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Show The Uneasy Peace 77 to gather at the settlement to help build a dam across the Santa Clara. The Nuwuvi were very reluctant to help because, as they told the missionaries, the Tonoquint (Santa Clara) River would dry up during the coming winter due to too little snow. The dam was built and the Indians started farming along it, but the river dried up because of drought, as they had predicted. The problem was increased by new settlers who began diverting water from the Santa Clara upstream in Pine Valley. All that prevented the Indians from attacking the settlement was late, but saving rain.32 Whether the Nuwuvi had a good sense of justice or whether they just sought to insure that they would have enough water, the next year George A. Smith reported that there were thirteen Indian dams across the stream above the Santa Clara Fort, and there was not enough water for the fort to furnish good drinking water.33 Relations were further worsened when the missionaries, who had encouraged in the Indians faith in their religious healing powers, refused to administer to a sick Indian boy unless he was washed. The boy died, and his father and several others swore vengeance. Jacob Hamblin and Thales Haskell sought them out and convinced all but Agarapoots, the father, to return. Agarapoots continued to threaten vengeance until his death.34 About this time Hamblin recorded one of the only known accounts of Nuwuvi bands fighting each other. The Santa Clara and Moapit Indians began fighting after the Cedar Indians raided the Moapits. The whole conflict stemmed from the fact that the various bands needed to raid in order to obtain wives because the Nuwuvi female population had been so reduced by slavery.35 In 1856 and again in 1857, the United States government made its first official contacts with the Nuwuvi. Agent George W. Armstrong was sent to investigate their condition. He found the northern bands already largely dependent on the Mormon settlements. They were living on Shirt's Creek near Cedar City and Wood Creek near Ft. Harmony, where they were farming under the total guidance of the local settlers. Armstrong noted the influence settlers were having on Nuwuvi lifestyle. He considered this influence to be beneficial. The white effect had, however, not been all beneficial. Nuwuvi abandonment of their lifestyle had led to complete dependence on the whites even for food. Armstrong apparently did not recognize |
