Timpanogos Chief Black Hawk c1838 - 1870
Artist Carol Pettit Harding 2019
The Utah Black Hawk War; Exterminaton Order
The definitive cause of the Black Hawk War in Utah was settler colonialism and Brigham Young ordered the Nauvoo Legion to "exterminate" the Timpanogos Nation in 1849: "I say go [and] kill them…let the women and children live if they behave themselves," said Brigham. The Latter-Day Saints used 1.5 million dollars in Church funds to "get rid" of the Timpanogos. Over 25 tumultuous years of relentless pursuit led to violence, thousands of deaths, starvation, and diseases that spread throughout the Great Basin and impacted all areas across Utah Territory. Despite popular belief, Congress never ratified a single treaty, but they expressed a preference, "We would rather the Indians to have the land than the Mormons."
The late University of Utah historian Floyd O'Neil explained, "There were no treaties made between the Indian people of Utah and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Only 'agreements' were made. At best, these agreements were divisive, designed to trick the Indians into giving up their land. They were not legally binding." See Black Hawk War Spanish Fork Treaty
There's the Mormon version; then there's the truth. Today, Church historians' alternative facts suggest that the war took place between 1865 and 1872, ignoring the previous 25 years of Mormon savagery and laying all the blame on one young man, Timpanogos Chief Black Hawk. 1866 was a lousy year for the young Chief, who was barely in his 30s. In June of '66, his father, Sanpitch, who was principal Chief at the time, had been held captive for 6 months and then was murdered by Dolf Bennett. In the same month, Black Hawk was shot by James E. Snow at the Gravelly Ford Battle while trying to rescue a fallen warrior, Whitehorse. It never was Black Hawk's war. From 1866 until he died in 1870, Black Hawk and his uncle Tabby campaigned for peace. The moment when Brigham Young signed the order in 1849 to exterminate the Timpanogos Nation, it became Brigham Young's War. There wasn't any 'Indian Problem' until the Mormons came. Then, there was a Mormon problem. It's time to challenge these historical inaccuracies and reevaluate the narrative. See Black Hawk Meets With Tabby
Settler Colonialism and Genocide of the Timpanogos of the Great Basin
According to Cornell Law School, "The concept of settler colonialism can be defined as a system of oppression based on genocide and colonialism, that aims to displace a population of a nation (oftentimes indigenous people) and replace it with a new settler population. Settler colonialism finds its foundations on a system of power perpetuated by settlers that represses indigenous people’s rights and cultures by erasing it and replacing it by their own." See Cornell Law School definition of settler colonialism.
Oxford Bibliographies states, "Settler colonialism is an ongoing system of power that perpetuates the genocide and repression of indigenous peoples and cultures." See Oxford Bibliographies Settler Colonialism.
"We took from them almost all their land—the reservations are just a tiny remnant of traditional tribal homelands. We tried to take from them their hunting rights, their fishing rights, the timber on their land. We tried to take from them their water rights. We tried to take from them their culture, their religion, their identity, and perhaps most importantly, we tried to take from them their freedom." -Professor Dr. Daniel McCool University of Utah.
The Mormon's Black Hawk War in Utah was a disgraceful affair. To this day, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has never rescinded Brigham Young's "Extermination Order No. 2" on the Timpanogos since 1849 nor acknowledged its role in the war. Their mission to 'save the heathens from hell' goes beyond religion. It was a thinly veiled excuse for looting Indigenous resources and land, reducing their populations, and imprisoning them on reservations. It was all an elaborate coverup to get rich - "Gold, God, and Glory." The apparent hypocrisy, such as the Mormons giving Indigenous people a book that says, 'Thou shalt not steal,' serve to remind us of the lack of honesty, justice, and shrewd manipulation to subjugate the Indigenous Tribes of Utah.
