There was a battle one time between Paiutes and some other Indians. One group defended themselves from the top of Carter Peak situated between Sigurd and Salina, Utah. (There is now a booster antenna, of some type, on top of this peak.)

As told in 1957 by Shivwits informant, Kenneth Charles who heard the story from Jimmie Timmican, Koosharem.

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Medicine Power Destroys an Indian Band

Florence Kanosh, Koosharem

A long time ago there used to be many Paiute Indians living in Wayne County along the Colorado River. They were the Suhuh' Vawduhuts Band, Sumac Bush Water People. (Jimmie Timmican, a brother to Florence, says that this is the name of the band that lived near the confluence of the Colorado and Green rivers. These words mean "Sumac Bush Water People." This name was Anglicized by the white man to Sheberetch.)

One time they were having a big dance there and the wife of a medicine man got into a quarrel with the wife of another medicine man. Soon the two medicine men also began quarreling with each other due to the quarreling wives. They started fighting each other with medicine. Their medicine wasn't very strong and it killed all the Indians there one by one. The man who called the dance together was the first one to die. All this happened because of the two women.

 

Apaches kill Paiutes on Kaibab Mountain

Morris Jake, Kaibab

One night, long ago, the Apaches raided a camp of sleeping Kaibab Paiutes who were camped at a spring on the south side of Kaibab Mountain. The Apaches killed them all with stone clubs.

These "Apaches" were probably Yavapais or Tonto Apaches from north central Arizona who often raided the Havasupais within the Grand Canyon who were nearby neighbors to the Kaibab band. This might have happened in the Nankoweap area as this word means Indians Killed Off (Nengwoo' Koahoyp). (Martineau)

 

John Kinley and His 12 Paiutes Recruits

Jimmie Timmican, Koosharem

One time there was a man named John Kinley who came up from Mexico to recruit some Paiutes. He was a Paiute who had been taken south by the Spaniards and sold as a slave or possibly a half-breed son of a Paiute slave. When he arrived in this area he went to St. George, Cedar City, Kanosh, and over to Koosharem, Utah, to recruit warriors to help him fight the Mexicans or someone in Coahuila, Mexico. He recruited 12 warriors, including two from Koosharem. These 12 warriors were all bulletproof and nothing could kill them. John Kinley told them that if they would go with him they would see many things. One of these things would be a glass house where all the Spirits lived.

So, John and the 12 Paiutes went south, camping as they traveled along. They came to the glass house out in the valley some distance from the mountains. This glass house was where the spirits of all the dead went; they would enter the house as butterflies. In this

glass house there was a Mexican who would catch these butterflies. He was a big man and would sway back and forth as he caught them. After he caught them, he would bury them

in rows on the sandy floor. After while these buried butterflies would turn into little dolls. These dolls would look just like Indians. Some were Paiutes dressed in their rabbit blankets and yucca sandals. You could also see some Arapaho and Navajo dolls, and all

kinds of tribes.

Then this Mexican would take these dolls and stand them in rows along the walls of the house. These dolls could only move their heads from side to side. They couldn't talk or do any thing else. As they stood along the walls they grew bigger. The house itself also grew wider and taller until it reached up to heaven and it then punched a hole in the sky. (Both Navajos and Chippewas have been reported to be able to manipulate dolls from a distance.)

This story mentioned a white horse, some dust, the moon marrying a frog, and how dead Indians would come back to life. The story continued about how these 13 men met someone and were fed and told not to fight. In this story there was also a wagon or something dragging some branded cowhides. These hides were thrown in the water. After about a half hour the water started moving and up out of the water came a line of living cows

These 13 men eventually reached the ocean by Mexico or someplace. They also met "Suhnuv" (God) and shook hands. When these men returned to Utah they all testified about all the things they had seen. 

(As told by Koosharem 3 about 1961)

Supernatural descriptions as in this story do not make it a mythical legend. It was all considered true by the Paiutes. Compare the similar supernatural events that took place when some of the Plains Indians went to Nevada to visit Wovoka during the Ghost Dance days

This is the only story I didn't write down immediately after I heard it in about 1960. I actually wrote it down several years later after I had forgotten some of it. It was a very long story. (Martineau)

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Vera Charles, Koosharem tells a similar story she heard from Florence Kanosh, a sister of Jimmy Timmican, Koosharem. She says the story is true. Florence was 95 at the time she told this story and according to the informant she would jump from one story to another. Florence said, "There were some Indians from Kanosh who went down to California. On the way many things happened and they had to fight enemy tribes as they went. When they arrived at the ocean they saw a great-grandmother there pounding buffalo jerky. She would put something with it and then toss it into the water and a live buffalo would come out."

