Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 46, Number 3, 1978 by Utah Historical Society

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UTAH HISTORICAL QUARTERLY EDITORIAL STAFF MELVIN T. SMITH,

Editor

STANFORD J. L A Y T O N , Managing M I R I A M B. M U R P H Y , Associate J A N E T G. B U T L E R , Assistant

Editor Editor

Editor

ADVISORY BOARD OF EDITORS T H O M A S G. ALEXANDER, Provo,

1980

M R S . I N E Z S. C O O P E R , Cedar City, 1978 S. GEORGE E L L S W O R T H , Logan, G L E N M . L E O N A R D , Bountiful,

1978 1979

DAVID E. M I L L E R , Salt Lake City, 1979 L A M A R P E T E R S E N , Salt Lake City, 1980 R I C H A R D W. SADLER, Ogden,

1979

HAROLD SCHINDLER, Salt Lake City, G E N E A. S E S S I O N S , Bountiful,

1978

1980

Utah Historical Quarterly was established in 1928 to publish articles, documents, and reviews contributing to knowledge of Utah's history. T h e Quarterly is published by the U t a h State Historical Society, 307 West Second South, Salt Lake City, U t a h 84101. Phone (801) 533-5755 (membership), 533-6024 (publications). Members of the Society receive the Quarterly, Beehive History, and the bimonthly Newsletter upon payment of the annual dues; for details see inside back cover. Single copies, $2.00. Materials for publication should be submitted in duplicate accompanied by return postage and should be typed double-space with footnotes at the end. Additional information on requirements is available from the managing editor. T h e Society assumes no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion by contributors. T h e Quarterly is indexed in Book Review Index to Social Science Periodicals, America: History and Life, and Abstracts of Popular Culture. Second class postage is paid at Salt Lake City, U t a h . ISSN 0042-143X

HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Contents S U M M E R 1 9 7 8 / V O L U M E 46 / N U M B E R 3

IN T H I S ISSUE

215

OPEN HAND AND MAILED FIST: MORMON-INDIAN RELATIONS IN UTAH, 1847-52

HOWARD

CHRISTY

216

OF PRIDE AND POLITICS: BRIGHAM YOUNG AS INDIAN SUPERINTENDENT

FLOYD A. O ' N E I L and

STANFORD J. LAYTON

236

S. LYMAN TYLER

251

UTE INDIANS ALONG CIVIL WAR C O M M U N I C A T I O N LINES

T H E U T A H NATIONAL GUARD ON T H E MEXICAN BORDER IN 1916 . . . .

ROBERTS

262

MICHAEL J. CLARK

282

RICHARD

IMPROBABLE AMBASSADORS: BLACK SOLDIERS AT F O R T DOUGLAS, 1896-99

SILVER SERVICE F O R T H E BATTLESHIP UTAH: A NAVAL T R A D I T I O N UNDER GOVERNOR SPRY

MICHAEL

ELDREDGE

302

BOOK REVIEWS

319

BOOK NOTICES

330

T H E C O V E R Stern of the battleship U t a h which was christened by Gov. William Spry's daughter, Mary Alice, in December 1909. Utahns presented a beautiful, if somewhat controversial, silver service to the new dreadnought in November 1911. After thirty years afloat as a U.S. Navy vessel, the ship was sunk at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

M O N T E BURR M C L A W S .

Spokesman

for the Kingdom: Early Mormon Journalism and the Deseret News, 1830-1898 . .

DAVID M E R R I L L

319

ROBERT H . H I N C K L E Y and J o A N N J A C O B S E N W E L L S . "I'd Rather

Be Born Lucky Than Rich": The Autobiography of Robert

Hinckley

R O D DECKER

DAVIS BITTON. Guide to Mormon and Autobiographies

321

Diaries S. G E O R G E E L L S W O R T H

322

Temples of the Mormons: The Architecture of the Millennial Kingdom in the American West . M A R K H A M I L T O N

324

Books reviewed L A U R E L B. A N D R E W . The

Early

L O N N I E E. U N D E R H I L L a n d D A N I E L F .

L I T T L E F I E L D , J R . , comps. a n d eds.

Hamlin Garland's Observations on the American Indian, 1895-1905 K E N N E T H R. P H I L P . John

Crusade for Indian

Collier's

Reform,

1920-1954

VERONICA

C. GREGORY C R A M P T O N . The of Cibola

C L A R E N C E E. D U T T O N .

History District

TILLER

326

RICHARD N. ELLIS

328

MELVIN T. SMITH

329

Zunis

Tertiary

of the Grand Canon with Atlas . . . .

In this issue As with the story of mankind generally, the history of Utah has derived its complexion and animation from men and ideas in conflict. From the time of earliest exploration to the present, Utah's stage has never known an interlude in the most fascinating of all dramas: disparate personalities and views fixed in a state of kinetic tension. This issue recalls a half-dozen acts from that busy platform, illuminates them with historical perspective, and offers them as a representative sample of the Utah experience. Just as conflict impelled the Mormons westward, so their arrival in the Great Basin immediately precipitated a series of skirmishesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;some open and violent, such as with the Native Americans reluctant to share the land; some more subtle, as with the federal appointees who challenged the Mormons' desire for political autonomy. These matters are scrutinized in the first two selections. War and preparation for war provide the setting for the remaining articles. The Civil War, though fought far from the western territories, had a lasting impact on the Ute Indians, and the telling of that story is long overdue. Similarly, the mobilization of Utah National Guard units for duty on the Mexican border is not a well-known event even though it affected thousands of people and provided an important rehearsal for participation in the world war that followed. Black soldiers stationed at Fort Douglas and interacting with a dubious white community just before and after the Spanish-American War is an equally interesting and long-awaited story. The final piece details the controversy surrounding the U.S.S. Utah silver service design. Little more than a footnote in Utah history, the incident is nevertheless profound for what it reveals of conflict as the pervasive force in human affairs.

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Relations

in Utah, 1847-52

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BY HOWARD A. CHRISTY

Paiute Indian photographed J. K. Hillers} Smithsonian Office of Anthropology.

by Institution,

Mormon-Indian

Relations

217

W H E N HISTORIANS DISCUSS M O R M O N policy toward the Indians they usually mention attitudes of fairness, benevolence, and conciliation exemplified in the phrase coined by Brigham Young: " I t is cheaper to feed them than fight them." Virtually all the prominent U t a h scholars have pointed out such a policy, emphasizing or at least implying its essentially beneficent nature. A typical treatment is that of Juanita Brooks who wrote: " W h e n the natives gathered around to watch the new-comers . . . they were treated with kindness and tolerance. Brigham Young early made the pronouncement that became a basic Mormon tenet, Tt is cheaper to feed the Indians than fight them.' m Though the existence of this policy is not questioned, the interpretation of its essential beneficence flies in the face of evidence that is, at the least, ambiguous. Hostility and bloodshed, as much as benevolence and conciliation, characterized Mormon-Indian relations in U t a h before 1852. T h e policy actually carried out, though couched in terms of beneficence, had as one of its major elements, in addition to assistance, stern punishment when deemed appropriate or necessary. T h e best evidence indicates that Brigham Young's first mention of his now famous statement was in July 1851 following a number of punitive campaigns carried out between M a r c h 1849 and J u n e 1851. By then, experience had demonstrated that it was indeed cheaper to feed the Indians than fight them. I Though the Mormons did not arrive in U t a h until July 1847, they established their initial policy toward the Indians before the first group left their Winter Quarters in Nebraska and Iowa. It was a practical policy centered on two aspects: separation and fairness. Brigham Young established the basic approach as early as 1846 when he presented his position to the high council at a special meeting. H e remarked that it was his impression that the committee should not enter into any specific agreement with the Indians but endeavor to create a friendly feeling and have a meeting at a future time: " W e should not invite the Indians to our c a m p , " said the president on August 15, "we can go and see t h e m . " Young continued: Mr. Christy is the historical editor at Brigham Young University Press. Juanita Brooks, " I n d i a n Relations on the Mormon Frontier," Utah Historical Quarterly 12 (1944) : 1-48. Also see H u b e r t Howe Bancroft, History of Utah (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1964), p. 4 7 1 ; Andrew Love Neff, History of Utah: 1847 to 1869, ed. Leland Hargrave Creer (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1946), p. 3 6 8 ; Orson H . Whitney, History of Utah, 4 vols. (Salt Lake City, 1892), 1:425; and S. George Ellsworth, Utah's Heritage (Salt Lake City and Santa Barbara, Calif.: Peregrine Smith Inc., 1972), p. 162. 1

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W e w a n t the privilege of staying on their land this winter, cutting timber, building houses, perhaps leaving some families and crops; suggest that we might do them good, repairing their guns, and learning them how, and teaching their children and if they want pay for occupancy of their lands, we will pay them. 2

There were many contacts with Indians in the vicinity of Winter Quarters. Though friendship generally prevailed, Indians stole a considerable number of horses and cattle.3 Each loss was considered serious, as the Mormons were in a desperate condition following their premature expulsion from Illinois. Horses and oxen were essential for the westward trek. Yet, the prophet strongly counseled against killing Indians for theft. Young's clerks reported in his manuscript history that in March 1847 just before heading west he told the Council that if any of the brethren shot an O m a h a I n d i a n for stealing, they must deliver the m u r d e r e r to Old Elk to be dealt with, as the Indians shall decide, as that was the only way to save the lives of the women and children. I felt that it was wrong to indulge in feelings of hostility and bloodshed toward the Indians, the descendents of Israel, who might kill a cow, an ox or even a horse; to them the deer, the buffalo, the cherry and p l u m tree, or strawberry bed were free. It was their mode of living to kill a n d eat. If the O m a h a s would persist in robbing and stealing, after being warned not to do so, whip them. I realize there were men a m o n g us who would steal, who knew better, whose traditions and earliest teachings were all against it. Yet such would find fellowship with those who would shoot an I n d i a n for stealing. 4

Mormon leaders obtained valuable information regarding the Ute Indians at Fort Bridger three weeks before the advance party of settlers reached the Great Basin. James Bridger warned the party that "the Utah tribe of Indians [centered in Utah Valley] are a bad people; if they catch a man alone they are sure to rob and abuse him, if they don't kill him.'" Young's concern was described in a letter written by Willard Richards and George A. Smith, both Mormon leaders. Young "felt inclined for the 2 "Journal History of the C h u r c h , " August 15, 1846, Archives Division, Historical Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City (hereinafter cited as J H ) . Young later had occasion to deny that he may have actually promised payment to nearby Indians for use of their lands. Responding to a letter from Indian agent M a j . John Miller reporting that an Ottoe chief h a d demanded money the Mormons h a d promised for use of his tribe's land, Young stated: "we do not owe them any thing for the land, we never agreed to pay them any thing, the government of the United States stopped us here and if there is any thing due to the Indians it is due from the General Government, not from us." See George W. Wear to Young, May 7, 1848, and Young to Miller, May 8, 1848, Brigham Young Collection, LDS Archives, Microfilm reel 92, box 57, folder 5 (hereafter cited as B Y O ) . a 4 5

J H , February 13 and 24, and December 6, 1847. Brigham Young Manuscript History, 1847:74, L D S Archives (hereafter cited as H B Y ) . J H , June 28, 1847.

Mormon-Indian

Relations

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present not to crowd the Utes until we have a better chance to get acquainted with them. . . . T h e Utes may feel a little tenacious about their choice lands on the U t a h Lake, and [we] had better keep further north towards Salt Lake. . . ."6 Within a few days of the Mormons' arrival in the Great Basin, small groups of Shoshonis and Utes came to trade horses for guns. T h e situation soon became complicated when the Shoshonis claimed that the Utes were trading on Shoshoni land and interfering with their rights. They also desired to sell land to the Mormons for ammunition. 7 Concerned that trouble might ensue, Heber C. Kimball, speaking for Brigham Young who was ill, responded the next day by establishing a strict policy of separation. H e exhorted the Mormons to build their houses together in the form of a stockade and to cease trading their guns and ammunition. Kimball then established a far-reaching policy regarding land ownership. R a t h e r than contracting with the Indians for purchase of land, or paying for the use of the landâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;policy proposed by Brigham Young in 1846 in Iowaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Kimball declared that the Indians did not own the land in the first place. He discouraged the idea of paying the Indians for the lands, for if the Shoshonis should be thus considered, the Utes and other tribes would claim pay also. "The land belongs to our Father in Heaven, and we calculate to plow and plant it; and no man shall have the power to sell his inheritance for he cannot remove it; it belongs to the Lord." 8

T h e Indian position, as if in response to the above, was reported three weeks later at a special conference. They claimed "all the land was their own" and that they "were in the habit of taking a share of the grain for their use of the land." 9 There is no indication that such a proposition was ever seriously considered in U t a h . O n August 26, 1847, Young and most of the church leadership left the Great Basin to return to Winter Quarters for the purpose of bringing more settlers west the following season. They left to those remaining an epistle that in part reiterated the policy of strict separation and added, "if you wish to trade with them, go to their c a m p and deal with them honestly." 10 T h e remainder of 1847 and most of 1848 was a period of generally peaceful relations with the Indians, though in M a r c h 1848 a forty-fiveMbid., July 2 1 , 1847. ' Ibid., July 3 1 , 1847. s Ibid., August 1, 1847. "Ibid., August 22, 1847. in Epistle of the Q u o r u m of the Twelve Apostles as recorded in J H , September 9, 1847.

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man posse was sent in pursuit of Indians "about Utah Lake" who had stolen seventeen cattle and one horse. Contact was made east of LItah Lake but no fighting broke out. The Indian chief whipped the "two principal thieves" and "all promised to do better." The high council at Great Salt Lake City reported that the marshal of the posse "was sent out with discretionary power and plenty of force," an indication that the Mormon settlers were stiffening in their attitude toward the stealing of stock and that further such "depredations" might be dealt with harshly.11 During the remainder of 1848 survival was the Mormons' primary concern, and the new settlers expended most of their energies on bringing in a food crop for the expanding settlement as soon as possible.12 Exploring parties scouted adjacent areas, but the settlement remained confined to greater Salt Lake Valley. Still, the local Indians, especially the Utes, were confused and angered by this attempt at a permanent white settlement in their domain. Hostile action was restrained, however, possibly due to the location of the settlement in the buffer zone between the Shoshonis and Utes.13 By early 1849, however, relations between the Mormons and the Utes had begun to deteriorate. Responding to reports of many horses being stolen and cattle being killed by renegades, Brigham Young dispatched a company of militia, under Col. John Scott, with orders (according to Hosea Stout's account) "to take such measures as would put a final end to their depredations in future."14 Scott, with his detachment of thirty-five men, entered Utah Valley on March 3 and was informed of the location of the renegade band by a local Ute Indian named Little Chief. The detachment then proceeded to surround the band and, on March 5, laid siege. The Indians answered a challenge to surrender with a shower of arrows and a two-hour battle ensued. All four warriors were killed, but there were no militia casualties. Scott's detachment returned to Great Salt Lake Valley the next day, followed by the "squaws and 11

J H , March 1, 5 and 6, 1848. Brigham Young returned to U t a h with another large contingent of settlers in the summer of 1848. 1:! See Edward W. Tullidge, "History of Provo," Tullidge's Quarterly Magazine 3 (1884) : 2 4 1 ; Paul Bailey, Walkara, Hawk of the Mountains (Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1954), pp. 4 9 - 5 0 ; and Paul Bailey, The Claws of the Hawk (Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1966), pp. 131-39. " H o s e a Stout Diary, 8 vols., 4 : 4 8 , typescript, Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, U t a h . T h e stock was taken from herds in Tooele Valley and southern Great Salt Lake Valley by a renegade band of Ute Indians who had declared their hostility toward the white settlers some time before. T h e band was led by three brothers, " R o m a n Nose," "Blueshirt," and one other (possibly " C o n e " ) . Reportedly they had been driven out of U t a h Valley by their chief because they refused to stop stealing cattle from the Mormons. See Oliver B. Huntington Diary, pp. 5 2 - 5 3 , Lee Library. 12

Mormon-Indian

Relations

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children of the slain." 15 T h e action, carried out with determination and dispatch, was apparently in contravention of Brigham Young's previously proposed policy that Indians would not, or should not, be killed for stealing. Though the militia killed all the men of the renegade band, they failed to "put a final end to . . . depredations in future." In fact, their actions may have h a d an opposite effect. Even the Indians who had recommended that the renegades be killed and who had led the militia to the renegade camp bemoaned the ruthlessness with which the action was carried out. Little Chief "howled, cried, . . . screamed and smote his breast in the greatest agony" and "blamed and cursed the whites, and said it would not be good medicine for two or three to come there alone as they had done before." 36 Just five days later the Mormon leadership voted to send out a small colony to settle in the midst of the Utes in U t a h Valley. T h e settlers, led by John S. Higbee and numbering about 150 persons, set out on M a r c h 18.17 They were stopped en route by the U t e Indians. As no effort had been made to treat with the Indians before the colony was dispatched, the Indians demanded to know the intent of the settlers before they were allowed to proceed. Dimick B. Huntington, interpreter for the colony, parleyed with the Indians and promised that though their intent was to establish a permanent settlement, the settlers would not drive the Indians from their lands or take away their rights. 18 Nevertheless, as early as April 17, President Young had some indication that the Utes were planning an attack on the settlement. 19 Young warned the colony the next day "to look out for the Indians, not to make them any presents, but, if they would be friendly, to teach them to raise grain and to quit stealing." 2 " In M a y he remarked that old Indians will not "enter into the new and everlasting covenant" or gain knowledge, "but they will die and be damned." H e admonished the people to "stay at home and mind your own business and the Indians will do the same. " F o r accounts of the March 5, 1849 skirmish, see J H , February 27 and 28, and March 10, 1849; Stout Diary, 4 : 4 8 - 5 6 ; and Huntington Diary, pp. 53-55. lfl Huntington Diary, p. 55. 17 Tullidge, "History of Provo," p. 233. ls Provo- Pioneer Mormon City, comp. Writers Program, Work Projects Administration (Portland Ore : Binfords and Mort, 1942), p. 45. A treaty with the U t a h Valley Utes was proposed 'as early as M a r c h 1848 for at least fishing rights, but there is no evidence that it was carried out. See J H , M a r c h 6, 1848. 19 TH April 17 1849 In Bailey, Walkara, Hawk of the Mountains, pp. 6 6 - 6 7 , the author tells of Walkara's wrath upon seeing the new U t a h Valley settlement. H a d it not been for the lack of warriorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and the lack of support from Chief Sowietteâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Walkara may have attacked the settlement then and there. 2 " J H , April 19, 1849.

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And if they come and are not friendly, put them where they can't harm us. . . ."21 As a precaution, Young directed that a letter of friendship be sent to the Ute war chief Walkara on May 14, and a few days later he again warned the Utah Valley settlers—this time instructing them to finish their fort quickly—to strictly control the number of Indians to be allowed in the fort at any one time, and to beware of deception. Later, he enlarged upon his previously stated policy of separation by urging the settlers not to be so familiar with the Indians, because, he said, "it makes them bold, impudent, and saucy, and will become a source of trouble and expense to you. Keep them at a respectful distance all the time, and they will respect you the more for it."22 On June 13, Brigham Young, his two counselors, and an interpreter met in council with Walkara and twelve of his warriors. During the discussion Young and Walkara expressed friendship. Walkara, having temporarily mellowed, indicated his antagonism toward the Utah Lake Utes and invited the Mormons to settle in his lands to the south of Utah Valley. Young responded affirmatively and went on to propose that the Mormons could help the Indians grow crops, develop herds, and learn to read.23 Despite growing concern over Indians, expansion was a primary theme during the summer of 1849 and the following October church general conference. A new settlement in San Pitch (Sanpete) Valley, south of Utah Valley, was announced and an appeal went out to members worldwide: "We want men. Brethren, come from the States, from the nations, come! and help us to build and grow until we can say enough—the valleys of Ephraim are full."24 The San Pitch company, numbering 224 people led by Isaac Morley, departed Salt Lake City on October 28.25 Later in the year a party under the leadership of Parley P. Pratt embarked on an extensive exploration of the valleys further south. On October 15, Isaac Higbee, who had replaced John S. Higbee as leader of the Utah Valley colony, wrote that Indians had been trouble21

Ibid., May 7, 1849. Ibid., May 14, 19 and 28, 1849. 23 Ibid., June 13, 1849. In Bailey, Walkara, Hank of the Mountains, pp. 1 9 - 2 1 , the author indicates that residual hostility by Walkara toward the U t a h Lake Utes (Timpany Utes) was because T i m p a n y Utes had killed Walkara's father. Walkara and his brother Arapeen avenged their father's murder and fled south, eventually settling in Sanpete Valley. 21 Second Epistle of the First Presidency of the LDS church as reported in J H , October 12, 1849. 25 J H , October 28 and November 22, 1849. At a public meeting, President Young was quoted as having called young men to San Pitch Valley ". . . and to take possession of all good valleys." 22

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some for several weeks. Three men were shot at, two animals were killed, and some corn was stolen. The Indians were reported as "very saucy, annoying and provoking, threatening to kill the men and the women.'" President Young answered with a letter repeating his previous counsel to build up their fort, attend to their own affairs, and to leave the Indians alone. He went on to scold them for mixing "promiscuously" with the Indians.27 II Events came with a rush in 1850 and forced total reversal of the policy of fairness. Ironically, the reversal was precipitated by three Mormon settlers. In early January the three men accosted "Old Bishop," a member of one of the Indian bands living in Utah Valley, reportedly for stealing a shirt. The men shot him, cut his stomach open, filled it with rocks, and dumped the body into the Provo River. They returned to the settlement and openly boasted of their exploit.28 Indians soon found Old Bishop's body and furiously called for revenge. Their hostile communications to the settlers, and increased killing and stealing of cattle, led to alarm. One of the Utah Valley settlers, Alexander Williams, wrote to Brigham Young requesting that action be taken to quell the increasingly troublesome Indians. Young responded on January 9 and once again x

Ibid., October 15, 1849; and HBY, October 15, 1849. Ibid., October 18, 1849. Young stated: "Let any man, or company of men be familiar with the Indians and they will be more familiar; and the more familiar, you will find the less influence you will have with them. If you would have dominion over them, for their good which is the duty of the Elders, you must not treat them as your equals. You cannot exalt them by this process. If they are your equals, you cannot raise them up to you." 2S J H , January 31, 1850; HBY, 1850:17-18. T h e HBY account reads: "Statement made by Elder James Bean (June 12, 1854). "Early in January 1850 Jerome Zobriski, Richard A. Ivie, and John Rufus Stoddard were Koing out from the fort'in U t a h Valley, professedly to hunt cattle; shortly they met an Indian who was wearing a shirt which R. A. Ivie claimed, alleging that it had been stolen from him and demanded it; the Indian refused to give it up, saying he had bought it; whereupon they tried to take it from him forcibly, he struggling all the time against them to defend himselt drew his bow, when John R. Stoddard shot him through the head killing him instantly; they then draeered his corpse to the Provo River and sunk it near the Box Elder Island. " T h e Indians became suspicious, instituted a search and found the body; then they commenced depredations by stealing horses and cattle. T h e Indian shot by Stoddard was known among the whites as "Old Bishop" on account of his appearance and gestures which somewhat resembled Bishop Whitney's. , , _. , F,, " T h e settlers in U t a h Ft. then made a law to keep all Indians out ot the tort. Old Llk who was sick with the measles came in for some medicine went to Sister Hunt's house where Alexander Williams saw him and took him by the nape of the neck and kicked him out ot the fort T h a t same evening the Indians stole three cows out ^of Mrs. Hunt's yard and continued stealing, which was the commencement of Indian difficulties ''James Bean heard Ivie relate the occurrence. Zobriski and Stoddard have boasted of it. "Elder Tames Goff subsequently stated that the murder of the I n d i an was talked of at the time by many of the settlers, and that it was asserted that the men who killed the Indian ripped his bowels open and filled them with stones preparatory to sinking his body O t h e r accounts give the date of the murder as early as August 1849. If true the increase of hostility reported by Isaac Higbee in October 1849 would thereby be explained. See p. 222. 27

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reiterated his policy. He warned that if they killed Indians for stealing they would have to "answer for it."29 Leaders of the Utah Valley settlement were not persuaded. Determined to take action, Isaac Higbee traveled to Salt Lake City to petition personally for authority to launch a punitive expedition. On January 31 he attended a meeting with President Young, his counselors, the Quorum of the Twelve, and militia commander Daniel H. Wells. Apostle Parley P. Pratt, who had recently returned from his southern exploration, argued that the only alternatives were abandoning Utah Valley (with the resultant break in communications with settlements further south), defending the Utah Valley settlement, or leaving the Utah Valley settlers to their destruction. He recommended "it best to kill the Indians." Higbee responded that "every man and boy [in Utah Valley] held up their hand to kill them off. . . ." The record does not indicate that Higbee made any mention of the murder of Old Bishop—the incident that had precipitated the dilemma. Willard Richards added to the above by declaring "my voice is for war, and exterminate them." Young, convinced of the need for action, and persuaded by the unanimous recommendation of all those present, ordered a selective extermination campaign to be carried out against the Utah Valley Indians. He ordered that all the men were to be killed—women and children to be saved if they "behave themselves" —and military orders were immediately drafted to that effect by General Wells. Wells's "Special Order No. 2," dated January 31 and addressed to Capt. George D. Grant, commander of the militia company sent from Great Salt Lake City, reads in part: You are hereby ordered . . . to cooperate with the inhabitants of said [ U t a h ] Valley in quelling a n d staying the operations of all hostile I n d i a n s a n d otherwise act, as the circumstances m a y require, e x t e r m i n a t i n g such, as do not separate themselves from their hostile clans, a n d sue for peace.

The next day Young met with Capt. Howard Stansbury, head of a unit of U.S. Army Topographic Engineers carrying out land surveys in Utah, who encouraged an attack on the Utah Valley Indians and offered his fullest support. On February 2, 1850, Young addressed the general assembly and announced his decision.3" 29 Ibid., January 29, 1850. Young proposed: " W h y should men have a disposition to kill a destitute, naked Indian, who may steal a shirt or a horse and think it no harm, when they never think of meting out a like retribution to a white man who steals, although he has been taught better from infancy?" 10 An account of the dialogue of the January 31 meeting can be found in BYC, Microfilm reel 80, box 47, folder 6. Brigham Young is quoted as stating: "I say go [and] kill them. . . . Tell Dimick H u n t i n g t o n to go and kill them—also Barney Ward—let the women and children live if they behave themselves. . . . We have no peace until the men [are] killed off—never treat the Indian as your equal." Wells's Special Order No. 2 can be found in the U t a h State Archives,

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T h e campaign was carried out with zeal. O n February 8, 1850, a voluntary force made up of militia from Salt Lake City and U t a h Valley, supported by cannon, surrounded and laid seige to a group of about seventy Indians under Big Elk (Old Elk) who were dug in at a nearby location on the Provo River. After two days of heavy fighting the Indians withdrew, leaving eight dead, including one woman whose legs were severed by cannon shot. O n e militiaman was also killed in the battle. T h e Indian wounded and sick retreated up Rock Canyon and the main body fled in the direction of the Spanish Fork River. 31 General Wells then departed for U t a h Valley on February 10 and personally directed a relentless pursuit. Unit commanders were instructed to "take no hostile prisoners" and "let none escape but do the work up clean." One party entered Rock Canyon, finding eight or nine Indians, including Big Elk, dead of wounds, disease, or exposure. Wells and a two-company force of 110 men pursued the main body of Indians who were withdrawing south. 32 W h a t happened next is recorded in General Wells's field dispatch to Brigham Young written on the night of February 13. Wells reported that a force of "15 or 20" warriors, with their families, surrendered to a militia unit under Captain Grant on the lake shore west of Table Mountain (near Payson). T h e Indians, stated Wells, came rather through fear t h a n otherwise and seemed determined b u t to give up refusing to smoke the pipe of peace we shall deal with them in a most summary m a n n e r as soon as another day favors us with light. . . .

Then, in a postscript appended the next morning, Wells wrote: "Please to make some suggestion in relation to the disposal of some 15 or 20 squaws and children who probably belonged to some 11 warriors who met their fate in a small skirmish this morning." Apparently General Wells had seen to it that his orders were carried out not to take hostile prisoners nor to let any escape. 33 State Capitol, Salt Lake City, U t a h Territorial Militia Correspondence, 1849-1863, ST-27, Microfilm reel 1, Document No. 5 (hereafter cited as State Archives). General Wells wrote in his narrative, written some years later, that he left for U t a h Valley (ten days later) with orders "not to leave the valley until every Indian was out." See "Daniel H. Wells Narrative," Utah Historical Quarterly 6 (1933) : 126. O n February 14, 1850, Brigham Young instructed: "If the Indians sue for peace, grant it to them, according to your discretion and judgment in the case. If they continue hostile pursue them until you use them up â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Let it be peace with them or extermination." See State Archives, ST-27, Young to Wells, February 14, 1850, Microfilm reel 3, Document No. 1,312. 1,1 Accounts of the first two days of battle can be found in Provo: Pioneer Mormon City, pp. 5 2 - 5 9 ; Tullidge, "History of Provo," pp. 2 3 7 - 3 9 ; and HBY, 1850, 23-25. ;2 ' Special Orders No 10 February 9, 1850, State Archives, ST-27, Microfilm reel 1, Document No 16: and Lt. George W. Howland to Brigham Young, February 15, 1850, Ibid., reel 3, Document No. 1,311. Also see Provo: Pioneer Mormon City, p. 5 8 ; and Tullidge, History of Provo," pp. 239-40. 33 Wells to Brigham Young, February 13-14, 1850, State Archives, ST-27, Microfilm reel 3, Document No. 1,309. For some interesting secondary accounts, see John W. Gunnison, The

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After the killings, Dr. James Blake, a U.S. Army surgeon, with the assistance of two militiamen, decapitated the bodies, ostensibly for future research. 34 Units dispatched later in the day of February 14 spotted and fired upon five Indians thought to be scouts, killing three. Three more warriors were killed in their camp on Peteetneet Creek on February 15. Another Indian (probably a woman) was killed in Rock Canyon by militiamen on February 17. T h e following day, General Wells and the main militia force, in response to instructions from Brigham Young, started back to Great Salt Lake City, taking Indian women and children prisoners with them. An eleven-man detachment of the Great Salt Lake City force remained to assist the local (Utah Valley) militia in further pursuit and to escort other prisoners—and wounded militia—northward when they were able to travel. T h e campaign came to a close a few days later when militia responded to a report of Indian fires being spotted nearby. T h e force came upon twenty-four Indians, who were reported to be "very hostile." No fighting broke out, however, the forces being equal, a n d all repaired to the fort where a truce was negotiated. 35 Brigham Young's decision to launch an extermination campaign was seemingly in total contradiction of his position stated only three weeks before. T h e reason for this reversal-—and his reluctance to do so—is suggested by his statement at a meeting held with his counselors and the Twelve on February 10, 1850: I a m sent now to confiscate all their p r o p e r t y — a n d then p u t them in the heat of battle a n d kill them—if men h a d taken a different course t h e r e — there would not have been any t r o u b l e — I have told them the cause of their difficulties—shooting with the I n d i a n s — g a m b l i n g — a n d r u n n i n g horses with them. . . .

H e went on to indicate his fear that the loss of the Utah Valley might lead to ultimate loss of the entire Utah settlement. T h e y must either quit the g r o u n d or we m u s t — w e are to m a i n t a i n t h a t g r o u n d or vacate this—we were cold [told] three years ago—if we don't Mormons, or Latter-day Saints, in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake . . . (Philadelphia, 1852), p. 147 ; and Provo: Pioneer Mormon City, p p . 58-59. 34 See typescripts of the autobiographies of Epsy Jane Williams Pace and Abner Blackburn, Lee Library, for accounts of the mutilations, although the Provo: Pioneer Mormon City quotation of the original documents (pp. 58—59) is probably more accurate. Dr. Blake accompanied the militia from Salt Lake City with the permission of Capt. Howard Stansbury, commanding officer of the U . S . Army Topographic Engineers company then in U t a h surveying routes for the transcontinental railroad. 35 State Archives, S T - 2 7 ; Microfilm reel 1, Document Nos. 36, 39, 44, and 4 5 ; Microfilm reel 3, Document No. 1,312. Another woman in Rock Canyon was reported as having fallen to her death from a precipice in an attempt to escape. Ibid. Also see Tullidge, "History of Provo," pp. 235—40; Provo: Pioneer Mormon City, pp. 5 2 - 5 9 ; Conway B. Sonne, The World Of Wakara (San Antonio: Naylor Co., 1962), pp. 8 5 - 9 8 ; and Wells, "Daniel H. Wells Narrative," p. 126.

