Hamblin Among the Indians

Visiting the Paiutes with Powell

It was in the summer of 1870 that Hamblin met Major J.W. Powell, who had descended the Colorado the previous year. Powell's ideas coincided very well with those of Hamblin. He wanted to visit the Indians and prevent repetition of such a calamity as that in which three of his men had been killed near Mount Trumbull, southwest of Kanab. So, in September, 1870, there was a gathering at Mount Trumbull, with about fifteen Indians. What followed is presented in Powell's own language:

"This evening, the Shivwits, for whom we have sent, come in, and after supper we hold a long council. A blazing fire is built, and around this we sit—the Indians living here, the Shivwits, 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 deathlike silence. When he finishes a measured sentence the chief repeats it and they all give a solemn grunt. But, first, I fill my pipe, light it, and take a few whiffs, then pass it to Hamblin; he smokes and gives it to the man next, and so it goes around. When it has passed the chief, he takes out his own pipe, fills and lights it, and passes it around after mine. I can smoke my own pipe in turn, but when the Indian pipe comes around, I am nonplussed. It has a large stem, which has at some time been broken, and now there is a buckskin rag wound around it and tied with sinew, so that the end of the stem is a huge mouthful, exceedingly repulsive. To gain time, I refill it, then engage in very earnest conversation, and, all unawares, I pass it to my neighbor unlighted. I tell the Indians that I wish to spend some months in their country during the coming year and that I would like them to treat me as a friend. I do not wish to trade; do not want their lands. Heretofore I have found it very difficult to make the natives understand my object, but the gravity of the Mormon missionary helps me much.

"Then their chief replies: Your talk is good and we believe what you say. We believe in Jacob, and look upon you as a father. When you are hungry, you may have our game. You may gather our sweet fruits. We will give you food when you come to our land. We will show you the springs and you may drink; the water is good. We will be friends and when you come we will be glad. We will tell the Indians who live on the other side of the great river that we have seen Kapurats (one-armed—the Indian name for Powell) and that he is the Indian's friend. We will tell them he is Jacob's friend."

The Indians told that the three men had been killed in the belief they were miners. They had come upon an Indian village, almost starved and exhausted with fatigue, had been supplied with food and put on their way to the settlements. On receipt of news that certain Indians had been killed by whites, the men were followed, ambushed and slain with many arrows. Powell observes that that night he slept in peace, "although these murderers of my men were sleeping not 500 yards away." Hamblin improved the time in trying to make the Indians understand the idea of an overruling Providence and to appreciate that God was not pleased with the shedding of blood. He admitted, "These teachings did not appear to have much influence at the time, but afterwards they yielded much good fruit."

Wm. R. Hawkins, cook for this first Powell expedition, died a few years ago in Mesa, Arizona. Willis W. Bass, a noted Grand Canyon guide, lately published an interesting booklet carrying some side lights on the Powell explorations. In it is declared, on Hawkins' authority, that the three men who climbed the cliffs, to meet death above, left the party after a quarrel with Powell, the dispute starting in the latter's demand for payment for a watch that had been ruined while in possession of one of the trio. Powell is charged with having ordered the man to leave his party if he would not agree to pay for the watch.

A Great Conference with the Navajo

One of the greatest of Hamblin's southern visitations was in the autumn of 1870, when he served as a guide for Major Powell eastward, by way of the Hopi villages and of Fort Defiance. Powell's invitation was the more readily accepted as this appeared to be an opening for the much-desired peace talk with the Navajo. In the expedition were Ammon M. Tenney, Ashton Nebecker, Nathan Terry and Elijah Potter of the brethren, three of Powell's party and a Kaibab Indian.

According to Tenney, in the previous year, the Navajo had stolen $1,000,000 worth of cattle, horses and sheep in southern Utah, Tenney, in a personal interview with the Author in 1920, told that the great council then called, was tremendously dramatic. About a dozen Americans were present, including Powell and Captain Bennett. Tenney estimated that about 8000 Indians were on the council ground at Fort Defiance. This number would have included the entire tribe. It was found that the gathering was distinctly hostile. Powell and Hamblin led in the talking. The former had no authority whatever, but gave the Indians to understand that he was a commissioner on behalf of the whites and that serious chastisement would come to them in a visit of troops if there should be continuation of the evil conditions complained of by the Mormons. Undoubtedly this talk had a strong effect upon the Indians, who in Civil War days had been punished harshly for similar depredations upon the pueblos of New Mexico and who may have remembered when Col. Kit Carson descended upon the Navajo, chopped down their fruit trees, and laid waste their farms, later most of the tribe being taken into exile in New Mexico.

