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Show 84 Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History someone should investigate them, counteract such bad influences if necessary, and prevent the miners from encroaching on Indian rights. He suggested that the problems should be settled by moving the Nuwuvi to the Uinta Valley.57 The last suggestion was to receive increasing attention in the following years. Before Irish received official permission, conditions in southern Utah-particuarly in Meadow Valley-deteriorated to the point that Thomas C. W. Sale was sent as a special agent to meet with the Nuwuvi. The Nuwuvi were angry as a result of "five of the leading men of the . . . tribe having been recently killed by some miners near Meadow Valley." 58 The incident stemmed from the imprisonment of five Indians who had threatened a Panaca miner. All five were killed by pursuers after attempting to escape. Sale reported that the Indians were shot "under circumstances which rendered the act only a little better than murder." 59 Because of the hostilities, Sale had a difficult time meeting with any of the Nuwuvi. With the help of Tutsegavit, he was finally able to meet with Indians from Meadow Valley, St. George, Pahranagat Valley, and Santa Clara Valley. He gained some reassurance from the Indians that they would stop attacking the white intruders, but heard that the Muddy River Nuwuvi were attacking emigrants.60 Sale also soon found that none of the Nuwuvi completely agreed to what the Government proposed for them. He tried to convince them to leave their country and go to Uintah Valley to live with the Utes. They refused and told him that the Utes had stolen their women and children for too long. Sale reported that they were "willing to get together at some place in their own country, but I think it impossible to get their consent to place them with the Utahs." Sale went on to recommend the establishment of an agency especially for the Nuwuvi.61 Irish forwarded the recommendation to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and recommended that Thomas Sale be appointed agent.62 He was not the person most likely to serve the interests of the Indians. In March of that year he had participated in an expedition which had discovered large new deposits of silver in Pahranagat Lake Mining District. The expedition had been equipped by the Territorial Indian Superintendency.63 Irish reported the discoveries as "likely to introduce a mining population into a portion of the country heretofore occupied only by |
