Native American Influences
Dating back hundreds of years, Sevier County’s Native American history is rich and plentiful. From the Fremont Indians who lived along the waters of Clear Creek to the Black Hawk War between settlers and local Native Americans, the importance of Native American influence on this area should not be forgotten or diminished.
FREMONT INDIAN STATE PARK
Twenty minutes southwest of Richfield on I-70Hidden from the world for nearly a thousand years, the Fremont Indian culture is displayed at the Fremont Indian State Park. Visitors can see the reconstructed pit dwellings of these ancient people, pottery, moccasins, necklaces, and other items in the Visitor Center. Hundreds of ancient pictographs and petroglyphs decorate the cliffs nearby and a number of hiking trails can be accessed throughout the park allowing for easy access to the most popular sites. There is no fee to drive through the park, but Visitor Center / Museum admission is $1.00 per person or $5.00 per family (up to 8 people). Fee camping is available at Castle Rock Campground. During the course of the year, the park sponsors a number of events including a Mountain Man Rendezvous, Atlatl competitions (spear throwing) and primitive pottery workshops. For additional information, call (435) 527-4631.
BLACKHAWK WAR
The Black Hawk Indian War was the longest and most destructive conflict between pioneers and Native Americans in Utah’s history. Tension had been mounting for years, but the war official began on April 9, 1865 when Indians and Mormons met to dispute a cattle theft. A scuffle occurred and a young chieftain was pulled from his horse by a Mormon settler. The insulted Indian delegation, including a Ute named Black Hawk, abruptly left the meeting – promising retaliation.The threats were not idle: in the next few days Black Hawk and his followers killed five Mormons and stole hundreds of cattle. Within a year, 25 more settlers were killed or mutilated and they were forced to abandon their new homes for a number of years.
Although Black Hawk did not have the support of all the Utah Indians, he succeeded in uniting factions of the Utah Piute and Navajo tribes into a loose confederacy bent on plundering the territory. Requests by the Mormons for Federal troops went unheeded because of the antipathy between the United States government and the Mormon church. Contemporary estimates indicate that as many as 70 settlers and an unknown number of Native Americans were killed as part of the conflict.
Black Hawk made peace with the Mormons in 1867, but intermittent raiding and killing continued until 1872, two years after Black Hawk’s death, when troops finally intervened