In This Issue

One of the major historical events commemorated throughout the United States during the past year was the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case. In its historic unanimous 1954 decision, the United States Supreme Court overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine that had been upheld in an earlier Supreme Court decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, that was rendered in 1896-the same year that Utah became a state. American civil rights leaders hailed the Brown decision as “the greatest victory since Emancipation.” Although the end of segregated schools did not come immediately as the Supreme Court directed in its decision that integration should proceed, “with all deliberate speed,” the decision was a hallmark of the twentieth century American civil rights movement that continued forward the following year with the Montgomery bus boycott and the emergence of Martin Luther King, Jr., as a national leader of the non-violent civil rights movement. As our first article indicates, the Brown decision appeared to have little impact on Utah as segregated schools did not exist in the state. Children of all races and national backgrounds attended public schools together and the long and bitter fight over school integration that followed in many states did not occur in Utah. Nevertheless, Utah did have its own issues relating to race and discrimination that were impacted by the emerging civil rights movement and an internal struggle that is part of the state's colorful history.

Bank scandals and investment frauds continue to be an all too common topic in Utah and the rest of the nation even though considerable legislation has been enacted to protect investors and depositors. Our second article looks back a century to the tragic story of one Utah banker, Bernhard Herman Schettler, whose twelve-year-old private bank collapsed in late 1904 launching a bitter struggle by depositors to regain their money. The bank failure occurred during the early years of the Progressive Era and the call for increased government regulation and oversight of the banking industry was another aspect of that dynamic reform movement.

An integrated Utah school class dressed up for a group picture in the school yard.

PEOPLES OF UTAH COLLECTION, UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Our third article discusses the policies,programs,and personnel of the Episcopal Church with Native Americans in Utah.Focusing on Episcopalian work among the Ute people on the Uintah Indian Reservation in eastern Utah and with the Navajo in southeastern Utah,a story of dedication,adaptation,and acceptance emerges.

Our last article examines the ambush of four California-bound horsemen on the banks of the Santa Clara River in southwestern Utah in February 1857.The night time attack took place just a few miles south of the location where seven months later members of the Fancher-Baker emigrant group lost their lives during the Mountain Meadows Massacre.Although none of the four victims died,one survivor,John Tobin,was shot in the head under the right eye with the bullet passing through his nose into his left cheekbone.What was the motivation for the shooting and what was Tobin's eventual fate? Was the attack on the Santa Clara a foreshadowing of the tragic event that occurred later in the year at Mountain Meadows,or was it simply an unrelated incident in the long and bloody history of western violence? We expect the articles in this first issue for 2005 to generate considerable discussion and debate.

Helen Sturges with Navajo children and adults inside the St. Christopher’s Mission schoolhouse in 1944.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY