Early Wars with Native Americans

The Native Americans of the east coast met the new 16th and 17th century visitors from Europe with enthusiasm. They regarded these bearded white men as strange but were delighted with the steel knives, mirrors, copper kettles, and other intriguing novelties. The indigenous tribes were more than accommodating and hospitable. Without their aid, the first waves of settlers would not have survived in the land they knew little about. But in time the Europeans disregarded all respect for the valued land and resources and instead displayed insatiable greed and arrogance. The Europeans soon pursued their intent to conquer this new continent with brutal attacks and invasion. The Native Americans soon realized that the invaders would arrive in overwhelming numbers, as many “as the stars in heaven.”

Initially, the people of this land tried to co-exist with the Europeans. But many more problems arose. With all their intriguing gadgets, the white men brought deadly diseases to the Native Americans. The colonists and explorers brought measles, smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, and many more devastating diseases. This drastically diminished the Native American population and annihilated entire villages.

1811 – Tecumseh and “The Prophet”

Tecumseh was a young Shawnee, his brother known as “The Prophet” was an Indian mystic. They wanted a revival of old Indian ways and a rejection of white culture. Tecumseh envisioned a vast Indian confederacy strong enough to keep the Ohio river as a border between Whites and Indians, preventing further expansion.

The Prophet ordered a badly calculated attack on General Harrison (later to be President Harrison) in November 1811. They inflicted heavy losses, but were eventually driven back and scattered. Harrison destroyed their food stores, their village, and the Prophet’s claim of invincible magic, shattering Indian confidence and ending hopes for Tecumseh’s confederation.

Jacksonian Democracy

Jackson was an orphan, frontiersman, horseracing man, Indian fighter, war hero, and land speculator. He embodied the new American spirit and became idol to many young men. Jacksonian Democracy meant an opening of the political process to more people (except blacks, women, and Indians). The flip side represented a new level of militant, land-frenzied, slavery-condoning, Indian-killing greed.

Creek War 1814

Where Jackson earned reputation as an Indian fighter, and to the Indians the name “Long Knife.”

Confronted by a tenacious Creek nation in the south as commander of the Tennessee militia, Jackson had used Cherokees, who had been promised governmental friendship, to attack the Creeks from the rear. Jackson managed to take away half the Creek lands, which he and his friends then bought on attractive terms.

Seminole War 1819

Claiming that Florida (Spanish territory) was a sanctuary for escaped slaves and marauding Indians, Jackson invaded the territory, unleashing a bloody campaign that left Indian villages and Spanish forts smoldering. It set off a diplomatic crises, eventually forcing the Spanish to sell Florida to the U.S. at a good price. Jackson became governor, and new that he could make a handsome profit by moving the Indians off the land.

His actions went from popular anti-Indian sentiment and sporadic regional battles to official federal policy initiated under Jackson and continued by Martin Van Buren. The tidy word was “removal”, the Indians called it the Trail of Tears.

Trail of Tears 1831-1833

Forced migration, that or be slaughtered. Concentrated on the “Five Civilized Tribes” of the Southeast. Contrary to the misrepresentation that these tribes were not compatible with white culture, many even emulated European styles in some respects. The problem was their tribal lands happened to be on valuable cotton-growing land.

The first removals forced 15,000 Choctaws from Mississippi into a territory west of Arkansas. During the winter, pneumonia took its toll and with the summer came cholera, killing Choctaws by the hundreds. Choctaws were followed by Chickasaws and then the Creeks. 3,500 out of 15,000 died of hardship, disease and exposure.

The final removal began in 1835, when the Cherokees became the target. The Cherokees were not nomadic savages. They had assimilated many European style customs, adopted the dress, built roads, schools, and churches. They had a representative form of government and a written language. They attempted to fight on legal grounds by challenging the laws in the Supreme Court and establishing an

independent Cherokee nation. They wouldn’t win and in 1838 16,000 Cherokees were forced out of Georgia, 4,000 dying along the way.

