CHAPTER 13 TO CARSON VALLEY BEFORE RESUMING the itinerary, it may be advisable briefly to describe the various tribes tenanting this territory.
We have now emerged from the prairie Indians, the Dakota, Crow, Kiowa, Comanche, Osage, Apache, Cheyenne, Pawnee, and — Arapaho, Utah Territory contains a total of about 19,000 souls of two great kindred races, the Shoshone or Snake, and the Yuta, called Uche by the Spaniards and Ute by the Anglo-American trappers. Like the Comanche and Apache, the Pimas, the Lipans, and the people of the Pueblos, they are of the Hispano-American division, once subject to the Conquistadores, and are bounded north by the Pánák i (Bannak) and the once formidable Blackfeet. The Shoshone own about one-third of the territory; their principal settlements lie north of the Gt. S. Lake, and on the line of the Humboldt or Mary River, some 400 miles west and 100 to 125 south of the Oregon line. They number about 4500 souls, and are wildest in the S. E. parts of their motherland. The Yuta claim the rest of the territory between Kansas, the Sierra Nevada, New Mexico, and the Oregon frontier, Of course the two peoples are mortal foes, and might be well pitted against each other. The Snakes would form excellent partisan warriors,
The Shoshone number fourteen tribes, regularly organised; the principal, which contains about 12,000 souls, is commanded by Washaki, assisted, as usual, by subchiefs, four to six in number. Five bands, numbering near 1000 each, roam about the mountains and kanyons of Gt. S. L. County, Weber, Bear, Cache, and Malad Valleys, extending eighty miles north from the Holy City. These have suffered the most from proximity with the whites, and no longer disdain agriculture. One band, 150 to 180 in number, confines itself to the N. Californian route from Bear and Malad Valleys to the Goose Creek Mountains. Seven bands roam over the country from the Humboldt River to 100 miles south of it, and extend about 200 miles from east to west: the principal chief, Wanamuka, or “the Giver,” had a band of 155 souls, and lived near the Honey Lake.
The Yuta claim, like the Shoshone, descent from an ancient people that immigrated into their present seats from the N.W. During the last thirty years they have considerably decreased according to the mountaineers, and have been demoralised mentally and physically by the emigrants: formerly they were friendly, now they are often at war with the intruders. As in Australia, arsenic and corrosive sublimate in springs and provisions have diminished their number. The nation is said to contain a total of 14,000 to 15,000 souls divided into twenty-seven bands, of which the following are the principal: —
The Pa-Yuta (Py Utes) are the most docile, interesting, and powerful, containing twelve band;ii those in the west of the territory on the Humboldt River number 6000, and in the south 2200 souls; they extend from forty miles west of Stony Point to the Californian line, and N. W. to the Oregon line, and inhabit the valley of the Fenelon River, which rising from Lake Bigler empties itself into Pyramid Lake. The term means Water-Yuta, that is to say those who live upon fish which they take from lakes and rivers in wiers and traps of willow, preferring that diet to roots, grass-seed, lizards, and crickets, the food of the other so called Digger tribes.
Gosh Yuta or Gosha Ute is a small band, once protégés of the Shoshone, who have the same language and limits. Their principal chief died about five years ago, when the tribe was broken up. A body of sixty under a peaceful leader were settled permanently on the Indian farm at Deep Creek, and the remainder wandered 40 to 200 miles west of Gt. S, L. City. Through this tribe our road lay; during the late tumults they have lost fifty warriors, and are now reduced to about 200 men. Like the Ghuzw of Arabia, they strengthen themselves by admitting the outcasts of other tribes, and will presently become a mere banditti.
Pavant or Paravan Yuta, are a distinct and self-organised tribe, under one principal and several sub-chiefs, whose total is set down at 700 souls. Half of them are settled on the Indian Farm at Corn Creek; the other wing of the tribe lives along Sevier Lake, and the surrounding country in the north-east extremity of Fillmore Valley, fifty miles from the city, where they join the Gosh Yuta. The Pavants breed horses, wear clothes of various patterns, grow grain, which the Gosh Yutas will not, and are as brave and improvable as their neighbours are mean and vile.
