Waccara's Uses: Native American Equestrian Adaptations in the Eastern Great Basin, 1776-1876

Waccara's Utes: Native American Equestrian Adaptations in the Eastern Great Basin, 1776-1876

BY STEPHEN P VAN HOAK

WACCARA WATCHED with pride as members of the Mexican posse on the far bank of the Mojave River turned and started back for their homes beyond the snow-capped mountains to the west. With his pursuers defeated, Waccara knew that his puwa, or power, would now be unquestioned. He and his people had good reason to be pleased with the results of their winter sojourn to California. Though it would be several days before the remainder of the Ute warriors returned from their scattered horse raids, the hundreds of Mexican-branded cattle and horses already in the Ute camp ensured that the new year would be a good one After a spring of fishing at Utah Lake, the Ute warriors, riding their strong and healthy horses, were likely to have a successful summer hunt on the Great Plains and would return to Utah with an abundance of jerked meat and skins. During the fall months, Waccara's Utes would feast on the buffalo meat but also hunt antelope, deer, rabbits, and other game, and they would harvest seeds, nuts, and berries Their exhausted herd would rest and recover on the grasses of the Sevier Valley, growing strong in preparation for the winter return across the desert to California, where another successful season of equestrian raiding and trading might follow.1

The Western Utes were distinct among mounted Native American peoples in both their diversification of food resource exploitation and in the geographic scope of their migrations.2 Although their range and mobility were increased by their acquisition of horses, the Western Utes did not abandon their diversified subsistence pattern to specialize in buffalo hunting, as many Plains equestrian groups did. Waccara's mounted band represented the most conspicuous stage of Western Ute equestrianism, and the success of their annual migratory cycle resulted in their becoming in the mid-nineteenth century one of the most prosperous and powerful mounte d bands west of the Rockies. Waccara's Utes ranged from the Pacific Coast to the Platte River, east of the Continental Divide, following a migratory pattern that circumvented many of the ecological and geographic limitations on successful equestrianism in the eastern Great Basin. Despite their eventual success, however, the Western Utes had not been quick to embrace equestrianism and had not begun to acquire horses until the late eighteenth century, a scant forty years prior to the rise of Waccara. The eastern Great Basin of the eighteenth century was a diverse region that ranged from arid and bleak desert landscapes in the west, to beautiful spring-fed meadows further east in the foothills, to timber- and snow-covered mountains at the basin's eastern extremity. In the higher elevations in the east, numerous mountain streams fed several lakes, the most significant being the freshwater Utah Lake and the briny Great Salt Lake. Beaver were abundant in the streams, and fish and geese abounded in and around the freshwater lakes The dense vegetation in the foothills and mountains supported a large number of small and large game, including deer, antelope, and rabbits.3 These eastern environs were in stark contrast to the arid portions of the Great Basin, and it was around these well-watered hills and mountain slopes, particularly Utah Lake Valley and the Sevier Valley, that the Western Utes made their home.

The Western Utes or Nùciu, as they refer to themselves, had inhabited the eastern Great Basin for centuries prior to Euro-American contact. The Ute creation story alleges that the Utes, along with many other tribes of Native Americans and whites, were released by Coyote, the trickster, from the bag of Wolf, the creator. Each tribe settled in a different region, but Sinawaf (Wolf) proclaimed that the Utes "will be very brave and able to defeat the rest."4 Linguists say that the Utes are a Numic-speaking people whose arrival in the eastern Great Basin is thought to have occurred around 1300 A.D. Though alternative theories exist, one theory posits that the Utes were able to displace the region's previous inhabitants, the agriculturalist Anasazi and Fremont peoples, through superior hunting and gathering adaptations Dividing into numerous groups, the Utes concentrated in areas of high resource density. The group that would come to be known as the Western Utes settled in the eastern Great Basin.5

Specific divisions of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western Utes are difficult to distinguish, but five distinct historical divisions of Utah Utes, based largely on geography, are commonly recognized by moder n historians and anthropologists. These are the Pahvant, Sanpits, Moanunts, Timpanogots, and, beginning in the 1830s, the Uintahs. Although each division had its own "territory," many Western Utes frequently hunted, gathered, and fished in the territories of other groups, especially at Utah Lake.6

Prior to Euro-American contact, the Western Utes survived in the eastern Great Basin through the exploitation of the varied, though limited, food sources in the region and through the use of seasonal migrations that maximized these resources. In the spring, most Western Utes converged at Utah Lake as trout left the depths of the lake and began their spawning runs into the many feeder streams. The bands feasted throughout the spring on these easily obtained, nearly inexhaustible numbers of fish and on the plentiful waterfowl attracted to the fish. In the summer, resources were far less abundant, and the Utes divided into smaller groups and spread out in search of food Seeds, edible plants, berries, and, to a lesser extent, fish, fowl, and an occasional buffalo formed the basis of their diet throughou t the warm summer months. The Western Utes continued to live in these small groups throughout the fall. In late autumn they began to hun t the mature large game that was leaving higher elevations in anticipation of winter. They also harvested pinon nuts every few years, whenever a good crop became available, and often cached them as a reserve food source. For most Western Utes, the onset of winter signaled a return to Utah Lake, where fish, cached food, and game wintering in the sheltered river valleys provided them sustenance and where firewood was at hand to give them warmth through the often bitterly cold winter months.7 Mobility and diversity were the keys to Ute survival in the eastern Great Basin.

The sociopolitical organization and religion of the Western Utes supported their diversified subsistence cycle. Bilateral, predominantly matrilocal extended families formed the basic social unit in Western Ute culture,8 and in the summer and fall these families usually operated independently in search of resources. Most socioeconomic tasks were gender-specific, with men primarily responsible for hunting and warfare and women generally accountable for food-gathering activities and the skinning and cleaning of animals. Large gatherings were limited to the winter and spring months when many of the Western Utes converged at Utah Lake, but even then families did not surrender their autonomy to the group. Leaders in Western Ute culture were selected to direct only certain specific group activities, such as communal rabbit drives or coordinated raiding or defensive efforts, and these leaders relinquished their authority when the activity was completed.9 Ute religion centered around puwa, or power, a spiritual force that could be harnessed and used by specially trained persons; it was thought to aid the Utes in hunting, raiding, and battle.10 But in the eighteenth century the Western Utes found their puwa insufficient to prevent the intrusion of their enemies, the Shoshoni, into valuable Ute hunting grounds in the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah.

