After my return from the Colorado River, I had occasion to go to Salt
Lake City. I arrived there soon after the United States army had
entered Salt Lake Valley. The people north of Utah County had vacated
their homes and moved south.
Through the instrumentality of Colonel Thomas L. Kane, a peaceable
solution of our difficulties with the general government had been
arrived at, and the Saints were returning to their vacated homes.
It is generally known that the enemies of the Latter-day Saints have
accused them of shielding from justice the white men, who, it was
supposed, joined with the Indians in the Mountain Meadow massacre. Mr.
Cumming succeeded President Brigham Young as governor of Utah Territory
in the early spring, before the arrival of the United States army in
Salt Lake Valley.
President Brigham Young requested Elder George A. Smith to have an
interview with the new governor, and learn his views concerning the
Mountain Meadow massacre, and assure him that all possible assistance
would be rendered the United States courts to have it thoroughly
investigated.
Brother Smith took me with him, and introduced me as a man who was well
informed regarding Indian matters in Southern Utah, and would impart to
him any information required that I might be in possession of. He also
urged upon Governor Cumming the propriety of an investigation of this
horrid affair, that, if there were any white men engaged in it, they
might be justly punished for their crimes.
Governor Cumming replied that President Buchanan had issued a
proclamation of amnesty and pardon to the "Mormon" people, and he did
not wish to go behind it to search out crime.
Brother Smith urged that the crime was exclusively personal in its
character, and had nothing to do with the "Mormons" as a people, or
with the general officers of the Territory, and, therefore, was a fit
subject for an investigation before the United States courts.
Mr. Cumming still objected to interfering, on account of the
President's proclamation.
Brother Smith replied substantially as follows: "If the business
had not been taken out of our hands by a change of officers in the
Territory, the Mountain Meadow affair is one of the first things we
should have attended to when a United States court sat in Southern
Utah. We would see whether or not white men were concerned in the
affair, with the Indians."
At Salt Lake City, I was appointed sub-Indian agent.
During the summer of 1858, when I was at my home on the Santa Clara,
one morning about 9 o'clock, while engaged in cutting some of the large
branches from a cottonwood tree, I fell a distance of twenty or thirty
feet to the ground. I was badly bruised and was carried to my house for
dead, or nearly so.
I came to my senses about 8 o'clock in the evening, and threw off from
my stomach quite a quantity of blood. I requested the brethren who were
standing around to administer to me, and they did so. From the time I
fell from the tree until then was lost to me, so far as earthly matters
were concerned.
During the time my body lay in this condition, it seemed to me that I
went up from the earth and looked down upon it, and it appeared like a
dark ball. The place where I was seemed very desirable to remain in. It
was divided into compartments by walls, from which appeared to grow out
vines and flowers, displaying an endless variety of colors.
I thought I saw my father there, but separated from me. I wished him to
let me into his compartment, but he replied that it was not time for me
to come to him.
I then asked why I could not come.
He answered, "Your work is not yet done."
I attempted to speak about it again, but he motioned me away with his
hand, and, in a moment I was back to this earth. I saw the brethren
carrying my body along, and it was loathsome to me in appearance.
A day or two after my fall from the tree, I was carried to the Mountain
Meadows, where I was fed on goat's milk and soon recovered.
In the autumn of this year, 1858, I received instructions from
President Brigham Young to take a company of men and visit the Moquis,
or Town Indians, on the east side of the Colorado River.
The object of this visit was to learn something of the character and
condition of this people, and to take advantage of any opening there
might be to preach the gospel to them and do them good.
My companions for this trip were Brothers Dudley and Thomas Leavitt,
two of my brothers, Frederick and William Hamblin, Samuel Knight,
Ira Hatch, Andrew Gibbons, Benjamin Knell, Ammon M. Tenney (Spanish
interpreter), James Davis (Welsh interpreter), and Naraguts, an Indian
guide.
