I recently traveled to the site of the Bear River Massacre area near Preston, Idaho. My children, husband, and I were somber when learning about the people who were murdered there.
With the arrival of European white people, Native hunting and gathering territory had been limited, and as a result, the repeat of the sad story of relatively minor incursions of the Native people on white resources (made on Native land) was met with severe repercussions. Soldiers from Fort Douglas, led by Colonel Patrick Connor murdered about 400 Native Americans of the Shoshone tribe.
The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers plaque, erected in 1953 near the Bear River Site, reads:
“Attacks by the Indians on the peaceful inhabitants in this vicinity led to the final battle here January 29, 1863. The conflict occurred in deep snow and bitter cold. Scores of wounded and frozen soldiers were taken from the battlefield to the Latter-day Saint community of Franklin. Here pioneer women trained through trials and necessity of frontier living, accepted the responsibility of caring for the wounded until they could be removed to Camp Douglas, Utah. Two Indian women and three children found alive after the encounter were given homes in Franklin.”
I am appalled that this marker does not honor the horror of what happened at Bear River on Jan. 29, 1863. Instead, it honors Mormon women who took care of the soldiers willing to do such a horrific act. It honors Mormon women who “gave homes” to five of the over 400 Native Americans who had been treated as less than animals and whose family tribe was no more.
Perhaps it is time to remove this marker.
Perhaps it should stand as a testimony to the ongoing racism and colonial attitudes that stain our culture today.
What do you think?
Geniel Kemper, West Jordan
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