THIS WAS THE PLACE: THE DARKER SIDE OF MORMON ZION
MANIFEST DESTINY'S MAD MARCH ACROSS NORTHERN UTE INDIAN TERRITORY AND SKULLDUGGERY IN THEIR FINAL HOMELAND, THE HISTORIC UINTAH RESERVATION A.K.A. THE LOST RHOADES MINES COUNTRY
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Chapter 1 Pioneer Day, July 24th, 1847 -The Northern Utes never saw the impact of this event coming. For the Mormons entering Salt Lake Valley after a long and arduous trip, their mecca, which had long been sought, was finally found. Brigham Young, sick from the rigors of the Overland Trail, glimpsed the serene landscape of the desolate high desert country before him and muttered the now famous words "This is the right place". What followed became a testimony to the faith and endurance of those pioneer souls who, guided by the pathfinder John Fremont’s journals, were so desperately searching for a utopia far removed from the confines of contemporary American society. Faced with persecution at every multi-year extended stop in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois along the way to discovering the Land of Zion, the faithful eagerly embraced the opportunity to turn a vast, seemingly unclaimed wilderness area, into a personal kingdom befitting their counter mainstream beliefs in religion. Much the same as the founders of our country, the Latter Day Saints traveled west to seek the land of milk and honey laced with a healthy measure of tolerance and freedom. The sprawling yet sparsely inhabited Salt Lake Valley region they chose to settle, lying immediately before them was, in fact, a contested no-man’s land for the Indians living immediately to the north and south. Fate, indeed, dealt an unkind hand on this occasion of boundless promise. Had Brigham bypassed Emigration Canyon in favor of Weber or Provo Canyons, he would’ve encountered head-on the Indian villages of the mixed Shoshone/Ute band of Cumumbas to the north and the Ute Timpanogos to the south. Whether this may have altered his plans of settlement is doubtful, but at least he would’ve stared reality in the face and more fully realized that the future territory of Deseret was already a homeland to various tribes of Indians quite happy with the status quo of their existence. The imprint of the Church leader’s own brand of Manifest Destiny was soon stamped and delivered in facilitating the arrival of legions of followers traveling over the plains from the east. Manifest Destiny. Those two words encompassed an enormous power which entitled the strong to prevail over the weak. In terms of the American West, it simply meant the Divine providence of white Christians to conquer, remove and banish Indians from their traditional homeland to a locality which essentially was often deemed worthless. Americans expressed little sympathy for the centuries old traditions and way of life of the rightful curators of Western soil, the Native American. While the Mormons had brought to Utah the specter of their beloved Angel Moroni, they had also brought something unexpected to the Utes as well, the angel of death. In the first substantive encounter between the two races, pioneer children infected with measles bestowed this special wrath upon the trusting Indians who were anything but disease resistant, having seldom experienced the white man’s maladies including epidemics. The unfortunate result and dire consequence of this interaction witnessed thirty eight Utes carried away by the scourge. With gifts from the strangers such as this, the Ute bands could ill afford any additional hospitality of these settlers from afar now that Mormon power had been unleashed on the Indians. Power was a central feature of Ute religion. It could be obtained from the sun, moon, stars, plants and animals. Men and women alike could possess it along with their children. A considerable part of Ute life revolved around the supernatural power. On all occasions tribesmen sought supernatural help in their day-to-day activities. It created a situation where various tribes feared each other as well as the bands within a tribe seeking respect from their fellow kinsmen. Mormons now held a form of power also, thanks to the measles outbreak. This power would soon be unleashed in many forms by the pioneers.
Chapter 4
Unfortunately, history doesn’t reveal who first provided information to Irish Pat who, in turn, steered a stampede of civilian miners in the direction of the Uinta Mountains in the spring of 1864. Perhaps it was Bill Hickman. Bill, much like Thomas and Caleb Rhoades, was much loved among the Indians. The wild and untamed Uinta Basin had been the traditional home to both Ute and Shoshone tribes during the preceding decades and centuries. Hickman had indeed been in the employ of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. His expertise in Indian matters found him drawing a healthy salary while hanging around the environs of Fort Bridger during the mid-1850's. His charges were the Shoshone and Ute Indians who had often camped near Fort Robidoux during the earlier fur trading days and now wandered between Wyoming and Utah. By legal treaty, Brown’s Hole had been a vested part of Shoshone country until 1868 when creation of the Wind River Reservation afforded the government the opportunity to push the Shoshone out of that prime valley along the Green River. Yes, if anyone knew Indian tales of gold and promises of incredible riches, it was the Avenging Angel Hickman, a prime Indian Department mover and shaker during the tenure of Brigham Young’s Superintendency in Utah. Connor was game for any and all Indian legends that might lead to pay dirt. It was just such a tale that lured Pat’s soldiers to Treasure Hill in East Canyon of the Ophir District. Having heard, perhaps from Hickman, that Indians annually made a trek there to hold councils and mine a bit of lead for their bullets, Pat was willing to investigate even the most improbable leads. This one turned up aces as a rich outcropping of galena was discovered and later recorded, predictably, as the Hidden Treasure Mine. When General Connor was besieged by a small army of civilian miners in the spring of 1864, he drew an X on the map indicating the south slope of the Uinta Range and sent the newly arrived treasure seeking children of Coronado