A Spanish interpreter was thought advisable, from the fact that the
Spanish language was spoken and understood by many of the Indians in
that region of country. A Welsh interpreter was taken along, thinking
it possible that there might be some truth in a report which had been
circulated that there were evidences of Welsh descent among these
Indians. An Indian guide was requisite, from the fact the none of the
brethren had traveled the route. This was the first of a series of
journeys to this people.
The company, consisting of twelve men, including myself, left the Santa
Clara settlement on the 28th of October. Our general course of travel
was a little south of east. The third night we camped at Pipe Springs,
a place now occupied by a stone fort, and known as Winsor Castle.
While there, two or three Piutes came to our camp. One of them asked
me to go with him to some large rocks, which lay under the high cliffs
near by. As we approached them he showed me a human skeleton. "There,"
said he, "are the bones of Nahguts, who killed your ox on the Clara.
He came as far as here, was taken blind, could not find the spring and
died."
The following evening we camped at the foot of the Kibab, or Buckskin
Mountain, with the chief and nearly all the tribe of Kibab Indians.
They provided supper by cooking a large number of rabbits.
They put these in a pile, and covered them with hot ashes and coals.
When sufficiently cooked, the chief performed the ceremony of thanking
the Father for the success of their hunt, and asked for a continuation
of His blessings in obtaining food. He then divided the rabbits among
the company. We all joined in the feast. They gave us meat and we gave
them bread.
I noticed an Indian sitting moodily, alone, and eating nothing. I sat
down by him, and asked what he was thinking about.
Said he, "I am thinking of my brother, whom you killed with bad
medicine."
I told him that his brother had made his own medicine, that he came
to the Clara, killed an ox, and had brought a curse upon himself.
I advised the Indian to eat with the company, and not make any bad
medicine and kill himself.
This very prevalent idea of good and bad medicine, among these Indians,
gives evidence of a very general belief in witchcraft.
The Indian took a piece of bread, saying he did not wish to die. I was
told by our guide that this Indian had said, that in the night, when I
was asleep, he intended to chop an axe into my head, but being afraid
it would make bad medicine for him, he did not do it.
After climbing dangerous cliffs and crossing extensive fissures in
the rocks, the tenth day out from home we crossed the Colorado River,
at the Ute Ford, known in Spanish history as "The Crossing of the
Fathers." The trail beyond the river was not only difficult, but
sometimes very dangerous.
While traveling in the night, one of the animals that carried our
provisions, ran off. Two men went in pursuit of it, while the company
went on.
The third day after losing our provisions, having had but little to
eat, we came to a place where sheep had been herded, then to a garden
under a cliff of rocks. It was watered from a small spring and occupied
fine terraces, walled up on three sides.
As we passed, we saw that onions, pepper and other vegetables, such as
we raised in our own gardens at home, had been grown there. On arriving
at the summit of the cliff, we discovered a squash, which evidently had
been left when the crop had been gathered.
We appropriated it to our use. It tasted delicious, and we supposed
it to be a better variety than we had before known, but we afterwards
found that hunger had made it taste sweet.
Four miles farther on we came to an Oriba village, of about three
hundred dwellings. The buildings were of rock, laid in clay mortar. The
village stands on a cliff with perpendicular sides, and which juts out
into the plain like a promontory into the sea. The promontory is narrow
where it joins the table land back of it.
Across this the houses were joined together. The entrance to the town
on the east side, was narrow and difficult. The town was evidently
located and constructed for defense from the marauding tribes around.
The houses are usually three stories high. The second and third stories
are set back from the front the width of the one below, so that the
roofs of the lower stories have the appearance of terraces.
For security, the first story can only be entered by ascending to the
roof, and then going down a ladder into the room below.
After our arrival in the village, the leading men counseled together a
few minutes, when we were separated and invited to dine with different
families.
A man beckoned me to follow him. After traversing several streets,
and climbing a ladder to the roof of the first story of a house, I
was ushered into a room furnished with sheepskins, blankets, earthen
cooking utensils, water urns, and other useful articles.