Timpenaguchyã,iii or Timpana Yuta, corrupted into Tenpenny Utes, who dwell about the kanyon of that name, and on the east of the Sweetwater Lake, Of this tribe was the chief Wakara, who so called himself after Walker, the celebrated trapper; the notorious horse-stealer proved himself a friend to the L. D. Saints. He died at Meadow Creek, six miles from Fillmore city, on the 29th January 1855, and at his obsequies two squaws, two Pa Yuta children, and fifteen of his best horses composed the “customs.”
Uinta Yuta, in the mountains south of Fort Bridger, and in the country along the Green River. Of this tribe, which contains a total of 1000, a band of 500, under four chiefs, lately settled on the Indian reservations at Spanish Fork.
Sampichyã, corrupted to San Pete Utas; about eighty warriors settled on the Indian Farm at San Pete. This and the Spanish Fork Farm number 900 inhabitants.
Elk Mountain Yutas, who are set down at 2000 souls, by some even 3000; they wander over the south-east portion of the Territory: and like the Uinta Yutas, are the most independent of white settlers.
Weber River Yutas are those principally seen in Gt. S. L. City; they are a poor and degraded tribe. Their chief settlement is forty miles to the north, and like the Gosh Yutas they understand Shoshone.
Amongst the Yutas are reckoned the Washo, from 500 to 700 souls. They inhabit the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada, from Honey Lake to the West Fork of Walker’s River in the south. Of this trouble-some tribe there are three bands; Captain Jim’s, near Lake Bigler, and Carson, Washo, and Eagle Valleys, a total of 342 souls: Pasuka’s band, 340 souls, in Little Valley, and Deer Dick’s band in Long Valley, south-east of Honey Lake. They are usually called Shoshoko,iv or “Digger Indians”—a term as insulting to a Shoshone as nigger to an African.
Besides the Parawat Yutas, the Yampas, 200—300 miles south, on the White River; the Tabechyã, or sun-hunters, about Téte de Biche, near Spanish lands; and the Tash Yuta, near the Navajos; there are scatters of the nation along the Californian road from Beaver Valley, along the Santa Clara, Virgen, Las Vegas, and Muddy Rivers, to New Mexico.
The Indian Bureau of U. T. numbers one superintendent, six agents, and three to six farm-agents. The annual expenditure is set down at $40,000; the Mormons declare that it is iniquitously embezzled, and that the total spent upon the Indians hardly exceeds $1000 per annum. The savages expect blankets and clothing, flour and provisions, arms and ammunition: they receive only a little tobacco, become surly, and slay the settlers. It is understood that the Surveyor-General has recommended to the Federal Government the extinction of the Indian title—somewhat upon the principle of the English in Tasmania v and New Zealand—to grounds in the U. T. and the establishment of a Land office for the sale of the two millions of acres already surveyed. Until the citizens can own their farms and fields under the existing pre-emption laws, and until the troublesome Indians can be removed by treaty to reservations remote from white settlements, the onward march of progress will be arrested. The savage and the civilised man, like crabbed age and youth, like the black and grey rat, cannot live together: the former starves unless placed in the most fertile spots, which the latter of course covets; the Mormons attempt a peace policy, but the hunting-grounds are encroached upon, and terrible massacres are the result. Here, as elsewhere, the battle of life is fiercely fought. It has been said—
“Man differs more from man
Than beast from beast.”
Yet everywhere we trace the mighty resemblance.