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kill those Lake Utes, they will kill us—every m a n told us the same—they all bore testimony the Lake Utes lived by plunder and robbing—if we yield in this instance—we have to yield this land. 3 6

Captain Stansbury also recorded that "the President was at first extremely averse to the adoption of harsh measures. . . .37 In 1854, when Young heard of the Old Bishop murder for the first time, he inserted the account in his manuscript history with the following comment: "These facts, which were hid at the time, explained to me why my feelings were opposed to going to war with the Indians; to which I never consented until Brother Higbee reported that all the settlers in U t a h were of one mind in relation to it." 38 Ill After the U t a h Valley expedition it became customary for reports of depredation to be followed by militia action—and more killings. Whereas policy towards the Indians had been geared initially to benefit both sides, it had, by February 1850, deteriorated to a policy favoring only the new settlers. T h e best land was to be taken up as fast as possible without payment, the Indians were to be strictly excluded, and stealing by Indians was often to bring swift punishment. T h e peace hoped for as a result of the U t a h Valley expedition was not to be, contrary to most contemporary and historical treatments of the period. H a t r e d on the part of at least some of the survivors was intense. O n April 29, Alpheus Baker, returning alone from Sanpete Valley, was murdered by two Utes—the first Mormon settler to be murdered by Indians in the Great Basin. A posse rounded up and brought in nineteen suspects. O n e of them, Patsowett, was summarily tried by a local court at Manti, Utah, convicted, and executed. 39 In May 1850, Walkara invited Brigham Young to attend the annual Indian trade gathering in U t a h Valley. Young went with a M o r m o n trade delegation and met in council with several chiefs. Hope of a good :,fl

BYC, Microfilm reel 80, box 47, folder 6. ' Howard Stansbury, Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah . . . (Philadelphia, 1852), p. 148. :,S HBY, 1850:18. See footnote 28. :ra J H , April 19 and 20, 1850; and Hosea Stout Diary, 4 : 9 3 - 9 4 . In a letter from Dimick B. Huntington to Brigham Young, on April 19, 1850, Huntington reported that Patsowett's brother had been killed previously. Ibid. A letter from Isaac Higbee and Peter W. Conover to Daniel H. Wells, dated April 28, 1850, reads in p a r t : "I understand that Patsowett is in your city, or was last Monday. He and his brother have been killing cattle since the war with the Indians and threatening to kill every white man he can. We have been searching for him to kill him, but have not found him yet. But we found his brother and killed him. We wish you would search for him, and, if he can be found in your valley, to kill him before he can do any more mischief." Quoted in Juanita Brooks, ed., On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844-1861, 2 vols. (Salt Lake City: University of U t a h Press, U t a h State Historical Society, 1964), 2 : 3 6 8 . :7

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peace was dashed, however, when a band of Shoshonis raided a U t e c a m p and stole several horses. Walkara planned a retaliation raid and asked for Mormon militia support. His request was justifiably denied, and Walkara, incensed at both the Shoshonis and the Mormons, rode off with his warriors to do battle with his Indian adversaries. Upon his return after effecting bloody retaliation on the Shoshoni raiders, Walkara and his band made a gruesome demonstration in front of the settlement fort at Manti, then decided to move north and attack the Provo settlement. Rebuffed by another chief, Sowiette, Walkara called off the attack and withdrew. 4 0 In the late summer of 1850 the killing of an Indian for stealing once more caused trouble. This time it was in Shoshoni country (near Ogden) and retaliation was immediate a n d vicious. A Mormon farmer, U r b a n V a n Stewart, caught Terikee, a Shoshoni chief, in his corn patch and killed him. T h e Shoshonis were enraged. They murdered a nearby millwright named Campbell and threatened to massacre all the settlers and burn their property if Stewart was not delivered up to them for punishment by nine o'clock the next morning. Alerted, a large militia force under Gen. Horace S. Eldredge rode out from Great Salt Lake City with orders to quell the disturbance but to do it peacefully if possible. Brigh a m Young a n d Daniel Wells were aware of the hitherto friendly relations with the Shoshonis and apparently h a d been informed that Stewart's act may well have been unwarranted. At the approach of Eldredge's force, the Indians broke and fled and the incident terminated without futher bloodshed. 41 Still, as if convinced that their policy toward the Indians had been unsuccessful, the First Presidency of the Mormon church sought to rid themselves of the problem by having the Indians removed completely beyond the boundaries of the territory. O n November 20, 1850, the day after receiving information by mail that Congress had voted to organize the territory of Utah, 4 2 the L D S First Presidency wrote a letter to John M . Bernhisel, agent for church and state of Deseret interests in Washington, D.C. Brigham Young explained later that the letter's purpose was to endeavor to effect the extinguishment of the I n d i a n title a n d the removal to, a n d location of the I n d i a n s at, some favorable point on the 4 "See J H , May 14, 18, 20 a n d 3 1 , and June 27, 1850; Tullidge, "History of Provo." pp. 240-41 ; Bailey, The Claws of the Hawk, pp. 2 5 3 - 6 0 ; Sonne, The World of Wakara, pp. 1 0 8 - 1 5 ; and "Reminiscences of the Early Days of M a n t i , " Utah Historical Quarterly 6 (1933) : 117-18. 41 See J H , September 16, 17, 1850: HBY, 1850: 8 5 - 8 6 ; Tullidge's Histories 2 (Salt Lake City, 1 8 8 9 ) : 1 5 - 1 6 ; and State Archives, ST-27, Microfilm reel 1, Document Nos. 6 4 - 8 8 . 42 Hosea Stout Diary, p. 126.

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eastern slope of the Sierra N e v a d a where forests, g a m e a n d streams are plenty; or to the W i n d River chain of m o u n t a i n s , where fish, a n d g a m e a b o u n d ; or on the Snake R i v e r : at neither of which points white m e n dwell. T h e progress of civilization, the safety of the mails a n d the welfare of the I n d i a n s themselves called for the adoption of this policy. 43

O n December 2, 1850, just two weeks after the letter to Bernhisel was written, Brigham Young addressed the General Assembly of the state of Deseret to inform them of the creation of U t a h Territory. H e spoke of the Indians. Without reference to the request for removal that h a d been dispatched only days before, he commented on the serious cultural g a p that existed and implied that the gap might be impossible to bridge. All the I n d i a n s with w h o m we have h a d difficulties, are d e t a c h e d or broken off bands from the m a i n tribes; with them, o u r peaceful relations have never been interrupted. W e have spared no time or expense in endeavoring to conciliate the I n d i a n s , a n d learn t h e m to leave off their habits of pilfering a n d p l u n d e r i n g a n d work like other people. But habits of civilization seem not to be in accordance with their physical f o r m a t i o n ; m a n y t h a t have tried it, pine away, a n d unless r e t u r n e d to their former habits of living, die in a very short time. Could they be induced to live peacefully a n d keep herds of cattle, then conditions would very materially be ameliorated, a n d gradually induce a return to the habits of civilization. 4 4

T h e Bernhisel letter was never specifically acted upon; title to Indian lands in U t a h was never extinguished completely. 4 '' As no documented 43

HBY, 1850: 108. T h e strongly worded letter reads in p a r t : " I t is our wish that the Indian title should be extinguished, and the Indians removed from our Territory U t a h and that for the best of reasons, because they are doing no good here to themselves or anybody else. T h e buffalo had entirely vacated this portion of the country before our arrival; the elk, deer, antelope a n d bear, and all eatable game are very scarce, and there is little left here (abating the white population) save the naked rocks and soil, naked Indians and wolves; the first two we can use to good advantage, the last two are annoying and destructive to property and peace, by night and by day, and while we are trying to shoot, trap and poison the wolves on one hand, the Indians come in and drive off, butcher our cattle, and steal our corn on the other, which leaves us little time between the wolves and Indians to fence and cultivate our farms: and if government will buy out and transplant the Indians, we will endeavor to subdue the wolves, which have destroyed our cattle, horses, sheep and poultry by hundreds and thousands. . . . ". . . Do we wish the Indians any evil? No we would d o them good, for they are human beings, though most awfully degraded. We would have taught them to plow and sow, and reap and thresh, but they prefer idleness and theft. Is it desirable that the barren soil of the mountain valleys should be converted into fruitful fields? Let the Indians be removed. Is it desirable that the way should be opened up for a rapid increase of population into our new State or Territory, also to California or Oregon? Let the Indians be removed, we can then devote more time to agriculture and raise more grain a n d feed the starving millions desirous of coming hither. "For the prosperity of civilization, for the safety of our mail routes, for the good of the Indians, let them be removed." See BYC, Microfilm reel 31, box 12, folder 14. 44

HBY 1850:121. Several attempts were made to extinguish the Indian title by treaty purchase as legal ownership of occupied lands could not be accomplished otherwise, nor could much financial 43

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response by Bernhisel can be found, it is assumed that he opted to respond in person upon his return to Great Salt Lake City in the spring of 1851, and that he counseled against any formal action. The significance of the letter is that it reflects the attitude of the Mormon leaders at the time and indicates that they despaired of a solution that might be mutually beneficial. Complete removal seemed the only way out. IV Hostilities continued in 1851—again in Utah Valley and later in Tooele Valley, west of Utah Lake. On January 17, 1851, a Mormon settler named Stewart killed an Indian whom he had reportedly mistaken "for a wolf in the grass." Stewart successfully mollified the dead Indian's family by giving them an ox, 300 pounds of flour, and "making a feast for the Indians." 46 Three weeks later, the militia reponded to the report of the theft of fifty cattle and horses in Tooele Valley by dispatching a twenty-man party to that vicinity. The party returned without making contact due to deep snow.47 Indians continued to drive off stock in Tooele Valley, and another party was sent in pursuit in April. This group, under the command of Orrin Porter Rockwell, captured thirty Indians. In an escape attempt, one white, Lorenzo D. Custer, and five Indians were killed. The remainder of the natives made good their escape, except four who were recaptured and probably slain.48 In June, the theft of another sixty head of cattle again led to a mobilization of militia. General Wells issued orders on June 13 to Maj. George D. Grant, Capt. Peter W. Conover, and Capt. William McBride to raise forces totaling ninety men for the purpose of trapping the Indian cattle thieves in the mountains between Tooele and Utah valleys. Instructions to Conover indicated the necessity to "chastise them in the most summary manner"; and those to Grant—and subsequently to McBride—were "to down them . . . and if possible let no hostile Indians escape. . . . " The next day, however, the orders to Grant and Conover were rescinded, and only the twenty-man force under Captain McBride assistance otherwise be gained from federal funds to assist the Indians—also a concern. See Leland Hargrave Creer, Utah and the Nation (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1929), pp. 180-91. 46 J H , January 17, 1851. On the same day, two Indians, a man and a boy, were captured for crippling a yoke of oxen (one of the oxen was killed) in Iron County to the south. "An exchange was made satisfactory, by taking the boy for the ox which was crippled." 47 Ibid., February 11, 1851. ,s I b i d . , April 22, 1851; Stout Diary, 4 : 1 5 5 ; and Tullidge, Tullidge's Histories, 2 : 8 3 - 8 4 . Tullidge reports that the prisoners were later killed by Rockwell's party w h o : "deemed it unwise to turn the thieves in their power loose to commit more depredations and perhaps shed the blood of some useful citizen and they were sacrificed to the natural instincts of self-defense."

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went out. Having trailed the Indians to their camp, McBride held up and sent back a request for reinforcements. On June 20, reinforcements under Capt. William F. Kimball headed for Tooele with orders to "endeavor to rout the Indians and recover the stolen property." McBride and Kimball, supported by local militia, moved against the Indian camp, severely wounding two warriors in a fire fight on June 24, then killing nine in an assault on the camp on June 25. The militia returned to Great Salt Lake City on June 27 and claimed eleven Indians killed. There were no militia casualties.49 Though the attack was carried out with zeal on the part of Captain McBride, General Wells had begun to reverse himself regarding the extermination strategy. In his June 14 rescinding orders to Major Grant he rhetorically stated: If we pursue the same course that people generally do against the I n d i a n s we m a y expect to expend more time a n d money in r u n n i n g after I n d i a n s t h a n all the loss sustained by them. . . .

Wells stated essentially the same to Captain Conover, adding that "all might be saved by proper care and watchfulness and the lives of the Indians spared."50 A turning point had been reached. The June 1851 Tooele expedition was the last extermination effort against Indians in Utah, though militia actions against thieving Indians continued in 1852, and sporadically in later years. Additionally, the rhetoric inserted into General Wells's orders of June 14 may well have been the basis for the "cheaper to feed them than fight them" statement of policy to come. Brigham Young elaborated on the thoughts expressed by Wells just three weeks later in a letter to Lorin Farr in Ogden. In response to Farr's report of a militia action against Shoshonis for stealing horses, Young stated: "do not the people all know that it is cheaper by far, yes hundreds and thousands of dollars cheaper to pay such losses, than raise an expedition . . . to fight Indians." 51 Whether or not the territorial leadership had forsworn extermination as strategy in 1851, local militia actions were carried out in 1852, 49 J H June 10, 13, 20, 25 and 27, 1 8 5 1 ; State Archives, S T - 2 7 ; Microfilm reel 1, Document Nos 120-22, 126; Microfilm reel 3, Document Nos. 1,326-27; Stout Diary, 4 : 1 6 0 ; Peter Gottfredson, Indian Depredations in Utah (Salt Lake City: Skelton Publishing Co., 1919) pp. 3 9 - 4 0 ; a n d Tullidge, Tullidge's Histories, 2 : 8 4 . 50 State Archives, ST-27, Microfilm reel 1, Document Nos. 123-24. O n June 20, Captain McBride pointedly requested arsenic be sent for the purpose of poisoning the water supply at the Indian camp. Ibid., Microfilm reel 3, Document No. 1,328. 51 Farr to Young, July 10, 1851, J H ; and Young to Farr, July 11, 1851, BYC, Microfilm reel 3 1 , box 12, folder 15. Farr reported that one Indian was killed in an initial contact. Later, a militia force made a search into Cache Valley, b u t made no contact.

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again in the vicinity of Tooele. Some of the militiamen, however, opposed ruthless killing of the Indians that had continued raiding their herds. Jacob Hamblin, a Tooele militia lieutenant, recounted that he brought a number of prisoners into Tooele after assuring them that they would not be injured: O n my arrival home, my superior officer ignored the promise of safety I had given the Indians, and decided to have them shot. I told him I did not care to live after I had seen the Indians whose safety I had guaranteed, murdered, and as it m a d e but little difference with me, if there were any shot I should be the first. At the time I placed myself in front of the Indians. This ended the m a t t e r and they were set at liberty. 52

Juanita Brooks, in her biography of Dudley Leavitt, mentions a similar incident where Leavitt brought in a prisoner to Tooele and refused to allow his being shot. Brooks reports that the Indian's fate was decided by Brigham Young, who was contacted by letter (or dispatch). Young "told them to feed the Indian and let him go." V Apparently some sort of practical policy had evolved after the Mormon settlers arrived in U t a h that was a combination of separation (based on the need for security), fair dealing, and assistanceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;tempered by a determination to take ruthless action whenever the Indians refused to accept the quantity of largess offered. Brigham Young strongly indicated the practical nature of such a policy in an address to the U t a h Territorial Legislature in December 1854 when he stated: " I have uniformly pursued a friendly course toward them, feeling convinced that independent of the question of exercising humanity towards so degraded and ignorant a race of people, it was manifestly more economical and less expensive, to feed and clothe, than fight them." 5 4 Earlier that year Young spelled out what appears to have been actual policy in a letter to Colonel Thomas K a n e : We have ever pursued this policy toward them to feed and clothe them and then if they presumed upon forbearance to become ugly saucy and 52 James A. Little, Jacob Hamblin: A Narrative of His Personal Experience as a Frontiersman, Missionary to the Indians and Explorer, 2d ed. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1909). p. 29. (First edition published in 1881.) See also an account of one of the militia actions carried out in March, 1852, in State Archives, ST-27, Microfilm reel 3, Document No. 1,332. 5:i Juanita Brooks, On the Ragged Edge: The Life and Times of Dudley Leavitt (Salt Lake City: U t a h State Historical Society, 1973), pp. 4 6 - 4 7 . 54 B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1930), 4 : 5 1 .

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hostile beyond endurance to chastise them. Yet we have never lost sight of this policy to conciliate them as soon as possible.5"'

Unfortunately, for a period of time the element of "chastisement" received the major emphasis. Beginning in 1851, stimulated by establishment of the U t a h Territorial Indian Agency by Congress in February 1851 and the subsequent proclamation of that superintendency by Governor Young in July 1851, some considerable efforts were inaugurated to aid the Indians. "Indian farmers" were called by Young in the fall and winter of 1851. T w o " I n dian farms" were also designated in late 1851 to go into operation under those called by spring 1852. Throughout 1853 a policy of conciliation was zealously carried out during the Walker War. Following the war, other farms were established, as well as several Indian missions, from 1854 to 1857. However, commendable as these later efforts were, in most respects they came too late. T h e Indians, especially the Utes, declined rapidly as a result of extreme poverty brought on by usurpation of their lands, selective extermination, disease, a n d starvation. Five observations seem warranted. First, conflict over who would control the limited usable land was inevitable. T h e Mormons poured into the valleys of the Wasatch oasis and displaced the Indians from their choicest lands. Having no idea how massive the Mormon immigration would be, the Indians put u p only slight resistance to early expansion; they even invited settlements in the southern valleys in 1849, believing that there was room for all and that both groups could benefit by the other's presence. Not only were the Indians displaced, but the extensive conversion of the grassland to grain fields ruined their native food supply. Angered at the loss of their lands, rapidly becoming impoverished, having no other place to go, and refusing to take u p the white man's farming methods, the natives increasingly relied on theft for survival. Their stealing and expressions of hostility led to bloody reprisal on the part of the Mormons, who felt that the land rightly belonged to those who would develop it. Second, there was an awesome cultural gap between the two peoples. T h e Mormons perceived slovenly, naked Indians of small stature living primitively in rude huts made of brush, eating roots and crickets. They perceived other Indians of a higher cut who brutually exploited their lesser brethren, sold them as slaves, and brazenly carried out the vilest 55

BYC, Microfilm reel 32, box 13, folder 73.

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sort of atrocities, seemingly without conscience. 56 T h e Mormons had some minor success at converting but almost no success at acculturating their new associates. T h e Indians, on the other hand, looked upon the agrarian life-style of the Mormons with almost total disdain. Most were proud of their gatherer-hunter-warrior way of life and had no desire to settle down on small plots of land and grow grain or tend cattle. T h e Utes under Walkara were famous and wealthy (by their standards) when the Mormons arrived in 1847. Throughout the 1840s they made massive raids in California and brought away thousands of horses. Walkara was hailed throughout the West as a great Indian chief.57 Reluctance to being reduced to the status of farmers and herders is understandable. Third, and closely related to the cultural conflict, the Mormons were convinced of the inferiority of the Indian race. There was little desire to allow assimilation. Though a considerable number of Indian children were brought into Mormon homes and raised to maturity, the general policy was strict separation based on a desire for security and a belief that the Indians would never rise to the level of the white m a n if treated as equals. This policy of separation was similar to the general American experience. Robert F. Berkhofer closes his book Salvation and the Savage on a point that could as well be made with regard to the Mormons: " I n many cases the failure of the aborigines to achieve [the] goal of Christian civilization was due to civilized Christians not accepting them on equal terms, for American society traditionally discriminated against non-Caucasian peoples." 58 Fourth, there was little real compassion on either side. Mormons and Indians alike, inured to suffering and struggle and bent upon survival, had little tolerance for those who stood in the way. Feelings of benevolenceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; expressed by spokesmen of both groups from time to timeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;were often eclipsed by less forgiving men. M See Catherine S. Fowler and Don D. Fowler. "Notes on the History of Southern Paiutes and Western Shoshonis," Utah Historical Quarterly 39 ( 1 9 7 1 ) : 9 6 - 1 1 3 ; Julian H. Steward. "Basin-Plateau Aboriginal Sociopolitical Groups." Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 120 (Washington, D . C : Government Printing Office, 1938), pp. 1-264; and Brooks, " I n d i a n Relations on the Mormon Frontier," pp. 1-48. Brigham Young, in his report to the commissioner of Indian Affairs dated August 13, 1851, describes the Snake (Shoshoni) Indians: " . . . t h e Snake diggers . . . who can scarce be said to have any habitation, clothing, arms, or anything else which is generally supposed would contribute to a person's comfort, or even be necessary for one's simple existence. In my first acquaintance with them, they appeared inoffensive, in fact utterly incompetent, and unable to be otherwise, of small stature which appeared to be the result of suffering with cold and hunger, and filthiness. they presented the lowest, most degraded and loathsome specimen of h u m a n existence that I ever beheld." 57 Bailey, Walkara, Hawk of the Mountains, pp. 2 9 - 4 5 ; and Sonne, The World of Wakara, pp. 16-43. 5S Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., Salvation and the Savage: An Analysis of Protestant Missions, and American Indian Response, 1787-1862 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1965), p. 159.

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Fifth, the Mormons put no viable programs into effect before 1852 to support a policy of benevolence. T h e policy was never more than ad hoc, relying mostly upon the good will of individuals. Whatever individual generosity and kindness that existed was overwhelmed by other attitudesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and the regrettable strategy of selective extermination. T h e significant tragedy of the Mormon-Indian experience before 1852 is that it was not unique. In spite of the Mormon's much-quoted feelings of benevolence, they performed typically. T h e Mormon experience, like that stated by Roy Harvey Pearce in his book The Savages of America, showed that "practice did not support theory. Indians were not civilized, but destroyed."'" 59 Roy Harvey Pearce, The Savages of America: A Study Civilization (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1953), p. 4.

of the Indian

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Of Pride and Politics: Brigham Young as Indian Superintendent BY F L O Y D A. o ' N E I L A N D S T A N F O R D J . L A Y T O N

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W H E N BRIGHAM Y O U N G RECEIVED his appointment as ex officio superintendent of Indian Affairs for U t a h Territory in September 1850, the outlines of Mormon-Indian relations h a d already been defined. T h e Mormons had clearly demonstrated their determination to claim the land they needed for settlement, regardless of Indian resistance, and to protect their foothold in the Great Basin at all costs. Although the rhetoric of Dr. O'Neil is associate director of the American West Center, University of U t a h ; Dr. Layton is managing editor of Utah Historical Quarterly.

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Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and others contained the promise of accommodation and respect for the Indians, at that moment Young was pursuing a policy of extermination against the Utes of U t a h Valley. U n d e r his direction, and extending well beyond his tenure as superintendent, the Mormons continued to crowd the Indians off choice land, using force as necessary, until 1869 when the Utes were finally relocated to the Uintah Reservation and the other Indians were expelled from the territory or confined to its remote corners. Upon its surface, the history of Mormon-Indian relations differs little from that of the broader American experience. It is the familiar story of clashing cultures centered around possession of the land and characterized by sporadic warfare, hasty promises poorly understood, and eventual displacement of the fragmented natives by the more numerous and determined whites. Yet, as with Mormon history generally, just when things seem to be typically American the unique has a way of asserting itself and begging for analysis. Mormonism's stormy midwestern experience, its New England heritage, its scriptural base, and its schizophrenic view of government in the nineteenth century combined to create its own script that was acted out on the U t a h stage during the first generation of permanent white settlement. T h e producer and director, quite naturally, was Brigham Young. Persecution of the Mormons by hostile neighbors in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois is a story familiar enough to escape recounting here. T h e essential point is that when the Mormons arrived in the Great Basin, then outside U.S. boundaries, they brought with them an abiding resolution to redeem the land, create a comfortable home, and never again to be driven away by intolerant neighborsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;white or red. " W h e n we first entered U t a h , " Brigham Young reflected in 1853, "we were prepared to meet all the Indians in these mountains, and kill every soul of them if we had been obliged so to do." 1 Little wonder that the Mormons' early years in U t a h were ones of direct and violent confrontation with the Indians. 2 But during their forcible displacement of the Indians, the Mormon leadership experienced a certain crisis of conscienceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a crisis born of the Book of M o r m o n promise that the Indians would be redeemed through the influence of the gospel, a promise that rested uneasily against the reality of the frontier situation demanding immediate dis' Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (London, 1 8 5 4 - 8 6 ) , 1:105. 2 For the details of this early violence see Howard A. Christy, " O p e n H a n d and Mailed F i s f Mormon-Indian Relations in U t a h , 1847-52," elsewhere in this issue.

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placement of the natives. T h e Mormons did not know how long redemption might take, but they understood clearly enough that time was of the essence in their own settlement process. Further, they reflected considerable confusion about the dynamics of the redemption process. Yet this much is certain: the philosophy of the Mormons toward the Indians was anchored to the redemption concept. This concept may have served to temper the natural violence of displacement, but it also acted in tandem with Brigham Young's contemptuous attitude toward government officials to create at high federal levels feelings of distrust and eventual hostility toward his Indian policy. These federal officials never understood the redemption urge and viewed Mormon missionary activity suspiciously. Specifically, and perhaps not without justification, they saw it as a form of tampering with the Indians whereby the natives came to draw a distinction between the Mormons, who were their friends, and the non-Mormons, who were not. By the same token, Brigham Young and other Mormon leaders made little or no effort to explain their Indian policy to the appointed officials. T h e end result was an atmosphere of distrust and a breakdown of communication that served all interests poorly. T h e following pages carry the highlights of that story. I Redemption was rooted in the Book of Mormon's theory of the origin of the American Indians. Descendants from Laman, rebellious son of Lehi whose family had sailed from the Old World to the American continent in the seventh century B.C., these people grew distant from the teachings of God and came to assume a "dark and loathesome" countenance. Becoming fierce and warlike, they succeeded over a period of centuries in annihilating their righteous, lighter-skinned brethren. T h e Lamanites then continued in their primitive and degenerate state, remote from the redeeming influence of Christianity, until their discovery by the Europeans. T h e concept of the Indians as a fallen people was not new. Indeed, its most articulate expression occurred in seventeenth-century New England where the Indians and the wilderness were viewed as manifestations of the devil. 3 But whereas the Puritans of that time and place approached the challenge of redemption with trepidation, the Mormons, their intellectual heirs, approached it with verve and optimism. " T h e :i This concept is best developed by Peter N. Carroll, Puritanism and the Wilderness: The Intellectual Significance of the New England Frontier, 1629-1700 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969). It is interesting to observe that on occasion Brigham Young referred to the Indians as devils; see, for example, Journal of Discourses, 1 : 169-70.

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Lord has caused us to come here for this very purpose," claimed Orson Pratt in 1855, "that we might accomplish the redemption of these suffering degraded Israelites." Picturing the Indians as being someday filled with the wisdom of God and building a great city, Pratt continued: " I t is a great privilege indeed (and we are indebted to their fathers for it,) that we enjoy being associated with them in the accomplishment of so great a work." 4 T o the Mormons, then, redemption of the Indians (Lamanites) was a prophecy to be fulfilled and a scripture to be vindicated. They began missionary work among the Indians almost immediately, and superficial results were soon visible. In a Twenty-fourth of July parade at Mormonestablished Fort Supply in 1856 a group of dutiful Indians carried a large banner proclaiming " W e shall yet become a white and delightsome people." 5 Similar occurrences were fairly common in the territory during those early years of Mormon settlement. Redemption of the Indians, like redemption of the earth, was a literal concept with the Mormons and was occasionally expressed in the same imagery. " T h e Lamanites will blossom as the rose on the mountains," asserted Apostle Wilford Woodruff in 1873. "Their chiefs will be filled with the power of God and receive the Gospel, and they will go forth and build the new Jerusalem, and we shall help them." 6 Similar imagery is visible in the frontier eloquence of W. W. Phelps, reflecting in 1851 upon the significance of the new University of Deseret: Here let the filthy degraded Israelite of America, the poor Indian, come and unlearn his corruptions and errors; sip at the fountain of sense distilled from the flowers of Zion, till by its life-regenerating powers, he becomes white, delightsome, and holy.7

Despite the questionable assumptions underlying Phelps's pronouncement, his view of redemption is representative for its focus on education as an essential ingredient. Orson Pratt, George A. Smith, and Brigham Young were others who emphasized literacy as an important step in the total redemption process. 8 Additionally, Young placed considerable emphasis on practical educationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;especially in the domestic and agricultural 4

Journal of Discourses, 9: 178-79. "' Deseret News, August 13, 1856. ''Journal of Discourses, 15:282. At this late date the Mormon rhetoric pertaining to redemption was beginning to reveal threads of pessimism. ". . . the fulfillment of that prophecy is perhaps harder for me to believe than any revelation of God that I ever read," Woodruff stated frankly. 'Deseret News, July 26, 1851. * Journal of Discourses, 9 : 1 7 7 ; 2:376.

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artsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as important facets of redemption. From this emerged the widespread Mormon policy of adopting Indian children into their homes and of experimenting with Indian farms. T h e practice of adoption received much of its initial impetus from the Mormons' desire to rescue Indian children from the Mexican slave trade. For a time, outright purchase of these hapless children was the method employed to gain their custody. In reviewing this practice before the territorial legislature, Gov. Brigham Young justified it as "a relief and a benefit." Noting that purchase involved expense, Young advocated the establishment of an indentured servitude system whereby these children would repay their new masters through service. Contrary to the face of things, he asserted, this was not just "a new feature in the traffic of h u m a n beings," but was an effective vehicle for redemption born of benevolent and humane motives. 9 T h e number of Indian children indentured or adopted into Mormon homes is not known but was apparently substantial. T h e practice continued well after the Mexican slave trade was halted and was a logical extension of Young's growing belief that redemption would occur only with a complete reordering of the Indians' value systems. This, of course, was also the reason for establishing Indian farms. As early as 1851, after having visited the Pahvants of Millard County and having noted their practice of raising a few vegetables each year, Young urged the commissioner of Indian Affairs to establish a farm there, inducing the Indians "to follow the peaceful avocation of herding or cultivating the soil, and abandoning their wilder and more dangerous exploits of predatory warfare. . . ." H e continued to monitor the progress of Indian farms in the territory and remarked on it often. " T h e idea of cultivating the earth for a subsistence gains slowly among them [the Indians]," he wrote in 1855 "for it is very adverse to their habit of idleness." Nevertheless, he concluded, "their necessities reason strong with them, and furnish forcible reasons why they should pursue the peaceful avocations of Agriculture. . . . " A year later he was even more sanguine, observing that three Indian farms were being successfully operated and that the Indians of the territory seemed to be inclining more and more toward the civilized agricultural life.10 u Territory of U t a h , Legislative Assembly, Journals of the House of Representatives . . . 1851 and 1852 (Great Salt Lake City, 1852), p. 109. 11 Brigham Young to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, November 30, 1851; June 30, 1855: June 30, 1856; Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Social and Economic Branch, National Archives, Washington, D . C , R G 75, microcopy 234, reels 897-898. Hereinafter referred to as R G 75. Photocopies of this collection are available at the American West Center and Marriott Library, University of U t a h .

