Commentary: How LDS leader Brigham Young and a great Ute chief strived for peace in a time of war

When Brigham Young and his Latter-day Saint pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in the summer of 1847, they encountered the Utes for the first time.

The Utes, on the other hand, were already familiar with European Americans. They had been trading with the Spanish in New Mexico and parts of Utah since the late 18th century, and their skillful use of horses introduced by the Spanish allowed the Utes to expand and defend their territory against both Europeans and Native groups.

The Latter-day Saint arrival, however, did bring significant changes to the Utes. For one thing, there were far more members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints among them than had ever been true of Spanish traders or American fur trappers and explorers, all needing the same resources required by the Utes. For another, Latter-day Saint activities threatened the entire Ute economy. Not only did their farmers and livestock owners seize lands the Ute people depended upon, but they also seemed determined to end Ute trade in captives taken in raids on weaker Native groups and sold to the Spanish in New Mexico and California.

While there were occasional clashes between Latter-day Saints and Utes in the earliest months of white colonization, the leaders — Young for the former and Chief Wakara for the latter — took a cautious approach with each other. Letters were exchanged, and delegations from each side carried gifts to the other. By 1850, however, relations had deteriorated, caused by the actions of rank-and-file Latter-day Saints and Utes rather than by direction of either Wakara or Young. Tensions and deaths on both sides increased.

Hostilities gradually focused on the Ute practice of selling captives, often children. They tried to sell them to Latter-day Saint settlers; when these church members refused to buy, Utes killed their captives in the presence of Latter-day Saints — who capitulated, buying children to save their lives. By 1852, the Utah Legislature had formally terminated the slave trade between Utes and Spanish traders within Utah and sought to prosecute offenders. Although the practice continued, it diminished greatly, putting a dent in the Ute economy.

The ‘Walker War’

Hostilities broke out in July 1853 in what is known as the “Walker War” (Walker being a common white variant for Wakara). It is ironic that Wakara’s name was given to the war, because he, perhaps more than Young, was committed to peaceful and profitable coexistence, and did not personally direct hostilities. Young and Wakara even met to discuss peace in July 1853, near present-day Nephi. The two leaders seemed to realize the advantages for both peoples in some forms of cooperation and the avoidance of bloodshed.

Bloodshed continued, however, throughout 1854. The efforts by Wakara and Young to pacify their followers and to negotiate peacefully continued into January 1855, when the two leaders exchanged messages through interpreter David Lewis. Awkwardly, perhaps, that message was accompanied by a young boy, a gift from Wakara to Young. In response, Young wrote to Wakara that “I would much prefer that you should sell all the children you may obtain to the Mormons rather than anybody else.” Rather than mistreating them, Young promised to teach them to read and to farm.

“I am much pleased to hear from you, that your heart is inclined to peace,” Young wrote. “This is good, very good. We are their friends. We shall continue to love them, and teach them things that may do them good.”

“My people,” Young added, “do not all understand properly, neither do I approve of what some of my people think and do with respect to the Indians. But you know some of your people are not wise in their actions, neither are some of mine, and we must mutually forgive.”

The great chief dies

Bearing gifts of a gun, a blanket, tobacco and clothing, Lewis set off for Wakara’s camp near Fillmore. He arrived there on Jan. 28. “I met the [Utes] coming with Walker,” Lewis reported. “He held out his hand, and shook hands. I showed him the letter you sent to him, and I gave him all the articles you sent to him. He seemed greatly pleased with them, and wanted me to come next morning to Meadow Creek, and read the letter for him.”

Wakara told Lewis, “ I wish to have a long talk with you but am too sick to talk now.”

That reading of Young’s letter never took place. Before Lewis reached the Ute camp the next morning, word came that Wakara was dead and his funeral was in progress — a bloody funeral involving the slaughter of horses and the deaths of captives (although it was probably not as gory as later accounts have claimed. Lewis’ report to Young states that “they had buried Walker with the letter, and all the articles you sent to him.”

Historians have searched for Young’s last letter to the great Ute chief, seemingly without ever finding it. It has certainly never been published. But it exists, apparently unrecognized, in the files of the Church History Library in Salt Lake City — until the premier scholars of the Walker War and of Indigenous slavery located it in Young’s papers and realized its importance.

It preserves the last exchange between the leaders of two great peoples of the 19th-century Great Basin. While people on both sides were at war, their leaders were not.

“[Be at] peace with your friends,” Young wrote, “remembering that I am one whilst ever you sojourn upon the earth, earnestly seeking your true welfare, and praying for blessings to descend upon you.”

What a refreshing stand for leaders to take.

Note to readers • Ardis E. Parshall is an independent research historian who can be found on social media as @Keepapitchinin and at Keepapitchinin.org. She occasionally takes breaks from transcribing historical documents to promote the aims of the Mormon History Association’s Ardis E. Parshall Public History Award.