Timpanogos Chief Black Hawk c1838 - 1870
Artist Carol Pettit Harding 2019
The Utah Black Hawk War & Settler Colonialism
by Phillip B Gottfredson
"There wasn't an Indian problem until the Mormons came. Then there was a Mormon problem."
Explore the full story of the Utah Black Hawk War through the decades of research of author Phillip B Gottfredson, a historian for the Timpanogos Nation. The definitive cause of the Black Hawk War in Utah, said Phillip, was Brigham Young's order to "exterminate" the Timpanogos Nation beginning in 1849. Mormon settler colonialism brought to the Timpanogos three decades of widespread starvation, a smallpox epidemic, and 150 violent encounters, including eight horrific massacres, which resulted in a 90% decrease in their population and irreversible damage to their culture. Latter-Day Saints' clandestine objective was to take possession of their land and vital resources. They were then given a book that says, "Thou shalt not steal." As the late Will Bagley historian and consultant put it, "There is nothing about the Black Hawk War that celebrates our noble ancestors."
When Brigham Young signed the order for the Nauvoo Legion to exterminate the Timpanogos Nation and take possession of their land, it became Brigham Young's War. There wasn't any 'Indian Problem' until the Mormons came. Then, there was a Mormon problem. It's time to challenge these long-standing inaccuracies in the Black Hawk War narrative and, for the sake of humanity, stop ignoring the truth! See Timpanogos Nation Biography & The Utah Black Hawk War
One-sided History, Is Not History!
Gottfredson emphasizes that we cannot present this narrative from a single viewpoint and consider it to be authoritative. It is essential to include the Native American perspective to gain a more comprehensive and culturally sensitive understanding of Native American history, particularly in Utah. The absence of Indigenous voices and old-school thinking creates a significant gap in our understanding of settler colonialism in the region. Making assumptions about Indigenous life-ways leads to accounts replete with fake stories and photographs demonizing the Indigenous people of Utah. Historians and writers end up sugarcoating the truth and re-write history; it's a classic example of genocide denial.
Some historians claim that the Utah Black Hawk War started in 1865 and ended in 1872. This viewpoint cleverly shifts attention away from the larger story of settler colonialism that began in 1847 with the arrival of the Mormon pioneers and lasted for an astonishing 27 years before the war broke out. This period resulted in significant changes in the region's demographics, land use, and power dynamics, all of which set the stage for the conflict.
Beginning in 1846, at the rate of some three thousand a month, new Mormon arrivals sprawled out into the ancestral home of the Timpanogos, disrupting the natural order of all living things for Indigenous civilizations. They killed deer, elk, and buffalo and depleted the fish population in the Timpanogos River (also known as the Provo River) and Timpanogos Lake (also known as Utah Lake). They diverted and polluted water sources, the environment that First Nations solely depended upon for food, medicines, and life-sustaining necessities. With the rapid increase in the Mormon population, agricultural development, and barbwire, the Timpanogos soon ran out of territory for sanctuary vital to their culture, a gross injustice that we cannot overlook.
Many historians overlook the facts, including Brigham Young's infamous extermination order in 1849, which triggered violent confrontations. It's important to note that Black Hawk was the War Chief of the Timpanogos Nation for only 14 months—from 1865 to 1866—before his life was tragically cut short in battle at Gravely Ford. This loss reverberated through the Indigenous community. See Brigham Young's Extermination Order No. 2
Overlooking the facts and unfairly attributing all the blame to Black Hawk, dismissing him and his Tribe's sincere pleas for peace only creates divisions. From 1866 until he died in 1870, Black Hawk and Chief Tabby were the last two leaders among the original seven, and all worked tirelessly to advocate for reconciliation and understanding. Their struggle for peace, often overlooked, deserves our utmost respect, especially when contrasted with the violence that characterized this tumultuous period. See Utah Black Hawk War Timeline
Let's Cleanup More Confusion!