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But the M o r m o n sponsorship of Indian farms was at best tentative and ambiguous. This was not due to any lack of operating premises or assumptions. T h e difficulty with farms, rather, lay in their expense. When Brigham Young realized that the federal government would not underwrite the cost, he shifted the emphasis of his policy away from farming and back toward the short-range expedient of presents and relocation. After 1855 the primary efforts expended in support of Indian farms came from the dedicated and energetic federal appointee, agent Garland H u r t . I n the end, he, too, was forced by government penury to abandon that ideal. Lofty as the redemption ideal may have seemed to the nineteenthcentury church leadership, it was tied to other factors that militated against success. T h e first, previously mentioned, was that of time: the Mormons felt that colonization could not wait on the development of a cooperative attitude among the Indians. A second factor was the inevitable gulf that separated the rhetoric of the leadership from the natural inclination of Mormonism's rank and file: not all the settlers were convinced that Indians could be redeemed or that effort ought to be expended in that direction. 11 Another important factor was the nature of the assumption on which redemption rested: i.e., that the Mormon culture was clearly superior to the Native American culture and that the Indians would benefit from adopting it as their own. Reduced to its basic terms, redemption meant Anglo-Americanization. Ezra T. Benson, reflecting on the progress he h a d made in redeeming his adopted Indian boy, concluded: " T r u e , he yet has some of his Indian traits, and I presume it will be some time before they are all erased from his memory." 1 2 T h e Mormon experience, then, h a d become the American experience, and for the Indians the result was typically devastating. Near the end of the first generation of pioneering in the Great Basin, after twenty-five years of direct experience with the Indians, Brigham Young vented the feelings of failure and frustration that were then beginning to rest heavily on the collective American consciousness: . . . I will say to our government if they could hear me, "You need never fight the Indians, but if you want to get rid of them try to civilize them." How many were here when we came? At the Warm Springs, at this little grove where they would pitch their tents, we found perhaps three hundred 31

Examples of summary justice and violence imposed on the Indians by individual settlers are legion. For examples the reader could begin with Christy, " O p e n H a n d and Mailed Fist"; Juanita Brooks, ed., Not by Bread Alone: The Journal of Martha Spence Heywood, 1850-56 (Salt Lake City: U t a h State Historical Society, 1978), pp. 9 7 ; and Peter Gottfredson, Indian Depredations in Utah (Salt Lake City: Skelton Publishing Co., 1919), passim. 12 Journal of Discourses, 3:64.

Baptizing Indians near St. George. Redeeming the "Lamanites" was an ongoing Mormon concern. Charles R. Savage photograph, Utah State Historical Society collections. I n d i a n s ; but I do not suppose that there are three of that band left alive now. T h e r e was another band a little south, another north, another further east; but I d o not suppose there is one in ten, perhaps not one in a h u n d r e d , now alive of those w h o were here when we came. Did we kill them? No, we fed them. We brought their children into our families, and nursed and did everything for them it was possible to d o for h u m a n beings, but die they would. 1 !

T h e failure of redemption, visible to Young in 1871, exacted a high toll from the U t a h Indians. Ultimately they were deprived of their land but were not equipped with the skills or motivation to function effectively in the Anglo-American society. This troubled Brigham Young. In an extraordinary pronouncement in 1856, he admitted of the Mormon encroachment on Indian lands, " W e are now their neighbors, we are on their land, for it belongs to them as much as any soil ever belonged to any m a n on e a r t h ; we are drinking their water, using their fuel and timber, and raising our food from their ground." 14 This is not to suggest 41 14

Ibid., 14:87. Ibid., 4 : 4 1 . Young expressed very similar sentiments again in 1866; see Ibid., 11:264.

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that Young ever had any thoughts about returning the land to them, but he did suffer pangs of conscience and felt the Indians should be compensated. For this, he looked directly to the federal government. He had always felt that the government should shoulder the entire expense of Indian relations and had said so in a number of ways on many different occasions. The irony is that at the very time Brigham Young sought that political favor he was subverting the best hope for it by a callous disregard for public relations with federal Indian officials appointed to Utah Territory. From that failure in public relations came a series of misunderstandings, offended egos, and precipitous actions cascading over each other in a headlong plunge toward crisis. Not until 1858, with the arrival of the Utah Expedition and Young's removal from the offices of territorial governor and Indian superintendent, did that particular drama end. II When Joseph Holeman arrived in Utah Territory to assume his duties as Indian agent in August 1851, he immediately communicated with Brigham Young and pledged his support and cooperation. Young reciprocated in the pledge of cooperation and gave instructions to Holeman in regard to a treaty-making council with the Indians to be held at Fort Laramie. Both men commented on the dearth of instructions from the commissioner of Indian Affairs and seemed anxious to share an open and frank relationship with each other.15 Initial impressions were favorable in both cases, and, by November, Young was representing Holeman to the commissioner as a conscientious, economy-minded administrator and a "gentleman [who] has spared no pains to make himself useful."1 But the honeymoon was short-lived. Perhaps Young resented Holeman's intrusion in the delicate question of land ownership. Holeman had been quick to see this as a source of irritation with the Indians and had written to the commissioner that the Mormon displacement of the Indians from "the most fertile and best lands in the Territory" had put the Indians in a hostile mood.17 He had further expressed a similar complaint to Young, urging that "some arrangement should be made with them [the Indians], by which their rights, as well as those of the Government, should be distinctly understood."18 Perhaps Young sensed in Holeman a 15

J. H. Holeman to Brigham Young. August 11. 1851, and Brigham Young to J. H. Holeman, August 11, 1851, R G 75. '"November 30, 1851, RG 75. 47 September 21, 1851, R G 75. '4S November 10, 1851, R G 75.

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growing resentment over the fact that government money spent on presents for the Indians of Utah was accruing to the benefit of a particular church. 19 In any event, an incident occurred in December 1851 that confirmed Holeman in his belief that Young was not an honorable man. It was a silly incidentâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one that could have been easily prevented by the superintendent and one that reveals how reckless Young had become in his public relations with federal officials. Just prior to leaving Salt Lake City to attend the council at Laramie in August, Holeman had been visited by Henry R. Day, an Indian subagent, who sought information on funding an interpreter for the purpose of explaining the council to the Indians of Utah and trying to interest them in attending. Holeman referred him to Superintendent Young for an answer. A short time later two prospective interpreters, Dimick Huntington and E. W. Vanetten, called upon Holeman with the same query. H e referred them to Superintendent Young. They left but returned shortly and again pressed Holeman for a commitment. T h e agent informed the two men emphatically that he h a d no authority in the matter and would not employ them at any price. H e then departed for Laramie. Upon his return to Salt Lake City four months later he was presented a bill by Vanetten for services performed as an interpreter. Confused by the matter, Holeman referred the man to Young. T h e next day Vanetten reappeared with the news that Young expected Holeman to pay the bill. Holeman then sought a certificate from Young that Vanetten's services had in fact been performed. No certificate was forthcoming. Instead, within a matter of hours, the local constable served Holeman with a summons. H e was subsequently hailed into court, had a judgment rendered against him, and saw his government carriage confiscated. Understandably chagrined, Holeman wrote a passionate letter to the commissioner of Indian Affairs detailing the particulars of the incident and voicing an opinion of Brigham Young that was becoming increasingly familiar: His orders are obeyed, without regard to the consequencesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and whatever is to the interest of the M o r m o n s that is done, w h e t h e r it is according to law or to the interest of the G o v e r n m e n t or not. F r o m all the circumstances, I feel well assured, t h a t he was at the head of this suit of V a n n e t t o n against me. H e wished to show his people t h a t he was sincere '"Writing to the commissioner on November 28. 1851. Holeman commented that Young and subagent Stephen B. Rose, a Mormon, were presently absent on an expedition "with several hundred dollars worth of Indian goods, as presents, for the purpose no doubt, of conciliating the Indians, and getting their permission to extend his settlements. Thus making use of his office as Superintendent: and the money of the Government, to promote the interest of his Church.*' RG 75.

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in his expressions of contempt toward the Government and her officers here, by having them annoyed in every possible manner, in order to force them to leave the Territory, or succumb to his will.20

Although Holeman continued in his role of Indian agent for another year and a half, his relationship with Brigham Young was tense and awkward after the interpreter incident. His letters to Washington became increasingly critical of Young's Indian policy, a fact that did not escape the latter's attention.21 For the remaining year of Holeman's tenure, he and Young had very little to do with each other. J. H. Holeman remains an elusive spirit for the historian. In certain respects he fits the mold of the typical carpetbagger: proud, arrogant, and opportunistic. He was not the type of personality naturally liked, especially by Brigham Young. WTithal, Young could ill afford to have him as an enemy. Holeman was a man of influence. He was able to gain a sinecure for his son in Utah, succeeded in getting himself appointed district attorney for Utah Territory in 1854, and at the time of decision proved to be one of the "reliable sources" listened to by Commissioner of Indian Affairs J. W. Denver in denouncing Brigham Young and relieving him as Indian superintendent for Utah Territory.22 Another of those sources was subagent Henry R. Day, who arrived in Utah Territory on July 19, 1851. By proclamation from Superintendent Young he assumed responsibility for the Parvan Agency "to include all within the limits of the Territory west of the Shoshone nation; and north of the South line of the Parvan Valley." This was a large and significant area, covering much of western and central Utah and encompassing Paiutes, Pahvants, and the band of Utes led by Walkara. Upon Day's first meeting with the Indians of his subagency he was struck by their hostility toward the Mormons. "Old Chief Sou-ei-ette," he recounted, "[raised] himself up to his full height [and] said to me, American-good! Mormon-no good! American-friendâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Mormon-KillSteal - "23 One should not conclude on this basis, however, that Day necessarily sympathized with the Indian position. Indeed, his advice to the commissioner was to send a delegation of these Indians to Washington in order to impress upon them the power of the government. It does - ' D e c e m b e r 28, 1851, R G 75. 21 In a letter to the commissioner on April 29, 1852, Holeman remarked that Young had been in an "ill humor" with him for having voiced a critical view of Mormon occupation of Indian lands, which view had been incorporated in the commissioner's annual report. RG 75. 22 Commissioner Manypenny, investigating the conflicts over land in U t a h in 1854, sought Holeman's assessment particularly. Holeman to Manypenny, March 7, 1854, RG 75. 2:1 Day to Commissioner of Indian Affairs,'January 2, 1852, R G 75.

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not appear that his primary differences with Brigham Young were over policy. But differences there were. After six months Day left the territory for a time, insisting that it was impossible to perform his duties "in consequence of the open hostility manifested publicly and privately by the Governor and the Mormon Community to the Government of the United States and its officers sent out to Utah Territory." 24 H e later decided to return to the territory but sought authorization from the commissioner of Indian Affairs to act independently of Superintendent Young. This authorization was not granted and Day remained dissatisfied. H e continued to function as subagent until early 1853 and continued to reflect bitterness toward Brigham Young and the Mormons in his official correspondence. In late summer of 1853, Edward M. Bedell arrived in the Salt Lake Valley as successor to J. H. Holeman. H e and Brigham Young seemed to get off to an amicable start with each other, and in his first communication to Commissioner Manypenny he commented that "their [sic] is not a more loyal set of people, or inhabitants within the United States" than Utah's white population. 25 H e also seconded Brigham Young's judgment that a more generous appropriation should be allocated the superintendency. But knowledge of whatever direction this propitious beginning was destined to take is forever denied the historian. Bedell left for a trip east after a few months of service and died on the return journey. T h e most intriguing personality among the various officials appointed to service in the Utah Indian superintendency was undoubtedly Dr. Garland Hurt, Bedell's successor. A Kentuckian like Holeman, but more idealistic and less political, he arrived in Salt Lake City on February 5, 1855, during the height of the excitement attending the Steptoe investigation of the Gunnison massacre. H e lent some assistance to Steptoe but from the outset shied away from the public spotlight, preferring instead to work directly with the Indians, particularly in the establishment of farms and the production of livestock and crops. Brigham Young was pleased on all counts, and, again, his early assessment of H u r t was complimentary. But Hurt, as Holeman and Day before him, did not long reciprocate, and within a few months his official correspondence reflected dissatisfaction with the superintendent. T o a greater extent than either Holeman or Day, H u r t expressed many of his feelings frankly to Young. His 24

Day to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, January 9, 1852, RG 75. -r' Bedell to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, September 30, 1853, RG 75.

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basic grievance was that the Mormons were putting too much effort into missionary work among the Indians and not enough effort into teaching the Indians domestic skills sufficient to ensure their survival within their rapidly changing world. H u r t was not opposed to missionary activity per se and in fact felt it had served the Indians of California well. His complaint, rather, was that the Mormons were using it for undesirable ends. Specifically, he charged that the missionaries were creating a mischievous distinction in the natives' minds between Mormons and Americans and that deliberately or innocently the missionaries were taking advantage of the Indians, for self-serving purposes, once conversion and good will had been obtained. 26 Quite likely, H u r t had an incomplete understanding of the Mormon notion of redemption. Otherwise he would have seen the futility of protesting missionary activity. O r perhaps he did grasp the concept but could see, as Brigham Young was beginning to see and would later acknowledge, that redemption was not working to the benefit of the Indians. In any event Garland H u r t quickly perceived the continuing devastation of the U t a h Indians and commented on it openly both to Superintendent Young and to Commissioner Manypenny. Visiting the Shoshones of the H u m boldt Valley in August 1855, he was struck by their desperate condition and communicated to Young their lament that white emigrants had so depleted the game of the area that there was nothing left for them to eat but "ground squirrels and piss ants." 27 Destitute as their condition was, they survived the winter better than the Gosiutes of Tooele County. In M a r c h 1856 Hurt, after investigating the latter situation, advised Young that "of about fifty there were not more than a dozen squaws and only three children that had survived the winter." 28 Brigham Young was deeply disturbed by these reports, and his letters to the commissioner of Indian Affairs became increasingly strident in their demand for adequate appropriations to alleviate this suffering. H e did not find a particularly sympathetic ear. T h e commissioner had already concluded, from numerous sources but especially the reports of Holeman, Day, and Hurt, that the desperate conditions faced by the Indians had come as a direct result of M o r m o n encroachment. By the middle of 1855

211 According to Hurt's view, this was the basis of the Indian massacre of three Mormons at Elk Mountain in 1855. H u r t to Brigham Young, December 31, 1855; see also H u r t to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, May 2, 1855, RG 75. 27

H u r t to Brigham Young, August 27, 1855.

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relations between the commissioner and the superintendent had become badly strained. 29 T h e mid-1850s was not an easy time in U t a h Territory. Nature was stingy with her rains but generous with her grasshoppers, and the anxious pioneers looked on in frustration as their harvests fell to disappointing levels. In the meantime, large numbers of immigrants were pouring into Salt Lake Valley. T h e Mormon leaders urged their followers to treat the Indians kindly and to feed them as resources would allow, but the natural competition for limited food supplies meant increasing destitution for Utah's natives. 3 " As the condition of the Indians became more and more desperate, so did the tone of Hurt's reports to the commissioner. In March 1856 he expressed regret over the Indians' expulsion from their "favorite spots of land" and predicted a "horrid state of war and bloodshed" unless they were soon protected on reservations. In September he criticized Young's policy toward the Indians as one "calculated to fill their minds with expectations that could not be realized and which instead of bettering their condition, tended rather to lull them into supiness [sic] and leave them in the end in a worse condition than they were when we found them." In October he accused the Mormons of having occupied " t h e wrhole of their lands (except m o u n t a i n s ) " and having depleted the game that the Indians were dependent upon, "leaving them to starve or fight."31 During the next months events moved quickly toward a denouement. Through the crisis year of 1857 Brigham Young's failures in public relations became visible at every turn. T h e most significant manifestation, of course, came from President Buchanan himself. I n justifying the U t a h Expedition he said, in part, of Young: As s u p e r i n t e n d e n t of I n d i a n affairs he has h a d an o p p o r t u n i t y of t a m p e r ing with the I n d i a n tribes, a n d exciting their hostile feelings against the U n i t e d States. This, according to our information, he has accomplished

'"' Young was almost as careless in his approach to the commissioner as he was with the agents. His letter of June 26, 1855, to the commissioner climbs to a sarcastic and insulting peroration. Young refers to Manypenny's "sceptical brain," accuses him of refusing to bel'eve that there are any Indians in the territory, and charges that he is deliberately hiding behind "trivial vain subterfuges." In a fit of pique, Young continued: "Nor do I care a groat, whether the Department, or the Government ever contributed a penny towards the support of the Indian relations; for the suppression of Indian hostilities, or any other public purpose, or object, in, or for the Territory of U t a h . " ; " Orson Pratt, for example, said in an 1855 sermon, "If you can possibly afford it. feed them [the Indians] and keep them from perishing with hunger." Journal of Discourses, 9 : 1 7 8 . :il

RG 75.

H u r t to the commissioner. March 2, 1856; September [n.d.], 1856; October 1, 1856:

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in regard to some of these tribes, while others have remained true to their allegiance, and have communicated his intrigues to our I n d i a n agents. 3 2

Secretary of War John B. Floyd had similar thoughts. "Of late years," he remarked of the Utah Expedition in his December report, "a well grounded belief has prevailed that the Mormons were instigating the Indians to hostilities against our citizens, and were exciting amongst the Indian tribes a feeling of insubordination and discontent."33 But the most intense expression came from the commissioner of Indian Affairs, then J. W. Denver, who released a floodgate of bitterness and specific grievances in a long, animated letter to Young in November. After chastizing the superintendent for having overspent by $31,000 his appropriation for the previous fiscal year he accused him of having deliberately created a distinction in the minds of the Indians between the Mormons and other citizens of the United States to the end of teaching them "that the former were their friends and the latter their enemies." He accused Young of treason in other particulars, implied that he had seriously violated his oath as a federal official, and concluded with a stinging reminder that the commissioner's office had found much fault with his conduct in the past, that it did so now, and that he was not to think otherwise.34 The tone of Commissioner Denver's letter left no doubt that Young's removal from the position of Indian superintendent was imminent. Ill Except for the loss of salary and loss of authority to direct federal expenditures for the superintendency, Brigham Young was little affected by his removal from that position. He continued to be the de facto director of Indian affairs in Utah, negotiating treaties and other settlements with the Indians, sending missionaries among them, advising the settlers on how to deal with them, directing the territorial militia during the Black Hawk War, and continuing the process of displacement. It :2 ' U.S., Congress, House, Message 35th Cong., 1st sess., 1857, p. 25.

from

the President

of the United

States,

Ex. Doc. 2,

" U . S . , Congress, Senate, Report of the Secretary of War, Ex. Doc. 11, 35th Cong.. 1st sess., 1858, p. 7. "14 US., Congress, House, Report of the Secretary of the Interior, Ex. Doc. 133, 35th Cong., 1st sess., 1857, pp. 6 0 1 - 3 . T h e charge of tampering with the Indians, advanced so sharply by Buchanan, Floyd, and Denver, was certainly not without basisâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;as events at Mountain Meadow were to show. T h e particulars of this tamperingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;how it developed, how deliberately it may have been directedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; constitute an intriguing historical issue worthy of an article by itself. T h e standard work on the Mountain Meadow massacre remains Juanita Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1950).

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follows, naturally, that the Indians themselves were affected barely, if at all, by the change. In retrospect, the story of Brigham Young's attitude toward his federally appointed agents and subagents is best told in terms of its impact on President Buchanan's decision to dispatch the U t a h Expedition. But it is also interesting for what it reveals of Brigham Young's personality. At the time discussed here, it was a personality proudly defiant, arrogant, even reckless in its disregard for federal authority. It is a measure of these traits that in 1854, when the critical Joseph Holeman was being listened to in Washington, Young's strategy was to discredit if not defame him. 30 Similarly, when Garland H u r t felt it necessary to flee the territory for fear of his life in 1857, Young seemed genuinely surprisedâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;apparently quite unaware of, or indifferent to, that official's alienation. 36 T h e irony of the situation is that Superintendent Young and the agents in question held similar views on the substance of Indian policy. Some differences persisted on procedural matters, but the greatest differences were purely personal. H a d Young taken a few minutes upon occasion to personally confer with these people, to seek their counsel on important matters, to clarify his views on the flow of authority, and to have explained the theological notion of redemption and the reasons for missionary activity among the Indians, the crisis-filled and tragic year of 1857, which colored the entire fabric of Utah's territorial history, may well have taken a different course. :,r 'Young instructed congressional delegate John Bernhisel as follows: "If J. H. Holeman continues to be in your way, and work against us, and you wish him fully shown up to the Indian D e p a r t m e n t in his true course a n d character, as it was while he was here, please inform me, and it shall be attended to, as the papers and facts are on h a n d . " August 31, 1854, Reel 2-3', Brigham Young Letter Books, Archives Division, Historical Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City. It is not clear to these researchers what "papers and facts" Young had in mind. Holeman appears to have been honest and reasonably careful in handling the details of his office. M Garland H u r t to Col. A. S. Johnston, October 24, 1857, RG 75 ; Brigham Young to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, October 7, 1857, RG 75.

Ute Indians along Civil War Communication Lines BY S . L Y M A N

TYLER

is K N O W N T H A T Ute Indians occupied the mountain areas of what is now Colorado, as well as northern New Mexico, and hunted buffalo on the plains further east, one has to be reminded periodically that they are not just Utah Indians. As late as the 1850s the Colorado Utes continued to be relatively free to move throughout their mountain domain and on into western Colorado and eastern Utah. T h e Rocky Mountains h a d formed a barrier to the westward flowing stream of immigrants who tended to follow the trail further north through South Pass or further south to Santa Fe and beyond. T h e discovery of gold in the Pikes Peak region in 1858 and the rush to the Rockies in 1859 had changed this pattern, and soon miners were scaring away the game in San Luis Valley, and the Tabeguache Utes who had been assigned to the Conejos agency were going hungry. Food that had been sent to them was reported to have arrived spoiled. Eight hundred acres had been placed under cultivation by 1862, but only small patches of corn and vegetables were grown. Tabeguache chiefs visited Fort Garland near their agency to seek relief, and they were given a small amount of lead and powder for hunting. T h e inadequacy of the food supply eventually led to trouble a considerable distance away along the route of the Overland Stage Company north of the Colorado border, for a number of the Utes went to Fort Halleck, Wyoming, to beg for food. T h e spread of settlements in Utah, with the resulting disappearance of game animals and lack of food there, had brought on the Black H a w k War. T h e starving Utes were raiding settlements in search of food. O n J T V L T H O U G H IT

Dr. Tyler is professor of history and director of the American West Center, University of Utah.

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December 3, 1860, President James Buchanan had reported to Congress, " U t a h is now comparatively peaceful and quiet, and the military force has been withdrawn, except that portion of it necessary to keep the Indians in check and to protect the emigrant trains on their way to our Pacific possessions." I n July 1861 conditions relating to the Civil W a r caused army headquarters to pull the last troops from Utah, those located at C a m p Floydâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; renamed Fort Crittendenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and to reassign them to more active service on the war fronts. Until 1861 the eastern boundary of U t a h Territory was the crest of the Rocky Mountains and included much of the homelands of the Utes in what was to become Colorado in addition to their territory in Utah. Colorado officials knew that the pattern of unrest among the Utes in U t a h might well spread to Ute bands in Colorado. Encounters along the Overland Stage Company line reputedly involved Ute Indians of the White River band from northwestern Colorado, the Tabeguache band with an agency on the Conejos River in south central Colorado, the Uintah band from northeastern Utah, the Bannock and Shoshone from southeastern Idaho, and the Gosiute Shoshone in northwestern U t a h and Nevada. In April 1862 President Lincoln requested that Brigham Young, although he was no longer territorial governor, raise a company of 100 men for ninety days service to protect the stage route and telegraph lines from possible Indian depredations in the vicinity of Independence Rock, Wyoming. In the effort to tie East and West together, and thus solidify the Union cause, these communication lines were important to the war effort. O n December 1, 1862, Lincoln reported to the Congress: " T h e Indian tribes upon our frontiers have during the past year manifested a spirit of insubordination, and at several points have engaged in open hostilities against the white settlements in their vicinity." 1 T h e use of the U t a h volunteers h a d been only a temporary expedient, however; and by order of the W a r Department Gen. George Wright, commander of the Department of the Pacific, was soon called upon to give more permanent protection to the mail route. Col. Patrick Edward Connor, in command of a force of California volunteers, arrived in U t a h during the fall of 1862. 4 T h e quotations from Buchanan and Lincoln are found in James D. Richardson, ed., Messages and Papers of the Presidents (New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., 1897), 8:3179, 3253, 3333.

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Students of Utah history are sometimes led to believe that a strong reason for the presence of Colonel Connor in the territory during the Civil War was to keep an eye on the Mormons. Actually, the reason given by his superiors was to furnish protection to the mail and stage route that was the chief link between East and West. After the establishment of a base of operations at Camp Douglas in January 1863 Colonel Connor led a unit of his men against a force of Shoshone Indians at the Battle of Bear River. The success of this campaign brought him a commission as brigadier general and his men a commendation from the War Department. In the spring and summer of 1863 the Gosiute Shoshone attacked the stations and stagecoaches at and in the general vicinity of Eight Mile Station and Deep Creek in northwestern Utah. Drivers and other employees were killed. In July 1863 Gov. James Duane Doty of Utah and General Connor made a treaty with the Indians at Fort Bridger. As usual, trade goods were distributed, and the tribes agreed to discontinue their depredations along the stage and telegraph routes. In the meantime, the Ute Indians continued to keep the interest of the troops alive by intermittent disturbances in the vicinity of Fort Halleck, located west of the Medicine Bow River at the north base of Elk Mountain in Wyoming. (Actually, this did not become Wyoming territory until 1868.) Another attack occurred on the station at Pass Creek, Wyoming; horses were reported stolen from Cooper Creek Station, Wyoming; food and clothing were stolen from Medicine Bow Station, Wyoming; and some 250 head of horses were taken in a raid within fifteen miles of Fort Laramie. To put a halt to these depredations charged against Ute Indians, on July 7, 1863, Capt. Asaph Allen of the Ninth Kansas Cavalry sent Lt. Henry Brandley and Lt. Hugh W. Williams with his entire command, except three men who remained at Fort Halleck, in pursuit of the Utes. The soldiers overtook the Indians at a mountain pass about thirty miles from the post shortly after sunrise: T h e troops engaged them, dismounting and charging u p the steep hill-side, through the timber and brush, drove the Indians, 250 in number, steadily up and over the brow of the hill, when the Indians fled scattering through the mountains. T h e stock could not be recovered, neither has anything been seen of the Indians since. . . . T h e r e were 70 troops engaged. T h e Indians own to a loss of over 60 killed and w o u n d e d ; over 20 killed on the field. T h e y were better

Ute Indians O p p o s i t e : Solid lines represent

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routes.

m o u n t e d and armed than the troops, having Hawkens' rifles, revolvers, bows, and arrows, and spears, and would have killed a great m a n y more of the troops, but in firing down the steep hill-side they invariably fired too high. I t was a perfect hail-storm of lead over the heads of the troops. T h e battle lasted two hours. 2

Of Captain Allen's command, one was killed and six others wounded. In order to protect the post, all emigrants had been stopped and armed to stand guard against 600 to 1,000 Utes reported to be somewhere between Fort Halleck and the Middle Park in Colorado. O n J u n e 30, 1863, M a j . Edward W. Wynkoop of the First Colorado Cavalry had been ordered, with four companies, "to proceed west, on the Overland Stage Route, as far as Fort Bridger, and chastise any Indians who may have committed depredations on either ranches or emigrants." 3 T h e r e he was to join General Connor. Major Wynkoop was told to "cooperate with him in any way that may be for the good of the service and the safety of settlers and travelers on the overland line, and especially for the security of the mail line to and from the Pacific States." 4 Letters exchanged by the officers and representatives of the stage lines involved in these encounters help to supply some of the flavor of the period: F O R T H A L L E C K , July 7, 1863. D. Johns, Esq., Division Agent: D e a r Sir: I regret to inform you that night before last the Indians stole all the horses at Cooper Creek, but did not take any mules. I notify you of this for fear that M r . Taylor, the station keeper, may not do it. 1 suggest that you bring several bell horses with you, as you know how difficult it is to keep the mules without a bell horse. Day before yesterday afternoon the Indians visited Medicine Bow Station, and took all the provisions that they had at the station, then stripped H a z a r d and Nicholls of their shirts and cravats, & c , and left without taking any animals. C a p t a i n [A.] Allen sent out 75 men in pursuit of the Indians, who overtook them 18 miles from here, where a battle is now going on. H o w it will terminate I cannot say; 3 wounded men have been brought in; one will die. We will try and keep the coaches running until you come u p with the stock, though the drivers and stocktenders complain a good deal. I 2

Capt. Asaph Allen to Gen. James Craig, February 27, 1863, The Series 1, X X I I , Part 1, p. 234.

War of the

Rebellion,

Lt. S. S. Soule to M a j . E. W. Wynkoop, June 30, 1863, in ibid., Part 2, pp. 368-69.

Ibid.

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forgot to say that the U t e Indians have with them some 250 head of horses, stolen within 18 miles of Fort Laramie. T h e y stole 211 from old m a n Richard (called R e s h a w ) . Yours, truly, J. H . J O N E S , Agent

The reason Jones made such a point of the need for "several bell horses" was clarified in another letter. The Indians had "shot the bell mare three times" and "you know how difficult it is to keep the mules without a bell horse." Dispatches were sent to Major Wynkoop ordering him to take steps to intercept and "chastise the guilty party." Of special interest are the instructions "not to get into trouble with any party of Indians who are peacefully disposed" and the presence of other Indian tribes that are enemies of the Utes. HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF COLORADO Denver, Colo., July 10, 1863 M a j . E. W. Wynkoop, Comdg. I n d i a n Expedition on Overland Stage Route, Colorado: Sir: Information has incidentally been received at these headquarters that Indians have recently been depredating on the overland line, this side of Fort Halleck, and the colonel c o m m a n d i n g directs that M a j . [E.W.] Wynkoop, with the forces comprising the Indian expedition, go into c a m p at Collins, or west of there, and that a sufficient force be sent to chastise the guilty party. Great caution should be observed not to get into trouble w i t h any party of Indians who are peacefully disposed. Major Wynkoop will be careful to make timely requisition for the wants of the c o m m a n d . I a m , with m u c h respect, your obedient servant. S. S. S O U L E , First Lieutenant and Assistant Adjutant-General [Inclosure] HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF COLORADO, Denver, Colo., July 11, 1863 M a j . E. W. Wynkoop, Comdg. I n d i a n Expedition on Overland Stage Line, C o l o r a d o : M a j o r : I t has incidentally come to the knowledge of the colonel comm a n d i n g that " F r i d a y " and a large n u m b e r of Cheyenne and A r a p a h o braves are at C a m p Collins, on the w a r - p a t h against the Utes, or that they intend to follow your c o m m a n d for the purpose of plunder. This you will not allow, nor on any account whatever will they be permitted to go into the mountains while your c o m m a n d is in pursuit of the Utes. You had better leave one company at C a m p Collins, and take the other four in pursuit of the Utes. A company will be sent to the Middle Park, who

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will look out for the Utes there, if they move in that direction. I a m , with much respect, your obedient servant, S. S. S O U L E , First Lieutenant and Acting Assistant Adjutant-General

To keep his superiors informed of the way the campaign was proceeding against the Indians, Colonel Chivington sent the following report to Headquarters, Department of the Missouri: HEADQUARTERS, DISTRICT OF COLORADO, Denver, Colo., August 7, 1863. Assistant Adjutant-General, D e p a r t m e n t of the Missouri: Sir: I have the honor herewith to send the official report of C a p t a i n Allen, c o m m a n d i n g Fort Halleck, of the recent skirmish with the U t e Indians near that post. O n the receipt of a similar unofficial report from C a p t a i n Allen (and before I had received notice that the troops in that part of I d a h o Territory were attached to this district), I ordered M a j . E. W. Wynkoop, First Colorado Cavalry, to proceed, with four companies of cavalry, to that country and recover, if possible, the stock they stole from the Overland Stage C o m p a n y and others, and to chastise them if they refused to give them up. Major Wynkoop, with his c o m m a n d , proceeded, with forage and subsistence train, to a point about 100 miles southwest of Fort Halleck. I started on the 17th, and overtook the c o m m a n d on the 24th of July, and on the 27th saw them packed with 56 mules a n d fifteen days' rations, taking 150 men, with instructions to penetrate the country to the headwaters of Bear, White, and Snake Rivers, and deeming the state of affairs on the Arkansas River and other points in the district such as to require my attention, I returned to this place. Will in due time give a full report of the expedition. I am, with much respect, your obedient servant, J. M . C H I V I N G T O N , Colonel First Colorado Cavalry, C o m m a n d i n g District 5

A few days later as Major Wynkoop and his command proceeded along the route from Camp Collins to Fort Bridger, while in the vicinity of Virginia Dale Station, they received orders to return to headquarters. General Connor was no longer in need of their services since he had concluded a satisfactory treaty, as mentioned above, with the hostile Indians. As Major Wynkoop began his return journey, however, he received further word that the Ute Indians had again attacked Fort Halleck, and was ordered to proceed against them with his command "for the purpose of hunting down and punishing the afore-mentioned Indians." He was told to use his own discretion in determining how he should proceed to carry out his orders. This is Major Wynkoop's official report: 5

Ibid., pp. 369-71, 436-37, for selected letters included.

