Chief Walker

Family Background

1808. Wakara was born on the banks of Pequirarynoquint ("Stinking River"—the Spanish Fork) near the present Spanish Fork, Utah, to Timpanogos Ute parents. His name, which means "yellow," was anglicized to "Walker." Wakara's father, a member of the band that had wel- comed Spanish explorers Escalante and Dominquez to Utah Valley in 1776, was killed early in Wakara's life during a tribal feud.

Walker tried to kill his own aged mother when she became a burden, but "she was a quick, wiry, plucky little creature and though well advanced in years, after receiving several severe cuts, and bruises at his hands, any one of which would have ended a common mortal's career, made good her escape, and remained hidden among the bullrushes of Sanpitch swamps."

"Hawk of the Mountains"

Wakara earned the name "Hawk of the Mountains" and his position as chief through his skills as a horse thief. His legendary raiding parties into California and Mexico also won him the nickname "Napoleon of the Desert."

He looked the part, "attired in a suit of the finest broadcloth, cut in the latest fashion," and complemented by "a cambric shirt and a beaver hat."

White settlers viewed Wakara as "a fine figure of a man ·.. a crack shot, a rough rider, and a great judge of horse flesh. He is very clever, in our sense of the word. He is a peculiarly eloquent master of the graceful alphabet of pantomime, which stranger tribes employ to communicate with one another. He has picked up some English, and is familiar with Spanish and several Indian tongues."

Friend of Brigham Young

1847. When Brigham Young declared Salt Lake Valley "the right place" for Mormon pioneers, Wakara's band was camped seventy miles southeast in Spanish Fork Canyon. Ute tradition holds that Wakara attempted to incite a band of young firebrands to oppose white settlement; his elder brother, the wise Sowiette, needed a horsewhip to drive home the finer points of his argument opposing violence.

Mormon tradition has it, however, that Wakara had envisioned the coming of white people: "He died and his spirit went to heaven. He saw the Lord sitting upon a throne dressed in white. The Lord told him he could not stay, he had to return to earth, that there would come to him a race of white people that would be his friends, and he must treat them kindly."

Mormon Elder

1849. When Wakara and Brigham Young met, the Ute chief invited the Mormons to move south to settle on his lands. One year later, Wakara was baptized by Manti settler Isaac Morley. In 1851 Wakara and other chiefs were brought to Salt Lake, ordained elders, and told they now had "power and authority from the Great Spirit."

Slaver

1851. Wakara was given a "talking paper" by George A. Smith, certifying "that Captain Walker and Peteetneet of the Eutah Indians and their band have resided here about 3 weeks and as they have showed themselves friends and gentlemen and are now leaving to visit your settlements it is my desire that they should be treated as friends, and as they wish to Trade horses, Buckskins and Piede children, we hope them success and prosperity and good bargains."

The endorsement of child slavery did not last long. The Ute band had been preying on weaker tribes, stealing their children or buying them with horses, which were prized as food. On the Mexico-California market, young boys were worth $100; girls brought as much as $200. Shortly before the territorial legislature passed an anti- slavery bill, Brigham Young declared in the Deseret News, January 10, 1852, "Human flesh to be dealt in as property is not consistent or compatible with the principles of government."

"Captain Walker"

1853. Wakara's disaffection over the slavery issue festered into open rebellion during a ten-month war. The "Walker War" resulted in the massacre of twenty white men, including Captain John W. Gunnison and seven members of his U.S. government survey team near Fillmore. After the fledgling territorial government expended some $200,000 in an attempt to quell the outbreak, Governor Young sent a letter proposing peace to "Capt. Walker":

"I send you some tobacco for you to smoke in the mountains when you get lonesome. You are a fool for fighting your best friends, for we are the best friends, and the only friends that you have in the world. Everybody else would kill you if they could get a chance. … When you get good natured again I would like to see you. Don't you think you should be ashamed? You know that I have always been your best friend."

Wakara replied, "Tell Brother Brigham, we have smoked the tobacco he sent us in the pipe of peace; I want to be at peace, and be a brother to him."

"That is all right," Brother Brigham responded. "But it is truly characteristic of the cunning Indian, when he finds he cannot get advantage over his enemy, to curl down at once, and say, I love you."

Peace was arranged in May, 1854. At the war's conclusion, Wakara denied ever personally killing a white man. President Young officially exonerated "Indian Walker" of responsibility for "the foundation of the difficulties," stating in general conference that he personally could vouch that at the "very commencement of the fuss, he [Wakara] was not in favour of killing whites."

"Mrs. Walker"

George A. Smith claimed that before the Walker war "Walker himself… teased me for a white wife; and if any of the sisters will volunteer to marry him, I believe I can close the war forthwith…. If any lady wishes to be Mrs. Walker, if she will report herself to me, I will agree to negotiate the match."

The "Potato Saint" had no takers. At the conclusion of [p.375] the war Wakara approached Brigham Young, who advised, "If you can find one that will give her consent you may marry her." Rejected by two Manti women, the sulking chief retreated to his winter campground, lamenting that "Brigham did not know how to use a chief like him for when he came down [to Salt Lake City] Brigham would not allow him a squaw to sleep with like the Moquintches and Navajos."

Death

1855. Wakara wintered on Meadow Creek near Fillmore, Utah. During a heated tribal gambling session, the chief ruptured a blood vessel in his neck. This led to a general weakening and ultimately the development of "lung fever"—probably pneumonia.

Brigham Young, on hearing of the illness, sent David Lewis to deliver a letter to the Ute camp. Wakara was so sick he had to be supported on his horse to receive the emissary. Lewis promised to return the next day to read President Young's letter. But during the night the forty- four-year-old chief died.

Horrified settlers discovered the next day that his death had triggered ritual slaying of Piede slaves. At least two women and two children, plus twelve or fifteen of Wakara's best Spanish horses, were killed to accompany him to the spirit world.

Wakara was entombed with blankets, rifles, robes, buckskin clothing, cooking utensils, and bows and arrows, high on a mountainside above his winter camp. The unread letter from Brigham Young was placed on his body.

Most accounts of the burial agree that a slave boy was sealed alive in the tomb of aspen logs and boulders, with instructions to "watch Wakara." Three days later a group of Wakara's braves, inspecting the area, ignored pleas of the thirst-crazed boy, who complained that Wakara was "beginning to stink."

The authors rediscovered the gravesite on Walker Mountain above Meadow, Utah, in 1979. It had previously been found by Charles Kelly in 1946, whose Indian guide related the grave had been robbed in 1909 of every "single bead."

Sources
Bailey, Paul. Wakara: Hawk of the Mountains. Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1954.
Brooks, Juanita. "Indian Relations on the Mormon Frontier." Utah Historical Quarterly 12 (January 1944):6.
Gottfredson, Peter. Indian Depredations. Salt Lake City: Skelton Publishing Company, 1919.
Kelly, Charles. "We Found the Grave of the Utah Chief." The Desert Magazine, October 1946.
Neff, Andrew Love. History of Utah: 1847 to 1869. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1940.
Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS Church Archives. Journal History, 26 March 1850, 9 June 1851, 6 April 1854.
_____. Sanpitch Stake Historical Record.
_____. Brigham Young Office Journal, 29 January 1855.
Van Wagoner, Richard, and Walker, Steven C. "Chief Walker Revisited." Utah Holiday, September 1981, pp. 57-63.

	A Book of Mormons Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker Copyright 1982, Signature Books Salt Lake City, Utah Contents


	Chief Walker (1801-1855)

				Chief Walker was the "Hawk of the Mountains," a Mormon Elder, and friend of Brigham Young. Photograph courtesy LDS Church Archives.


	Family Background 1808. Wakara was born on the banks of Pequirarynoquint ("Stinking River"—the Spanish Fork) near the present Spanish Fork, Utah, to Timpanogos Ute parents. His name, which means "yellow," was anglicized to "Walker." Wakara's father, a member of the band that had wel- comed Spanish explorers Escalante and Dominquez to Utah Valley in 1776, was killed early in Wakara's life during a tribal feud. Walker tried to kill his own aged mother when she became a burden, but "she was a quick, wiry, plucky little creature and though well advanced in years, after receiving several severe cuts, and bruises at his hands, any one of which would have ended a common mortal's career, made good her escape, and remained hidden among the bullrushes of Sanpitch swamps." "Hawk of the Mountains" Wakara earned the name "Hawk of the Mountains" and his position as chief through his skills as a horse thief. His legendary raiding parties into California and Mexico also won him the nickname "Napoleon of the Desert." He looked the part, "attired in a suit of the finest broadcloth, cut in the latest fashion," and complemented by "a cambric shirt and a beaver hat." White settlers viewed Wakara as "a fine figure of a man ·.. a crack shot, a rough rider, and a great judge of horse flesh. He is very clever, in our sense of the word. He is a peculiarly eloquent master of the graceful alphabet of pantomime, which stranger tribes employ to communicate with one another. He has picked up some English, and is familiar with Spanish and several Indian tongues." Friend of Brigham Young 1847. When Brigham Young declared Salt Lake Valley "the right place" for Mormon pioneers, Wakara's band was camped seventy miles southeast in Spanish Fork Canyon. Ute tradition holds that Wakara attempted to incite a band of young firebrands to oppose white settlement; his elder brother, the wise Sowiette, needed a horsewhip to drive home the finer points of his argument opposing violence. Mormon tradition has it, however, that Wakara had envisioned the coming of white people: "He died and his spirit went to heaven. He saw the Lord sitting upon a throne dressed in white. The Lord told him he could not stay, he had to return to earth, that there would come to him a race of white people that would be his friends, and he must treat them kindly." Mormon Elder 1849. When Wakara and Brigham Young met, the Ute chief invited the Mormons to move south to settle on his lands. One year later, Wakara was baptized by Manti settler Isaac Morley. In 1851 Wakara and other chiefs were brought to Salt Lake, ordained elders, and told they now had "power and authority from the Great Spirit." Slaver 1851. Wakara was given a "talking paper" by George A. Smith, certifying "that Captain Walker and Peteetneet of the Eutah Indians and their band have resided here about 3 weeks and as they have showed themselves friends and gentlemen and are now leaving to visit your settlements it is my desire that they should be treated as friends, and as they wish to Trade horses, Buckskins and Piede children, we hope them success and prosperity and good bargains." The endorsement of child slavery did not last long. The Ute band had been preying on weaker tribes, stealing their children or buying them with horses, which were prized as food. On the Mexico-California market, young boys were worth $100; girls brought as much as $200. Shortly before the territorial legislature passed an anti- slavery bill, Brigham Young declared in the Deseret News, January 10, 1852, "Human flesh to be dealt in as property is not consistent or compatible with the principles of government." "Captain Walker" 1853. Wakara's disaffection over the slavery issue festered into open rebellion during a ten-month war. The "Walker War" resulted in the massacre of twenty white men, including Captain John W. Gunnison and seven members of his U.S. government survey team near Fillmore. After the fledgling territorial government expended some $200,000 in an attempt to quell the outbreak, Governor Young sent a letter proposing peace to "Capt. Walker": "I send you some tobacco for you to smoke in the mountains when you get lonesome. You are a fool for fighting your best friends, for we are the best friends, and the only friends that you have in the world. Everybody else would kill you if they could get a chance. … When you get good natured again I would like to see you. Don't you think you should be ashamed? You know that I have always been your best friend." Wakara replied, "Tell Brother Brigham, we have smoked the tobacco he sent us in the pipe of peace; I want to be at peace, and be a brother to him." "That is all right," Brother Brigham responded. "But it is truly characteristic of the cunning Indian, when he finds he cannot get advantage over his enemy, to curl down at once, and say, I love you." Peace was arranged in May, 1854. At the war's conclusion, Wakara denied ever personally killing a white man. President Young officially exonerated "Indian Walker" of responsibility for "the foundation of the difficulties," stating in general conference that he personally could vouch that at the "very commencement of the fuss, he [Wakara] was not in favour of killing whites." "Mrs. Walker" George A. Smith claimed that before the Walker war "Walker himself… teased me for a white wife; and if any of the sisters will volunteer to marry him, I believe I can close the war forthwith…. If any lady wishes to be Mrs. Walker, if she will report herself to me, I will agree to negotiate the match." The "Potato Saint" had no takers. At the conclusion of [p.375] the war Wakara approached Brigham Young, who advised, "If you can find one that will give her consent you may marry her." Rejected by two Manti women, the sulking chief retreated to his winter campground, lamenting that "Brigham did not know how to use a chief like him for when he came down [to Salt Lake City] Brigham would not allow him a squaw to sleep with like the Moquintches and Navajos." Death 1855. Wakara wintered on Meadow Creek near Fillmore, Utah. During a heated tribal gambling session, the chief ruptured a blood vessel in his neck. This led to a general weakening and ultimately the development of "lung fever"—probably pneumonia. Brigham Young, on hearing of the illness, sent David Lewis to deliver a letter to the Ute camp. Wakara was so sick he had to be supported on his horse to receive the emissary. Lewis promised to return the next day to read President Young's letter. But during the night the forty- four-year-old chief died. Horrified settlers discovered the next day that his death had triggered ritual slaying of Piede slaves. At least two women and two children, plus twelve or fifteen of Wakara's best Spanish horses, were killed to accompany him to the spirit world. Wakara was entombed with blankets, rifles, robes, buckskin clothing, cooking utensils, and bows and arrows, high on a mountainside above his winter camp. The unread letter from Brigham Young was placed on his body. Most accounts of the burial agree that a slave boy was sealed alive in the tomb of aspen logs and boulders, with instructions to "watch Wakara." Three days later a group of Wakara's braves, inspecting the area, ignored pleas of the thirst-crazed boy, who complained that Wakara was "beginning to stink." The authors rediscovered the gravesite on Walker Mountain above Meadow, Utah, in 1979. It had previously been found by Charles Kelly in 1946, whose Indian guide related the grave had been robbed in 1909 of every "single bead." Sources Bailey, Paul. Wakara: Hawk of the Mountains. Los Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1954. Brooks, Juanita. "Indian Relations on the Mormon Frontier." Utah Historical Quarterly 12 (January 1944):6. Gottfredson, Peter. Indian Depredations. Salt Lake City: Skelton Publishing Company, 1919. Kelly, Charles. "We Found the Grave of the Utah Chief." The Desert Magazine, October 1946. Neff, Andrew Love. History of Utah: 1847 to 1869. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1940. Salt Lake City, Utah. LDS Church Archives. Journal History, 26 March 1850, 9 June 1851, 6 April 1854. _____. Sanpitch Stake Historical Record. _____. Brigham Young Office Journal, 29 January 1855. Van Wagoner, Richard, and Walker, Steven C. "Chief Walker Revisited." Utah Holiday, September 1981, pp. 57-63.