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Indian Relations on the Mormon Frontier
TU-CU-PIT, AN OLD UTE INDIAN WHO SAW THE MORMON PIONEERS FIRST ENTER SALT LAKE VALLEY IN 1847.
Courtesy L.D.S. Church Historian's Office, from the WPA Writer's Project collection in custody of the Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Utah Historical Quarterly
Vol. XII, 1944, Nos. 1-2
INDIAN RELATIONS ON THE MORMON FRONTIER
By Juanita Brooks
The subject of Indian relations on the Mormon frontier deserves more extensive treatment than it has received, since it presents so many avenues of approach and interpretation. Aside from the location of the various tribes and their numbers now as compared with the days when the Mormons first came to Utah, their economic status and their reaction to the white man's culture, there are social developments peculiar to this section. The Mormon philosophy regarding the Indians is unique; the Mormon treatment of their dark-skinned neighbors was determined largely by that ideology. The whole was complicated by the mutual distrust and suspicion that existed between the Mormon settlers and the officials sent out by the Federal government. Documents of the early period, especially the letters to and from Brigham Young and those written by the government agents concerning him would furnish material for a lengthy dissertation. Mormon-Indian relations are interesting, the Gentile-Indian relations equally so, and in combination the three offer a triangle as intriguing as any provided by fiction.
There have been many articles on the Indians of Utah, but the whole subject has never been treated exhaustively. Nor does this article pretend to do so. Two purposes are paramount here: First, to sketch briefly the historical development and economic basis of Mormon-Indian relations, and the application of the philosophy which led to the taking of Indian children into white homes; and second, to show some of the social results of this racial association and of the intermarriage between the races. In this latter purpose, the inquiry is limited to the southern part of the state, since it was here that more Indian children were reared by the whites than in any other section and since this is the area with which the writer is best acquainted.
Mormon interest in the Indians dates back to the publication of the Book of Mormon in 1830. Purporting to explain the origin of the American Indians, this Mormon scripture says that their ancestors came from Palestine some six hundred years before Christ, and that they built up a remarkable civilization on this continent. Because of disobedience, a part of the people were cursed with dark skins, and were known as "Lamanites"; these were later to be called Indians. The Lamanites kept up a series of wars against their civilized brethren until at last the land was laid waste and only the roving bands of Indians were left. Since these Indians were "of the blood of Israel," a promise was held out that they might yet become a "white and delightsome people." That promise, often repeated, became a sort of axiom with the Mormons, though they seem to have been in doubt as to the way the transformation was to come about, unless that by the adoption of civilized manners each succeeding generation would become lighter.
The first Mormon missionaries were sent to the Lamanites just six months after the organization of the Church in 1830. By a special revelation in October of that year through the Prophet Joseph Smith, Parley P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, and Ziba Peterson were called to labor as missionaries among the Lamanites with the promise that, "I myself will go with them and be in their midst; and I am their advocate with the Father, and nothing shall prevail against them."
These missionaries set out from western New York and traveled to the frontier beyond the Missouri River. The undertaking is summed up by Parley P. Pratt himself:
Troubles of their own in the East and Middle West prevented very extensive proselytizing among the native Americans until after the Mormons had reached the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Then, although they did send missionaries back to the Indians of the Middle West in 1855, in 1877, and still again in 1883, their chief interest centered in those found in the Territory of Utah. In crossing the plains, the various Mormon companies always adopted a friendly and conciliatory attitude toward the bands they met, partly because other brethren would follow the same routes and this would make for their safety, and partly because of the feeling of moral responsibility toward the Indians which they had by virtue of the Book of Mormon.
On the eve of the arrival in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, at Brigham Young's direction a letter was written to Orson Pratt, who was in the advance company. This message, dated July 21, 1847, at 4 a.m., advised Pratt on emerging from the Wasatch Mountains "to bear to the north." President Young had learned earlier from Jim Bridger that Salt Lake Valley was something of a noman's-land between the Utes in the south and the Shoshoni in the north, and though Bridger had praised Utah Valley, the Mormon leader thought the Saints should not press too closely on Chief Walker's band at first.
Thus, from the time they entered the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons were intimately responsive to, and keenly aware of the problem of getting along with the Indians. Apart from the precepts of the Book of Mormon, they were practical enough to know that they were isolated and very far from any succor; it was sound policy to render the Indians either friendly or neutral. When the natives gathered around to watch the new-comers "throw the dirt," as they called plowing, and shape the hewn logs into houses, they were treated with kindness and tolerance. Brigham Young early made the pronouncement that became a basic Mormon tenet, "It is cheaper to feed the Indians than to fight them."
Every attempt was made to assure the friendship of Chief Walker, especially, for the "Hawk of the Mountains," as he called himself, was war chief of the most formidable group in the Utah area. In June, 1849, Walker visited Brigham Young in Great Salt Lake City, where he was shown every courtesy. Impressed with the friendly attitude of the Mormons, he was baptized and even ordained an Elder of the Church. However, ill feeling over Mormon laws against Indian slave trading in 1853 brought about the brief Walker War. Walker himself did not take a very active part in the fighting, and in May, 1854, Brigham Young met him in council near Nephi, bringing him gifts of flour and meat, and even twenty plugs of choice chewing tobacco as a peace offering.
In his conference with Walker in 1849, Brigham Young announced his intention of locating a colony in the valley of the "Little Salt Lake." Walker recommended that one be established in the Sanpete Valley also, and this was done late in 1849. Had Walker been hostile, neither settlement could have been attempted until a later date. Both Isaac Morley in Sanpete Valley, and George A. Smith, who led the Iron County Mission south in December, 1850, were careful to remain on good terms with the Ute chief. The "Journal" of George A. Smith, en route with the Iron County Mission, shows the tact with which the natives were treated, even under provocation, and at the same time takes up a theme that was to become important in Mormon-Indian relations—the adoption of Indian children.
The company had been followed by Indians, two of whom, an old brave and a boy about 12, were brought into camp by Captain Fullmer with his company of horsemen for "hand-outs" of food. Both of the Smith family's lead cattle had been wounded, but their ox, "Old Bailey," a faithful animal that all the family had learned to love, was brought in, shot with eleven arrows, groaning with pain and looking to them for relief. They shed tears over it, dressed its wounds, warmed water for it to drink, and covered it with buffalo robes. The journal entry for the next day says:
Friday, Dec. 27 [1850]—
This seems to be the first Indian child that was secured by the Mormons of the Southern Mission. To the Indian the carcass of the dead ox would be ample pay for the child, since during the season of hunger the natives often traded their children for much less, while for the white man the loss of an ox was serious indeed. That these colonists were careful to satisfy the natives is shown by another entry in the Smith journal at a time when Walker and some tribesmen were visiting the new colony:
Wednesday, March 12, 1851:
It is not clear that this was the same child, but a little more than a week later, George A. Smith records that "Br. Barnard presented me with a child, a Pihede girl about 4 years old. He purchased it off Walker for an ox." That other pioneers were buying Indian children is shown by Smith's entry on March 25:
Though the Mormons opposed the Indian slave traffic, it was necessary to seem to countenance it, for their little colony, Louisa (later named Parowan), was scarcely three months old and far from the base at Great Salt Lake City. Evidence of the desire to promote good feeling is found in the "talking paper" which George A. Smith gave to Walker when the chief started north.
Louisa, Iron County, Deseret March 20, 1851
Scarcely two months after Walker carried away this letter of recommendation and good wishes, Brigham Young visited the little colony in the south. With regard to the relations of his people with the Indians his instructions were definite:
Brigham Young's advice to buy up Indian children did not seem to him inconsistent with the opposition which he always maintained toward Indian slavery. When the Mormons first arrived in Utah, they found the Indian slave traffic firmly established. Companies of Mexicans made regular trips trading for children; Walker and his brother, Sanpitch, stole children from weaker bands or bought them for trifles, and resold them to the traders. The Deseret News, November 15, 1851, reported that such a party under one Pedro Leon, was at Manti, Sanpete County, trying to trade horses for children. Its protest was vigorous:
Pedro Leon held a license signed by James S. Calhoun, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory of New Mexico, dated Santa Fe, August 14, 1851, but upon exhibiting it to Brigham Young, he was told that it did not authorize trade with the Indians in Utah. He, with seven of his 1 group, was arrested and tried before the justice of the peace at Manti and later before Zerubbabel Snow, Judge of the First District Court, who ruled that they should leave their prisoners and return to their homes.