The military dominance of the Shoshoni over the Western Utes in the eighteenth century was an outgrowth of Shoshoni acquisition of horses.11 The horse was originally introduced into New Mexico by the Spanish in 1598, and for nearly a century the Spanish managed to preserve their monopoly on these animals. But after the Pueblo revolt of 1680, the vast Spanish herds fell into Indian hands, and in the next few decades the horse quickly diffused to the plains north and east of New Mexico. By 1700, the horse "frontier" extended beyond the Great Plains and into the Intermountain region to the west, where the Shoshoni began to acquire their first animals Yet the Western Utes, though much closer to New Mexico, the original source of horses, were unable to acquire horses until nearly a century later.12 The explanation for the slow spread of horses to the Western Utes centers around the environmental and geographic setting of the eastern Great Basin. These factors imposed severe limitations upon the acquisition and useful employment of horses

The most important uses of horses involved combat and hunting. In battle, the power and speed of horses dramatically increased the deadliness of shock weapons. Horses also enhanced pursuit and evasion capabilities, allowing a rider to avoid more numerous unmounted foes and to apprehend slower unmounted enemies.13 The speed of horses was also invaluable in hunting and pursuing large game, particularly the slow-moving buffalo on open plains. Unmounted buffalo hunting required large numbers of warriors to surround the buffalo herd in order to harvest a few animals, but mounted warriors could operate independently, with each pursuing and killing multiple buffalo As a beast of burden, the horse further enhanced buffalo hunting by allowing transportation of larger quantities of meat and in providing the means for wider geographical migrations in search of buffalo.

Equestrianism also had significant liabilities, as horses were not merely objects or tools and required sustenance and care in order to survive The constant need to provide water and feed forced equestrian peoples not only to spend the vast majority of their time in locales with abundant water and forage but also to move frequently as forage became exhausted.14 Care of horses and the manufacturing of saddles, saddle bags, and other equipment for horses diverted considerable time from traditional activities and subsistence efforts. Possession of horses also increased the likelihood of enemy raids, necessitating protective and defensive efforts. Even if the horses were well-fed and guarded, herds inevitably sustained losses as a result of disease, aging, and, most significantly, severe winter conditions.15

Winter aggravated many of the difficulties of equestrianism and presented new problems Thick layers of snow or ice blanketing grass needed to be cleared so that horses could feed. Much of the nutritional value of grasses retreated underground in winter, so winter forage provided less energy at precisely the time of year that the horses needed more energy in order to survive the elements. The low nutrient density of winter grasses and the increased danger of disease in crowded and stationary conditions necessitated frequent moves by equestrian peoples. But snow made shifting camp more problematic, and it drained precious energy from both people and animals. Even when horses survived the winter, they often did so malnourished and weakened by disease, which caused serious long-term effects on their health and reproduction—and on that of their potential offspring. Severity of winter was the predominant limiting factor in the size of most Native American herds, and increased winter severity in a region decreased the value of horses in that area. 16

The replenishment of herds depleted by raids, disease, or winter required breeding, raiding, or trading, all of which posed difficulties. Breeding was often an ineffective and troublesome method for increasing herd size, not only because of the damaging impact of winter on reproductive ability but also because of the extensive time required to break horses for riding. Raiding for horses eliminated the need to break horses and was therefore a less time-consuming technique of herd enlargement, but horse raiding also risked failure and possible battle casualties The most obvious drawback of trading for horses was the necessity and difficulty of obtaining a desirable product to exchange, the most coveted such commodity being slaves. Despite these difficulties, eventually many equestrian Native Americans developed a system of obtaining horses by raiding other tribes and Euro-Americans for horses and captives, then bartering the captives to Euro-Americans for more horses.17

The inability of the Western Utes to adopt equestrianism in the eighteenth century rested upon many of the limitations outlined above Although there was an abundance of water and forage in the lush foothills and valleys of the eastern Great Basin, winters there were characterized by high winds, heavy snowfall, and temperatures as low as thirty degrees below zero. Further, opportunities to use the horse for hunting buffalo were severely restricted by the Shoshoni occupation of the Uinta Basin and Salt Lake Valley, the only adjoining regions frequented by buffalo.18 And, unlike their Eastern Ute kinsmen in the Rocky Mountains, the Western Utes had few occasions to trade for horses, surrounded as they were with bleak and arid landscapes adjoining their lands to the southeast, southwest, and west, and their enemies, the Shoshoni, on the other sides of the compass. 19

The potential risk and cost for the unmounted Western Utes to raid the mounted Shoshoni for horses was prohibitively high In effect, for eighteenth-century Western Utes, the cost of acquiring and maintaining horses throughout the harsh winter in the eastern Great Basin was greater than the potential benefits of equestrianism. Thus, the few horses they acquired at that time were either consumed as food or traded away. 20

The excessive cost of acquiring horses in the eastern Great Basin was remedied after 1776, when Spanish missionary Francisco Atanasio Dominguez led the first recorded Euro-American expedition into the Great Basin. At Utah Lake, Dominguez found the Western Utes unmounted and eager to procure Spanish trade and assistance against their Shoshoni enemies.21 Although Dominguez's promise to return to build settlements and a mission there did not come to fruition, the expedition was instrumental in opening a trade corridor from New Mexico into the eastern Great Basin. In the decades that followed, trade flourished despite Spanish bandos prohibiting such activity.22 The Western Utes bartered beaver pelts and captives procured from neighboring tribes to New Mexican traders seeking the enormous profits these commodities, especially the captives, brought in New Mexico.23 The Utes were thus able to bypass Indian middlemen and purchase horses and guns directly from their source. At the end of the eighteenth century, when the cost of horses was no longer prohibitive, the Western Utes began to acquire these animals in increasing numbers. They were soon able to dislodge the Shoshoni from their hunting grounds in the Uinta Basin.24

Horses provided a variety of benefits to equestrian peoples The acquisition of horses, or kavwds as they were known to Western Utes, allowed the Utes to significantly expand the range, efficiency, and diversity of their resource exploitation. In addition to providing them with a greater capacity to search for and hunt buffalo, the horse also enabled the Utes to more effectively raid for horses and captives. Unmounted tribes such as the Southern Paiute became exceedingly vulnerable to Ute raids for captives, while mounted tribes such as the Shoshoni became new potential targets of Ute raids for both horses and captives The horse increased the mobility and range of the Western Utes, aiding their traditional migratory hunting and gathering activities in the summer and fall, and the mounted Utes could more easily transport the food and animal skins they obtained. Trade opportunities were also significantly improved by the range and carrying capacity of the horse, allowing Western Utes to more easily acquire Euro-American tools and weapons such as muskets These weapons enhanced Ute hunting and combat efficiency.

