Wakara

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Chief Wakara (also Walkara or Walker) (ca. 1808 - 1855) was a leader of a Ute Timpanogo band, with a reputation as a diplomat, horseman and warrior, and a military leader in the Walker War.

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[edit] Ute Leader

Wakara was born along the Spanish Fork River in what is now Utah, one of five sons of a chief of the Timpanogo band. He gathered a raiding band of warriors from Great Basin tribes, including Utes, Paiute and Shoshone. Walkara learned to speak English, Spanish and became fluent in several native dialects. His band raided ranches and attacked travelers in the Great Basin and along the Old Spanish Trail between New Mexico and California. Small native bands and tribes in the area paid him tribute in return for protection and assistance.

Wakara created a disciplined cavalry and organized effective raiding campaigns. Sections of his cavalry, under the leadership of his brothers and other trusted band members, were distinguished by appearance, adopting bright dyes and metal ornaments. Wakara's public name, translated as "yellow," was based on the yellow facepaint and yellow leather which he wore.

In California, Wakara was known as a great horse thief, primarily due to an 1840 campaign through the Cajon Pass into southern California which resulted in the capture of a large number of horses, with estimates ranging from several hundred to 3,000 horses. In some of these raids, the band fought Cahuilla leader Juan Antonio. Mountain men James Beckwourth and Thomas "Pegleg" Smith were involved in this campaign and were known to trade with Wakara, providing the band with whiskey in return for horses.

[edit] Relations with the Mormons

Wakara invited Latter-day Saint president Brigham Young to send Mormon colonists to the Sanpitch (now Sanpete) Valley. In 1849, Young dispatched a company of about 225 settlers, under the direction of Isaac Morley. The settlers arrived at the present location of Manti, Utah in November, and established a base camp for the winter, digging temporary shelters into the south side of the hill on which the LDS Manti Utah Temple now stands. It was an isolated place, at least four days by wagon from the nearest Mormon settlement. Relations between the Mormon settlers and the local Ute Indians were helpful and cooperative. Morley and his settlers felt that part of the purpose of the settlement was to bring the gospel to the Indians. Morley wrote, Did we come here to enrich ourselves in the things of this world? No. We were sent to enrich the Natives and comfort the hearts of the long oppressed. (May, p. 104) During the severe winter, a measles epidemic broke out and the Mormons used their limited medicine to nurse the Indians. When supplies ran low, Indians helped settlers haul food on sleds through the snow.

Wakara negotiated a trading relationship with the colony through Young, and, in 1850, allowed himself to be baptized into the Latter-day Saint religion. However, relations with the Mormon settlers deteriorated rapidly. Wakara's raiding lifestyle was under pressure from an increasing number of federal troops in the Great Basin and Southwest and from the expansion of Latter-day Saint settlements. Mormon settlers also strongly objected to the profitable traditional trade in native slaves and interfered in many transactions. In addition, Central and Southern Utah saw increasing numbers of non-Mormon trading expeditions and settlers traveling through the area. Some isolated natives were killed, and Wakara and other leaders became increasingly angry with the Mormons as well as the non-Mormon Americats.

[edit] Walker War

These pressures, additional measles epidemics in the 1850's, and the rise of competing bands of Shoshone raiders ultimately led to a brief conflict known as the Walker War. Local history attributes the outbreak of the war to Wakara's failure to acquire a Mormon wife. However, it more likely began with a July 1853 confrontation with settlers in Springville in Utah Valley which resulted in the death of several band members. The war primarily consisted of raids conducted against Mormon outposts in central and southern Utah. Casualties probably totaled twelve white settlers and an equally modest number of Indians. Young directed settlers to move from outlying farms and ranches and establish centralized forts for a passive defense.

The Walker War ended through an understanding negotiated between Young and Wakara during the winter of 1853 and finalized in May 1854 in Levan, near Nephi, Utah. In his contemporary work Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West (1857), photographer and artist Solomon N. Carvalho gives an account of the peace council held between Wakara, other native leaders in central Utah, and Brigham Young. Carvalho took the opportunity to persuade the Indian leader to pose for a portrait, now held by the Thomas Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Although immediate hostilities ended, none of the underlying conflicts were resolved. Wakara died in 1855, at Meadow Creek, Utah.

[edit] External link

[edit] References

  • Allen, James B. and Leonard, Glen M. "The Story of the Latter-day Saints." Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, 1976. ISBN 0-87747-594-6.
  • May, Dean L. Utah: A People's History. Bonneville Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1987. ISBN 0-87480-284-9.