Chief Antonga Black Hawk was not a Ute, a fact firmly supported by a wealth of historical documents. The living descendants of Black Hawk, particularly those of the Timpanogos Nation, as well as records and reports from the Indian Agency and the Department of the Interior, stand united in clarifying this misconception. Being a Timpanogos Chief, in 1865, Black Hawk solicited help from the Utes and several other neighboring Tribes in pushing back against Mormon encroachment on Indigenous lands, and he led them in this effort. Black Hawk was born into the rich heritage of Timpanogos leaders. The Timpanogos and Ute nations should honor the friendship their ancestors once shared. As one Timpanogos elder said, "... the Mormons got involved and lied to the Utes about us, and they lied to us about the Utes. They made us so we didn't trust each other and we began to fight each other. They didn't care about us, all they wanted us to do was fight each other, tear us apart, take our land..."
No official record substantiates the claim that the Timpanogos were blood relatives of the Ute Tribe, nor is there any evidence to support such a connection. See The Timpanogos Nation Is Snake-Shoshone
Treaties, Congress never ratified a single treaty in Utah
Despite popular belief, the Spanish Fork Treaty of 1865 was never ratified. Congress never ratified a single treaty in Utah. However, they expressed a preference, "We would rather the Indians to have the land than the Mormons."
The late University of Utah historian Floyd O'Neil describes de facto agreements as follows: "There were no treaties made between the Indian people of Utah and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Only 'agreements' were made. At best, these agreements were divisive, designed to trick the Indians into giving up their land. They were not legally binding." See Black Hawk War Spanish Fork Treaty
Accommodation History
Historian Michael Quinn said in 1981, when he spoke candidly to an assembly of LDS Church members, "The Accommodation History advocated by Elders Benson and Packer and practiced by some LDS writers is intended to protect the Saints, but disillusions them and makes them vulnerable... The tragic reality is that there have been occasions when Church leaders, teachers, and writers have not told the truth they knew about difficulties of the Mormon past but have offered to the Saints instead a mixture of platitudes, half-truths, omissions, and plausible denials..." For Michael's honesty, he was rewarded with excommunication from the church.
Consultant, Professor Dr. Daniel McCool, University of Utah, said,
"We took from them almost all 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." See Utah's Black Hawk War legacy
My great-grandfather, Peter Gottfredson, was a Danish immigrant who lived among the Timpanogos during the early years of the Black Hawk War. Peter and his family lived in Mt. Pleasant, which was near Black Hawks' camp. He questioned, 'I have often queried, why should those conditions be forgotten, and why has so little interest been taken in keeping memoranda and records of events and conditions of those early and trying times?' In 1919, Peter Gottfredson, a Mormon bishop for 20 years, authored his firsthand tell-all account of the War, titled Indian Depredations in Utah. See Peter and Hans In The Indian Camps
From Settler Colonialism to the Black Hawk War
We begin our story by first understanding the role that settler colonialism played in the Black Hawk War. We must go back to 1493, when the Papal Bull of Rome established the Doctrine of Discovery which we will discuss further, below.
According to Cornell Law School, "The concept of settler colonialism can be defined as a system of oppression based on genocide and colonialism that aims to displace a population of a nation (oftentimes indigenous people) and replace it with a new settler population. See Cornell Law School definition of settler colonialism.
Who Is Better Qualified to tell the story of the Timpanogos, than the Timpanogos? In 2015, the Chief Executive of the Timpanogos Nation, Mary Meyer, approached Phillip B Gottfredson to investigate and share their version of the Black Hawk War. "The Timpanogos perspective is not just a footnote in the historical narrative of the Black Hawk War but a vital record that provides a comprehensive understanding of the events," said Phillip. Mary and Phillip later collaborated on writing a book, My Journey to Understand Black Hawk's Mission of Peace.
