Closed Captions Audio Described

A presentation on George Washington Hill, a Latter-day Saint missionary who arrived at Fort Limhi in Idaho's Salmon River Valley in 1855. The speaker discusses Hill's efforts to learn the Shoshone language, his relationships with tribal leaders, the fort's construction and agricultural innovations, and his role in maintaining peace between missionaries and Native peoples during a period of significant cultural change.

Transcript

0:04 here in Sam and Idaho and he's going to be talking about George W heill early Lim High Shon missionary and friend so I'm going to hand it over to Terry okay well it's good to be here uh in the tend of many voices again I did have the opportunity about uh well March of 2003 to uh be with uh c 2 uh when they were
0:27 in Washington DC so it's uh good to well welome here to salmon and uh as I was introduced uh I work for the BLM and uh I spend my Summers here at the sacka center or up on LM high pass and uh in in in in the audience here uh we we have a a famous presenter my daughter Lacy
0:51 will has been doing programs uh with me up on them high pass for a number of years and also she'll be here Thursday and then Aaron if anybody's inter on Wednesday doing a little hiking he's always anxious to show people the waters the first T of the columbas so uh we'll be up there on Wednesday but uh my talk is Fort limh
1:14 high and George Washington Hill friend and missionary to the lamh high shones now uh when we think about Fort lamh High we have to go back to 1855 when thousands of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saint were gathered in their annual semiannual conference and uh they were assembled on
1:37 what we know today is Temple Square but uh at that time there wasn't uh all the structures uh they had open air bowy uh uh big enough to accomplish uh you know the uh thousands of saints who had gathered there for that uh important event and that day about 160 members of
2:00 the church were called to uh missions uh to the Native Americans and this would be the first calls that had been issued since the Saints had arrived in Salt Lake City uh back in 1847 and uh these calls in uh through the next three years would include missions to the crolls lotas the Cherokees the chakas the Mojave NP
2:23 delawares Utah the shonis the navajos Shaun banit PES omahas Flathead and many other North American tribes but 27 of these missionaries were called and set apart for the northern mission to the portion of the Indians which habit inhabit the mountain region known as the Rocky Mountains so under the leadership of Colonel Thomas W Smith the missionaries
2:48 Depart of Farmington Utah on May 15th 1855 building roads and bridges foring Rivers northward through the unsettled northern Utah to uh the port River in Southeastern Idaho and from there they traveled along the banks of the Snake River and going then going northward along the old Flathead Trail to Mud Lake
3:11 then veering to the Northwest they began the LA laborious task of breaking a Wagon Road for the next 100 miles until they arrived at their unidentified destination and one of the uh most fruitful missionaries was the son of Ohio stonemason 33 year-old George Washington Hill in George Washington
3:35 Hill autobiography he records his first Contact to Those whom he had been called to labor among and he records none of us knew the language of the people we went to since I had learned a little of the language the winter before it fell on my law to do all the talking and pretty much and that pretty much was done I also had
3:57 accepted the mission in good faith and did not want to return with a blank record so I turned in with a will to try to get the language realizing unless that I could talk with them my labors would not be would not amount to much I had faith in God that he assist me if I do my part thus I determined to do it and it had been sealed upon my head that
4:22 I should see them in the distance and should know them that they would come to me by the hundreds but little did I think that this was going to come literally to pass as it did for the first Indians were at Fort Hall on Snake River I went right to work on my missionary labors where we had camped on the portn river about 5 miles from the Fort Hall
4:45 we had just encamp when on looking over to Fort Hall I discovered some Indians coming directly to us toward us when it seemed to me that I knew them I told the boys who were with me that there come some of my children that I was going to B AP ized them this created some marment among the boys but on they come arriving at our camp they got off their horses and shook hands with us and stopped with
5:10 us when I went to talking with them as well as I could telling them who we were and what our business was the next day we moved on to the ferry the Indians accompanying us when accompanying us and when coming into the camp the Pres called upon me to preach to them which I did as well as I could which was very poor indeed and
5:33 when they called for baptism I took them to the river and baptized in fulfillment of my prediction that I had made when I first saw them in the distance this was my first Indian baptism and as the uh missionaries uh proceeded on up uh toward the LM High Valley
5:55 chako the banic chief hearing of the apprach missionaries wrote 7 5 miles to welcome them and was anxious that they should go no further than the Salmon River his appeal was the same as Chief commun weight 50 years early previously his people were suffering from want of food and wanted the benefits of Agriculture Hill would make this comment about his first meeting with the chief
