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Show The Uneasy Peace 75 the Nuwuvi came to think that the Americans weren't their friends while the Mormons were.20 Lt. Sylvester Mowry encountered some of the results of this policy during his march to Southern California in 1855. In his report he claimed that on the Santa Clara, Virgin, and Muddy Rivers and at Las Vegas there were several hundred Indians along with missionaries ". . . whose sole object was to impress upon the Indians the belief in the inferiority and hostility of the Americans, and the superiority and friendship of the Mormons."21 Mowry also claimed that the Indians had been supplied with arms and ammunition. He stated that on one occasion the Mormons had convinced the Nuwuvi on the Muddy River that his command was on its way to attack their tribe. Mowry suggested that troops be sent over the route every year to convince the Indians of the government's good intentions and to insure peace. By 1856 the local whites were trying to establish some form of political and judicial control over the Nuwuvi. This involved fines or whippings for those caught stealing and "government" under the authority of the whites.22 It was white policy to appoint, as headmen, Indians who were friendly to their interests. A letter to George A. Smith in 1855 announced that "Tom Whitney, an Indian was set apart [ordained by church authorities] as chief of these Paiedes___" 23 The white influence was greatest near the Iron Mission settlements of Parowan and Cedar City. The Indians who lived in the fields of Parowan Valley seem to have gradually abandoned the area as white population grew. In Cedar City, the Mormons took control of Nuwuvi farming along Coal Creek by appointing farmers-in-charge.24 The thrust of their efforts was to adapt the Indians to white customs. E. H. Groves advised the missionaries, "Take not their wild habits and liberty from them at once, but by degrees, and help them to farm." 25 The Nuwuvi were not always willing to be treated like children and to abandon their customs at the whim of intruders. Brown complained to Brigham Young about the difficulty of selling clothes to the Indians because they prefer "an outside and offish course. . ." He wrote that only "The few that have been steady and regularly employed in the settlements have been clothed." 26 As Brown states, only the Indians close to the settlements were being controlled |