The following is a perfect example of settler colonialism. Quoting from Black Hawk's Mission of Peace, Perry Murdock, a 
Council member of the Timpanogos Nation and a direct descendant of Chief Wakara, who was Black Hawk's uncle said, "Every day we are reminded of what our ancestors went through. Our families were torn apart. Children murdered, the old, the women, all those who were brutally murdered and made to suffer and die from violence, then disease, then starvation, our ancestors' graves torn up, the land destroyed, it was genocide plain and simple. Why? What did we do? We didn't do anything. We were living in peace. We were happy. Our children were happy. We loved each other. We cared for each other. And when the Mormons came, we tried to help them. Then they tried to take everything away from us. They wanted it all. They wanted to exterminate us, wipe us off the face of the earth. Why? For our land? For our oil? Now we have nothing."
Mary Murdock Meyer, direct descendant of Chief Arapeen, brother of Wakara, wrote, "As Chief Executive of the Timpanogos Nation, I speak for the people when I ask why? We fed you when you were hungry. We helped you when you did not understand our lands. Why then were we forgotten?" Vist The Timpanogos Nation Website
Brigham Young is quoted saying, “I say go [and] kill them…Tell Dimick Huntington to go and kill them—also Barney Ward—let the women and children live if they behave themselves…We have no peace until the men [are] killed off—never treat the Indian as your equal.” Source BYC, Microfilm reel 80, box 47, folder 6. Farmer, Jared (2008). On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674027671
Quoting Timpanogos Chief Wakara in a statement to Indian Agent M. S. MARTENAS July 6, 1853. "They were 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—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..." See Timpanogos Chief Wakara's full Statement.
**The following is a partial list of the atrocities Perry Murdock talked about, a direct result of Brigham's extermination order in 1850...
The Battle Creek Canyon Massacre - Pleasant Grove, Utah
The Battle Creek Massacre in the winter of 1848-49 was a prelude to the Black Hawk War. Brigham Young falsely accused a small group of the Timpanogos Nation of stealing his horses. This accusation led to the tragic deaths of three innocent individuals and the capture of a vulnerable young boy named Nu'intz, whom Brigham Young would later call Black Hawk. See Battle Creek Canyon Massacre
The Murder of Old Bishop
Recorded examples of brutality in Utah's Native American history are numerous; the murder of a Timpamogos elderly man, the Mormons called Old Bishop, occurred on the 1st of August, 1849, at Fort Utah in Provo. Accused of stealing a shirt from a clothesline, he was shot in cold blood, disemboweled, his stomach filled with rocks, and thrown in the Provo River. See The Murder of Old Bishop
Fort Utah Massacre
January 1850, Brigham Young orders the extermination the Timpanogos. The Mormon vigilantes helped themselves taking the belongings from the dead, while Bill Hickman, with knife in hand, hacked Old Elk's head off his frozen body. He said Jim Bridger had offered him a hundred dollars for the head. Old Elk's wife refused to be taken captive. See The Massacre at Fort Utah
Massacre at Table Point
January 1850, “The violence shifted from warfare to killing.” After disarming a large band of Timpanogos at Table Point near the southern edge of Utah Lake, the militiamen shot them down in cold blood... then decapitated..." See Table Point Massacre
Mountain Meadows Massacre
In the Mountain Meadows Massacre, 1857, Major John D. Lee of the Nauvoo Legion led a ragtag band of Latter-day Saints disguised as "Indians" in an assault on a wagon train from Arkansas, murdering 120 men, women, and children. The LDS Church unfairly blamed the Paiute. In 2007, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after decades of denial, finally confessed to the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In 1960, the late Church president David O. Mckay said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." See LDS Church Confesses to the Mountain Meadows Massacre
The Bear River Massacre
In the Bear River Massacre of 1863, over 493 shoshonee were slaughtered, led by the unashamed Colonel Patrick Edward Connor. Brigham young supplied Connor with troops and equipment. See Bear River Massacre
The Grass Valley Massacre
Timpanogos's account of the Grass Valley Massacre 1865 is that when the soldiers first approached their camp, the old Chief showed a soldier a paper from the Bishop of Glenwood that said they were friendly and no harm would come to them. He was the first one shot, and the soldier who shot him then beheaded him with his sword. See Grass Valley Massacre
The Circleville Massacre
Then at the peak of the Black Hawk War in 1866, Bishop William Jackson Allred led the Circleville Massacre of the Koosharem Paiutes. Twenty-six men, women, and children's throats were slit and buried in a mass grave. See The Circleville Massacre
The Gravely Ford Battle
In June of '66, Black Hawk's father Sanpitch, had been held captive for 6 months
while his captors were hoping to force Black Hawk into submission, but then Sanpitch managed to escape briefly and Dolf Bennett slit his throat. In the same month, Black Hawk was shot in the gut by James E. Snow at the Gravelly Ford Battle while trying to rescue a fallen warrior, Whitehorse. See The Gravely Ford Battle
One of Black Hawk's few Mormon friends, Canute Peterson of Ephraim, paid a visit to the ailing leader in Cedar City—taking sugar, hams, bread, beads, molasses, tea, coffee, tobacco, flour, medicines, and clothing. Black Hawk promised Canute unconditional friendship for his kindness. See The Old Peace Treaty Tree.
