Russian Atrocities? We've Done'em Too

By some fluke of chance, while I'm watching the news about Russian atrocities in Ukraine I'm also reading a book by a Professor of History at the Un. of Nebraska that focuses on the brutal atrocities of white settlers on native people. Generally, we think of the "Westward Movement" as wagon trains moving with great difficulty over the plains, desserts and mountains. Native oral history records this as a series of massacres by white people of native people. It included brutal murders of thousands of peaceful women and children. 

There were newspapers at the time of these massacres but they barely mentioned them. It was simply something that happened to less-than-human people and not important. 

The atrocity story spilled over into religion. We all know the story of the Mormons traveling across the country and settling in what is now Utah. A large group settled in the Salt Lake City area. After a few generations their population grew and the consensus was a group needed to expand to a new area. The new families went north about 80 miles north to the Cache Valley. 

A branch of the Shoshone Indians had lived there for as long as anyone could remember. They lived by hunting, fishing and some crops. 

The Mormons moved in with 4,000 head of cattle. They first blocked off access the water the Shoshones had use for generations. Then they hunted and fished in areas of the Shoshone and depleted the deer and other food sources. According to accounts passed down the Shoshones eventually were starving and desperate. They began taking cattle and whatever they could find for food. According to oral history they said their choices were to starve, beg or steal and all were done.

The Shoshone annoyed the Brigham Young. He complained to politicians the Shoshone were a nuisance and he wanted them gone. This message was passed from politicians to the military who had troops in the area. The military had not seen combat for a while and were eager for some excitement. 

On January 29 when the Shoshone were waiting out the winter the U.S. military carried out what is called the Bear River Massacre. Women, children and men were all killed, only a few escaped. A white settler watched from a ridge above the battle and wrote to relatives he saw soldiers swing infants by the feet and bashing their heads. "Indian men, women and children were being butchered like rabbits." 

The San Francisco Chronical had two sentences about the event. It said 250 Indians had been killed. Since it was winter and the ground frozen, the victorious soldiers did not bother with the bodies. They were left on top of the ground and never moved to this day. It is thought they were eventually covered by dust. 

There has never been a careful documentation of how many massacres were carried out by the U.S. forces in the Westward Movement. Some historians estimate there were hundreds.

We have the moral high ground in Ukraine. I wish we, a "Christian Nation," had always had it.