And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Utah's Secret Pioneer War: Black Hawk vs. the Mormons http://www.sltrib.com/1999/feb/02231999/utah/utah.htm BY GREG BEACHAM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS On the same day the Civil War ended, the Black Hawk War began in central Utah. For eight years, the followers of Antonga -- a charismatic, brilliant American Indian leader known as Black Hawk to whites -- lay waste to Mormon settlements and cattle herds with a systematic, widespread campaign of pillaging and rustling. Yet the details of the war and the cost it inflicted on Mormons and Indians alike were almost unknown outside the borders of the Utah Territory. In fact, so great was the Mormons' distrust of outsiders -- in particular the federal government -- that Black Hawk's campaign went largely unnoticed elsewhere until 1872, when federal troops stepped in. Historian John Alton Peterson's Utah's Black Hawk War, published by the University of Utah Press, is the first book devoted to this peculiar chapter in the history of the pioneer era. Peterson, who teaches in the Mormon educational system at the University of Utah, says a lack of contemporary information about the war impedes discussion even today, keeping it in the margins of the traditional histories of Utah's development. "Mormons are among the most historically conscious people on the planet, but we tend to use history to further our proselytizing," Peterson said. "We put forth history that is positive, and this is one of the saddest chapters in our history." The extensive cattle raids and limited guerrilla battles that characterized the Black Hawk War were hardly remarkable in the hardscrabble West of the mid-1800s. What made the war unique was the complex political climate in Utah at the time -- and Black Hawk's ability to exploit the Mormons' distrust of the federal government for his own gain. Peterson writes of the "uneasy, dynamic and oftentimes volatile triangle which formed as Mormons, gentiles and Indians maneuvered for position in the territory." The Mormons' mutual animus with federal authorities also had repercussions on the territory's native residents. Congress dramatically cut Utah's Indian Office appropriation -- which was used to feed destitute tribes -- after hearing stories of the Mormons' tremendous influence over the Indians. Black Hawk, as Peterson writes, led a combined force of Utes, Navajos and Paiutes "to turn back the tide of white expansion and prevent the extinction of his people." His people lived in poverty despite the humanitarian efforts of the Mormon settlers. "Every Mormon family during that period knew Indians and knew the realities of begging and theft," Peterson said. "It created a situation that neither side was proud of." Brigham Young was almost unique among western leaders of the time in promoting and actively practicing a conciliatory policy toward Indians. He preached a "divine responsibility" to care for the disenfranchised peoples and educate them in Mormon dogma. The settlers and natives of central and southern Utah gradually entered a state of open warfare. Settlers built forts across the territory, abandoned dangerous settlements and formed small militias that chased Black Hawk's men through the wilderness -- almost entirely without success. Black Hawk was supremely organized and an entrepreneur as well as a guerrilla leader. The thousands of horses and cattle his men stole from the settlers were marketed in a complex American Indian trading system which involved white and Hispanic middlemen on the Old Spanish Trail. On April 9, 1865, Ulysses Grant and Robert E. Lee met at Appomatox Court House in Virginia to broker the conclusion of the Civil War. On the same day in the central Utah town of Manti, a handful of Mormon leaders met with Northern Utes in an attempt to end the destructive conflict. No solution came from the summit, and the Black Hawk War officially began. But in a time when the federal government was quick to end such conflicts with a military presence, Black Hawk astutely guessed the Mormons would refuse to partner with the government to fight him. Indeed, Young feared if word of the war reached Washington, anti-Mormon interests there would use it as an excuse to order troops to Utah. So he minimized reports of the war and its effects. Col. Patrick Connor, the leader of a federal force assigned to watch over the territory, knew of Black Hawk's exploits but simply chose to ignore them. While livestock was the raiders' primary object, at least 70 whites and perhaps twice as many Indians were killed as the campaign raged on. After years of success, Black Hawk ended his own active involvement in the raids in 1867, and a treaty was signed the next year. But the campaign continued sporadically until 1872, when the federal government was forced by a different Indian revolt to intervene in Utah. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