6:19 and the desire of the chief to live peacefully with these new arrivals in his homeland as we approached the Salmon River the chief and myself made a treaty between ourselves each of us agreeing what we would do to preserve the peace and friendship between us the chief telling me that the father meaning the great spirit had told them that the white men were coming to
6:42 his country and he must meet them and welcome them to his country and he must hear them and maintain friendly relations with them they want to make a treaty that would be lasting we each agree to do it in case anything should arise between us and that is my people and his and that was not that was not right no difference what nature whether serious or not we
7:06 were not to take the matter into our own hands and avenge our own cause but we were to refer it to the respectable Chiefs and arbitrate our difficulties in case they should arise instead of avenging our own cause this was what the chief this was the chief's own proposition this struck me as a wise course to pursue as we were among a racist Savages whom difficulties were
7:31 liable to rise at any time at 37 uh 8 mil from their homes and one month later on June 15th they would have slacked a site along the banks of limh high river near present day tandoi Idaho it was in the same area where 50 years earlier the L and Clark expedition Came Upon the encampment of saaka jia's people the mission would Al officially
7:55 be called the Salmon River Mission 5 weeks after their arrival the missionary would select the name Fort limhi after King limhi in the Book of Mormon and King mosiah in the Book of Mormon which just like King mozi in the Book of Mormon would send Ammon and his brother into the land of Lehi Nephi in search of the people who had gone up there to dwell and they heard nothing from them
8:18 from the time they had left zerah hamla likewise these missionaries knew not the course that they should travel Into the Wilderness therefore they Ammon and his Brethren wandered many days in the wilderness even 40 days did they wander and when they wandered 40 days they came to a hill which is north of the land of Shalom and there they pitched their tents until and then at that time these
8:42 missionaries and Book of Mormon would come upon this lost coling Nephites who were being led by a leader by name of King limhi upon selecting the site for their settlement a sturdy Corral was built for their stock and a plot 16 Rod Square was laid out for the Fort the mission Journal records that a palisade Stockade was constructed on the lines and
9:07 trenches were dugs logs were about 12 ft long were placed in these trenches to the depth of 3 ft making the Palisades about 9 ft High Gates were placed in the walls one on east side and one on the other on the west there were 24 cabins inside the fort all made of wood and had a neat comfortable appearance the cabin
9:30 Dimensions range from 14x 16 ft to 16 by 18 ft there being no Mills All the lumber to be used for doors windows and Floors had to be sawed by hand the cabins were built along the fort wall with a space of 16 1/2 ft between the houses and Timbers and Walls by the first of August most of the Stockade was completed and as we see on this picture
9:53 here we we see the stones uh in uh in this artist conception of the fort but they weren't uh built until uh toward the end of the uh settlement and we'll talk a little more uh about that later on anyway the next summer a mud wall of the same Dimension was constructed
10:17 adjacent to The Stockade for livestock so you had the palisad wall which was the same Dimension 16 rods by 16 rods and then the mud wall the mud wall was built by making forms approximately 4T wide at the bottom and tapering them to 2 ft at the top the mission Journal tells that the wet clay was allowed to dry formed a
10:41 kind of mud cement that was most durable then the mud and straw was trampled into the form a portion of that wall is still standing today at the original Fort site Fort limh High the birth of irrigation in the Northwest and the a whole potato it was late in June 1855 before the missionaries began preparing the
11:06 land for crops they began by developing the first irrigation system in the Northwest the large Canal built in 1857 is still used for irrigation today the preparation continued with construction of Blacksmith Shop to uh to forge plows followed by planting of corn turn turnips peas beans potatoes Wheats and uh other uh and
11:31 wheat on about 8 acres of land soon grasshoppers appeared in countless numbers and consumed the new crops the missionaries persevered and planted another 15 acors only to have the crops killed by Frost the next year plowing swing would commence in late March and by summer their crops would again be devoured by grasshoppers they would attempt to save the crops by killing many bushels of grasshoppers the Harvest
11:55 would only yield 100 bushels of wheat lack of sufficient Harvest would require some of the missionaries to return to Utah for supplies to maintain their mission contrary to remarks by Mountaineers that the altitude was too high the and the summer is Too Short The Harvest of 1857 was Bountiful the Harvest would yield potatoes and other vegetables and some 2500 bushels of
