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Show 66 Nuwuvi: A Southern Paiute History Garland Hurt, Utah Indian Agent, had a somewhat different opinion concerning this and related events. He wrote that "the authorities" were confronted by Wakara and his band of Utes when they sought to stop the Mexicans. Wakara defended the traders and threatened to kill the eight men trying to arrest them. The eight "were forced to submit." 43 This incident, said Hurt, caused Brigham Young to send out the militia. Hurt expressed misgivings about Young's action. He suggested that although the Spaniards were making threats and the Indians appeared unfriendly, Young had over-reacted and might well be causing instead of stopping trouble. Although Hurt feared a general outbreak, he thought that it would "be caused by the Whites pushing their settlements over the Indian country against their wishes or consent. The Indians have complained much on this subject." 44 Following the outlawing of the Spanish Trail slave trade by the Utah Territorial Legislature in 1852, the slave traffic switched from the distant Mexican settlements to the newer Mormon ones along the Wasatch Front. The law passed in January, 1852, only outlawed the slave trade in a round-about manner. It required that any white person in possession of an "Indian prisoner, child, or woman" must go before a selectman or Probate Judge who would determine whether the prisoner could be kept and set up an indenture period not to exceed 20 years.45 Although Utah's militia ended the Mexican slave trade, slavery under the name of "indentured servitude" continued. The Mormons more or less assumed the role formerly played by the Mexicans. Mormon leaders encouraged church members to "adopt" the Indian children. Brigham Young in a visit to the Iron County settlers "Advised them to buy up the Lamanite children as fast as they could, and educate them and teach them the gospel, so that many generations would not pass ere they should become a white and delightsome people." '6 The Indians seem to have been treated humanely in almost all instances. The 1852 Act had tried to make such treatment a legal requirement.47 An outlet for orphaned or impoverished children who otherwise would not have had as good a chance for survival, was provided. A few Indians became equal to other children in the Mormon families. Some young girls grew up to marry their masters. |