Peter Gottfredson, who lived among the Timpanogos during the war, wrote, "I have often queried, why should those conditions be forgotten, and why has so little interest been taken in keeping memoranda and records of events and conditions of those early and trying times?" In 1919, Peter Gottfredson authored his firsthand tell-all account of the Black Hawk War Indian Depredations in Utah. See Peter and Hans In The Indian Camps
The Timpanogos Nation: "We were living in Peace!"
In 2015, Mary Meyer, Chief Executive of the Timpanogos Nation, approached me, Phillip B. Gottfredson, to investigate and share their version of the Black Hawk War. Over eight summers, I became the first historian to engage deeply with their community, resulting in an authentic account from the descendants of those Brigham Young sought to eliminate. It is crucial to consider the perspectives of the Timpanogos people; their voices are not just a footnote but a vital part of the historical narrative. How else can we comprehensively know the historical events surrounding the Black Hawk War in Utah? However, for over a century, the Timpanogos story has been excluded from the broader narrative by Mormon historians, who have incorrectly labeled them as Ute and ignored their voices. See Timpanogos Biography & The Black Hawk War for more information.
For Example: Quoting from my book Black Hawk's Mission of Peace, Perry Murdock, a 
Council member of the Timpanogos Nation and a direct descendant of Chief Wakara, told me, "Every day we are reminded of what our ancestors went through. Our families were torn apart. Children murdered, the old, the women, all those who were brutally murdered and made to suffer and die from violence, then disease, then starvation, our ancestors' graves torn up, the land destroyed, it was genocide plain and simple. Why? What did we do? We didn't do anything. We were living in peace. We were happy. Our children were happy. We loved each other. We cared for each other. And when the Mormons came, we tried to help them. Then they tried to take everything away from us. They wanted it all. They wanted to exterminate us, wipe us off the face of the earth. Why? For our land? For our oil? Now we have nothing."
Mary Murdock Meyer, direct descendant of Chief Arapeen, brother of Wakara, wrote, "As Chief Executive of the Timpanogos Nation, I speak for the people when I ask why? We fed you when you were hungry. We helped you when you did not understand our lands. Why then were we forgotten?"
LDS scholars, and historians everywhere. I feel we are responsible for compassionatly understanding their pain and not sanitizing the Black Hawk War. The Indigenous people of Utah are, all said and done, those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and we should see they are human beings - Indigenous to Utah, Native Americans, and First Nation People. They are Shoshone and not Ute. As members of the human race, they have an inalienable right to truth in education, religious freedom, and the right to fight settler colonialism, and we must support them in this fight. See The Timpanogos Nation Is Snake-Shoshone
Quoting Timpanogos Chief Wakara in a statement to Indian Agent M. S. MARTENAS July 6, 1853. "They were friendly for a short time until they became strong in numbers, then their conduct and treatment towards the Indians changed—they were not only treated unkindly—they have been treated with much severity—they have been driven by this population from place to place—settlements have been made on all their hunting grounds in the valleys, and the graves of their fathers have been torn up by the whites..." See Timpanogos Chief Wakara's full Statement.
