"On Sunday 9 April 1865, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee met in
the parlor of Wilmer McLean's brick home in Appomattox Court House,
Virginia, to negotiate the conclusion of the Civil War. That same
day, far to the west, a handful of Mormons and northern Utes met in
the central Utah town of Manti in an attempt to achieve a peace of
their own. Unlike the negotiations at Appomattox, however, those in
Manti failed, and the events that transpired there are viewed as
the beginning of Utah's Black Hawk War, the longest and most
serious Indian-white conflict in Utah history." -From the book So
begins the story of Black Hawk, Ute Indian warrior chief and
brilliant strategist, and Brigham Young, sagacious religious and
political leader of the Mormons. Two powerful and unyielding men
forged by hardship and conviction, both revered and both reviled in
their times. One, orchestrating a remarkable campaign to turn back
the tide of white expansion and prevent the extinction of his
people, the other, attempting to keep his exiled church and its
thriving utopian society sovereign and intact. Two men of distinct
races, beliefs, and cultures, but sharing a determination to keep
U.S. soldiers out of their bloody conflict for control of land and
other resources in the Utah territory. From 1865 to 1867, the
warrior Black Hawk, also known as Antonga, led a combined force of
Utes, Navajos, and Paiutes in a series of intense stock raids on
the Mormon settlements in Utah territory. Black Hawk astutely
judged that political conflict between the federal government and
Mormon Utah would keep U.S. soldiers from chastising his band.
Moreover, the antagonism of Washington toward Utah's polygamy,
theocracy, and isolationism made Mormon leader Brigham Young wary
of seeking federal help. In fact, to keep the government from using
the war as a pretext for sending more troops to Utah, the Mormons
withheld information, making the Black Hawk War an almost secret
war as far as the rest of the nation was concerned. As directed by
Brigham Young, Utah's Latter-day Saint citizens mobilized a church
militia, the Nauvoo Legion, to repel Indian attacks. Yet Black Hawk
and others were able to carry on their activities for almost eight
years without incurring the federal military reprisals that Indians
on all four sides of the Mormon heartland experienced. Bloodshed on
both sides plunged Mormons and Indians into a war of
vengeance-years of killing and raiding that continued until federal
troops stepped in 1872. In this unprecedented volume, historian
John Peterson provides the first comprehensive analysis of a unique
and compelling chapter of western history and of the violent and
protracted conflict it engendered. Utah's Black Hawk War not only
explores political intricacies and broader implications,
scrutinizing the Mormons' Indian policies-most notably Brigham
Young's extraordinary "better to feed them than fight them"
teachings-but also presents vivid narrative accounts of various
raids and battles. The result is a masterfully researched and
engagingly written account of Utah's secret war, a war largely
unknown among western history students, scholars, and
enthusiasts-until now. Winner of the Mormon History Association
Francis M. and Emily S. Chipman Best First Book Award.
General
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