This incident had an immediate effect in Brigham Young's gubernatorial message to the Utah Legislature early in 1852. He drew a fine distinction between actual slavery to the Mexicans and purchase by the Mormons, insisting that in the latter case the Indians were in reality free, merely giving their services for the favor and expense of being kept by the Saints:
The Deseret News' report of the Governor's message as well as the talk that went around regarding the trials of the Mexican traders brought the subject of Indian slavery into the limelight. It was a subject, indeed, deserving serious consideration. Harrowing stories were told of the cruelty with which captured children were treated. Daniel W. Jones tells of some Utes who had some Indian children for sale:
Early in 1852 the Legislature passed a law called "A Preamble and an Act for the Further Relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners"; its lengthy preamble gave a heart-rending picture of conditions existing among the natives:
The act itself provided that whenever any person within the Territory should secure such a child, he should go before the selectmen or probate judge of the county wherein he resided and make out an indenture which provided that the apprenticeship should not exceed twenty years; that the master must send his ward to school at least three months each year between the ages of seven and sixteen, and that the apprentice should be clothed in a comfortable and becoming manner, according to his master's condition in life.
An interesting application of this law is an indenture made out February 1, 1859, when John Beal of Sanpete County adopted an Indian boy, Samuel, who was then nine or ten years old. He was to have the service of the boy for ten years, in return for which he promised the following:
UTE INDIAN CHILD, TYPICAL OF THE ONES TAKEN INTO MORMON HOMES.
Courtesy L.D.S. Church Historian's Office from WPA Writer's Project collection in custody of the Utah State Historical Society.
After the passage of the law against Indian slavery, the Mormons made it a point to secure all the Indian children they could. This was one of the duties assigned the missionaries who were later called to the various Indian missions.
The first mission to be formally established after the Mormons came to Utah was called the Southern Indian Mission, and had its headquarters at Harmony, some sixty miles south of Parowan, Utah. Its inception was no doubt encouraged and hastened by John D. Lee, who wrote eloquently to Brigham Young of the advantages of the southern country. In October, 1851, Lee had led a group of colonists south to establish a settlement in Utah's Dixie, but, for some reason, President Young ordered him to wait for a while. That Lee wanted with all his heart to settle in the southern country is evident from his letter of March 7, 1852:
Later, John D. Lee was permitted to go as far south as Harmony. The Walker War forced the temporary abandonment of this settlement, but as soon as it was over, Lee went back again. He still wanted to move over the rim of the basin, and in his letters to President Young he told of the grass growing and the buds bursting in February and of the advantages of settlements in the southern section. One of his arguments was the interest which the Indians showed in the gospel. On January 24, 1854, he wrote of how Enoch Reese's pack train loaded with goods was attacked by the Indians of the south, with three men killed. He gave an account of how the Ute Indians preyed upon the Piedes, [Paiutes] stealing their wives and children to sell into slavery; and included the following account of a visit by old Chief Toquer, who begged the Mormons to come and settle on his land:
It would seem that these letters had a direct bearing on the establishment of the Southern Indian Mission, for the first group of Indian missionaries left Great Salt Lake City on April 14, 1854, scarcely three months after the last quoted letter was written. The launching of this mission had been foreshadowed the previous fall, when Parley P. Pratt was named to head a group of Indian missionaries. This group made some preparation through the winter, but was merged in the company specifically called for the Southern Indian Mission in April, 1854. This is clear from some memoranda as to personnel in the official journal of the mission. A few went to the Green River settlement at Fort Supply as missionaries to the Shoshoni, but it is the company that went south (the Southern Indian Mission), that is most important in Mormon history, and it was the initial accomplishments of this mission which led quite probably to the extension of the Indian mission system in 1855.
At that time a group was also called to the Las Vegas Mission in what is now southern Nevada; another to Salmon River in Idaho; a third to the vicinity of Moab in southeastern Utah; a fourth to the so-called White Mountains, in the area along the Utah-Nevada line in and adjacent to present Millard County; a fifth was sent to the Cherokee Nation, in what is now Oklahoma. The mission sent to Carson Valley, in present Nevada, seems also to have been considered, to some extent, an Indian mission. The White Mountain Mission resulted in nothing but a reconnaissance of the country, and the missionaries were transferred to the Elk Mountain Mission near present Moab, and that mission in its turn was abandoned after only three months. The Cherokee Mission was maintained for some years, without any fruitful results; the Las Vegas Mission failed in 1857, and later that year the Carson Mission was called home as a result of the outbreak of the "Utah War." Those from the Salmon River Mission or Fort Limhi were also recalled early in 1858. None of these missions except the Southern Indian Mission could be called successful, and several were attended by tragedy and disaster. The Southern Indian Mission, under the direction, first of Rufus C. Allen, and later of Jacob Hamblin, had a permanency that the others lacked.
The missionaries to the Southern Indian Mission arrived at Harmony on May 2, 1854. There were twenty-five of them, the oldest forty-seven, the youngest only seventeen. The camp historian, Thomas D. Brown, gives a colorful and vivid account of the activities of the group, showing their labors, their disappointments, even their petty quarrels and reconciliations. He was especially careful in reporting the minutes of the various meetings, and his notes of the sermons of the brethren retain much of the flavor of their personalities.
Two weeks after the arrival of the missionaries in their field of labor they were visited by Brigham Young and his party. His instructions given in Thomas D. Brown's Journal show clearly the objectives of the mission:
The instructions of all the authorities were in the same vein, those of Parley P. Pratt being perhaps the most impassioned and appealing:
Since the tribes among whom they were to work were of all American Indians perhaps the most primitive, this assignment was a big one. To think of the Indians as ever becoming "white and delightsome" must have taxed the imagination to even the most enthusiastic, for everywhere the missionaries saw only squalor, filth, and poverty, tending to arouse more of disgust and loathing than of love.
Soon after Brigham Young and his company returned north, a party of the missionaries visited the tribes on the Santa Clara River. Through the eyes of the chronicler, we get details of the Indian life:
. . .The missionaries stayed a week, exploring the country and visiting the various groups, until their supplies were nearly gone. Un their return to Harmony, T. D. Brown wrote a long report of the trip to Brigham Young, dated June 22. 1854:
Although no effort was made on this trip to secure Indian children, there is no doubt that the missionaries did obtain a number of them later.
Jacob Hamblin wrote in his diary, July 3, 1854:
This is further proof that the Mormons trafficked in the Indian children, there is no doubt that the missionaries did obtain a numcondition. There are several entries in the Journal of the Southern Indian Mission that show the attempts to secure these children, and some indications as to the number. In the report of a meeting held in Harmony on Sunday, May 14, 1854, there is an account of a speech by an Indian:
This entry appears seven months later:
Jacob Hamblin, who was living at Santa Clara at this time wrote in some detail of Sanpitch's dealings. It had been the habit of this Ute chief to raid the Paiute band nearly every winter, and when word came that he was on his way, the Indians were tilled with fear. The chief, Tutsegavit, came to the Mormon missionaries and asked if they would help fight Sanpitch. After some deliberation, Jacob said they would. Reassured, the Indian women and children went into hiding, the warriors prepared to fight, and the old chief went out and, standing on a large rock, gave a speech of defiance, as though the invaders were actually within hearing distance. That night was spent in watching. When Sanpitch did arrive, later, Jacob Hamblin records:
In summarizing his work for the winter of 1855-56, T. D. Brown wrote:
Since this was a hard year, with crop failures and serious food shortages, it was often a sacrifice for the whites to feed children other than their own. The extra help given by the Indian child might pay for the expense of his board, but usually this was not true, as the children were often too young when adopted. Nothing short of religious fervor and a strong belief that these children were worth ' redeeming" could have prompted many of the adoptions.