Black Hawk's Grave Robbed For Amusement
Despite the numerous attempts by Timpanogos leaders to live in peace, Mormon settlers treated them with much severity; one of the most notable examples is the robbery of Chief Black Hawk's grave. On September 26, 1870, his loving kin honorably laid him to rest on a hillside 
overlooking Spring Lake, the place of his birth—just 49 years passed when Mormons dug up his mortal remains and then exhibited them in the window of a hardware store in Spanish Fork, Utah, and then on Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City for amusement. We don't see Indigenous people digging up whiteman's graves, do we? See Chief Black Hawk's Burial.
Doctrine of Discovery 1493 & Settler Colonialism
Oxford Bibliographies states, "Settler colonialism is an ongoing system of power that perpetuates the genocide and repression of indigenous peoples and cultures." See Oxford Bibliographies Settler Colonialism.
Phillip notes, "I was shocked when I met Mary and she told me I was the first historian to hear their version of the War and given access to thousands of Tribal documents. Over eight summers, I had the best time engaging deeply with their community, resulting in an authentic account from the descendants of those Brigham Young sought to 'exterminate.'
Steven T. Newcomb, an author and member of the Indigenous Law Institute, wrote in his book, *Pagans in the Promised Land*: "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 accept Jesus Christ as the true Messiah. This is the land promised by the Eternal Father to the faithful, and we are commanded by God in the Holy Scriptures to take it from them, being idolaters. This is justified by their idolatry and sin, and we are told to put them all to the knife, sparing only maidens and children, while robbing and sacking their cities and leveling their walls and houses to the ground. This ideology serves as the basis for the denial of Indian rights in federal Indian law and remains as true today as it was in 1823." See The Doctrine of Discovery
Legal Studies Department, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, Peter d' Errico, wrote, "Papal authority is the basis for United States power over indigenous peoples." The Doctrine of Discovery, a five-hundred-year-old decree by Catholic monarchs during the 14th century, was a law based upon Christian doctrine, believing that their religion and culture were above all others, giving Christians and governments throughout the world a legal and moral justification to invade and occupy Native American land. See Videos for more Information.
Note: Pope Francis has renounced the 500 year old Doctrine of Discovery as of March 2024.
A New 'ism' Takes Hold Among Colonists, "Racism"
"Race was a fairly new concept among early colonists," wrote Sean P. Harvey, Ph.D. author of Native Tongues available in our bookstore. A product of slavery in the late 1600s, "The concept of 'Race' that took hold in the 1800s created physical and cultural divisions in humanity. It is essential to understand that it was crucial to early American settler colonialism. It provided the foundation for the colonization of Native Land and the enslavement of Native Americans and Africans."
Indian Removal Act & Manifest Destiny 1830
Another example of Settler colonialism in America is Andrew Jackson's systematic 200.jpg)
Indian Removal Act of 1830 that opened the way to the forced relocation of Native Americans. It became known as "The Trail of Tears." The 1832 Supreme Court Ruling declared the Indian Removal Act unconstitutional, but the damage already caused to First Nations was irreversible. In time, the Doctrine of Discovery would become Manifest Destiny to justify European Expansion further ignoring Indian Rights all togeather all under the banner of Christianity. See Manifest Destiny
Hildalgo Treaty of 1848
Even though Utah wouldn't become a state until 1896, it should be noted that Mormon settlers arrived on the Wasatch Front of the Rockies during the Mexican-American War.
In February 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War. The significance of the treaty is that it preserved certain Indian rights. According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, "Mexican negotiators won from the United States multiple promises that Indian land rights would continue as they had been under Mexican law."
Disregarding the Timpanogos' Indigenous treaty rights, Mormon leadership drew their power from the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny. Ignoring the supreme laws of the land, LDS Apostle George A. Smith ordered the church's private militia to "remove the Indian people from their land," saying Indigenous people have "no rights to their land." In the name of 'Righteous Dominion' Brigham Young spent over a million dollars in church funds, the equivalent of $35 million today, to "exterminate" the Timpanogos, then billed Congress for reimbursement. See Memorial of the
Legislative Assembly of Utah
When the Civil War ended in 1865, the United States government called for exterminating tribes who resisted giving up their land, and the Government turned its attention toward Western expansion and the U.S. military to 'Indian' fighting. See CONGRESSIONAL ACTS
Eliminating 'Indianness' Through Acculturation
Highly publicized massacres of 'Indians' brought the attention of philanthropic groups. American humanitarians proposed a new solution to the 'Indian problem' by eliminating 'Indianness' through acculturation. Christian reformers argued that 'if Indians were assimilated, the Indian problem would vanish.'
The Rocky Mountain News paper quoted Brigham Young saying, "If you want to get rid of the Indians try and civilize them."
In the 1860s, the U.S. adopted a Peace Policy, gradually shifting toward a more peaceful approach, and genocide of Native Americans was officially discouraged. The Peace Policy meant making them wards of the government, forcing Native tribes to reservations and boarding house schools to assimilate them into white culture, thus eliminating Native peoples bloodlessly. The intended effect of the Peace Policy was to prevent the rampant slaughter of Native Americans.
Christianization, education, and cultural development became the means to 
assimilate tribal peoples so that they could be integrated and absorbed by mainstream society. Example, the LDS church converted many of Utah's Native Americans to Mormonism, according to church doctrine, and in so doing, the so-called "loathsome" Indians would become a "white and delightsome people." They 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, and the cause was the Lord; the reason that the Lamanites (Indians) "had hardened their hearts against him, (God)," and the punishment was to make them "loathsome" unto God's people who had white skins. See Only In The Land Of The Lamanites
Estimated Casualties From Settler Colonialism
Twenty years of intensive research conducted by Phillip B Gottfredson, in collaboration with Native American scholars and historians, estimates that around 70,000 Timpanogos people inhabited the Great Basin when the Latter-day Saints arrived. According to Gottfredson, "By our calculations, there were nine hundred thirty-two Timpanogos reported deaths, which do not include those who died from starvation and disease, and two hundred thirty-eight Mormon deaths." See Timeline of the Utah Black Hawk War
Brigham Young proudly claimed at the end of the conflict, "I don't think there is one out of ten, and perhaps not even one out of a hundred, who were here when we arrived." This statement implies that the Timpanogos suffered a staggering death toll. Settlers were responsible for instigating violence, causing starvation, spreading diseases, and poisoning water sources—actions that LDS scholars agree resulted in a 90% reduction in Utah's Timpanogos population.
We must concede that our European ancestors were descendants of the colonial mentality of domination and subjugation. See Truth In Utah's History Of First Nations Peoples
Polygamy
In 1847, Mormons faced ever-increasing hostilities when angry mobs forced them to leave Illinois—following the assassination of Latter-Day Saint Church founder Joseph Smith, a polygamist having 40 wives and a member of the Masonic Order. Joseph Smith's successor, Brigham Young, "the Great Colonizer," with 55 wives and a Masonic Order member, led a massive migration of followers to colonize Utah's Great Basin of the Rocky Mountains. Aligned with the "Chosen People-Promised Land" model of the Bible," Christians rationalized they were superior and had a God-given right to Native American land by the Doctrine of Discovery.
