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Show 62 Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History several considerations: a principled opposition to slavery, the belief that the Indians were mistreated by the Mexican slavers, and the fear that the Utes and the Mexican traders would band together in opposition to them. At a time when Mormons were taking over Ute lands, they feared an alliance between the Utes and the New Mexicans. The slave trade was so profitable for the two groups that both were strongly opposed to the Mormon attempt to end it. In 1851, Daniel W. Jones was requested by Brigham Young to keep an eye on the movements of the Mexicans within the territory.28 He notified Young when a party of twenty-eight New Mexicans arrived in Utah in the fall of 1851. They had come to acquire slaves. Subsequently, Young journeyed to Provo to meet with them. Pedro Leon, one of the traders, had obtained a license from the Governor of New Mexico to trade with the Utes. Apparently the practice of slavery was condoned by the government of New Mexico. According to Jones, who acted as the interpreter, Young explained to the New Mexicans that "it was a cruel practice to enslave human beings." They readily agreed, and Young stated that although the slave trade would no longer be tolerated, they were not too much to blame for following "an old established practice." 29 All the Mexicans, according to Jones, pledged that they would return home without trading for children. Twenty of the New Mexicans were true to their word, but eight, including Pedro Leon, resumed their slaving operations in the San Pete Valley. Consequently, they were arrested and tried in Manti during the winter of 1851-52. The testimony is not very believable, but the New Mexicans claimed that the Indians had stolen and eaten some horses of theirs and the only repayment they could get was some children the Indians offered.30 In spite of this defense, Judge Snow found the eight defendants guilty of slave trading, after a trial lasting several days. The New Mexicans were fined, but after an Indian woman and eight children were liberated, the fine was remitted and the traders sent away. A statement of protest made by a Mr. Lafayette Head, a friend of Pedro Leon, specifically stated that the liberated woman and children were Nuwuvi. Head's protest is interesting in many respects. His account of how Pedro Leon acquired the Nuwuvi woman and children differs from that given by Jones as the defense given by the New |