12:20 wheat one missionary recorded it was quite a treat to see the golden grain come into our Fort the George Hill built a one of the best cabins he thought uh that was in the fort and he would always invite the Indians in he busied himself and learning to talk with them in their native language and would visit uh with them and eat the food that they prepared
12:45 thus he soon gained their confidence and love and they felt that he did not think himself above them they told uh they told he told them that the time would come when the game would all be gone that they would learn have to learn to till the soil so they could live without hunting they believe he had the power to destroy the game and wanted to know why he would do this he
13:09 told them that the land would be settled and gain killed off but they could not understand how that could be he studied the habits of the Indians and the traits of characters of of their character he found that by trusting them that one could rely upon their honor and if you distrusted them you made enemies of them them thus he gained a lesson and
13:31 stayed with them uh stayed with him gained a lesson that stayed with him all of his life in his association with the Indians he was Frank he would hold sacred any trust and never betray their confidence thus he labored and learned the language both by word and motion theirs was much Motion in sound when they visited him he gave them something
13:54 to eat and partook with them at the same time and when he visited them they returned the hosp Hospitality in the same way it did not take long to master the Shon language and gain a knowledge of the black feet Flathead of the banic Flathead and Blackfoot and as purse so when all of these tribes come to see what was going on they could be informed at firsthand he soon became a great
14:18 favorite among the Indians and this was uh recorded by one of his son Joseph John Hill while at the Fort Hill would developed one of the first uh extensive written Shon vocabularies and uh then uh George Hill had red hair and which excited a great curiosity among the Indians and they
14:41 gave him the name incap pompy which means red hair uh George Hill records this comment about his about his red hair and aness Pur who claimed to be a son of Clark of the ls and Clark expedition we had a great many this purse visit us
15:03 that summer and they all took quiet quite a liking to me there was one in particular named Clark a half breed son of Clark of the Clark and Lewis journals with a bright red hair eyes and a thin skin as you would see on any man he always called his little he always called me his little brother because I was the same uh complexion And he as he
15:27 was and he was a little older he would always come and stay with me when they uh when they would be there and take all the uh pains and manageable uh manageable with me to teach me the nest first language I made wonderful progress in the language while they would be with me and uh one of the
15:48 incidents in George Hills Jr and uh a steel head fisherman sort of can can identify with this uh it was uh the first record we have a combat fishing on the Lim High River uh unfortunately uh it didn't end too well and soon after the arrival of the missionaries George W Hill would assist of shason in building
16:12 a fish wear uh much after the same construction as one uh down here on on the center on our interpretive Trail and to reward uh him the chief snag would invite him to come and go fishing with them early the next morning and George Hill records when we got there there was about 5050 Indians waiting on the bank of the river for me to come the chief
16:35 chided me for being late saying the Indians were hungry and we were not allowed to catch and were not allowed to catch any until I caught the first fish then they I could catch but not before so the chief and I fixed our Hooks and stepped out on the platform the chief waiting for me to catch the first before he was allowed to catch any I had a large pole about 12 ft long for my fish
17:00 pull with a hook about 4 in across and a socket to run my rope into with a uh piece of larette tied to my hook in such a manner to allow my hook to pull off my pole and then the fish would hang by lar by the larette and uh could not break my pole the pole uh the bowl pan as I called it was full of fish some of them
17:22 about three to 4T long in length when I got ready uh there there were about four very large one swimming close to me so I made a grab at one and caught it in the side but it was so large and heavy that I jerk so hard that I tore him from a very nigh of foot my hook came out so suddenly that the end of my pole caught
17:46 an Indian that was standing behind uh behind by the right side of my by the right side of his nose and knocked him down as dead to all appearance as if I I was uh as I was fixing my hook to try again the chief said to me look at that Indian you have killed I looked and saw him lying sure enough I asked the chief
18:10 what killed him he said I hit him in the eye I went and and examined him and saw that I had hit him in the eye I okay and examined him and I felt his pulse but he had none so I went to work chaffing him but seemingly to no purpose for some time finally he came to and I went back to my fishing just like a fisherman should
18:35 do okay but brother Cummings was very uneasy and kept insisting that we must go but I would not go until I had caught five brother cumings declared that he would not help me carry more than two when I quit fishing and I got a pole to hang them on and he would he would not allow me to put but two on the pole and he was in such a hurry to get away for