Very early the Indians sensed the genuineness of the Mormon attitude, and often sold or gave their children to them. Indian mothers would then know where their babies were, and be assured that they were given good care. In her later life, Ann Chatterly McFarlane used often to tell of the time when an Indian mother ran into her house in Cedar City and thrusting a two-year-old son toward her said, "Hide him, quick!" and disappeared out the back door. Ann had not time to find a hiding place, so she lifted her long, full skirts and put the baby under, telling him to stand on her feet and hold to her legs.
PAIUTE COUPLE IN CAST OFF CLOTHING OF THE WHITES
Almost before she had him placed, the warriors came, searching for the child. Mrs. McFarlane pretended not to understand, and in answer to their questions shook her head and pointed off in the opposite direction from which the mother had gone. The men went through the house, searching in every corner, under the bed, in the cellar and closets. In the meantime she went about her work, the child beneath her skirts as quiet as a quail. After a few days his mother returned and took him away.
Regardless of the Mormon motives in their dealings with the Indians, the Indian agents sent out by the Federal government were suspicious. They did not appreciate the policy of self-preservation, of safeguarding small settlements and ranches, or of a genuine desire to raise the Indian standard of living; instead, they read into every Mormon move a menace to Gentiles in general and to themselves in particular. The first Utah agent, Major Jacob H. Holeman, was insubordinate to Brigham Young, the Territorial governor, and sent many of his reports direct to Washington. He complained repeatedly of the way in which the Indian affairs were conducted, and of the fact that Brigham Young had absolute control of his people. In a letter to Luke Lea, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, December 28, 1851, he wrote:
One cause of constant friction was the giving of presents to the Indians. The government agents did not approve of the distribution made by Brigham Young, though they themselves gave gifts freely. Thus between the Mormons and the Gentile officials the Indians fared badly. Both were profuse in expressions of friendship and occasional gifts of trinkets, but the Mormons steadily encroached on the Indian hunting grounds, while the Gentiles often slaughtered the natives on the slightest provocation.
Government agents, almost without exception, complained that the Mormons tried to create in the minds of the Indians a distinction between themselves and other Americans. Garland Hurt, successor to Major Holeman, wrote on May 2, 1855, to George Manypenny, the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs:
G. S. L. City, U.T., May 2, 1855
Sir:
Permit me to call your attention to some facts which I do not feel myself altogether at liberty to remain silent upon.
At the last semi-annual conference of the Latter-day Saints, a large number of missionaries were nominated to go and preach to the Indians, or Lamanites, as they are here called. Now, since my arrival in this Territory I have become satisfied that these Saints have either accidently or purposely created a distinction in the minds of the Indian tribes of this Territory, between the Mormons and the people of the United States, that cannot act otherwise than prejudicial to the interests of the latter, and what, Sir, may we expect of these missionaries? There is perhaps not a tribe on the continent that will not be visited by one or more of them. I suspect that their first object will be to teach these wretched savages that they are the rightful owners of the American soil, and that it has been wrongfully taken from them by the whites, and that the Great Spirit had sent the Mormons among them to help them recover their rights.
The character of many of those who have been nominated is calculated to confirm this view of the case. They embrace a class of rude and lawless young men such as might be regarded as a curse to any civilized community. But I do not wish to excite prejudice, or encourage feelings of hostility against this people; on the contrary I think such a course would be unwise and impolitic. They always have and always will thrive on persecution. They know well the effect it has had upon them and, therefore, crave to be persecuted. It is due to many of them, however, to say that they are honest in their belief that they are the only Christians on earth, and that God is about to redeem the world from, sin and establish His millennium. It is possible, too, that many of them are loyal in their feelings to the United States, but perhaps this cannot be said of many of their leaders. But time will convince many of them of their errors. . . . Many of their prophecies must come true in a few years, or doubt will take the place of sanguine hope, and will do more to relax their energies and awaken their strength than anything else could do at this time.
My object in writing is to suggest that the attention of all superintendents, agents, and sub-agents, and all other loyal citizens residing or sojourning in the Indian country be called to this subject, that the conduct of these Mormon missionaries be subjected to the strictest scrutiny, and that the 13th and 14th Sections of the act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes and to preserve peace on the frontiers be properly enforced.
Very respectfully &c,
GARLAND HURT,
Indian Agent for Utah
P.S.—In proof of the facts before stated, I would say that I have had great difficulty in procuring an interpreter, though there are many persons in the Territory who speak the Indian languages, but they are all nominated as missionaries, and I was forced to the humiliating necessity of imploring the clemency of His Excellency, Brigham Young, to permit one of them to remain with me. I never saw any people in my life who were so completely under the influence of one man. G. H.
A similar accusation was made by Lieutenant Sylvester Mowry, of Lieutenant Colonel Steptoe's command, who in the spring of 1855 was ordered to take a detachment of the latter's forces to California by the Southern Route, while Steptoe himself went on to Benicia by the Humboldt Route. In his report of the march of the detachment (1st Dragoon Recruits) from Salt Lake City to Fort Tejon, Calif., July 23, 1855, he writes:
Perhaps it was not alone the teachings of the Mormons that had caused the distinction in the minds of the natives. The Mormons planned to stay in Utah permanently, and it was necessary for them to cultivate the friendship of the Indians if they were to be safe, especially in the smaller, scattered settlements. The emigrants passing through were moved by no such considerations. There were a number of protests sent in to Brigham Young concerning transients who shot Indians "just to see them jump," and thereby endangered the lives of the settlers.
Dr. Thomas Flint, who took a herd of sheep and cattle overland to California in 1853, kept a diary of his travels, which gives a sidelight on conditions in Utah at the time. He says that his company "were not robbed or molested to the amount of more than a set of horseshoes" while in the Territory, though some other groups, particularly those from Missouri and Illinois, were fined for every offense, real or imagined. Having a large group of wellarmed men to protect his cattle and sheep, he had no fear of the Indians. He writes:
That the Indians recognized the difference in the treatment they received, there can be no doubt. One story has been told often and credited to different parts of the state. It has been heard from the descendants of those who first settled the Muddy Valley in Nevada, and also from the San Juan, Utah, colonists. It is to the effect that in one of the regular Mormon testimony meetings an Indian chief who was in attendance rose to speak. Drawing himself to his full height and assuming a very dignified manner, he delivered the following sermon: "Mormon weino. Mormon ticka-boo. Make-em water-ditch. Plant-em grain. Feed-em Indians. Mormon tick-a-boo. White man — of a —.' "
The intricacies of the Indian-Mormon-Gentile relationships are too varied for present treatment, and do not rightly belong to this discussion. It is important here only to point out that the Mormon Church established a missionary system; that its purpose was to establish friendly relations with the natives, to teach them farming and the arts of civilized life; and that the Mormon missions were not unlike similar experiments carried on elsewhere by missionaries of other churches, save for the doctrinal differences involved.
At the time [1857], when the Mormons were, or thought they were, at war with the United States, their friendship with the Indians seemed far more important than it ever has been before or since. Johnston's army was en route to put down the "rebellion" in Utah, and a kind of war hysteria gripped the entire Territory. Though in the north Brigham Young attempted merely to keep the Indians neutral, the leaders of the Southern Mission made a special effort to cultivate their good will. In this section the people were few and scattered, and they feared an invasion of enemy forces from the west. In any event, they knew that if war actually came, there would be need for the combined forces of both whites and natives.
A letter of instruction from Brigham Young to Jacob Hamblin is clear on the point that the Indians be made to feel that they must help the Mormons or the United States "will kill us both." The letter is quoted in full because in the version printed in his autobiography of Jacob Hamblin, James Little used only the first and last parts, omitting the most pertinent section:
President's Office Great Salt Lake City August 4, 1857
Elder Jacob Hamblin:
You are hereby appointed to succeed Elder R. C. Allen (whom I have released as President of the Santa Clara Indian Mission). I wish you to enter upon the duties of your calling immediately.
Continue the conciliatory policy towards the Indians, which I have ever recommended, and seek by works ot righteousness to obtain their love and confidence, for they must learn that they have either got to help us, or the United States will kill us both. Omit promises where you are not sure you can fill them; and seek to unite the hearts of the brethren on that mission, and let all under your direction be knit together in the holy bonds of love and unity.
