When the pioneers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints entered the Salt Lake Valley, they generally settled in what is now Salt Lake County on the Wasatch Front. The area was largely a desert and many, including some mountain men, suggested that the people settle further south in the freshwater valley that now comprises the bulk of Utah County. Brigham Young immediately sent out people to found colonies, cities, and towns throughout modern Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, and Mexico. Yet, the pioneers balked at the initial thought of settlement in Utah Valley because of the native tribes who already lived there. Various bands of the Ute and Timpanogos tribes lived throughout the valley and had a reputation of being warlike and aggressive as a way to defend their land and livelihood. 

In January 1865, Julesburg, Colorado was 200 miles east of Denver. Complete with an eating-house, stable, blacksmith, repair shop, granary, and corral, the town was an important waystation for immigrants and settlers traveling along the Platte River on the Oregon Trail. However, Julesburg’s relative prominence also made it a target for Native retaliation after the Sand Creek Massacre. Six weeks earlier, on November 29, 1864, led by brevet Colonel John Chivington, the 675-men strong Third Colorado massacred several hundred Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women, and children in southeastern Colorado Territory. Dog Soldiers (a militant Cheyenne subgroup) allied with other Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota warriors to avenge their relatives who died at Sand Creek. In total, they numbered some 1200 Dog Soldiers and other warriors. Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail, Pawnee Killer, and others led the attack on Julesburg. On January 7, 1865, the allied Natives found that many soldiers had left town as part of their regular patrols, leaving only 37 men to defend the fort at Julesburg. A small group of Lakotas led the initial charge. Nicholas James O’Brien, a highly decorated Civil War soldier and commander of the troops at Julesburg, saw the oncoming attack and pursued the Lakotas, unwittingly falling into their strategic trap to encircle the soldiers once they had been separated from reinforcements. The Native alliance intended to surround the American soldiers, but some young Cheyenne left their position too early before the entrapment could be realized. Despite this minor lapse, within a few minutes of fighting, nearly half of the U.S. soldiers were killed. O’Brien led his surviving soldiers back to the fort, and the Native alliance laid siege. The remaining tribesmen entered Julesburg and raided every building. George Bent, a Cheyenne who participated in the raid, recalled that allied Natives found all the goods they desired. Tribal women brought extra horses to carry the spoils back to their camps. The horses were so heavily loaded that it took three days to make the return trip home. The raid lasted the whole day and became the first of many Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota raids conducted in the Central Plains over the coming months. The accumulation of goods brought sustenance to the tribes that winter while the United States took a staggering blow to their efforts to control American Indian affairs during the Civil War.

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Bear Lake is a natural freshwater lake that is 18 miles long and 7 miles wide. It straddles the border between Utah and Idaho, which passes through the center of the lake. Renowned for its bright blue waters, thanks to the limestone in the mountains surrounding it, Bear Lake has been dubbed the Caribbean of the Rockies. The lake and surrounding communities are also well known for the famous “Bear Lake raspberries” that grow in the area and the associated Raspberry Days festival held every August. In recent years the lake has become a tourism hot spot with vacation homes and resorts spreading along its shores. The Shoshone inhabitants of the valley historically used the Bear Lake area for food; they fished the lake’s waters and hunted in the surrounding mountains. They called the lake “sweet lake” due to its exceptionally clear water, and the first European fur traders adopted the name “Sweet Lake” for the body of water. The name “Bear Lake” came about when a Scotsman named Donald McKenzie paddled up the Bear River in 1818. When he found the lake he named it “Black Bear Lake,” but later trappers soon dropped the adjective “Black” so the lake’s name matched the river. Fur trapping continued in the area but sharply increased in 1827 when mountain men held a rendezvous along the southern shore of the lake. Thousands of Natives from many tribes came to trade furs for guns, supplies, and other goods. Jim Bridger and Jedediah Smith were among the mountain men in attendance. Mountain men gathered to Bear Lake for another rendezvous in 1828, but it was the last one held in the valley. From 1829 onward, the rendezvous moved into nearby Wyoming, and Shoshones continued to enjoy the Bear Lake Valley. The next group to arrive were laborers from the Logan, Utah area who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes nicknamed “Mormons”) and had come to search for pine trees tall enough to serve as support beams for the Logan Temple then under construction. When their reports of a fertile valley with a large lake reached Brigham Young in Salt Lake City, he sent Church apostle Charles C. Rich to settle the area in 1863. The Mormons initially strove for peaceful relations with the Shoshones, and at first agreed to keep to the northern part of the valley while the Shoshone used the southern part in what is present-day Utah. These Latter-day Saint quickly established the small towns of St. Charles, Montpelier, Ovid, Bennington, and Fish Haven, all named for cities in Brigham Young’s native Vermont. For a few years the valley became known as “Mormon Valley.” As time went on, both the Mormon name and the agreement they had with the Shoshones faded from memory. The Latter-day Saint settlers expanded southward along the banks of the lake, adding the towns of Paris, Garden City, and Laketown.