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Immediately proceeded by forced marches to Fort Halleck, a n d having ascertained the direction that the Indians had taken from that point I proceeded thirty miles north of Fort Halleck on the Overland Mail Route. T h e n diverging I struck in a southerly direction and after proceeding over a country by which I was guided alone by the compass for the distance of eighty miles I found myself at the N o r t h Western entrance of the N o r t h Park [Colorado]. Here having ascertained through scouting parties the direction that the I n d i a n trail had taken I established a c a m p . Leaving the wagons a n d taking a force of one h u n d r e d and sixty picked men and fifty pack animals I struck clown through the N o r t h Park. I started with fifteen days ration but in consequence of having animals who h a d never before been packed and who became u n m a n a g e a b l e our rations through wastage was reduced to about ten days. W e found while traversing the N o r t h Park game in a b u n d a n c e consisting of Antelope, Bear, Elk, Deer and Grouse while the rivers were alive with fish. After a two-days m a r c h we left the Park at the Southwestern extremity crossing a Range and coming into a valley called by my guides the Old Park. H e r e we found the well defined trail the Utes h a d taken in their retreat and I took it for the purpose of following the same wherever it might lead, and with the hope of coming upon their p e r m a n e n t village. T h e only evidence after leaving the N o r t h Park t h a t a white man's foot had ever pressed the ground we were m a r c h i n g over was the fact that we crossed the trail m a d e by Sir George Gore, the English Baronet in 1854, under the guidance of Bridger; that fact being established by the names of himself and party rudely carved on trees bearing the date of 1854. H a v i n g taken up the trail of the Indians I followed it by rapid marches for the distance of about eighty miles in a westerly direction passing the waters of the G r a n d . From that point the trail struck directly south. I continued to follow the trail until the locality became a m a t t e r of doubt and our rations were almost exhausted, the animals worn out, and our only safety consisted in reaching in the course of a short time some point of civilization. At our last C a m p before turning back, which was presumed to be on Eagle River, the trail turned again to the west, and although a false report came to me from the scouts I had in advance that the Indians were within a days m a r c h (the incorrectness of which I soon ascertained), I had ample evidence that the trail was no fresher than when we first struck it. I started to return in a North Easterly direction eventually striking Georgia Gulch which is situated west of the South Park and of the Snowy Range. O u r last C a m p previous to the return m a r c h was one h u n d r e d and fifty miles South West of Georgia Gulch. We had traveled during our m a r c h through portions of the territories of Colorado, Nebraska, I d a h o , U t a h , and found ourselves on the confines of N e w Mexico. 6 " T h i s letter (here quoted in part) comprised a report from M a j . Edward W. Wynkoop to Col. J. M. Chivington (of Sand Creek Massacre fame) dated August 13. 1863, and was

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It was later learned that the Ute Indians being pursued by Major Wynkoop were of the Tabeguache band. Their agency was far away on the Conejos River, and their agent was Maj. Lafayette Head, to whom they reported the details of their pursuit by the military. The Indians claimed that the horses were taken from the Sioux Indians, with whom they were at war, and that it was the Sioux who had stolen them in the first instance. The Utes explained to their agent that from their point of view the government forces should not have interfered in what they considered to be their right to engage in a raid on an enemy. The encounters referred to above were reduced to the following terse statement from the Colorado Superintendency of the Bureau of Indian Affairs which appeared in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs: COLORADO

SUPERINTENDENCY October 14, 1863.

In the latter p a r t of J u n e a party of prospectors in the M i d d l e park were robbed of their horses and provisions by some U t a h Indians, who warned them to leave the country. A n u m b e r of other parties west of the Snowy ridge were also warned to leave the country by parties of this tribe. M a j o r Whitely, United States I n d i a n agent for the U i n t a h a n d G r a n d river bands of U t a h Indians, was directed to meet them if possible, a n d started with his interpreter for the purpose of a friendly council. But the Indians had left before his arrival at the place selected in the Middle park for the location of his agency. About the first of July a party of U t a h Indians, supposed to be the same as those referred to as having committed depredations in the Middle park, were reported to have stolen a lot of horses from a citizen near Fort Halleck, and to have stolen stock, and committed other depredations on the property of the overland stage line in that neighborhood. A party of soldiers went in pursuit, from Fort Halleck, and coming upon the Indians with the stolen horses, d e m a n d e d that they should be given u p ; this the Indians refused to do, claiming them as legitimate booty from the Sioux Indians, when a battle ensued, in which the soldiers were repulsed, with the loss of one killed, and four [elsewhere reported six] wounded, and the Indians m a d e their escape with their stolen property. An expedition of stronger force was immediately sent out by the district c o m m a n d e r , u n d e r Major Wynkoop, to overtake and chastise the Indians, b u t they m a d e such rapid flight over their rugged m o u n t a i n trail that he was obliged, after a h a r d campaign, to give up the pursuit. These Indians were subsequently found to be a party of the T a b e g u a c h e b a n d of U t a h Indians, belonging to the agency of M a j o r Lafayette H e a d , acquired by Fred Rosenstock, antiquarian bookman and outstanding authority in the field of western Americana, of Denver, Colorado. Mr. Rosenstock was kind enough to make the manuscript available to the author for use in this article. Territorial designations, it should be remembered, are for 1863. T h e complete letter was printed in the Rocky Mountain News, August 17, 1863. T h e author is not aware of other references to the letter.

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of the Conejos agency, to whom they reported the facts, but claimed that the horses were taken from the Sioux Indians, with whom they were at war, and complained bitterly of the interference of the soldiers. T h e y set about making a combination with other bands of U t a h Indians for the purpose of going to war with the whites; this plan was opportunely counteracted by the urgent protestations of the chiefs and h e a d m e n who had but recently returned from their visit to Washington, who told their brethren that the government had enough soldiers to surround their whole immense m o u n t a i n country, and closing in upon them, to wipe them from the face of the earth. T h e timely action of the d e p a r t m e n t in causing these hitherto uninformed Indians to become conversant with the power of the government, by their deputation to Washington last spring, has had m u c h influence in arresting one of the most troublesome and expensive I n d i a n wars in which we could be engaged. T h e a n n o u n c e m e n t to them at this time of the appointment of a commission to hold a treaty council with them doubtless had much to do also in averting the dangers of a war. . . .'

Thus, the general activities of Indians and representatives of the United States in this broad region were placed in a somewhat different perspective than that given by the armed forces, which had actually failed to successfully engage the Utes. Difficulties had existed between the Tabeguache Utes and settlers of the region for some time that now threatened to break out into an Indian war, and in October 1863 a conference was held which included Superintendent Michael Steck from New Mexico, Simeon Whitely from the agency to be created in western Colorado, Lafayette H e a d from the Conejos Agency, Gov. J o h n Evans of Colorado, and John Nicolay, President Lincoln's secretary from Washington, to try to settle the differences. As the power of the Colorado and California volunteers assigned to protect the stage route against the Indians in the mountain-based area was asserted, it became apparent that Indian forces could not meet these units in any real show of force. Peace with the Utes, with some intermittent outbreaks, was established as a result and continued through the Civil W a r period. Although the Tabeguache and other Ute bands in their treaty negotiations eventually lost control of millions of acres of lands they had formerly held, their sagacity is indicated by their assertion during the preliminary negotiations referred to that the power of the president of 7 U.S., Bureau of Indian Affairs, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1863 (Washington, D . C , 1864), pp. 121-22. Note the differences between this report and earlier references cited above.

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the United States "must be as potent to control and restrain his white as his red children; and while it was their duty to acknowledge obedience, it was also their right to claim protection." 8 That the presidents of the United States through their representatives consistently refused to restrain the rapacity of the non-Indians in their greed for Indian possessions is a matter of record and is at the base of many of the difficulties in relations with the Indians from the time the treaties were negotiated until today. 8 James Warren Covington, "Federal Relations with the Colorado Utes, 1861-1865," Colorado Magazine 28 ( 1 9 5 1 ) : 257-66.

The Utah National Guard on the Mexican Border in 1916 BY R I C H A R D C. R O B E R T S

reports from Verdun and Ypres and pondered their possible role in the European conflict, civil unrest in Mexico and guerrilla raids into United States territory in 1916 added another dimension to the war talk. T h e Mexican situation led President Woodrow Wilson to mobilize the National Guard to defend the border. This call-up of the Guard, including some eight hundred U t a h men, did not lead to war with Mexico but served as a sort of dress rehearsalâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;exposing American military strengths and weaknessesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;prior to the United States' entrance into World W a r I in 1917. A detailed look at the U t a h A M E R I C A N S FOLLOWED T H E WAR

Dr. Roberts is professor of history at Weber State College. This article is based largely on his "History of the L r tah National G u a r d : 1894-1954" (Ph.D. diss.. University of Utah, 1973), chap. 5.

t/to/i cavalry troops camped at Nogales, Arizona, 1916.

National Guard experience on the Mexican border will help illuminate events of national and international consequence. T o set the stage for the drama of 1916, a brief summary of events leading up to the border crisis will be helpful. 1 T h e United States-Mexico borderâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;more than eighteen hundred miles in lengthâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;had had a history of cattle raids, smuggling, Indian forays, and filibustering expeditions since the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. But under President Porfirio Diaz railroads linked the two countries, American capital flowed south, and border troubles decreased. T h e Mexican Revolution of 1910 and Diaz's fall from power ushered in one of the stormiest periods in American-Mexican relations. 4 Many books have been written on this period in United States and Mexican history and on the military. See, for example, Ronald Atkin, Revolution! Mexico 1910-20 (New York: The John Day Company 1970) ; Robert D. Gregg, The Influence of Border Troubles on Relations between the United States and Mexico, 1876-1910 ( 1 9 3 7 ; reprint ed., New York: Da Capo Press 1970) ; Haldeen Braddy, Cock of the Walk: The Legend of Pancho Villa (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1 9 5 5 ) ; Clarence C Clendenen, Blood on the Border: The United States Army and the Mexican Irregulars (New York: T h e Macmillan Company, 1969) ; Samuel Flagg Bemis, A Diplomatic History of the United States (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston 1955) ; Jim Dan Hill, The Minute Man in Peace and War: A History of the National Guard (Harrisburg, Pa.: Stackpole Publishing Company, 1 9 6 4 ) ; Maurice Matloff ed American Military History (Washington, D . C : Office of the Chief of Military History United States Army, 1 9 6 9 ) ; Russell F. Weigley, History of the United States Army (New York: 1 he Macmillan Company, 1967).

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T h e short-lived presidency of Francisco I. M a d e r o followed by Gen. Victoriano Huerta's seizure of power in February 1913 triggered internal discord and problems with the United States. President Wilson refused to recognize the H u e r t a government, and revolutionaries led by Venustiano Carranza, Francisco ("Pancho") Villa, and Emiliano Zapata opposed Huerta from within. T h e Tampico incident of 1914 (in which the United States believed the flag to have been insulted) and the subsequent takeover of the port of Vera Cruz by American forces to cut off arms shipments to Huerta precipitated his fall in July 1914. After a bloody struggle with his fellow revolutionaries, Carranza assumed the leadership of Mexico. T h e United States gave de facto recognition to the Carranza government, and the new leader gained support at home. However, Pancho Villa and others continued to oppose Carranza. Villa's fighting in northern Mexico and into Linked States territory led directly to the mobilization of the Guard. O n January 10, 1916, a party of American mine officials and technicians returning to Mexico by train to reopen the mines at Santa Ysabel near Chihuahua were massacred and their Mexican assistants robbed by Villistas. Carranza promised to punish the insurgents, but the government's troops were spread thin guarding major cities and fighting Zapatistas in the south and Yaqui Indians. Rumors of Villa's whereabouts and plans were rife. Then, on March 9, Villa forces raided Columbus, New Mexico, killing eight soldiers and nine civilians. Almost immediately Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing was ordered to lead the Punitive Expedition into Mexico to capture or destroy the Villista bands. T h e presence of American soldiers in Mexico strained diplomatic relations between the two countries; and Generals Hugh L. Scott and Frederick Funston, fearful of having to engage Carranza's army as well as Villa's bands, recommended an immediate call of the National Guard of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona following the May 5 Villista raids at Glen Springs, Texas, and nearby Boquillas. T h e five thousand guardsmen from the border states were deemed inadequate to defend the long international boundary in the event of a full-scale war with Mexico. Therefore, on June 18, 1916, President Wilson called the entire National Guard into federal service. 2 2 The president's action was quickly supported by Congress. On June 23 the House approved by a vote of 332 to 2, and on the following day Senate approval put into effect a resolution of the Militia Act of 1916 signed by Wilson on June 3. T h e resolution authorized the president to draft into United States military service (under Section I I I of the National Defense Act) any or all members of the National Guard or organized state or territorial militias and militia reserves during the emergency but not to exceed three years. Another section of the resolution appropriated $1,000,000 to support dependents of the guardsmen on active duty, up to $50 per

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U t a h received the mobilization call on June 18. By the following day all units within the state had been notified to report to their armories to prepare for entering federal service. T h e Deseret News reported that on the morning of June 19 Salt Lake City took on a martial air as militiamen dressed in "olive clrab" with red or yellow cord trimming, indicating their artillery or cavalry affiliation, scurried about the city on their way to the Pierpont Avenue armory. 3 Other areas of U t a h with units went through the same process as guardsmen rallied to the call. At the Ogden armory "almost every member of the troops was in high spirits and greatly pleased over the possible opportunity to see some real army service." Most militiamen were available, but the units of Ephraim, Manti, and Mount Pleasant had some men out of state on work assignments. A few men responded to the call from great distances. For example, Lt. A. R. T h o m a s of the First Battery telegraphed from California that he was giving up his business interests to return to his U t a h unit; and Lt. F. A. Smith of Troop B, Ogclen, notified his commander that he was returning from Gary, Indiana, to take up his position in the troop. T w o enlisted men, James H. Wolfe and Horace Hudson, returned from Pennsylvania to rejoin their units. Patriotism and morale were high as preparation for Mexican border service got underway. 4 At the armories activity was intense: field equipment was issued, recruits were processed, physical examinations were given, and special gear was made ready for use. O n the first day of duty the Guard assigned special details to prepare Fort Douglas as a mobilization camp for the activated soldiers. T h e state opened recruiting offices at the David Keith Building on Main Street to bring the units to full complement. T h e battery moved its artillery weapons from the basement of the Capitol, where they had been stored for safekeeping at the insistance of the federal government, taking them to the Fairgrounds to train the new recruits in the fundamentals of artillery duty and to sharpen the efficiency of the veterans. Troops A and C of Salt Lake City drilled at the Pierpont Avenue armory for a few days before moving to Fort Douglas. 5 month for families with no other source of income. Muster into federal service placed the Guard under direct federal control to be ordered wherever needed, including outside the United States, without requiring another oath as a volunteer for overseas duty as had been necessary during the Spanish-American War. ' T h e U t a h National Guard Armory was located then at 120-140 Pierpont Avenue, Salt Lake City. T h e building, designed by architect Carl M. Neuhausen, was recently accepted for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Built for the Oregon Shortline Railroad, the structure housed at various times the Salt Lake High School, the Guard, and several businesses. 'Deseret 5

News, J u n e 19, June 20, 1916; Salt Lake Tribune,

See Roberts, " U t a h National G u a r d , " p. 117.

June 20, June 2 1 , 1916.

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Men of the Utah battery examine recoil mechanism of 3-inch field gun. Curtis Y. Clawson Collection, Utah State Historical Society.

While the Guard prepared for the move to the border, men of the famous Black Tenth Cavalry engaged Carranza forces at Carrizal, Mexico. A dozen officers and men lost their lives in the ill-advised encounter. Although the Mexicans suffered heavier losses, the battle was considered a tactical defeat for the Americans.6 The United States demanded the immediate release of prisoners taken by the Mexicans, and the War Department issued an order that all Guard units should proceed to the border as soon as they could be mustered and that the states should not delay troop movement with red tape or the preliminaries of mobilization. The situation appeared grave. Many states responded to the Wrar Department imperative by sending to the border units that had not been mustered, equipped, or given physical examinations. These poorly prepared units were later subject to severe criticism from regular army officers. However, the Utah troops, * Clendenen, Blood on the Border, 303-10. Of interest here is the fact that Pershing used Mormons from the exile colonias in northern Mexico as guides. One of these, Lemuel Spilsbury, was with the troops at Carrizal and advised against taking the cavalry through the town. Lt. Henry Rodney Adair believed, according to Spilsbury, that the Mexicans would flee at the cavalry approach. " 'Well, you're just mistaken about that,' Spilsbury interjected. 'I know Mexicans that are just as brave as any Americans I have ever heard about, and they are not afraid to die.' " See Karl E. Young, Ordeal in Mexico: Tales of Danger and Hardship Collected from Mormon Colonists (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1968), p. 222, and chap. 22.

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under the command of Adj. Gen. Edgar A. Wedgwood, were held at Fort Douglas until they were fully uniformed, equipped (except for horses to be supplied at the b o r d e r ) , examined, and mustered into federal service. Although the men were impatient to begin their border assignment, they avoided the problems and criticism other National Guard units faced by arriving at Nogales, Arizona, better prepared, and sooner, than most. T h e call-up of June 18 had ordered U t a h to provide one battery of field artillery and one squadron and two troops of cavalry. Following the fight at Carrizal, the W a r Department asked for one battery of field artillery, two squadrons of cavalry, and one field hospital unit, a total of about eight hundred men. As new men were recruited and units moved to the mobilization station at Fort Douglas, the main delay came in working out the muster roll and issuing the federal equipment. It took some time to prepare the exact information on each soldier, and state equipment could not be exchanged for federal equipment until the guardsmen were federalized. While the processing went on, the commanders devised training for the cavalrymen in tactics, m a p work, outpost duty, range firing with pistol and rifle, patrol duty, reconnaissance, and sanitation. T h e artillerymen drilled in formation, practiced with small arms, and maneuvered field pieces. 7 T h e first unit ready for border service was Battery A, First Field Artillery, commanded by Capt. William C. Webb. O n June 26â&#x20AC;&#x201D;just eight days after the president's callâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the 142 enlisted men and 5 officers of the battery stood at Fort Douglas "with heads bared beneath Old Glory" while regular army officer Capt. W. B. Wallace "administered the oath of fealty and allegiance to the armed service of the United States." Reporting on the solemn occasion, the Salt Lake Tribune noted that "not a m a n was found wanting, not an article of equipment was found unfit." T h e battery was ready to do its duty in "defense of the flag." T h e next day the adjutant general ordered the battery to depart for the border, and the men entrained in the early hours of June 28. 8 Colorful ceremonies attended the departure of Battery A. Thousands cheered as the artillerymen paraded to the depot accompanied by John Held's Band, a high school band, local dignitaries, members of the Elks lodge, and veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic. In the square 7 For a detailed look at the state of the U t a h National Guard immediately before the call and during the mobilization, see Roberts, " U t a h National G u a r d , " pp. 115, 117-18, and Report of the Adjutant General, 1915-1916, in State of U t a h , Public Documents, 1915-16 (Salt Lake City, 1917), pp. 5-6, 13. 8 Salt Lake Tribune, June 27, 1916. See also Deseret News, June 26, 1916.

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facing H a r r i m a n Station (Union Pacific Depot) the troops stood in ranks in front of a platform where speakers gave them words of encouragement. Salt Lake City Mayor W. Mont Ferry urged the men to "uphold the reputation of this state" and return "crowned with honor." Gov. William Spry said that the men, in answering the president's call, would "not only fulfill the traditions of the men who have gone forth before from this nation and state, but the traditions which have been made by that battery which preceded you into the rice fields of the Philippines." G A R leader N. D. Corser expressed gratitude that there were "some Americans left who are not too proud to fight." Captain Webb responded to these sentiments by stating that the " U t a h Battery will live u p to all asked of it by the governor and mayor." With the ceremonies concluded, Battery A boarded the trains and departed for the Mexican border. 9 T h e remaining U t a h units left the state with little fanfare as the W a r Department had advised that troop movements and destinations be kept secret. O n July 3 at evening retreat the First Squadron, U t a h Cavalry, composed of Troops A, B, C, and D, led by M a j . W. G. Williams, formed on the Fort Douglas parade grounds and passed in review before Governor Spry and his staff and Lt. Eugene Santschi, United States Army mustering officer. Following a roll call of the 15 officers and 276 men of the squadron, the oath was administered and the muster rolls signed to complete the federalizing process. T h e next day state equipment was exchanged for federal equipment; and in the predawn hours of July 7 the men moved quietly to the H a r r i m a n Station to board a Southern Pacific train. Some of the soldiers sang songs like "Yankee Doodle" and " T h e Girl I Left Behind M e . " When the bugles sounded departure time, families and friends made their tearful goodbyes. T h e Second Squadron of cavalry commanded byMaj. W. B. Wallace and the field hospital unit under M a j . John F. Sharp left for the border on July 14. All that remained at Fort Douglas was Provisional Troop I consisting of twentyfour men under Capt. Thomas Braby who hoped to organize a third cavalry squadron for border service, but this hope was never realized. 10 Utah's response to the federal levy for men to defend the border was no less than enthusiastic. Additional men to fill out units were easily recruited, and veteran guardsmen made no effort to obtain discharges as they had a right to do. 11 Considering that the U t a h National Guard "Salt Lake Herald, June 28. 1916; Salt Lake Tribune, June 28, 1916. "'Salt Lake Herald, July 4, July 8, July 10, July 11, July 12, July 14, 1916; Salt Lake Tribune, July 4, July 11, July 13, July 14, 1916: Deseret News, July 4, 1916; Report of the Adjutant General, 1915-1916, p. 14. "Salt Lake Herald, July 7, July 8, July 9, 1916. T h e W a r Department had ruled that guardsmen who had dependents with insufficient income could apply for release. Losses due to

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was in the process of changing its infantry units over to cavalry when the mobilization order came and that an entirely new unitâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a field hospitalâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; was required, the dispatch with which the troops were mustered, equipped, and sent to Nogales was remarkable. Local officials generally supported the call for troops. Governor Spry stated that enlistment was a personal matter and that the right of citizenship carried an "obligation of service." H e called upon mayors to assist in the recruiting campaign. Important efforts in recruiting were carried out in Salt Lake City, Logan, Brigham City, Provo, and other cities where National Guard units were located. Mayor James E. Daniels of Provo was especially active in leading rallies for enlistment, and recruiting enthusiasm in Ephraim was demonstrated by several young women who marched as the Mountain Echo Band in the interest of enlistment for Troop C. In Salt Lake City the National Guard competed with the regular army for volunteers. Army recruiters distributed handbills that read: "Don't Let George Do It, Do It Yourself." A placard announced: "100,000 'Real Men' wanted for the United States Army at once. Come up and let us tell you about the Mexican trouble." T h e National Guard recruiter sent men out into the streets with a streamer that proclaimed: "200 men wanted at once for Mexican border duty. Good pay, clothing and board. Apply 242 South Main Street." 12 T h e business community backed the National Guard by promising to keep the men's jobs open until they returned, and some even offered financial support to employees on military duty. 13 How many men this affected is not known, but the gesture was popular. O t h e r businessmen, including George Auerbach, and the governor's staff raised $10,000 to support the men. They supplied three trucks, five motorcycles, and wire screening for the buildings on the border. Samuel Newhouse talked of donating a squad of armored vehicles to be used by the U t a h troops, but nothing came of this offer. T h e Rotary Club gave $25,000 to help needy dependents of the military men, and the Salt Lake Baseball Club contributed baseball equipment to the servicemen. In addition to this private physical unfitness ran between 25 to 27 percent, mainly because of severe federal medical standards that eliminated men because of defective vision or because they exceeded maximum height and weight requirements for cavalrymen (5 feet 10 inches, 160 p o u n d s ) . See Deseret News, June 20, December 16, 1916; Salt Lake Tribune, June 21, 1916. '-Deseret News, June 22, 1916; Salt Lake Tribune, June 20, 1916. 4:1 Companies offering to keep jobs open included Union Pacific Railroad, Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, U t a h Copper, Bingham-Garfield Railroad, and American Tobacco Company. Companies offering to pay full salaries or to make up the difference between a soldier s pay and his work salary included Z C M I , American Smelting and Refining, U t a h Power and Light, American and National Express Company, and New York Life Insurance. See Deseret News, June 24, 1916; Salt Lake Herald, June 24, June 27, July 11, 1916; Salt Lake Tribune, June 1, July 13, 1916.

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,% Utah battery on the road near Nogales, Arizona, in August Clawson Collection, Utah State Historical Society.

1916.

financial backing, the state paid $7,750.21 for the mustering of the troops and the federal government an estimated half-million dollars for equipping and transporting the troops to the border. Adjutant General Wedgwood could report that the Utah guardsmen were among the best supplied units there.14 All the Utah units were sent to Nogales, Arizona, where they were joined by National Guard troops from California, Connecticut, and Idaho. The Utah field artillery unit which arrived on the border on June 29, 1916, claimed to be the first National Guard unit to arrive for border duty, although the official records give credit to the First Illinois Infantry Regiment which arrived on June 30.15 The Guard units were under the control of the regular army command in support of the Twelfth Infantry Regiment and the Eleventh Cavalry which were stationed at the Nogales camp at different times. Eventually an estimated fifteen thousand men were camped at Nogales. On arrival at Nogales the Utah field artillery positioned its camp a few hundred yards north of Nogales on a hill overlooking the town with the artillery weapons emplaced to guard the border entrances from Mexico into Nogales. Batteries of the United States Sixth Artillery were already camped there, but with the arrival of the Utah men all except Battery D moved to other areas along the border where they were needed. The Utah men soon cleared the knoll of rocks, prickly pear, and mesquite, and before long "the rows of tents, the parked artillery, and the picket 14 Deseret News, June 24, July 5, 1916; Salt Lake Herald, Tune 24 July 6 Tidy 8 July 14, 1916; Salt Lake Tribune, July 7, July 8, July 14, 1916. 45

Tribune,

Deseret News, July 8, December 16, 1916; Salt Lake Herald, July 7, 1916; Salt December 18, 1916; Clendenen, Blood on the Border, p. 290.

Lake

L.^^^2

^1% 7>nf.y o/ */?* officers of the Utah battery. Clawson Collection, Utah State Historical Society.

lines of a modern military camp . . . supplanted the hot dry spot which had been the home of the reptile and tarantula since time immemorial." They designated this c a m p as C a m p Stephen J. Little in honor of an American private who had been killed earlier by the Mexicans. 16 T h e First Squadron of U t a h cavalry arrived at Nogales during a heavy desert rain to be greeted by a rousing cheer from the U t a h battery which helped them to set up camp. Some critics thought it stupid to work in the rain, but to these soldiers it was evidence of their devotion to duty, esprit de corps, and feeling for their fellow Utahns. T h e commander of Nogales commended the U t a h units for their attention to duty even under adverse weather conditions. T h e U t a h cavalry c a m p was located four or five miles north of town on the hillsides overlooking the Santa Cruz River to protect the reservoir and water system of Nogales. T h e campsite surprised the cavalrymen who had pictured the area as a barren waste. Instead, according to Corp. F. A. T i m m e r m a n of Troop A, they saw "mountains green with foliage and snow-capped on the highest points." From the hillside the men could see far south into Mexico, and the white posts marking the international border were clearly visible on the mountains and high hills to the east of the camp and in the valley to the west w Deseret 8, 1916.

News, July 8, October 30, 1916; Salt Lake Tribune,

July 11, July 15, December

Barber Watts trims hair of Utah guardsman at Nogales camp, Clawson Collection, Utah State Historical Society.

1916.

"where the town of Nogales nestles." The first Squadron also had an excellent view of the other camps. Corporal Timmerman reported that they could see a quarter-mile to the south "the tents of the California Guard, sheltering nearly 4,000 men" and "a half mile to the e a s t . . . the Connecticut camp." Nearest to the border was the Utah battery. One visitor to the area, Rev. P. A. Simpkins of Utah, wrote that the camps were "splendidly" located with the cavalry and battery on the hilltops and the field hospital "in a fine and well-drained pocket back of the first range behind Nogales." The field hospital site was named Camp Lund, presumably after H. M. H. Lund, assistant adjutant general of Utah, who had been so cooperative and helpful in preparing the Utah units for the border.17 After the campsites had been cleared of rocks and brush, the men trenched around the tents to prevent flooding. More significant improve47 Deseret News. December 16, 1916; Salt Lake Tribune. August 21, 1916.

July 15, 1916; Salt Lake

Herald,

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Border

Sergeant Barton works on a battery officer's mount, Old Clawson Collection, Utah State Historical Society.

Geronimo.

ments included piping culinary and bath water to the camps and building screened mess halls and kitchens and bath houses. Reverend Simpkins noted the comfort and cleanliness of the camps, the good food and the absence of "booze." So impressed was the Congregational pastor that he could state, with little or no apparent irony, that there was not a "cooler or healthier summer resort in the country" than the Nogales camps. Capt. Wesley King, judge advocate of the Nogales District, echoed Simpkins's view of camp conditions, and the men themselves seemed satisfied. Members of Troop H, Second Squadron, called theirs the "best camp on the border, ideal climate, beautiful, clean and interesting natural surroundings . . . comforts and conveniences that have only been made possible by great expenditures of money and a good deal of hard labor on the part of those who came first."18 The encampment of thousands of men from different parts of the country in the area surrounding the small town of Nogales caused few 4S

Salt Lake Tribune,

September 10, 1916.

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major problems for citizens or soldiers. T h e camps were well policed, according to M a j . W. G. Williams, and discipline was rigid. No arrests were made, and the few reprimands given were for minor infractions of c a m p rules. T h e men did not mix socially with the townspeople, although they did trade with local merchants and sometimes complained of the high prices they were charged. Busy with the routine of army life, the men made few other complaints except for grumbling that the Arizona desert was the habitat of almost every kind of "lizard, centipede, tarantula, spiders, and creeping and crawling and flying bugs of every conceivable size, shape and color." 19 T h e men quickly fell into the routine of drills, camp duties, border patrol, maneuvers, and long hikes. Occasional skirmishes kept the men alert and underscored the explosive potential of the situation. T h e artillery battery served most of its time in position overlooking Nogales and the border. O n one or two occasions there were exchanges of gunfire that m a d e duty rather tense. After receiving horses and training with them, Captain Webb's battery made a practice march in August from Nogales to Tucson to Fort Huachuca, a distance of one hundred fifty miles, under full warfare preparations. In October the battery was invited to demonstrate artillery maneuvers at the Arizona State Fair in Tucson. T h e second march to Tucson was used as another training situation. Participation in the fair brought favorable comment from the Arizona public and regular army personnel. 20 Without horses during their first days of duty, the U t a h cavalrymen were assigned to "outpost duty along the international line and to guard strategic points in Nogales such as the water reservoir, railroad warehouses, ammunition depots, the ice plant, and other facilities essential to the community. After the men received their horses, the U t a h cavalry was given a section of the border to patrol. This section, between one hundred and one hundred fifty miles in length, extended both east and west from Nogales. About every fifteen miles an outpost was established where a full-time guard was maintained. Cavalrymen patrolled the areas between outposts. One important outpost was established at Buena Vista rancho ten miles east of Nogales. There the Santa Cruz River crossed into Mexico, and through the river pass raiders had driven cattle from the United w Salt Lake 31, 1916; Deseret former sergeant in "'Salt Lake 1916.

