Native American and European Relations

Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place As the Saints colonized and implanted the region with Euro-American social and cultural traditions, they also clashed with the region’s previous residents. The Mormons had not moved to a desert island, and even on their first beachheads in Salt Lake, Davis, and Weber Counties, they ran into Numics who resented their invasion. In …

Contemporary Ute Government Reflects Old Ways

Becky Bartholomew History Blazer, May 1996 Before Spaniards Introduced Horses to the American West, the Ute Indians lived and traveled seasonally throughout Utah and western Colorado. The Ute community unit was the large, extended family. Depending on available resources, this unit might consist of three generations or more, including grandparents, parents, children, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Community activities were seasonal …

The Walker War

Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place Although the Paiutes worked out an accommodation of sorts with the Mormon immigrants, the settlers’ occupation of lands that the Utes used for hunting and gathering, along with Mormon attempts to suppress the New Mexican trade, disrupted the Ute economy and society. With such highly combustible tinder laid, a seemingly isolated spark set …

The Ute Trek to South Dakota in 1906 Ended in Disappointment

Jeffrey D. Nichols History Blazer, June 1995 The May 26, 1906, Vernal Express spread the alarm: “Many of the residents of Uintah county may not be aware of the fact, but it is nevertheless true, that Indian trouble of gigantic proportion is brewing . . . .” A band of White River Utes from the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, numbering …

The Founding and Naming of Moab

Jeffrey D. Nichols History Blazer, September 1995 The now-prosperous town of Moab had a rocky beginning. Its would-be founders faced hostile Ute Indians who prevented white settlement for over twenty years. Even the name Moab has had to survive a serious challenge. The first white settlers of this region just east of the Colorado River in what is now Grand …

Circleville Massacre, A Tragic Incident in the Black Hawk War

W. Paul Reeve History Blazer, September 1995 Dissatisfied with the treatment his people had received at the hands of government officials as well as from the ever-encroaching Mormon settlers, a minor Ute leader named Black Hawk gathered with members of other bands in 1863 to retaliate against their white enemies. The period of intensified raids that followed became known as …

What Made the Mormon Landscape Unique?

Becky Bartholomew History Blazer, December 1995 What distinguished (or at least used to) a Mormon village from other western towns? According to Richard Francaviglia in his book The Mormon Landscape, a primary element was domestic architecture—house design. In contrast to the smaller, hip-roofed, frame houses that dominated the rest of the West, large and sturdy brick houses were the traditional …

Hole-in-the-Rock Trek Remains an Epic Experience in Pioneering

W. Paul Reeve History Blazer, August 1995 In 1879 when a group of Mormon pioneers began the now famous Hole-in-the-Rock expedition, the San Juan region of southeastern Utah was one of the most isolated parts of the United States. The rough and broken country is characterized by sheer walled cliffs, mesas, hills, washes, slickrock, cedar forests, and sand. Certainly the …

Fort Duchesne

David L. Schirer Utah History Encyclopedia Fort Duchesne was established by Major Frederick William Benteen on 20 August 1886, on a site selected by General George Crook, and General Crook soon took command of the new fort. Construction began in October 1886 and the reservation was officially designated by President Cleveland in September 1887. The fort continued to serve, with …