"The old lady mentioned something about some white dolls. These were foretelling the coming of the white man. They would have bad breath and an underarm odor that would make all the Indians die off."

 

White Men Massacre Indians on Utah Lake

Deere Kanosh, Koosharem

A long time ago the soldiers attacked some peaceful Indians at Utah Lake during the winter when the lake was frozen over. Many of the women, children, and aged sought to flee to safety across the ice, but were overrun by soldiers on horseback who cut their heads off with swords.

 

Battle With the White Man in Wayne County

Jimmie Timmican, Koosharem

Some of the white men of Wayne County, Utah, and the nearby area, got together to fight the Indians. Among these men were Hatch and Jack Ourite (not sure of spelling) or "Sawngkuhts," as the Indians called him, because he limped. He was from Fremont, Utah and would trade whiskey to the Indians for hides.

These white soldiers were discovered accidentally while an Indian was out hunting. He spotted a man in a white blanket and being curious, he sneaked closer to get a better look. When he saw that he had a white face the Indian ran back to his camp on Pine Creek south of Bicknell. He told his people of what he saw and they decided to evacuate the women. The women all left their camp that night and started up O-a' Kaiv, a nearby mountain while the men waited behind to fight the soldiers. (This Paiute name means Yellow Mountain. It is a small mountain situated on the north end of Boulder Mountain, Utah. On the USGS map this hill is called Black Ridge although it is only the trees on top that make it appear black. It is locally known as "The Petrified Forest." The lower west side of the hill is yellow and red.)

Early that morning the soldiers spotted the women through their telescope going up the last of the trail near the top of the mountain. They also saw the men down in the valley

sitting around at the camp.

The Indians meanwhile had concealed some men in the brush where the soldiers would approach so they might ambush them. As the soldiers approached and were starting into the ambush, the lead man spotted one of the Indians who was probably wearing a red blanket. The lead man whirled around dashing past one other concealed Indian and out into the clear. The soldiers then ran up onto the point of the hill the Paiutes called Pachu Tuhngkun'evuhts (This Paiute word means Bat Cave. It is at Rock Point on Pine Creek near Loa, Utah) and commenced firing down on the Indians. The Indians and soldiers were not too close to each other so they were firing from long range. The Indians at this time had good rifles.

There were two Indians concealed behind a rock, somewhat closer to the hill, that almost got hit. One of these Indians spotted a man on the hill who was firing these shots. He told the other that he saw where the shots were coming from and that he was going to aim and wait for him to stick up again. When he stuck up, the Indian shot him between the eyes.

Jack Ourite hollered down from the hill in Paiute, as he spoke good Indian, and he said, "Tuhnunk'wu evun'e, kwou tuhkaw kwaivadum. Kaw yavawhaisump!" Come up here; let's smoke. Don't be afraid."

(As told by Jimmie Timmican, Koosharem who heard this story from Walker Ammon, son of Chief Walker. Gottfredson gives the date of this battle as September 21, 1865. He tells of it on Page 167 of his book.)

 

White Men Massacre Indians in Grass Valley

Koosharem, Jimmie Timmican, Florence Kanosh, Vera Charles

One time, soldiers were sent down into Sevier Valley from the Mount Pleasant area. Some Paiutes were encamped at Glenwood at the time. The Bishop of Glenwood warned the Indians and told them to leave. They then broke camp and followed the horse trail over the mountain and down into Grass Valley where they stopped.

The next day or so, one of the Indians was out hunting and spotted someone in a white blanket standing on a point. He sneaked up close and saw that he had a white face. He went back to the camp and told his people. The Chief said, "Don't worry, I have a paper from the Bishop; they won't bother us." Feeling safe, they remained there that night.

Early in the morning, before the sun came up and while they were all sleeping, the soldiers attacked them and killed them all. Some were still sleeping in their blankets. One Indian ran up the side of the hill and was shot between the eyes from a longs ways off as he looked back down.

One very small boy who had on a sheepskin cloak was lying beside his dead mother and when the white man spotted him they picked him up and took him with them, as they started back north. They hadn't gone far when the boy got loose and ran away. The soldiers didn't bother to chase him figuring he would die of starvation.