Tribune. September 10, 1916: Salt Lake Herald. July 15, August 21, October News, October 31, December 16, 1916; and interview with David A. Scott, Troop B, March 18, 1970, Ogden, Utah. Herald, July 4, August 21, 1916; Deseret News, October 30, December 16,

Curtis Y. Clawson, center, holds Utah battery flag, Santa Cruz 1916. Clawson Collection, Utah State Historical Society.

River,

States into Mexico. The pass was also considered a likely point of entry for marauders. Another significant outpost lay thirty miles to the west at Arivaca, Arizona. In this vicinity were several ranches near which troopers of the Second Squadron on border patrol had a skirmish with Mexican bandits. Among the cavalrymen this battle came to be known as the Battle of the Cow or, more correctly, the Battle of Casa Piedra in reference to a stone ranch house along the international boundary. The battle began on January 26, 1917, when a patrol of five cavalrymen from Troop E came upon approximately twenty-six Mexicans rustling cattle across the border near Ruby, ten miles east of Arivaca. As the patrol approached, the Mexicans took cover in and around the stone house and began firing at the Americans. Three troopers held them off while the other two went for reinforcements. Lt. William C. Stark returned with a part of Troop E from the nearby outpost, and gunfire continued through the night with the Mexicans remaining in or near the house and the Americans taking cover behind the surrounding rocks. The next day, Lt. Carl H. Arns arrived with the rest of Troop E from Arivaca, and after forty-eight hours of fighting Capt. Freeman Bassett brought more reinforcements from Nogales. By then the Mexicans had disappeared.

*"* f" wfr*

Villistas burning a bridge, Chihuahua, Utah State Historical Society.

Me-xico. Clawson

Collection,

M a j . W. B. Wallace, the Second Squadron commander, felt that both men and horses had performed well under fire: "Now hostile fire is hostile fire and it doesn't much matter whether the shells are large or small. If they are coming at you good and fast, you are going to feel like ducking a few times and once in a while you are going to feel like getting out." T h e Utahns had stayed and fought. Major Wallace estimated that the Mexicans had fired "about 5,000 rounds of ball cartridges of various caliber and E Troop fired about 600 rounds." Mexican casualties were reported as three killed and seven wounded. T h e Americans had no losses.21 Another, but less serious, incident occurred at the Nogales c a m p one August night when a sentry from Troop A noticed the horses moving away from the picket lines. O n further investigation he saw that the horses were being led away by "Mexicans crawling along the road on their hands and knees." Troop A was called out to chase the thieves, but they escaped into the surrounding hills. T h e next night an attempt was made to stampede the horses by throwing rocks into the picket lines. A strengthening of the guard put an end to this kind of activity. 22 O n October 5 a provisional cavalry regiment made up of the two U t a h squadrons and one squadron from California (an unhappy situation for the Californians who did not like the resulting tendency to refer to the regiment as the U t a h cavalry or, occasionally, as the " M o r m o n 21

Deseret News, M a r c h 5, 1917.

"Deseret

News, August 29, 1916.

After a battle at Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, the dead are carted a haunting reminder of the horror of war. Clawson Collection, State Historical Society.

away— Utah

Rough Riders") made a training march of two hundred fifty miles from Nogales to Tucson to Fort Huachuca and back to Nogales. T h e twentyday maneuver took them through rough terrain covered with mesquite, chapparal, and cactus, and exposed them to every variety of Arizona weather. Each m a n carried a blanket roll, a shelter half, a n d extra clothing for rain or cold weather. For his horse he carried extra shoes, a curry comb and brush, and a feedbag with the day's ration of grain. T h e regiment returned to Nogales hardened, tanned, and ready for action in the field if it were needed. 23 T h e U t a h field hospital unit experienced duty and training similar to the artillery and cavalry units. Their actual work load was light, since there were few battle casualties, but they did care for the sick a n d treat accident victims. They also maintained a useful watch on sanitary conditions in the camps. T h e field hospital made one training march to Sonora, Arizona, under simulated warfare conditions and ended up its service on the border by taking care of the patient overload from the newly constructed regular army base hospital at Nogales. 24 ••Deseret News. October 30, 1916: Salt Lake Tribune, October 3 1 , 1916; Salt Lake Herald, October 1, 1916; Scott interview; interviews with Albert E. Wilfong, former lieutenant in Troop F. M a r c h ' l 6 and April 5, 1970, Ogden, U t a h . 21 Deseret News, December 16, 1916; Salt Lake Tribune, December 23, December 25, 1916.

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< *3 *

Funeral of Private Radmall, Nogales, Arizona, August 18,1916. Casket was furnished by Capt. W. S. Wood of D Battery, Sixth Field Artillery. Clawson Collection, Utah State Historical Society.

T h e only other engagements of U t a h troops came from unofficial encounters between the soldiers and civilian Mexicans in Nogales. Although the troops were reported as generally well-behaved and the people of Nogales accepting of their presence, there was bound to be friction on occasion. T h e Salt Lake Herald reported that some soldiers returning from the border talked of street fights. Six of our company went out one evening not looking for a fight either, but we came upon about twenty-five natives. We had left our guns and ammunitions at camp, and not withstanding the fact the Mexicans were far greater in number we licked them with case. O n e after another they went down with lefts to the jaw, and when they sneaked off, they were a sorry looking bunch.

T h e soldier continued: O n another occasion we encountered a bunch of them [Mexicans] looking for trouble, and they got it. They were well armed with knives, and of the four or five men of our party only one had a revolver. T o cut a long story short, we took the knives away from the "greasers" and we are now showing them as trophies. 2 "' 25

Salt Lake Herald, October 31, 1916.

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T h e men concluded from these encounters that the Mexicans were not very good fighters and could be defeated in almost any situation, braggadocio rather typical of young men testing their brawn. Even as the National Guard units were rushed to the border in the summer of 1916, diplomatic measures were easing tensions between the United States and Mexico. O n July 4, following the disastrous fight at Carrizal, President Carranza suggested mediation or direct negotiation between the two countries. Conferences were held at New London, Connecticut, during the ensuing months, and President Wilson ordered Pershing's forces to withdraw from Mexico on January 30, 1917. Portions of the National Guard were withdrawn from the border much sooner. T h e U t a h First Squadron and the one detachment of sanitary troops were sent home from Nogales following their practice march to Tucson and back. They arrived in Salt Lake City on October 30 and were mustered out of federal service on November 10, 1916. T h e returning troops paraded in the city with a burro and fawn they had brought from the border and were hailed as heroes at a special turkey dinner at Fort Douglas. Mayor W. Mont Ferry declared that the state had "sent the best we h a d " and that the squadron had lived u p to all expectations. W a r m praise was also forthcoming from Col. John M. Jenkins of the Eleventh Cavalry who commanded the men during the long march. It was reported that he had "declared that the U t a h troops were the best volunteer outfit he had ever seen or had in his command." T h e First Squadron commander, M a j . W. G. Williams, lamented the lack of action but reported that the men were in better condition and had profited greatly from their training on the border. 2 '' O n December 16, 1916, the U t a h battery returned from Nogales with thirty-two horses (which each troop and battery brought back to their states for continued use in training) and guns and caissons, parading to Hotel U t a h where the mayor and other officials hosted them at a dinner. M a j . Richard W. Young, former commander of the battery, read a letter from Brig. Gen. E. H. Plummer, commander of the Nogales area, that said, in part, "inspectors and instructors detailed from time to time with your organizations have in every case reported the battery efficient, well trained and well disciplined, and I can recall no instances of misconduct of members of your organization." After a few days of caring for the equipment and processing the men, the battery was mustered out of federal service on December 22, 1916. T w o days later x

Report of the Adjutant General, 1915-1916. p. 14; Deseret News, October 31, 1916: Salt Lake Tribune, October 3 1 , 1 9 1 6 ; Salt Lake Herald, October 3 1 , 1 9 1 6 .

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the field hospital men returned to Salt Lake City and went directly to their homes to enjoy the Christmas holidays, reporting back to Fort Douglas for mustering out on December 29, 1916.27 T h e last U t a h unit to return from Nogales was the Second Squadron which had continued to patrol the border after the others had left. In M a r c h 1917 they were relieved of their duties by the United States Tenth Cavalry and returned to Fort Douglas where they were mustered out of federal service on March 8,1917. 28 For the most part official reports on the border service of the National Guard were not as complimentary as the comments cited above. M a j . Gen. Hugh Scott, army chief of staff, thought that the voluntary military system had "proved itself a failure" and "should be relegated to the past." T h e yearly training period of the Guard was too short to produce effective units. H e considered six months to a year necessary to make a well-trained soldier. General Scott also criticized the National Guard for not being able to recruit and maintain units at minimum strength. With 10 percent of the men failing to report and 29 percent unable to pass the physical requirements, 43 percent of the units sent to the border were " r a w recruits." T h e National Guard sent 151,006 officers and men to the border, but this was 97,000 under wartime strength. T h e general concluded that "it is cause for very sober consideration on the part of every citizen of the country when the fact is fully understood . . . that the units of the national guard and regular army have not been recruited up to war strength in the crisis we have just passed through." 2 9 Others also registered negative comments. Brig. Gen. William A. Mann, chief of the Militia Bureau, gave credit to the "high level of intelligence, enthusiasm, eagerness to learn and willingness of the Guardsmen," but he felt that the "low levels of training and general know-how" of the citizen-soldiers, were not satisfactory. Jim Dan Hill and Clarence C. Clendenen in their books refer to other critical comments made by officials and reporters against the National Guard. T h e chaos of mobilization, the low level of training, and the lack of plans and equipment were frequent targets for criticism. T h e W a r Department and the army came in for their share of criticism also. T h e W a r Department had not adequately planned for the mobilization of the Guard nor for its use on the border. Some regular army officers resented the National Guard's new '-' Salt Lake Tribune,

December 17, December 23, December 25, 1916.

'-''Report of the Adjutant General. 1917-1918, 18 (Salt Lake City, 1919), p. 4 ; Wilfong interview. 29

Salt Lake Tribune,

December 8, 1916.

in State of U t a h , Public Documents,

1917-

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position as the second line of national defense as provided in the National Defense Act and opposed the continental army plan. 30 T h e r e were also those who defended the Guard and its service. Secretary of W a r Newton C. Baker praised the security and protection the presence of the Guard gave to American residents along the border and the "spirit with which the militia has met this call, and with which they are performing an important and necessary service to their country." 31 Even the irascible General M a n n called "the mobilization of the National Guard and its dispatch to the border . . . a great accomplishment Undoubtedly the immediate purpose of the call was attained. It may not be too much to say that the knowledge and experience from the mobilization are incidental advantages worth the cost." In the case of the U t a h units the evidence indicates that their service was efficient and performed in good spirit. Several reasons might be put forth to account for this. T h e National Guard at that time was a voluntary service. T h e men were motivated by their own desire to belong and were not initially forced into duty by the government. They also had a tradition of service from the Spanish-American W a r and previous instate emergencies, with some officers and leaders continuing on through the Mexican border period. Public sentiment in U t a h was favorable toward their performance of duty, and the rather monolithic religious society from which they came gave them a unity and esprit de corps that was conducive to functioning in a disciplined organization. T h e U t a h troops also h a d the advantage of being westerners not too far removed from their familiar environment. Adjustment to the border country may have been easier for them than for easterners. With these considerations taken into account, it seems possible that the praise given the U t a h units might not have been far exaggerated. Duty on the Mexican border ended, but threats of war persisted. T h e Second Squadron of U t a h cavalry returned home and was mustered out on M a r c h 8, 1917, but the U t a h National Guard anticipated recall to active duty. Less than a month later, on April 6, 1917, Congress declared war on Germany. Without question the border crisis of 1916 had given the National Guard experience and training that would be vital in the months ahead. ::I "Dry Run for Destiny," The National Guardsman, June 1966, p. 5 ; Hill, Minute in Peace, pp. 2 0 7 - 4 3 ; Clendenen, Blood on the Border, pp. 285-98. M

Deseret News, August 22, 1916.

"Dry Run for Destiny," p. 9.

Man

Above: Black infantry troops returning to Fort Douglas from the SpanishAmerican War. Courtesy Historical Department, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Improbable Ambassadors: Black Soldiers at Fort Douglas, 1896-99 BV M I C H A E L

CLARK

is CLEAR, few people know that on the east bench, overlooking Salt Lake City and touching the boundaries of the University of Utah, more than six hundred Black peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;soldiers of the United States Twenty-fourth Infantry, wives, children, and othersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; lived, worked, and attended school for almost four years in one of the most attractive locations in the western United States. Twenty-one graves in the little Fort Douglas cemetery, with weatherworn markers X V L T H O U G H T H E RECORD

Mr. Clark is director of the Institute for the Study of Black Life and Culture and a doctoral candidate in history at the University of U t a h .

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that become less legible each year, serve as quiet reminders that Black people exceeded the geographical boundaries historians have generally assigned them. T w o additional graves mark the resting place of Black cavalrymen from the famous Ninth Cavalry stationed at Fort Duchesne, Utah, prior to the turn of the century and at Fort Douglas following the departure of the Twenty-fourth Infantry. Although Black United States Army regiments were stationed throughout the West for almost a century after the Civil War, knowledge that they were a regular and integral part of the army is not widespread. 1 During the Civil War, Black units served throughout the Southwest; and after 1866, members of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, Twenty-fifth Infantry, Ninth Cavalry, and Tenth Cavalry served as far north as Vancouver, British Columbia, as far west as the Presidio in San Francisco, and as far south as Mexico. Black men in uniform, as well as their wives and children, were prominent in Fort Bayard, New Mexico; Fort Grant, Arizona; Fort Douglas, U t a h ; Fort Duchesne, U t a h ; Fort Logan, Colorado, Fort Missoula, M o n t a n a ; Fort Davis, Texas; and numerous other posts throughout the West and served in some cases to augment comparatively small Black civilian populations. T h e relative dearth of published material on the army's Black rankand-file and the considerable difficulties involved in uncovering information may partially account for the limited attention given Black enlisted men. Additionally, officers and cavalry units have been considered more attractive by writers and historians. This does not mean that Black units and their men have gone entirely unobserved. Their critics appear to have been more vocal, if not more numerous, than their eulogizers. As late as 1900, Black soldiers continued to be characterized as "illiterate," "lazy," "a drinker," "a gambler," "set apart by nature," "a natural horseman," and inconsequential in the development of the West. 2 Subsequent discussions by historians have challenged these characterizations, but the definitive study is yet to be made. 4 Oswald Garrison Villard, " T h e Negro in the Regular Army," Atlantic Monthly 91 (1903) :724. Villard observed that " I t was not until the battle of Santiago . . . that the bulk of the American people realized that the standing army comprised regiments composed wholly of black men. U p to that time only one company of colored soldiers had served at a post east of the Mississippi." 2 Ibid. The notable success of Black jockeys in the Kentucky Derby between 1875 and 1902 may have contributed to one stereotype. See, for example, Middleton Harris, The Black Book (New York: R a n d o m House, 1974), p. 151. Earlier there was discussion in the U.S. Senate regarding the ability of Blacks as horsemen. During a debate Sen. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts observed that Blacks "are the best riders in America connected with our army. We have some colored regiments west of the Mississippi that were raised in Kentucky, who understand the management of horses as well as any man in this country, admirable riders." U.S Congress, Senate. "Military Establishment," Congressional Globe, 39th Cong., 1st sess., March 14, 18fab, p. 1385.

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In attempting to delineate in more detail the presence of the Twentyfourth Infantry in Utah, the author's examination of local newspapers and army records for that period raised several questions that warranted further investigation: why was the Twenty-fourth stationed in U t a h ? what impact did the unit have upon Salt Lake City? what was it like to be a Black soldier during this period? where did the men come from? how did the presence of Black soldiers affect the development of Salt Lake City's Black community and its historical presence in U t a h ? were there any long-term effects of the regiment's presence in U t a h ? During early September 1896 word circulated between military posts that the adjutant general was considering a plan to relocate several regiments. Although details of the proposed reassignment of troops were not fully known, there were those soldiers who wished for new duty assignments and those who were anxious to remain where they were. Some civilian populations refused to cheer the pending change. In Salt Lake City, for example, the Sixteenth Infantry, a white unit, grudgingly prepared to leave Fort Douglas for Boise Barracks and Fort Sherman in Idaho and Fort Spokane, Washington. According to a local newspaper report, the unit's football and baseball teams were greatly disappointed because they had hoped to win championships in Utah. 3 In addition, younger soldiers were probably concerned with leaving girl friends, and older soldiers faced the prospect of moving families and household effects. A group of Salt Lake City residents, after attending a dance at Fort Douglas, "went home happy and expressed sorrow at its being the last dance they would attend at the post for several years." 4 T h e Fifteenth Infantry, as luck would have it, was transferred from Illinois to forts in the Southwest that had been garrisoned by the Twentyfourth Infantry. These New Mexico and Arizona posts had reputations for being "hellholes," and members of the Fifteenth Infantry were probably convinced that they were being punished for some wrongdoing. O n the other hand, it appears likely that most members of the Twenty-fourth Infantry were happy with the regiment scramble and felt that, after thirty years, the unit was finally getting in Fort Douglas the kind of duty station it deserved. At that point, all four of the army's so-called Black unitsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;each unit had white officersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;were stationed in the West/' :i 4

Salt Lake Tribune,

September 27, 1896.

Salt Lake Tribune, October 4, 1896. 5 U.S., Congress, House, Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 54th Cong., 1st sess., 1895, p. 84. T h e Ninth Cavalry and Twenty-fourth Infantry were stationed in U t a h , the T e n t h Cavalry and Twenty-fifth Infantry in North Dakota and Montana.

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T h e arrival of the Twenty-fourth Infantry in Salt Lake City more than doubled Utah's Black population. T h e Ninth Cavalry, stationed at Fort Duchesne in Uintah County, had 584 Black soldiers, and the Twenty-fourth's strength was rather constant at 512. O n e may speculate that Utah's total Black population, civilian and military, exceeded eighteen hundred in the fall of 1896 and reached twenty-three hundred in 1898 after the Twenty-fourth returned from the Spanish-American War. Both rumor and fact preceded the arrival of the Twenty-fourth Infantry in Salt Lake City, and some citizens expressed concern, or at least interest, at news appearing in the Salt Lake Tribune and Salt Lake Herald reporting the W a r Department's decision to station the Twentyfourth at Fort Douglas. 6 O n September 20, 1896, almost one month before the advance companies of the Twenty-fourth arrived in Salt Lake City, the Tribune, in an editiorial entitled "An Unfortunate Change," voiced attitudes that Black soldiers would ultimately have to confront during their tour of duty in Utah. T h e editorial reflected upon the close ties that h a d existed between the city and members of the Sixteenth Infantry and implied that such relationships would not be possible with members of the Twenty-fourth. It also pointed out that the residential portion of the city lay between the central city and Fort Douglas. As a result, "colored" soldiers would have to travel on streetcars to and from the post, and this would bring them in direct contact with whites and especially with white women. T h e editorial argued that there were differences between Black and white soldiers when they were drunk. A Black soldier "will be sure to want to assert himself" when on a car with white ladies. It would be best, the editorial concluded, to lay the facts before the secretary of war and he might still to some other would not be large city like

be induced to m a k e the change a n d send the colored m e n station where they would be just as comfortable, where they a source of apprehension and discomfort to the people of a this. 7

Following the editorial lead, Sen. Frank J. Cannon met with Secretary of W a r Daniel S. Lamont and asked that some regiment other t h a n "Salt Lake Tribune, September 19, 1896: " T h e order from Washington first reached Fort Douelas in the press dispatches and caused considerable surprise, not to say consternation. There had been considerable gossip in army circles during the summer, foreshadowing a change but it had about died down, and the close of the summer season led the people at the post to suppose that no change would be made until spring." See also Salt Lake Herald, September 19, 1896. 7 Salt Lake Tribune, September 20, 1896.

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the Twenty-fourth be sent to Fort Douglas. According to the Deseret News, at least a part of Senator Cannon's appeal to the secretary had to do with the undesirability of locating "a colored regiment" in the immediate neighborhood of the University of Utah. However, the secretary, although sympathetic to Cannon's appeal, "found it impossible to change the order." 8 T h e Salt Lake Herald must have reflected what was on the minds of a good many citizens when it reported: "Some people say that there is a good deal of politics mixed up in the move of the Twentyfourth Infantry to Fort Douglas." 9 Julius F. Taylor, a Black and editor of the Broad Ax, noted that Secretary of W a r Lamont was a Democrat and for that reason would not withdraw the order to transfer the Twentyfourth. 10 Taylor's speculation is not persuasive, and it appears that politics played no significant part in the secretary of war's decision. In addition to criticizing Senator Cannon for his part in trying to prevent the Twenty-fourth from being stationed at Fort Douglas, Taylor was critical of the Salt Lake Tribune for being the only newspaper in Salt Lake City to raise "any sort of objection to the location of the Twenty-fourth." Taylor also charged the Tribune with being "the accepted organ of the Republican party." 11 By way of contrast, the Salt Lake Herald editorialized on October 10, 1896, "Glory and Honor to the Sixteenth Infantry! Welcome to the Twenty-fourth Infantry." T h e Herald's welcome indicated that there was no unified view regarding the Black soldiers. Some opposed their coming, others did not. Depending on the source, the issue was considered racial, political (owing, possibly, to the recently fought battles over statehood and the practice of polygamy), or a matter of reward for meritorious service. William G. Muller, a white officer of the Twenty-fourth, in his unpublished history of the regiment, considered the Salt Lake Tribune's editorial the most prominent occurrence connected with the unit's tour of duty in Utah. Although he could not recall the dates the regiment was stationed at Fort Douglas, he did recollect that feelings against the "negro 8

Deseret Evening News, October 8, 1896.

Salt Lake Herald. September 21, 1896.

w Broad Ax, October 30, 1897. In 1896 there were two newspapers run by Blacks, the Broad Ax and the Plain Dealer. Taylor apparently backed the Democratic party while the Plain Dealer backed the Republican party. Taylor seemed to think that Lamont supported Blacks and would not change the transfer order. Taylor's position appears unusual as the Republican party, "the party of Lincoln," was overwhelmingly supported by Black voters until the New Deal. 41 Broad Ax, October 31, 1896. It is difficult to ascertain whether Taylor constructed or accepted a local view regarding the Republican party or by coincidence viewed both the Tribune and the Republicans critically. The issue may warrant greater investigation if Taylor's view of the Republican party was widely shared by Blacks in the West.

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soldiers" were "bitter" and prejudiced. Later, he observed, when the regiment returned to Salt Lake City from Cuba, "it had the hearts of the people." 12 Midler also remarked that a year after the Twenty-fourth's arrival the Tribune printed what amounted to an apology to the unit. Morale may have been an important factor in the relocation of the Twenty-fourth Infantry. During the thirty years the regiment was stationed in the southwestern territories, various requests had been made for transfer to more desirable duty stations. In January 1895 the requests became more specific, asking for a "station near a large city." George W. Murray, apparently a civilian supporter of the Twenty-fourth, in a memorandum to the secretary of war, offered several key points for consideration : 1) the difference in treatment between Black and white units; 2) "every unit in the infantry regiment in the Army has had or now have [sic], a station near a large city except the Twenty-fourth"; and 3) "depression and demoralization results [sic] from service too long in the wilderness." 13 Murray's memorandum was received in the adjutant general's office on February 7, 1895, and was submitted to Lt. Gen. J. M . Schofield in command of the army. H e suggested that "this regiment be given a northern station if it is found practicable to do so." 14 No immediate action followed Murray's recommendation to Secretary of W a r Lamont, but on January 22, 1896, Col. J. Ford Kent, commanding officer of the Twenty-fourth, added to what must have been an increasing number of requests to have the Twenty-fourth moved to a northern station. Writing from the regiment's headquarters at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, Colonel Kent requested a "good station" and announced that "a natural feeling prevails that it is on account of their color that the regiment is debarred from the better locations." 15 Kent sought support for his request by noting that General Schofield, by then "the late Commanding General," had supported his request. Schofield had given a favorable endorsement for relocation on February 15, 1895, and had inspected Kent's post in May. Kent in his letter to the adjutant general noted that Schofield informed him in May that "it had been decided, in the event of a possibility in changes in station, that the 24th Infantry should be sent to Fort Douglas " 16 Several months passed before the final decision was made. 42

William G. Muller, " T h e Twenty-fourth Infantry Past and Present," 1923, p. 12. Murray to Daniel S Lamont, January 31, 1895, Records of the Office of the Adjutant General, General Correspondence, 1890-1917, A G O 1500, RG 94, National Archives, Washington, D.C. 14 Schofield to Murray, February 15, 1895, ibid. 43 Kent to adjutant general, January 22, 1896, ibid. 56 Ibid. 4!

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I n September 1896 the Salt Lake Herald reported: "Colored Men Will Come." 1 ' T h e response was primarily one of surprise, for the change had not been expected until spring. T h e city was alive with discussion of the pending arrival of the "Colored Gentlemen" from Forts Bayard and Huachuca. 1 8 T h e uncharitable editorial that had appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune on September 20 was followed on September 23, 1896, by an article entitled "Capt. Hoffman's View" which reflected favorably upon the Twenty-fourth Infantry. Capt. William Hoffman, apparently a resident of Salt Lake City, said he was acquainted with the regiment and that its members were "well-behaved." " T h e men will keep to their own race," he said, and "we generally will know only the officers and their families." After his own regiment, the Eleventh, Hoffman volunteered, the "Twenty-fourth is my very first choice. . . ." Hoffman did not discuss how he became acquainted with the merits of the Twenty-fourth, but his views may have moderated the more impetuous citizen's concerns over the prospect of having uniformed Black soldiers walking the streets of Salt Lake City. Captain Hoffman concluded "that there is no chance whatever that the W a r Department order will be changed." If Hoffman's belief in the army's intractability and Senator Cannon's "Vain Attempt to Have T h e m Sent Elsewhere" 19 did not convince the people of Salt Lake City that the arrival of the Black soldiers was imminent, the debarkation at the train station "of about 100 colored women and a number of dark sports who follow the regiment from post to post" must have. 20 Fifty enlisted men were married and brought their families with them." 2 1 It is difficult to estimate how many children and other civilians arrived in connection with the unit. Most families lived on or near the post. Individuals present the story of the Twenty-fourth in a much different way. Solomon (Black Sol) Black, for example, claimed "to have been the youngest soldier in the late war [Civil W a r ] , " and said "he was still wearing knee pants when he went in as a drummer boy." 22 T h e son of Louis Black, he was born in Rome, Georgia, on August 10, 1854, and enlisted in the Black Forty-fourth Infantry at the age of twelve. One month later the youngster, less than five feet three inches tall, was detailed 4

' Salt Lake Herald, September 19, 1896.

"Salt

Lake Herald, September 20, 1896.

"Deseret -'Salt

News, October 8, 1896.

Lake Tribune,

October 11, 1896.

Broad Ax, September 24, 1896.

Salt Lake Tribune,

May 9, 1897.

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as a musician and served as a fifer and d r u m m e r boy until he was discharged on April 30, 1866. Four years later he enlisted in the Twentyfourth Infantry and completed six enlistments before retiring on May 1, 1897. Like many of his fellow soldiers, Black served in both the infantry and the cavalry ( T e n t h ) . After leaving Salt Lake City, he returned to Texas, married Emily Drake who was twenty-five years his junior. H e died on December 11, 1932, at the age of seventy-eight and was buried in the National Cemetery. 23 A fellow soldier with a less certain past, and perhaps a good candidate for development as a folk hero, was Thomas W. Taylor who was born in Freetown, Africa (Sierra Leone), on January 17, 1870.24 " H e is only plain T o m m y Taylor to the boys in blue," wrote Annabel Lee for the San Francisco Call, "but he is called Prince by his kith and kin, and one day he will be king. And that is why this story is told. It is a true dramatic tale of a royal household." Taylor claimed to be a Zulu prince whose real name was Jerger Okokudek ("Death-Leaves-One"). According to his story, he left "Kafirland," won medals from Cambridge University (which he attended with his ten sisters), married Rosella Williams, French daughter of one of the professors, came to the United States, and joined the Twenty-fourth at Fort Barrancas, Florida, to learn the arts of modern war so that he could return to his homeland and free his people. 25 Taylor's story, while intriguing, raises more questions than it answers. Freetown, for example, is located on the northwest coast of Africa, a considerable distance from the traditional homeland of the Zulus, and the name "Okokudek" tends to be more of Yoruba origin. Taylor's statement that he enlisted in 1899 does not square with military records that state he enlisted on M a r c h 12, 1896. Unfortunately, his military service records will not be available for scrutiny by historians for some time. Another infantryman, Parker Buford, served thirty years in the Twenty-fourth. H e was born in Giles County, Tennessee, January 30, 1842. Buford's son, James J. Buford, also served in the unit. In 1898 the Buford family lived on the perimeter of Fort Douglas at 333 South Thirteenth East. A number of other Black families lived in the general area. 26 Discharged from the army in 1898, the elder Buford continued to live in 2:1 Registers of Enlistments in the United States Army, 1798-1914, Microcopy Nos. 108, 110, 170, RG 94. In addition to enlistment registers, this record group also includes declarations for pensions, marriage certificates, copies of death certificates, and applications for reimbursement. A great deal of information is contained on each form. 21 Ibid., Microcopy No. 216. -r,San Francisco Call, July 2, 1899. 2<1 See R. L. Polk and Co.'s Salt Lake City Directory, 1898.