on their merry way for snowy peaks. True to his word, and fearing for the safety of these men in that region, he also sent along three companies comprising nearly 300 soldiers to protect and help prosecute the dissection of the Uintas by pick and pan. On March 30, Zabriskie’s Company A of the lst Nevada Volunteer Cavalry, was instructed to proceed to the Uinta Valley and protect the miners in the area. This was followed by explicit orders dated May 11th, for Captain Noyes Baldwin and his Company B boys of the lst Nevada Volunteer Cavalry to take along several teamsters and a healthy three month supply of goods in carrying out a variety of details. His course of action included building a supply depot, further protecting the civilians already onsite in the hill country, and, curiously enough, acting like a gentleman in his handling of the friendly Uintahs living on the Indian reservation lands. And, of course, true to his cause, Connor also instructed Noyes and his command to thoroughly prospect the area, especially for the easy placers. Unlike the stream-searching California soldier boys who attained manhood with hands cupped around a silly bowl-like gold pan, these Nevada troops were hearty hard rock miners who knew how to wrest a vein from the most forbidden rock formation. Any lingering evidences of possible historic Spanish activity left in the area would shortly be challenged by men who knew the rigors and reward of hard work. No stone was to be left unturned. To be sure, the personal playground of Caleb
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For over 400 years before the Mormon arrival in 1847, many of the Northern Utes and their protohistoric ancestors lived in relative peace and stability within the territory currently encompassing much of Utah. In less than twenty years of settlement by the brethren in their newest Land of Zion, the collective authorities of the Mormon Church, Bureau of Indian Affairs and U.S. Army convinced Congress to officially dispossess these Northern Utes of all their traditional and best lands except for the sprawling and considerably barren wastes of the Uintah Reservation located in northeastern Utah. By Church Prophet and President Brigham Young’s own accounting, several bands of these original first contact Indians – through starvation, pestilence and white inspired epidemics – had experienced somewhere between a 90% to99% mortal attrition rate in their numbers by 1867. In the mid-1870s Brigham Young, searching for new areas to colonize with land seeking church members, began a policy that actively encouraged the Utes to depopulate their reservation where treatment by BIA officials over the years was poor and inefficient. Through the Church leader’s ability to significantly control both Indian movements and affairs in Utah, Brigham began quiet efforts to induce Congress to throw open the Uintah Reservation to homesteading. Though the soil was largely infertile, the valuable water, timber and grazing resources of the country were coveted by the surrounding Latter Day faithful as well as the large cattle companies. Brigham Young’s death in 1877 temporarily slowed this movement. In 1879BIA Agent Nathan Meeker’s heavy-handed policy of forcing the White River band of Northern Utes in Colorado to become sedentary farmers resulted in a tragedy of bloodshed since known to history as the Meeker Massacre. The fallout of this massacre witnessed several bands of Colorado Northern Utes exiled to Utah. The consolidated White River band located on the Uintah Reservation while the more populous and blameless Uncompahgres were given their own adjacent desolate reservation due to the impassioned ‘Utes Must Go’ movement in Colorado that was too strong to be denied. This increase in population in the area stalled off plans to open the Uintah Reservation. When gilsonite and other rare hydrocarbons were discovered on the Uintah and Uncompahgre Reservations in the 1880s, the strong mining lobbies also began eying the resources of these Northern Utes. Our country’s serious depression of 1893 renewed efforts to provide relief to its citizens through a strengthened resolve to continue yet another phase of Manifest Destiny that would relieve the American Indians of their reservation lands and provide opportunity to a clamoring American public. Previously, the infamous Dawes Act of 1887 began a new national Indian policy of promoting severalty, or allotments, for the individual tribal members instead of the common reservation land holdings for the bands. In 1897, when the great Klondike Gold Rush began in Canada, Americans were caught up in the frenzy of seizing the moment and embracing the chance of renewed wealth regardless of the ravages of the lingering depression. Additional strikes in Alaska in 1899 and 1902 inspired an entire nation to get swept away in the gold fever so prevalent, especially in the West. Old mining tales, such as the Lost Rhoades Mines Legend centered on the Uintah Reservation, were resurrected and received serious attention throughout Utah and surrounding states. These wild stories of incredible riches sustained additional forward momentum to throw open the Uintah Reservation shortly after the turn of the century.
About the Author
Gary Weicks is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. For twenty years now, he has called Utah his home as a federal employee. Married to wife Christine, her pioneer family traces their roots back to the Mormon handcart companies that ventured West bringing Latter Day Saints before the advent of the transcontinental railroad. Mr. Weicks has previously published two books. The subjects of these works included a history of coin operated machine slugging and associated token hoards as well as a special interest treatment of early day skiing in the United States. He has engaged in a variety of historical and archaeological pursuits and has a current passion for American Indian and military research projects. As a member of the Friends of the Native Americans of Northern Utah association, his most recent efforts have been devoted toward a better understanding of the policies and philosophies of various political, religious and military entities that promoted Manifest Destiny throughout the American West in the 19th century.