Seminole War – 1835-1842

The strongest resistance to removal came from the Seminoles of Florida, where they were able to carry out another costly war in which 1,500 U.S. soldiers died and $20 million was spent fighting them. The leader was Osceola, and he was only captured when lured out of his camp by a flag of truce. He died in prison camp three months later. With Osceola gone, the Seminole resistance withered and many were eventually removed. Several bands remained in the Everglades, continuing their struggle against the Federals.

Utah’s Natives

Life before Europeans arrived. Hunter/gatherer, Large and small game, driving rabbits into nets, herding crickets to make ‘desert fruitcake’, all but Gosiute are practicing some form of agriculture. Paiutes plant near water, elderly look over it. Utes rely upon fish, Utah Lake had largest population. Utes and Shoshone – teepee and horse. S. Paiute and Gosiute- wickiup made of brush. referred to by Europeans as “Diggers”. Utes became very powerful, kidnapped some Paiutes and Gosioutes and sold into slavery. Slave trade going for 200 years before Mormons arrive.

Navajo or Dinѐ, “The People”. Four corners region. Hogan, sheep herding.

Government: Largely small family bands, not really a chief. The Europeans wanted someone to negotiate with, imposed hierarchical structure on them. Had band leaders, loosely organized. (Ute more hierarchical than other Utah tribes.)

1810-1830

Global economy with beaver fur trade. Impact was the emergence of Utes as a powerful group, competitive with horses and guns.

Wakara War 1853

Utes saw Mormons as a good thing, opportunity to boost trade. When Mormons tried to disrupt the slave trade= Wakara War. Utes were surprised Mormons weren’t interested in buying slaves. In some instances, buy them or they would be killed. Mormons would purchase them into freedom. The conflict erupted in July 1853 near present-day Springville, Utah when one of Walkara's tribe was killed in an altercation with local settlers in a trade dispute. Walkara demanded that the killer be turned over to his tribe for punishment, but was refused.

Walkara proceeded to raid Mormon settlements in retaliation and the conflict spread. However, not all Utes were united in the controversy. In March 1854, Brigham Young, president of the LDS Church, sent major E.A. Bedell, the federal Indian agent, to meet with Walkara and other Ute leaders. Bedell was to inquire if they would make a treaty with Young for the sale of their land. During the meeting with Bedell, Walkara stated that "he would prefer not to sell if he could live peacefully with the white people which he was anxious to do."

Mormon View

Mormons and Natives both considered Utah a sacred space. Mormons saw natives as potential converts. Believed them to be fallen descendants of ancient people (Lamanites). Mormons often more benevolent to natives than to white miners. Donating the food from their fast to the natives. Brigham Young policy: “It’s cheaper to feed them than to fight them.”

1852 – Old Bishop

Some belligerent Mormons interact with an Indian named “Old Bishop”. They kill him, fill stomach full of rocks and throw him in the river. (Utah County). Natives retaliate by raiding villages. Brigham Young is never told full story, he says “Be patient, use best attitude.” Mormons want permission to attack. Finally, Brigham Young issues order to fight. 20-50 are killed. Doctor with them requests skulls for study back East. Utes think they are completely barbaric. Result: Massive increase of tension. Brigham Young learns of the whole story and is furious. Sticks with policy: “Feed them” and never deviated again.

Indian Removal in Utah

Utes- Uintah Basin Reservation in 1861. Soldiers commit atrocities- restless, no glory or war, kill Indians.