The little boy walked all the way up to the top of Mount Marvine which overlooks a Paiute camp he must have seen at one time while traveling with his folks. The Indians at this camp (Yooveemp) had just broke camp and were traveling towards Fish Lake. One old man however, had forgotten his water jug and returned to get it. He retrieved it and as he started off he faintly heard someone hollering. He rode up closer to where the hollering was coming from and saw the little boy in the sheepskin. He called to the boy and told him to come on down and that he would wait for him. When the boy arrived the old man asked him where his folks were. He lied and said, "They were on their way."

The Old man then put the little boy on the horse behind him and they started after the rest of the band. While they were on their way the boy told the truth, that his people had all been killed. When they reached the others they told them what had happened. They then formed a war party and asked the little boy to show them where it had happened. They followed the horse trail down off Fish Lake Mountain to Cedar Grove, near Burrville, and there they saw the massacred Indians.

They said, "Lets go chase the soldiers." The old man took the boy back and the others followed the trail for two days but couldn't catch up to them so they returned. The bones lay there for a long time until the white man took them.

(As told by Jimmie Timmican, Koosharem who heard this story from Walker Ammon, son of Chief Walker.)

Vera Charles, a daughter of Jimmie Timmican, said that Florence Kanosh, a full sister of Jimmy, told her that the Indian name for the massacre site is Tawhoo 'kwechun or Toohoo'wutsekai meaning something like a "Wail" or "War Cry from a Ridge." The informant said she couldn't translate it well. Gottfredson (page 159) gives the date of this massacre as July 18, 1865, and calls it "The Squaw Fight."

The following version was told to Vera by Florence Kanosh: The Indians killed at the Burrville, Utah, massacre were from the Koosharem Band. When the soldiers attacked the Indians, a little old Indian man went out with a piece of paper in his hand and showed it to the soldiers. He said, "We are not at war with you! We are at peace and have a treaty!" He was the first one killed. The soldiers cut his head off with a sword. There were no men in the camp, only old people, women, and children. My grandfather was a young boy and escaped and went and told the Indians at Fish Lake. They came and found the bodies of the Indians scattered around in the cedar trees.   

 

Battle With White Men at Rocky Ford

Jimmie Timmican, Koosharem

Soldiers from up north came down to Sevier Valley to fight the Indians. The Indians laid an ambush for them at Rocky Ford near Sigurd, Utah. As the soldiers approached, the lead man spotted one of the Indians sleeping in a red blanket. This alerted the soldiers who then retreated. After this retreat they returned and attacked, and the Indians retreated to the hillside. One Indian was shot through the leg just above the knee, not hitting the bone. The bullet went on through his leg killing his horse. Another Indian came back after him and pulled the wounded warrior up behind him on his horse and took him to safety.

These two, or two others, took refuge in a wash below the hill and were the closest to the soldiers. One white man who had no shirt on and who had painted his body would charge at them on his horse and tempt them by coming very close before retreating. One of the Indians had an old muzzle loader and the other had a bow. None of the Indians were well armed at this time, some having bows and the others muzzle loaders.

These two men tried to hit the white man on horseback but couldn't. They both tried several times. One time he came close and almost hit them. The Indian with the muzzle loader then loaded it very careful with a quartz crystal. He painted his rifle with war paint and prayed. When the white man came close again, he fired and killed him. In this fight the Indians lost two horses and suffered one wounded man. They killed two white men.

The white men claim that they killed White Horse Chief (the Paiute name for White Horse Chief was Tosaw' Kuvaw Neahv. It was Anglicized to Shenavegan.) In this battle by shooting him in the belly from a great distance as he was standing on top of the hill. This is not true. All during the fight, they never got very close to each other, always firing from a distance. (As told by Jimmie Timmican, Koosharem who heard this story from Walker Ammon, son of Chief Walker. Gottfredson, page 279, gives the date of this battle as the spring of 1868.)

 

Slaughter of Indians Circleville

Jimmie Timmican, Koosharem

There used to be a big old log house in Circleville, Utah, beside the road where it curves near where the potato cellars are. Years ago the white men at Circleville locked up in that house all the Indians who were living nearby and told them they were going to cut their throats. They began doing this by taking them outside one at a time and cutting their throats.