Even as equestrianism began to thrive in the eastern Great Basin in the 1820s and 1830s, the massive expansion of the fur trade west of the Rockies, the abundance of fish at Utah Lake, and the northeastward retreat of the buffalo discouraged the Western Utes from specializing in bison hunting. The fur trade was extremely lucrative to the Utes, who traded readily obtained beaver pelts and other animal skins for horses, guns, and other Euro-American goods. Bison hides were of comparatively little value in trade, so in the fall Western Utes primarily hunted deer and beaver rather than buffalo.25 The vast amounts of easily obtained fish available during the spring spawning season at Utah Lake discouraged the Utes from hunting buffalo during that time. Furthermore, the depletion of bison in the Uinta Basin and Salt Lake Valley by the late 1820s limited Western Ute opportunistic buffalo hunting, forcing Utes seeking bison to travel ever greater distances on "big hunts."26 Thus, the buffalo did not become the dominant food source of the equestrian Western Utes as it did for many Plains tribes. The contrast in the degree of bison specialization between the Western Utes and Plains Indians was evident in the term the Utes used to describe Plains Indians: kwucutika, or "buffalo-eating Indians."27 But continued resource diversification by the Western Utes did serve to minimize the adverse impact of the retreat of the bison, and in the 1820s and 1830s this diversity and the burgeoning of exploitable food resources available to the equestrian Utes led to a significant upsurge in Western Ute population.28

The advent of equestrianism in the eastern Great Basin also deeply imprinted Western Ute social and political organization as the Western Utes began to organize into mounted bands. Larger than the Ute family unit but smaller than "tribal" gatherings, these bands typically included from ten to one hundred families, with usually four to five horses per family.29 Western Ute trading, raiding, and buffalo hunting were all enhanced by formation of bands, which were flexible, mobile, and usually strong enough in numbers to ward off enemy attack. Ute leaders directed the activities of these bands with more authority and for longer periods than did earlier traditional Western Ute leaders, and leadership positions increasingly became hereditary. Yet in the early nineteenth century most Western Utes continued to live outside these band structures, and most of those that did coalesce into bands did not do so on a permanent basis After a hunt or raid was over, most of the men returned to more traditional activities and subsistence efforts.30

One equestrian band leader who rose to prominence during these changes in Ute culture was Waccara Born in Utah Lake Valley in the early nineteenth century, Waccara was a witness to the first acquisition of horses by his tribe. According to him, his father purchased the tribe's first horse from Spanish traders but, knowing little about the care of horses, kept the animal tied u p for several weeks until it died of starvation Horses acquired thereafter fared better, however, and Waccara began to see his people form into equestrian band s for hunt s an d raids. His father was the leader of a ban d of Western Utes until a tragic dispute with other Western Utes resulted in his death around 1840, whereupon Waccara immediately assumed leadership of the band and moved them south to the Sevier Valley Shortly thereafter, according to Waccara, he had a spirit visitation, an event often associated in Ute culture with the securing of puwa by an individual.31 In the years to come, Waccara would use this puwa to aid his people as they embarked on a new system of equestrianism.

By the 1840s a host of internal and external pressures compelled the Western Utes to expand and intensify their system of equestrianism As increasing populatio n approache d the limit of available resources, they began to experience food shortages.32 The fur trade began a gradual and lasting decline when buffalo robes became the preferred items of exchange to Euro-American traders.33 At the same time, the continued retreat of the buffalo "frontier" was expedited by Euro-American traffic along the Oregon Trail; in addition to killing buffalo directly, travelers also reduced buffalo populations indirectly by disrupting ecosystems and importing new diseases.34 As the distance to the buffalo increased, the Western Utes needed ever-greater numbers of horses for pursuit and transportation. Further influencing the need for larger horse herds was the effect that decades of equestrianism had had in transforming horses into highly desired symbols of status and wealth in Western Ute society.35 The response of many Western Utes to these pressures was to implement a new yearly migratory cycle that provided greater access to traders, to potential targets of raids, and to buffalo, and that allowed enlargement of their horse herds in defiance of environmental constraints. The leader who directed these Western Ute pioneers was Waccara.

The new seasonal migration of Waccara's Utes began with a winter journey to California, which served to mitigate the detrimental effects of the severe Utah weather on the size and health of the Ute herd. With its mild climate and abundant pasture lands, California was a virtual paradise for the Utes' horses, which grew healthy and strong during the winter months. Initially, these trips were primarily trading expeditions, but eventually the Utes were enticed by the abundance of Californian horses into raiding for horses as well.36 The thinly populated and dispersed Mexican ranches and settlements could muster little defense against Waccara's well-armed warriors.

A typical expedition to California by Waccara's band began in the late fall with a long journey southwest over the Spanish Trail. The Western Ute horses, robust from months of grazing in the Sevier Valley grasslands, were laden with a multitude of fine pelts and skins obtained earlier that fall. As Waccara's Utes journeyed along the trail, their passage through the broken and arid lands was eased by the cool winter temperatures and the few sites along the trail that afforded good pasturage and water. Pausing at these sites, Waccara's Utes rested and recruited their horses, and they often pressured the unmounted and bow-armed Southern Paiute inhabitants of these sites to trade away some of their women and children.37 Continuing along the trail, the Utes eventually emerged through the San Bernardino Mountains and proceeded to visit friendly ranchers and traders met on previous expeditions or through the fur trade. In addition to bartering their pelts, skins, and captives to these traders for horses and EuroAmerican goods, the Utes also procured the use of the traders' land as a safe haven for their women and children, a grazing area for their animals, and a base of operations for the warriors. They then began a long series of increasingly large-scale horse and cattle raids. As Mexican resistance organized and stiffened, these raids culminated in scattered flight by the Western Utes with their prizes through the myriad of mountain canyons and into the desert Pausing on the eastern side of the mountains, Waccara's people reassembled and slaughtered their cattle, jerking the meat for sustenance during the long journey back to Utah.38 Returning through the desert, Waccara usually again demanded women and children from the Paiutes, occasionally offering in exchange horses that were unlikely to survive the remainder of the journey. Within a few weeks, Waccara's Utes reached the extensive pasture lands of southwestern Utah, where they rested and recruited their expanded herd.39 In this new equestrian system, winter served to increase, rather than decrease, the size and quality of the Western Ute herd

Waccara's Utes usually remained with their herd in southwestern Utah for several weeks. Many of the Utes' horses were weakened and undernourishe d from their journe y through the desert, and the Western Utes arrived in Utah just as luxuriant grasses began to emerge from melting snow. Increasingly dependen t on their horses, the Western Utes were, in effect, "chasing grass"—migrating seasonally to areas with abundant forage. From California in December and early January, to southwestern Utah in late January and February, to the Sevier Valley in central Utah in March and early April, the Western Utes responded to the needs of their horses by providing them with access to grass during the months when deep snow covered the grass further north at Utah Lake. By April or May, the grass was green at Utah Lake, and Waccara's Utes converged there with most other Western Utes for their traditional spring gathering.

