Wakara's War

Wakara's War was a dispute between the Paiute Indians and the Mormon settlers in the Utah Valley. This war was not so much a war and more of a string of disputes over property and the land. This war was influenced by factors such as religious differences, the slave trade, and the division of the Salt Lake Valley.

Chief Wakara

Wakara was a chief of the Paiute Indians in Utah. He was also known as Wakarum,[1] Walkara, Walkar, Wacker, Wacherr, Watcher, and his white name Walker.[2] Wakara means "yellow" or "brass"[3] in the Numu language. It is thought that Wakara went by that name due to his preference for yellow buckskin.

Due to the unique physical characteristics of the land that Wakara's band occupied, they were relatively separated from the rest of the Utes and the Shoshone Indians in that area. His band was a medley of different tribes such as the Ute, Navajo, and Hopi. Wakara's band subsisted mainly on a hunter-gatherer diet, roaming the land to find the sustenance and supplies that they needed to survive. This was greatly aided by the influence of horses in the Paiute culture, especially with Wakara as chief. He was known as ""Napoleon of the Desert",[4] a nickname earned due to his cunning and strategy in horse raids. They also had a very profitable slave trade with the Spaniards in which they traded captives from other tribes as products of tribal warfare for European goods.

  • A statue of Chief Walkara at Pioneer Heritage Gardens in Manti, Utah.

Mormon Pioneers

Wakara was the chief of the Paiute Indians at the time that the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly referred to as the Mormon pioneers) began to arrive in the Utah Valley and settle the land around 1847. The pioneers were fleeing from religious persecution on the east coast and believed that religious freedom would be found in Utah, still considered a territory at the time and not yet a state.[5] They were being led west by their religious leader known as a prophet, Brigham Young. The Mormon pioneers did not account for the Indian tribes already occupying the territory that they were wanting to settle in the Salt Lake Valley, which led to ensuing conflicts.

  • Brigham Young, 2nd Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Events Leading up to the War

Religious Differences

In the years following the Mormon pioneers arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, tensions began to build between the settlers and the Paiutes. The Mormon Pioneers, led by the Mormon prophet Brigham Young believed that the Indians were descendants of a people called the Lamanites,[6] as talked about in a book of American scripture, The Book of Mormon. In early church doctrine, it was believed that the Indians needed to convert in order to be saved. Chief Wakara himself had been converted.

Slave Trade

Wakara and his band had a very profitable slave trade with the Spaniards; they traded captives(namely children) from other tribes as products of tribal warfare with the Spaniards for European goods. In order to increase economic wealth, Chief Wakara pressured the Mormon settlers to engage in his prospering slave trade, threatening to kill the slaves unless the settlers bought them. Although initially opposed to the idea, Brigham Young relented to purchasing the slaves.

Young viewed this as a way to purchase the slaves' freedom and believed it to be the moral duty of the settlers to raise the children as Mormons. The relationships between the settlers and the purchased slaves ranged from familial relations to treating the slaves as house servants.[7]

Division of the Land

There were many small disputes regarding the distribution of the land in the Salt Lake Valley. The Paiute Indians frequently went on raids, stealing horses from other tribes and settlers and growing their herds. Chief Wakara led some of the most profitable raids in that region, notably increasing the head count in his band's herd.[8]

This painting by Alfred Jacob Miller exaggerates the portrayal of Plains Indians chasing buffalo over a small cliff.[6] The Walters Art Museum.

When the Mormon settlers came, there was an assumption that things would continue to go on as they had been and that there would be a sharing of the land. What the Paiute Indians did not understand was that the settlers were there to stay, and the land that the pioneers would claim ownership over the lands that they settled. Frequent Indian raids on the settlers' cattle and horses led to conflicts between Wakara's band and Brigham Young with the rest of the Mormon settlers.[7]

Things escalated on July 17, 1853, when Paiute Indians were trading near Jame's Ivie's cabin. A dispute ensued when a Paiute man began beating his wife over a transaction and tried taking it into Ivie's home. This dispute resulted in Ivie killing one of the men present, a relative of Wakara’s named Shower-O-Cats.[9] Indian tradition called for Ivie's death, which began a series of skirmishes and confrontations known as Wakara's War, or The Walker War.

During the War

The Walker War is not necessarily considered a war, rather it is more considered a series of raid attempts of the Utes on the settlers. These raids led the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to come back at the Utes with force as well. However, that was not the original intent of the religious settlers. Their original intent was to use a plan to defend themselves and attempt to improve their relations with the Utes.[10][11]

Towards the end of July 1853, a man named General Wells, from Salt Lake City, commanded a number of troops to go and attempt to stop the Utes, who they believed were marching to attack a town of Members of the Church of Jesus Christ. Wells was specific in his instruction to not attack the Utes, but to try to capture Chief Wakara of the Ute Indians, while trying to keep peace. This did not happen, because Well’s orders were not received in time. A man named Colonel Conover took the group of troops and attacked, not knowing of General Well’s orders. He went with a group of about one hundred and fifty armed men to pursue these Native Americans. The effects of this event were very large and severe. This event led to many months of attacks from both the Utes and the settlers.[10][12]

After hearing about this incident, President Brigham Young sent a letter of apology for what had happened to Chief Wakara. He even included some tobacco with his letter so that Wakara might accept it better. From this moment on, the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints would put in a strict defense system to protest themselves, and those who did not abide by the orders of the First Presidency of the Church were to be taught well their lesson so that they would then obey the orders. The Members of the Church began to move all of their cattle and livestock to Salt Lake to be able to protect them. The Ute Indians decided to use this to their advantage. They would begin to raid these groups of livestock and steal them as they were being moved. Part of Governor Young's plan to defend and keep safe the Members of the Church, was to stop all trade and exchange with the Ute Indians, as to avoid any confrontation with them. However, it was difficult to completely avoid all confrontation. There were instances in which settlers sneak into the Indian camps and find stolen livestock, and when they found the people who did it, many times they would kill the Indians. Both sides would continue to provoke and anger each other for a long time. Although there were various murders from both the Utes and the settlers, rarely, if ever, was there ever a large confrontation of the 2 groups that would be considered a battle. They are described more like raids or small conflicts than a traditional war.

The Utes gave the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints various chances to pay for their wrongdoings, yet many times the Members of the Church could not provide what the Utes asked for, or they did not believe that they owed the Utes anything. So, the battles would continue from the latter part of 1853 to early 1854. Then, Chief Wakara decided that he wanted to stop the violence and make peace with the settlers. So, on multiple occasions he attempted at making peace. However, Chief Wakara wanted payments through cattle, guns, whiskey, and many gifts if peace were to be made. On May 11, 1854, the war was officially ended. Chief Wakara and Brigham Young met and came to an agreement and decided to end the bloodshed. The specifics of the agreement are not exactly known, as there is no copy of the proceedings of the treaty to be found. However, there have been some pieces of evidence that show that there were some gifts given for horses that had been stolen.[10][13][12]

The Repercussions of the War

Although the war has officially ended, that did not mean that there would be no violence between the Utes and the settlers from there on. Chief Wakara would end up dying in 1855, and the peace would then be lost again. The bloodshed between the settlers would continue in following years.[11][12] The Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and Utes would find themselves in conflict again during the Tintic War, which took place just a year after the death of Chief Wakara. Although the war was not primarily between the two groups, yet the Utes were stealing some livestock of the settlers, which would lead to the violence. They would also meet again in the Black Hawk War a few years later. The violence finally stopped when the U.S. Government removed the Native Americans from the area, effectively stopping the bloodshed between the settlers and the Utes.

References
  1. Harris, H. (1971). The Walker war, by Henry Harris, Jr. An interview by Floyd O'Neil. Utah Historical Quarterly, volume Vol. 39,no.2.
  2. Wimmer. The Walker War reconsidered (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Brigham Young University.
  3. Sonne, Conway B. (1962). World of Wakara. San Antonio: Naylor Co. p. 2.
  4. Farmer. p. 35. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. Hinckley, Gordon B. "These Noble Pioneers - Gordon B. Hinckley". BYU Speeches. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  6. The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. pp. vii.
  7. Wimmer, R.E. (2010). The Walker War Reconsidered. Brigham Young University: (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). p. 55.
  8. Pilling, Arnold R.; Stone, Conway B. (January 1963). "World of Wakara". Western Folklore. 22 (1): 63. doi:10.2307/1496753. ISSN 0043-373X. JSTOR 1496753.
  9. Alexander, Thomas G. "Utah, the Right Place; The Walker War".
  10. Christy, H. A. (n.d.) (Fall 1979). Utah historical quarterly. Vol.47. Utah historical quarterly, volume Vol.47, no.4. pp. 395–420.
  11. Weiser-Alexander, Kathy. "Utah State History". Utah State History. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  12. Alexander, Thomas G. "The Walker War". History to Go. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
  13. Wimmer, R. E. (2010). The Walker War Reconsidered. Brigham Young University: Unpublished doctoral dissertation.
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