page_title: Battle at Fort Utah
section_title: Initial Mormon settlement
hierarchical_section_title: Battle at Fort Utah / Buildup / Initial Mormon settlement
caption_attribution_description: English: Fort Utah, the first settlement of white people in Provo, Utah. This fort was located south of the Provo River near the current intersection of Center Street and Vineyard Road.
context_page_description: The Battle at Fort Utah was a battle between the Timpanogos Tribe and remnants of the Nauvoo Legion at Fort Utah in modern-day Provo, Utah. The Timpanogos people initially tolerated the presence of the settlers, and the two groups enjoyed some moments of mutual friendship. However, after three Mormons murdered a Timpanogos man called Old Bishop and a hard winter where Timpanogos took around 50 Mormon cattle, settlers in Fort Utah petitioned to go to war with the Timpanogos. Isaac Higbee, Parley P. Pratt and Willard Richards convinced Brigham Young to exterminate any Timpanogos hostile to the Mormon settlement. Young sent the Nauvoo Legion down with Captain George D. Grant and later sent General Daniel H. Wells to lead the army. After the Timpanogos defended themselves from their village and an abandoned cabin, they fled their camp. The Mormons pursued the Timpanogos from Chief Old Elk's tribe and any other Timpanogos they found in the valley, killing Timpanogos from Chief Pareyarts or Para-yah's tribe and other tribes even if they had no history of attacking the Mormons. The Nauvoo Legion killed around 100 Timpanogos.
context_section_description: On March 10, 1849, Brigham Young assigned 30 families to settle Utah Valley, with John S. Higbee as president and translator Dimick B. Huntington and Isaac Higbee as counselors. They headed towards Timpanogos territory with 30 families or 150 people. It is likely that the settlers arrived on April 1 and began construction of the fort on April 3. The Timpanogos viewed this as an invasion of their territory and sacred land.  As the settlers came in, they were actively blocked by a group of Timpanogos led by An-kar-tewets with warnings that trespassing would be met with death and destruction. D. Robert Carter suggests that An-kar-tewets was probably demanding a tribute for the travels of the caravan through their territory. Later, a Timpanogos chief met with Huntington, possibly Black Elk. Huntington said that the settlement would be beneficial for the Timpanogos. The chief consented to let the Mormons settle there after Huntington rose his hand and swore by the sun god that they would not try to drive the Timpanogos off their lands or take away their rights.
  The settlers built a stockade called Fort Utah and armed it with a twelve-pound cannon to intimidate the Timpanogos. They also built several log houses, surrounded by a 14-foot (4.3 m) palisade 20 by 40 rods in size (330 by 165 feet [101 by 50 m]), with gates in the east and west ends, and a middle deck for the cannon. The surrounding land was divided into 58, 5-acre (2 ha) lots.
  Relations between the two groups started familiarly, with Mormons and Timpanogos fishing and gambling together. Brigham Young disapproved of their familiarity with one another and advised Huntington and Alexander Williams to be the sole traders. Parley P. Pratt visited and made rules against gambling with the Timpanogos and against shooting near the fort.
  The fort was built on the sacred grounds for the annual fish festival and very close to the main Timpanogos village on the Provo River. The settlers fenced off pastures. Their cattle would eat and trample the seeds and berries that were an important part of the Timpanogos diet. They used gill nets to catch fish, which didn't leave any fish for the Timpanogos to eat. With the traditional sources of food gone, they soon experienced massive starvation. The settlers also brought measles, which was foreign to the Timpanogos, and they began dying in large numbers.
caption: Fort Utah in 1849
exif: {}