Idaho Librarian

On My Mind...

Sagwitch: Shoshone Chieftain, Mormon Elder, 1822-1887 describes the remarkable life of Sagwitch, “the Speaker,” a Chieftain of one of the Northwestern Shoshone bands living in southeastern Idaho and northern Utah.   In this biography, author Scott R. Christensen documents the Bear River Massacre, the Corinne Scare, the establishment of Lemuel’s Garden, and the Washakie settlement. 

The book begins with background on the way of life of the Northwestern Shoshone bands living in the region.  Sagwitch’s band shared the land with other Northwestern Shoshone bands led by men such as Chief Pocatello, Little Soldier, Sanpitch, and Bear Hunter.  Sagwitch, born at a time when European American settlers (mostly Mormons) were coming into the area, had contact and friendships with them throughout his life.  As the Mormon settlements grew, the Northwestern Shoshone’s food supply diminished, leading to demands on the Mormon settlers for food. 

Increasing conflicts between the Northwestern Shoshone and the Mormon settlers led to troops being called in to protect the settlers.  On January 29, 1863, Colonel Patrick Edward Connor ordered his California Volunteers to attack the Northwestern Shoshone winter camp near Bear River in southeastern Idaho.  Approximately 250 Northwestern Shoshone men, women and children were killed in what has become known as the Bear River Massacre, an event that claimed more victims than any other Indian massacre in the West.  Sagwitch survived the Massacre with only minor wounds, and lived to guide his people for the rest of his life. 

After the Massacre, Sagwitch became increasingly dependent on the Mormon settlers for food, choosing not to live on the Indian reservation at Fort Hall, Idaho, where there were inadequate government distributions of food.  Sagwitch and his people started farming, under the guidance of George Washington Hill, a Mormon missionary.  Hill made several attempts at making Sagwitch’s people self-sufficient in farming, and he encouraged them to file homestead claims.  Hill was appointed to take charge of the Indians in northern Utah by Brigham Young, the governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for Utah Territory. 

Hill figured prominently in Sagwitch’s life because he spoke the Shoshone language, and he converted Sagwitch and his people to Mormonism in 1873.  Mormonism appealed to the Northwestern Shoshone because of similarities to native beliefs and customs such as visions, dreams, speaking in tongues, laying on of hands, the gift of prophecy and the acceptance of polygamy.  Sagwitch was committed to his new religion, even helping to build the Logan Temple. 

The increasing numbers of Northwestern Shoshone converting to Mormonism made some settlers uncomfortable.  Non-Mormons in Corinne, Utah feared they would be attacked and prepared for a siege.  In 1875, troops were sent in to disperse Hill’s nearby farming settlement, where Sagwitch was a resident.  Hill then founded another farm called Lemuel’s Garden near the Malad River in Box Elder County, Utah where he filed  homestead claims for residents.  Sagwitch’s people eventually filed homestead claims near Washakie, Utah, where a branch of the Mormon church was established .  It is near Washakie that Sagwitch died.

Christensen gives a fair account of Sagwitch’s life.  He does a good job of  presenting  the events without making judgments about those involved, letting written evidence from the past speak for itself.   Christensen successfully demonstrates the considerable change that Sagwitch lived through in his lifetime.  Not only did Sagwitch survive a brutal massacre of his people, but  he embraced a new religion and succeeded in adapting from a nomadic food gathering way of life to an agrarian way of life.

Scott R. Christensen’s book is an important contribution to the existing literature on the Northwestern Shoshone and the Bear River Massacre.  Other books on the Northwestern Shoshone and the Bear River Massacre include:  Brigham D. Madsen’s The Shoshoni Frontier and the Bear River Massacre and Glory Hunter: A Biography of Patrick Edward Connor, Newell Hart’s The Bear River Massacre, and Forrest S. Cuch’s  (ed.) A History of Utah’s American Indians, written from an Indian perspective.  These other titles do not focus specifically on Sagwitch’s life, and Christensen’s book fills in this gap. 

I recommend this book for all Idaho public and academic libraries, as well as High School collections.  Christensen’s book includes maps, many black and white photographs, an extensive Notes section, and an index.  Scott R. Christensen is currently a historian and archivist, employed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Archives in Salt Lake City, Utah.