We have an abundance of "news." The government have at last appointed an entire set of officials for this Territory. These Gentry are to have a bodyguard of 2500 of Uncle's Regulars. They were to start from Fort Leavenworth July 15. 400 mule teams brings their personal dunnage, & 700 ox teams 15 months' provisions, 7000 head of beef cattle are to arrive here to supply them. General Harney, it is supposed, will command the expedition. There [sic] errand is entirely peaceful. The current report is that they somewhat query whether they will hang me with or without a trial. There are about 30 others whom they intend to deal with. They will then proclaim a general jubilee, and afford means and protection to those who wish to go back to the States. We feel first rate about all this and think every circumstance but proves the hastening of Zion's redemption.
All is peace here and the Lord is eminently blessing our labors; grain is abundant, and our cities are alive with the busy hum of industry.
Do not permit the brethren to part with their Guns or ammunition, but save them against the hour of need.
Seek the Spirit of God to direct you, and that he may qualify you for every duty, is the prayer of your Fellow laborer in the Gospel of Salvation
BRIGHAM YOUNG
Whether or not this letter had any bearing in the fact that Jacob Hamblin took ten of the chiefs from the southern part of the state to Great Salt Lake City immediately following its receipt, can only be guessed, but it is a fact that they were there on September 1st and spent some time in consultation with Brigham Young. What went on at that conference is also a matter of conjecture, but it evidently had a bearing on subsequent events, and probably in a way that Brigham Young did not intend.
From the time the first missionaries went to the Southern Indian Mission, there were those among them, it appears, who were mindful that their work might one day be significant for Israel beyond its immediate significance at that time, for the memory of the "mobbings and drivings" was still fresh. On Sunday, May 14, 1854, three years before the crisis with the government, such a suggestion was made in a meeting in Harmony, Utah, recorded by T. D. Brown:
Regardless of his attitude toward the army or the government or the passing emigrants, Brigham Young at no time deviated from his policy of friendliness to the Indians. Of this there is ample evidence. Very early he said to his people:
Throughout all his life Brigham Young maintained the same idea. After eleven years, during which there had been many provocations on the part of the natives, he still insisted on kindly methods, admitting that the Indians had cause for their feelings of resentment, and that, in spite of everything, the Saints should treat them kindly. Speaking in 1864, he said:
When, still later, the Indian discontent assumed the nature of a general uprising, the- counsel to the people was still not to kill them. Instead, the settlers were told to fortify themselves more securely, to watch their cattle and sheep more closely and not to trust them to the care of boys or stupid men who might let the Indians steal them, and to travel in groups for their mutual protection.
It must be pointed out, however, that the precept was not always followed. There was often a lack of sympathy for the Indian viewpoint and occasional instances of vengeful and wanton killings by Mormon settlers. The murder of a group of innocent Paiutes by a company under James Andrus after the killing of Dr. J. M. Whitmore and Robert Mclntire at Pipe Springs by the Navajos January 8, 1866, is a case in point.
At an early date Brigham Young had suggested that for their own good and that of the whites the Indians should be gathered and located in certain areas that he mentioned, including the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada. This was in line with the forced migrations of the Cherokees and other tribes in the East, and shows that Brigham Young considered more drastic means of solving the Indian problem without much regard for the Indian viewpoint. This, however, was never followed out. Instead, his letters of instruction show that he favored teaching the Indians to work and to be as nearly as possible self-sustaining. On March 5, 1858, he wrote to Jacob Hamblin:
Twelve years later, on September 13, 1870, writing again to Jacob Hamblin, Brigham Young said:
The one case where Brigham Young seems to have considered seriously moving an Indian tribe from its homeland was that of the Hopi Indians of northern Arizona, whom the Mormons called by their Navajo name of the "Moquis" or Moquitches." Ka These were peaceful Indians, who practiced agriculture and, had some skill in weaving. As early as 1858 Brigham Young toyed with the idea of persuading them to move across the Colorado River and settle nearer the Saints. On each of Jacob Hamblin's visits to these people he tried to get a few of the Indian leaders to accompany him back to Utah, with the idea of further cementing their friendship and impressing them with the advantages of cooperation with the Mormons. By 1860 President Young's plan seems to have taken definite form. In a council he talked about the gathering of the Moquis Indians. He preferred to have the Moquis gather under the rim of the Basin, where they could be protected (as they were not a fighting people) before having them gather in their own country.
One month later, the "L.D.S. Journal History" records:
With the death of George A. Smith, Jr., at the hands of the Navajos on his trip to the Moquis, the plan for moving the Indians was abandoned for some years, and all missionary work among the Indians o£ Arizona was temporarily suspended. By 1863 the Mormon leader had worked out a plan to build forts on the east side of the Colorado River, since it seemed impossible to persuade the natives to move across. In a letter to Erastus Snow, February 15, 1863, George A. Smith outlined the course of action:
After outlining in great detail the route, the supplies, the equipment, the types of forts and stockades to be built, and the duties of the brethren, the letter continues:
A number of factors entered into the failure of this plan, among them the forbidding nature of the desert country and the fact that the Indians plainly did not want to be gathered under the wings of Israel's Eagles.
In the meantime the settlers of southern Utah had hard scratching to make a living] for themselves, and they found the Paiutes who lived among them a decided liability. Many a priesthood meeting was spent discussing what to do with the Indians; even the sisters in Relief Society talked over ways and means of teaching their Indian girls white ways or persuading the squaws to work instead of begging from door to door. The natives had become paupers to be fed, a sort of nuisance to be put up with, for no amount of teaching seemed capable of changing their natural indolence to industry.
To their credit it must be said that the Mormons did try to help the Indians, and that in general their program was far-sighted. Yet after twenty-five years of tutorship, they still had to assume the responsibility of seeing that their darker brethren had food. The following letter illustrates the method they adopted and carried out for a number of years:
March 25, 1879
To Moqueak & his men: Brethren:
Bro. McAllister, Bro. Snow, and the Big Chief, John Taylor, have bought ten acres of land from the Mormons for $300 on the lower end of our Farm, which I will show you,—for the use of the Indians.
I, Bp. [Bishop] of Price Ward, will see that it is plowed, and marked out for watering, and plough out your head-ditches, and let you have the water, through the watermaster.
You may divide the 10 acres with all the Indians that you expect to get land on this farm. You may divide it to suit yourselves, so that it is divided in strips up and down, so that we can plow it. We cannot plow it in little round patches. Or, I will divide it for you if you wish. This is all we expect to do. You must do all the rest of the work and help on the ditch and dam, and keep your horses off our land. If your horses get on our crops, you must pay the damage, like other Mormons. If our horses, or cattle, destroy your crops, we must pay the damage.
We all feel kindly to you Indians, and we will do you all the good we can. But we have to work hard to get our bread and clothing and teams to work our land; our wives have to work hard; our children have to work hard, and we have no time to work for you, only what you cannot do.
You Indians want a heap of land and have no team nor plows, nor tools, to work with; nor seed to plant. You want us Mormons to do all this for you. We have not time, we must work for our own children. You must do as we do,—take a little land, do a heap of work, and raise more grain.
Now, Moqueak, what I say, I mean, and you need not trouble me any more, for more land. I know better what is good for you, than you do yourself.
I remain, very kindly to the Indians,
R. GARDNER,
Bishop of Price Ward
Robert Gardner thus tried to be firm with the Indians and kind to them at the same time. According to his promise he did plow their land for them and helped them plant the seed, but just when the grain was growing nicely, a flood came which took out the dam and part of the ditch. The Indians promptly left, to return from the mountains in the fall for the whites to feed. Similar experiences were repeated so often that the Church at last appropriated an annual sum to support them, in order to lift the burden from the local settlers. Nine years after Robert Gardner wrote his letter to Moqueak, the presidency of the St. George Stake wrote to Wilford Woodruff, then president of the Church, asking for additional help:
For several years the Trustee-in-Trust has appropriated $400 per year. This has been used in provisions, clothing, and blankets. Some of the Lamanites are aged and not able to work; the young ones go off to mining camps. . . .
