in spite of a federal law passed in 1906 called the Graves Protection Act. Descendents of Nuch had no real legal recourse until the enactment of the National American Graves Protection Reparation Act, or NAGPRA, passed in 1994.

Chief Nuch was again reburied in the year 1996. It took an act of Congress, the help of National Forest Service archeologist Charmain Thomson, and the humanitarian efforts of a boy scout Shane Armstrong to find and rebury the remains of Nuch (Black Hawk). This raises the question why a religious institution and its leaders would have no compassion or respect for the family of Chief Nuch who were members of the church. Was the reason simply amusement for others? Was grave robbing for art, pleasure, punishment, a morbid fascination of death, divine obligation, or, most importantly, the wielding of power?

The answers to this and many other questions can be found in our most popular commentary click here, and throughout our extensive website, your most complete and authoritative source on  the Black Hawk War since 2002.


- Black Hawk War: Utah's Forgotten Tragedy Researcher and Producer Phillip B Gottfredson

 

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The Black Hawk War: Utah's Forgotten Tragedy

Funded in part by

Utah Division of Indian Affairs

The George S. Deloris Dori Eccles Foundation

and

Private Donors here

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Filmmakers

Black Hawk Productions, LLC

and

Ron Hill Imagery

and

Turtle Island Productions

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Consultants

Historian/Scholar Will Bagley - Former Director of Indian Affairs Forrest Cuch - Professor/Historian Dr. Floyd O'Neil  - Dr. Daniel McCool PHD Political Science - Historian Robert Carter - Filmmaker Larry Cesspooch Ute Tribe - Venita Taveapont Director of Indian Language Program Ute Tribe - Loya Arrum Ute Tribe - Descendents of Ute Leader Black Hawk - Members of the Ute Tribe - National Forest Service Archeologist Charmain Thompson

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Music

 

Nino Reyos

 

Runa Pacha

†

 Black Hawk War Researcher/Producer Phillip B Gottfredson

†

Historic Photographs by Permission From:

University of Utah Marriott Library Special Collections

 

 

 

 

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Get Your Copy of  Indian Depredations In Utah by Peter Gottfredson today!

 

"Hello, this is Phillip Gottfredson. The story of Black Hawk on this web site is based in large part upon the oldest firsthand accounts from my great-grandfather Peter Gottfredson, his book titled Indian Depredations in Utah. In 1890, journalist Peter Gottfredson commenced a twenty-year project compiling personal eyewitness accounts of the Black Hawk War. Earlier, Peter had spent most of his time in the Ute Indian camps during the war, and witnessed first hand the exploitation that surrounded him and the people he loved. 

 

Peter Gottfredson

working on his manuscript of

Indian Depredations in Utah

Photo by George E. Anderson

 

Highly respected by noted historians as being a reliable account, to the honor of Peter Gottfredson, authors, historians, researchers, journalists, scholars and academics have cited his work in countless publications, articles, and books for decades, underscoring the importance of his time-honored account. Most recent is historian John Alton Peterson's award-winning book titled Utah's Black Hawk War wherein Gottfredson's account is cited numerous times.

 

"The book (Indian Depredations in Utah) reports any number of white depredations that would otherwise be unknown, and like the Iliad, the losers are often more courageous and noble than the victors." - Historian Will Bagley

 

I know you will enjoy Peter's account, so many tell me they can't put it down once they read it. I hope you will purchase Indian Depredations in Utah, proceeds from my book help support our project.  I republished his book in 2002 which can now be purchased right here (see below), or from your favorite book store."

 

Thank you!

Phillip B Gottfredson

 

 

Indian Depredations In Utah is available through Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.