The spring gathering at Utah Lake remained an integral part of the modified annual migratory cycle of Waccara's Utes. As they had done in the past, Waccara's people feasted on trout as a variety of visitors arrived in the valley to trade.40 Seeking Waccara's Paiute captives came Navajos offering their well-crafted blankets and New Mexican slave traders bartering guns, ammunition, knives, and other Euro-American products.41 The large annual New Mexican caravans returning from California coveted Waccara's strong and healthy horses as well as his captives, and they offered similar items.42 Many Western Utes who had remained in Utah during the previous winter also desired Waccara's robust horses as replacements for their dilapidated herds. In addition to trading, the spring gathering also provided time for dances, festivals, horse races, and other cultural activities that were essential in preserving Western Ute cohesion and identity.43 With the coming of summer, however, the Western Utes again scattered, with Waccara's Utes "chasing grass" eastward to the Great Plains and the buffalo.

Annual summer buffalo hunts on the Plains provided Waccara's Utes with an alternative to the more limited food sources available in Utah during that time. Summer on the Great Plains—typified by mild temperatures, plentiful forage, and the gathering of buffalo to mate— was an ideal time for buffalo hunting Waccara's Utes brought their swiftest horses for the hunt as well as numerous sturdy pack animals and some cattle as an emergency food source in case of a delay in finding buffalo Once they found a large herd, the Ute warriors with their bows and arrows quickly dispatched enough buffalo to fully load their pack horses. In the summer, unlike other seasons, buffalo bull meat was quite palatable, and the Western Utes feasted on whatever meat they could not jerk and transport back to Utah. They cleaned and tanned the buffalo hides and used them to manufacture bags, parfleches, clothing, horseshoes, and lodgings. Though the shorthaired summer hides were little valued by fur traders, Waccara's Utes still likely stopped at fur-trading posts on their return journey, bartering some of their skins, jerked meat, and horses for guns, ammunition, and liquor.44 By September, Waccara and his band were back in Utah.

In the fall, Waccara's warriors rested their weary horses and set down their bows in favor of guns. 45 As they had don e for centuries, the men spread out into the woods in search of game; the women gathered nuts, berries, and wild plants. After a few weeks of hunting, Waccara's people often visited the Navajos or New Mexicans to the south or the fur-trading posts to the east to barter some of their pelts and skins for guns, ammunition, and blankets.46 Later, as the cold winter weather began to descend upon Utah, Waccara's Utes loaded their remaining pelts and skins onto their fresh and rested horses and once again set out for California to replenish their herd While en route, the Utes burned the grass at choice locations in order to induce earlier and more prolific growth the following spring when they returned from California.47

By the early 1840s Waccara began to have a continuous, if somewhat variable, following of Western Utes. As was the case with all large Western Ute gatherings, membership in Waccara's "band" constantly fluctuated, as many families or individual warriors joined him only for a few hunts or raids and then returned home to more traditional activities The band was usually small, limited by the relatively few food sources for both people and animals west of the Rockies. Waccara was never accompanied by more than forty to fifty families, with about seven horses per family. In contrast, Great Plains Indian bands could number in the thousands, with five to thirteen horses per person. 48

The numerous benefits of Waccara's yearly equestrian cycle gradually became apparent to the Western Utes. By migrating to regions with abundant pasture lands in both winter and summer, Waccara's band could maintain healthier and more numerous horses.49 The increased access to large game and trade enjoyed by Waccara's Utes was evidenced by the large number of high-quality blankets, guns, knives, rawhide bags, and skin lodges in their camp, distinguishing their material culture from that of other Western Utes.50 By leaving the eastern Great Basin during winter and summer, when food sources were most limited, and by obtaining lavish supplies of cattle and storable jerked buffalo meat, Waccara's Utes significantly augmented their yearly food supply

Waccara's success in obtaining horses and trade and in directing successful hunts and raids was, to other Western Utes and Native Americans, evidence of his puwa. 51 Western Ute warriors found that joining Waccara on his yearly cycle of hunting, raiding, and trading could be very lucrative, and many of these warriors and their families began to remain with him throughout the year. Native Americans and Euro-American explorers, trappers, and travelers began to fear and respect the power and influence of Waccara and his band. But Waccara's puwa and the continued practice of his yearly cycle of equestrianism were soon tested by the intrusion of a new people into Western Ute lands.

The arrival of the Mormons in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 initially complemented the yearly cycle of Waccara's Utes by providing them with an improved outlet for the proceeds of their raids and an enhanced source of Euro-American products. Horses fetched high prices in Salt Lake City as overland travelers on the Oregon Trail detoured there seeking replacements for their exhausted, diseased, or malnourished horses.52 The Mormons sought both the meat of the buffalo to supplement their diet and bison hides for their clothing.53 Buckskin suits became quite fashionable among the Mormons, who repeatedly paid the Utes higher prices for their skins than did the fur traders.54 The Mormons also bartered with the Utes for many of their Paiute child captives, whom they hoped to raise in their homes to become "white and delightsome" according to church doctrine.55 In exchange for these commodities, Waccara's Utes received not only such familiar items as guns, ammunition, knives, and blankets but also cattle, oxen, and other livestock, which served the Utes as a year-round secondary food source. Ute trade with the Mormons was more profitable, convenient, and diversified than it had been with any other trading partners.

Although the Mormons and Western Utes found commo n ground through their mutually beneficial trading relationship, they were diametrically opposed in their views and usage of land and resources. The Mormons arrived in Utah with a belief that nature was imperfect and that, rather than adapt to nature, one should strive to change and improve it. Unlike the Western Utes, who adapted to limited resources through dispersal and migration, the Mormons reacted to the limitations of their environment by concentrating their population for support and by altering their ecosystem through the creation of new resources. The Mormons brought their own domestic plants and animals to Utah and required comparatively little from nature—specifically, they needed areas for settlement that had abundant water, timber, good soil, and forage for their livestock. Unfortunately, the only such areas in Utah were already used by the Western Utes This placed the Mormons at odds with the Western Utes, whose seasonal migratory use of land was not considered by the Mormons to be "valid" usage. To the Mormons, only those who "improved" the land should be able to use it, and within a few years after their arrival in Utah, Mormon fences, corrals, roads, and settlements cut through most of the best Western Ute lands Waccara's band and others returning from seasonal migrations became "intruders" on their own land.56