This season has been so varied that the appropriation was used up some time ago, and the cold and snows having driven them in from the mountains, Bro. McAllister has overdrawn the Indian appropriation about $100. Some of them are sick with colds, & Drs. Ivins and Agnes Thompson have furnished some medicines. We have paid brethren for plowing on the Indian farms. If an appropriation of $600 or $700 were made for this season, it would be a great help to us,
A team, wagon and harness are needed; seeds, also some tools replaced, and they must have something while their crop is growing. We have already nine or ten acres of wheat, if cold is not too severe, we think it will do well.
We will put in cotton, cane, corn, potatoes, and squash, melons, etc., in the season thereof...
This type of dole was continued until 1891, when the United States Government purchased a tract for the Indians and established a reservation in Washington County. Thus, after fortyfour years of labor with the Lamanites, the Mormons were relieved of the responsibility. Since that time the Church has done little more than distribute gifts of flour, meat, and candy at Christmas, and hold occasional religious services on Sunday. The zeal of the early missionaries who had visions of helping the natives adopt a new culture and become "white and delightsome" has largely vanished, though the theory remains.
II
Other aspects of the Mormon-Indian relations are more subtle and less easily traced than are the economic. The social results of the association, particularly those growing out of the intermarriage of the races and out of the adjustment of the Indian children who were raised in white homes, present an opportunity for interesting studies in acculturation. It is proposed here to consider some of these results in a general way, particularly those of the Southern Mission.
Very early, some of the Mormon leaders recommended that the missionaries marry Indian women as a means of cementing the friendship between the races. One of the most entertaining incidents, and perhaps as human a story as has been told about this phase of the Mormon-Indian relations, is recorded in the diary of Hosea Stout, who was a member of the Green River Mission of 1854, sent out to reinforce the missionaries who had gone the previous autumn. On May 8, after recording that Green River County had that day been organized, and that Isaac Bullock, James Brown, Elijah Ward, and James Davis had been appointed to go as missionaries among the Shoshoni Indians, he writes in high good humor:
The Elders who were sent to the Salmon River Mission were given similar instructions by Brigham Young and his party, who visited them in May, 1857. At least three different missionaries tell of them, all under date of Sunday, May 10, 1857. Milton G. Hammond says simply, "The president and members of the Twelve all spoke. Pres. Young spoke of Elders marrying natives." 80 William H. Dame, of Parowan, who was one of President Young's party, wrote in his journal: "Meeting was held at 10 a.m. All the presidency spoke on the subject of this and other missions among the Indians. Young men might take squaws to wife. . . ." The mission clerk, David Moore, gave a somewhat more detailed account:
As a result of these teachings, at least three of the brethren married Indian women. The following items, all from the official "Journal of the Salmon River Mission," show the degree of success which attended the marriages.
The record goes on to tell of the losses the brethren sustained at the hands of the Indians, of the death of three of the missionaries and the closing of the mission. As to the Indian women whom they had taken as wives the "L.D.S. Journal History" of April 9, 1858, records: "Two squaws who had married the brethren refused to come, fearing the soldiers would kill all the Mormons."
Thus it would seem that there were no permanent unions between the Indians and whites in that mission.
In the Southern Utah Mission, where the most extensive and successful Indian relations were maintained, there is little said directly of the matter of intermarriage. The following letter from Brigham Young to Jacob Hamblin makes reference to it, commending the brethren who had taken Indian wives, but neither ordering nor recommending it as a general practice:
President's Office
G. S. L. City, 1st April 1857.
Elder Jacob Hamblin Santa Clara
Your letter of the 2nd March was duly received. It is your privilege to increase.
I am pleased with the course you have taken in that part of the mission assigned to you, and the result of the late difficulty; I desire to make honorable mention of Thales Haskell and Ira Hatch; let them continue to befriend the remnants of Israel, and they will see the day when they will rejoice because of their present association and the results thereof.
If you ascertain that the Parents of the Indian girl given to Ira Hatch are still of the same mind, and the main body of the Indians would not object to the union, and the girl is old enough, and matured sufficiently to bear children without injury This will be his authority to go ahead, and do as he has done, proving himself the Indians' friend; I am rather inclined to think the girl is too young at present, from what I am informed.
I remain your friend and Bro.
BRIGHAM YOUNG
Whether the reference at the beginning of this letter is an answer to a request to take an Indian wife or another white wife, can only be surmised. It is known Jacob Hamblin did marry as a plural wife a white girl, Priscilla Leavitt, on September 11 of the same year. That there had been no definite instructions regarding the marriage of Indian wives in the South is shown by this extract from a letter written to Brigham Young:
Jacob Hamblin gives evidence that the matter of intermarriage was considered rather important, since its chief purpose was to strengthen friendly relations rather than destroy them, and in a way that would win the approval of the natives. During the winter of 1857-1858, Jacob Hamblin was employed as guide to take companies through to California. This entry appears in his journal after his account of his first trip:
Four years later, Jacob Hamblin received a letter from Brigham Young which contained definite instructions regarding the marriage of Moqui [Indian] girls:
This letter indicates that the missionaries were still allowed, and perhaps even encouraged, to take Indian wives, but that marriage in the case where a man already had a white wife was a more serious matter than when he was unattached. This, however, was only in conformity with the general practice of polygamy, that the taking of a second wife was attended with more complications and restraints than a first marriage. It also shows that after a man had been married in the Endowment House he had entered into covenants which must not be considered lightly.
The last reference which has been found, long after the marriage of Indian women had become a dead issue in Utah, is from the journal of Joseph Fish of Arizona:
By this time the interest in the Indians had definitely waned. To the settlers, wrestling with the problems of water-ditch and alkali, the natives were certainly not an asset. However often they were baptized and ceremoniously presented with a new shirt, they were not "white and delightsome." As the frontier receded the men who had taken Indian wives, even through obedience to counsel, were looked down upon by neighbors who were less zealous or who had arrived later. Even so, there were Indian children who had been raised in white homes, trained and educated as whites, whom society was forced to recognize; there were children who were the issue of these first Indian-white marriages and for whom a place must be found in the commonwealth.
There has been no complete survey of the total number of Indian children brought into white homes, nor is this study exhaustive, even for the southern part of the state. To secure what information is here presented, items have been gathered from old diaries and journals, and from people still living who remember the Indian children. Though the list is doubtless incomplete, it may still have significance.
A surprising number of Indian children in white homes died in childhood or early adolescence; they seem to have had little resistance to white man's diseases, especially measles. Mention has already been made of T. D. Brown's statement that he secured five Indian children, only two of whom were alive at the end of the year. Zadok K. Judd and his wife Minerva Dart Judd adopted at least three, only one of whom grew to maturity. This was a girl, Nellie. One day after she was a young woman, Nellie carefully took her clean clothes from the washing on the line, rolled them into a tight bundle and placed them in the window. Though her foster mother noticed, she said nothing. The next morning the girl was gone, apparently with a band of her own people who were passing through. The Judds could have followed and brought her back had they cared to, but either they thought that she would be happier among the Indians, or they were mildly relieved to have her go. Years later, when one of Mrs. Judd's children had died and she herself was ill, a squaw came to the place and sat in the dooryard. The younger children did not recognize her or tell the mother that she was there. Later, when she knew, Mrs. Judd said that it must have been Nellie who had come back to offer her sympathy, but not being invited in, had sat a while in the dooryard and left.
Thomas Forsythe bought a three-year-old boy, Moroni, for a horse and saddle. He raised the child with his own and gave him an equal chance for an education. He also made him responsible for a part of the chores and farm work. One night when the boy was about nineteen, he failed to bring the cows, and his father, a quick-tempered man, reprimanded him sharply. The next morning the boy was gone. For a long time they heard nothing of him; then one day when the family had come in from the ranch to Parowan with a load of butter, cheese, and farm produce to exchange for groceries, one of the girls saw "Rone." He talked to her, inquired about the family, sent his love to the mother, and seemed interested in all their doings, but he never came back. They later learned that he had joined the Indians.
