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Show 81 peace. With above exceptions, no hostilities or depredations of any character occurred among the Indians within this superintendency since my last report. The prospects for peace in the future are most encouraging.16 The capable Superintendent Head was again correct; 1868 represents the last year of major raiding. The Black Hawk war had been long, costly, and wearing. The people were distraught by the constant pressure of the raids. So much of Utah was scattered settlements that most of the very exposed settlement from Sanpete south had to be temporarily abandoned. The cost to the Mormon pioneers was great - but it was temporary. To the Indians, the loss was catastrophic and permanent. The war petered out; it never formally ended in spite of Major Head's two major parleys. The end of the war was simply an end of the raids. Those raids were the main characteristic of the war, if war is the correct term to use for so disjointed a series of encounters. , Pitched battles were very rare; the Battle of Gravelly Ford in Sevier County in 1866 was probably the nearest approach to this kind of effort - or action. The Indians fought there because they had gathered 500 horses and cattle, and were trying to get into Salina Canyon, the gateway eastward, when*they were interdicted by l6RCIA, 1868, pp. 612-613. |