Bear Lake continues to represent a place where people go to fish, boat, and recreate, just as the Shoshones and fur traders had.

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At the top of the Big Horn Mountains, 9,642 feet above sea level, on the west ridge of Medicine Mountain, lies the Big Horn Medicine Wheel. The wheel sits about twenty yards away from a limestone cliff face, where visitors can look down upon the Big Horn Basin, the Wind River, and the Pryor Mountains of Montana. Using a piece of wood found built into the structure, archaeologists dated the Medicine Wheel itself to around 1760 AD. Other archaeological research carbon-dated charcoal and wood fragments found near the Medicine Wheel to 4,529 BCE. The wheel is made of hundreds of white limestone rocks arranged in roughly in the circular shape of a wheel. Spanning eighty feet in diameter, the wheel is a true marvel, as most rocks used as material for the massive wheel originate from the bottom of the mountain, meaning the builders carried them to the top. At the center of the wheel lies another smaller circle, and 28 “spokes” radiate from this smaller center circle, connecting the center to the perimeter of the wheel. Small hollow cairns surround the wheel. Although much research has been done on the wheel, archaeologists, astronomers, and other scholars have been unable to determine its origin and function. One astronomer suggests the indigenous builders might have designed the wheel to track celestial bodies, having found the cairns are in astronomical alignment with the summer solstice sunset and sunrise as well as the rise of the stars Alderbaran, Serius, and Rigel. Another astronomer disagrees, saying that had the medicine wheel’s purpose been to track the solstice and stars, the structure’s design would have been more precise and astronomical alignments with the wheel would be more obvious and practical. An archaeologist suggests that the cairns could have been small shelters for vision quest participants while another archaeologist believes the wheel is a model of a Cheyenne medicine lodge. A Crow legend tells the story of a boy that was able to find healing and tribal acceptance through the power connected to the wheel. The Cheyenne believe that the Legend of Sweet Medicine inspired the Big Horn Medicine Wheel. Many theories have been proposed and disputed, but no theory has provided irrefutable evidence for a single explanation. The Big Horn Medicine Wheel is a national historical landmark and is still used by tribes for religious purposes. Visitors are allowed to view the Big Horn Medicine Wheel but are asked to respect the ancient site as it holds both religious and historical significance to many Native Americans.

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Antonguer, or Black Hawk, is one of the most iconic and controversial figures in early territorial Utah history. He led the 1865-1867 Black Hawk War.

Mormon settlers who arrived in Ute lands in 1847 called Black Hawk “a friendly Indian” in his youth, however, conflict emerged between the settlers and natives. Historians theorize that Black Hawk was the only male survivor of the Creek Canyon Battle in March 1849. “The bloodiest week of Indian killing in Utah history” occurred on February 8, 1850 at the battle at Fort Utah when a group of Utes awaited refuge at the fort – Black Hawk and his family among them – but found themselves caught in the middle of violence. Black Hawk helped the Mormons during the battle. For the next fifteen years, despite continued conflicts and starvation, Black Hawk tried to maintain relatively peaceful relations with the settlers. However, some historians believe that what he witnessed during that battle lingered and motivated him to break his loyalty with the Mormon settlers and start the Black Hawk War on April 9, 1865. The majority of violence occurred 1865-1867, but intermittent conflicts continued until 1872.

Though a “dozen men in Utah claim the honor of killing Black Hawk,” he actually died of tuberculosis and an old wound. In 1869, just prior to his death, Black Hawk declared a “mission of peace” as he visited every “village from Cedar City on the South to Payson” that lost human lives or property, and asked forgiveness from the Mormon pioneers. While Black Hawk experienced both support and hostility from the settlers, his final resting place is marked by a thoughtful memorial, one that reflects his aim to care for his people and homeland.