18:59 fear of the Indians so I gave the three that I had caught to the Chief and left my hook with him to fish as it was better than his and told the chief when the Indians got when the Indian got well enough to tell him to come and I would make him some presences I did not want to hurt him and did not want him to feel bad he said he should he said that we
19:22 should not feel bad that he had no business behind me that I had no eyes in the back of my my head and uh so as the story ends uh uh George Washington Hill did end up giving the Indians some presents and uh uh the uh injury was severe enough that uh he wanted him the Indians were
19:46 getting ready to go to depart limh High Valley to go over to hunt Buffalo and he wanted to stay there so he could uh nurse him back to health but the Indian felt like well he should go and uh but unfortunately about two or three days out because of the injury he uh did die out on while hunting and then in early May of
20:11 1857 a company of 115 men 22 women and five boys which included president Brigham Young uh Heber C Kimble and Daniel H Wells at the first presidency and the members of the cornman 12 arrived at Fort lamh High the purpose was to visit the settlement on the Salmon River to rest Minds to invigorate bodies and to examine the intervening country the mission clerk
20:35 makes a comment about that some of the Brethren were not well some of the Brethren were well pleased with the fort While others of the company did not like the place or the road and the mission clerk makes this comment what would have ban their feelings if they had left their houses and families and required to break their own roads for for such a
20:59 distance over stage and rcks without the aid of even the Indian Road as did the first missionaries to this place and that too without a whine or murmur with little or no exceptions briam young seemed well pleased with the progress of the mission noted this is the most cleanly Fort I have seen in the mountains he cautioned them however in trading fishing uh not bringing trouble
21:23 to the mission to seek to benefit Those whom they had been sent he was concerned that they had come too far from home and encouraged them to strengthen their fortification by building a Blockhouse on the bench east of the fort Hebrew C Kimble and Daniel H Wells urged the men to marry native women they said the marriage is the tithe that strengthens one of Friendship on Earth
21:47 president young gave them more lency and Jacob Miller records he confirmed the remarks about matrimony but said we should uh should so live that we could be guided right not take any wife that would BR that would be a disgrace well a young missionary by the name of Lewis W shirtliff um records an event of which
22:11 uh George Hill was desired to fulfill the council uh given by Kimble and Wells and on Friday the 24th of July George Hill asked the snake chief for Catherine his daughter he returned to the fort in High Spirits telling all that he would soon marry the chief daughter someone told him not to be too sine uh of the
22:34 success of this remarks that there okay some of told him not to be toen at success at this remark there was a thrill which ran over my whole frame shirtliff records what could it mean the next day the fair daughter of the Rocky Mountains came to me and returned to following day and told and told me plainly that it was me she wanted the
22:57 announcement uh was astonishing and had it not been for an open window near at hand I should have felled I finally rallied and I said I am too young to Mary this she contradicted i' done all that I could possibly do to dissuade her from such a rash and I thought as I thought imprudent but to no purpose she
23:21 said and she said she uh did not want Mr Hill that he was too old and that if uh she that she did not want if she did not get me she would not have no one and uh so Elder shirtliff uh uh of course didn't want to shrink from his duty but he also had a sweetheart down in Ogden who uh he was looking forward to
23:44 marrying and uh and so he would uh consult with the leadership and uh and uh so being faithful he would try to uh fulfill his obligation there and uh uh M uh married a Chief's daughter but Chief snag says well nobody can marry her because she already had a husband until
24:09 uh she came with the proper papers and of course that was a relief to uh shirtliff and uh but unfortunately to Elder Hill he was uh too old to be even to be considered Chief snag who was the chief of the of the shonis and um would be touched by the words from briam Young
24:32 and with in his effort to try to maintain peace among the nerts and banish he advised them that it was not good to fight that the Lord was not pleased with those who wanted to fight and that it that it was good talk following the departure of briam Young's company a title events would occur which would affect Fort limh High and the Saints in Utah shortly after brickham
24:55 Young's arrival home on July 24th the 10th anniversary of the Saints arrival in the saltt Lake Valley he would learn of 6,000 troops under command of Johnston who were on their way to put in place a new governor however for the next months Fort limh high would continue to prosper that summer individual Farms would be laid out and the mission would gather its most bful Harvest a second Fort was laid out 2
25:19 miles below the original Fort and Milton D Hammond was appointed to take charge in October the settlement would increase with the arrival of a company of 61 men women and children from Utah eight wagons having been well loaded with fish were transported to Salt Lake the fish were caught and also traded uh from the