The Battle Creek Canyon Massacre - Pleasant Grove, Utah
The prelude to the Black Hawk War began in the winter of 1848-49, Brigham Young falsely accused a small group of the Timpanogos Nation of stealing his horses. This accusation led to the tragic deaths of three innocent individuals and the capture of a young boy named Black Hawk, known as the Battle Creek Canyon Massacre, Pleasant Grove, Utah. See Battle Creek Canyon Massacre
The Murder of Old Bishop
Examples of brutality in Utah's Native American history are numerous; the murder of a Timpamogos Elder, the Mormons called Old Bishop, occurred on the 1st of August, 1849, at Fort Utah in Provo. Accused of stealing a shirt from a clothesline, he was shot in cold blood, disemboweled, his stomach filled with rocks, and thrown in the Provo River. See The Murder of Old Bishop
Fort Utah Massacre
January 1850, Brigham Young orders the extermination the Timpanogos. The Mormon vigilantes greedily helped themselves taking the belongings from the dead, while Bill Hickman, with knife in hand, hacked Old Elk's head off his frozen body. He said Jim Bridger had offered him a hundred dollars for the head. Old Elk's wife refused to be taken captive . See The Massacre at Fort Utah
Massacre at Table Point
January 1850, “The violence shifted from warfare to killing.” After disarming a large band of Timpanogos at Table Point near the southern edge of Utah Lake, the militiamen shot them down in cold blood... then their heads decapitated..." See Table Point Massacre
Mountain Meadows Massacre
In the Mountain Meadows Massacre, 1857, Major John D. Lee of the Nauvoo Legion led a ragtag band of Latter-day Saints disguised as "Indians" in an assault on a wagon train from Arkansas, murdering 120 men, women, and children. The LDS Church unfairly blamed the Paiute. In 2007, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after decades of denial, finally confessed to the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Also, in 2007, the late Church president David O. Mckay said, "By their fruits ye shall know them." See LDS Church Confesses to the Mountain Meadows Massacre
The Bear River Massacre
In the Bear River Massacre of 1863, over 493 shoshonee were slaughtered, led by the unashamed Colonel Patrick Edward Connor. Brigham young supplied Connor with troops and equipment. See Bear River Massacre
The Grass Valley Massacre
Timpanogos's account of the Grass Valley Massacre 1865 is that when the soldiers first approached their camp, the old Chief showed a soldier a paper from the Bishop of Glenwood that said they were friendly and no harm would come to them. He was the first one shot, and the soldier who shot him then beheaded him with his sword. See Grass Valley Massacre
The Circleville Massacre
Then at the peak of the Black Hawk War in 1866, Bishop William Jackson Allred led the Circleville Massacre of the Koosharem Paiutes. Twenty-six men, women, and children's throats were slit and buried in a mass grave. See The Circleville Massacre
Black Hawk's Grave Robbed
Despite the numerous attempts by Timpanogos leaders to live in peace, Mormon settlers treated them with much severity; one of the most notable examples is the robbery of Chief Black Hawk's grave. On September 26, 1870, his loving kin honorably laid him to rest on a hillside 
overlooking Spring Lake, the place of his birth—just 49 years passed when Mormons dug up his mortal remains and then exhibited them in the window of a hardware store in Spanish Fork, Utah, and then on Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City for amusement. We don't see Indigenous people digging up whiteman's graves, do we? See Chief Black Hawk's Burial.
Timeline Of The Black Hawk War
Our informative Timeline of the Black Hawk War shows any number of unheard-of or forgotten Mormon depredations that Peter Gottfredson recorded, such as the Richville Raid, the Grass Valley Massacre, numerous other hell-like consequences of Settler Colonialism, and the remarkable resilience of the Timpanogos. See Black Hawk War Timeline
Estimated War Casualties
Scholars estimate that some 70,000 Timpanogos people occupied the Great Basin when the Latter-Day Saints arrived. Brigham Young proudly boasted at the war's end, "I don't think there is one out of ten, and perhaps not even one out of a hundred, who were here when we arrived." This statement suggests that the death toll of the Timpanogos was staggering. Settlers deliberately caused violence, starvation, spreading diseases, and poisoning water sources, which scholars agree led to a 90% decrease in Utah's Timpanogos population.
We must concede that our European ancestors were descendants of the colonial mentality of domination and subjugation. See Truth In Utah's History Of First Nations Peoples
Doctrine of Discovery & Manifest Destiny
Legal Studies Department, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, Peter d' Errico, wrote, "Papal authority is the basis for United States power over indigenous peoples." The Doctrine of Discovery, a five-hundred-year-old decree by Catholic monarchs during the 14th century, was a law based upon Christian doctrine, believing that their religion and culture were above all others, giving Christians and governments throughout the world a legal and moral justification to invade and occupy Native American land. See Videos for more Information.
