The daily sentinel., 1905-09-15
OPPOSING UINTAH SETTLERS
BECAUSE THEY HATE MORMON,

Myton. Utah. Sept. 14.-The reas-
on for the strenuous opposition to
all whites by the Utes to the opening
of the Uintah reservation is now
leaking out. and the Indians are talk
ing freely. Their hostility to the
Mormon people is the cause of their
violent resistance, and where SO much
hatred exists there will be constant
friction between them if not serious
trouble
In relating their grievances the
Indians refer to the inhuman slaught-
er of their people in the early days
of Utah, and to the wrongs they suf-
fered at the hands of the acquisitive
Latter Day Saints. They say that at
Springville, Utah. a number of the
Indians were decoyed into a vacant
house and there killed with clubs
and their heads cut from their bod
les and held up as a warning to the
Indian. And that a young Indian
was shut in house by Mormon
women and was so frightened that
when he was released he was insane
and remains so today.
This is the crazy Indian" near
the agency who discards all clothing
and lives through the SHOWS and
frosts of winter in a nude state and
has done so for twenty-five years.
These, and numerous other instanc-
es the Indians relate with much SER
iousness, and it is not a character
istic of the Utes to invent such things.
so there is reason to believe they
have foundation for these atrocious
crimes; how great the provocation
must come from the other side.
But as the Indians saw their beau
tiful Salt Lake valley invaded by
white men they resented the en-
croachment Up the valley came the
unwelcome strangers prompting the
Indians corn crop here; fine graz
ing district there; their streams and
favorite watering places everywhere. |
and soon the Mormon farmers left
little that the Indian priced.
Conflicts We're frequent and many
lives We're sacrificed and the Utes
were finally driven into the noun |
tains to subsist on roots, barks and |
twigs. and this too in the winter
time with very scaut clothing. Such
things cannot be erased from the
Ute memory. The witnesses stin |
live. and the spirit of revenge will |
not soon die in the Indian breast,
No matter how much the Mormon
people suffered at the hands of the
Indians, the instances of inhumanity
toward their own people are still a
memory, and they will not trust the
Mormons; they even distinguish be
tween them and other white people |
by calling the latter "Americats. "
So as between Mormons and "Ameri- |
cats" the Utes draw line as dis
tinct as though they were entirely
different races.
And here lies the chief reason |
why the Utes would not give consent
to the opening of the uintah reser-
vation They were slow to give in de
tail their reasons for such unanamity |
in opposing IT, but now they tax |
right out to their white friends and |
narrate the wrongs inflicted upon
them by usurpers and oppressors.
There will be antagonisms and |
many differences to settle on the res
ervation, but the Indians will soon
recognize their inability to cope with |
their former adversaries, and will
pout and lament and become so des-
pondent as to pine away and pre-
maturely die. The history of the
Utes is the common history of the
Indian, and the usurpation OF the
Mormons is but the repetition of the
cruelties of the fronstiersman from
the east to the west, and the result
of all is the constant and certain ex-
termination OF the most interesting
race on American soil.