Brigham Young—Paiute Chiefs

Brigham Young—Paiute Chiefs describes an unequal, tactical relationship formed as Young prepared for the arrival of federal troops in Utah. Young interpreted the Paiutes through The Book of Mormon’s Lamanite redemption prophecy, but his effort to recruit them also relied on material inducements. The September 1, 1857, conference in Great Salt Lake City made that tension concrete: Young offered the emigrant cattle on the Old Spanish Trail, including the prize herd of the Fancher wagon train, as he sought to turn the chiefs and their warriors against the emigrants.

Prophecy and Military Strategy

Young had known for more than a month that federal troops were on their way, but withheld the news until Pioneer Day, July 24, for dramatic effect. He had spent much of the preceding year stockpiling arms and drilling the Nauvoo Legion; after announcing the coming invasion, he accelerated preparations. Rallying Utah’s Indigenous people to the Mormon cause became a cornerstone of his defense strategy.

The religious rationale came from The Book of Mormon. Its account presented North American Indians as descendants of the Lamanites, an ancient Israelite people who had rejected Jesus and fought the Nephites. Young believed scripture foretold that the Lamanites would be converted, become a white and delightsome people, and join the Mormons in defeating the Gentiles before the Great and Dreadful Day of the Lord. From the Saints’ arrival in the Great Salt Lake Valley, he had regarded their location among the Lamanites as evidence that this prophecy was approaching fulfillment. In his view, recruiting the Paiutes could serve both an immediate military purpose and a sacred history leading toward the Second Coming.

An Alliance on Unequal Terms

The Paiutes did not necessarily share Young’s understanding of their role. The account distinguishes his expectation of divinely ordained allies from their more conditional dealings with the Mormons: some were willing to act as mercenaries in exchange for a share of plunder, but they did not consider the Saints their allies. They regarded Young and the Mormons as the lesser of two evils, and sometimes not even that. The relation was therefore not a settled partnership but a contingent arrangement shaped by competing interests.

When the spoils made cooperation worthwhile, Paiute raiders drove off horses and cattle belonging to Gentile emigrants; the animals sometimes later appeared in Mormon corrals. Young’s hopes that the Lamanites would become the Lord’s battle axe exceeded what the account says they were willing to do. Yet when the Mormons could induce them to act, their participation gave Young a potent means of attacking Gentiles without making the Paiutes reliable or willing religious allies.

The September Conference

On the evening of September 1, Young met with Paiute chiefs in Great Salt Lake City. The conference lasted about an hour, with his son-in-law Dimick B. Huntington interpreting. According to Huntington’s notes, Young gave the chiefs all the emigrant cattle on the Old Spanish Trail. The offer included the Fancher train’s prized herd, which the Paiutes had seen and coveted a week earlier, when their party had camped near the southbound wagon train. Young’s message was an appeal to attack the emigrants, made tangible through the promised cattle.

The chiefs left the next morning at first light and rode hard toward southern Utah. Three days later, according to John D. Lee, Isaac Haight ordered him to gather the chiefs who had met with Young, arm their warriors, and lead an ambush on the Fancher train. Lee said Haight described the directive as the will of everyone in authority. This account places Young’s conference within a wider chain of preparation and orders, while distinguishing his offer and appeal from the subsequent instructions Lee attributed to Haight.

Significance of the Relationship

The relationship exposes the gap between Young’s prophetic framework and the practical terms on which he sought Indigenous cooperation. He could imagine the Paiutes as participants in a divinely promised transformation, but the conference’s immediate instrument was a valuable herd of cattle. Scripture furnished the meaning he assigned to alliance; plunder furnished an inducement. The resulting connection was consequential precisely because it was neither the united religious partnership Young anticipated nor an alliance the Paiutes themselves necessarily recognized.