Note: Pope Francis has renounced the 500 year old Doctrine of Discovery as of March 2024.
Another example of Settler colonialism in America is Andrew Jackson's systematic 200.jpg)
Indian Removal Act of 1830 that opened the way to the forced relocation of Native Americans. It became known as "The Trail of Tears." The 1832 Supreme Court Ruling declared the Indian Removal Act unconstitutional, but the damage already caused to First Nations was irreversible. In time, the Doctrine of Discovery would become Manifest Destiny to justify European Expansion further ignoring Indian Rights all togeather all under the banner of Christianity. See Manifest Destiny
When the Civil War ended in 1865, the United States government called for exterminating tribes who resisted giving up their land, and the Government turned its attention toward Western expansion and the U.S. military to 'Indian' fighting. See CONGRESSIONAL ACTS
By 1865 Brigham Young's extermination order had already resulted in over 40 bloody encounters. Mormon settlers made a mockery of Native American lifeways, leaving a deep wound as Settler Colonialism became institutionalized and continues to shape the present, impeding efforts toward reconciliation and acknowledgment of historical injustices.
Eliminating 'Indianness' Through Acculturation
Highly publicized massacres of 'Indians' brought the attention of philanthropic groups. American humanitarians proposed a new solution to the 'Indian problem' by eliminating 'Indianness' through acculturation. Christian reformers argued that 'if Indians were assimilated, the Indian problem would vanish.'
In the 1860s, the U.S. adopted a Peace Policy, gradually shifting toward a more peaceful approach, and genocide of Native Americans was officially discouraged. The Peace Policy meant making them wards of the government, forcing Native tribes to reservations and boarding house schools to assimilate them into white culture, thus eliminating Native peoples bloodlessly. The intended effect of the Peace Policy was to prevent the rampant slaughter of Native Americans.
A New 'ism' Takes Hold Among Colonists, "Racism"
"Race was a fairly new concept among early colonists," wrote Sean P. Harvey, Ph.D. author of Native Tongues available in our bookstore. A product of slavery in the late 1600s, "The concept of 'Race' that took hold in the 1800s created physical and cultural divisions in humanity. It is essential to understand that it was crucial to early American settler colonialism. It provided the foundation for the colonization of Native Land and the enslavement of Native Americans and Africans."
Hildalgo Treaty of 1848
Even though Utah wouldn't become a state until 1896, it should be noted that Mormon settlers arrived on the Wasatch Front of the Rockies during the Mexican-American War.
In February 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War. The significance of the treaty is that it preserved certain Indian rights. According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, "Mexican negotiators won from the United States multiple promises that Indian land rights would continue as they had been under Mexican law."
Disregarding the Timpanogos' Indigenous treaty rights, Mormon leadership drew their power from the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny. Ignoring the supreme laws of the land, LDS Apostle George A. Smith ordered the church's private militia to "remove the Indian people from their land," saying Indigenous people have "no rights to their land." Brigham Young spent over a million dollars in church funds, the equivalent of $35 million today, to "exterminate" them, then billed Congress for reimbursement. See Memorial of the
Legislative Assembly of Utah
"Chosen People-Promised Land"
In 1847, Mormons faced ever-increasing hostilities when angry mobs forced them to leave Illinois—following the assassination of Latter-Day Saint Church founder Joseph Smith, a polygamist having 40 wives and a member of the Masonic Order. Joseph Smith's successor, Brigham Young, "the Great Colonizer," with 55 wives and a Masonic Order member, led a massive migration of followers to colonize Utah's Great Basin of the Rocky Mountains. Aligned with the "Chosen People-Promised Land" model of the Bible," Christians rationalized they were superior and had a God-given right to Native American land by the Doctrine of Discovery.
