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Show 50 Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History Thompson's Point. One spring when the high waters were coming down, a Paiute woman who had stolen her children back from a party of Spanish slavers, was tracked and hunted for days through the hills. The Spaniards finally came upon her and trapped her on Thompson's Point. Rather than let her child go into slavery she threw it off into the swollen river to drown. In my life time I have known and talked personally with three old Indian women who in their youth had been caught in this slave traffic. I saw their faces blanch after sixty years as they recalled the terrors of their captivity. Old Mary Shem (an adopted white name) was stolen by other Indians and taken out on the Spanish Trail to be traded to the first Spaniards who came along. She was tied on a mule that was driven in the band for several days, going northward. The Indians stopped for a week or more near the place that is now Milford, Utah. Mary, then ten or twelve years old, was placed in charge of an [Indian woman | who was to guard her. The child was kept in a wickiup, tied up so she could not get away. One night the old [woman] untied her and told her to run away. She was to run hard as long as it was dark, then lay down and hide or get back in the hills and travel out of sight. The child did that, eating only the vegetation she snatched up as she ran. After about a week she stumbled exhausted into the camp of her own people. For many years afterward, she said, she was afraid of every strange person, Indian or Spaniard, and she ran out in the hills to hide when strangers came around. Quinnie, another young Indian woman, was carried as far as the Uintah Basin before she managed to escape. She was bound to a horse in the band that was driven ahead. Her feet were tied under the animal's belly. One evening a young Ute Indian came with other Indians to the camp. He and the girl spoke the same language. He told her to watch for a chance to escape before they crossed the river and if she came to his camp he would marry her. Two nights later she succeeded. Running all night she covered quite a distance. When morning came she found a secluded place and hid. That day she could see men on horses riding around and she knew they were hunting for her. She watched them closely and when one came riding toward her she thought he had discovered her. She was just ready to jump and run when he turned off in another direction. She lay very quiet until night time, then ran off farther into the mountains. After three or four days she came on fresh Indian tracks and followed them into a camp. The young fellow who promised to marry her was there, and, fearing that the Spaniards might still be searching for her, the two went off together and lived around in the mountains until the late fall when no more caravans would be |
