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Reviews
Fort Limhi: The Mormon Adventure in Oregon Territory, 1855–1858
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By David L. Bigler
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Arthur H. Clark, Spokane, Wash., 2003. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 376 pages. $39.50 cloth.
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Reviewed by Thomas G. Alexander
Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
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| In 1855, as part of Brigham Young's design to proselytize among the American Indians, a party of settler-missionaries traveled into Oregon Territory. They settled among the Shoshones, Bannocks, and Nez Perces on the Lemhi River. Building Fort Limhi, they successfully proselytized among the Indians until February 25, 1858, when a force of Shoshones and Bannocks raided the settlement. These Numics stole virtually all the settlers' horses and cattle, killing two men and wounding five others in the process. The attack led to the abandonment of the settlement. In this first-class book, David L. Bigler provides a narrative and documents on the activities of the settlers, their relationship with the Native Americans, and the reasons for the abandonment. |
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When the Mormons first arrived, they established good relations with the Indians. Those relations deteriorated for a number of reasons. The settlers separated themselves by building a fort and cultivating crops. They refused to engage in conjugal relations with the Indians until Brigham Young told them to do so. The Indians regularly fished the stream as the salmon returned to spawn. The settlers irked the Indians by commercializing the fishing. Most significantly, relying on their interpretation of the Book of Mormon, the settlers expected the three tribes to share a common culture. In fact, the tribes distrusted each other; and, in particular, the Shoshone and Bannock tribes contended with the Nez Perce. |
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The raid seems to have followed, in part, from Mormon assistance to a starving band of Nez Perce. After they had eaten, the Nez Perces stole a large herd from the Numics in retaliation for previous rustling. Succeeding events are a bit unclear. Nevertheless, testimony from Ti-o-von-du-ah, a Lemhi Shoshone, supports the Mormon belief that a mountain man named John W. Powell incited the Indians. It is also possible that B.F. Ficklin, a government contractor purchasing cattle for the U.S. Army, may have assisted Powell. |
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Although such attacks presented problems for Euro-Americans throughout the West, this event could not have happened at a worse time. Charges leveled by federal officeholders led government officials in Washington, D.C., to conclude that the Mormons had rebelled against the government. President James Buchanan dispatched an army of twenty-five hundred men under Col. Albert Sidney Johnston to escort a new governor to Utah, marking the beginning of the Utah War of 1857–1858. While they engaged in active resistance against the army, the Mormons sought also places of refuge. Young examined a number of possibilities — including the Salmon River Country, the Beaverhead Valley of Montana, and the White Mountains of Nevada — as potential redoubts. |
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Additional events thwarted the Mormon plans to defend themselves or seek another redoubt. Young failed to cement alliances with the Shoshones, Utes, and Goshutes. Instead of helping the Mormons, in 1857 a number of Utes had assisted Indian Agent Garland Hurt. Shortly after the attack on Fort Limhi, rumors surfaced that Ben Simonds, a Delaware Indian mountain man, had mustered 250 Shoshones from Little Soldier's band to oppose the Mormons. Concurrently, Goshutes in Rush Valley southwest of Salt Lake City began to raid the settlers' herds. |
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Bigler may well be right in his belief that "Brigham Young's decision to evacuate the northern settlements and send his followers, men, women, and children, streaming south like refugees fleeing before an invading army was a direct consequence of the Indian raid on the Oregon settlement" (p. 277). Nevertheless, as Bigler notes, as early as August 1857 Young had begun to plan a policy of evacuating settlements and burning buildings, inspired by Russian tactics at Sebastopol during the Crimean War. Early in the war, Young had recalled settlers from southern California, Carson Valley, and Fort Bridger. The attack on Fort Limhi and deteriorating relationships with nearby Indians reduced the Mormons' alternatives. |
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By March 1858, the Mormons were left with little choice but to accept Col. Thomas L. Kane's offer to negotiate terms favorable to them. Kane succeeded in spite of Colonel Johnston's misgivings, because Governor Alfred Cumming accepted the Mormons' good faith. Whether the subsequent move south to Utah County resulted from their fear of a recurrence of the abuse and murder they had suffered in Missouri and Illinois or from an effort to publicize their plight, the Mormons left northern Utah and Johnston's army marched through a deserted Salt Lake City. |
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In Fort Limhi, Bigler has given us an excellent combination of narrative and documents. This work will stand as an extremely useful addition to the growing literature on the role of the Mormons in the settlement of the Mountain West. |
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