Christianization, education, and cultural development became the means to 
assimilate tribal peoples so that they could be integrated and absorbed by mainstream society. Example, the LDS church converted many of Utah's Native Americans to Mormonism, according to church doctrine, and in so doing, the so-called "loathsome" Indians would become a "white and delightsome people." They would be forgiven of the sins of their forefathers. (Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 5:21-23) According to church doctrine, the nature of the dark skin was a curse, and the cause was the Lord; the reason that the Lamanites (Indians) "had hardened their hearts against him, (God)," and the punishment was to make them "loathsome" unto God's people who had white skins. See Only In The Land Of The Lamanites
Did Mormons try to help the Timpanogos?
We either forget or haven't been told that some of our ancestors had deep and meaningful relationships with the Timpanogos, and we need to acknowledge that. In 1866, when Chief Black Hawk had been wounded in battle at Gravely Ford, Canute Peterson of Ephraim paid a visit to the ailing leader Black Hawk—taking sugar, hams, bread, beads, molasses, tea, coffee, tobacco, flour, medicines, and clothing. Sadly, important stories such as this get buried in all the rhetoric. See The Old Peace Treaty Tree.
Mormon Leaders Believed in Slavery
In the years 1850-52, the all-Mormon legislature sanctioned slavery of not only Blacks but Indians, stating that a white man need only have possession of an Indian for that Indian to be enslaved, and this included children. See Mormon's Slavery
Brigham Young blames his followers he described as "stupid, cork for brains and wooden shoes." In his speech in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, on April 6, 1854, he said, "If the inhabitants of this Territory, my brethren, had never condescended to reduce themselves to the practices of the Indians, (as few of them have,) to their low, degraded condition, and in some cases even lower, there never would have been any trouble between us and our red neighbors." See Brigham Young's Discourses.
The Denver Rocky Mountain newspaper quoted Brigham Young saying, "You can get rid of more Indians with a sack of flour than a keg of powder." Clearly his intention was to "get rid" of the indigenous population. Mormon colonialism had less to do with saving the "heathens" from hell, and more to do with getting rich. See The Silent Victims of the Utah Black Hawk War
If you think we have been hard on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, think about the Indigenous people of Utah who were demonized and dehumanized. Think about the irreversible damage to their lives and spirits over the past 150 years. See The National Museum of the American Indian
The Black Hawk War Legacy
By 1871, Congress created the Appropriations Act, which forced America's Indigenous people onto reservations when they were then made "Wards of Government," thus giving Congress more control over them and making it easier to take possession of their land. Example: See James Leonard Pritchett a great-grandson of Chief Tabby.
At the Black Hawk War Veterans first reunion at the Reynolds Hall in Springville, Utah, 1894 John Lowry spoke these chilling words, "In those early days it was at times imperative that harsh measures should be used. We had to do these things, or be run over by them. It was a question of supremacy between the white man and the Indian." See Utah's Black Hawk War legacy
Suppose you were Indigenous person and lucky enough to survive settler colonialism. In that case, you are confined to a reservation and made to depend on government-run Indian agencies for scarce and sometimes contaminated commodities to survive. Your children are taken away and sent to boarding house schools with graveyards, all under the slogan "Kill the Indian, and save the man." There has never been any reconciliation, remorse, or even an apology from those who believe God led them to the "promised land."
Time To Look Beyond Religion For Answers
"You must become the rock the river cannot wash away. Speak your voice. Dance."
In 1868, author John C. Cremony wrote, "Will civilized people never learn that they are quite as obtuse to understand real Indian nature as the Indians to understand their civilization? If you must judge them, do so by their own standards." -John C. Cremony Life Among the Apaches.
Carlos Barrios, Mayan Elders Council, describes in his book The Book of Destiny that "Somewhere along the way, Western society began to assume that human beings have the right to dominate plants, animals, even each other. The result of this materialist outlook is an economical, ecological, social, and moral crisis that has caused the downfall of other cultures." See Phillip B Gottfredson In The Heart of Mayan Country
Phillip wrote about the natural order, "When the world was created, Creator touched it with his hand, and so it is sacred and spiritual. The Land is our home, our mother, nourishing all her children. The Land is sacred and belongs to all who inhabit it." One of the most compelling take-aways of Phillip B Gottfredson's book My Journey to Understand Black Hawk's Mission of Peace is his detailed description living with Indigenous people learning their deep, sacred connection to each other and Mother Earth.