Christopher J. Arthur adopted an Indian boy named Samuel, who grew up as an older brother to his children. There is a picture of him with their son, in which both children are well dressed and appear as equals. But this boy also left home. The Arthur Journal says:
Angus M. Cannon adopted a boy, Alma; Amos G. Thornton also had one whom he called Alma; George Wood raised one, Leo; John Harris of Glen dale one, Frank; Moroni Spilsbury of Toquerville one, Lorim. None of these ever married though all lived to maturity and the two latter to old age. All were known as expert cattlemen and horsemen; all mixed with the whites freely, but none could secure a white wife or would accept an Indian girl.
William R. Palmer tells of another boy, Omer Badegee Heywood, who died in Harmony in 1862:
Among the Indian girls who died at maturity without marrying are Mickey, who was adopted by Artemisia Snow, the wife of Erastus Snow, and Jane, who was raised by Samuel Knight of Santa Clara. Mickey died in her 'teens, but Jane worked in different homes in St. George for several years before she became ill. She returned to her home in Santa Clara to die.
Sister McClellan, the mother of Samuel Knight, also adopted an Indian girl. Sister McClellan owned the only organ in Santa Clara at the time, and the girl learned to play well, so that the home became the gathering place of the young people of the village on Sunday afternoons. The girl had a chance to marry a white man as his fourth wife, but the parents thought she could do better, and so opposed the match. They moved back north, taking the girl with them, but the climate did not agree with her. She contracted pneumonia and died, unmarried.
Still another Indian girl was Ann, who was raised at Hamilton's Fort by John Hamilton. She is still living and has never married. She became an expert housekeeper and worked for many years in some of the best homes in Salt Lake City. To meet her now is to meet a woman who is well groomed and who dresses in excellent taste. She speaks with a cultured accent and is a delightful person to know. She spends a great deal of her time in the Mormon temple and has done some work there for her own people.
Instances of intermarriage between Indians adopted by the whites discussed here were furnished the writer by William T. Morris, Sr„ an early-day resident of Parowan. Ebenezer Hanks, pioneer storekeeper there, purchased an Indian boy, Albert. When he was grown he married an Indian girl, Ruth Wimmer, who had also been raised in a white home, and the couple established themselves in Parowan. In the same town at about the same time, Grandma West had an Indian boy, Lehi, who married Edna Bayliss, an Indian girl raised by the whites. Mr. Morris did not know anything of the descendants of either of these couples, if there were any, nor has anything been learned from other sources.
The list of Indian children who died early is probably incomplete, since there were no records kept of all of them. Of those who intermarried with the whites, however, it is much easier to find the basic facts. The following are all that the writer has been able to discover:
Janet was a Shivwits child who was bought by Prime Coleman of Pinto and later given to Eliza McConnell of Cedar City, from whose home she married James Clark. She had at least seven children: Prime Coleman Clark, who died when about twenty years of age; Alfred, who died in young manhood, and three daughters and two sons who lived and married. Two of the girls married Dave and Henry Edwards, brothers, and the third married Rone Thompson—all white men. One boy, Jim, married a girl named Smith and had a number of children by her, and after her death married her sister and had a younger family by her. The other brother. Will, also married a white girl and lives in Cedar City, where they are well respected. The descendants are now quite numerous, and move on an equality with their neighbors.
Rhoda was also a Shivwit child who was purchased by William Carpenter and his wife. Her mother, Annie, was one of the Indian women who worked for the whites, often doing the washing for the same family for years, and at her death left this one child. Since the Carpenter family had no daughter, they purchased the child and called her Rhoda. She grew up in the home, loved and happy. Her one fear was of Indians, for she always ran and hid when any of her own race came around. She learned to play the organ, and served as organist at the various church meetings. She married Thomas Shamp, a Spanish war veteran, and they had six children, but the marriage was not congenial and she left. After being away almost twenty years, in the spring of 1943 she returned for a short time to St. George, to dispose of her property, bringing two of her daughters with her. She is a stylish, well-groomed woman; her daughters are slender and good-looking, also tastefully dressed. When the writer met them they were disturbed over some slight, real or imagined, and were insistent that they were as good as anyone in the town, a fact which it had never occurred to anyone to question, so that all attempts to be cordial were wasted. It is understood that one of her children died in childhood and one as a young man; the one remaining son is serving with the armed forces in North Africa, and all three daughters are married.
Soon after the arrival of the settlers in St. George, Jacob Hamblin brought a five-year-old Indian girl to the home of. Melancthon Burgess and asked him to buy her. Since the wife wanted her, he paid Jacob the value of fifty dollars for her. She was named Minnie. Mrs. Wallace Miles, a daughter of the Burgesses, tells what a favorite Minnie was in the family and what pride the mother took in her, especially in keeping her long black hair clean and shining.
When she grew to womanhood, Minnie married Albert Hartman of Leeds. She had four children, and died when the oldest was about thirteen years of age. The father secured the services of Cora Keate, another Indian girl, as housekeeper, and later married her.
Cora had been raised in St. George by Susannah Rogers Keate, who had no children of her own. Mrs. Keate had been a pioneer school teacher, and gave the little dark girl excellent training, until in young womanhood she was known as an expert seamstress, and because of her good voice sang in the choir and as a soloist. She went to work at the mining camp at Silver Reef. Here she met and married a man named Williams, but he soon deserted her. Later she married Albert Hartman of Leeds and took over the care of his children. She had none of her own, but was very kind to those of her husband. One died young; another, Albert, died in young manhood of miner's consumption; a third, Willie, married a white girl and had five children before he, too, died. The only daughter, Daisy, married Bill Nicoles of Leeds, Utah, where she still lives, the mother of six children, a respected citizen.
In 1851 Priddy Meeks purchased an Indian girl about three years of age, and gave her to his wife, Sarah. The child, Lucy, was given every advantage of education and training that the white children had. There are many family legends concerning her— how on one occasion at a funeral, every member of the choir broke down and she carried the song through alone to the end as a solo; how popular she was at the dances; how no one else could make biscuits or iron ruffles with such skill. When she reached maturity she had an illegitimate child, a daughter. Just before the birth of the child, the man who presumably was responsible, and whom all the neighbors had supposed was going to marry Lucy, shot himself. Some thought that he did this through- some idea of blood atonement; others thought that he preferred death to life with an Indian woman; still others maintained that since he had been such a shy, bashful fellow, spending his time in the hills with the sheep and never going to meetings or dances or public gatherings, he could not face the Mormon penalty for his act. This would include a confession and apology before the congregation in church and a rebaptism before he could be reinstated in fellowship. Whatever the motive behind his suicide, Lucy was forced to bear the disgrace of the child and the blame for its father's death. Gossip ran riot, until at last the authorities from St. George were forced to come up and investigate matters. [Many persons near the man involved persistently believed his protestations of innocence to the last.—Ed.]
As for Lucy, she went into seclusion until her parents sent her north, thinking that a change in environment would be good for her. Her foster mother kept the baby, Sylvia. After a short time away, Lucy became ill and had to come home. Quick consumption, they called it. She lay listless, saying little and showing no interest in anything, not even in the baby. She made no complaint of pain, but lay in weakness and languor, often with her face to the wall.
Older people tell how, during her last days, neighbors took turns sitting up at night with her to relieve the family. The watchers on the night of her death tell how, after she had lain quietly for some time, she opened her eyes wide to the ceiling and began to sing in a high, clear voice the Mormon hymn, "O My Father." It seemed to them that the lines, "Father, Mother, may I meet you in your royal courts on High," had special meaning, as did the last line, "Let me come and dwell with you."
After a short rest she told them she was going to join her own people in their happy hunting grounds and that it had been a mistake for her ever to suppose that she could be a white girl. Indian children, she said, should be left with their own people where they could be happy; when they were raised in white homes they did not belong anywhere. Then, so the story goes, a strange thing happened. The flame leaped up in the coal-oil lamp as though it were fanned by a sudden breeze, in spite of the fact that the room was closed and there was no air stirring. The same instant Lucy's spirit took leave, passing without a struggle.
The child, Sylvia, grew to be a beautiful girl. According to the account, she married a traveling salesman from Salt Lake City. Since he was a man of some means, she had a luxurious apartment, was well dressed, and moved in a good circle. She had two sons, but both died as children. Grief over their loss impaired her health, and she, too, died while still a young woman.
