Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs Accompanying the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Interior for the year 1859

Excerpts concerning Utah from the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs - Courtesy of the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs reports that Indian/White relations across the U.S. are generally peaceful and that isolated incidents of violence, including massacres in Utah territory, were not believed to be the result of premeditation. The Commissioner outlines and briefly describes the government's plan of encouraging the development of western culture and agricultural practices among the Indians. The Commissioner reports that there is a shortage of land for white settlers and a shortage of game for Indians in Utah territory and that the Mountain Meadows Massacre resulted from a sense of desperation among the starving and destitute Indians. The Utah Superintendent provides detailed descriptions of the affairs of the Ute and Shoshone tribes, including scarcity of game, progress of farming, and relations between the Indians and Mormon settlers. The Superintendent also provides a detailed description of the Mountain Meadows Massacre