"Native American culture is a perfect example of total spirituality without religion.Elders of the shoshonee and other Tribes, invited me to participate in numerous ceremonies. It was life-changing. The spiritual experiences I had humbled me, and profoundly changed my understanding of Native American culture, and opened my eyes to the sacred connection we have with Mother Earth," said Phillip. Understanding Native culture and time-honored traditions is essential when establishing meaningful relations with Indigenous peoples, especially for educators with Indigenous students. See Native American Ethics and Protocols.
Honesty, love, respect, courage, truth, wisdom, and humility, are ancient traditional virtues and values that Black Hawk and Indigenous people have honored throughout their history.
Sadly, scholars ignore that the age-old message of Indigenous America is about 'connection, relationship, and unity.' All people are one. All are the direct living descendants of our Creator. Lakota Chief Joseph said, 'We have no qualms about color. It doesn't mean anything.' After decades of exhaustive research, Phillip Gottfredson wrote, "there can be no doubt that this was Chief Black Hawk's message when he made his last ride home to pass out of this world in peace." He was in severe pain, dying from a gunshot wound to his stomach. In the final hours of his life, Chief Black Hawk made an agonizing hundred-and-eighty-mile journey by horseback from Cedar City in southern Utah to Payson. He advocated for peace and an end to the bloodshed. This heroic journey was Black Hawk's 'mission of peace.' Still, colonialists were too arrogant to see what it meant to be human. Chief Black Hawk died on September 26, 1870. He was buried at Spring Lake, Utah.
We 
can learn much from First Nations people if we get out of our heads and listen with our hearts. We need to help each other. We are all interconnected and interdependent upon one another. We need each other to survive and live. We need each other as equals. We are all in a relationship with each other. And each becomes a relative by relationship. We must help each other learn the truth and heal from over a century of fake history. We must find a pathway to forgiveness and help build that bridge between our cultures with compassion, honesty, and mutual respect for humanity.. See We Can Forgive, But Never Forget.
"I see a time of seven generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the sacred tree of life, and the whole earth will become one circle again." -Chief Crazy Horse, Oglala Lakota.
"How do I know these things? I lived with them for over 25 years; I found 
the truth. These are traditional teachings of the Timpanogos I learned while living with them and Native Americans throughout North America, and the Mayan in South America. I am proud to say I voluntarily and willingly assimilated into Native American culture, without shame or regrets. It has been the best years of my life. History is not just the study of the past; it's also the ethnology of indigenous people, present traditions, rituals, and legacies. But it's not about me, it's not about you. It's about all of us, the human race, the circle of life. I'm only the messenger," -Mr. Gottfredson. ~
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I see arguments about the Ute and Timpanogos being different Tribes. I have a novel idea... ask the Timpanogos?
 This is NOT Timpanogos war Chief Black Hawk, aka "Antonga." This is a photo of a Kiowa Apache called Black Hawk. Taken in 1875 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870. Ask The Timanogos!
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This Months Featured Topics
National Museum of the American Indian In my quest to understand the Native American peoples of North America, I believed that attending the Grand Opening of the National Museum of the American Indian, September 21, 2004, was a crucial step.
Truth In Utah's History Of First Nations Peoples It's our responsibility to challenge harmful stereotypes and work towards a more accurate and respectful portrayal of Native communities.
"It's Not About Me" A couple of years ago, I talked with a shoshonee elder, and she asked me why I wanted to help Native people. "the biggest problem between the whites and Native people is that the whites have always believed that they know what is best for Natives. They never ask us what we need, they never listen, they only cram their ideas down our throats."
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