In the decades following his 1870 death and burial near Spring Lake Villa, Utah, the controversial identity of Black Hawk resurfaced. In 1911, miners unearthed and displayed Black Hawk’s bones and personal objects, which eventually were placed in a museum in Salt Lake City. After additional relocations, Shane Armstrong and Charmaine Thompson conducted a project in 1995 to locate Black Hawk’s remains and found them at the BYU Museum of Peoples and Cultures. On May 4 the following year, Black Hawk’s family and tribe received these remains and reburied him at a memorial close to the original 1870 burial site. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that “more than 2,000 non-Utes” attended the ceremony. The official dedication for the current permanent marker took place on September 27, 1997.

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On January 23, 1855 in Ogden Utah, John Moses Browning was born to Jonathan Browning and Elizabeth Clarke. From his earliest years, John spent his days in the Browning shop, experimenting with tools and firearm components while the hammer rang out at his father’s workbench. John had little formal schooling but received an education as his father’s protégé. Later accounts called the Browning shop the inventor’s school, for it was where the Browning firearms legacy emerged. Throughout his boyhood, John M. Browning committed to memory every gun part that came through the shop, gaining first-hand experience with everything related to gunsmithing. He eventually learned the fundamentals well enough to assess and tag a customer’s gun for repairs while his father was out of the shop. Around age 10, the inventive John Moses recruited his younger brother Matt to try his hand at gunsmithing. Taking the sawn-off end of a damaged barrel they found in their father’s scrap pile, John attached the barrel to a stock he had hacked from a board of wood with his hatchet. The gun was crudely fashioned, having no hammer or trigger mechanisms, and the only way to load the gun was to insert a bullet and pour gunpowder through a small vent behind where the ammunition sat. With the newly assembled firearm and some pillaged gunpowder, John and Matt ran to the edge of the Browning property that extended beyond the Ogden City limits. Aiming at a couple of prairie hens sighted down the barrel of his gun, John told Matt to light the end of a stick with the coals in order to ignite the powder in the funnel. As John recalled, that handmade gun knocked him to the ground, but it did its job. The two boys managed to bring home three birds for supper using that single-shot makeshift weapon. When the two told their father about their success, Jonathan only remarked, “John Moses, you’re going on eleven; can’t you make a better gun than that?” Flustered at his father’s remarks, John determined to do exactly that. It was this upbringing that laid the foundation for the firearm dynasty John Moses Browning established throughout his 71 years of life. At age 23 he designed his first gun: the John M. Browning’s Single Shot Rifle. With the help of his brothers, John manufactured this model in their own little factory in Ogden until selling the patent to Winchester in 1883. From that point on, John designed every gun that can come to mind: machine guns, shotguns, pistols, and rifles. He created designs of exceptional quality, and many of his inventions were referenced and copied throughout the world. These designs are displayed in museums worldwide, but no museum houses a more complete tribute to his legacy than the Browning Firearms Museum. The museum is an important monument to his life and represents the culmination of his life’s inventions that helped shape the United States and the world.

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On August 13, 1896 Butch Cassidy robbed the Montpelier bank of gold, silver, and currency worth between $5,000-$15,000. Montpelier, Idaho, had the number one chartered bank in the state at the time. Cassidy rode into town with two accomplices, Elza Ray and Bob Meeks. His party stopped at the saloon for drinks. Afterwards, they headed over to the bank and carried out the robbery. Cassidy and Ray forced the teller, A. N. Mackintosh, to gather all the cash. They then put him up against the wall along with the other customers in the bank. While the robbers proceeded to collect anything of value. Once everything was gathered, Cassidy told his captors to wait ten minutes before they went outside. Mackintosh immediately reported the robbery to the sheriff who managed the local general store as well. The sheriff, however, did not own a horse so he attempted to give chase on a bicycle. As a result, Cassidy and his posse easily escaped on horseback.

Cassidy may have chosen to rob Montpelier bank because he needed money to pay the court and attorney fees for a former gang member Matt Warner, who was convicted of killing a couple of men in a gunfight. Cassidy also had apparently promised a judge in Wyoming that he wouldn’t commit any crimes within that state. Regardless of the true reasoning behind the robbery the Montpelier bank has been remodeled into a museum to where people can go to see where the famous robbery occurred.

