OCR Text |
Show INTRODUCTION they had committed depredations upon the settle-ments in Utah, Tooele and a few other Counites. Not however the whole Ute nation, but turbulent spirits in large numbers under the leadership of the great War Chief Walker or Wah- ker, ( which means in the American language, yellow, or brass.) and later in 1856, by a renegade Goshute Chief named Tintic and his band, who claimed the country on the west side of the Utah Lake in Cedar, Tintic and Skull Val-leys. The Indians were numerous in those days. I was herd boy and spent much of my time with my companions at the Indian camps. I had a companion by the name Conderset Eowe who could talk the In-dian language nearly as well as the Indians, it seem-ed that he enjoyed the companionship of the young Indians as much as he did the whites, which drew me into their company more than I otherwise would have been. It was the inherent nature of the Indian to steal, and this brings to my mind an incident told of an In-dian who brought a worn out axe to a black smith to be fixed, the blacksmith said, I can't fix it, it hasn't any steel in it. " Oh yes, said the Indian, it is all steel, me steal it last night. ' ' Indians could not be depended upon as to their lasting friendship, mostly on account of their thiev-ing propensity, so it was necessary for the settlers to build forts for protection. At Mount Pleasant a fort was built the first summer, of large sand stones that were dug out of the ground, and picked up near the site, it was twenty six rods square, the walls were four feet thick at the bottom eighteen inches on top and twelve feet high, with rooms built against the wall sixteen feet square, with a port hole through |