Dellenbaugh and Hamblin wrote much concerning this great council. Powell introduced Hamblin as a representative of the Mormons, whom he highly complimented as industrious and peaceful people. Hamblin told of the evils of a war in which many men had been lost, including twenty or thirty Navajos, and informed the Indians that the young men of Utah wanted to come over to the Navajo country and kill, but "had been told to stay at home until other means of obtaining peace had been tried and had failed." He referred to the evils that come from the necessity of guarding stock where neither white nor Indian could trust sheep out of sight. He then painted the beauties of peace, in which "horses and sheep would become fat and in which one could sleep in peace and awake and find his property safe." Low-voiced, but clearly, the message concluded:

"What shall I tell my people, the Mormons, when I return home? That we may live in peace, live as friends, and trade with one another? Or shall we look for you to come prowling around our weak settlements, like wolves in the night? I hope we may live in peace in time to come. I have now gray hairs on my head, and from my boyhood I have been on the frontiers doing all I could to preserve peace between white men and Indians. I despise this killing, this shedding of blood. I hope you will stop this and come and visit and trade with our people. We would like to hear what you have got to say before we go home."

Barbenceta, the principal chief, slowly approached as Jacob ended and, putting his arms around him, said, "My friend and brother, I will do all that I can to bring about what you have advised. We will not give all our answer now. Many of the Navajos are here. We will talk to them tonight and will see you on your way home." The chief addressed his people from a little eminence. The Americans understood little or nothing of what he was saying, but it was agreed that it was a great oration. The Indians hung upon every word and responded to every gesture and occasionally, in unison, there would come from the crowd a harsh "Huh, Huh," in approval of their chieftain's advice and admonition.

A number of days were spent at Fort Defiance in attempting to arrive at an understanding with the Navajo. Hamblin wrote, "through Ammon M. Tenney being able to converse in Spanish, we accomplished much good."

On the way home, in a Hopi village, were met Barbenceta and also a number of chiefs who had not been at Fort Defiance. The talk was very agreeable, the Navajos saying, "We hope that we may be able to eat at one table, warm by one fire, smoke one pipe, and sleep in one blanket."

An Official Record of the Council

Determination of the time of the council has come to the Arizona Historian's office, within a few days of the closing of the manuscript of this work, the data supplied from the office of the Church Historian at Salt Lake City. In it is a copy of a final report, dated November 5, 1870, and signed by Frank F. Bennett, Captain United States Army, agent for the Navajo Indians at Fort Defiance. The report is as follows:

"To Whom It May Concern:

"This is to certify that Capt. Jacob Hamblin of Kanab, Kane Co., Southern Utah, came to this agency with Prof. John W. Powell and party on the 1st day of November, 1870, and expressed a desire to have a talk with myself and the principal men of the Navajo Indians in regard to depredations which the Navajos are alleged to have committed in southern Utah.

"I immediately informed the chiefs that I wished them to talk the matter over among themselves and meet Captain Hamblin and myself in a council at the agency in four days. This was done and we, today, have had a long talk. The best of feeling existed. And the chiefs and good men of the Navajo Indians pledge themselves that no more Navajos will be allowed to go into Utah; and that they will not, under any circumstances, allow any more depredations to be committed by their people. That if they hear of any party forming for the purpose of making a raid, that they will immediately go to the place and stop them, using force if necessary. They express themselves as extremely anxious to be on the most friendly terms with the Mormons and that they may have a binding and lasting peace.

"I assure the people of Utah that nothing shall be left undone by me to assist these people in their wishes and I am positive that they are in earnest and mean what they say.

"I am confident that this visit of Captain Hamblin and the talk we have had will be the means of accomplishing great good."