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For nearly a decade prior to the army’s arrival in 1857, the Mormons had lived relatively isolated and undisturbed by outside influences. Of early concern to church leaders, Fairfield, a satellite town of Camp Floyd, was viewed as bringing moral decay to some Mormons. Termed “Frogtown” by the Saints and army, it became a den of gambling houses, dance halls, brothels, and saloons frequented by soldiers, teamsters, emigrants, and even some settlers. Theft, prostitution, and murder frequently filled the streets and back halls. Church leaders mourned the spread of moral and social deterioration throughout the valley. One member said, “Camp Floyd Fairfield was full of rotteness and evil of every description and I'm sorry to say our people of both sexes mixed up with them largely and of how bad it did look to see young ladies whose parents were faithful.”

Despite the fear of moral and social turmoil that the army brought to Mormon communities, the Saints benefited economically from the army's occupation in the territory. The soldiers began building the immense fort at Camp Floyd as soon as they arrived. The fort consisted of buildings for headquarters, infantry and artillery units, storehouses, stables, corrals, workshops, powder magazines, a theatre, aqueduct, and so on.

At its height, Camp Floyd was perhaps the largest military installation in the United States prior to the Civil War. The Saints helped build the fort, laboring as artisans, carpenters, and mechanics, which allowed them to profit from trade with the army as Camp Floyd provided business opportunities for enterprising Saints. John Carson, for example, built the Stagecoach Inn, offering a simple yet comfortable environment for higher class visitors and military personnel alike. The inn later became an Overland Stage and Pony Express stop.

The commencement of the Civil War in 1861 struck the death knell for the army's military occupation in Utah Territory, and with it went a major source of conflict for the territory’s inhabitants. Johnston's army had opened the floodgates for travelers to pour into the territory, effectively ending the Mormons' isolation. Moral decay and social tension spread at an alarming rate from the camp to the Saints. Amidst all the social discord, however, the military presence had a positive impact on the territory's economy without which the Mormons would have struggled to keep their agricultural market afloat. Conversely, the success of the fort depended upon Mormon laborers and consumers. In the end, the Saints and Gentiles needed each other for Utah to grow and develop into a thriving territory.

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Castle Gate received its name for a large rock formation featuring two sandstone walls resembling the gate of a castle, which stands near the town at the mouth of Price Canyon. The first mine opened in 1886 following the discovery of coal, initiating the establishment of a town two years later when the Denver and the Rio Grande Western Railroad built a track over the Wasatch Plateau, traveling right through the town site. As the town grew, more mines opened, and a diverse group of people began migrating into the area. A large group of Latter-day Saints congregated to work at the mines as well as immigrants from European countries such as Italy, Greece, and Austria. Things were going well for the Castle Gate community. The Utah Fuel Company operated the Castle Gate coal mines until Kaiser Steel bought the company 1950 and built a coal-fired electric generating plant in Castle Gate. Although Castle Gate had times of prosperity and success, it also experienced its fair share of misfortune, including several mining disasters, a flood, and the payroll robbery of 1897 by infamous outlaws Butch Cassidy and Elza Lay. While the mining payroll was being transported from the train to the town’s bank, Butch and Elza held the transporters at gunpoint and seized about $8,800. To get away, they cut telegraph and phone lines and arranged a series of horses they could relay ride at high speed for hours, enabling them to escape the area before word of the robbery could even spread. In 1920, a flood swept the town, incurring immense damage to local property and the railroad. Unfortunately for Castle Gate, not long after this disaster an even larger one occurred: at 8:00 AM on March 8, 1924, the first of three violent explosions from coal dust and open flames erupted, causing extensive damage and collapsing tunnels. 173 people died, and it took nine days to recover all the bodies. The website Legends of America calls it the tenth worst mining disaster in United States history. Fiery tragedy returned seventy-six years later, in 2000, when the last mine in operation suffered another explosion, claiming two more lives and leading to the mine closing for good. By the time this last mine shut down, Castle Gate had already been abandoned. The Kaiser Steel company razed the townsite in 1960 to make room for their electrical plant, forcing inhabitants to relocate. In 2015, the power plant closed due to its inability to meet environmental standards, and the once-productive coal mining settlement became a desolate ghost town.

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Chaco Canyon National Park is located in northwestern New Mexico. The area is open to the public to learn about the people who lived within the walls of Chaco Canyon thousands of years ago. In 9000 BC, the area was occupied by Paleo Indians and Archaic peoples. It was then occupied by Ancestral Puebloans from 1 AD to 1300 AD. Between 750 and 850 AD, much of the population of the central San Juan Basin moved to the Four Corners area, north of the San Juan River. Over 1.5 million artifacts have been documented from Chaco Canyon. In the middle of the New Mexico desert, Chaco Canyon housed hundreds of prehistoric peoples.

