First Americans

Beringia

(4,973 posts) Fri Feb 7, 2025, 01:01 PM Feb 7

The battles between the Utes and the Mormons

I was looking at the wikipedia page on the Mormons settling in Utah and the page seemed written solely in defense of the Mormons. Unfortunately I am not a wiki editor or historian, but it seems very wrong. For instance they talk about their battles with the Utes and Chief Wakara and the page says:

Towards the end of July 1853, Major General Daniel H. Wells, of the Utah Territorial Militia, commanded a number of troops to go and attempt to stop the Utes, who they believed were marching to attack a town of members of the LDS Church. Wells was specific in his instruction to not attack the Utes, but to try to capture Chief Wakara, while trying to keep peace. This did not happen, because the orders given by Wells were not received in time.

After hearing about this incident, Brigham Young sent a letter of apology for what had happened to Chief Wakara. He even included some tobacco with his letter so that Wakara might accept it better.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wakara%27s_War

For a perspective from the Utes, there is this

At the request of Maj. [Jacob] Holeman Ind. Agent for U. Ter. I held a conversation with Indian Chief Walker (Wakara) respecting his feelings and wishes relative to the whites setling [sic] on this lands, and on the lands of the Indians generally.

He 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, 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.

https://blackhawkproductions.com/Walker-Statement.htm

Also in my reading, I discovered that Native Americans had a slave trade too, of other Indians to the Mexicans.

Here is a new coverage story on one person with this experience

ALAMOSA, Colo. — In a dusty and dilapidated cemetery where weeds grow among humble gravestones, Juliana Aragón Fatula stood next to her great-grandfather’s final resting place and shared a hidden family secret.

“My grandmother didn’t tell me any of this. My mother didn’t tell me any of this,” Aragón Fatula said of her great-grandfather’s past.

In an 1865 document titled “List of Indian Captives,” her great-grandfather, Jose Antonio Gomez, is named among dozens of other Native Americans who were “purchased” in Conejos County.

https://www.9news.com/article/news/special-reports/9news-originals/historians-names-indigenous-slaves-descendants-ethnic-identity/73-55c742f2-b5b4-45aa-861f-8b32e9eaa410