Mormon Legislature Sanction Slavery
In the years 1850-52, the all-Mormon legislature sanctioned slavery of not only Blacks but Indians, stating that a white man need only have possession of an Indian for that Indian to be enslaved, and this included children. According to Wikipedia, "The Republicans' abhorrence of slavery in Utah delayed Utah's entrance as a state into the Union. In 1857, Representative Justin Smith Morrill estimated that there were 400 Indian slaves in Utah. Richard Kitchen has identified at least 400 Indian slaves taken into Mormon homes, but estimates even more went unrecorded because of the high mortality rate of Indian slaves." See Mormon's Slavery
Brigham Young blames his followers he described as "stupid, cork for brains and wooden shoes." In his speech in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, on April 6, 1854, he said, "If the inhabitants of this Territory, my brethren, had never condescended to reduce themselves to the practices of the Indians, (as few of them have,) to their low, degraded condition, and in some cases even lower, there never would have been any trouble between us and our red neighbors." See Brigham Young's Discourses.
The Denver Rocky Mountain newspaper quoted Brigham Young saying, "You can get rid of more Indians with a sack of flour than a keg of powder." Clearly his intention was to "get rid" of the indigenous population. Mormon colonialism had less to do with saving the "heathens" from hell, and more to do with getting rich.
If you think we have been hard on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, think about the Indigenous people of Utah who were demonized and dehumanized. Think about the irreversible damage to their lives and spirits over the past 150 years. See The Silent Victims of the Utah Black Hawk War
The Black Hawk War Legacy Lives On!
By 1871, Congress created the Appropriations Act, which forced America's Indigenous people onto reservations when they were then made "Wards of Government," thus giving Congress more control over them and making it easier to take possession of their land. Example: See James Leonard Pritchett a great-grandson of Chief Tabby.
At the Black Hawk War Veterans first reunion at the Reynolds Hall in Springville, Utah, 1894 John Lowry spoke these chilling words, "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." See Utah's Black Hawk War legacy
Suppose you were Indigenous person and lucky enough to survive settler colonialism. In that case, you are confined to a reservation and made to depend on government-run Indian agencies for scarce and sometimes contaminated commodities to survive. Your children are taken away and sent to boarding house schools with graveyards, all under the slogan "Kill the Indian, and save the man." There has never been any reconciliation, remorse, or even an apology from those who believe God led them to the "promised land." See video on boarding schools
The Mormon's Black Hawk War in Utah was a disgraceful affair. To this day, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has never rescinded Brigham Young's "Extermination Order No. 2" on the Timpanogos since 1849. Their mission to 'save the heathens from hell' is a colonial lie that needs burying. It was a thinly veiled excuse for looting Indigenous resources and land, reducing their populations, and imprisoning them on reservations. It was all an elaborate coverup to get rich - "Gold, God, and Glory." The apparent hypocrisy, such as Mormons giving Indigenous people a book that says, 'Thou shalt not steal," serve to remind us of the shrewd manipulation, dehumanization, and subjugation of the Indigenous Tribes of Utah while appearing to serve a benevolent cause.
Insulting and denigrating the Timpanogos people needs to stop. It's unacceptable to use racist terms or publish fake stories and photographs. We have a responsibility to compassionately understand the irreversible harm done to the Indigenous people of Utah and stop the habit of sanitizing the Black Hawk War, which was a gross infringement on their aboriginal rights and sovereignty. See We Can Forgive, But Never Forget.
Time To Look Beyond Religion and Politics For Answers
If you think Indigenous people were heathens and savages, then think again! In 1868, author John C. Cremony wrote, "Will civilized people never learn that they are quite as obtuse to understand real Indian nature as the Indians to understand their civilization? If you must judge them, do so by their own standards." -John C. Cremony Life Among the Apaches.