Early archaeologists recognized two types of structures and identified them as “great pitstructures” and “great kivas”. These structures “may represent two ways of organizing ritual, or perhaps even two ethnicities.”

Chaco Canyon was pre-planned rather than annexed; the roads were laid out in straight lines and astronomical orientation would have necessitated a certain amount of planning, skill, and leadership. People lived in the canyon in eleven “great houses”, each one of them big enough to provide homes for an entire village. Inside the great houses, there are approximately 1,133 rooms, and the average size of 1,133 rooms at Chacoan buildings is 11. 97 meters squared.

Chaco Canyon is evidence of a civilization that flourished between the ninth century BC and thirteenth century AD and attained remarkable achievements in architecture, agriculture, social complexity, engineering, astronomy, and economic organization.

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The scorching temperatures, sparse vegetation, and endless red rock of Saint George, Utah were all that greeted early settlers in the Cotton Mission. Charles Walker, born 1832 in Leek, England, was one of the individuals called by Brigham Young to settle the area and produce cotton to supplement the income for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Upon arriving in 1862, Walker remarked, “St. George is a barren looking place. The soil is red and sandy. On the North ranges a long high red rocky bluff. On the East is a long black ridge of volcanic production. On the west the same. On the south runs the Virgin river, a shallow, rapid stream from which a great portion of the land is irrigated. To look on the country it [is a] dry, parched, barren waste with here and there a green spot on the margins of the streams.” While his observation seemed bleak, Walker exuded optimism with the work that he believed God had called him to do. He wrote in his personal journal, “Well it’s all right; we shall know how to appreciate a good country when we get to it, when the Lord has prepared the way for his people to return and build up… Zion.” Walker’s time in St. George reflected the stalwart nature of those called to settle far Western settlements, and his life in the area would have a significant impact on those around him. The initial hope that settlers could grow cotton as a cash crop was dashed by poor soil quality. In an attempt to keep the community thriving, Brigham Young ordered the construction of a large public works project to bolster the economy: a new temple. Walker transitioned to stonemasonry and worked on the temple constantly. When the temple was completed, Walker participated in the, and a song he wrote for the occasion was sung at the event. When Walker was not busy with blacksmithing or working on the temple, he spent time with his family and saw to his various church callings. One labor that endeared him to the hearts of his neighbors was his gifted ear for writing hymns, the most famous of which is “Dearest Children, God is Near You.” Walker later adopted polygamy as practiced by Latter-day Saints in the nineteenth century, marrying his second wife, Sarah Smith. His first wife, Abigail Middlemass, helped him select Sarah, and the trio lived together for the rest of Walker’s life. Each wife gave birth to eight children, sixteen total, with twelve of them reaching adulthood. Walker noted that his peculiar family situation allowed him to labor on the temple and work in his shop more because the burden of running the household was shared between his spouses. Walker also kept himself busy as an assistant marshal for the city and a leader in the local militia. He passed away in 1904, leaving behind a legacy of faithfulness and work ethic on the Utah Frontier.

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Navajo Chief Barboncito (1821–1871) played an important role in the negotiations that helped the Navajo return to the Four Corners region in 1868. Fluent in Navajo and Spanish, Barboncito communicated with US negotiators, who used translators that were fluent in English and Spanish, to draft a dual language treaty that would allow the Navajo to return home, making them the first American Indian tribe able to do so. The Navajo had lived in Bosque Redondo from 1864–1868. Arriving by forced relocation that put an end to the Navajo Wars at the command of General James Carleton and carried out by Colonel Christopher “Kit” Carson, the Navajo internment camp refinement period proved to be a failure due to the high cost required to maintain provisions to keep the Navajo alive. Due to poor soil conditions and resource constraints, the United States needed to rethink their role in confining the Navajo. In addition to negotiating with the United States regarding Navajo internment, Barboncito was also a spiritual leader and medicine man who gained prominence alongside Chief Manulito and Ganado Mucho due to their diplomacy and oratory skills. When it came time to discuss treaty provisions, Barboncito rejected General William Sherman’s offer to relocate the Navajo to Indian Country in Oklahoma. Fearing that Oklahoma would be similar to Bosque Redondo, Barboncito advocated on behalf of himself and the 9,000 other Navajo that they would be a peaceful people upon their return home, declaring that the area between the four sacred mountains was created and given to them by their gods, First Man and First Woman, solely for them. The treaty was signed and made official on June 1, 1868. After returning home and following the creation of the Navajo reservation system, Barboncito kept his word, and the Navajo no longer engaged in warring behavior against neighboring white settlements. Compared to the initial reservation boundary, the territory has since tripled in size, currently covering an area the size of West Virginia. The Navajo today can enjoy their ancestral land and continue to teach their traditions and cultures thanks to men like Chief Barboncito.

