The Bear River Massacre and the Mormon History Behind Washakie Ward

The Bear River Massacre is the deadliest massacre of Indigenous people by the United States military in American history, and most of us were never taught about it.

This week on What Do You Know Wednesday, Jess walks Hannah through the history behind the LDS Church’s new digital resource, Native Saints: The Washakie Ward, and the much older history underneath it.

On January 29, 1863, Colonel Patrick Edward Connor and roughly 200 California volunteers attacked a Northwestern Shoshone winter village near Bear River, killing somewhere between 250 and 400 Shoshone men, women, and children.

Mormon settlers had moved into Cache Valley, taken land and water the Northwestern Shoshone had lived on for generations, and territorial officials called in the military when the Shoshone fought back.

Ten years later, Chief Sagwitch and many surviving members of his band converted to Mormonism. They helped build the Logan Temple on land they considered sacred, paid tithing, held callings, built homes, raised families, and lived for decades in the Washakie settlement.

Then, in the 1960s, church representatives decided the settlement was abandoned and burned homes to prepare the land for sale. Some of those homes were still occupied.

We talk about Bear River, Washakie Ward, Mountain Meadows, the church’s persecution narrative, and what gets remembered when the institution controls the archive.

Sorry for what we said when we were Mormon.

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