The three principal farms which now form the nuclei of future reservations, are those at Spanish Fork, San Pete, and Corn Creek. The two latter have often been denuded by the grasshopper: the former has fared better. Situated in Utah Valley, under the shelter of lofty Nebo, it extends northwards within four miles of the Sweetwater Lake, and on the north-east is bounded by the Spanish Fork Creek, rich in trout and other fish. It was begun five years ago for the Yutas, who claim the land, and contains a total of 13,000 acres, of which 500 have been cultivated; 900 have been ditched to protect the crop, and 1000 have been walled round with a fence six feet high. Besides other improvements they have built a large adobe house and two rail corrals, and dug dams and channels for irrigation, together with a good stone-curbed well. Under civilised superintendence the savages begin to labour, and the chiefs aspire to erect houses. Yet the crops have been light, rarely exceeding 2500 bushels. San Pete Farm, in the Valley and on the Creek of the same name, lies 150 miles south of Gt. S. L. City; it supports, besides those who come for temporary assistance, a band of thirty souls; 200 acres have been planted with wheat and potatoes, two adobe houses and a corral have been made, and irrigating trenches have been dug. Corn Creek Farm, in Fillmore Valley, was begun about four years ago; 300 acres have been broken up, several adobe houses have been built for the Indians and the farm agent, with the usual adjuncts, corral and fences. The crickets and grasshoppers have committed sad havoc amongst the wheat, corn and potatoes. It is now tenanted by a Pahvant chief. The Uinta Farm is near Fort Bridger. Those lately opened in Deep Creek and Ruby Valleys have this year lain fallow in consequence of Indian troubles; the soil, however, is rich, and will produce beets, potatoes, onions, turnips, and melons, It is proposed to place the Pa Yutas and Washos in the Truckee Meadows, on the lands “watered by the majestic Kuyuehup, or Salmon Trout River,” where, besides fish and piñion-forests, there are 15,000 acres fit for cultivation and herding. The Indian agents report that the cost will be $150,000 dollars, from which the Mormons deduct at least two o’s.
The Yuta, though divided into many tribes and bands, is a distinct race from its prairie neighbours, speaking a single langue mére much diversified by dialect. They are a superstitious brood and have many cruel practices—human sacrifices and vivisepulture—like those of Dahomey and Ashantee. Their religion is the usual African and Indian fetissism, that germal faith, which under favourable influences and amongst higher races developed itself by natural means—or as explained by a mythical, distinct, and independent revelation—into the higher forms of Judaism, Christianity, and El Islam. In the vicinity of the Mormons many savages have been baptized, and have become nominal Saints. They divide white men into Shwop or Americans and Mormons. Their learned men have heard of Washington, but like the French peasant’s superstition concerning Napoleon, they believe him to be still alive. They have a name for the Book of Mormon, and have not learned, like their more civilised eastern neighbours, to look upon it as the work of Mujhe-Manitou, the bad-god, who, like Wiswakarma of the Hindus, amuses himself by caricaturing and parodying the creatures of the good-god. They are not cannibals—the Wendigo is a giant-man-eater of a mythologic type, not an actual anthropophage—but like all Indians, especially those of New England, they “feel good” after eating a bit of the enemy, a natural display of destructiveness: they will devour the heart of a brave man to increase their courage, or chop it up, boil it in soup, engorge a ladleful, and boast they have drunk the enemy’s blood. They are as liable to caprice as their Eastern neighbours. A prisoner who has distinguished himself in battle is as often dismissed unhurt as porcupined with arrows and killed with cruel tortures; if they yield in ingenuity of inflicting pain to the Algonquins and Iroquois, it is not for want of inclination, but by reason of their stupidity. Female captives who fall into their hands are horribly treated; I was told of one who, after all manner of atrocities, scalping included, escaped with life. They have all the savage’s improvidence; utility is not their decalogue. Both sexes, except when clothed by a charitable Mormon, are nearly naked, even in the severest weather; they sleep in sleet and snow unclothed, except with a cape of twisted rabbits’ furs and a miserable attempt at moccasins, lined with plaited cedar bark; leggings are unknown, even to the women. Their ornaments are vermilion, a few beads, and shell necklaces. They rarely suffer from any disease but rheumatism, brought on by living in the warm houses of the whites, and various consequences of liver complaint, produced by overgorging: as with strong constitutions generally, they either die at once or readily recover. They dress wounds with pine gum, after squeezing out the blood, and their medicine-men have the usual variety of savage nostrums. In the more desert parts of the Territory they are exceedingly destitute. South of Cedar City, even ten years ago, they had fields of wheat and corn of six acres each, and supported emigrants; some of them cultivate yearly along the stream-banks peas, beans, sweet potatoes, and squashes. They live upon the flesh of the bear, elk, antelope, dog, wolf, hare, snake and lizard, besides crickets, grasshoppers, ants, and other vermin, The cactus leaf, piñion-nut and various barks; the seed of the bunch-grass and of the wheat or yellow grass, somewhat resembling rye; the rabbit-bush twigs, which are chewed, and various roots and tubers; the soft sego-bulb, the rootlet of the cat-tail flag, and of the tule, which, when sun-dried and powdered to flour, keeps through the winter and is palatable even to white men, conclude the list of their dainties. When these fail they must steal or starve, and the dilemma is easily solved,to the settler’s cost.
The Yutas in the vicinity of the larger white settlements continually diminish; bands of 150 warriors are now reduced to thirty-five. Some of the minor tribes in the southern part of the Territory near New Mexico, can scarcely show a single squaw, having traded them off for horses and arms; they go about killing one another, and on kidnapping expeditions, which further diminish the breed. The complaint which has devastated the South Sea Islands rages around the City of the Saints, and extends to the Rio Virgen. In six months six squaws were shot by red Othellos, for yielding their virtue to the fascinations of tobacco, whiskey, and blankets; the Lotharios were savage as well as civilised. The operation of courting is performed by wrapping a blanket round one’s beloved; if she reciprocates, it is a sign of consent. A refusal in these lands is often a serious business; the warrior collects his friends, carries off the recusant fair, and after subjecting her to the insults of all his companions espouses her. There is little of the shame which Pliny attributes to the “Barrus.” When a death takes place they wrap the body in a skin or hide, and drag it by the leg to a grave, which is heaped up with stones as a protection against wild beasts. They mourn till the end of that moon, allow a month to elapse, and then resume their lamentations for another moon: the interval is gradually increased till the grief ends. It is usual to make the dead man’s lodge appear as desolate as possible.
The Yuta is less servile, and consequently has a higher ethnic status than the African negro; he will not toil, and he turns at a kick or a blow. The emigrant who addresses him in the usual phrase “d—— your eyes, git out of the road or I'll shoot you” is pretty sure to come to grief. Lately the Yutas demanded compensation for the use of their grass upon the Truckee River, when the emigrants fired, killing Wanamuka the chief, After the death of two or three whites, Mayor Ormsby, of the Militia at Carson Valley, took the field, was decoyed into a kanyon by Indian cunning, and perished with all his men.
i The Panak is a small tribe of 500 souls, now considered dangerous: the greater part resides in Oregon, the smaller about ninety miles in the N.E. of the Territory, where they hunt the bison and the elk. For thirty years they have traded with Fort Bridger and when first known they numbered 1200 lodges. “Horn” their principal chief, visited the place in April 1858. Mr. Forney [Jacob Forney], the late Superintendent of Indian affairs in U. T., granted them a home in the lands of Washaki, and they have intermarried and lived peaceably with the Shoshone.
ii These are, 1. Wanamuka’s; 2, San Joaquim, near the forks of that river in Carson Valley, numbering 170; 3. Hadsapoke, or Horse Stopper band, of 110, in Gold Kanyon on Carson River; 4. Wahi or Fox-band, on Big Bend of Carson River, 130 in number; 5 and 6. Odakeo, “Tall man band,” and Petodseka, “White Spot band,” round the Lakes and Sinks of the Carson and Walker Rivers, numbering 484 men, 372 women, and 405 children; 7. Tosarke, “Grey head band,” their neighbours; 8. Tonoziet, “Woman helper band,” on the Truckee River below Big Meadows, numbering 280 souls; 9. Torape, or “Lean man band,” on the Truckee River near Lone Crossing, 360 souls; 10. Gonega, the “Dancer band,” 290 souls, near the mouth of the Truckee River; 11. Watsequendo, the “Four Crows,” along the shores of Pyramid Lake, 320 souls; 12. The second Wanamuka’s band, 500 in number, along the shores of the Northern Mud Lake.
iii In the Yuta language meaning “water among the stones.”
iv It is said to mean “one who goes on foot.”
v Van Diemen’s Land in the days of Captain Flinders (a.p. 1800, two generations ago) had a population of 100,000 souls, now well nigh annihilated by strong waters and corrosive sublimate. Neither man nor woman was safe in the vicinity of a native tribe; the Anglo-Scandinavian race thus found it necessary to wipe out a people that could not be civilised—a fair instance of the natural selection of species. And New Zealand now threatens to walk the path of Tasmania.