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Salt Lake City until his death in 1911. H e is buried in the Fort Douglas cemetery. His wife, Eliza Elizabeth Buford, lived in Salt Lake City until 1920, when she moved to Pasadena, California, dying there at the age of ninety. Thornton Jackson, also a member of the Twenty-fourth and a long-time resident of Salt Lake City, witnessed Mrs. Buford's military pension application. 2, Thornton Jackson was a good friend of Sgt. Alfred Rucker, according to Rucker's daughter Viola Rucker Dorsey who was born in the Fort Douglas hospital cn January 24, 1896. T h e Rucker family lived on the post, and the children attended the Wasatch School on South Temple. After retirement, Rucker "drove a dobby wagon for the officers' wives." T h e "Lee, Irvine and Atchison families lived close by," Mrs. Dorsey recalled, and her father "liked Fort Douglas." H e was a "very stern, very noisy" person. W'hen President Warren G. Harding visited Salt Lake City, Sergeant Rucker "stepped out and saluted the president during the parade. H e was wearing his blue uniform and Harding stopped the parade to meet him." Viola married George Dorsey whose father was stationed at Fort Duchesne with the Ninth Cavalry. 28 O t h e r individuals could be singled out, but suffice it to say that most of the Twenty-fourth Infantry lived in U t a h for only a short period of time. Those who made U t a h their home raised families, sent their children to school, and planted traditions. According to newspaper reports, the new residents of Fort Douglas were pleased with their assignment and "gratified at having been transferred from Texas to the promised land."" 9 Members of the unit apparently wanted the people of Salt Lake City to have a good impression of them, for as one member of the regiment stated: "I do not say this from conceit, but you will find our regiment better behaved and disciplined than most of the white soldiers. It is not an easy matter to get 600 men together without there are one or two unruly fellows among them." Some questioned whether the newly arrived Black chaplain connected with the unit, Allen Allensworth, should be considered an officer. In some accounts he was considered the exception to the all-white officer ranks. Others regarded him much like a civilian. Born a slave in Louisville, Kentucky, Allensworth was appointed to the position of army chaplain by President Grover Cleveland. T h e fact that Allensworth was picked 27

Pension Application Files for the United States Army, R G 94. Interview with Mrs. Viola Dorsey, February 5, 1976. 9 Salt Lake Herald, October 16, 1896. 'â&#x20AC;˘"Salt Lake Tribune, October 16, 1896. 2S

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by a Democratic president endeared him to Julius Taylor, editor of the Broad Ax, and gave Allensworth the distinction of being the only Black army chaplain at that time. 31 Allensworth was married and h a d two daughters, Eva and Nellia. T h e arrival of the Twenty-fourth was not without its impact upon the city's Black community. When the soldiers arrived on the Union Pacific, it was reported that "almost every colored resident in the city" met them at the station. 32 There would be greater contact between the fort and the Black citizens of the city in the months to come. T h e Black regiment was newsworthy. There was considerable talk about its band that over a three-year period would entertain thousands of Utah's citizens, "its crack drilling," and the ability of many of its members in athletics, both track and baseball. 33 Julius Taylor, energetic gadfly editor, was quick to report on his meetings with members of the regiment: After we had mingled with a great many members of the Twenty-fourth Regiment, we came to the conclusion that they would rather crawl in bed with a thousand rattlesnakes rather than to associate with the following well-known negro haters and high priests of the g.o. Lilly white p a r t y : C. C. Goodwin, Esq. editor of that well-known negro-hating sheet, the Salt Lake T r i b u n e ; P. G. L a n n a n , ex-butcher and m a n a g e r of the s a m e ; Ex-Mayor George M. Scott; Ex-banker James H . Bacon; H o n . J a m e s Glendinning and the H o n . Frank J. Cannon. : i t

It is unlikely that "a great many" enlisted men would become so quickly attuned to the political situation in the city and the personalities involved. Taylor, however, rarely missed an opportunity to take C. C. Goodwin and Frank J. Cannon to task, whatever the issue. Concern over how the newly arrived soldiers would make use of the diversions the city had to offer was probably great. T h e city boasted a number of establishments that might appear attractive to the soldier looking for some way to pass the time. One, located "on the east side of Commercial Street, near Second South," was called the "policy shop" and allegedly offered gambling, food, and liquor. There, according to a newspaper account, "Merchants, street-loungers, youth, prostitutes and even men in the employ of the city contribute their mite in the hope of fabulous winnings." 35 Yet, the strictness of military discipline and the :;1

Broad Ax, '•'•-Salt Lake '"Salt Lake 'Broad Ax, '•''Salt Lake

October Tribune, Tribune, October Tribune,

24, 1896. October 23, 1896. October 16, 1896. 24, 1896. March 28, 1896.

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earnestness of white officers and top sergeants in enforcing it limited the pursuit of pleasure somewhat. According to the Broad Ax: Rev. Allensworth desires to inform the good people of our beautiful city that he would be more than pleased if all the saloons, gambling houses and immoral houses would absolutely refuse to entertain the negro soldiers, for he believes that there are a thousand white men who are willing to go to hell with the black m a n , but there are a very few who care to go to heaven with him. H e hopes that the police will arrest every brazen faced w o m a n , be she black or white, who attempts to travel on the street cars to and from the fort. 36

Despite Allensworth's appeal, Black soldiers did make use of the city for saintly as well as more mundane purposes. With the regiment well settled at Fort Douglas, "Chaplain Allensworth and a member of the Broad Ax staff visited with President Wilford Woodruff head of the Mormon Church," four days before Christmas in 1896. Woodruff, said "that he in common with the rest of our citizens desired to welcome all the members of the Twenty-fourth regiment to our city." T h e church leader made it clear that he was welcoming the Black members of the regiment as well as its white officers. T h e Mormon position had been stated earlier in response to an article appearing in the Deming, New Mexico, Headlight and reprinted in the Deseret Evening News that asserted: M o r m o n s never thought much of the children of H a m and it has been one of their doctrines that the soul of a negro could never reach the exaltation of future bliss. T h e regiment will probably be ordered away in the course of a couple of years. 38

T h e News, which had apparently quoted the article in order to refute it, retorted: T h e Headlight is altogether wrong in its statement of M o r m o n doctrine; there is nothing in the teachings of the Latter-day Saints to justify the assertion quoted. . . . 39

Military routine at Fort Douglas offered little excitement for the enlisted members of the Twenty-fourth Infantry. While in the Southwest the regiment's duties had included "expeditions against the Indians . . . guarding strategic points, building roads, hunting horse thieves, and doing anything else which called for hard work and no fame." 40 By conM Broad Ax, October 24, 1896. '"' Broad Ax, December 26, 1896. * Deseret Evening News, October 22, 1896. :!9 Ibid. 4 ' J o h n M. Carroll, ed., The Black Military right Publishing Corp., 1971), p. 92.

Experience

in the West

(New York: Liver-

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trast, the U t a h experience included practice marches, attendance at the post school, exercises in the gym during periods of cold weather, work at improving the post's water system, maintenance of the post garden, jantorial work, clerk duties, work in the post exchange, drills, commissary work, maintenance of post stables, and blacksmithing. From time to time, an enlisted man might have an opportunity for detached service or recruiting and travel, for example, to Fort Logan, Colorado, or to one of the eastern cities. For all of its regularity, however, enlisted men appeared to prefer military over civilian life and there was a high percentage of reenlistments. T h e average number of enlisted men in the regiment between February 1, 1897, and April 1, 1898, was 513. During that time, the average number of probable vacancies was approximately 12 per month. In many cases, however, the vacancies failed to materialize as individuals changed their plans and remained in the service or accepted discharge and reenlisted within a short period of time. T h e post band was apparently considered excellent duty. For the same period, the average number of probable vacancies in the band amounted to slightly more than one-half vacancy per m o n t h . " One controversy that may have affected vacancies during the months of November and December came in reaction to the treatment received by an enlisted man, Private Barnes, from Captain Augur. Augur had struck Barnes because he "was not doing his job." Apparently, Barnes had witnesses and was prepared to press his case against Augur. In a letter to the commanding officer of Company D, Twenty-fourth Infantry, the company adjutant declared that Colonel Kent had investigated the occurrence and observed that "Augur was sorry." T h e adjutant stated that "Kent seems to be supporting his officer."42 Barnes's fellow enlisted men displayed their displeasure by indicating they would not, in some cases, reenlist. Private Barnes's willingness to bring charges against a white officer provides a rare glimpse at the activities and encounters that produced courts-martial and other disciplinary measures. T h e attractiveness of disciplinary problems as news items makes it possible to get a closer look at the atmosphere that existed at the post as well as to determine, to some extent, what the soldiers did on their frequent visits to the city. However, disciplinary measures were fewer before the unit's departure for the Spanish-American W a r in Cuba than after the men returned. 11

\ d j u t a n t . Twenty-fourth Infantry, to commanding officer. Company D, Twenty-fourth Infantry, October 23, 1897, Letters Sent, Adjutant General's Office, 1897-1906, RG 94. *- Ibid.

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I n addition to his military routine at Fort Douglas, the Black soldier was involved in various societies and clubs, athletics, and other activities. A number of enlisted men belonged to "Noah's Ark Lodge, G.U.O. of O.F., which is the lodge of the Twenty-fourth Infantry." Lt. Peter McCann, who before January of 1899 was a first sergeant in the Tenth Cavalry, helped set up the lodge when he served with the Twenty-fourth while it was stationed in New Mexico. 43 In addition to Noah's Ark Lodge, some soldiers belonged to the Society of Prognosticators, organized while the regiment was stationed at Fort Bayard, New Mexico. 44 Like many of the soldiers' societies, the Society of Prognosticators "operated under rules known only to the organization. . . ."'" A less secret society composed of enlisted men was the Christian Endeavor Society. This group met once a week and invited guests to speak on a variety of topics. O n one occasion, Miss Nellia Allensworth, daughter of the post chaplain, spoke on "Confidence." 46 Mr. Wake of Salt Lake City, on another occasion, chose as his topic " O u r Missionary Work.'"' T h e society regularly invited members of the Allensworth family and Sgt. James M. Dickerson to speak. T h e Frederick Douglass Memorial Literary Society was also active on the post. It sponsored instrumental solos, lectures, and debates on such topics as: "Resolved, that there is no future for the negro in the United States" (the debate was decided in the affirmative). 48 This society also supported an amateur dramatic club. 49 Enlisted men also joined the Love and Hope Lodge No. 3858 which had ninety-five members. Affiliated with the " G r a n d United Order of O d d Fellows, a Colored order," the lodge was founded at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, near the Mexican border. In Salt Lake City the soldiers founded "city lodges of the order" and on occasion participated in events with civilians. W. W. Taylor, editor of the Plain Dealer, and Horace Voss were members of city lodges. 50 T h e Williams and Prince Minstrel Company was organized by the men at Fort Douglas and provided entertainment at the post as well as in the city.51 Dancing was another favorite activity. Enlisted men gave "hops" and invited Black civilians; a dancing school was conducted by 4:1

Salt Lake Salt Lake 45 Ibid. 1,1 Salt Lake 47 Salt Lake "Salt Lake w Salt Lake M Salt Lake "'Salt Lake 14

Tribune, January 20, 1899. Tribune, January 11, 1899. Tribune, Tribune, Tribune, Tribune, Tribune, Tribune,

February 6, 1898. February 20, 1898. January 11, 1899. February 6, 1898. May 3, 1897. February 3, 1899.

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Corporal and Mrs. Bade; 5 2 and the New Year's holiday in January 1898 provided an occasion for the enlisted men to hold a masquerade ball at the post. 53 Post social life demonstrates the extent to which Black civilians and soldiers mingled and the lengths to which the Black soldier went to improve the quality of his life and that of his fellow soldiers. T h e r e was enough activity on the part of enlisted men that the Salt Lake Herald could report, "enlisted men want their own social hall for entertainment and dances and to hold meetings of their secret clubs." 04 Athletics were also important to the men. Sports fans from the city followed the Fort Douglas baseball team, the Colored Monarchs, which competed against the Ninth Cavalry's team from Fort Duchesne and civilian teams from Salt Lake City. T h e team's popularity led the Salt Lake City Street Car Company to donate on one occasion ten dollars "to the post baseball fund/' Individual players had their followers in the city, but sometimes, as in the case of James Flowers, "a good athlete and baseball player lacked the necessary qualifications of a soldier." Baseball "cranks" were disappointed when Flowers was dishonorably discharged from the service.' T h e reputation of the Twenty-fourth Infantry's bandâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;heralded by some as the best in the armyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;reached Salt Lake City before the regiment. T h e band was as well received as the athletic teams. T h e Salt Lake Herald reported that members of the band "seem to feel they are a part of this city and it is their duty to do all they can to make matters pleasing." 56 At least one officer at the post was less pleased than were Salt Lake City citizens about the use of the band. " I a m aware," one first lieutenant lamented in a letter that found its way to the adjutant general's office, "that a regimental band has other purposes for its existence than the furnishing of music for a post dance once a week." H e obviously wanted the band to play exclusively at the post to prevent "unpleasant mixing of blacks and whites," apparently at establishments in the city." Senior officers at the post were decidedly interested in maintaining a good image and went to great lengths to see that requests from the city were accommodated. As a result, the band played for civic occasions when its presence was requested. In addition, individual bandsmen per:>

- Salt Lake Tribune, April 2, 1899. Salt Lake Herald, January 4, 1898. 54 Salt Lake Herald, January 31, 1897. -Salt Lake Tribune, May 20, 1897, March 5, 1899; Salt Lake Herald, June 7, 1897. M Salt Lake Herald, June 1, 1897. r7 ' Company B, Twenty-fourth Infantry, to adjutant general, November 28, 1896, Letters Sent, Company B, Twenty-fourth Infantry, September 6, 1895, to May 19, 1899, RG 94. r,:!

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formed community services. Bandsman W'alter E. Loving, for example, orchestrated music for a group called the High School Minstrels, and the music was played at the New Grand Theatre. Apparently a gifted musician, Loving gave free vocal lessons and directed concerts. 58 A year after the Twenty-fourth Infantry arrived in Utah, the Salt Lake Tribune printed an editorial that represented a change in its view regarding the Black soldiers. When the regiment's transfer h a d been announced, the Tribune recalled, the newspaper h a d complained that F o r t Douglas lies above a n d beyond the most p r o n o u n c e d residence portion of the city a n d that soldiers would ride on cars, d r u n k as well as sober, a n d t h a t an intoxicated colored soldier is m o r e offensive t h a n an intoxicated white soldier.

Admitting that this judgment had proved false, the editorial continued that the soldiers h a d been well behaved, h a d "less rowdy characteristics" than any white regiment, and were less addicted to drinking. 59 T h e editorial represented an achievement for the Twenty-fourth. Relations had been good between the post and the community and, officially, at least, everyone appeared satisfied. Almost nineteen months after the regiment's arrival in U t a h the routine of post life at Fort Douglas was interrupted by speculation that should it become necessary to send troops to Cuba, the four "colored" regiments would be the first to depart for the war zone. " I t is acknowledged," reported the Denver News, "by men of experience in southern climates that white men from the cool regions of the northern states would fare badly in the treacherous climate of Cuba." T h e Colorado paper's prophecy that Black units would be "given ample opportunity to win glory" was accurate.' 1 " O n e month later "both officers a n d men seemed to be rubbing up a trifle on Spanish for they accosted one another with 'buenos noches, compadre' and 'adios' was the parting salutation." 61 As enlisted men and officers prepared to depart and some wives and children prepared to visit relatives in the East, events at the post were reported with regularity and fanfare. â&#x201E;˘ Salt Lake Tribune, January 23. February 6, 1898. "'Salt Lake Tribune. October 24, 1897. 1,1 Denver News as compiled in "Journal History of the C h u r c h , " March 15, 1898, Archives Division, Historical Department. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City. A year and two months later, on May 18, 1899, the Salt Lake Tribune reported: " T h e removal of the companies of the Twenty-fourth to Alaska but goes to illustrate the uncertain side of a soldier's life. Just a little more than a year ago, the government concluded to send the men to Cuba, for the reason that black men can stand the hot weather better. Now they are sent to the other extreme a n d the reason is given that they can withstand cold weather with much less discomfort than white m e n . " '"Salt Lake Tribune, April 16, 1898.

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T h e announcement of the Twenty-fourth's orders to prepare to depart for Cuba had its impact upon some Salt Lake City citizens: Local dealers generally sary for the companies each m o n t h in this city willing to see them go,

are deploring the issue which makes it necesto leave Fort Douglas as by them is distributed about $8000. . . . T h e r e is a class that is perfectly but the m e r c h a n t is not numbered a m o n g them.

O n a less mercenary note, patriotic civilians wanted to know exactly when the Twenty-fourth would leave, for "Everybody wants to see Uncle Sam's men when they start to battle for the honor of their country. . . ." T h e description of an infantryman preparing to leave the post is classic. O n e soldier had his kit spread out on the floor of the veranda in front of his barracks. It contained besides the usual c a m p equipment, a cracked blue m u g with a gilt label, 'From O n e W h o Loves You,' running diagonally across its face. An inscription on the photograph gave Mobile, Ala., as the place where it was taken, and as the soldier rolled up his belongings he softly h u m m e d : "Down Mobile, down Mobile, H o w I Love 'at pretty yellow gal, Down Mobile."

As with so many enlisted men of the Twenty-fourth Infantry, this soldier, for the purposes of history, had no name. Like many others he was hundreds of miles from home, away from his loved ones, preparing to go to war. T h a t same clay the post band gave one of its last performances: T h e sun from its lofty elevation in the western sky, shot a glint of gold through the newflcdged leaves in the trees around the bandstand and touched the uniforms of the players with a stream of glory." 2

Interest in the movement of the trcops was intense throughout the city. It was reported that they would leave on April 19, at 7:30 P.M., but their departure was put off for a day. T h e delay disappointed thousands of citizens who had prepared to see the regiment off. T h e Twentyfourth did leave on April 20, however, and the newspapers estimated that "15,000 to 20,000 people were on and about the depot grounds."" Included in that throng were wives, children, and girl friends who "sat for hours under the trees with their soldier lords and sires." 64 As reported in the Salt Lake Tribune the following day, " T h e element of color seemed entirely eliminated.'"' 5 An editorial in the Deseret 'â&#x20AC;˘-Salt Lake Tribune, April 18, '''Deseret Evening News, April 'â&#x20AC;˘'Salt Lake Tribune, April 20, 05 Salt Lake Tribune, April 21,

1898. 20, 1898. 1898. 1898.

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Evening News spoke of the "mighty coincidence" of Blacks freeing Cubans through war, as Blacks were freed themselves, that "will mark another epoch in the tremendous evolution of h u m a n society." 66 Ladies, reported the Salt Lake Tribune, who did not like to ride on streetcars with Black soldiers were, on the preceding day, shaking the hands of these same soldiers. William Gibson of Vernal who was at the depot, recalled that he had seen Patrick E. Connor march through the city in 1862. Having seen both marches, he said he was "satisfied."' Members of the Twenty-fourth Infantry distinguished themselves in Cuba. T h a t campaign does not fall within the scope of this study, but it may be important to note that the work done with yellow fever patients had lasting effects. " O u t of the 456 men who marched to Siboney, only 24 escaped sickness . . . and of this number, only 198 were able to march out." As a result, within "the most famous regiment of african blood since Hannibal slaughtered 70,000 Romans," thirty-six suffered death and many more men were to carry lifelong disabilities resulting from yellow fever.68 O n September 2, 1898, the Twenty-fourth returned to Fort Douglas amid cheers of their countrymen, and by December the war was officially over. T h e strength of the command was increased to 958 men, the warm welcome receded, and the routine of the post was quickly resumed. There were differences, however. Approximately half of the enlisted men at the fort were new to Salt Lake City; because of the acceleration in recruitment for the war effort, the average age for soldiers at the fort was probably lower than it had been; and reenlistments, transfers, and discharges increased. I n general, the soldiers seemed to exhibit a slightly different attitude, a restlessness. W h e n the Twenty-fourth arrived at Fort Douglas in 1896, members of the unit seemed well satisfied with the change in station. Subsequent reports indicated that a general feeling of well-being continued. However, just prior to the unit's departure for Cuba the Broad Ax reported: Within the past ten days we have conversed with a n u m b e r of the Twentyfourth regiment and they all expressed a great desire to get away from Salt Lake City and to be located at some other point where it would be more congenial for them and their families. "'Deseret

Evening

News. April 21, 1898.

"'Salt Lake Tribune.

April 21. 1898.

"s T G. Steward. The Colored Regulars in the United States Army (New York: Arno Press a n d ' t h e New York Times, 1969), pp. 2 2 4 - 2 5 . 235; A. Prentiss, ed., The History of the Utah Volunteers in the Spanish-American War and in the Philippine Islands... (Salt Lake City, 1900), p. 125.

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T h e report is not surprising. It was as difficult for Black people to live in U t a h as it was in most other states at the turn of the cenury. If Taylor was accurate in reflecting the general attitude of Black soldiers toward Salt Lake City, his report offers considerable contrast between what appeared to be the feeling at the time of the regiment's departure for Cuba and the confessed feelings of "a number of the Twenty-fourth regiment." 69 T h e record is not clear. As mentioned earlier, the officers of the Twenty-fourth, as well as enlisted men, were sensitive about the Utah assignment and sought to make sure that there were few negative incidents involving Black soldiers. Prior to the unit's departure from the Southwest, Colonel Kent had made it clear that measures would be taken to prevent confrontations between enlisted men and Caucasian residents of Salt Lake City. Soldiers were only to visit the city in full uniform, curfews would be enforced, soldiers would not be able to work in the city, and they were to defer to whites as a matter of policy. T h e regiment's record, prior to its departure for Cuba, indicates that measures devised for maximum discipline were effective when coupled with the apparent desire on the part of enlisted men to make a good showing. Experience in a national war and volunteer work in yellow fever camps in Cuba, however, was bound to have some impact on the soldiers. They had risked their lives and some of their fellows had died. It is conjecturable that the returning soldiers felt less reticent and more like they had earned a better place in society. T w o enlisted men, Beverly Perea'" and a Sergeant Williams, had been made commissioned officers only to be reduced to ranks again. Additionally, the unit faced the prospect of being sent to the Philippines. These factors appeared to affect the enlisted men. One thing is certain: disciplinary problems increased. Not long after the regiment's arrival in Utah, on November 17, 1896, H. B. Ballantyne and W. P. Gunn had had the dubious distinction of being the first members of the Twenty-fourth to appear in the Salt Lake City police court. Both were fined for drunkenness, and Gunn received an additional fine for "packing a machete in such a manner as to lay himself liable to carrying a concealed weapon."' 1 Few soldiers followed the path of Ballantyne and Gunn until after the regiment's return from Cuba when a dozen enlisted men were cited "'Broad Ax, April 23, 1898. 7,1 Beverly Perea to adjutant general, March 9, 1908, Records of the Office of the Adjutant General, General Correspondence, 1890-1911, A G O 127989, RG 94. 'â&#x20AC;˘'Salt Lake Herald, November 17, 1896.

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for a variety of infractions in the first few months of 1899. These offenses and the punishments included: offensive and indecent language to a noncommissioned officer (fine and fifteen days), scandalous conduct in the presence of ladies (two months at hard labor), assault upon another soldier (fine and twenty days), fraudulent enlistment (dishonorable disc h a r g e ) , theft and desertion (one year at Fort Leavenworth prison). From the examples cited one can see that scandalous conduct in the presence of ladies—which probably meant the use of distasteful language on a streetcar—was a relatively serious offense, more so than assault upon another soldier. Community relations were obviously considered important, and infractions involving civilians, especially ladies, were handled firmly.72 T h a t soldiers would engage in various types of misconduct does not seem unusual, but racial stereotypes tended to prevail in newspaper reports of such incidents. For example: George W a r r e n , a colored soldier, and Robert Brooks, a colored porter, stole a suit of clothes from another colored m a n and were captured by Sergt. Burbidge. D u r i n g the trial yesterday the judge was compelled to listen to a ten minutes' display of oratory on the part of W a r r e n , whose subject was: 'Craps, and how they should be played to be successful'. W a r r e n was sentenced to thirty days, while Brooks who pawned the clothes, was given fifty days. "Golly, thirty days to say nuffin 'bout what I'll get when I reaches de fote," said W a r r e n as he ambled away. 7 3

Even as military and civilian officials were dealing with the little flurry of disciplinary problems among the enlisted men in early 1899, rumors were circulating that the Twenty-fourth would be transferred soon. T h e rumors proved true, and the men soon took up new assignments in San Francisco, Alaska, Montana, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia. T w o detachments of twenty-five men each were sent to Sequoia and Yosemite parks in California "for the benefit of the health of the colored men, many of whom are nearly broken down from the effects of Cuban fever." 7 ' And in July 1899 four companies of the Twenty-fourth arrived in the Philippines for a three-year tour of duty. T h e Twenty-fourth Infantry, departing on two occasions from Utah, first for the Spanish-American W7ar and second for the campaign in the Philippine Islands, may be the most prominent United States Army regiment to serve from the state. T h e unit has not, however, been regarded 72

See, for example, the Salt Lake Tribune, April 9, 1899. '•'•'' Salt Lake Tribune, January 24, 1899. 71

Salt Lake Tribune,

May 1, 1899.

January 8. February 6, 14, 28, March 14,

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as a regiment having close ties with the state. Personal relationships that may have been established during the regiment's stay at Fort Douglas have been obscured by time, and the Twenty-fourth Infantry, the "Buffalo Soldiers," remain indistinct in local memory. T h e fanfare of the unit's arrival in Salt Lake City, its participation in jubilee celebrations and j t h e r state occasions, the baseball games, concerts, and other human dramas struggle to become part of the state's history. Perhaps this is as it should be. Few of the soldiers made Utah their home, and not many of their descendants live in the Beehive State today. Nevertheless, members of the Twenty-fourth, perhaps over fifteen hundred different individuals, were significant additions to the Salt Lake City population in both an economic and a social sense. T h e economic impact of the regiment upon the surrounding community was, of course, a duplication of the contact of prior and subsequent military units. Socially, however, the local community, for the first time in history, experienced the influx of a relatively large and cohesive military group that greatly augmented the already existing Black community. Although the Twenty-fourth Infantry had not been located near a large city for a thirty-year period and Salt Lake City had never had a large Black population, the two sides managed. Generally speaking, suspicion and uncertainty gave way to confidence and resolution, stereotypes to a tenuous familiarity; and with the advent of war, the two worlds met in the camp of self-interest. Black soldiers, members of the Ninth Cavalry and Twentyfourth Infantry and later, the Twenty-fifth Infantry, became improbable ambassadors. More than two thousand different soldiers carried a like number of versions about their stay in the "Great Basin Kingdom" to the far corners of the United States.

Above: The controversial coffee server tray featuring the Brigham Young Monument, part of the silver service presented to the battleship U t a h . Utah State Historical Society collections.

Silver Service for the Battleship Utah; A Naval Tradition under Governor Spry BY M I C H A E L S. E L D R E D G E

June 2, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt rose to the podium before a capacity crowd in the Mormon Tabernacle where an estimated fifteen thousand Utahns had gathered. His speech was the climax of a momentous clay that had begun earlier in the J Q A R L Y IN T H E AFTERNOON OF

Mr. Eldredge is a law student at Brigham Young University.

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morning with a triumphant parade in his honor. Following a prolonged standing ovation, President Roosevelt began a stirring address calling for the conservation of natural resources and praising the residents of U t a h for their reputation in preserving the environment. 1 Also present in the official party were Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, and Secretary of the Navy William H. Moody, both of whom were given an opportunity to speak briefly following the president. When Moody's turn came, he called for Congress to appropriate five battleships in the coming session, one of which he promised to name " U t a h . " T h e crowd cheered again as the prospect of being honored by a namesake battleship was met with "considerable enthusiasm." 2 Six years passed, and by 1909 President Roosevelt's visit was only a memory and Secretary Moody's promise was all but forgotten. Then, late in May of that year, the Navy Department announced that one of two battleships approved earlier on May 13, 1908, would be named for the state of Utah. 3 Already under construction at New York Shipbuilding Co. in Camden, New Jersey, the new warship was described as a Florida class battleship that, when finished, would be the largest dreadnought constructed to that time for the United States Navy. 4 Displacing well over 28,000 tons, the 510-foot-long Utah was to be armed with ten 12-inch caliber guns, sixteen 5-inch caliber guns, and ten torpedo tubes. She would have a complement of 50 officers, 69 marines, and 872 enlisted men, a crew of 991 in all. H e r maximum speed would reach just over 21 knots propelled by the new Parsons Turbine, the first to be installed in any U.S. warship. 5 Six months after the announcement, in October 1909, U t a h Gov. William Spry was asked by the Navy Department to select a sponsor for the traditional launching ceremonies tentatively scheduled for late December. Governor Spry consulted his Secretary of State, C. S. Tingey, and Attorney General Albert R. Barnes for recommendations, and their response was unanimous: Governor Spry's petite eighteen-year-old 4

"Roosevelt is Wildly Cheered in Salt Lake," Weekly Sun, June 2, 1903.

Ibid.

'Naval 4

Service Appropriations

Act, Statutes

at Large, X X X V , sec. 11, 166 ( 1 9 0 8 ) .

In 1906 Great Britain launched H.M.S. Dreadnought which set a new standard for battleships of the world. Thus the term dreadnought came to refer to any large warship displacing over 10,000 tons with an all large-gun main battery of 11 inches or more in caliber. Throughout the next thirty years, this standard steadily grew to the largest super-dreadnought ever built the Japanese battleship Yamato which displaced just over 64,000 tons and carried massive 18.1-inch caliber guns. Yamato was sunk by U.S. aircraft north of Okinawa on April 7, 1945, after sustaining twenty torpedoes and seventeen large bombs. 5 " T h e Battleship U t a h : O u r Latest Dreadnought," Scientific American, July 19, 1911, p. 96.

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daughter, Mary Alice, would be a most appropriate selection to christen the Utah.0 Shortly after Miss Spry's selection as sponsor, New York Shipbuilding Co. announced the official date of launching as December 23, 1909. Immediately, plans were drawn up for the official delegation that would attend the event in Camden over the Christmas holidays. Included in the invitation list was almost every prominent citizen of the state. A considerable number of Utahns departed with the governor's entourage on Saturday morning, December 18, riding east by rail from Salt Lake City to Chicago for a connection to Philadelphia. After a brief delay caused by a wreck near Chicago, the delegation finally reached Philadelphia Wednesday morning in time for the launch the following afternoon. O n arrival, Mrs. Spry and Mary Alice were treated to a motor tour of Philadelphia while Governor Spry toured naval facilities on the Delaware River. Everywhere the response to the Utah delegation was warm and courteous. A special air of excitement seemed to permeate the already festive holiday mood in Philadelphia as the anticipated launch of the world's largest battleship drew near. Following an exhaustive day of touring, official visits, and chasing down missing baggage, the governor's party gathered early in the evening along with Utah's congressional delegation, up from Washington, D . C , for a reception in their honor, hosted by another Utahn, Lt. Comdr. Henry A. Pearson, the prospective executive officer of U.S.S. Utah. After the reception, the governor and his party returned to their comfortable quarters at the Bellvue Stratford Hotel for a restful night prior to the launching day activities. Shortly after ten o'clock the following morning the official party arrived at the New York Shipbuilding Co. where thousands had gathered to witness the event. A special platform had been constructed over the bow of the huge warship as it rested on the heavily greased ways leading into the icy Delaware River. By 10:45 A.M. the platform was overflowing with company and governmental officials as well as several foreign dignitaries. Numbered among the observers were two foreign naval officers, Lt. Comdr. D. R. MarQuesde of Brazil and Comdr. T. Hiraga of the Imperial Japanese Navy. T h e obvious center of attraction was young Mary Alice Spry, adorned in a beautiful white coat and furs, a large white picture hat, and a special corsage bouquet of sego lilies. Miss Spry was positioned near 11 William Spry to DeCourcy May, December 9, 1909, Battleship Utah File, Utah State Archives, State Capitol, Salt Lake City.

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Mary Alice Spry and Gov. William Spry at the christening of the battleship U t a h at Camden, New Jersey, December 1909. Utah State Historical Society collections, courtesy Lit a Spry Foss family.

the bow of the ship where she received last minute instructions from navy architect James E. Swan as to how, where, and when to strike the traditional bottle of champagne. When workmen below completed chopping away the temporary support timbers, foreman Thomas Mason gave the signal to activate the hydraulic rams below the bow of the ship. Within minutes the huge warship began sliding slowly and quietly, and at exactly 10:53 A.M. the battleship's beautiful sponsor gleefully smashed the bottle over the gray steel crying out, "I christen thee U t a h ! God Speed!" Amid the wild chorus of whistles, sirens, and bells from the various ships on the river, mixed with the roar from thousands of onlookers, the Utah majestically slid into the choppy whitecaps of the Delaware River. "As the infant Dreadnought rose and fell in her first bed of drifting ice she seemed to acknowledge the parting words of Miss Spry."' Immediately after the launching, Mr. Swan presented a sapphire bracelet to Miss Spry on behalf of the shipyard to commemorate the Undated newspaper clipping from Philadelphia

Post Telegram,

Battleship U t a h File.

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occasion. A round of remarks from dignitaries, including Governor Spry and Senator Smoot, wound up the morning's activities, after which the official party departed for a banquet in honor of the visiting Utahns. In spite of having been just launched, the battleship would not be ready for the fleet for almost two years inasmuch as construction of the warship was not even 50 percent complete. Miss Spry had noticed this with some degree of concern, recalling years later that she had been particularly dismayed at the odds of such an acclaimed warship winning battles without any guns. 8 After a holiday vacation in the East, Governor Spry and his family returned to Salt Lake City two weeks later on Wednesday morning, January 5, 1910. T h e governor was immediately confronted by the press over complaints made by non-Mormon factions in the state that the launching of the new battleship Utah had been marked by religious overtones because the event had taken place on the 104th anniversary of Joseph Smith's birth. It was alleged that Senator Smoot had noted this in his remarks at the shipyard the day of the launching. Somewhat dismayed, Governor Spry replied tersely: T h e statement attributed to Senator Smoot at the time of the launching that it had been pre-arranged for the battleship to be launched on the anniversary of Prophet Joseph Smith's birth, December 23, is all bosh. I was on the platform before Senator Smoot arrived and we left together. If he had said anything like that I would have heard of it. It is a coincidence that the chistening of the ship should occur on the same day as the anniversary of the birth of the founder of the M o r m o n Church, but there was no thought of arranging this day bv cither myself, Senator Smoot or others."