Another unusual case in the writer's own family was that of Janet. She was purchased as an infant by Silas Smith of Parowan. Later Smith died and his wife married a Mr. McGregor, but Janet stayed in the home and acted as an older sister to the young family, though she still went by the name of Smith. She was given the best of training in all the household arts, and took part in the social activities of the town. In her young womanhood she received an offer of marriage as a plural wife from a white man in Parowan, but to the surprise of the family, she refused. They criticized her, saying that she should be glad to get so good an offer since she could not expect to pick and choose. At last she told them that there was only one man that she had seen that she felt she would like to marry, and he was Dudley Leavitt. He was related to her foster mother and always stopped at the home on his annual trips to Salt Lake City. At this time he was in the north with a load of fruit.
The mother reported what the girl had said to Apostle George A. Smith, who was visiting in Parowan at the time, and when Dudley came back he was called in and asked if he would consider marrying her. The theory was that a woman ought to have some say in the choice of her husband, and that when a girl had her heart set on a man, he had some responsibility in the matter of providing her a home. Dudley, just twenty-nine himself, already had three wives, the last a girl of sixteen to whom he had been married only six months. He hesitated to give his consent to a fourth until the Apostle said, "Brother Leavitt, I promise you in the name of the Lord, that if you will take this girl, give her a home and a family, and do your duty by her, you will be blessed. You will count her descendants as among the choice ones of your offspring." To Dudley Leavitt such a statement had all the weight of a command direct of God. He had no more to say.
The ceremony was performed then and there, the girl's belongings loaded into the wagon, and the young couple started for Santa Clara. Interesting reverberations still come to us of the welcome the pair received when they arrived, though eventually the other wives did accept the Indian girl with fairly good grace. There is no question but that she suffered under the arrangement in spite of all that her husband could do to maintain equality.
Janet was the mother of eleven children, eight of whom grew to maturity and six of whom married and had families. The grandchildren numbered 147; the great-grandchildren are now more than 170 with others being added regularly, while there are already quite a few in the fifth generation. From the first, her descendants maintained that they were not Indians, but whites, the sons and daughters of Dudley Leavitt. The writer remembers when an agent came to town to persuade some of the grandchildren to attend the Indian college at Carlisle, holding out to them the offer of a free education. How insulted they were! They were white, and no inducement could have any weight with them. They preferred to pay their own way to white institutions rather than to go free to an Indian school.
If the children suffered disadvantages—and no doubt they did —the grandchildren suffered less, while some of the fourth and fifth generations seem to have forgotten that there was ever an Indian ancestor. Quite a number of them held important church and civic positions, and there is an indication that the promise which was made to Dudley will be fulfilled in these later generations.
Of all the Indian boys who were adopted into white homes in Southern Utah, the only one known to have married a white girl is David Lemmon. David was of the Ute tribe, and was first purchased by Hyrum Stevens, who later traded him to James A. Lemmon of Rockville, Utah, for a large black horse. The child disliked school so much that his foster parents did not force him to go, but sent him out to herd the cows in the hills. Thus it was that he did not learn to read.
As a young man he was large and well formed, weighing nearly two hundred pounds. He was also very athletic, his greatest delight being to challenge the white boys to wrestle or race, either on foot or on horseback. He also learned to play the violin, and was for years the only musician in the region, going on horseback as far as Silver Reef and Toquerville to play for dances. He received five dollars a night for this service, which was at that time a handsome wage.
He married Caroline Josephine Neilson, a Swedish girl. His son, David W. Lemmon, relates that after he himself was old enough to start school he tried to teach his father to read from a primer. In vain would he point out the difference between the letters "b," "d," "p," and the others; his father would only laugh good-naturedly and say, "They all look alike to me, son."
When they had five children, the couple decided that they would like to go through the Mormon temple. At first there was a hesitancy on the part of the bishopric to grant the application since David had never been active in the Church, but knowing his character and disposition, they finally granted the privilege. After the ceremony, as they were leaving St. George on their way back to Rockville, they stopped and purchased a Bible, a Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants. David learned to read with almost miraculous ease and became in his later life an ardent student of the Scriptures. He taught a Sunday School class and was active in other ward work.
After his religious awakening, he was reputed to enjoy the power of healing. When there was sickness and he was called in to administer, the patient always seemed to recover. At last his white neighbors came to have such faith in him that he was always sent for in trouble; in fact, he often went a whole day's journey to bless the sick.
"You may be ashamed of your father now," he told his son, David, one day, "but the time will come when you will be proud to own him and to claim your ancestors."
He died at the age of seventy-five. Of his six children who grew to maturity, four married and had families. His descendants now number twenty-eight, at least two of whom are successful school teachers.
Jacob Hamblin adopted a number of Indian children, exactly how many is not known. The first boy, Albert, he secured in 1853 near Tooele, Utah. Jacob found him living with his grandmother in a miserable hut in the mountains, suffering from lack of food and clothing. With the grandmother's consent, Jacob took the boy with him. There was always a great affection between the two; Albert was trusted and respected in the Hamblin home. He assumed responsibility of the cattle and sheep and did much of the farm work while Jacob was away on his various Indian missions He died, unmarried, when about twenty-three.
Hamblin often secured Indian children and placed them in white homes as he could, while in his own home, according to family legend, he always had several. The only mention that is made of any in his Journal is under date of September 15, 1856:
Family tradition says that since this girl died of lung fever, they decided to let the other Indian children sleep out of doors or in an open shelter more like the Indians used. Evidence that Jacob Hamblin maintained several Indian children is given in a letter from the Indian agent to Brigham Young dated June 30, 1857. After speaking of the improvement in farming among the natives and reporting that "Tutsagabits, the principal chief has under cultivation about sixty acres," and that "Captain Jack has about twelve acres of corn and squash," he goes on to say:
This account would bring into the Hamblin home one boy of whom we have no other information, since one of the boys was undoubtedly Albert, already mentioned.
According to a daughter, Mrs. Mary Beeler, Jacob raised three Indian girls in his home. The first, Eliza, ran away to her people and later wanted to return to the home, but since she was surly and mean-tempered, they would not have her. A second girl grew to maturity and married a white man. A third, Ellen, lived with Mrs, Beeler's mother, Priscilla Leavitt Hamblin. This girl stepped on a jagged chaparral stick which had been used to kill a tarantula. It ran far into her bare foot, and infection immediately set in, or the poison of the spider got into her blood. Though Priscilla did everything she could with hot packs and poultices, Ellen grew worse. She suffered such intense pain that they had to stay with her day and night. One night after many hours of watching, Priscilla was worn out.
"Do you think that Martha might sit by you and change the cloths while I lie down awhile?" she asked the girl. Martha was Jacob's daughter by his first marriage, a girl almost as old as Priscilla.
"You won't go out of the room, will you?" Ellen pleaded.
To please her, Priscilla folded a quilt and lay down on the floor in front of the fireplace. She slept a while and woke with a start to find the fire burned out, the room in darkness, and Martha sound asleep in her chair by the bed. Priscilla raised up. The bed was empty! Looking around, she saw Ellen curled up in a little ball on the floor at her feet. The Indian girl loved her so much and had such confidence in her that she had wanted to be as near her as possible. Elleh, suffered greatly before death finally came, and Priscilla could never speak of her without emotion. "She was just a little dusky diamond," she often said.
Whether or not Jacob Hamblin ever married an Indian woman has been a debated question. Many of the family resent even the suggestion with surprising bitterness and emphasis. Others say that Jacob did marry an Indian girl; old-timers from Harmony insist that they knew Eliza, who was Jacob's Indian wife, and that the fact that he had married her was never any secret until later years.
The stories of Eliza's running away and wanting to come back and of Ellen's death by poisoning have come to the writer from many sources and are so much alike that there seems to be no reason to doubt their truth. The only point of difference is the fact that the family contends that the girls were adopted by Jacob Hamblin as daughters rather than sealed to him as wives.
