John D. Lee Case File

in the year 1854 at Parowan or elsewhere, attended a council where Wm. H. Dame, Isaac C. Haight or others were present to discuss any measures for attacking or in any manner injuring an emigrant train from Arkansas, or any other place, which is alleged to have been destroyed at the Mountain Meadows in September 1854.

Deponent further saith that he never heard or knew anything of a train of emigrants, which he learned afterwards by rumor was from Arkansas, untill he met said emigrant train at Corn Creek on his way north to Salt Lake City, on or about the 25th day of August 1854.

Deponent further saith that at Corn Creek he encamped with Jacob Hamblin, Philo T. Farnsworth, Silas S. Smith, and Elisha Hoops and there for the first time he learned of the existence of said emigrant train and their intended journey journey to California.

Deponent further saith that having been absent from the Territory for a year previous, he returned in the summer of 1854 and went South to visit his family at Parowan and to look after some property he had there and also visit his friends, and for no

3rd

State the condition of affairs between the Territory of Utah and the Federal Government in the summer and fall of 1857?

4th

Were there any United States Judges here during the summer and fall of 1857?

5th

State what you know, about trains of emigrants passing through the Territory to the West, and particularly about a company from Arkansas en route for California passing through this City in the summer or fall of 1857.

6th

Was this Arkansas company of emigrants ordered away from Salt Lake City by yourself, or any one in authority under you?

7th

Was any counsel or instructions given by any person to the citizens of Utah not to sell grain to or trade with the emigrant trains passing through Utah

the ostensible design of destroying the Latter-day Saints, according to the reports that reached us from the East.

4th

He saith:-

To the best of my recollection there was no United States Judge here in the latter part of 1857

5th

He saith:-

As usual emigrant trains were passing through our Territory for the West. - I heard it rumored that a company from Arkansas en-route to California had passed through the City.

6th

He saith:-

No. -not that I know ofI never heard of any such thing, and certainly no such order was given by the then Acting-Governor.

7th

He saith:-

Yes.- Counsel and advice was given to the citizens not to sell grain to the emigrants to feed their stock, but to

failed being included in mine because the accounts & vouchers were not sooner brought in and hence not settled until recently; but little has been effected in that part of the Territory at the expense of the Government, although much has been done by the Citizens in aiding the Indians with tools, teams and instructions in cultivating the earth. The bands mentioned are parts of the Piede [Piute} tribe of Indians, who are very numerous, but only in part inhabit this Territory. These Indians are more easily induced to labor than any others in the Territory and many of them are now engaged in the common pursuits of civilized life. Their requirements are constant for wagons, ploughs, spades, hoes teams and harness &c, to enable them to work to advantage.

In like manner the Indians in Cache Valley have received but little at the expense of the Government although a sore tax upon the people; West and along the line of the California and Oregon travel they continue to make their contributions and I am sorry to add with considerable loss of life to the travellers. This is what I have always sought by all means in my power to avert, but I find it the most difficult of any portion to control I have for many years succeeded better than

this. I learn by report that many of the lives of the emigrants and considerable quantities of property has been taken. This is principally owing to a company of some three or four hundred returning Californians who travelled those roads last spring to the Eastern States shooting at every indian they could see, a practice utterly abhorent to all good people, yet I regret to say one which has been indulged in to a great extent by travellers to and from the Eastern States and California, hence the Indians regard all white men alike their enimies and kill and plunder wherever they can do so with impunity and often the innocent suffer for the deeds of the guilty. This has always been one of the greatest difficulties that I have had to contend with in the administration of Indian Affairs in this Territory. It is hard to make an Indian believe that the whites are their friends and the Great Father wishes, to do them good, when perhaps the very next party which crosses their path shoots them down like wolves. This trouble with the Indians only exists along the line of travel west and beyond the influence of our settlements. The Shoshones are not hostile to travellers as far as they inhabit in this Territory except perhaps a few called "Snake diggers" who inhabit as