There were two young men inside who decided they were going to escape. One said to the other "We will have to dash through them and run just as they open the door." They did this and ran through the white men who were gathered all around, some on horseback. They opened fire on these two Indians but couldn't hit them. They ran towards the cemetery on the hill to the north and as they were going over it, one of the pursuing white men on horseback shot one of the Indians in his side by his ribs but it was only a flesh wound. From there they ran up into the mountains and then the wounded Indian put some Indian medicine on his wound and wrapped it in part of his shirt. The white men didn't follow them far so from there they went on over to Parowan or Beaver.

(As told by Jimmie Timmican, Koosharem who heard this story from Walker Ammon, son of Chief Walker. Gottfredson, page 144, gives the date of this massacre as April 22, 1866.)

 

Poisoning of Indians at Manti 

Jimmie Timmican, Koosharem

One time a man who lived over near Price and Emery, Utah, came down into the valley near Manti. He could see the Indian camp there with the tipis all around. He noticed that there was no smoke coming out of them. He also noticed that no one was around. The horses were out in the meadows grazing and were not fenced in. When he arrived at the camp no one was there, just blankets and belongings. There were not even any dogs to be found.

He went on up toward Nephi and told the Indians about it. They told him that the white men had given the Indians poisoned meat and flour and it had killed them all. The white men had come and got the bodies.

(As told by Jimmie Timmican, Koosharem who heard this story from Walker Ammon, son of Chief Walker.)

This is probably the incident that started the Black Hawk War of 1865-67. Gottfredson states that "During the winter of 1864-65, a small band of Indians were camped near Gunnison, San Pete Co. It is said that they had contracted small-pox, and that many of them died. The Indians seemed to think that the white people were to blame in some way for this and were threatening to kill the whites and steal their horses and cattle. Arrangements were consequently made for a meeting between the Indians and the whites at Manti on the 9th of April, 1865, to talk over the matter." This meeting broke up in disharmony and the Black Hawk War followed. (Gottfredson 1919, p.128.)

 

Massacre at Spring Valley

Johnny Jake, Indian Peak

One time some Indians from Parowan, Utah, and some Goshute's were camping together in Spring Valley, near the present town of Baker, Nevada. The white men had killed some horses belonging to the ranchers and the Indians were blamed. Soldiers then crept upon the encampment hoping to surprise them when an Indian spotted them and shouted the alarm. There wasn't enough time to prepare or flee. One Indian mother threw her blanket over her daughter and covered it with dirt hoping the soldiers wouldn't find her. The soldiers massacred everyone including women and children. Later on the girl lifted up the blanket and saw that everyone had been killed. She was old enough to know what happened and later told other Indians about it.

E. N. Wilson who wrote the book The White Indian Boy and who participated in this massacre says it happened just before the Civil War (Wilson 1919). A Nevada book gives the date as May 6, 1863, when 23 Indians were killed.

 

 

Massacre at Spring Valley and Elsewhere

Minnie Jake, Eagle Valley

Juicy (Josey) Point (Poench?), wife of George Point, from Ibapah, Utah, was my uncle's wife. One time when she was just a little girl, soldiers dressed in blue uniforms, caps, and stripes, attacked her people in Spring Valley, Nevada (between Baker and Ely). They were camped by a tree and a ditch. The soldiers killed everyone, even ladies and little kids. They wanted the land. Juicy's mother told Juicy to run and hide. She ran down the ditch and up the hill to the top of the mountain. The mountain has a point on it where she ran. She always used to tell me this story when I visited her.

Soldiers also killed Indians near Milford, Utah, and some Shivwits also. Down south at Pahranagat Valley, Nevada, they killed lot of Indians camped in a circle with the Chief's house or tipi in the center.

(For more information on this massacre see Paw Doogoo'nuntseng in, Band Names-Territories.)

 

Indians Die of Infected Clothing

Johnny Jake, Indian Peak

One time there used to be some Indians living in the cedar trees north of Lund, Utah. A wagon train of white people passed by, and dropped off some rags near the Indians that were infected with typhoid fever. They knew that they would pick them up. They did and died of this fever.

 

Indians Diminish at Eagle Valley

Johnny Jake, Indian Peak

The Indian population of Eagle Valley, Nevada, and Pahranagat band diminished because the government sent all the Indians off to school. Some went to school and returned, but others were fed to pigs and some were given to cannibal-like Chinamen who ate them.

Such stories probably originated because of the numerous Indian children who died when they were sent off to school. In 1901 a measles epidemic at the Uintah School killed 17 of 65 pupils. Utes were complaining then that, "Their children always died when they went to school." (Conetah 1982, p. 131.)

 

Pete, the Medicine Man

Minnie Jake, Eagle Valley

I was raised by my grandfather Pete. He was a Shoshone but spoke both Paiute and Shoshone. We lived in Eagle Valley, Nevada, where I was born. I was raised in a tipi when I was young. It was the custom of Pete's people to live in tipis. The tipi was canvas but earlier he had one made of elk hides. When it rained nothing happened to the elk hides because they were stretched tight on the teepee poles (the hides didn't get stiff).

One time, Pete fought with the soldiers and the soldier's bullets were just like mud when they hit him and he couldn't be killed.

In those days many of the Indians were killed by the white man all over Indian country all because of a child that had become lost. The white man blamed the Indians and that's why they killed them. Later they found the child but it was too late.

(Compare the similar versions of "The Sleeping Dairy Herder." This is probably the same story.)

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When Pete was about to die, he and many others were at Indian Peak. Before he died, there appeared lights in the sky and everyone saw them. I saw them also. The lights seemed to be caused by a mirror that kept coming closer, wobbling some way. As the lights approached, Pete died. When they buried Pete, it began to rain but there was no clouds in the sky. He was buried at Indian peak. Pete died when I was an adult.

Minnie Jake, Eagle Valley

 

Mountain Meadows Massacre

Minnie Jake, Eagle Valley

Two Indians saw the Mormons kill the white people at Mountain Meadows. The Mormons killed everyone, even women and children. The Mormons asked these two Indians to help them pack up all the booty (valuable, stolen goods). The Mormons kept the horses and milk cows, and they told the two Indians that if they saw any round gold pieces (coins) lying on the ground the Indians were not to pick them up because they were poison and would kill them. However, the Mormons picked up all the coins and put them in a sack and kept them. They hid everything else in a tunnel in a round red place down there someplace. The two Indians didn't help the Mormons in the killings.

 

Mountain Meadows Massacre

Johnny Jake, Indian Peak

The Paiutes fought with soldiers near Iron Springs, Utah, before the Mountain Meadows massacre occurred. Isaac Hunkup was involved in that massacre. The Mormons told him and some other Indians that they could have all the loot except the round yellow stuff (gold). They said, "It was no good for the Indians."

 

Indians Massacred in Kanab Creek

Tony Tillahash, kaibab

The following two stories refer to a massacre mentioned by Gottfredson on page 255 of his book as happening in early January 1867. He says that Col. Pierce, James Andrus, and others were pursuing some Navajos who had made a raid on a horse herd in Washington County. According to the Paiutes, the white man never caught the Navajos but instead killed an innocent band of Paiutes. The Paiute versions are as follows:

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My father and grandfather were killed by the white man at a place called "Bullrush" in Kanab Creek below Pipe Springs, Arizona. Among the dead were five brothers, one of them my grandfather. The trouble started when the Navajos killed a sheepherder named Whitmore. Tony's band lived in Zion and was on their way to the Colorado River to eat Yunt (Agave). A group of white men from St. George and other places found them in Kanab Creek and massacred all the unsuspecting innocent men.

(Kaibab, Tony Tillihash.)

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A daughter of Kaibab informant Tony Tillihash said that Tony Tillahash and his grandmother were the only survivors left by the white man. Both of Tony's parents were killed there. Tony's grandmother, being left an orphan, received the name Tuhduh'heets Orphan. This is how Tony got his anglicized last name of Tillahash. Evidently this name was given to her after the massacre. The general meaning the Tillahash family give this name is "The Beginning and the End of a Family." The name Tuhduh'heets comes from the root word tuh'du, meaning desolate, barren, or naked. The Tillahash family use this name in referring to the desolation of this family caused by the massacre.

(From the genealogical records of LaVan Martineau.)     

 

Indians Massacred in Kanab Creek

Morris Jake, Kaibab

After the Navajos had killed Whitmore, they gave some of his clothes to one of the members of a band of Paiutes. When the white men found these clothes among the Paiutes, they killed them all including men, women, and children. The only survivors were Georgey George's father and his brother who ran away northward and stayed with another band of Paiutes. These two escaped because they were young men and could run fast, while those who were killed were mostly old people.

One of the white men in the killing party recognized one old lady who used to do his washing for him in St. George and he didn't want her killed. James Andrus, however, wanted to kill her. In order for this man to save her, he had to grab her and lift her up to the side of his horse and hold her weight by having her stand on his foot in the stirrup. James Andrus, meanwhile, was trying to grab her but this white man kept spinning his horse around to keep her out of the reach of Andrus. Andrus finally decided to let her live. The friendly white man gave her some money to try to make her feel better. She threw the money on the ground feeling that it was not worth the lives of her loved ones they had just killed. The money is still there. (From the genealogical records of LaVan Martineau.)

 

Battle With White Men from Colorado

Kaibab

This group came into Utah from Colorado and fought a battle with the Paiutes. The Paiutes killed all of this unit and cut their ears off. They let one man go and told him to send back some more men to fight. It was a national guard type unit of about 100 men. (Might have been Bill Dawson posse of Dolores 1881?)

 

The Sleepy Dairy Herder

Marie McFee, Shivwits

In St. George, Utah, there were two white boys who used to watch the milk cows down below town. One day they lay down and went to sleep. A white man saw them and thought they had been killed by the Indians because they were lying on the ground. This white man killed an Indian over this and was still fighting with others when the boys awoke. When they came over to him, he stopped fighting.

 

The Sleepy Dairy Herder

Morris Jake, Kaibab

One time a white boy was taking a milk cow out to pasture south of St. George, Utah. On the way back he went to sleep in a haystack. When the white men missed the boy, they thought the Indians had killed him so they rounded up all the Indians camped near the temple, where they used to camp, and locked them up in the Tithing House. They planned on killing them if the boy was found dead.

First, they sent a man on horseback to look for the boy by the pasture and he found him sleeping in the haystack. They then turned the Indians loose. Kwetoos was one of those locked up. Erastus Snow said to him in Paiute,"Kwetoos, kawtch yaw'vawgai," Kwetoos, don't be afraid.

 

The Sleepy Dairy Herder

Johnny Jake, Indian Peak

A white boy was playing by the river down at St. George and didn't return. The Mormons then blamed the Indians for stealing him and killed some. When the boy returned, the Mormons could say nothing.

 

James Andrus Shoots at Indians

Archie Rogers, Shivwits

Two Shivwits were coming up to the Santa Clara River from Seveen' Tooweep in the south. James Andrus saw them and chased them over the two little hills near Bloomington, Utah. The two Indians hid behind a rock and shot his hat off with an arrow and he fled. They did this to scare him from killing any more Indians. James Andrus used to kill Indians and was a very mean man towards them, while others were good.

(Compiled from notes made on May 19, 1986, and another unrecorded date. Martineau.)

Seveen Tooweep is the Shivwits home of a whitish area of land out on the Shivwits Plateau on the Arizona Strip.

 

Cessation of Slave Trade Among the Shivwits

Bessie Tillahash, Shivwits

One time, three Yootaw (It is evident from this statement that the Shivwits considered the Indians north of them as Yootaw or Ute Indians.) Indians, two from Cedar City and one from Gunlock, seized two married women to sell as slaves. These women ran away down to the Grand Wash area to their relatives and asked for protection. This was in Moapa Indian land and those Indians there had a meeting to decide what to do about the three men pursuing the women. They decided to kill them. They killed the two from Cedar and the other one from Gunlock ran away as fast as he could. He was chased and shot in the back with an arrow. He kept running and when he reached the Indians at Bunkerville, he asked them to pull the arrow out. They refused saying, "This is what you wanted." This Indian couldn't pull the arrow out himself. The Indians used to say that an arrow in the back would keep working itself in. He went the rest of the way to Gunlock and died there from the wound.

The meeting the Indians held was at Fort Thomas on the Virgin River. The Shivwits, St. George, Moapa, and Kaibab Indians never got along with the Cedar Indians and others north of the St. George area. It was from the Cedar Indians that the Shivwits first got their guns in trade for children. (From the Martineau Paiute genealogical records.)

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Toab

Stewart Snow, Shivwits

A long time back, the Shivwits and Cedar Indians had a disagreement over the Cedar Indians coming down and taking children to sell to the Mexicans. Toab and John Rice went to Silver Reef where they had a big meeting over this disagreement. They were almost to the point of war when Toab went and stood in the midst of the big fire they had built. He was not hurt and as he stood there in the fire his hair stood straight up caused by the wind of the ascending flames. This had the desired effect upon the Cedar Indians as it frightened them, and so trouble was averted. John Rice was standing by ready to back up Toab.

Toab had the power to heal and would heal people but sometimes he would lose it when somebody was using witchcraft. Toab was also bulletproof and one time while he was healing someone, he allowed himself to be shot in the chest with a muzzle loader to show his power. He just spit the bullet out.

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Toab

Bessie Tillahash, Shivwits

When Toab killed George (Brig George's father, Railroad George?) Toab ran over to Kaibab for protection from the Indians around St. George, Utah. He stayed there awhile but soon was turned in to the white man by someone and was sent to Fillmore, Utah, for tria1. He didn't kill Kwetoos (his father-in-law) as claimed by the whites. It was George that he killed. Washington County Pioneer stories tell of Toab killing Kwetoos. Bessie said it was George that he killed. If he went to prison for this, then Utah State Prison records do not show it.

 

Utah prison records state that Toab served five days of his sentence of one year for stealing a horse (Grand Larceny). He entered the prison on Sept. 14, 1907, and was released Sept. 19, 1907. The horse belonged to a Mr. Ashby. The horse was old and turned loose to die. When Toab was going to take it, he was told by another Indian that it wasn't Toab's horse but he said it was and took it.

 

 

Powell's Men Killed

Bessie Tillahash, Shivwits

When the Indians around Parashont saw Powell's three men coming up Whitmore Wash they had a meeting with the surrounding groups to decide whether to kill them or not. Some of the young men wanted to kill white men and they were in favor of it. The young men said, "The white men come and kill our people so why can't we kill their people?" Chief Kweetoos replied, "If they did this then the white men would come and kill all the Indians." The young men decided to kill them anyway. They killed them near the head of Whitmore Wash.

My mother was a little girl when Powell came down the Colorado. When he first approached the Indians, my grandfather told the children to run and hide as maybe he was going to come and take the girls. My grandfather said he had seen the rock that Powell's men wrote upon when the party split up and the three men were killed. Maybe no white man has seen this rock. (From Martineau genealogical records.)

 

Paiutes Massacred in Pahranagat Valley   

Anglo  

In the late 1800s sometime, before I was born, the Indians were camped at Ash Springs, Nevada. As they were eating breakfast the Mormons attacked them killing men, women, and children. Those who managed to escape fled south to Hells Half Acre where they were followed and finally all wiped out by the Mormons. One Indian lady stuffed her little boy down a crack and he was the only survivor. His name was Bill China. He was raised by an old white man who died a couple of years later and the Sharps finished raising the boy.

The Mormons attacked the Indians for no reason at all as they had all the land they wanted and weren't bothered at all by the Indians. The Mormons responsible came out of Utah heading for Mexico. The Mexican government didn't allow them across the border so they moved to Pahranagat Valley where they perpetrated this massacre.

The stories of who were responsible for all the murders in Pahranagat Valley are written down in Josh Butler's dairy. The Mormons were always blaming the Indians for any murder of a white man but it was always a white man behind the killings.

As told by Blanche Davis, Hiko, Nevada, to LaVan Martineau October 19, 1976. Blanch Davis was a Fergeson and married into the George Davis family. She was born in about 1900 and is an Anglo.

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The Giant Snake

Morris Jake, Kaibab

One time an Indian from Moapa went up into the mountains west of Moapa Valley, and later on returned by the same way. As he was coming down the trail he noticed a brown spot that was lying next to a little knoll beside the trail. He knew that he hadn't seen it on his way up so he was quite curious as to what it was. He circled around it and sneaked upon it until he was just above it. When he looked down off a point at it he saw that it was a giant snake all coiled up with its head lying across its tail. He decided to try to kill it so he aimed his arrow at the back of its neck and shot. The arrow hit true and the snake began to flop all over the place making a great deal of dust. The Indian got scared and ran. When he got home he told the other Indians about it. They didn't believe him, so he told them to go and see for themselves. They went and found the dead snake. You could see the bones there for a long time.

(As told by Morris Jake who heard this story from Charley Steve, Moapa.)

 

Willy Boy

Jim Chili, Chemehuevi

I was related to Willy Boy. The stories that the white men tell about his death are wrong. He was not killed by the Sheriff's posse. The posse couldn't catch him so to save face they burnt some animal bones in a thicket and said it was Willy Boy. Willy Boy stayed in the Reno area for a long time and died an old man in a hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada.