EXHIBITS
I Remember When . . . : Memories and Moments in Mendon, Utah: Shoshone History in Cache Valley
Shoshone History in Cache Valley
The Northwestern Band of Shoshone (or Newe, meaning, “the people”) and their ancestors have a deep connection with the lands in northern Utah and southeastern Idaho. The first remembrances of the area around modern-day Mendon begin with those from members of this band.
The Band of Northwestern Shoshone located in Cache Valley were known as the Pangwiduka (fish eaters). When Mormon settlers came to Cache Valley, they encountered two bands of the Pangwiduka. One, under Sanpits, included 124 members, and the other, under Sagwich, included 158. Chief Bear Hunter was a cousin of Chief Sagwitch and a longtime companion. These two chiefs and their bands traveled together most of the time and they counseled and made decisions together. In difficult times, they shared their provisions with each other.
Sagwich, Beawoachee (Sagwich’s last wife), the widow of Bear Hunter, Lehi, Pocatello, and Sanpitch are all important Shoshone historical figures. They were involved in the U.S. military action against the Shoshone known as the Bear River Massacre or the Battle of Bear River. All but seven of Bear Hunter’s band died.
In 1938, anthropologist Julian Steward (1970) interviewed Ray Diamond, a member of the Northwestern Band of Shoshone. Diamond told Steward that Kwa’gunogoi was a historic Newe settlement along the Logan River above its junction with the Little Bear River (Wuda = bear + ogwa = flowing river). Artifacts have been found within a five-mile radius—roughly drawn from the Logan-Little Bear confluence on the north, south to Pelican Pond, and west to the Mendon foothills. See the map to the left for the locations of these artifacts.
Willow Creek or Willow River
The Shoshone referred to Cache Valley as Sihiviogoi, which means Willow Creek or Willow River (Sihivi=willow + ogoi=river). Viewed from the mountain pass, Cache Valley is one of the most beautiful vales of the Rocky Mountain range. The land along the Bear River and its tributaries has an abundance of willows that the Shoshone used as wind and snowbreaks during winter. The Newe found Cache Valley richly fertile, producing excellent grass while the valley’s many marshes provided rich food resources. One acre of Typha latifolia (cattail) yields 10,792 pounds of harvestable roots and tubers which, when dried, can be ground into 5,500 pounds of flour. The nutritional value of this flour exceeds that of rice, wheat, and corn (Watkins and Timbimboo-Madsen 2019, 51).
Mendon, Utah (Locally Known Newe Encampment)
Old-timers in Mendon have found arrowheads in several areas in or near Mendon. The Fred Taylor family found arrowheads between 1930 and 1960 on the hill at the northeast entrance to Mendon, which today hosts a ninety-plus housing development called Pheasant Hollow. A collection of arrowheads, including a large projectile point, is in the possession of Laverna Taylor of Mendon.
The William Barrett family collected arrowheads from the foothills near First Cattle Guard on the National Forest Road south of town. Near a spring and creek, the area could have been an early spring greens, summer sunflower (aken), and rye grass (piasonippe) harvesting center (Watkins and Timbimboo-Madsen 2019, 52).
Written with the assistance of Paula Watkins, community scholar, and Patti Timbimboo-Madsen, cultural/natural resource manager for the Northwestern Band of Shoshone.
The Impact of Foreigners on the Shoshone
Through contact with the Spanish and through trade with neighboring tribes to the south and east, the Shoshone acquired horses, which greatly increased their foraging range. Horses quickly became a vital part of Shoshone culture, requiring them to adopt new techniques, such as slashing and burning the valley’s grasslands to better feed their livestock. When American explorers and trappers came to the area in the early 1800s, the Shoshone “actively sought and incorporated new goods and technology” (Heaton 1993, 28). The Shoshone and trappers in Cache Valley largely coexisted, building a prosperous relationship of trading arms and pelts. Albeit mutually beneficial, trapping significantly altered the valley’s environment, decreasing local animal populations and, eventually, driving them from the area. After the market for furs crashed in the 1830s, trappers left a much-depleted Cache Valley, which weakened the local Shoshone (Heaton 1993, 68).
Similarly, when Mormon settlers arrived in the 1850s, they further “eroded the dwindling resource base and homeland of the Shoshones and led to a deterioration of Indian/white relations” (Heaton 1993, 75). Brigham Young—prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 to 1877—told the settlers that it was cheaper and easier to “feed the Indians than to fight them” (Heaton 1993, 80). The settlers indeed assisted the Shoshone by providing food. It was a heavy yet necessary burden. Despite Young’s overtures for peace, small-scale violence and conflict still erupted, forcing settlers to move into better-protected forts to safeguard their crops and livestock (Peterson 1997, 41–45).
Subdued conflict gave way in January 1863 when the U.S. military attacked the Shoshone at their winter camp at Battle Creek, a tributary of the Bear River in southeastern Idaho. Ostensibly in retaliation for Shoshone incursions against overlanders like freight and mail carriers, the Bear River Massacre resulted in the deaths of 14 U.S. soldiers and at least 300 Shoshone and Bannock, including many women and children (Peterson 1997, 45).