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Westward expansion for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints largely occurred in the year 1850 under the leadership of Brigham Young, a governor of Utah Territory and prophet of the Church. He sent pioneer families to various parts of Utah Territory to settle the regions by building ditches, forts, and homes. In present-day Payson, settlers named one settlement “Peteetneet” after a local Ute chief. Relations between the settlers and Chief Peteetneet fluctuated throughout the years.

The pioneer settlers took possession of Ute land and game resources, inciting the natives to take settlers’ horses and cattle for their own use. In response to this presumably unwarranted theft, Brigham Young ordered a militia to drive out all local Utes. A violent fight ensued and after it ended, U.S. Army surgeon Dr. James Blake decapitated three Utes for scientific research. Upset by such disrespectful treatment of his people, Chief Peteetneet confronted Latter-day Saint leaders at Fort Utah. Brigham Young instructed Big Chief to write to Chief Peteetneet and several others about coexistence and cooperation. The letter states, “I know the difference between good Indians and bad Indians... we can live with good Indians, and will do them good… Indians must do as God tells them, through Mormon chief, and be good and learn to work, raise grain, and learn all Mormons know.” Over the years, Chief Peteetneet wavered between welcoming these religious settlers and wishing they would leave. In 1854, he expressed a desire to return to his lands even if that meant living near the settlers and accepting Brigham Young’s invitation to learn to build houses, raise grain, and live in peace.

When the Latter-day Saints faced war with the U.S. Army in 1857, they considered the Utes their allies. Chief Peteetneet, however, stated that if the Latter-day Saints intended to fight the United States, the Utes would not help them in order to avoid battles on Ute land. Additionally, Chief Peteetneet said he was a friend to both Americans and Latter-day Saints and was simply doing what Brigham Young told him to do by raising grain and avoiding conflict.

Another dispute between the Latter-day Saints and Chief Peteetneet arose with the arrival of Indian agent Garland Hurt. Hurt openly hated the pioneer settlers and gave Chief Peteetneet gifts that surpassed the trading relations the Utes had with the settlers. Brigham Young suspected that Hurt was exerting “an influence for evil” over Chief Peteetneet to make relations difficult for the Latter-day Saints. However, although Chief Peteetneet did not always get along with Brigham Young’s settlers, he continued to treat them with respect.

As Hurt’s relationship with the Latter-day Saints continued to deteriorate, he fled the territory alongside some Utes. Chief Peteetneet agreed to stay behind to scatter any government cattle and horses and catch up with Hurt’s group soon after. Amidst the confusion of scattering government resources, Chief Peteetneet encountered several Utes who had stolen some of the settlers’ cattle and ordered that they honorably return them. Chief Peteetneet protected and preserved Brigham Young’s settlers on several other occasions.

The settlers eventually built a house for Chief Peteetneet and his wife (fondly nicknamed Old Lady Peteetneet), which is now known as the Payson Indian Farm. Chief Peteetneet achieved his wish of peacefully living on Ute land.

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Chief Sagwitch was born in 1822. As a boy, he honed his skills as a hunter and a speaker. He spent time with fur trappers and was well suited to be chief. Sagwitch was already a chief of the Northwestern Shoshone by the age of twenty-five when Mormons settlers came to the Utah territory. Sagwitch met the new leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Brigham Young, and welcomed him and the rest of the Mormons into the area.

Sagwitch became friends with Brigham Young and did what he could to keep the peace between the Shoshone and the Mormons/settlers. Tensions grew and in January of 1863, Colonel Conners of the U.S. Army took his men and attacked the Shoshone who had camped at the Bear River for winter. Chief Sagwitch’s group was among them and was one of the few survivors. Sagwitch sought help for his people from Brigham Young and found aid from the Mormon Church, which Sagwitch later joined in 1875.

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