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Show 36 undisputed ruler of the area was later involved in the Utah War - 1857-1858. 'This brings forth the obvious question: Whose responsibility was it to spell out as completely as possible what this relationship was to be? The answer is simple-Brigham Young's. The fact that he was the ranking officer of the United States as Governor in that region and that he was also ex-officio Superintendent * of Indian Affairs made it clearly his responsibility. This was regularly one of the first acts of the Indian agent or army officer in newly acquired territory-to seek the recognition from the Indians of the authority of the federal government. In Utah, such was done, but with some equivocation. In an excellent piece of scholarship, Leland Hargrave Creer examined this Indian-Mormon-Federal relationship in his Utah and the Nation. His is a clear statement of the confusion. The intensity of the Walker War was very great in the number of killings, both oy the Mormons and by the Indians. Both sides were guilty of excesses. The following is an example: Yesterday morning there was six Indians pretending to be friends, but some of the brethern tracked them back to their camp and found some things that had been stolen and hid by them. And in the evening the Indians were taken down the street and shot. L. H. Creer, Utah and the Nation, (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1929), pp. 166-172. |