Bear River Massacre:

On 29 January 1863 Colonel Patrick Edward Connor and about 200 California Volunteers attacked a Northwestern Shoshoni winter village located at the confluence of Beaver Creek and Bear River, twelve miles west and north of the village of Franklin in Cache Valley and just a short distance north of the present Utah-Idaho boundary line. This band of 450 Shoshoni under war chief Bear Hunter had watched uneasily as Mormon farmers had moved into the Indian home of Cache Valley in the spring of 1860 and now, three years later, had appropriated all the land and water of the verdant mountain valley. (In addition, there was a blue eyed, blond hair boy. One Mormon claimed it was his nephew, the Indians said it was a boy from a fur trapper and a Shoshone woman.) The young men of the tribe had struck back at the white settlers; this prompted Utah territorial officials to call on Connor's troops to punish the Northwestern band. Before the colonel led his men from Camp Douglas at Salt Lake City north to Bear River, he had announced that he intended to take no prisoners.

As the troopers approached the Indian camp in the early morning darkness at 6:00 a.m., they found the Shoshoni warriors entrenched behind the ten-foot eastern embankment of Beaver Creek (afterwards called Battle Creek). The Volunteers suffered most of their twenty-three casualties in their first charge across the open plain in front of the Shoshoni village. Colonel Connor soon changed tactics, which resulted in a complete envelopment of the Shoshoni camp by the soldiers who began firing on the Indian men, women, and children indiscriminately. By 8:00 a.m., the Indian men were out of ammunition, and the last two hours of the battle became a massacre as the soldiers used their revolvers to shoot down all the Indians they could find in the dense willows of the camp.

Approximately 250 Shoshoni were slain, including 90 women and children. After the slaughter ended, some of the undisciplined soldiers went through the Indian village raping women and using axes to bash in the heads of women and children who were already dying of wounds. Chief Bear Hunter was killed along with sub-chief, Lehi. The troops burned the seventy-five Indian lodges, recovered 1,000 bushels of wheat and flour, and appropriated 175 Shoshoni horses. While the troops cared for their wounded and took their dead back to Camp Douglas for burial, the Indians' bodies were left on the field for the wolves and crows.

Although the Mormon settlers in Cache Valley expressed their gratitude for "the movement of Col. Connor as an intervention of the Almighty" in their behalf, the Bear River Massacre has been overlooked in the history of the American West chiefly because it occurred during the Civil War when a more important struggle was taking place in the East. Of the six major Indian massacres in the Far West, from Bear River in 1863 to Wounded Knee in 1890, the Bear River affair resulted in the most victims, an event which today deserves greater attention than the mere sign presently at the site.

Shoshone removed to Ft. Hall Reservation in Idaho and Wind River, WY.

Utah Black Hawk War –April 1865

Bear River Massacre site,

looking east for the

Shoshone camp. General

Connor came down the

slope.

Starving and desperate, not getting paid as agreed before. Utes are desperate. S. Paiutes rebel as well, general uprising throughout territory. Starts the day the Civil War ends.

Utes in Springville trying to trade. Ute husband thinks wife got a bad deal and starts to beat her up. Ivie, a Mormon, tries to intervene, and lands a deathblow to the Ute. That was the spark. Raids continue til 1872. Atrocities on both sides.

Circleville Massacre, 1866 – Family killed, including kids, by tomahawk. New settlement, not well defended. Utes came in and got cattle. Four whites killed, two were boys. Settlers heard rumors that there were Utes and S. Paiutes working together. Asked S. Paiutes to give up arms and join them. 18 agree, some don’t, skirmish. Men tied up and women in the basement. Paiute intent on escaping & during change of guard they attack. Paiute men are killed, but women and children are in basement. If they let them go, further retaliation. The women are killed.

Blackhawk goes to Mormon meeting house to ask for peace. Ouray reservation established.

Navajo

Kit Carson round up 1863-1864

Idea was to round up and move to Bosque Redondo, NM. If they refuse, burn them out, killed several hundred. Deplorable conditions, bad land, disease, starvation. In 1868, Federal government gives up and allows return to four corners region, largest reservation in the United States.

Population of Native Americans in Utah

When settlers arrive – 20,000

1900- 2,000

1950 – 4,200

1970 – 11,273

1980- 19,158

2005- 33,000 = 2% state population.

Tribal lands occupy 4% of state. 50% of Utah Indians still live on native homelands.)