Governor Spry's summation seemed to dispose of the issue satisfactorily in the eyes of the press, yet the controversy was destined to appear again during the state's involvement with her namesake battleship. I When the new American steel navy appeared in the late nineteenth century, a tradition evolved simultaneously among namesake states to provide their battleships with a suitable gift, usually in the form of an "Interview with Mary Alice Spry Woolley, March 1971. North Hollywood, California. " "Governor Denies Tribune Fake." Deseret News, January 5, 1910. See also telegram from New York Shipbuilding Co. to Governor of Utah, December 6, 1909, Battleship Utah File, in which the company informs the governor they have set the date for December 23, 1909. For an excellent biography of William Spry that includes discussions of his efforts to bring Mormon and Gentile factions together in Utah, see Leonard J. Arrington and William L. Roper, William Spry, Alan of Firmness, Governor of Utah (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1971).

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ornate silver service. These gifts usually ranged in cost from $5,000 to $25,000, depending on the relative interest within the namesake state and the size of the silver service to be presented. Governor Spry had pondered this tradition for some time prior to the launching and had decided to encourage a budget of approximately $10,000. Although this figure was somewhat lower than the average expenditure for such gifts, it did not indicate a lack of interest in the project. T o the contrary, Governor Spry saw the tradition as an important means of providing the people of Utah the opportunity to establish a personal identity with their new battleship. Accordingly, he sought a plan to fix the price at a reasonable sum that would not seem excessive to the average citizen and still provide for a superior quality silver service. Seeing quality as more desirable than quantity, Governor Spry favored a smaller service of master craftsmanship, preferably made from Utah silver.1" To finance the project, he proposed that a subscription from the young people of Utah be solicited, supported by an appropriation from the legislature. Governor Spry had outlined his plan to reporters in Camden shortly after the launching ceremonies: My idea is to have the silver service donated by the school children of U t a h instead of having the Legislature appropriate the money or a few wealthy men contribute the necessary amount. T h e r e are 104,000 children of school age in my state out of a population of 350,000. We rather pride ourselves on that record . . . and you can see that if there is a contribution of but ten cents from each of these children we shall have a $10,000 fund to expend on the silver service. T h e people of U t a h are immensely proud of having this magnificent craft named after our State, and I am quite sure the popular subscription will be a success. 11

Within weeks after his return to Utah, Governor Spry set his plan in motion by appointing a special committee on March 30, 1910, to supervise the procurement of a silver service. T h e committee was chaired by the prominent mining magnate Daniel C. Jackling and included Professor David H. Christensen, head of the public schools in Salt Lake City as well as a member of the Utah State Board of Education; Mrs. Elizabeth McCune and Miss Fay Loose of Provo; A. R. Heywood of O g d e n ; and A. C. Nelson of Salt Lake City. T h e committee immediately drew up a definitive plan for action based on the ideas outlined by Governor Spry. T h e two most pressing needs were, first, to solicit silver manufacturers for designs and bids and, " W i l l i a m Spry to Bailey, Banks, and Biddle Co., June 24, 1909, Battleship U t a h File. Philadelphia Post Telegram clipping.

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second, to put in motion the subscription for financing the gift by Utah school children. Governor Spry had received letters of inquiry from several silver manufacturers as early as June 1909, shortly after the first announcement of the new battleship. Throughout the summer the governor had studied these proposals carefully and maintained steady correspondence with several companies to gain their reactions to his own ideas. By the time Colonel Jackling and his committee were appointed, most of the groundwork was laid for the submission of bids. Shortly after the committee was formed, a letter was sent to several major jewelers and silver companies inviting bids with "designs practical in nature and symbolizing industry, history, or other institutions of the State" to be submitted by June 1, 1910.12 T o this invitation, several major companies responded, including the Bailey, Banks, and Biddle Co. of Philadelphia, the Gorham Company of New York City, and the Joseph Mayer Company of Washington. In June the contract was awarded to the Gorham Company, represented locally by the J. H. Leyson Company. C. R. Pearsall, general manager of the Salt Lake City firm, became the spokesman for the contractor and consequently an ad hoc member of the committee. Throughout the remainder of the summer the committee concerned itself with refining details of the silver service, and by late September the final design was approved and ready for display. Consisting of 102 pieces, the silver service was relatively conservative in design but was nevertheless rich in detail, chronicling important places, people, and natural descriptions of Utah. Highlighting the service were the larger, more conspicuous pieces, including an eight-gallon punch bowl engraved with the profile of the new battleship on one side and a scene of the Wasatch Mountains on the opposite. T h e bowl was surrounded by twenty-seven cups for Utah's twenty-seven counties, each embossed with the state seal. T h e water pitcher was engraved with a scene of the Devil's Slide, and a view of the Bingham Copper Mine was selected for the centerpiece. On the tray for the coffee server appeared the relief of a downtown scene in Salt Lake City looking north on Main Street to the Pioneer Monument and the Salt Lake Temple. When all of the designs went on public display for the first time in mid-September, it was the coffee server tray that eventually caught the eye of Mrs. Erna Von R. Owen, a non-Mormon who was relatively new to the state. Describing her interest as nothing more than personal, her 12 "Report of the Special Committee to Select and Purchase a Suitable Silver Service for Presentation to the Battleship 'Utah,' " p. 5, Battleship Utah File.

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visit to Leyson's showroom was motivated by what she attributed later to intense interest in the new battleship Utah based on family affiliation with the navy. I could see the designs readily, but I wanted to see them all, and this one was concealed from view and I had to look for itâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;I mean this one with the Brigham Young design on it. W h e n I saw it I was consumed with indignation. It did not occur to me that I could do anything. I said, "Are you women going to allow this thing to go through." 1 3

T h a t the likeness of Brigham Young would appear on the state's official gift to her namesake battleship was too much for Mrs. Owen's peace of mind. She immediately confronted Leyson's over the design and finding no satisfaction set out directly to enlist support from others who would find the design equally offensive. Although most Utahns were unaware of the protest, Mrs. Owen immediately mounted an active campaign against the design. Within weeks her support grew to include several prominent non-Mormon Utahns and was spreading to influential figures nationwide. Responding to Mrs. Owen's call for assistance, Norman Hapgood, editor of Collier's Weekly, replied, "You are wasting your time over that matter; it is such an outrageous project that it will defeat itself automatically." 14 O n Sunday, December 4, 1910, the issue finally reached the press when the New York American ran a blistering article on the glorification of Brigham Young on Utah's gift to her namesake battleship. T h e mouthpiece of the American party, known for its anti-Mormon point of view, accused the State Silver Service Committee of meeting in secret in the absence of a single Gentile member to approve the Brigham Young design. T h o u s a n d s of citizens of U t a h who are not M o r m o n themselves but who are contributors to the fund that was raised to buy the silver service learned of the truth within the past few days and immediately sent a protest for publication in the New York Anierican.ir'

T h e article went on to denounce the deceit of the local jeweler "Tyson and Co.," describing how the design was well hidden from public view and "to see it at all it was necessary to stand on tiptoes." 16 T h e Salt Lake Tribune wasted no time picking up the story and ran virtually the same article the following day with succeeding editorials 1:1 U.S., Congress, House, Committee on Naval Affairs, Silver Service to Be Presented to Battleship "Utah," Hearings, May 16, 1911. "Ibid. '"'"Brigham Young Glorified in Utah Naval Gift: Patriotic Protests Sent to American," New York American, December 4, 1910. 30 Ibid.

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on December 6 and 9. O n Sunday, December 11, C. R. Pearsall made the first response to the flurry of charges against the committee, branding the accusations as "reeking with falsehood" and "hardly a line of truth in the entire article." 17 Pearsall continued: You understand I am speaking as the one who sold this service to the committee appointed to purchase it, and you know I am a Gentile. . . . . . . I asked the company making the silver service to place the picture on one of the small pieces and this was done. You understand this was my idea.... . . . I have never had an order [from the committee] to use any design or sentiment that would advertise, or was in any way characteristic of the M o r m o n church or people. 1 8

T h e editors of the Tribune responded to Pearsall's letter by excusing its obvious refutation of the American article to the likelihood that Pearsall did not actually know what the real silver service being produced in New York City looked like. "If so, it would by no means be the first time unsuspecting gentiles have been taken in by the wiles and tricks of the 'brethren."'19' Official reaction to the controversy, other than Pearsall's rebuttal in the Tribune, was slow in coming and seemed to reflect not only surprise but also the attitude that the whole story was preposterous and did not warrant the dignity of a reply. By late December, however, Mrs. Owen's efforts had resulted in a number of protests arriving at the governor's office from various leagues and auxiliary organizations throughout the country, prompting an official statement from Governor Spry: In replv I will state that it is not now. nor has it been the intention of this State to present the figure of Brigham Young as any part of the design on the service. . . . This m o n u m e n t has been dedicated to the memory of the pioneers who settled this country in 1847 and contains figures of the Indian, the trapper, and the pioneer with his wife and child, and also a figure of Brigham Young who led the pioneers and it is in no sense erected to the memory of Brigham Young. 2 "

From her new home in U p p e r Montclair, New Jersey, throughout the early months of 1911, Mrs. Owen continued her undaunted efforts which were characterized by as much public exposure as possible before groups that could be persuaded to petition against the proposed design. Directing her attack at the whole institution of the Mormon church, Mrs. Owen described unspeakable horrors and crimes perpetrated by its 17

C. R. Pearsall to editor. Salt Lake Tribune. December 11, 1910. Ibid. 19 Ibid. 21 William Spry to Louise E. Jones, December 23, 1910, Battleship U t a h File. ,s

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Utah

mmmmmmm

U.S.S. U t a h at naval review in New York harbor, November

1911.

leaders. Even ex-President Roosevelt and President Taft were denounced as supporters of the Mormon cause. "Why, President Taft spoke in the M o r m o n Tabernacle, "she said, " a n d he shook hands with two Mrs. Smithsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the two wives of one m a n . " "Oh-o-o-o-o-o!" breathed the women, looking terribly shocked. " T h e names of Taft and Roosevelt are used for p r o p a g a n d a in making converts to Mormonism," continued Mrs. Owen. "Roosevelt openly favored the M o r m o n cause. H e -â&#x20AC;&#x201D;" "Will you please let Roosevelt alone?" shouted Mr. Conkling. . . "Let him alone, let him alone! I say will you let Roosevelt alone!" shouted Mr. Conkling, and so he was superior in lung power to Mrs. Owen, she gave up.- 1

In Utah, the Silver Service Committee continued on with the task of funding the gift, while public interest in Mrs. Owen had rapidly diminished. 'Shouted

Mrs. Owen

Down,"

undated

newspaper

clipping, Battleship

Utah

File.

312

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Contrary to the report made in the New York American, solicitation for donations from Utah's schoolchildren did not begin until February 15, 1911, when an official announcement was issued by the committee to Utah's school superintendents. Subscriptions in any a m o u n t from ten cents up will be welcomed and each donor will receive a very handsomely embossed certificate bearing the autograph signatures of the Governor of the State and members of the Committee, so worded that the a m o u n t of contribution is not shown on the certificate, thus eliminating rivalry and placing contributors on an equal footing. 22

T h e fund drive continued through the end of the school year in early June and was met with varying degrees of success in different parts of the state. It was viewed as one of the most important aspects of the silver service project, primarily because the drive allowed every student in the state an opportunity to participate in the project and also be appropriately acknowledged. When the drive was over, a total of 26,477 schoolchildren were listed as having contributed $2,277.42. 23 Meanwhile, on May 16, 1911, Mrs. Owen's campaign reached its apex when she succeeded in obtaining a hearing before the House Committee on Naval Affairs in Washington, D.C. Accompanying her was an impressive array of witnesses to testify in her behalf against the appearance of Brigham Young on Utah's silver service. T h e hearing lasted for one hour and forty-five minutes and included the greatest barrage against Brigham Young and the Mormon church that Mrs. Owen and her companions could muster. Accompanying Mrs. Owen were Rev. Robert Stevenson of Westminister College in Salt Lake City, Miss J. E. Richards of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Mrs. Albion V. Wackhams of the Interdenominational Council of Women for Christian and Patriotic Service, Rev. George A. Miller of the Ministerial Federation of Washington, D . C , and Rev. Frank J. Goodwin of Mount Pleasant Congregational Church in Washington, D.C. Highlights of the hearing included a variety of statements made by the delegation that indicated the overall credibility of the presentation made before the committee. Mrs. Owen. . . Governor Spry was made the chairman of the committee. Governor Spry is a good M o r m o n ; that is, he pays his tithes and goes to the temple once a year. . . . the committee is entirely M o r m o n with the exception of D. C. Jackling, who is a "Jack M o r m o n . " H e is a m a n of large financial interests and is identified with the Mormons. . . . 22 Silver Service Committee to superintendents of Utah school districts, February 15, 1911, Battleship U t a h File. 21 "Report of the Special Committee." p. 9.

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Mr. Stevenson. H e [Brigham Young] was also the exponent of the doctrine of the bloody atonement. Brigham Young mentioned that there were certain sins that could only be atoned for by shedding the blood of the person who committed the sin. O n e of these sins was apostasy and a n o t h e r was adultery. Now, Allen, in his "Story of the M o r m o n s " relates the following: that a wife confessed to her husband that she had been u n t r u e to him, and, at her request, as she sat upon his knee, he cut her throat in order that she might atone for her sin. . . . Mr. Goodwin. . . A pioneer design would represent the women with their sunbonnets and carrying their children and would represent the immigrant wagons. T h a t is the real pioneer design, because that shows the pioneers. These are all Mormons. Now, whoever saw a pioneer in a frock coat, and that is the way Brigham Young is dressed here. This is not in any sense a pioneer design. 21

If anything, the complaints and accusations levied at Brigham Young, the church, Governor Spry, Daniel Jackling, and any other abomination that could be remotely connected to the coffee server tray raised a few' eyebrows on the Naval Affairs Committee, however not high enough to get anything more than a promise for another hearing at a future, unspecified date. Three days later, in a letter to Governor Spry dated May 19, 1911, Utah Sen. George Sutherland lamented the questionable manner in which the hearing was handled and asked that the governor and Jackling consider appearing before the committee to respond. I did not know anything about the hearing until it was all but as soon as I heard of it myself and Congressman Howell had an view with Representative Hobson who is an active member of the mittee. . . . She [Mrs. Owen] gave the Committee to understand, as informed that the dominating thing in the whole picture was the of Brigham Y o u n g . 2 '

over, interComI am figure

Dismayed at the renewed notoriety of Mrs. Owen's campaign, Governor Spry responded in a letter to Secretary of the Navy George von L. Meyer, dated June 3, 1911, that Mrs. Owen had presented false information before the Naval Affairs Committee and should not be considered as the spokesman of popular Gentile attitudes in Utah. 26 Two weeks later, after meeting with the members of the Silver Service Committee, Colonel Jackling issued a statement to the press that echoed 24

Battleship "Utah," Hearings, p. 3. George Sutherland to William Spry, May 19, 1911, Battleship Utah File. -'"William Spry to Secretary of the Navy George L. Meyer. June 3, 1911, Battleship Utah 27

File.

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the governor's comments, categorically refuted each of the charges made by Mrs. Owen before the Naval Affairs Committee, and closed with: T h e r e have been no protests or objections to the design of the service m a d e within the State, and those few who have gone without the State to raise such objections have no material interests in the State, nor do they represent any such interests. . . . the representations m a d e by certain persons claiming to be of U t a h before the Committee on Naval Affairs M a y 16th last, are false in all essential particulars as bearing on this m a t t e r and contrary to their claim, they misrepresent the n o n - M o r m o n as well as M o r m o n people of U t a h . D. C. Jackling 2 7

By separate correspondence, the committee informed Secretary Meyer that there would be no compromise on the issue and that the silver service would have to be accepted as originally designed or there would be no silver service given. 28 T h e "take it or leave it" ultimatum presented no problem to the Navy Department who had maintained a disinterested position throughout the controversy and officially could see no objection in accepting the silver service in the spirit that was intended by the tradition. T h e characteristic furor in the U t a h press that invariably appeared with any Gentile-Mormon conflict, began to subside considerably following Jackling's announcement. Nonetheless, the Salt Lake Herald Republican could not pass up the opportunity to pronounce its valediction on the whole affair in an editorial dated June 28. It read in p a r t : T h e r e are many people whose idea of Hell is a place where they will have to mind their own business. Unfortunately they come to U t a h . . . . She [Mrs. Owen] probably remained [in U t a h ] long enough to imbibe the poison which the Salt Lake Tribune sells to a rapidly diminishing few at so m u c h a m o n t h , and not long enough to learn that the Tribune is stewing in its own juice and finds the occupation neither lucrative or amusing. . . . If the brave young gentlemen who officer the Battleship U t a h never do anything worse than dine off a silver service, one piece of which bears the likeness of the Brigham Young Statue, it will be unnecessary for them to die in order to get to H e a v e n ; they will be proper candidates for translation. 214

"Report of the Special Committee."

Ibid. Mrs. Owen alleged that the entire committee was Mormon save for chairman Jackling. In fact, it was divided equally with three Mormons and three non-Mormons. T h e role of Spry with regard to the committee was also distorted by Mrs. Owen. The governor seldom if ever attended committee meetings himself and was represented by his secretary John K. Hardy. 29

" T h e Silver Service," Salt Lake Herald Republican,

June 28, 1911.

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Utah

Col. C. E. Loose, Sen. Reed Smoot, Hazel Dawn, Gov. William Spry, and Capt. William S. Benson at New York Navy Yard for presentation of silver service. Utah State Historical Society collections, courtesy Lita Spry Foss family.

II Late in the morning of November 6, 1911, under overcast skies at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the new dreadnought Utah rode quietly at her moorings, resplendent in the magnificent colors and bunting of a full dress ship. A crowd in excess of one thousand had gathered to witness the impressive ceremonies that marked the presentation of one of the most ornate and controversial silver services ever given to a U.S. warship. Within the crowd, over five hundred Utahns had gathered, making it one of the largest contingents of Utahns to have come together outside the state. It had been almost two years since Governor Spry had first seen the infant dreadnought on the ways at Camden, New Jersey, and as he boarded the new battleship under full Navy honors, he noted with pride that the ship had indeed developed into a magnificent vessel. Among those in the governor's official party were Sen. and Mrs. Reed Smoot, Col. Edward C. Loose, and Miss Hazel Tout of Broadway fame, a native

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Colorful ceremonies aboard the U t a h on November 6, 1911, featured William Spry, center, who officially presented the silver service. Utah Historical Society collections.

Quarterly

Gov. State

of Ogden who would unveil the silver service. Also accompanying the governor were members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir under the direction of Professor Evan Stevens, who were scheduled to perform later in the afternoon at Madison Square Garden. T h e silver service was arranged on a twenty-five-foot-long table stretching between two huge 12-inch gun turrets and covered by a large flag. Above the table a speakers' platform had been constructed over an amidship's superstructure for members of the Utah delegation and the senior officers of the U.S.S. Utah, under command of Capt. William Benson, later to become chief of naval operations. T h e ceremony began with brief introductory remarks followed by Governor Spry's official presentation. In a short but stirring speech Spry acknowledged the schoolchildren who had contributed toward the gift and then charged the officers and men to "blaze the way to a higher and nobler civilization." 3 " Miss Tout then unveiled the silver service which was officially accepted by Captain Benson. T h e Mormon Tabernacle 1

1911.

" U t a h Silver Service Formally Presented," Salt Lake Herald

Republican.

November 6,

William S. Benson, who later became chief of naval operations, commanding officer of the U.S.S. U t a h .

was the first

Choir sang the state song " U t a h , We Love T h e e " with new verses added by Professor Stevens in honor of the battleship: Queen of the O c e a n Wave, U t a h ! We love thee! M a n n e d by the true and brave. U t a h ! We love thee! U n c o n q u e r e d may'st thou ride, Long o'er the restless tide, O u r Country's joy and pride, U t a h ! We love thee! 3 1

A set of flags was next presented to the ship from the U t a h Grand Army of the Republic and the U t a h Spanish-American W a r Veterans and was accepted by Lieutenant Butler who led the ship's company in three cheers for the state of Utah. T h e ceremony then concluded with a stirring rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" by the choir. T h e presentation had been a fitting conclusion to what had been a long, involved, and at times frustrating project. T h e purposes set forth at the :;1

ibid.

318

The U t a h capsized at Pearl

Utah Historical

Quarterly

Harbor.

outset by Governor Spry had been fulfilled ably by the Silver Service Committee, and the relatively newT state of U t a h had shown itself well in the national limelight. Not to be discouraged, however, Mrs. Owen's campaign reached its anticlimax the following day when a substitute coffee server tray was presented, adorned with the figure of a young girl representing the state of which Mrs. Owen was no longer a citizen. H e r hope that the tray would replace "the Brigham Young design" was short-lived as her young girl tray ultimately found its way to a frame on the bulkhead of the captain's cabin. 32 T h u s passed the silver service into history aboard the U.S.S. Utah for the next twenty years. 33 ::2 A. Cruz, Cruise of the U.S.S. Utah... (Norfolk, Va.: Vogue Printing Co., 1913), p. 23. This covers the first year of commissioned service. ;i The silver service remained aboard the Utah for nineteen years until Congress, on February 17, 1931, returned custody of it to the state when the Utah was redesignated as a target ship in accordance with the London Naval Conference of 1930. For the next forty-five years, the silver journeyed from the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum, to the State Capitol, and eventually to the U t a h State Historical Society in the Kearns Mansion where several pieces were stolen by burglars. It should be noted that the curator of the Naval Museum in Washington, D . C , has emphasized that the Utah silver service remains official U.S. Navy property and could conceivably be used again should another ship bear the name Utah. Thus, theft of silver service pieces constitutes a federal offense. T h e U.S.S. Utah lies today near Ford Island in Pearl Harbor where she was torpedoed on the morning of December 7, 1941. For an account of the Utah at Pearl Harbor, see Michael S. Eldredge, " T h e O t h e r Side of the Island: USS U t a h at Pearl Harbor," U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, December 1976.

Spokesman for the Kingdom: Early Mormon Journalism and the Deseret News, 1830-1898. By M O N T E BURR M C L A W S . (Provo, U t . : Brigham Young University Press, 1977. X v i i i + 254 p p . $9.95.) Nineteenth-century newspapers practiced "personal journalism" to a degree hardly imaginable to contemporary audiences. W h e n a paper changed editors, the tone and outlook of even the largest metropolitan dailies often underwent a radical shift. Libel laws were in their infancy, or as yet unborn, and a frequent response to an editor's slander was a cane or a p u n c h in the nose. M o n t e M c L a w s has written a readable and generally perceptive history of the Deseret News during this period of editorial showdowns and sensational revelations. T h e L D S paper was atypical for the era. Like most frontier papers its influence on public opinion was immense, but particularly so because it was the official organ of the M o r m o n hierarchy. This institutional connection molded the paper's personality in many ways and minimized the effect of changing editors. News editors rarely sank to the sensational gore and sex of many eastern dailies and the tone of their editorials usually bore an institutional decorum long before other newspapers had switched from vitriol to the pabulum of public policy statements. M u c h of the paper's unique character also derived from M o r m o n culture, and McLaws's history of the Deseret News becomes a history of the church's temporal struggles and developing theology. Early M o r m o n journalism spawned in tempestuous waters. McLaws traces the Deseret News's antecedents to the theological wars of the first decades of

the nineteenth century. T h e same religious ferment that set young Joseph Smith to questioning the various local creeds of Palmyra resulted in the founding of over 100 sectarian papers in the twenty years prior to 1830. These p u b lications typically had two primary functions: first, to explain the sect's doctrine to members and prospective converts (nearly everyone else) and, second, to defend these beliefs from attack. T h e first M o r m o n publication, the Evening and Morning Star (1831), established journalistic policies and practices later reflected in the Deseret News. Besides acting as a vehicle for official church pronouncements and a defender of the faith, the Evening and Morning Star noted "Signs of the T i m e s " augering the impending millennium and consequently carried a healthy complement of national and international news (most of it, however, tending to support the M o r m o n s ' beliefs). Joseph Smith appointed an official church journalist charged with producing a periodical and kept the conduct of the church paper strictly u n d e r control. William Cowdery, for example, lost his editor's job for criticizing Joseph Smith's inept handling of the Bank of Kirtland. M o r e than any other influence, however, the M o r m o n belief that the kingdom of God on earth would not be established by heavenly fiat, but by h u m a n effort, shaped the future of the Deseret News. After the M o r m o n migration to the Great Basin, the newly

320 formed weekly was a tool for the Mormons in the "building up of the kingdom." T h e vast majority of western frontier newspapers died with their boots onâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; usually at the hands of creditors. M c Laws makes a good case, however, that Brigham Young considered the Deseret News his most important tool for building the kingdom. Whatever potentially fatal problems threatened the paper's existence. Young was always at hand to make sure the paper survived. When a shortage of newsprint forced repeated cutbacks in the paper's frequency, a paper mill was built and the General Authorities preached "rag sermons" urging M o r m o n women to contribute their household rags to make paper. Periodic subscription drives by church leaders appealed to the M o r m o n ' s sense of duty and served to help alleviate the News's chronic shortages of hard cash to meet its bills. (Employees were frequently paid in trade at church stores.) In a characteristically terse statement, Young pledged his commitment to the Deseret ATews's survival, "Profit or no profit, a C h u r c h paper will continue to be printed." T h e Deseret News provided the only topical reading material for Deseret's scattered settlements. Its editorial policy was designed to nurture this fragile web of communities into a cohesive unit. T o meet the primary goal of keeping communications open between the hierarchy and the membership, the News printed conference reports, sermons, and editorial pronouncements from church leaders. As with current Deseret News editors, day-to-day control of the paper's activities was not necessary. Editors were generally chosen from a m o n g the leadership and shared a common world view and purpose with the General Authorities. T o help keep M o r m o n society together the church paper occasionally distorted the news. McLaws offers several convincing examples of the suppression

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of news that might have disturbed the church's delicate equanimity. Information which evinced the possibility of distracting members from the demands of their theodemocracy earned only an oblique notice or was omitted altogether. Despite the peculiarities of its local coverage, the Deseret News increasingly went to greater and greater efforts to provide its audience with national and international news. Mormons believe strongly in the value of education, and the paper sometimes served as reading material in what must have passed in the early one-room schoolhouses for "social studies." M o n t e McLaws makes an interesting statement about M o r m o n news censorship: It has been said, however, t h a t a tightly controlled press is a dead press. This may be true when referring to a newspaper in a democracy, but the Deseret News, which operated in a theo-democratic system where virtually everything existed for and was used by the C h u r c h to obtain certain ends, was very m u c h alive. Even though there was some suppression and shaping of news in the M o r m o n Kingdom, few felt themselves unjustly coerced. This remarkable assertion implies that because a consensus existed among the Mormons, altering information to fit their peculiar world view was a quasidefensible practice because few objected to it and it produced a "lively" p a p e r anyway. McLaws takes an uncritical stance towards a policy designed to perpetuate itself. T h e News was a controlled source of information intended to solidify a M o r m o n consensusâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a consensus which did not object to the fact that it heard only one view of reality. (A parallel situation exists in the twentieth century. T h e contemporary foreign press has repeatedly objected to "American consensus journalism" which

321

Book Reviews and Notices they feel paints a distorted picture of world newsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;particularly in Latin America a n d Africa.) M o r m o n news "shaping" h a d a profound effect on the way Mormons reacted to Gentile criticism of the church a n d was undoubtedly a factor in perpetuating t h e bitter social conflicts between the two groups. T h e era of Mormon-Gentile conflict is the most studied and probably the most entertaining period of Deseret News history. Most accounts of the Deseret News tend to deal almost exclusively with this era. Fortunately, M c Laws does not overemphasize the great editorial mud-slinging battles over polygamy, politics, a n d the economic control of U t a h . News editors, to their credit, rarely descended into the mire to wrestle with their opponents, preferring instead to wait for the "vilifiers to tire themselves o u t . " They struggled bravely for years to stem the tide of public emotion running against the church but ultimately failed. As the conflict eventually reached the point of conflagration, the News began to retaliate in kind, calling the Salt Lake Tribune 'I'd Rather

Be Born Lucky

Than

Rich":

the organ of the prostitutes, the apologist for the blackguard, a n d d r u n k a r d , the defamer of women, the slanderer of the dead, the cesspool into which the obscenity, blasphemy a n d prurient gossip of roughs a n d loafers a n d smutty-minded m e n of the baser sort flows naturally. McLaws's closing chapters are not as interesting as the earlier ones. T h e y tend to wander, a n d the divisions between chapters seem somewhat arbitrary. Although the Deseret News underwent a brief change of ownership during the confiscation of church property in the 1890s, it never lost its role as official spokesman for the M o r m o n church. T h e a m o u n t of religious news printed, however, gradually decreased as the News entered its second fifty years, a n d it finally grew to become the almost entirely secular journal it is today.

DAVID M E R R I L L

Utah State Historical The Autobiography

of Robert

Society Hinckley.

By R O B E R T H . H I N C K L E Y and J O A N N JACOBSEN W E L L S . Charles R e d d M o n o g r a p h s

in Western History, no. 7. Xii + 160 p p . Paper, $4.95.)

Provo, U t . : Brigham Young University Press, 1977.

Robert Hinckley is a U t a h M o r m o n boy who made good. During the depression, Hinckley was U t a h director of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the U t a h Relief Organization, a n d the Water Conservation and Development Program. H e went on to be western director of the Works Progress Administration, chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority, a n d assistant secretary of commerce, among other N e w Deal jobs. As a businessman, Hinckley made enough money in autos, airplanes, arms, broadcasting, a n d other ventures to endow the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of U t a h and other philanthropies.

By any standard, Hinckley's career has been one of remarkable scope a n d achievement. His book is not so successful as his career. H e recounts his life largely as a succession of jobs. Each is described, a n d Hinckley summarizes, often statistically, the accomplishments during his tenure at the agencies he headed. Readers are told little about Hinckley's thoughts or feelings. T h e r e are few insights into life among New Dealers or a m o n g the bigtime lobbyists Hinckley joined when he left government. Ambitious U t a h boys or girls w h o wish to emulate Hinckley's rise will not learn how to do it here. From his experi-

322 ence, Hinckley deduces no general principles. His account provides evidence for neither Horatio Alger nor Niccolo Machiavelli. Hinckley does not recount in detail battles he won or lost, nor does he divulge the tricks of getting up in the world. T h o u g h most of Hinckley's life was spent in business, most of his autobiography deals with politics. H e begins by telling how he distributed campaign handbills at the age of five and ends with a testimony that politics are "most important." T h e New Deal years are especially prominent, larger in volume and brighter in description than the parts dealing with other periods in Hinckley's life. Hinckley takes obvious and justified pleasure in the record of his achievements as a whole. But most of the memories he seems to cherish for their own sake come from his years as a NewDealer and those as a M o r m o n missionary. I n this book, Hinckley wishes to defend the New Deal in particular and politics in general. H e asserts that without the New Deal, America would have "gone communistic." As for politics, Hinckley says "it can also be honorable." From the middle of World W a r I I until his retirement in 1965, Hinckley was—with interruptions and other interests—chief lobbyist for Sperry Company and for the American Broadcasting Company. His concerns about politics and the New Deal seem to be those of a m a n who had to represent government to big business as well as business to government.