25:42 natives late in November that year of 1857 the mission clerk noted there is much movement among the Indians they say they are going to the beaverhead but they do not tell what they are going for the spirit of peace which had Health among the different tribes and missionaries quickly deteriorated in the next 2 and 1/2 months contentions of rol
26:06 uh between the nper spanic and shonis as they engaged in their cultural Pursuits of horse stealing and retaliation during this time president Smith tried to avoid hostilities by giving the Indians food this only seemed to create more jealousy between the tribes in spite of uh the Indians additional aggressive n there were still
26:29 events those last days events of Christmas are not re mentioned but the new year was welcomed in the mission clerk recorded about midnight the choir passed around the fort singing a few verses of a hymn at each door in honor of the new year uh Friday the 1st president Smith and several other Brethren spent the evening at the L Fort en joining dance and on the fourth
26:53 perhaps the first wedding recorded in lmh High Valley occurred uh the first first wedding of record president TS Smith joined together Lewis W shirtliff and Louis Louisa Katherine Smith three days later to add to the general well-being resident Mrs Henry Smith gave birth to a new daughter when the banic arrived on the
27:16 limh high river in February they had a war dance and asked the Shon to help them raid the White Settlement most of the shonis were reluctant to participate but the banish threaten them with an attack unless they joined in on the 24th of February John wpw a mountaineer came to the Fort to warned the missionaries of the impending attack Smith dismissed
27:40 the warning with the statement that it was just another of the man's lives they were suspicious of pal and thought that he had started trouble since he had been buying cattle uh from the Indians to supply Johnston's Army after encouragement from his brother uh Pleasant green Taylor related a dream that he uh to uh president Smith that he had uh had the night before about a very
28:05 black cloud with uh lightning uh which rose in the north came directly over the fort then turned East before settling down in quietude president Smith felt all would be well but supported suggestion of moving the residence of the lower fort on February on February 22nd about 30 Souls moved up to the Old
28:27 Fort on February 25th 1858 began the mo uh began with most everyone going about their regular duties outside the the confines of the fort walls except for those who went to the lower Fort to retrieve a few items late in the morning the hills and both sides of the river were black with the Indians George McBride was dispatched to locate the
28:50 Herman to try to bring the cattle in at the same time a mob of Bandits and shonis attacked the fort leaving George McBride and James Miller dead injuring several of the Brethren and stealing 250 cows and 27 horses following the raid Amos Wright asked one of the bank Chiefs why they had done this he said we got bad Spirit we listened to Pal and soldiers those who were still friendly
29:14 toward the missionaries either had been bound so they couldn't warn them or were away during the raid and expressed a great sorrow following the attack two men were dispatched at Salt Lake to inform president Bram young of the uh attack on the fort and uh president young would raise about 1 15 men to uh as a rescue party
29:39 to the Salmon River Mission but a special group of 11 were to ride pulse haste uh to uh relieve the fort on the and uh with their arrival and in this party uh George W Hill was was had spent the winter in Utah and so he was selected as one of the 11 men and when he arrived at the Fort uh ahead of the
30:04 150 rescue 150 men of the rescue party uh his son uh Records this when they arrived at the Fort hostilities had ceased but the fort was still surrounded by Indians through all uh through all the trouble and when they learned that Inca pompy had come a conference was called explanations given expressions of
30:27 Sorrow made by those who had been deceived and some of the stock had been driven off was returned and so we learn you know with uh George W Hill and his effort to be a friend and also a missionary that uh he did win the confidence of the mission of the uh
30:50 shonis and even the banic even in time of trouble that they respected his uh friendship ship and to uh be their friend to be one of them uh George W Hill uh when the mission was closed in uh March 1858 of course would return to uh Utah and uh would still continue to
31:13 be known as one of the most fruitful uh uh missionaries among the Indians for the Church of Jesus Christ and uh he would die at the age of 66 and Lewis his friend Lewis W Shirley if would conduct
31:30 the funeral so any questions I'll uh bring a mic around if you guys have any questions for Terry so he can hear you do you have and they have one no well thank you Terry for coming welcome and I want to thank you folks
31:53 for coming our next program will be at 2:00 and that'll be the autobiograph of Walter Nevada so come back and join us for that have a good afternoon

Tent of Many Voices

George Washington Hill: Missionary and Friend to the Shoshone

32:09

Search the Database

George Washington Hill: Missionary and Friend to the Shoshone

Our Partners

More Voices

Our Partners