Jacob Hamblin: A Narrative of His Personal Experience as a Frontiersman, Missionary to the Indians and Explorer, Disclosing Interpositions of Providence, Severe Privations, Perilous Situations and Remarkable Escapes: Fifth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series, Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day SaintsHamblin, Jacob
History
Jacob Hamblin: A Narrative of His Personal Experience as a Frontiersman, Missionary to the Indians and Explorer, Disclosing Interpositions of Providence, Severe Privations, Perilous Situations and Remarkable Escapes: Fifth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series, Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints
Hamblin, Jacob
Frontier and pioneer life -- Utah; Hamblin, Jacob, 1819-1886; Indians of North America -- Utah; Latter Day Saint churches -- Utah
He wished to employ someone who understood Indian character, and spoke
their dialect, to go with him, and President Young had recommended
me as a suitable person. He offered me liberal terms, and, as I was
desirous of seeing the same Indians myself, a satisfactory arrangement
was soon made.
We left Kanab for Mount Trumbull in September, 1870, and took two Kanab
Indians with us. We arrived at our destination the third day, and
selected a good camp ground by a spring of water.
We found some natives gathering cactus fruit, which grew there in great
abundance. I requested them to bring in some of the party who took a
part in the killing of Mr. Powell's men the previous year.
Some twelve or fifteen Indians got together the following day, and we
called a council to have a good peace talk.
I commenced by explaining to the Indians Professor Powell's business.
I endeavored to get them to understand that he did not visit their
country for any purpose that would work any evil to them; that he was
not hunting gold, silver or other metals; that he would be along the
river next season with a party of men, and if they found any of them
away from the river in the hills, they must be their friends, and show
them places where there was water, if necessary.
They answered that some of their friends from the other side of the
river crossed on a raft and told them that Powell's men were miners,
and that miners on their side of the river abused their women.
They advised them to kill the three white men who had gone back from
the river, for if they found any mines in their country, it would bring
great evil among them. The three men were then followed, and killed
when asleep.
The Indians further stated that they believed what I told them, and,
had they been correctly informed about the men, they would not have
killed them.
They said Ka-pu-rats could travel and sleep in their country
unmolested, and they would show him and his men the watering places.
Ka-pu-rats, in the Piute language, means one arm cut off. Major Powell
had lost an arm in the late war between the Northern and Southern
States.
I think that a part of Major Powell's description of this affair in his
"Explorations of the Colorado River," would not be out of place here:
"This evening, the Shi-vwits, for whom we have sent, came in, and,
after supper, we hold a long council. A blazing fire is built, and
around this we sit--the Indians living here, the Shi-vwits, Jacob
Hamblin and myself. This man, Hamblin, speaks their language well,
and has a great influence over all the Indians in the region round
about. He is a silent, reserved man, and when he speaks, it is in a
slow, quiet way, that inspires great awe. His talk is so low that they
must listen attentively to hear, and they sit around him in death-like
silence. When he finishes a measured sentence, the chief repeats it,
and they all give a solemn grunt. * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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