By 1851, environmental changes wrought by the Mormons combined with other external pressures to threaten the continuation of the yearly cycle of Waccara's Utes The netting offish by Mormons at Utah Lake dramatically reduced fish populations, resulting in food shortages during the Western Ute spring gathering.57 The summer portion of Waccara's cycle was threatened by the continued eastward retreat of buffalo along the Platte River, which not only forced the Utes to travel increasing distances in search of buffalo but also heightened the risk of such hunts, as Plains tribes were converging on the remaining bison.58 The alteration of the eastern Great Basin ecosystem as Mormons imported domestic plants, diverted waterways, hunted game, and cut trees for firewood reduced the fall resources available to Waccara's Utes.59 The Mexican-American War and the consequent permanent movement of American troops into California significantly stiffened Californians' resistance to Ute winter horse raids and increased the risk of such raids.60 Euro-American diseases such as measles began to ravage the Western Utes, reducing the numbers of warriors available for hunting and raiding throughout the year.61 Without large numbers of healthy warriors and horses, Waccara's yearly cycle became impractical, and the Western Utes were once again compelled to modify their system of equestrianism

Although Waccara's Utes changed their system of equestrianism in response to the new pressures of the 1850s, they were less successful than previously at adapting to these environmental changes. Waccara initially countered the increased danger of horse raiding into California by leaving the women and children of his band in Utah during the winter while he and his warriors proceeded with their annual raid But Waccara and his warriors soon found that their families were not safe even at home; Euro-American gold-seekers began to cut through the eastern Great Basin, leaving a trail of pillage and murder in their wake.62 Waccara eventually gave up his raids entirely and began to winter with the Navajos when the group was healthy enough to travel and rich in trade goods But when he and his people were sick or "poor," they wintered in Utah.63 Because the group sometimes had to endure Utah's cold winters, and because they were unable to replenish their herds by raids, the quantity and quality of the Western Utes' horses began to suffer. Diminished buffalo-hunting opportunities and decreasing resources available in Utah—as a result of Mormon settlement—induced Waccara's people to increasingly rely on the slave trade to obtain guns, ammunition, and food However, the Mormons were simultaneously becoming less willing to trade for captives or to furnish the Utes with guns or ammunition, and they further attempted to restrict trade in Utah between the Western Utes and New Mexicans.64 By 1853, Waccara and his people, frustrated over declining food sources and Mormon trade restrictions, decided to obtain resources through one of the few remaining methods available to them: raids on Mormon settlements.

The Waccara War of 1853-54 was more a struggle by the Western Utes to regain their access to trade and food resources than an effort to dislodge the Mormons from Utah. Waccara and his people, though originally willing to grant the Mormons use of their land in exchange for trade, were angered by Mormon attempts to change the land, restrict Ute access to the land, and limit Ute trade. Waccara's limited goals in the series of raids he directed in the summer of 1853 were simply to obtain Mormon cattle to feed his people and to force the Mormons into perpetually purchasing his Paiute captives.

Although the raids were initially successful, the Mormons soon began to "fort up" and station armed guards with their cattle They also outlawed trade between Euro-Americans and Waccara's Utes, effectively cutting the flow of guns and ammunition to the Western Ute warriors. The greater numbers, tight organization, central control, and communal support of the Mormons provided them with a significant military edge over the dispersed Western Utes, whose loose, task-oriented social organization was ill-suited for military operations. Brigham Young declared that Waccara's Utes must "bow down to the gospel or be slain," and within four months Waccara, his people hungry and their ammunition exhausted, began to make peace overtures.65 With his puwa at its lowest point, Waccara died within a year, after a protracted struggle with "lung fever. "66

In the 1850s and 1860s, Western Ute equestrianism in the eastern Great Basin became untenable; everincreasing Mormon settlement was threatening the very survival of the Utes Following the death of Waccara, the Western Utes began to fragment as disease, emigration, and starvation took their toll. Most of those Utes who remained in western Utah depended upon raiding or Mormon assistance for their survival as the slave markets in Utah, California, and New Mexico closed, the buffalo disappeared, and wild game became scarce. By the 1870s most surviving Western Utes had moved to a reservation established in the Uinta Basin.67 Waccara's life and death proved to be a mirror to Western Ute equestrianism, since his generation became not only the first but also the last to practice equestrianism in the eastern Great Basin

Despite its rapidly declining functional value, equestrianism among the Western Utes persisted for decades outside the Great Basin, on the Uinta Reservation Winters in the Uinta Basin were extremely harsh, and the Utes were no longer able to migrate elsewhere to mitigate the effects of winter on their herd Agents consistently and aggressively pressured the Utes to abandon equestrianism and to pursue agriculture or livestock raising, even to the point of disbanding the tribal herd in the 1880s. Yet by 1922, the Utes had again increased their herd to 3,700 animals. Horses remained symbols of status and prestige among the Utes, and those without horses were often considered "stupid" by the more "wealthy" Utes. Mounted Ute bands continued to hunt buffalo and other game in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming into the twentieth century. But times were changing, and stock-raising, mineral lease income, and federal assistance became the key components of the Ute economy, eventually replacing the equestrian way of life.68

Nearly a century after the demise of Western Ute equestrianism in the eastern Great Basin, historian Charles Kelly followed his Ute guide, Joe Pickyavit, up a steep mountain slope in search of the grave of the great equestrian Western Ute leader, Waccara Climbing past a loose rock slide, Pickyavit directed Kelly to the white stone that marked the gravesite. Although an initial search of the area by Kelly did not locate any evidence that the grave was Waccara's, a further examination revealed a large number of bones of horses, which Kelly knew would have been buried with the Ute leader. Ironically, the scattered horse bones were all that remained to mark the passing of Waccara and the age of eastern Great Basin equestrianism that he personified. Although this incident was a poignant reminder of the death of Western Ute equestrianism, the continued persistence of Western Ute culture was evidenced by a remark from Pickyavit to Kelly on the climb back down the mountain. Pickyavit, once a Western Ute leader himself, claimed that he had never before been to the gravesite. He had known of it only through oral tradition, he said, and had been guided there by unseen forces—the puwa of Ute religion.69

NOTES

Stephen P. Van Hoak is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Oklahoma. The author would like to thank Dr. Willard Rollings and Dr. Hal Rothman, University of Nevada- Las Vegas, for their valuable comments, suggestions, and critiques.

