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Show Utes the opportunity to become a good deal more prosperous- they not only joined in the fur trade, but they also practiced slave trading, preying upon neighboring tribes, particulary the Paiutes whom they sold as slaves to the Spanish speaking people along the trail. The practice of slave trading lasted for some time- probably ending in the 1860s. The Utes also became involved in the horse trade and were able to raid the ranchos of California to obtain large herds of horses which were sold to the fur traders. As the fur trade declined in the early 1840s, the Ute relationship with the trappers became vexed. In 1844 the Utes burned one of the fur trading posts in Utah and indicated their unwillingness to continue the relationships that had existed. The Utes were near the zenith of their prosperity when the Mexican War and the arrival of more Anglo- Americans from the east disrupted their general relationships. io The war between the United States and Mexico caused a very rapid infusion of Anglo- American population in the American southwest. Some of that infusion impinged upon the Ute Indians. The armed might the Anglo- Americans introduced in the Mexican War was unknown to the Indians of the region at that time. More disruptive than the armed presence was the coming of the permanent settlers. The Mormons, misfits of the American frontier, began their hegira in Utah in 1846 during the opening stages of the Mexican War and were well established on Ute lands before the War was over. What had been a sacred homeland to the Utes became the sacred home of the " saints" in a very short time after their arrival. After the calamities in the eastern states, the Mormons were determined to make a permanent home in the Rocky Mountains. This they did- and in great part on land claimed and used by the Utes. The Mormon invasion was very large and the expansion from the mother colony at Great Salt Lake City very rapid. The Utes' reaction to the coming of the Mormons was friendly but cautious. In their first substantive encounter, measles spread from the Mormon children to the Indians, and thirty- eight of the Indians died. Competition over the land began very soon after Mormon arrival- first, the grazing area near Draper which led to the killing of some Utes and the capturing of others. A short time later the founding of Provo, Utah, or Fort Utah as it was then called, provoked the Utes into killing the horses and cattle of the Mormons. The Mormons retaliated in February of 1850 and defeated the Indians decisively. Mormon records indicate that 27 of the Indians and one white died in the encounter. The women and children of the deceased Indians were held captive in Salt lake City until spring.\\ Armed conflict returned two years later in a major encounter called the Walker War. A complicated series of issues led to the war, but central for the Utes was the Mormon occupation of their traditional homelands and winter campsite at Provo, Utah. The Indian leader, Wakara ( called Walker by the Mormons), led the Utes in a series of raids against the white intruders. |
