The Black Hawk War, or Black Hawk's War, comprised an estimated 150 battles, skirmishes, raids, and military engagements taking place from 1865 to 1872, primarily between Mormon settlers in Sanpete County, Sevier County and other parts of central and southern Utah, and members of 16 Ute, Southern Paiute, Apache and Navajo tribes, led by a local Ute war chief, Antonga Black Hawk. The conflict resulted in the abandonment of some settlements and hindered Mormon expansion in the region.
The years 1865 to 1867 were by far the most intense of the conflict, though intermittent conflict occurred until federal troops intervened in 1872. The Utah Territory spent $1.5 million on the war (equivalent to $36.28 million in 2025), and later requested reimbursement from the United States Government.
Causes
Both parties wanted the land, but by the time the war started each side likely believed that both cultures could no longer live together peacefully. They had tried to live in harmony since about 1849 when Mormon pioneers settled in Manti and joined the Sanpits tribe in the Sanpete valley. However, within a few years of 1849 there were sporadic acts of aggression on both sides leading up to the war. In 1865 a violent argument between Ute Chief Jake Arapeen and settler John Lowry Jr. in Manti marked the official beginning of the open warfare between the natives and the settlers,
John A. Peterson describes his point of view of the time:
Latter-day Saints considered themselves in a state of open warfare. They built scores of forts [such as Willden Fort] and deserted dozens of settlements while hundreds of Mormon militiamen chased their illusive [sic] adversaries through the wilderness with little success. Requests for a federal troops went unheeded for eight years. Unable to distinguish differences between tribesmen, frustrated Mormons indiscriminately killed Indians, including women and children".
Ever since Mormon pioneers fled into Utah Valley in 1848 and built their fort at Provo, the Timpanogos Ute bands had been pushed aside by settlers' demands for grazing land and farmland. Frustrations on both sides led to several short battles. After the Battle at Fort Utah in 1850, the Walker War in 1853–1854, and the Tintic War in 1856, Mormon leaders persuaded the Ute leaders to stop hostilities when the losses incurred by Utes were compensated with food, presents, and promises of future friendship.
Utes had survived with the geography and harsh climate of Utah for centuries, but white settlement destroyed this. Ute bands in Utah's central valleys were pushed out of traditional hunting and foraging areas by Mormon towns, farms, and livestock, resulting in some Ute bands starving. Cattle or horses put out to graze by the settlers were occasionally taken as a kind of "rent" payment for the settlers' use of the land where Utes had lived for centuries. During the Black Hawk War, chief Black Hawk and allies made a business out of taking thousands of heads of livestock, transporting them out of Utah Territory and selling or trading them for goods and money with brokers. Some suggest that Black Hawk believed that the loss of livestock was the quickest way to interfere with the growth of settlements.
Native American culture included sharing of cattle, while the settlers' culture involved the buying and selling of land. Coexistence and compromise seemed unattainable.
Settler version of causes
From the Mormon settlers' point of view there were several reasons to go to war, they were chased out of New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois due to their controversial religious beliefs. They were seeking refuge to continue practicing their beliefs and came upon the Utah territory, wishing to create a colony for LDS beliefs, a sanctuary to practice polygamy outside of federal jurisdiction. Once the Settlers began occupying more land they viewed Utes as a threat to their future colony, because in 1849 Chief Walkara offered the ground to the settlers, they believed the land now belonged to them. This misunderstanding was exacerbated by religious beliefs that Native Americans were descended from the main antagonists in the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites. Settlers began intruding and taking over land that was occupied and used by tribes, destroying pastures by not understanding proper grazing and agriculture irrigation. This resulted in some bands starving and unable to feed themselves, leading them to steal horses or livestock from the Settlers.
On Saturday April 8, 1865, Ute war chief Black Hawk and Chief Jake Arapeen (also known as Chief Yene-wood, successor to Chief Wah-Kara of the Timpanogous tribe) the son of Chief Arapeen (senior), and a group of other Utes appeared to attend a council meeting in Manti near the present day elementary school. The whites had expected the Utes came to settle differences for 15 cattle that had been killed (one of which belonged to John Lowry), but Arapeen demanded restitution for his father's recent death to smallpox in the winter 1864–1865 epidemic. Utes believed settlers were using supernatural means to dispose of natives. Utes also thought they could stop the sickness and death by destroying white leaders. Settler John Lowry, an interpreter for the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Utah, believed in being peaceful and friendly when friendship was possible and had learned Ute and Shoshone languages. However, he also believed the settlers could survive only if they were quick to punish for the loss of cattle and to revenge the death of their friends.
Lowry, who may have been drunk, claimed to be protecting an unarmed family and himself; Chief Arapeen began to argue back. Chief Sow-ok-soo-bet and Toquana, Chief Sowiette's son reminded Arapeen that the Mormons had often helped the natives with food and clothing, and urged a peaceful settlement of the issue. Arapeen set an arrow to his bow; Lowry instantly grabbed Arapeen by the hair and dragged him from his horse. There was a brief scuffle in the dirt and anxious associates on both sides dragged the two apart. Arapeen was badly beaten. Utes at this point had endured 15 years of white encroachment and 10 years of reservation life. Two days after this incident, a small group of riders from Manti was ambushed at Nine Mile and Peter Ludvingson was killed.
Ute version of causes
The causes from a Ute perspective were given in the words of Chief Walkara in an interview with interpreter M. S. Martinas 1853. "He (Walkara) said that he had always been opposed to the whites settling on the Indian lands, particularly that portion which he claims; and on which his band resides and on which they have resided since his childhood, and his parents before him. The Mormons, when they first commenced the settlement of Salt Lake Valley, was friendly, and promised them many comforts, and lasting friendship—that they continued friendly for a short time, until they became strong in numbers, then their conduct and treatment towards the Indians changed—they were not only treated unkindly, but many were much abused and this course has been pursued up to the present—sometimes they have been treated with much severity—they have been driven by this population from place to place—settlements have been made on all their hunting grounds in the valleys, and the graves of their fathers have been torn up by the whites."
This contrasts with the report of Chief Walkara's meeting with Brigham Young in 1849 when Walkara offered his summer hunting ground in Sanpete for white settlement. One likely reason for this invitation was for Walkara to obtain cattle to feed his people.
Many of the attacks against the settlers were in retaliation for broken promises, mistreatment, or other acts that injured or killed Utes in the constant interaction between whites and Utes between the late 1849 and the 1873. For example, Richard Ivie's father was murdered outside Scipio for Richard's murder of a Ute nicknamed Old Bishop in Utah Valley sixteen years earlier.
The Native American version recognizes that the incident at Manti was not the single cause of the war but rather was the last of several events that had built up anger and frustration of the natives since 1849. Some of these events included the murder of Black Hawk's family at Battle Creek 1849 (which John Lowry was involved in), the killing of 70 of his kin including beheadings at Fort Utah in 1850, the Bear River Massacre in 1863 (which did not involve Mormons), and the "Squaw Fight" Grass valley massacre in 1865. In addition there was a local drought in 1864, and the food shortage in Mormon settlements and the US Indian agent's failure to provide enough supplies to Utes on the new Uintah Reservation brought many native bands to the brink of starvation. It is believed that Ute leaders, especially Chief Black Hawk, were aware that within a few years life as they knew it was about to end, creating "reservations" for tribes was a death sentence. Chief Black Hawk's personal agony was due to his people becoming increasingly famished, sick, and their alarming death rate while being forced to live in the conditions of the reservations. Typically tribes were given the least habitable areas within Utah territory, making livestock or agriculture impossible.
Black Hawk had personally experienced the settlers' distrust and contempt for his people. He had been beaten for a supposed theft with a bucket; his family members had been shot, and supposedly their heads taken as trophies in the Fort Utah War. He had been forced to lead Mormon militia against his own people. He was not alone; other natives had badly suffered physical and emotional torment due to white settlers who were on their lands.
Timeline
Events leading up to War
- 1849 - Chief Walker (Walkara) met with Brigham Young to offer summer hunting ground for White settlement (Misinterpretation)
- 1849- The Murder of Black Hawk's family at Battle Creek (which John Lowry was involved in)
- November 1849 - Settlers arrive in Sanpete ill-prepared. Natives take settlers' livestock that is left out in snow.
- 1850 - The Killing of 70 of Black Hawk's kin which included beheadings in Fort Utah
- 2 January 1852 - H.R. Day, an Indian agent for the district, writes in a letter the growing feeling of the Utes' doom because of settler encroachment on hunting grounds.
- April 1853 - Mexican slave traders prohibited by Sanpete Mormons from trading with Utes
- July 1853–May 1854 - Walker's War started and settled outside Sanpete
- October 1, 1853 - Four unarmed men hauling wheat from Manti to Salt Lake City were mutilated at Uintah Springs (now Fountain Green) in what is known as the Fountain Green Massacre.
- 4 October 1853 - Two men, John Ely Warner and William Mills killed at grist mill near Manti.
- October 1853 - Party of Captain John Gunnison massacred near Fillmore.
- 6 January 1854 Allred's Settlement (now Spring City) was burned down. Settlers moved and founded Ephraim.
- 12 May 1854 - Chief Walkara and Brigham Young make peace settlement in Juab County.
- 1855 - Walkara died. His brother Arapeen succeeded Walkara as chief.
- 1855 - Garland Hurt, and Indian agent for the district urged natives to rapidly adopt culture and economy of white men.
- 1855 - Twelve Mile Creek Indian reservation formed in Mayfield.
- 23 December 1855 - Chief Arapeen deeds the land of his fathers to Brigham Young in Ephraim in hopes of permanent peace.
- November 1857 - Twelve Mile Creek Reservation reported as thriving.
- 4 June 1858 - Sanpitch Native Americans massacred 4 unarmed Danish travelers (Jens Jergensen, his pregnant wife Hedevig Marie Jensen Jorgensen, Jens Terklesen, and Christian I. Kjerluf) in the Salt Creek Canyon massacre.
- 29 January 1863 - Bear River Massacre. Five hundred thirty-one Shoshone people were slain by the U.S. army, just north of the Utah-Idaho border.
- 1864 - Twelve Mile Creek Reservation dissolved when Native Americans had stopped maintenance.
- 1864 - Act of Congress required Utes to give up all land and title rights and move to Uintah Reservation within a year.
- 1864–1865 (winter) - Smallpox epidemic sweeps through Ute band. Chief Arapeen (senior) was among casualties.
- July 18, 1865 - The Grass Valley Massacre, The Old Timpanogos Chief Was Beheaded, U.S soldiers then surrounded the camp and opened fire on the tribe killing women, men, and children.