Together with this Bennett letter is one addressed by Jacob Hamblin to Erastus Snow, dated November 21, 1870, and reciting in detail the circumstances of the great council, concluded November 5, 1870. Most of the debate was between Hamblin and Chief Barbenceta, with occasional observations by Powell concerning the might of the American Nation and the absolute necessity for cessation of thievery. Hamblin told how the young men and the middle-aged of his people had gathered to make war upon the Navajo, "determined to cross the river and follow the trail of the stolen stock and lay waste the country, but our white chief, Brigham Young, was a man of peace and stopped his people from raiding and wanted us to ask peace. This is my business here." He told that, five years before, the Navajos were led by three principal men of the Paiutes and at that time seven Paiutes were killed near the place where the white man was killed. These were not the right Indians, not the Paiutes who had done the mischief. Barbenceta talked at great length. To a degree he blamed the Paiutes, but could not promise that no more raids would be made, but he told the agent he would endeavor to stop all future depredations and would return stolen stock, if found.

Navajos to Keep South of the River

There finally was agreement that Navajos should go north of the river only for horse trading, or upon necessary errands, and that when they did go, they would be made safe and welcome, this additionally secure, if they were to go first to Hamblin.

The Hopi and the Navajo, at that time, and probably for many years before, were unfriendly. There was a tale how the Hopi had attacked 35 Navajos, disarmed them, and then had thrown them off a high cliff between two of their towns. Hamblin went to the place indicated and found a number of skeletons and remains of blankets and understood that the deed had been done the year before. The Navajo had plundered the Hopi for generations and the latter had retaliated.

Hamblin's diary gives the great Navajo council as in 1871. There also is much confusion of dates in several records of the time. But the year appears to be definitely established through the fact that Powell was in Salt Lake in October and November of 1871. It is a curious fact, also, that Powell, in his own narrative of the 1870 trip, makes no reference to Hamblin's presence with him south of the river or even to the dramatic circumstances of the great council, set by Hamblin and Dellenbaugh on November 2. Powell's diary places him at Fort Defiance October 31, 1870, and at a point near Fort Wingate November 2.

Tuba's Visit to the White Men

It was on the return from the grand council with the Navajo, in November, 1870, that Hamblin took to Utah, Tuba, a leading man of the Oraibi Hopi and his wife, Pulaskaninki.

In Hamblin's journal is a charming little account of how Tuba crossed the prohibited river. Tuba told Hamblin, "I have worshipped the Father of us all in the way you believe to be right. Now I wish you would do as the Hopi think is right before we cross." So the two knelt, Hamblin accepting in his right hand some of the contents of Tuba's medicine bag and Tuba prayed "for pity upon his Mormon friends, that none might drown, and for the preservation of all the animals we had, as all were needed, and for the preservation of food and clothing, that hunger nor cold might be known on the trail." They arose and scattered the ingredients from the medicine bag into the air, upon the men and into the waters of the river. Hamblin wrote, "To me the whole ceremony seemed humble and reverential. I feel the Father had regard for such petitions." There was added prayer by Tuba when the expedition safely landed on the opposite shore, at the mouth of the Paria.

Tuba had a remarkable trip. He was especially interested in the spinning mill at Washington, for he had made blankets, and his wife, with handmill experience, thought of labor lost when she looked at the work of a flour mill. At St. George they saw President Young, who gave them clothing.

Tuba was taken back home to Oraibi in safety in September, 1871, and his return was celebrated by feasting.

Of date December 24, 1870, in the files of the Deseret News is found a telegram from George A. Smith, who was with President Brigham Young and party in Utah's Dixie, at St. George. He wired:

"Jacob Hamblin, accompanied by Tooby, a Moqui magistrate of Oraibi village, and wife, who are on a visit to this place to get information in regard to agriculture and manufactures, came here lately. Tooby, being himself a skillful spinner, examined the factory and grist mill at Washington. Upon seeing 360 spindles in operation, he said he had no heart to spin with his fingers any more."

On the trip southward in 1871, on which Hamblin returned Tuba and his wife to their home, he served as guide as far as the Ute ford for a party that was bearing provisions for the second Powell expedition. He arrived at the ford September 25, but remained only a day, then going on to Moen Copie, Oraibi and Fort Defiance, where he seems to have had some business to conclude with the chiefs. In his journal is told that he divided time at a Sunday meeting with a Methodist preacher. Returning, with three companions and nine Navajos, Hamblin reached the Paria October 28, taken across by the Powell party, though Powell had gone on from Ute ford to Salt Lake, there to get his family. The expedition had reached the ford October 6, and had dropped down the river to the Paria, where arrival was on the 22d. Hamblin went on to Salt Lake.

The Sacred Stone of the Hopi

The trust placed in Mormon visitors to the Hopi was shown by exhibition to them of a sacred stone. On one of the visits of Andrew S. Gibbons, accompanied by his sons, Wm. H. and Richard, the three were guests of old Chief Tuba in Oraibi. Tuba told, of this sacred stone and led his friends down into an underground kiva, from which Tuba's son was despatched into a more remote chamber. He returned bringing the stone. Apparently it was of very fine-grained marble, about 15x18 inches in diameter and a few inches in thickness. Its surface was entirely covered with hieroglyphic markings, concerning which there was no attempt at translation at the time, though there were etched upon it clouds and stars. The Indians appeared to have no translation and only knew that it was very sacred. Tuba said that at one time the stone incautiously was exhibited to an army officer, who attempted to seize it, but the Indians saved the relic and hid it more securely.

The only official record available to this office, bearing upon the stone, is found in the preface of Ethnological Report No. 4, as follows:

Mr. G. K. Gilbert furnished some data relating to the sacred stone kept by the Indians of the village of Oraibi, on the Moki mesas. This stone was seen by Messrs. John W. Young and Andrew S. Gibbons, and the notes were made by Mr. Gilbert from those furnished him by Young, Few white men have had access to this sacred record, and but few Indians have enjoyed the privilege. The stone is a red-clouded marble, entirely different from anything found in the region.

In the Land of the Navajo

In 1871, 1872 and 1873 Hamblin did much exploration. He located a settlement on the Paria River, started a ranch in Rock House Valley and laid out a practicable route from Lee's Ferry to the Little Colorado.

Actual use of the Lee's Ferry road by wagons was in the spring of 1873 by a party headed by Lorenzo W. Roundy, who crossed the Colorado at Lee's Ferry, passing on to Navajo Springs, seven miles beyond, and thence about ten miles to Bitter Springs and then on to Moen Copie. The last he described as a place "a good deal like St. George, having many springs breaking out from the hills, land limited, partly impregnated with salts." He passed by a Moqui village and thence on to the overland mail route. The Little Colorado was described as "not quite the size of the Virgin River, water a little brackish, but better than that of the Virgin." In May of the same year, Hamblin piloted, as far as Moen Copie, the first ten wagons of the Haight expedition that failed in an attempt to found a settlement on the Little Colorado.

Just as the Chiricahua Apaches to the southward found good pickings in Mexico, so the Navajo early recognized as a storehouse of good things, for looting, the Mormon settlements along the southern border of Utah. A degree of understanding was reached by the Mormons with the Ute. There was more or less trouble in the earlier days with the Paiute farther westward, this tribe haying a number of subdivisions that had to be successively pacified by moral or forcible suasion. But it was with the Navajo that trouble existed in the largest measure.

Hamblin was absolutely sure of the identity of the American Indians with the Lamanites of the Book of Mormon. He regarded the Indians at all times as brethren who had strayed from the righteous path and who might be brought back by the exercise of piety and patience. Very much like a Spanish friar of old, he cheerfully dedicated himself to this particular purpose, willing to accept even martyrdom if such an end were to serve the great purpose. Undoubtedly this attitude was the basis of his extraordinary fortitude and of the calmness with which he faced difficult situations. There is admission by him, however, that at one time he was very near indeed to death, this in the winter of 1873-74. It is noted that nearly all of Hamblin's trips in the wild lands of Arizona were at the direction of the Church authorities, for whom he acted as trail finder, road marker, interpreter, missionary and messenger of peace to the aborigines.

So it happened that it was upon Hamblin that Brigham Young placed dependence in a very serious situation that came through the killing of three Navajos, on the east fork of the Sevier River, a considerable distance into south-central Utah. Four Navajos had come northward to trade with the Ute. Caught by snow, they occupied a cabin belonging to a non-Mormon named McCarty, incidentally killing one of his calves. McCarty, Frank Starr and a number of associates descended upon the Indians, of whom one, badly wounded, escaped across the river, taking tidings to his tribesmen that the murder had been by Mormons. The Indian was not subtle enough to distinguish between sects, and so there was a call for bloody reprisals, directed against the southern Mormon settlements. The Indian Agent at Defiance sent an investigating party that included J. Lorenzo Hubbell.

Hamblin's Greatest Experience

In January, 1874, Hamblin left Kanab alone, on a mission that was intended to pacify thousands of savage Indians. Possibly since St. Patrick invaded Erin, no bolder episode had been known in history. He was overtaken by his son with a note from Levi Stewart, advising return, but steadfastly kept on, declaring, "I have been appointed to a mission by the highest authority of God on earth. My life is of small moment compared with the lives of the Saints and the interests of the kingdom of God. I determined to trust in the Lord and go on." At Moen Copie Wash he was joined by J.E. Smith and brother, not Mormons, but men filled with a spirit of adventure, for they were well informed concerning the prospective Navajo uprising. At a point a day's ride to the eastward of Tuba's home on Moen Copie Wash, the three arrived at a Navajo village, from which messengers were sent out summoning a council.

The next noon, about February 1, the council started, in a lodge twenty feet long by twelve feet wide, constructed of logs, leaning to the center and covered with dirt. There was only one entrance. Hamblin and the Smiths were at the farther end. Between them and the door were 24 Navajos. In the second day's council came the critical time. Hamblin knew no Navajo and there had to be resort to a Paiute interpreter, a captive, terrified by fear that he too might be sacrificed if his interpretation proved unpleasant. His digest of a fierce Navajo discussion of an hour was that the Indians had concluded all Hamblin had said concerning the killing of the three men was a lie, that he was suspected of being a party to the killing, and, with the exception of three of the older Indians, all present had voted for Hamblin's death. They had distinguished the Smiths as "Americans," but they were to witness the torture of Hamblin and then be sent back to the Colorado on foot. The Navajos referred especially to Hamblin's counsel that the tribe cross the river and trade with the Mormons. Thus they had lost three good young men, who lay on the northern land for the wolves to eat. The fourth was produced to show his wounds and tell how he had traveled for thirteen days, cold and hungry and without a blanket. There was suggestion that Hamblin's death might be upon a bed of coals that smoked in the middle of the lodge.

[Illustration: EARLY MISSIONARIES AMONG THE INDIANS

1—Andrew S. Gibbons 2—Frederick Hamblin 3—James Pearce 4—Samuel N. Adair]

[Illustration: MOEN COPIE-FIRST HEADQUARTERS OF MISSIONARIES TO THE MOQUI
INDIANS]

The Smiths tightened their grasps upon their revolvers. In a letter written by one of them was stated:

"Had we shown a symptom of fear, we were lost; but we sat perfectly quiet, and kept a wary eye on the foe. It was a thrilling scene. The erect, proud, athletic form of the young chief as he stood pointing his finger at the kneeling figure before him; the circle of crouching forms; their dusky and painted faces animated by every passion that hatred and ferocity could inspire, and their glittering eyes fixed with one malignant impulse upon us; the whole partially illuminated by the fitful gleam of the firelight (for by this time it was dark), formed a picture not easy to be forgotten.

"Hamblin behaved with admirable coolness. Not a muscle in his face quivered, not a feature changed as he communicated to us, in his usual tone of voice, what we then fully believed to be the death warrant of us all. When the interpreter ceased, he, in the same easy tone and collected manner, commenced his reply. He reminded the Indians of his long acquaintance with their tribe, of the many negotiations he had conducted between his people and theirs, and his many dealings with them in years gone by, and challenged them to prove that he had ever deceived them, ever had spoken with a forked tongue. He drew a map of the country on the ground, and showed them the improbability of his having been a participant in the affray."

In the end, the three were released after a discussion in the stifling lodge that had lasted for eleven hours, "with every nerve strained to its utmost tension and momentarily expecting a conflict which must be to the death."

The Indians had demanded 350 head of cattle as recompense, a settlement that Hamblin refused to make, but which he stated he would put before the Church authorities. Twenty-five days later, according to agreement, he met a delegation of Indians at Moabi. Later he took Chief Hastele, a well-disposed Navajo, and a party of Indians to the spot where the young men had been killed, and there demonstrated, to the satisfaction of the Indians, the falsity of the accusation that Mormons had been responsible.

