| Show acknowledge Walker as their war chief and Sow-er-ette as their head civil chief but the majority of the tribes obey the mandate or council of their civil chief Sow-er-ette including Walker Most of the historians of the early period of the Mormon settlement of Utah give an account similar to the one recorded by Mer1in Christensen When the first company of Ploneers came into the Salt Lake Valley the Ute Indians were camped in Spanish Fork Canyon council meeting was called to decide what course they should take The young warriors led by the hot-headed Warchief Walker wanted to raid and massacre them before they became established The old chief Sowiette was opposed to killing the settlers Mr Somne gives this account quoting partly from TullidgeQuarterly Magazine April 1884 As political chief and leader of the more conservative element Sowiette opposed Walkerplan He advised the belligerent warriors not to molest the Mormons but to 1iye in peace with them His argument was that perhaps they had like the Ute Nation been drived to the Rocky Mountains for security This view of the pioneers Sowiette had obtained from his scouts who had already interviewed the pioneers Quoting from Tullidge At length the controversy ran so high and the implication of cowardice having been cast at the old peace chief Sowlette in his indignation and royal wrath took his riding whip and flogged the war chief Walker to nmake him behave himself It seems that the first encounters that the Utah Indians had with Mormon settlers were friendly According to Orson Whitney on July 27th just three days after their arrival in the valley the Pioneer camp was visited by Indians who traded with the Pioneers exchanging two ponies forrifle andmusket The red men were quite friendly and seemed very anxious to trade However there is an account ofskirmish between the Utes and Shoshones overhorse on 31 July 18 This seems to be the first account by the Ploneers of bloodshed in the valley Orson Whitney sayst Tt seems there was bad blood between the two tribes owing to the Utes coning over the line from the valleys southward to trade with the settlers privilege which the Shoshones who claimed the land where the camps were situated desired to monopolize Jim Bridger described the Indians as war-like inreport synopsized by LDS Church Historian William Clayton and Gustive Larson comments that the initial settlement in the Salt Lake Valley wasfortunate choice for the Mormons for it lay asno-manland between the rich Shoshoni borders in Weber and Bear River Valleys andfavorite rendezvous lake names for them 10 of the Utes -86 in the valley of the |