Utah Historical

Hinckley's concerns and his answers now seem charmingly old fashioned. Politics and the New Deal are triumphant. It is business, especially big business, that is now under attack and in need of a defense showing that "it can also be honorable." Hinckley got to know many important people. H e knew Presidents Roosevelt, T r u m a n , and Johnson, a m o n g other denizens of history books. About most of his famous friends, Hinckley seems to remember what others have remembered. H e recounts how New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia sometimes cried, how Vice-president J o h n Nance Garner served cronies bootleg whiskey to "strike a blow for liberty," and how former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover frequented horse races with his sidekick Clyde Tolson. These stories have been told before. I have met Mr. Hinckley twice. H e seems a most affable and pleasant m a n . And this book reinforces that impression. O n e would suspect that a career such as Hinckley's would include failures, frustrations, and unrealized ambitions, too. Hinckley dwells on success rather than failure. H e writes very little about people he did not like or about the faults of those he did like. Hinckley's outlook is relentlessly positive. In his long life, Mr. Hinckley has m a d e many contributions, and he may now add this book—a lucid account of the life of a nice, successful m a n — t o that long list. ROD

DECKER

Deseret

Guide to Mormon Diaries and Autobiographies. By DAVIS BITTON. Brigham Young University Press, 1977. Xii + 417 pp. $29.95.) We have been told for a long time that perhaps there were no people who better recorded their life experiences in diaries and journals than did the Mormons. Not until now did we have much

Quarterly

News

Provo. U t .

evidence to support the view. Just when the M o r m o n leadership set about encouraging their people to keep diaries (presuming such a cause for the number of diaries extant) is not known to

Book Reviews and Notices me, though I am aware of Joseph Smith's instructions to the Twelve Apostles, February 27, 1835, admonishing that body to keep minutes of all their proceedings. {History of the Church, 2:198-200.) T h e number of missionary diaries suggests an early encouragement to keep such a record. At any rate, Davis Bitton has created a m o n u m e n t a l milestone in M o r m o n historiography in this "largest and most ambitious effort to introduce the corpus of M o r m o n diaries and autobiographies" (p. v ) . It is the first of its kind on this scale, overshadowing altogether former efforts. Some 2,894 diaries, journals, and autobiographies, available for study, are here listed and described. Born of a desire to furnish his students in historical method with a list of diaries and autobiographies for sources to be used in writing research papers, the present work comes from the thoroughness of the professor and the assistance of a dozen or so persons who helped bring the enormous task to a happy fruition. Major dependence was on those repositories closest to h o m e â&#x20AC;&#x201D; " t h e largest and most important collections of Mormon materials" (p. v ) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; t h e Latter-day Saint church archives, the University of U t a h library, the U t a h State Historical Society, the Brigham Young University library, and the U t a h State University library. Although personal visits were m a d e to these repositories, inventories and published catalogs were relied upon chiefly for the holdings of the Huntington Library, the Coe Collection of the Beinecke Library at Yale University, and the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. O t h e r libraries were "examined only superficially" (p. v ) . Each entry is m a d e up of the following elements: name of the a u t h o r ; birth and death dates when obtainable; description of whether the work is a diary, journal, daybook, memoir, reminiscence, or autobiography: dates

323 covered by the work; form, whether holograph, manuscript, typescript, photocopy, duplication, or published; length in pages or volumes; size; location (where at least one copy may be found) ; and an annotation or abstract giving a brief description of the h u m a n action in time and space. T h e annotations or abstracts of the diari-es are extremely useful. Although the Guide is uneven in quality and a p propriateness, the reader will find himself expressing appreciation for everything that is included. T h e fundamental events in church history come through clearly. Topical essays also appear. T h e general experience and the unique personal experience come through. Altogether these descriptions are most valuable and furnish the basis for an extensive index. T h e index is particularly valuable and helpful. Indexed are the names of persons mentioned in the annotations, places (cities, states, provinces, countries) missions, institutions (academies to Z C M I ) , and topics (from Arts and Artists to World's F a i r s ) . T h e r e are nearly nine h u n d r e d subject entries, with the number of references varying from one to over three hundred (Overland Trail). A comparison of this writer's checklists of diaries in important libraries suggests that the compiler did very well by way of inclusiveness. This is not to say that all M o r m o n diaries once or now in these libraries are included in the Guide. Nor is the Guide a union list. It was deemed sufficient to find the holograph, or microfilm copy, or typescript, or printed version of the diary. H e r e is a guide to the personal records of the great and the lowly, the leaders and the people who made "the desert blossom," who accomplished the establishment of civilized life in the M o u n tain West, who effected their vision of the kingdom of God. It would seem that everyone is here: church presidents, apostles and other leaders, mountain

324 men, governors, but mainly the rank and file of M o r m o n pioneers. Only a few characteristics will disturb the more critical scholar. T h e Guide "does not attempt . . . to evaluate the usefulness and authenticity of the individual works" (p. v i ) , nor does it concern itself with provenance. T h e usefulness of a work is beyond the scope of a guide, but authenticity and provenance are not, especially when it takes so little effort to determine these. (In most cases it is answered immediately upon examination.) And if "A handful may even be outright forgeries" (p. v i ) , that handful should have been excluded or proven authentic. No fault of the compiler, it is regretted that the holdings of the Daughters of U t a h Pioneers are excluded

Utah Historical

Quarterly

by their policy, hence it is also impossible to prove the accuracy of D U P publication of personal records. T h e call n u m bers associated with H D C (Historical D e p a r t m e n t of the C h u r c h ) are incorrect now, having been changed during the course of the final preparation of the manuscript for the Guide. Professor Bitton has devoted years to this project and it will stand as a lasting memorial to his dedication. It is one of the most significant reference tools now available for M o r m o n studies, indispensable also for U t a h studies, and valuable for the study of western America. It should be at the elbow of every serious student of these fields. S. G E O R G E E L L S W O R T H

Utah State

University

The Early Temples of the Mormons: 7 'he Architecture of the Millennial Kingdom in the American West. By LAUREL B. A N D R E W . (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1978. X + 218 pp. $15.00.) Laurel B. Andrew's Hie Early Temples of the Mormons represents the first published volume to consider the architectural origins of nineteenth-century M o r m o n temples. She attempts through stylistic analysis, photographs, and lucid style of writing to establish an American provenance for these early buildings. H e r selection of photographs and illustrations are effectively arranged to elucidate the text and enhance her style analysis. This, combined with the editorship, graphics, and innovative layout by the State University of New York Press, forms a most attractive book. H e r text is centered on the four U t a h temples (Salt Lake St. George, Logan, and M a n t i ) . Of the four, Salt Lake receives singular attention because of its design influence on the other three and the accumulation of design advances of the prototype Kirtland and N a u v o o temples. T o circumstantiate an American architectural origin for the pivotal Salt Lake T e m p l e , she begins with the period of conceptualization and need for

a temple within Mormonism before its solidification with the Kirtland Temple. T h e n , through peripheral documentation and style analysis, she concludes an American origin for the Kirtland T e m ple. She is correct in this assumption and therefore continues this line of reasoning with the Nauvoo and the U t a h temples to confirm an American provenance. Unfortunately, she is in error to persist in the reliance on secondary interpretive sources, peripheral documentation, and stylistic analysis. This was adequate for the study of the Kirtland T e m p l e ; but there are numerous primary documents that support a nonAmerican origin for the Nauvoo and the early U t a h temples. As is evident from the text, its footnotes and bibliography, Andrew spent little actual time in researching these documents that were available to her in the public and private archives of U t a h . H e r a p p a r e n t success in using secondary sources with the Kirtland T e m p l e rather than a lensfthv archives search has led her to

Book Reviews and Notices conclude in chapter one that no significant study on the early M o r m o n temples existed prior to her own book. Since 1972, alone, a number of pointed articles/lectures, a thesis, and a new doctoral investigation have appeared, which discredit her thesis. In general, her own scholarship has shown little advancement over her initial article on this topic that was published in the M a r c h 1971 Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians and her 1973 doctoral dissertation (University of Michigan) from which this book was edited. H e r premise for an American provenance is based on two factors. T h e first is the M o r m o n contact with Freemasonry in the early years of Nauvoo. H e r argument of a close interrelationship between Mormonism and Freemasonry at Nauvoo is convincing, but she fails to elaborate on the contradictory evidence. Her dependence, as a source, on Robert Flanders's Nauvoo, Kingdom on the Mississippi and Fawn Brodie's controversial No Man Knows My History is explanation enough for the bias of her conclusion. It is important to realize that Brigham Young, the one responsible for the basic designs for the early U t a h temples, was only marginally interested in Masonry. Documentation is clear on this point. For her to assume that Young would have visited the Masonic temples of Boston and Philadelphia while on a visit to these cities in 1843 is an error. H a d she consulted his daybook as she suggests by the bibliography, she would not have made this assumption. Further, she fails to describe the condition of the Philadelphia Masonic T e m ple at the time of his supposed visit. As the result of two disastrous fires, the first in 1818 and again in 1819, the temple was reduced to a hulk with the conspicuous absence of its Wrenish tower and spire. T h e Masons themselves had abandoned the structure in 1837. Her errors related to the Masonic connection seem to multiply. She claims

325 that Young was in Boston in 1845 as head of that mission when, in reality, he was neither there at that time nor occupied that position. T o link the symbols found on the Salt Lake T e m ple to those of Masonry is fallacious. T r u m a n O. Angell, Sr., architect of the temple, denied a similar allegation. H e stated that they were the product of Young's intense investigation of the scriptural texts available to him and his interest in astronomy. H e r assumption of a Masonic influence is tenuous at best. H e r second premise, and most crucial oversight, is her pronouncement of an American provenance for the Nauvoo and the U t a h temples. H a d she sought further documentation on the lives of William Weeks, T. O. Angell, Sr., William Ward, and Brigham Young himself, she would not have persisted in this assumption. Both Weeks and Angell had access to Peter Nicholson's volumes on architecture. T h e documented presence of these manuals indicates a direct English source. This potential English origin for, specifically, the Salt Lake T e m p l e is reinforced by the presence of W a r d as Angell's architectural assistant. T h e young Ward received his architectural training in the Gothic Revival School as an apprenticed architect in his native England prior to his joining Mormonism and his departure for Nauvoo and then U t a h . It was he who was responsible for having the windows of the temple recessed and not the influence of the Boston Masonic Temple as implied by Andrew. T h e most important evidence for an English architectural provenance for the Salt Lake Temple is found in Young's daybook. T h e source for the six tower/ spire configuration as sketched on an office slate by him for Angell and W a r d came from his exposure to an appreciation of the grandeur of English architecture that he experienced while on an extended mission to that country in 1840. It seems strange that Andrew would see

Utah Historical Quarterly

326 parallels between a medieval cathedral and t h e Salt Lake T e m p l e in terms of a compendium of theological belief and not discern a n English or European source. Young a n d those who accompanied him to England recorded in detail their visits to Worchester Cathedral. (This is in marked contrast to the conspicuous absence of such recorded data from their travels in America.) His purchased architectural guidebooks to these various monuments, along with a structural model, would return with him to form the basis of his design concept. Finally, why would he send his architect, T. O. Angell, Sr., to England and France in 1856 to specifically learn from the "works of the ancients" to improve upon the design of the Salt Lake T e m -

Hamlin

Garland's

Observations

ple had he been able to gain the same from a visit to t h e eastern United States? I m p o r t a n t exceptions could be made to many aspects of Andrew's interpretation of M o r m o n doctrine, particularly millennialism a n d its relationship to the overall symbolism of the Salt Lake T e m ple a n d to nineteenth- and twentiethcentury Mormon perspective. As it is, her lack of research into primary documentation has led to a book based on misconceptions a n d faulty conclusions. This makes it a book of questionable worth to the serious a n d well-informed scholar on Mormons a n d their architecture. Brigham

on the American

Indian,

MARK

HAMILTON

Young

University

1895^-1905. Compiled a n d

edited by L O N N I E E. U N D E R H I L L and D A N I E L F. L I T T L E F I E L D , J R . ( T u c s o n :

The

University of Arizona Press, 1976. X + 214 pp. $9.95.) John Collier's Crusade for Indian Reform, 1920-1954. By K E N N E T H R. P H I L P . (Tucson: T h e University of Arizona Press, 1977. Xvi + 304 pp. $12.50.) Here are two books about two m e n with similar views concerning the plight of the American Indian. They were similar in their belief in cultural pluralism which fostered their sympathy for the Indian, a n d they shared a rare understanding of his problems. This interest was sparked by their reaction to the philosophies of social Darwinism and their disillusionment with the "disruptive forces unleashed by the industrial revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century." However, they chose to react in entirely different ways. I n the first book, Underhill and Littlefield have edited the essays a n d original field notes of the American novelist Hamlin Garland. These are Garland's observations of I n d i a n life that he made while traveling throughout Indian country at the turn of the century. Included are introductory remarks about Gar-

land's background a n d how he became interested in the Indians; prefacing each essay are historical notes about the tribes he visited. T h e main purpose of this work is to bring to the attention of the public Garland's firsthand observations during a period of transition when the American Indians were on the verge of being assimilated into American society on terms dictated by the white m a n . T h e r e is more to this collection of essays than mere observations. Garland's writings reflect unusual insight which is atypical of its time because it is sympathetic a n d it advocates cultural pluralism. Garland believed that the Indian must be understood as a member of a certain race a n d situated in a particular environment. H e viewed the process of acculturation as the reduction of the Indian to the lowest social denominator, the poor white. H e did not support the

Book Reviews and Notices idea that the Indian should be civilized at the expense of losing his rich native culture. Unfortunately, Garland was only an enlightened bystander. H e did very little to change the conditions under which he found the Indian, and he did not publish his views very widely. W h a t is more unfortunate is that the Indian reservations were not main-traveled roads. T h e editors, in giving us Garland's interesting account, have contributed to the limited literature of an important period of transition when the predominant attitude toward the Indian was that of integration and acculturation. T h e essays add another dimension to the historical studies of this period, mainly because they were written by a talented and conscientious writer who had definite views and enlightened social values. It is an example of a point of view which went against the grain of contemporary thought. It is also a viewthat gave support to and was adopted by active social reformers like John Collier. T h e second volume is Philp's assessment of J o h n Collier, the commissioner of Indian Affairs during the New Deal, and his crusade for Indian reform from 1920 to 1954. This study is not only a critical look at the politics of Indian reform, but, more interestingly, it is an examination of the philosophies of a m a n who did more to influence Indian policies than any other man of his time. It is also a discussion of his successes as a social reformer and the reasons for his failures. Beginning with Collier's days as a social worker in New York City in the early twenties, Philp traces the philosophies which developed into the policies Collier advocated during his term as commissioner of Indian Affairs. Like Garland, Collier felt betrayed by a society which was rapidly moving away from traditional values and toward greater materialism. In his disillusionment he traveled to the Southwest to

327 find the Pueblos living the life that Collier found desirable. Realizing that there was a threat to this life-style, Collier began his crusade to save their way of life. His target was the Bureau of Indian Affairs. H e launched a campaign to reform the Indian service and change the Indian policies. T h e defeat of the Bursum bill was his first victory. After that there was no stopping him, and he began to attack other issues like the leasing of Indian lands, the misuse of tribal funds, and the threat to Indian oil, water, and mineral rights. In his effort to reform the Indian service prior to 1932, Collier not only laid the foundation for his own administration but foreshadowed his success as social reformer. Collier continued to experience success with the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 and insured his place in history. But all was not well. Several Indian groups and tribes were not all that cooperative in implementing his programs and policies. Congress was less willing to support him. Philp offers several interpretations for this growing lack of cooperation and why Collier's brand of progressivism was no longer viable under changing conditions brought on by World W a r I I and the new juxtaposition of Indian politics. Philp has written a well-researched volume that will undoubtedly encourage the further study of Indian policies prior to 1934. This book has filled in a neglected area in the study of federal Indian policies from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. It synthesizes and clarifies Indian policies of the 1920s and creates a continuity which is badly needed. Another important contribution is the critical look at Collier's philosophies and his methods of attaining his goals and how they led to successes and failures. Philp attempts to remain as objective as possible and includes a look at Collier's career after he left his post, which rounds out his study. This personal history of Collier's career provides

328 a greater understanding of his crusade and the Indian New Deal. These two books are welcome additions to the ever-growing literature on the American I n d i a n reform movements. Garland's Observations is particularlv interesting for the insififhts of the novel-

Utah Historical

ist, and Collier's Crusade is valuable because of its contribution to the study of federal Indian policies and the career of Collier. VERONICA TILLER

University

The Zunis of Cibola. By C. GREGORY C R A M P T O N . (Salt Lake C i t y U t a h Press, 1977. X i v + 2 0 1 pp. $15.00.) T h e history of Zuni Pueblo in western New Mexicoâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;which, like other southwestern pueblos, is noted for centuries of continuous habitationâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;has been long and often dramatic. It was at Zuni that the Spanish made first contact with Pueblo people, first through Estevan, the Moorish slave who was killed at the pueblo, and later by Coronado, who arrived in 1540 while searching for the mythical seven cities of Cibola. T h e Zunis unsuccessfully resisted C o r o n a d o and on several other occasions opposed Spaniards and fled to Towayalane, a nearby mesa that provided a place of refuge for periods of as long as twelve years. Despite both violent and passive resistance, the Spanish presence in the Southwest influenced even distant Zuni, bringing changes in political institutions, religion, and the economy. Virtually all phases of life were affected, and one major result was the concentration from six villages to one. American soldiers, missionaries, I n d i a n agents, and settlers also influenced Zuni life. C. Gregory C r a m p t o n of the University of U t a h has sought to present an outline of Zuni history from precontact days to the present. In some 120 pages of text accompanied by a fine collection of photographs C r a m p t o n sketches the history of Zuni, relations with other tribes, particularly the Navajos with whom they had intermittent conflict, and with Spain and the United States. Because of its size, relative isolation, and distinctive cultural features Zuni

Quarterly

Utah

University of

attracted the interest of anthropologists; and scholars such as Frank Cushing influenced their history. However, the volume of anthropological literature has not been matched by historical scholarship. M u c h of the published historical material about Zuni deals with the period before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, and there are numerous segments of the Spanish and American periods for which substantial documentary evidence is lacking. Therefore, C r a m p t o n faced a number of problems in researching this topic. It is fortunate that as director of the Doris Duke program in American Indian oral history, C r a m p t o n and his staff had the opportunity to cooperate with Zuni efforts to record Zuni traditions and history. T h e utilization of Zuni oral history is a significant contribution, when accompanied by careful use of published material. It is also true, however, that because of the limited size of the volume and the author's goal of providing a modern outline of Zuni history that substantial gaps in our knowledge of Zuni's past remain. Some of these can never be filled because of the absence of information. Others, particularly for the recent period, await further research. O n e hopes, however, that future scholars will follow C r a m p t o n ' s example and combine research in written documents with the collection of oral or written records from the Zuni people. R I C H A R D N.

University

of New

ELLIS

Mexico

329

Book Reviews and Notices

Tertiary History of the Grand Canon District with Atlas. By C L A R E N C E E. D U T T O N . (1882; reprint ed., Santa Barbara and Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith, Inc., 1977. X x i i + 264 p p . $175.00.) As a source of scientific d a t a on the G r a n d Canyon District, Clarence E. Dutton's masteipiece, first published in 1882, is still significant to students of its geology a n d topography. His is a nineteenth-century perspective with bold hypotheses cautiously presented to explain the history and meaning of this most unusual physical phenomenon. While some of the geologic details have been superseded and many hypotheses challenged and refined by later scientists, Dutton's work still provides the reader with a p a n o r a m i c perspective of this broad area and brings some order to the visual chaos most of us see there. H e does this by showing each section's relationship to each other section and by explaining each formation's reason for being and how it helps in revealing the geologic history of the district. Only the scholar well traveled in the area could have comprehended these relationships a n d then only after he had studiously attempted to interpret them. Dutton's work is one of several survey milestones produced by the United States government during the second half of the last century. Still, it would be difficult to justify reprinting volume 2 of his report with atlas on the basis of a need for its scientific information alone. Other sources can be duplicated too easily. However, Dutton's is a work of art as well. I n an unusually literary style he tells the reader how to see and how to experience the G r a n d Canyon district. I n this he is aided by two remarkable artists, T h o m a s M o r a n with his idealized

interpretations a n d W . H . Holmes with his careful scientific illustrations. I n addition Jack Hillers provides some excellent photography. Together they produced a biography of the G r a n d Canyon area with senses a n d soul, almost. T h r o u g h their eyes we sense their nineteenth-century optimism with its ideas of unity and coherence in the universe. Nevertheless, D u t t o n recognized the tenuousness of their conclusions. H e ends his book with these words: " I n the Plateau Country N a t u r e has, in some respects, been more communicative than in other regions, a n d has answered many questions far more fully and graciously. But here, as elsewhere, whenever we interrogate her about time other than relative, her lips are sternly closed, a n d her face becomes as the face of the Sphinx" (p. 2 6 0 ) . Wallace Stegner in a brief introduction gives the work a historical context. And quite correctly observes t h a t ". . . Dutton's works . . . have survived their specialty and their period, perhaps because art ages less swiftly than science . . ." (p. viii). T h e original edition of 3,000 copies has long been a collector's item, almost completely unavailable for purchase. T h e publisher has again given us a beautiful limited edition (1,500 copies), which no d o u b t will have strong appeal to those who can afford it.

MELVIN T.

Utah State Historical

SMITH

Society

Story

the

Great

American

West.

Edited by EDWARD S. BARNARD. (Plea-

santville, N . Y . : T h e Reader's Digest Association, Inc., 1977. 384 p p . $14.95.) A history of the West offers little new to readers in terms of subject matter. Nor does such a broad interest allow for analytic interpretation or in-depth study. But a different slant can furnish rich, original material a n d provide newperspectives, which is w h a t this volume does in admirable fashion. T h e historic narrative supplied is accurate a n d a d e q u a t e as background. T r e a t m e n t of such sensitive topics as Indians, Mormons, a n d Blacks is quite fair. T h e strength of the book, however, lies in its ability to provide that elusive slice-of-life that histories should, b u t seldom do, furnish. T h e history of the West does, indeed, come alive with graphic descriptions of such things as the Kentucky rifle a n d how to load it; a log cabin a n d how it was built; the prairie schooner America's first mobile home. Reconstruction of such things as a fort, a Hopi pueblo, a prairie town, a m o n g many others, gives pictorial a n d written information in minute detail. Firsthand quotations, anecdotes, cartoons, a n d newspaper accounts written at the time, all a d d to the lifelike quality. T h e special consultants, an impressive list of whom is given at the beginning of the book, deserve special mention for their extensive research. T h e picture editor is to be congratulated on the quality, varied selection, a n d unusual content of the illustrations. As an example, the M o r m o n section contains a page from a M o r m o n primer, dated

1868, a n d a $3 bill issued by Deseret before U t a h became a state. F o r the price of $14.95 these 384 pages bursting with vitality a n d color are well worth it for almost every reader. Looking Far West: The Search for the American West in History, Myth, and Literature. and

Edited by F R A N K BERGON

ZEESE

PAPANIKOLAS.

(New

York: N e w American Library, 1978. X x + 476 p p . Paper, $2.50.) This splendid gathering of materials exposes the full richness of the American West as place a n d people, reality and dream. N o region of America, not even the South, evokes so many different images. Professors Bergon a n d Papanikolas have succeeded in illuminating these images through more than two h u n d r e d selected writings that range from poetry a n d fiction to diaries a n d reminiscences. T h e authors of the selections represent the great diversity of views: Cabeza de V a c a , Chief Joseph, Longfellow, Fremont, Father Kino, T w a i n , Wilford Woodruff, J o h n Wesley, Powell, Frederick Jackson T u r n e r , O w e n Wister, Steinbeck, Stegner, a n d many more. T h e general introduction a n d the brief introductions to each section of the anthology are perceptive. The Journey

Home.

By EDWARD ABBEY.

(New York: E.P. D u t t o n , 1977. Xiv + 242 p p . $9.95.) As befits someone whose literary idols include Rabelais a n d Celine, E d w a r d Abbey's latest nonfiction book is a rollicking, word-intoxicated, beer-sotten haymaker thrown at land developers,

331

Book Reviews and Notices book reviewers, rock concert fans, Smokey the Bear, javelina hunters, a n d the "sober-sided middle-class gangsters â&#x20AC;&#x201D; M o r m o n s from U t a h , Baptists from O k l a h o m a , Presbyterians from Pennsylvania, R o m a n Catholics from NewJersey, Jews from T e x a s " w h o r u n Las Vegas. There's something here to rouse the ire of everyone, but w h a t can one expect from an author who depicts himself as a turkey vulture, certainly not America's most cuddly animal. Most perplexing about Abbey is the curious logic of his aesthetics. Fie advocates removing highway billboards on the one h a n d , yet condones leaving empty beers cans in their place. Nevertheless, Abbey's prose alone is worth the price of admission (especially in paperback at $4.95). Witness his evocation of the timberline regions in the charming alliteration a n d rhythm of " t h e taiga, the tundra, a n d the t a r n . " Special gratitude is d u e Abbey for giving us this 1946 logbook entry of Scotty Beaton, a National Park Service fire w a t c h e r : " H i g h Buchanan the ranger came with a Paper to have m e Pledge I wouldn't overthrow the government that never entered my mind in the fifty-five years I been in this country." Scotty's name a n d words belong on the dedicatory page of the most comprehensive history of loyalty oaths in America.

Barns, Sheds, and Outbuildings. by B Y R O N D . H A L S T E D .

Edited

(Brattleboro,

V t . : T h e Stephen Greene Press, 1977. $6.95.) T h e original edition of this m a n u a l was registered with t h e Library of Congress in 1881. T h e a u t h o r is u n k n o w n ; most of t h e work was done by the listed editor. T h e volume offers designs a n d plans, with accompanying illustration, for a wide variety of farm or country structures.

Digging

in the Southwest.

By A N N

A X T E L L M O R R I S . (Santa B a r b a r a a n d

Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith, Inc., 1978. X v i + 301 p p . $5.95.) Professional a n d serious a m a t e u r archaeologists interested in current southwestern research will find little of use in the reprint of this 1933 work, since it is primarily a chatty narrative of " w h a t it's like being married to an archaeologist." Morris does make a good presentation of how an archaeologist goes about his work: e.g., the endless note-taking a n d photography. She also deals with the fanciful notions of Vikings in western America, the lost island of Atlantis, a n d the mythical land of M u . T h e book might, therefore, be profitable reading for those w4iose only contacts with archaeology have been Eric V o n D a n n i ken, T h o r Heyerdahl, or the SunkenTreasureship - of - the - Conquistadors School of Archaeology. Flickering Memories. By B O N N I E T H O M P S O N . (Salt Lake City: Printers, Inc., 1977. Ix + 148 p p . $6.50.) T h e second volume of folklore of t h e Bear Lake Valley taken from personal interviews, family manuscripts, a n d other sources, this book is annotated a n d contains a bibliography. Indian Life: Transforming an American Myth. Edited by W I L L I A M W. SAVAGE, J R . ( N o r m a n : University of O k l a h o m a Press, 1977, Xii + 286 p p . $9.95.) Not just another book about Indians, this volume focuses on images of Indians developed by whites to justify their imperialism, romanticize the West, a n d attract more whites to it. T h e book, giving representative white views of the American I n d i a n from the 1880s to the early 1900s, is authored by a n assistant professor of history who specializes in the American West.

332

Utah Historical

The Indians

and Their Captives.

Edited

Quarterly

and

compiled

by J A M E S

LEVERNIER

Arizona Legends and to Lost Aline and Treasure Legends Exterior to

and

HENNIG

COHEN.

(Westport:

Arizona.

Greenwood Press, 1977. X x x + 291 p p . $17.50.) An interesting aspect of Indian-white relations, this collection of narratives about I n d i a n captivity is told from t h e perspectives of: a conquistador, an adventurer, religious missionaries, imperialists, the media, a n d those with artistic imagination. In the Deserts of This Earth. By U W E GEORGE. (New York: H a r c o u r t Brace Jovanovich, 1977. 309 p p . $14.95.) A G e r m a n naturalist's account of t h e different terrains a n d many life forms found on the world's deserts, including those of U t a h . T h e author, w h o spent sixteen years researching a n d exploring deserts, has illustrated the book with his own photographs. The King By

Danced

FRANCES

in the

GILLMOR.

By BYRD H O W E L L G R A N G E R .

( T u c s o n : T h e University of Arizona Press. 1977. 277 p p . $14.50.) Although this is an index of a highly specialized folklore collection, the book may also be seen as a tool to simplify and accelerate analyses of all types of folklore. By breaking such tales into elements, they m a y ultimately be fed into a computer, a n d in moments an accurate listing of legends around the world containing identical motifs may be obtained.

Preserving

Your

Past.

By JANICE T .

D I X O N and DORA D. FLACK.

(Garden

Citv, N . Y . : Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1977. 334 p p . $8.95.) All about writing a diary, autobiography, or family history including sections on research, organization, a n d narration.

Marketplace. (Salt

Lake

City: University of U t a h Press, 1977. X v i + 271 p p . Paper, $10.00.)

Spencer W. Kimball, Twelfth President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day

A reprint of a book originally p u b lished by the University of Arizona Press in 1964, this is the biography of Moteczuma (more, commonly Montezuma in English), great-grandfather to the Moteczuma ruling in Mexico when the Spaniards arrived. A Motif Index for Lost Mines and Treasures Applied to Redaction of

Saints.

BALL a n d

By EDWARD L. K I M -

ANDREW

E. K I M B A L L , J R .

(Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, I n c . , 1 9 7 7 . X + 538 p p . $8.50.) This very readable biography of President Kimball was written by a son a n d grandson, using many primary materials. T h e book is rich in incident, including some that deal with rather sensitive subjects.

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY D e p a r t m e n t of D e v e l o p m e n t S e r v i c e s D i v i s i o n of S t a t e H i s t o r y BOARD OF STATE

HISTORY

M I L T O N C. A B R A M S , Smithfield, 1981

President D E L L O G. D A Y T O N , O g d e n , 1979

Vice President M E L V I N T . S M I T H , Salt Lake City Secretary MRS.

E L I Z A B E T H G R I F F I T H , O g d e n , 1981

W A Y N E K. H I N T O N , C e d a r City, 1981 T H E R O N L U K E , Provo, 1979

DAVID S. M O N S O N , Secretary of State

Ex officio M R S . ELIZABETH M O N T A G U E , Salt Lake City, 1979 MRS.

M A B E L J. O L I V E R , O r e m , 1980

M R S . H E L E N Z. PAPANIKOLAS, Salt Lake City, 1981 H O W A R D C. P R I C E , J R . , Price, 1979

T E D J. W A R N E R , Provo, 1981

ADMINISTRATION MELVIN T. SMITH,

Director

STANFORD J. L A Y T O N , Managing Editor JAY M. H A Y M O N D , Librarian DAVID B. M A D S E N , State Archaeologist

A. K E N T P O W E L L , Historic Preservation W I L S O N G. M A R T I N , Historic Preservation

Research Development

T h e U t a h State Historical Society was organized in 1897 by public-spirited U t a h n s to collect, preserve, and publish U t a h and related history. Today, under state sponsorship, the Society fulfills its obligations by publishing the Utah Historical Quarterly and other historical materials; locating, documenting, and preserving historic and prehistoric buildings and sites; a n d maintaining a specialized research library. Donations and gifts to the Society's programs or its library are encouraged, for only through such means can it live up to its responsibility of preserving the record of Utah's past.

MEMBERSHIP Membership in the U t a h State Historical Society is open to all individuals and institutions interested in U t a h history. Membership applications and change of address notices should be sent to the membership secretary. Annual dues a r e : Individual, $7.50; institution, $10.00; student, $5.00 (with teacher's statement) ; contributing, $15.00; sustaining, $25.00; patron, $50.00; life member, $150.00. Your interest and support are most welcome.

Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 46, Number 3, 1978

Articles inside

Open Hand and Mailed Fist: Mormon-Indian Relations in Utah 1847-52

Of Pride and Politics: Brigham Young as Indian Superintendent

Ute Indians along Civil War Communication Lines

The Utah National Guard on the Mexican Border in 1916

Improbable Ambassadors: Black Soldiers at Fort Douglas 1896-99

Silver Service for the Battleship Utah: A Naval Tradition under Governor Spry