It seemed to me strangely furnished, yet it had an air of comfort;
perhaps the more so, for the reason that the previous few days had been
spent in very laborious traveling, on rather low diet.
The hostess made a comfortable seat with blankets, and motioned me to
occupy it.
A liberal repast was provided. It consisted of stewed meat, beans,
peaches and a basket of corn bread which they called _peke_. It was
about the thickness of brown paper, dry and crumbling, yet quite
palatable.
The hostess, apparently surmising that I would not know how to partake
of the bean soup without a spoon, dexterously thrust her fingers,
closed tightly together, into the dish containing it, and, with a very
rapid motion carried the soup to her mouth. Then she motioned me to
eat. Hunger was pressing, and a hint was sufficient.
The day following, the two brethren we had left behind came in with the
runaway mule, and a part of our supplies.
We visited seven of these towns, all similarly located and constructed.
The people generally used asses for packing all their supplies, except
water, up the cliffs to their dwellings. The water was usually brought
up by the women, in jugs, flattened on one side to fit the neck and
shoulders of the carrier, and this was fastened with a strap which
passed around in front of the body.
Most of the families owned a flock of sheep. These might be seen in
all directions going out in the morning to feed, and returning in
the evening. They were driven into or near the towns at night, and
corralled and guarded to keep them from being stolen by the thieving
Navajoes.
We found a few persons in all the villages who could speak the Ute
language. They told us some of their traditions, which indicate that
their fathers knew the Mexicans, and something about the Montezumas.
A very aged man said that when he was a young man, his father told him
that he would live to see white men come among them, who would bring
them great blessings, such as their fathers had enjoyed, and that these
men would come from the west. He believed that he had lived to see the
prediction fulfilled in us.
We thought it advisable for some of the brethren to remain with this
people for a season, to study their language, get acquainted with them,
and, as they are of the blood of Israel, offer them the gospel. Elders
Wm. M. Hamblin, Andrew Gibbons, Thomas Leavitt and Benjamin Knell were
selected for this purpose.
Bidding adieu to our Moqui friends, and to our brethren who were to
remain with them, we started for home. Sixteen days of hard travel
would be necessary to accomplish the journey.
We expected to obtain supplies at the Oriba village, but failed on
account of scarcity. We had nothing for our animals but the dry grass,
and they were somewhat jaded. The cold north wind blew in our faces,
and we lit no fires at night, as they would have revealed our position
to the roving Indians.
The journey home was very laborious and disagreeable. With provisions
scarcely sufficient for our journey, we again lost some of them by a
runaway, and, failing to get meat from the Indians as we expected, we
were reduced to very short rations.
At Pipe Spring the snow was knee deep, and falling fast. We made only
eight miles to Cedar Ridge the first day, from that place. As night
came on we counseled together over our situation.
Taking into consideration our empty stomachs and the difficulty of
traveling in the snow, it appeared quite impossible to get home
without killing one of our horses for food. We lived on this rather
objectionable kind of food for two days.
On arriving home it was very pleasant to find a change of diet, and our
families and friends all well.
During our absence, the brethren had some difficulty with the Santa
Clara Indians, and the management of it seemed leading to bad results.
I visited the natives, and found that there were no bad intentions
on their part, and they were all much pleased to have the matter
understood and settled.
The brethren whom we left with the Moquis returned home the same winter.
A division arose among the people as to whether we were the men
prophesied of by their fathers, who would come among them with the
knowledge that their fathers possessed.
This dispute ran so high that the brethren felt that but little or no
good could result from remaining longer. Besides, the chief men among
the Moquis advised their return.
The brethren suffered much privation and hardship in this effort to
preach the gospel to this people. The Indians said that they did not
want to cross the Colorado River to live with the "Mormons," for they
had a tradition from their fathers that they must not cross that river
until the three prophets who took them into the country they now
occupy, should visit them again.
Their chief men also prophesied that the "Mormons" would settle in the
country south of them, and that their route of travel would be up the
Little Colorado. This looked very improbable to us at that time, but
all has since been fulfilled.