Doctrine and Covenants 18 & 19 + Chief Sagwitch and the Shoshone Saints

 

POP QUIZ

What was the first non-English language spoken in a General Conference talk?

Which ethnic group comprised the first non-white bishopric in the Church?

The answer to both these questions may surprise you: Native American Shoshone.

 

Above the baptismal font in the Brigham City, Utah Temple hangs a curious piece of art. It depicts white pioneer-era men laying their hands upon the head of a seated Native American chief. When I first saw this painting, I wanted to know the story but it wasn’t until 2019, when visiting the Star Valley, Wyoming Temple and seeing the same picture there that I finally learned the name of Sagwitch. Since that time, I have fallen in love with the story of Chief Sagwitch and the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone (Shoshoni). I’ve been shocked and embarrassed to realize their story took place in my own Cache Valley and yet it was new to me. I was excited to learn that Church historian, Scott R. Christensen, had recently written a biography, Sagwitch: Shoshone Chieftain, Mormon Elder, 1822-1887, and that the story of the Shoshone saints is featured in the second volume of the new Church history series, Saints: No Unhallowed Hand (p. 401-5, 509-11).

Although Doctrine and Covenants 18 & 19 were revelations given to the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon in the eastern U.S., the words of the gospel written there were applied in the lives of the Shoshone saints in the west. We all know a lot about the pioneers. Today I want to teach about this amazing group of Native American converts that exemplified true humility, the pioneering spirit, the doctrine of Christ, and the principles of repentance and forgiveness.

Sagwitch and Beawoachee

CHIEF SAGWITCH: NATIVE AMERICAN “PIONEER”

It is well-known that Native American tribes clashed with white settlers. Being hunter/gatherers, Natives required large amounts of land. The Shoshone roamed for hundreds of miles over the course of a year, gathering berries in one area, harvesting grain from wild grasses in another, shooting game in another (Christensen, 2-6). As pioneers settled and farmed those lands, their cattle destroyed the wild grasses that produced the staple grain of the Shoshone diet. What was homesteading to the pioneers was land-hogging to the Natives. The starving Natives resorted to taking the cattle that were on their grasslands. What was fair exchange to them was thievery to the pioneers. Although Chief Sagwitch sought peace with the newcomers, and although local Church leaders carried out President Brigham Young’s counsel to feed the Natives from the storehouses, it was hard for groups with such opposite lifestyles to occupy the same land. Fear and hostilities arose. Eventually something had to give.

At the end of January each winter, all the Shoshone tribes gathered at a hot springs northwest of Preston, Idaho to pray and dance together. The Utah Territory was virtually untouched by the Civil War going on back east. Colonel Patrick Connor of the U.S. Army, stationed in the Great Basin away from action, decided to make his name famous in battle by a surprise attack on the Shoshone in their winter quarters. On a bitterly cold day, January 29, 1863, he and his restless “California volunteers” attacked the nearly defenseless Shoshone families in their lodges along the Bear River, brutally torturing and killing from 300-500 men, women, and children. The soldiers were cruel and merciless, sparing none, treating the people like vermin that must be killed. It was the largest massacre of Native Americans in North America, the details of which would sicken the hardest heart. Sagwitch’s wife and some of his children were killed. His two-year-old boy, Beshup, was shot multiple times but survived and was later found wandering the battlefield in a daze, still holding a bowl of frozen pinenut gravy. His son, Yeager, a few years older, was saved by his grandmother who told him to lie down and pretend he was dead. Although she was still butchered, he was spared. Sagwitch was shot, but rolled into the freezing river and survived by floating hidden under some brush until nightfall.

When the soldiers left, Sagwitch returned to nurse the few surviving wounded. He found his baby daughter lying alive inside their lodge, next to his dead wife. Having no way to feed a nursing infant, he wrapped her in a blanket on her cradleboard and hung it from a tree, knowing that Mormon settlers would see her and save her. The morning after the battle, three Latter-day Saint men rode over the area, looking for survivers. They collected two little boys and the baby girl. All were taken in by local families (Christensen, 47-58).

For the next ten years, the small band of survivors suffered and starved.

“Pray aways, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you, and great shall be your blessing—yea, even more than if you should obtain treasures of earth and corruptibleness to the extent thereof.

“Behold, canst thou read this without rejoicing and lifting up thy heart for gladness?

“Or canst thou run about longer as a blind guide?”

“Or canst thou be humble and meek, and conduct thyself wisely before me? Yea, come unto me thy Savior. Amen.” (D&C 19:38-41)

VISION OF THE CHIEF

Then one of the Shoshone chiefs had a vision in the spring of 1873 in which 3 men came to see him at his lodge and told him “that the ‘Mormons’ God was the true God, and that he and the Indians’ Father were one; that he must go to the ‘Mormons,’ and they would tell him what to do, and that he must do it; that he must be baptized, with all his Indians, that the time was at hand for the Indians to gather, and stop their Indian life, and learn to cultivate the earth and build houses and live in them.”

“Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me.

“I am Jesus Christ; I came by the will of the Father, and I do his will.” (D&C 19:23-24)

The Shoshone leaders knew this was direction from the Great Spirit and immediately sought out George Washington Hill, a Latter-day Saint who had previously served a mission among the Indians and had worked extensively with the U.S. Indian Agents as a translator. The Shoshone had given him a name in their language : Inkapompy, “Man with Red Hair” (Christensen, 84-85).

George Washington Hill

“I NEVER SPENT A HAPPIER DAY”

During his mission, 18 years earlier, Elder Hill had healed several Natives with priesthood power and baptized 56 at one time (Christensen, 87), but he explained to his Shoshone visitors that he was not presently called as a missionary, so he didn’t know if he had authority to teach them. They came a second time and received the same response. But soon, completely unaware of this situation, President Brigham Young had a feeling he could not shake, and Elder Hill was called to serve another mission to the Natives in the area. Chief Sagwitch knew, through revelation, the very day that Elder Hill would arrive—May 5, 1873—and sent emissaries to meet him. 102 men and women were baptized that day—every adult there, save one who was afraid of the water (Wikipedia entry for Mae Timbimboo Parry). The next day Elder Hill wrote a letter to President Young. “Never felt better in my life nor never spent a happier day.” Another 20 Natives came a few days later and also joined the Church.

“Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;

“For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.

“And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance.

“And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!” (D&C 18:10-13)

“Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people.

“And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

“And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!” (D&C 18:14-16)

“And of tenets thou shalt not talk, but thou shalt declare repentance and faith on the Savior and remission of sins by baptism, and by fire, yea, even the Holy Ghost.” (D&C 19:31)

Elder Hill created a scroll of pictures to use as a teaching tool for the Natives. On June 7, 1875, he baptized 168, and 7 more the next morning. By the end of the summer he tallied his baptisms in a report to President Young: the total was 939 (Christensen, 111).

THE JOY OF THE SAINTS

“And speak freely to all; yea, preach, exhort, declare the truth, even with a loud voice, with a sound of rejoicing, crying—Hosanna, hosanna, blessed be the name of the Lord God!” (D&C 19:37)

Elder Hill and 800 of his Shoshone converts joined the Pioneer Day celebration in Brigham City that year. 300 Native men and women joined the parade with their horses. Two Shoshone men, James Brown and John, spoke along with Apostle Lorenzo Snow, and at the end of the day, they all joined in a Hosannah shout, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna! To God and the Lamb” (Christensen, 112).

Elder Snow was so impressed that he visited the mission with his sister, Eliza R. Snow, in the Malad area and spoke to 1,000 Natives, including Shoshone and Bannock tribes from Idaho. The attentiveness of the audience astounded them. Following the sermon, 300 more were baptized in the river.

But Elder Hill’s long-term mission was much more than simply teaching and baptizing. He was also concerned with their temporal welfare. Chief Sagwitch’s tribe entered into a daring experiment with Elder Hill. They were willing to give up the only way of life they knew, the hunter/gatherer life, and learn to be farmers. They struggled to get water to the dry land. They were forced off their first farm before they could reap a harvest. They tried again in a different location. They worked hard for a very small gain. But they never gave up.

“And as many as repent and are baptized in my name, which is Jesus Christ, and endure to the end, the same shall be saved.” (D&C 18:22)

As U.S. Indian Agents tried to force the Shoshone onto the Fort Hall reservation, Elder Hill and the Church leadership called upon the Homestead Act to keep their converts in their homelands, and it worked. They purchased land in Northwestern Utah and set up a town. The Shoshone chose to call it Washakie, after a great late Shoshone chief. The Washakie Ward meetings were conducted entirely in the Shoshone language except for the sacrament prayers. During a Church drive to make “every member a tithepayer,” the Washakie Ward was one of very few to report 100% tithe-paying.

Sagwitch and his second wife, Mogogah (Beawoachee) had been sealed in the Endowment House on February 22, 1875 (Christensen, 104). Now Chief Sagwitch encouraged his people to contribute to the building of the Logan Temple. Shoshone members traveled over the mountain to work for a week at a time at the Logan Temple. They donated thousands of hours of labor. Later, they traveled that route to do ordinance work for the loved ones they had lost in the Bear River Massacre. Sagwitch himself stayed in Logan for four days in March of 1885 to do his family’s work (Christensen, 174-177).

Shoshone women visit the Logan Temple

“Pray aways, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you, and great shall be your blessing—yea, even more than if you should obtain treasures of earth and corruptibleness to the extent thereof.

“Behold, canst thou read this without rejoicing and lifting up thy heart for gladness?

“Or canst thou run about longer as a blind guide?”

“Or canst thou be humble and meek, and conduct thyself wisely before me? Yea, come unto me thy Savior. Amen.” (D&C 19:38-41)

In the end, Chief Sagwitch gave his life for his friends and his testimony. As Federal agents came to arrest the white administrators of the Washakie community for polygamy, Sagwitch and a few of his men took them into nearby Rough Canyon, disguised them as Indians, and hid them. It was very early spring and still cold. Sagwitch contracted pneumonia there and died before he could be rushed to medical care (Christensen, 186-187).

THE LEGACY OF ONE MAN

Washakie men served their country during World War II, and many men and women were hired to work in civil defense at Hill Air Force Base and the Ogden Army Depot.

“The Shoshone people at Washakie had significant skills. They were readily hired because they were such good workers. They weren’t stuck on a reservation so they were available,” Christensen said. “It gave them a completely different future compared to their relatives at Fort Hall. Many were also retained after World War II” (Trent Toone, “Bear River Massacre’s Unexpected Aftermath Includes Forgiveness and Hope,” Deseret News, January 24, 2013).

Sagwitch’s descendants followed his example of leadership. That toddler boy who was found wandering the battlefield wounded at the Bear River was adopted by a Mormon pioneer family and became Frank Timbimboo Warner, probably the first full-blooded Native American to serve as a proselyting missionary, serving three times to three tribes. Sagwitch’s oldest surviving son Soquitch was ordained an elder and called to heal the sick of the Washakie community. His daughter-in-law Towange Timbimboo served in the Relief Society presidency for many years. Yeager, the middle son, served as Young Men’s President in the Ward and as counselor in the bishopric. He was invited by President Heber J. Grant to speak in General Conference in April of 1926, which he did in the Shoshone language, translated by his bishop.

 “Since I have accepted this gospel, I have felt to be a friend to this people and I have no desire to kill or to do anything wrong that would displease the spirit of the Lord…I rejoice in the work that I have accomplished in this Church, the acceptance of the ordinances of the gospel, the performance of the same in my own behalf and the work that I have accomplished in behalf of my dead kindred…I want to encourage you to be faithful and serve the Lord and keep his commandments” (Conference Report, April 1926).

Yeager’s son Moroni Timbimboo was the first Native American bishop, serving in the Washakie Ward in the first all-Native bishopric in the Church (Christensen 190-195).

Moroni Timbimboo family

Moroni’s daughter, Mae Timbimboo Parry, became tribal historian and an effective national activist for tribal rights. Her son, Darren Parry, served as Chairman for the Northwestern Band of Shoshone and successfully purchased back 550 acres of the Bear River Massacre Site, which is presently being transformed into an interpretive center with the aid of Utah State University (John Devilbiss, “A Healing Ground,” Utah State Magazine, Winter 2021, 39-45).

FORGIVENESS BRINGS HEALING

Although Martin Harris had never met a Shoshone Native in 1830, his obedience to the Lord’s counsel to finance the publication of the Book of Mormon changed their lives for generations. “…Impart [thy property] freely to the printing of the Book of Mormon, which contains the truth and the word—which is my word to the Gentile, that soon it may go to the Jew, of whom the Lamanites are a remnant, that they may believe the gospel…

“And thou shalt declare glad tidings, yea, publish it upon the mountains, and upon every high place, and among every people that thou shalt be permitted to see.

“And thou shalt do it with all humility, trusting in me, reviling not against revilers.” (D&C 19:26-27, 29-30)

Sarah Tickpatecky was baptized on that first day that George Washington Hill visited the Shoshone camp. Her husband and baby had been killed in the Bear River Massacre. Her descendent, Rios Pacheco, honors her legacy. “You look into your heritage,” he says. “They have set that example, that tradition, and you see the work they have done. You find the need to follow that example…The church teaches us to overcome hatred. True conversion means finding forgiveness. The family I come from has set that example” (Toone, Deseret News).

LEARN MORE ABOUT SAGWITCH AND THE SHOSHONE SAINTS

Watch a video conversation between Darren Parry and Scott Christensen at ChurchofJesusChrist.org here.

Read Yeager Timbimboo’s testimony in General Conference here, April 1926, p. 136-138.

Read about Sagwitch at ChurchofJesusChrist.org in Church History Topics here and in Saints:No Unhallowed Hand here and here. 

Read the Deseret News article here.

Read The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History, by Darrin Parry, Shoshone storyteller. (I just ordered it and can't wait to read it myself!)

Read Sagwitch: Shoshone Chieftain, Mormon Elder, 1822-1887, by Scott Christensen, Church historian.