Federal Fears about Mormons and Native Americans
Federal officials' distrust of Mormons was made worse by the belief that the Mormons could use the Native Americans as their own personal army. Newspapers across the country published letters claiming that “one hundred thousand Mormons were poised to fight the U.S. Government, aided by two hundred thousand ‘spies and emissaries’ and three hundred thousand ‘savage’ Indian allies.” Not only did newspapers report on bonds between the Mormons and Native Americans, but so did federal surveyors “in reports sent east, the surveyors said the settlers were meddling with Indians by cultivating a close friendship with them.” The fears of non-Mormons that Mormons would use Native Americans as a weapon were not entirely unfounded.
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In 1857, just before the Utah War broke out, Brigham Young reportedly said that if the United States were to send troops to Utah the Mormons “shall have the Lamanites with us & the more the United States send out the wors[e] iff [sic] they will be for they will perish with Famine.” The most infamous statement used to show the relationship between Mormons and Native Americans was made by David Lewis, a farmer to the Paiute Indians, who said that the Indians were “the battle ax of the Lord… May we not have been sent to learn to use this ax with skill?” Federal officials pointed to the murder of John Gunnison, a murder which made the fears of Native Americans carrying out Mormon violence seem like reality.
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In 1854, three years before the Utah War, John Gunnison was killed by a band of Pahvant Utes while surveying land for a possible transcontinental railroad route West. Brigham Young was blamed for coaxing these Pahvants to kill Gunnison. Mormons had replaced the old leader of the Pahvant band with Kanosh, a Pahvant who was a baptized Mormon. Young had even rewarded Kanosh with wives and property for being an ally of the Mormons. Although there was no proof that Mormons were involved in the murder, federal officials certainly believed they were. A year later, Major Steptoe (and his soldiers) of the US Army were called to investigate the murder of Gunnison. Steptoe found the Pahvants that had supposedly killed Gunnison and they were found guilty in trial.
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Figure 1
However, that was not the end of these Pahvants. The newspaper the National Era published the following account of what happened to the murderers:
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“The sentence of the Court was, that the Indians, for this brutal massacre of eight or ten American citizens and soldiers, should be imprisoned for three years. They were accordingly handed over to the authorities of Utah, (Mormons,) and committed to prison to serve out their terms. But, within less than a week, they were permitted to escape, and are again at large.”
Tensions were high between the soldiers and the Mormon settlers, especially when the Pahvants responsible for the murder escaped from prison, and thus avoided their sentences. Steptoe was offered the position of governor, which he turned down, left the territory, and suggested that military forces be stationed in Utah to curtail the power of the Mormons.
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This episode also saw a new Indian Affairs officer appointed to Utah, Garland Hurt. Hurt arrived with Steptoe and immediately disagreed with Young’s Indian policy. He believed that the Mormons could never serve the Indians as they should because of their close ties. Additionally, Hurt came to believe that Mormons had begun to turn the local Native Americans against the
United States:
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Now, since my arrival in this Territory, I have become satisfied that these saints have, either accidentally or purposely, created a distinction, in the minds of the Indian tribes of this Territory, between the Mormons and the people of the United States, that cannot act otherwise than prejudicial to the interests of the latter.
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Hurt faced many problems in his position, as he and Young were never able to agree. Hurt, with the seeming approval of Young, launched a project to build Indian reservations with instructions for Native Americans to farm the land. Hurt began to appropriate funds to tribes in order to get them onto these reservations, thinking he would be paid back. Hurt asked Young to request $100,000 to finance his plans, as well as $30,000 to pay the tribes. Young forwarded the request to Washington without any word of support and the request was denied. As his request was denied, Hurt now was financially ruined and blamed Young. This was the end of any pretense of good relations between Hurt and Young. Hurt meanwhile continued to send reports to Washington detailing the conspiracy between Young and the Native Americans:
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The rule of this office is to withhold annuities from the Indians whenever they place themselves in a hostile or antagonistic attitude towards the government, and I know of no reason why the same rule should not be applied to you at this time, but as the appropriation has been exhausted it is not necessary to consider that question now.
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Hurt’s reports of Young’s manipulations of Native Americans were instrumental in the decision to install a new governor of the territory, one that could be trusted to stay loyal to the United States.
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1. Leonard, Glen M., Richard E. Turley, Jr., and Ronald W. Walker. Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy, 28.
2. Ibid., 43.
3. Bigler, Winter with the Mormons, 157.
4. As quoted in Brooks, “Indian Relations,” 21.
5. Paul Padilla, “Kanosh,” in Powell, Utah History Encyclopedia, 297-298.
6. Bigler, Winter with the Mormons, 64.
7. National Era, May 24, 1855. Italics in original.
8. “The Utah Expedition,” 35th Cong., 1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 71 (1857), 176–77.
9. Hurt to Young, 31 December 1855, USHS.
10. Hurt to Manypenny, 30 August 1856, in Buchanan, Utah Expedition, 179-81.
11. Denver to Young, November 11, 1857, Letters Sent, 1824–1886, M21, Records of the Office of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, National Archives; also in The Utah Expedition, 35th Cong., 1st Sess., H. Ex. Doc. 71 (1857), 186–88.
Figure 1. Bancroft's History of Utah, 1540–1886 (1889), 469.