1 This description of the yearly cycle of Waccara's band was composed through the use of scattered references from the sources cited in this essay The account features events that were known to have occurred in different years and is intended only to be representative of a typical year for Waccara and his band Sufficient sources do not exist to create a narrative of an entire actual year in the life of Waccara's Utes. This essay is based on a master's thesis; for more details and citations, see Stephen P. Van Hoak, "Waccara's Utes: Native American Equestrian Adaptations in the Eastern Great Basin, 1776-1876" (M A thesis, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, 1998)

2 For a brief discussion of differing Native American adaptations to equestrianism, see James F Downs, "Comments on Plains Indian Cultural Development," American Anthropologist 66:2 (April 1964): 421-22

3 For the geography and ecology of the eastern Great Basin, see Ivar Tidestrom, Flora of Utah and Nevada, Contributions from the United States National Herbarium, vol. 25 (Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1925), passim; John Wesley Powell, Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States, with a More Detailed Account of the Lands of Utah, ed Wallace Stegner (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962), 110-11, 120-21

4 David Rich Lewis, Neither Wolf nor Dog: American Indians, Environment, and Agrarian Change (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 22-23

5 David B Madsen, "Dating Paiute-Shoshoni Expansion in the Great Basin," American Antiquity 40:1 (1975): 82-85; Joseph G Jorgensen, "The Ethnohistory and Acculturation of the Northern Ute" (M.A thesis, Indiana University, 1964), 5-15; Anne M Smith, Ethnography of the Northern Utes, Papers in Anthropology no 17 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1974), 10-17; Joel Clifford Janetski, The Ute of Utah Lake, University of Utah Anthropological Papers no 116 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1991), 58

6 Donald Callaway, Joel Janetski, and Omer C. Stewart, "Ute," in Handbook of the North American Indians vol 11, Great Basin, ed Warren D'Azevedo (Washington D.C: Smithsonian Institution, 1986), 338-40; Julian Haynes Steward, Aboriginal and Historical Groups of the Ute Indians of Utah: An Analysis with Supplement, in Ute Indians 1, Garland Series, American Indian Ethnohistory: California and Basin-Plateau Indians, ed. David Agee Horr (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1974), passim; Smith, Ethnography, 17-27 Only when the Mormons began to settle in Utah in the late 1840s did observers of Western Utes begin to note the primary residence or divisional membership of particular groups of Utes

7 For the yearly subsistence cycle of the pre-horse Western Utes, see Tanetski, Ute of Utah Lake, 31, 36,40

8 In a matrilocal system, husbands leave their families of birth and join their wives' families A bilateral family traces its lineage on both the father's and mother's sides.

9 Because of the overall dearth of primary sources available, descriptions of Western Ute political and social structure are varied and controversial; see Steward, Groups of the Ute, 5-9, 18-20, 63-65, 68-70; Jorgensen, "The Ethnohistory and Acculturation of the Northern Ute," 17-20, 25-33; Smith, Ethnography, 121-27; Janetski, Ute of Utah Lake, 50-51 For an excellent overview of Western Ute culture, see Lewis, Neither Wolf nor Dog.

10 Jay Miller, "Numic Religion: An Overview of Power in the Great Basin of Native North America," Anthropos 78 (1983): 337-54; Gottfried O Lang, A Study in Culture Contact and Culture Change: The Whiterock Utes in Transition, University of Utah Anthropological Papers No. 15 (New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1971), 11-12

11 Silvestre Velez de Escalante, The Dominguez-EscalanteJournal, trans Fray Angelico Chavez, ed Ted J Warner (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1976), 50, 60; Steward, Groups of the Ute, 12-13 Guns were not a significant factor in the Shoshoni dominance over the Utes, as neither tribe was able to obtain guns in large numbers until the 1820s, after the introduction of the fur trade west of the Rockies and after Mexican independence, following which the enforcement of the New Mexican ban on trading guns to the Indians was eased; see Frank Raymond Secoy, Changing Military Patterns of the Great Plains Indians, 17h Century through Early 19h Century (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993), 4-5, 20, 60, 84-85.

12 Francis Haines, "Horses for Western Indians," American West 3:2 (Spring 1966): 5-15, 92; Secoy, Changing Military Patterns, 20-22, 27-29, 33 Haines's dating of Western Ute acquisition of horses is inconsistent with the historical record; see Van Hoak, 'Waccara's Utes," 18-20

13 Secoy, Changing Military Patterns, passim; John C Ewers, The Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture, with Comparative Material from other Western Tribes, Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin no 159 (Washington D.C: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1969), 309-10

14 For the specific nutritional requirement s of horses, see Jame s E. Sherow, "Workings of the Geodialectic: High Plains Indian s an d Thei r Horses in the Region of th e Arkansas River Valley, 1800-1870," Environmental History Review 16:2 (Summer 1992): 69-70; Alan J Osborn, "Ecological Aspects of Equestrian Adaptations in Aboriginal North America," American Anthropologist 85:3 (September 1983): 576; Ewers, The Horse, 40-41

15 For the limitations and liabilities of equestrianism, see Ewers, The Horse, 37-42, 50-52; Osborne, "Equestrian Adaptations," 584-85 ; Elliot West, The Way to the West: Essays on the Central Plains (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995), 20-27

16 Ewers, The Horse, 42-46 , 124-26; Sherow, "Geodialectic," 70-76 ; Osborne , "Equestrian Adaptations," 566-85; West, Way to the West, 23-26 Branches and bark were often used as emergency winter forage

17 Useful studies of raiding and trading adaptations to equestrianism include Frank McNitt, Navajo Wars: Military Campaigns, Slave Raids, and Reprisals (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1972); Anthony McGinnis, Counting Coup and Cutting Horses: Intertribal Warfare on the Northern Plains, 1738—1889 (Evergreen, CO: Cordillera Press, Inc., 1992); Secoy, Changing Military Patterns. Native Americans preferred smaller "ponies" that were characterized by greater speed, endurance, foraging ability, and surefootedness than "American" horses had; see Ewers, The Horse, 34; Herbert S. Auerbach, "Old Trails, Old Forts, Old Trappers and Traders," Utah Historical Quarterly 9 (January-April 1941): 16

18 Stephen P Van Hoak, "The Other Buffalo: Native Americans, Fur Trappers, and the Western Bison, 1600-1860," unpublished manuscript in the author's possession; Karen D Lupo, "The Historical Occurrence and Demise of Bison in Northern Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly 64 (Spring 1996): 168—80.

19 Janetski, Ute of Utah Lake, 23; Smith, Ethnography, 30-31; Powell, Arid Region, 119-20; Steward, Groups of the Ute, 21, 58 A few scattered Navajos and Eastern Utes likely traded periodically with the Western Utes, but these tribes also sought to increase the size of their herds and were therefore loath to trade away their horses.

20 Haines, "Horses for Western Indians," 12-13

21 Velez de Escalante, Dominguez-EscalanteJournal, 54—56 Speaking to Dominguez, the Utes referred to their enemies to the nort h and east as "Kommanche," but the Comanche had already moved onto the Great Plains by the eighteenth century, and the people the Utes spoke of were almost certainly Shoshoni "Komantcia" was a Numic term that mean t "my adversary."

22 Joseph P Sanchez, Explorers, Traders, and Slavers: Forging the Old Spanish Trail, 1678—1850 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1997), 91-102; Joh n R Alley, Jr., "Prelude to Dispossession: Th e Fur Trader's Significance for the Norther n Utes and Southern Paiutes," Utah Historical Quarterly 50 (Spring 1982): 107-13; Joseph J Hill, "Spanish and Mexican Exploration and Trade Northwest from New Mexico into the Great Basin, 1765-1853," Utah Historical Quarterly 3 (January 1930): 16-19

23 For the extensive slave market in New Mexico, see Lynn Robinson Bailey, Indian Slave Trade in the Southwest (Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1966), and McNitt, Navajo Wars.

24 By the 1820s and 1830s, the Western Utes had plentiful guns as well as horses; see Jedediah S Smith, The Southwest Expedition ofJedediah Strong Smith: His Personal Account of theJourney to California, 1826-1827, ed George R Brooks (Glendale, CA: Arthu r H Clark Co., 1977), 42-43 ; Warre n Angus Ferris, Life in the Rocky Mountains, 1830-1835, ed J Cecil Alter and Herbert S Auerbach (Salt Lake City: Rocky Mountain Book Shop, 1940), 216-19 For die expulsion of the Shoshoni from the Uinta Basin, see Janetski, Ute of Utah Lake, 20; Steward, Groups of the Ute, 14, 24, 66

25 Alley, "Prelude to Dispossession," 105-17, 122-23 The equestrian Western Utes had excellent access to Euro-American trade, as they were astride both the north-south trapper trade route and the east-west Spanish Trail, both of which were established by 1830, and they were also near numerous trading posts in Utah; see Alley, "Prelude to Dispossession," 116; and Jorgensen, "Ethnohistory," 68-69

26 Van Hoak, "Other Buffalo," passim; Lupo, "Bison in Northern Utah," 168-80; Van Hoak, "Waccara's Utes," 42-51, 82-84

27 Smith, Ethnography, 275

28 Jorgensen, "Ethnohistory," 20

29 For examples of early Western Ute bands, see Smith, Jedediah Strong Smith, 41-46; Ferris, Rocky Mountains, 216-20 By comparison, though studies vary, tribes of the Great Plains who specialized in buffalo hunting typically included hundreds of warriors and their families in each band with from three to thirteen horses per person; see Ewers, The Horse, 24-28, 138-39; West, Way to the West, 21; Sherow, "Geodialectic," 68; Osborne, "Equestrian Adaptations," 584

30 For the sociopolitical effect of band formation, see Jorgensen, "Ethnohistory," 25-33; Smith, Ethnography, 121-27; Steward, Groups of the Ute, passim; Ewers, The Horse, 247-49

31 Dimick B Huntington, Vocabulary of the Utah and Sho-sho-ne or Snake Dialects, with Indian Legends and Traditions, including a Brief Account of the Life and Death ofWah-ker, the Indian Land Pirate (Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Herald Office, 1872), 27-28; Fawn M Brody, ed., Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1962), 277-78. Sources alternatively date the year of Waccara's birth as 1808 or 1815 The most common variations of the spelling of Waccara include Walker, Walkara, and Wakara Waccara's name meant "brass" or "yellow" in Ute After his alleged spirit visitation in the 1840s, Waccara claimed he was given a new name—Pannacarra-quinker, or Iron Twister For the granting of puwa through dreams and the use of such puwa, see Miller, "Numic Religion," 339, and Lewis, Neither Wolf nor Dog, 31.

32 Jorgensen, "Ethnohistory," 21

33 Alley, "Prelude to Dispossession," 113

34 West, Way to the West, 72-78

35 For an excellent study of status and wealth in Native American equestrian societies, see Bernard Mishkin, Rank and Warfare among the Plains Indians (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992); also see Ewers, The Horse, 28-30, 249, 314-16; Smith, Ethnography, 33; Ferris, Rocky Mountains, 239-40.

36 Huntington, Vocabulary of the Utah, 27; George William Beattie and Helen Pruitt Beattie, Heritage of the Valley: San Bernardino's First Century (Pasadena, CA: San Pasqual Press, 1939), 65-66 ; Georg e Washington Bean, Autobiography of George Washington Bean: A Utah Pioneer of 1847 and his Family Records, ed Flora Diana Bean Hom e (Salt Lake City: Utah Printing Co., 1945), 55 Horses bred so well in the mild climate and abundan t pasture lands of California that Euro-Americans slaughtered thousands of them every year to prevent overpopulation; see Clifford J Walker, Back Door to California: The Story of the Mojave River Trail, ed Patricia Jernigan Keeling (Barstow, CA: Mojave River Valley Museum Association, 1986), 122-23 Tales of this abundance of horses probably reached the Western Utes through fur traders and Mexican traders traveling along the Spanish Trail Western Utes may have first journeyed to California in the 1830s, but n o significant migrations or raids by Utes likely occurred until those directed by Waccara in the 1840s, when Californian sources first began to specifically mentio n Ute raids; see Ferris, Rocky Mountains, 251; Eleanor Lawrence, "The Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe to California" (master's thesis, Berkeley, 1930), 66-100.

37 Stephe n P Van Hoak , "And Wh o Shall Have the Children: Th e India n Slave Trad e in the Southern Great Basin," Nevada Historical Society Quarterly 41 (Spring 1998): 1-25; also see Huntington , Vocabulary of the Utah, 27; Daniel W.Jones, Forty Years among the Indians: A True yet Thrilling Narrative of the Author's Experiences among the Indians (Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1960), 48

38 For Waccara's expeditions to California, see Gustive O Larson, "Walkara, Ute Chief," in LeRoy R Hafen, ed., The Mountain Men and theFur Trade oftheFar West: Bibliographical Sketches of the Participants by Scholars of the Subject and with Introductions by the Editor, vol 2 (Glendale, CA: Arthur H Clark Co., 1965), 341-44; Juan Caballeria, History of San Bernardino Valley from the Padres to the Pioneers (San Bernardino: Times-Index Press, 1902), 103-104; Beattie, Heritage of the Valley, 65-66, 84; Robert Glass Cleland, The Cattle on a Thousand Hills: Southern California, 1850-1880 (San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1964), 65-66; Huntington, Vocabulary of the Utah, 27-28; Lawrence, "Spanish Trail," 86-100; Jones, Among the Indians, 39; Kate B. Carter, ed., "The Indian and the Pioneer," Daughters of Utah Pioneers Lesson for October 1964 (Salt Lake City: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1964), 92; Journal History of the Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, microfilm copy available in Marriott Library, University of Utah, entry dated March 4, 1851.

39 Beattie, Heritage of the Valley, 66; George Douglas Brewerton, Overland with Kit Carson, A Narrative of the Old Spanish Trail in 48 (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1930), 100; John C Fremont, Narratives of Exploration and Adventure, ed Allan Nevins (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1956), 417

40 Bean, Autobiography, 51; Journal History, May 22, 1850; Fremont, Narratives, 419; Annual Report of the Commissioner ofIndian Affairs for the Year 1855 (Washina;ton, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1855) 522-23. ° &

41 James Harvey Simpson, Report ofExplorations across the Great Basin of the Territory of Utahfor a Direct Wagon Routefrom Camp Floyd to Genoa, in Carson Valley, in 1859, Vintage Nevada Series (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1983), 35; Smith, Ethnography, 252; Journal History, May 2, 1853; Lawrence, "Spanish Trail," 100-16; Jones, Among the Indians, 48.

42 Lawrence, "Spanish Trail," 46-65

43 Janetski, Ute of Utah Lake, 40 Social fission and tribal fragmentation were a common byproduct of equestrianism; see West, Way to the West, 20, 68

44 The Western Utes apparently ranged as far as the Platte River in search of buffalo; see Bean, Autobiography, 105; also see William L Manly, Death Valley in '49, Lakeside Classics, ed Milo Milton Quaife (Chicago: Lakeside Press, 1927), 102-11, and Carter, Indian and the Pioneer, 94 These buffalo hunts occasionally brought the Utes into conflict with tribes of the Intermountain and Plains regions; see Bean, Autobiography, 98; Garland Hurt, "Indians of Utah," in Simpson, Report, 461; Carter, "Indian and the Pioneer," 74-75; Steward, Groups of the Ute, 208; Smith, Ethnography, 247-52. For Plains forage and weather, see West, Way to the West, 22, and Secoy, Changing Military Patterns, 24-25 For buffalo hunting, see Ewers, The Horse, and Van Hoak, "Other Buffalo." Bows were the Utes' preferred weapon in hunting buffalo; guns were more difficult to aim, fire, and reload while the hunter was mounted

45 Guns, likely as a result of their superior range and penetrative power, were preferred by Western Utes over bows for hunting game other than buffalo; see Carter, "Indian and the Pioneer," 121, and Secoy, Changing Military Patterns, 19

46 These trips to New Mexico occasionally took the form of raids, although the relative dearth of horses in New Mexico as opposed to California discouraged the Utes from raiding the former; see Hurt, "Indians of Utah," 461; "Reminiscences of the Early Days of Manti," Utah Historical Quarterly 6 (October 1933): 123

47 Charles Preuss, Exploring with Fremont: The Private Diaries of Charles Preuss, CartographerforJohn C. Fremont on His First, Second, and Fourth Expeditions to the Far West, ed and trans Erwin G Gudde and Elisabeth K Gudde (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958), 87

48 West, Way to the West, 21.

49 On one raid alone, 150 Utes led by Waccara purportedly captured more than one thousand horses Though both these figures are likely exaggerated, the netting of about seven horses per warrior is probably accurate and is indicative of the high numbers of horses often possessed by Waccara's Utes; see Lawrence, "Spanish Trail," 87-90; Jones, Among the Indians, 39-41; Huntington, Vocabulary of the Utah, 27-28

50 Brewerton, Overland with Kit Carson, 101; Manly, Death Valley, 103, 104, 107; Fremont, Narratives, 417

51 For Waccara's leadership skills, see Lawrence, "Spanish Trail," 87-90; Jones, Among the Indians, 39-41; "Early Days in Manti," 123 Some Euro-Americans referred to him as "Napoleon of the Desert" or "Hawk of the Mountains"; see Jones, Among the Indians, 39, and Journal History, January 15, 1851.

52 Journal History, June 13, 1849, March 4, 1851; Juanita Brooks, "Indian Relations on the Mormon Frontier," Utah Historical Quarterly 12:1-2 (January-April 1944): 6 In 1850 a good "Indian" pony could sell for up to $50.

53 Solomon F. Kimball, "Our Pioneer Boys," Improvement Era 11 (September 1908): 837; Bean, Autobiography, 55 Early Mormon settlers hunted for buffalo on the Plains in addition to trading for buffalo products

54 Journal History, June 2, 1849, June 13, 1849, April 21, 1850; Brooks, "Mormon Frontier," 6

55 Van Hoak, "Who Shall Have the Children?"

56 Beverly P. Smaby, "The Mormons and the Indians: Conflicting Ecological Systems in the Great Basin," American Studies 16:1 (Spring 1975): 38-42

57 Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior for the Year 1849 (Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1849), 1003. Hereafter cited as ARCIA.

58 West, Way to the West, 61-65 Mormons pressured Waccara to give up his annual buffalo hunts and "settle down"; see Bean, Autobiography, 105

59 Journal History, December 15, 1849, November 20, 1850; Bean, Autobiography, 105; Smaby, "Conflicting Ecological Systems," 40-42

60 The Mormons encouraged Waccara to give up his horse raids to California apparently in an effort to gain Californian support on issues of Utah statehood; see Lawrence, "Spanish Trail," 98 There is no evidence to support the contention of some that these raids continued until the death of Waccara; his last documented raid into California was in the winter of 1850-51; see Journal History, March 4, 1851, and Beattie, Heritage of the Valley, 84.

61 Journal History, December 8, 1849, February 14, 1850, February 20, 1850

62 Solomon Nunes Carvalho, Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West with Colonel Fremont's Last Expedition across the Rocky Mountains: Including Three Months' Residence in Utah, and a Perilous Trip across the Great American Desert, to the Pacific (New York: Derby and Jackson, 1859), 192-93; Journal History, October 26, 1853; William L Knecht and Peter L Crawley, ed., History of Brigham Young, 1847-1867 (Berkeley: MassCal Associates, 1966), 140; ARCIA 185 7, 599

63 For wintering with the Navajos, see Bean, Autobiography, 105; Gustive O. Larson, 'Walkara's Half Century," Utah Humanities Review 6 (Summer 1952): 251; ARCIA 1852, 438; DeseretNews, November 29, 1851, March 19, 1853; Journal History, March 17, 1852, November 13, 1854 For wintering in Utah, see Journal History, December 8, 1849

64 Brody, Routefrom Liverpool, 282; Deseret News, April 30, 1853

65 For the Waccara War, see H. Bartley Heiner, "Mormon-Indian Relations as Viewed through the Walker War" (M.A thesis, Brigham Young University, 1955), and Howard A Christy, "The Walker War: Defense and Conciliation as Strategy," Utah Historical Quarterly 47 (Fall 1979): 395-420 Also see Smaby, "Conflicting Ecological Systems," 38-42 By 1852, Mormons in Utah, with their higher reproductivity, lower death rates, and immigration, greatly outnumbered Western Utes Such a scenario was a consistent theme in Anglo western expansion; see West, Way to the West, 91.

66 Deseret News, February 8, 1855

67 Lewis, Neither Wolf nor Dog, 38-39, 51; Van Hoak, "Waccara's Utes," 89-91; also see ARCIA, 1855-70.

68 Ibid

69 Charles Kelly, 'We Found the Grave of the Utah Chief," Desert Magazine 9 (October 1946): 17-19