Carlos Barrios, Mayan Elders Council, describes in his book The Book of Destiny that "Somewhere along the way, Western society began to assume that human beings have the right to dominate plants, animals, even each other. The result of this materialist outlook is an economical, ecological, social, and moral crisis that has caused the downfall of other cultures." See Phillip B Gottfredson In The Heart of Mayan Country
One of the most compelling take-aways of Phillip B Gottfredson's book My Journey to Understand Black Hawk's Mission of Peace is his detailed description living with Indigenous people learning their deep, sacred connection to each other and Mother Earth.
Phillip wrote about the natural order, "When the world was created, Creator touched it with his hand, and so it is sacred and spiritual. The Land is our home, our mother, nourishing all her children. The Land is sacred and belongs to all who inhabit it."
"Native American culture is a perfect example of total spirituality without religion." Elders of the shoshonee and other Tribes, invited me to participate in numerous ceremonies. It was life-changing. The spiritual experiences I had humbled me, and profoundly changed my understanding of what it means to be human, and opened my eyes to the sacred connection we have with Mother Earth. Understanding Native American time-honored traditions is essential when establishing meaningful relations with them, especially for educators with Indigenous students. See Native American Ethics and Protocols.
Honesty, love, respect, courage, truth, wisdom, and humility, are ancient traditional virtues and values that Black Hawk and Indigenous people have honored throughout their history.
Sadly, scholars, historians and writers ignore that the age-old message of Indigenous America is about 'connection, relationship, and unity.' All people are one. All are the direct living descendants of our Creator. Lakota Chief Joseph said, 'We have no qualms about color. It doesn't mean anything."
There can be no doubt that this was Chief Black Hawk's message when he made his last ride home to pass out of this world in peace. In severe pain, dying from a gunshot wound to his stomach. In the final hours of his life, Chief Black Hawk made an agonizing hundred-and-eighty-mile journey by horseback from Cedar City in southern Utah to Payson. He advocated for peace and an end to the bloodshed. This heroic journey was Black Hawk's 'mission of peace.' Still, colonialists were too arrogant to see what it meant to be human. Chief Black Hawk died on September 26, 1870. He was buried at Spring Lake, Utah.
We 
can learn much from First Nations people if we get out of our heads and listen with our hearts. We need to help each other. We are all interconnected and interdependent upon one another. We need each other to survive and live. We need each other as equals. We are all in a relationship with each other. And each becomes a relative by relationship. We must help each other learn the truth and heal from the injustices. We must find a pathway to forgiveness and help build that bridge between our cultures with compassion, honesty, and mutual respect for humanity.
"I see a time of seven generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the sacred tree of life, and the whole earth will become one circle again." -Chief Crazy Horse, Oglala Lakota.
Phillip B Gottfredson Author/Historian
How do I know these things? I lived with them for over 25 
years; I found the truth I was looking for in the traditional teachings of the Timpanogos and Native Americans throughout North America and the Mayans in South America; I learned what true freedom looks like. I found my true self. While living with them, I learned how to walk my path in a good way, with purpose, and for the good of all. I learned to love myself and others. I am proud to say I voluntarily and willingly assimilated into Native American culture without shame or regrets. No, I don't pretend to be Native American, a wannabe. I wannabe free! I'm just not as white as I look. It has been the best years of my life. History is not just the study of the past; it's also the ethnology of people, present traditions, rituals, and legacies. But it's not about me, it's not about you. It's about all of us, the human race, the circle of life. I'm only the messenger. -Phillip Gottfredson. ~ See It's Not About Me
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Now comes AI and artificial intelligence, and so far, it is living up to its name. Artificial, by definition, means 'fake.' That's all we need in our world, more fake stuff, right?
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 This is NOT Timpanogos war Chief Black Hawk, aka "Antonga." This is a photo of a Kiowa Apache called Black Hawk. Taken in 1875 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870.
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The Grass Valley Massacre The Timpanogos's account of the Massacre is that when the soldiers first approached their camp, the old Chief showed a soldier a paper from the Bishop of Glenwood that said they were friendly and no harm would come to them. He was the first one shot, and the soldier who shot him then beheaded him with his sword.
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