The legend is that Jacob took his wife, Rachel, and the two Indian girls to the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. Here Eliza was sealed to Jacob, but Ellen refused. Since the girls were still very young, one lived with Rachel and one with Priscilla'. Ellen died soon after. Eliza remained in the home until 1860 when she accompanied Jacob on the third mission to the "Moquitches." Ira Hatch also traveled with his Indian wife. After the return, Jacob undertook other trips, but left Eliza to live with the older wife, Rachel. She resented Rachel's supervision and would not obey her. "I am as much his wife as you are," she said one day. Trouble followed which caused her to leave, and when later she wished to return, the family would not have her.
More important evidence that Jacob Hamblin did have an Indian wife comes from contemporary records.
In his Autobiography, as written by James Little, he says, regarding his third visit to the Moqui Indians in the fall of 1860:
There is, probably, equal significance in the letter which Jacob Hamblin wrote to George A. Smith from Toquerville, October 12, 1880, on the way out to the same mission. After giving the general fit-out of boat, wagons, twenty horses and three beeves, he said, "Ira Hatch takes his Indian wife with him. The bearer of this will tell you why she went, if you ask him.
It seems strange that he should make no mention of the other Indian girl, either as being his adopted daughter or his wife, and the suggestion that he would prefer to have the bearer of the letter explain rather than to put it in writing himself, may have some bearing. At any rate, one is faced with several questions. Would a group of nine Mormon men take an unattached girl on a trip which was to last several months? If the girl were some other man's wife, why should Jacob say that she was his? Knowing Jacob's reputation for absolute truthfulness, it seems unlikely that he would have claimed another man's wife as his own.
The manuscript "Journal of John Lee Jones" contains a comment on the subject. As a young man Jones was called on a mission to haul a Swiss family from Cedar City to Santa Clara in December, 1861. He tells of the trip, lists his companions, and details the weather. On arriving at Santa Clara, he writes:
Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, with whom Jacob had rather extensive association, also makes a pertinent comment:
At the time that Dellenbaugh knew Jacob Hamblin, the latter had only two white wives, Priscilla Leavitt Hamblin and Louisa Bonelli Hamblin. His first, Lucinda Taylor, had left him before he came west with the Mormons, and his second, Rachel Judd, had died in Santa Clara in February, 1865. Thus Dellenbaugh met all his living wives. But he need not have known about any Pahute sealing if the matter had been any secret, or if Jacob himself had been reluctant about having it known.
Since there were no children, whether or not Jacob Hamblin married Indian women is perhaps not important, except to indicate that such marriages were more difficult and often lacked the stability and permanence of those with members of the same race.
An unusual life was that of Susie, who was first purchased by Dudley Leavitt. His daughter, Hannah Leavitt Terry, tells of the transaction:
Susie took the name of Pulsipher, by which both she and her children have been known. As soon as she was old enough, she went out to do house work in different homes, and later she was a cook at camps. Though she never married, she had three children, Harvey, Renie, and Nina. Soon after the birth of her second child, Susie was called before the local Church authorities to answer for her sins.
"I have a right to children," she told them courageously. "No white man will marry me. I cannot live with the Indians. But I can have children, and I will support the children that I have. I will ask no one else to support them. I have them because I want them. God meant that a woman should have children."
After that, people came to accept Susie and her children. A young girl once said, "If I were going to be an old maid, I'd be a respectable old maid, like Susie, and have children," a sentiment which was often repeated when Susie was referred to. Susie was as good as her word. She was an excellent worker and always had employment. She was proud, in her way. Mrs. Lottie Carter tells how, while Susie was working for her, she stood at the window one day looking down the street.
"What are you watching so closely?" Mrs. Carter asked her.
"Look," said Susie, "It is my people. My mother and my folks. Sister Carter, do you know what I would like? I wish I could invite them in and cook them a meal. Not just a hand-out by the back door, but a dinner at the table."
"You certainly may, Susie," Mrs. Carter said.
So the Indians were asked in and Susie was given the best linen and dishes for the table and allowed to cook a fine meal and serve them. Mrs. Carter said that she always thought Indians were stolid and undemonstrative until she saw their delight as they examined the nice things on the table and their pleasure in eating the food.
Of Susie's three children, Renie, the oldest girl, died in young womanhood. Harvey, the boy, has never married, and now lives in Nevada. Nina, the youngest girl, followed the example of her mother and was a "respectable old maid" who had children. She had three, all of whom she wheeled proudly around the streets of St. George in a beautiful baby carriage with a fine silk quilt, ignoring the whisperings and nudgings of her white neighbors. She claimed that the children were all fathered by fine men; it is said by some that she named the girl after the father's mother, and the boys after their father's. All three were adopted into a white home. One died young; the other two have both married whites, and are fitting into white society unquestioned. The girl is particularly attractive, an accomplished pianist, and a skilled housewife. Susie's sister made a different type of adjustment. The following story was told to the writer by Mrs. Ella Leavitt of Bunkerville, Nevada:
Another interesting case is that of Tony Tillohash, who now lives on the Shivwits reservation in Washington County. Tony was an orphan who was being cared for by an aged grandmother, when according to their custom, the tribe moved on and left her to die.
Alvin and Lucy Heaton took the little boy into their home and cared for him until he was old enough to go to the Indian school at Carlisle. According to a daughter of the Heatons, Mrs. Ray Esplin, Tony became very homesick and discouraged at the school and wrote about running away and leaving it, but his foster mother always wrote encouragingly, sending a little spending money and telling him that this was a fine opportunity.
After he had graduated and had come back grown-up and well dressed, he went to the Heaton home, hoping to marry one of the girls for whom he had had a great affection all his life. Not only the girl but the parents discouraged his suit, advising him to marry among his own people. He left and went back among the Indians to live, later marrying an Indian woman.
These last examples will serve to suggest that any adequate discussion of this subject should take into account the psychological element, the matter of personal adjustment. What was the attitude of the white wives toward the dark one in a polygamous household? How did the neighbors speak of the man who took an Indian wife? What place did she have in the activities of the community?
With regard to the Indian children growing up among white ones, what was the feeling? They must have sensed their differentness, even when their foster parents were loving and indulgent. Some were afraid of Indians; others could not fit into the routine of school; and often, with characteristic thoughtlessness, their playmates made sarcastic comments. Everything combined to create a feeling of inferiority, if not in childhood, at least by the time they reached maturity. No matter how excellent their training, Indian girls were usually forced to accept whom they could as white husbands; Indian boys rarely married.
The examples cited are not many, but they help to justify these conclusions. Of the thirty-two examples mentioned or discussed briefly, only seven married whites, six women and one man. The others died unmarried or went back to the Indian way of life. The writer has met the descendants of Rhoda Carpenter, Minnie Hartman, Janet Leavitt, and David Lemmon. It would seem that the children of these Indian-white marriages carried a certain stigma or were at a disadvantage in their association with the whites. With the grandchildren, this difference is much less, while the fourth generation seems to have forgotten entirely that it has any of the "blood of Israel" in its veins. At least they mix on an equal plane with their associates.
With many people, in fact, it is a matter of pride that they have Indian blood in their veins. In this connection, one is reminded of Will Rogers who said that his ancestors didn't come on the Mayflower; they were here to meet it.
It is interesting to note that a recent selection of a girl to be the queen of the Covered Wagon days —a girl supposed to represent the epitome of beauty and culture and accomplishment— had a great-grandmother who was an Indian. In recent months, the writer made it a point to check oh the fourth and fifth generations of the descendants of her grandfather's Indian wife. In one family of eight great-grandchildren, the first five were all valedictorians of their high school graduating class; the others are younger and not yet graduated. In Las Vegas, Nevada, three other girls were met, all of whom held excellent positions; in fact, in general they take their places without question in society and as leaders.
The promise that the Indians shall yet become a "white and delightsome" people is still repeated in Mormondom, but it is with a difference. Whereas the first missionaries went out to help bring about its fulfillment, and with a genuine interest in the welfare of the natives, that zeal is now largely spent. The Mormon record on the whole is good; their experiment in intermarriage leaves much to be said on both sides. Certainly it resulted in heartbreaks and maladjustments; certainly the children of such marriages, and in many cases the grandchildren, also, were at a disadvantage socially. Yet, seen from a distance, after four or five generations, it seems that the results cannot entirely be condemned.
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