Paiute Indians Research Paper

The Mountain meadows massacre was a series of attacks on the Baker-Fancher emigrant wagon train, at Mountain meadows in southern utah. The attacks began on september 7 and culminated on September 11, 1857, resulting in the mass slaughter of the emigrant party by members of the Utah Territorial Militia from the Iron County district, together with some paiute native americans. The militia, officially called the Nauvoo, was composed of southern Utah's mormon settlers (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). Intending to leave no witnesses and thus prevent reprisals, the perpetrators killed all the adults and older children-about 120 men, women, and children in total. Seventeen children, all younger than seven were spared.

The 19th century was a time where the idea of manifest destiny swept through the American nation. Filling the minds of men and women of the united states, fueling the ideas of moving west for land and prosperity. Americans sought to extend the United States territory from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast, seeing it as their god given right to obtain the land. Nearly seven million Americans embarked on that long and treacherous journey west. On this excursion, the travelers would face rugged terrain, harsh weather conditions, savage Indians, and robbers. Although millions of the travelers made it to their destinations unscathed, not all were so fortunate. One of the most tragic recorded incidences during this western expansion was that of the Donner Party. This group of pioneers, due to false information and bad judgment, became stranded on the Sierra Nevada mountain during the winter of 1846 and were forced to turn to cannibalism to survive.

The migration to the Great Salt Lake was an excruciating journey, spanning thousands of miles. When the Mormons reached the Great Salt Lake they understood why no one had settled on the land before. Vast amounts of acres and a large body of water mean nothing when the land is dry and water undrinkable. To remedy their problems, the Mormons set up a water irrigation system to filter the lake water into a usable source. They acclimated to the land and understood that time would be needed to cultivate the soil, which they successfully restored,

People know about the conflict between the Indian's cultures and the settler's cultures during the westward expansion. Many people know the fierce battles and melees between the Indians and the settlers that were born from this cultural conflict. In spite of this, many people may not know about the systematic and deliberate means employed by the U.S. government to permanently rid their new land of the Indians who had lived their own lives peacefully for many years. There are many strong and chilling reasons and causes as to why the settlers started all of this perplexity in the first place. There was also a very strong and threatening impact on the Native Americans

As massacres go, the loss of eight people was not numerically remarkable. What made the Gunnison Massacre exceptional is that it catapulted into the American conscious. Both Mormons and American Indians entered the spotlight of American attention, and the resulting outrage forever changed American sentiment and government

It held many struggles and disagreements, which lead to many retaliations, from both the Indians and the settlers. The Indians had been alliances with the white men until the massacre, which stated the settlers betrayal to all tribes.

Many Christian missionaries tried to force Native American people to abandon traditional religious beliefs and practices (Mayo, 33). Christian missionaries would sometimes launch attacks on Native American religious institutions when forcing them to convert to Christianity did not work. These harmful attacks destroyed not only their temples and religious artifacts, but also a huge part of their culture.

September 7, 1857, the emigrants of the Fancher-Baker train were just awakening and preparing for the day when gunshots were sounded. The emigrants were caught by surprise and immediately fortified themselves with their wagons. For days they were harassed, lacking food and water. Finally a Mormon leader by the name of John D. Lee came to them with a white flag. The Fancher-Baker party was desperate

We expected Whitman Mission to be a nice place to stock up on food, but this place was burned down to the ground. There was one wagon train about to leave but we stopped them and asked them what had happened. They said that the Indians burned it down because of a disease that killed off a lot of Indians. They didn't want anyone else catching the disease. The Indians were the only ones not immune to this disease. We didn't stay here for long because we were scared they would burn us too. We headed to Oregon City. It was going to be tough and we would probably start to run low on supplies. We reached Dalles where we stayed for one day. Then we headed out and followed the Barlow Road that goes around Mt.Hood. This trail is very narrow and rough.

2.Route danger&poorly supplied(mt&river),worst in way toward CA-(Sierra Nevada-Donner party- cannibalism)-wagons endangered by illness&accident-Indian attack-few, but white

Later on, as more colonists came to the new world, even more Indians were killed. When missionaries tried to convert the Indians, there were miscommunications over the teachings, which lead to even more deaths. When pictures of Mary and other religious symbols were given to the Native Americans, they buried them so as to ask God for a good harvest. The colonists interpreted this as denying the Christian faith, and therefore burned the Indians at the stake, so as to purify their souls. The actions of the missionaries and other colonists were so evil that when an Indian was being burned at the stake, he “asked the Franciscan friar if Christians all went to Heaven. When told that they did, [the Indian] said he would prefer to go to Hell.” The horrible atrocities that the European settlers brought upon the Indians were awful. It decimated the population, leaving less than one tenth of the Indians living compared to the amount before Columbus found America.

In the early 1800’s, the United States had an escalating number of settlers looking to conquer and create new lives in the West. Many also joined the movement inspired by Manifest Destiny, the idea that the land between the Atlantic and Pacific was American therefore should be established by settlers. A group traveling westward as part of the movement in 1846 suffered sorrow at every turn consequently ending in the 34 casualties of 87 original settlers. This group was led by Jacob and George Donner, later the pioneers inherited the name the Donner Party. In the Spring of 1846 the settlers left Springfield, Illinois and pursued a route that was supposedly a shorter course for California. After multiple delays the Donner Party became caught in many snowstorms high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. As a result the group reduced to cannibalism to survive the harsh winters. Despite the dangerous trek ahead, the Donner Party traveled westward in hopes of creating new lives in California, they also traveled in aspirations of finding jobs

The Washoe and Paiute tribe’s lives changed with the influx of settlers that came with the Comstock mining rush. Nevada being a desert had limited resources and the settlers came in and started using them without care. The whites cut down pine trees that were a food source to the tribes, they dug big holes while mining for minerals, and they hunted the game of the area. The use of these limited resources caused tension between the whites and the Indians and settlers.

The first to fall victim to this act, were the Choctaw tribe. They had accepted the relocation treaties and began their march on foot. Between 2,500 and 6,000 died from this journey. Chief of the Choctaw referred to this journey as a “ Trail of Tears and death.”