In April, 1874, understanding that the missionaries south of the river were in grave danger, a party of 35 men from Kanab and Long Valley, led by John R. Young, was dispatched southward. At Moen Copie was found a gathering of about forty. It appeared the reinforcement was just in time, as a Navajo attack on the post had been planned. Hamblin persisted in braving all danger and set out with Ammon M. Tenney and a few others for Fort Defiance, but found it unnecessary to go beyond Oraibi.

The Utah affair, after agency investigation, was brought up again at Fort Defiance, August 21, with Hamblin and Tenney present, and settled in a way that left Hamblin full of thanksgiving.

In 1875, Hamblin located a road from St. George to the Colorado River, by way of Grand Wash.

The Old Scout's Later Years

In May, 1876, Hamblin served as guide for Daniel H. Wells, Erastus Snow and a number of other leading men of Utah on their way to visit the new Arizona settlements. The Colorado was at flood and the passage at Lee's Ferry, May 28, was a dangerous one. The ferryboat bow was drawn under water by the surges and the boat swept clear of three wagons, with the attendant men and their luggage. One man was lost, Lorenzo W. Roundy, believed to have been taken with a cramp. His body never was found. L. John Nuttall and Hamblin swam to safety on the same oar. Lorenzo Hatch, Warren Johnson and another clung to a wagon from which they were taken off by a skiff just as they were going over the rapids.

In the same year, in December, Hamblin was assigned by President Young to lay out a wagon route from Pearce's Ferry, south of St. George, to Sunset on the Little Colorado. The Colorado was crossed at a point five miles above the old crossing. The animals were made to swim and the luggage was conveyed in a hastily constructed skiff. The route was a desert one, about on the same line as that to be used by the proposed Arizona-Utah highway between Grand Wash and the present Santa Fe railroad station of Antares. Returning, Hamblin went as far south as Fort Verde, where Post Trader W.S. Head advanced, without money, provisions enough to last until the party arrived at the Colorado, south of St. George.

An interview at St. George with President Young succeeding this trip was the last known by Hamblin with the Church head, for the President died the following August. In that interview, December 15, 1876, Hamblin formally was ordained as "Apostle to the Lamanites."

In the spring of 1877, Hamblin journeyed again into Arizona by the Lee's Ferry route to the Hopi towns, trying to find an escaping criminal. On this trip, the Hopi implored him to pray for rain, as their crops were dying. Possibly through his appeal to grace, rain fell very soon thereafter, assuring the Indians a crop of corn, squashes and beans. There was little rain elsewhere. When Hamblin returned to his own home, he found his crops burned from drought.

The estimation in which the Indians held the old scout may have indication in a story told lately in the Historian's office by Jacob Hamblin Jr. It follows:

"One day my father sent me to trade a horse with an old Navajo Indian chief. I was a little fellow and I went on horseback, leading the horse to be traded. The old chief came out and lifted me down from my horse. I told him my father wanted me to trade the horse for some blankets. He brought out a number of handsome blankets, but, as my father had told me to be sure and make a good trade, I shook my head and said I would have to have more. He then brought out two buffalo robes and quite a number of other blankets and finally, when I thought I had done very well, I took the roll on my horse, and started for home. When I gave the blankets to my father, he unrolled them, looked at them, and then began to separate them. He put blanket after blanket into a roll and then did them up and told me to get on my horse and take them back and tell the chief he had sent me too many. When I got back, the old chief took them and smiled. He said, 'I knew you would come back; I knew Jacob would not keep so many; you know Jacob is our father, as well as your father.'"

In 1878 Hamblin moved to Arizona and was made a counselor to President
Lot Smith. He was appointed in 1879 to preside over the Saints in Round
Valley, the present Springerville, living at Fort Milligan, about one
mile west of the present Eagar.

He died of malarial fever, August 31, 1886, at Pleasanton, in Williams
Valley, New Mexico, where a settlement of Saints had been made in
October, 1882.

Hamblin's remains were removed from Pleasanton before 1889, to Alpine, Arizona, where was erected a shaft bearing this very appropriate inscription:

"In memory of
JACOB V. HAMBLIN,
Born April 2, 1819,
Died August 31, 1886.
Peacemaker in the Camp of the Lamanites."