[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 110 (Wednesday, July 23, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1559-E1560]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  SHOSHONES FINALLY GET MASSACRE LAND

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. ROB BISHOP

                                of utah

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 22, 2003

  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, the Northwestern Band of Shoshone 
Nation were

[[Page E1560]]

driven and slaughtered by their own government in 1863. They are not a 
federally recognized tribe and are scattered throughout Northern Utah 
and Southern Idaho. The following article depicts their sorrows and 
triumphs over the last 140 years. It details how recently they were 
able to acquire the land where the 1863 massacre occurred. This site 
will serve as a reminder for time immemorial of the sacrifice and 
hardship endured by this people since those fateful days of 1863. I 
respectfully submit it to the Congressional Record on behalf of the 
Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation and the American West Heritage 
Center, the sole repository of their artifacts and history.

              [From the Salt Lake Tribune, Mar. 25, 2003]

                  Shoshones Finally Get Massacre Land

                          (By Kristen Moulten)

       Preston, Idaho.--The Northwestern Shoshones have been 
     invisible among Utah's Indian tribes, almost an afterthought 
     on any list.
       But that era is over, according to Forrest Cuch, Utah's 
     head of American Indian affairs and one of a dozen speakers 
     at a ceremony Monday celebrating a new chapter for the tribe.
       The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation at last took 
     ownership of land in southern Idaho along the Bear River 
     where hundreds of their ancestors were slaughtered by U.S. 
     soldiers in 1863.
       ``All my life I've watched the Shoshone suffer in this 
     area,'' Cuch told the 75 Shoshones and 125 of their friends 
     gathered at the massacre site Monday two miles west of 
     Preston. ``It's your turn to be first now. You've been last 
     for so long.''
       Tribal Chairwoman Gwen Davis of Brigham City agreed. 
     ``We've waited many years for this day to happen,'' she said. 
     ``Our dreams have become reality today.''
       The tribe plans a small interpretive center to tell the 
     story of the massacre.
       A larger interpretive center is planned farther south near 
     Logan. The American West Heritage Center at Wellsville is 
     raising $30 million for a center that will have a multimedia 
     re-creation of the massacre and tell the tribe's story in 
     full. The tribe's library and cultural artifacts also will be 
     kept at the heritage center, said Bruce Parry, executive 
     director of the tribe.
       Back on Jan. 29, 1863, the Shoshones were in their winter 
     camp at the northern end of Cache Valley in Idaho when 
     soldiers under the command of Col. Patrick Connor attacked.
       The first hour was a battle between the soldiers and 
     Shoshone braves, but it soon turned into a massacre. Men, 
     women and children were shot and clubbed to death; tepees and 
     food supplies were torched. Between 250 and 380 Shoshones 
     were killed, while a few dozen hid in brush and under the 
     riverbanks.
       Mormon pioneers had asked the soldiers to intercede because 
     Shoshones--who had lost their game and other food sources to 
     pioneer and wagon train encroachment--had become an irritant, 
     depending on the pioneers for food. Shoshone braves also were 
     suspected of raiding supply wagons en route to Montana gold-
     mining camps.
       In a benedictory prayer at the end of Monday's ceremony, 
     Elder Monte Brough of the LDS Church's First Quorum of the 
     Seventy alluded to the role played by early Mormons in 
     inciting the massacre.
       ``There is a history of persecution and discrimination 
     here, and we ask that this can be a token gesture to remedy 
     that . . . a token of those things that are solidly in the 
     past.''
       Brough prayed that all who visit the site will consider it 
     sacred ground.
       Paul Campbell, chairman of the Franklin (Idaho) County 
     Commission, said he learned just recently that his great-
     great grandfather had watched the massacre from a bluff above 
     the river.
       Many Preston area residents are ignorant of the massacre, 
     he said. Early historic markers labeled the Shoshone women 
     and children ``combatants.''
       The 26 acres turned over to the tribe Monday have been 
     grazed for decades and have a crumbling homestead in one 
     corner.
       Campbell said the shift to tribal ownership should get the 
     Idaho congressional delegation's attention and help win the 
     place designation as a national historic site.
       The land was purchased this past weekend by the Trust for 
     Public Land, a national land-conservation organization. The 
     $55,000 purchase price for two parcels comprising the 26 
     acres was raised from the Flamekeeper Foundation (formerly 
     the William F. and Anna Smith Foundation) of Salt Lake City; 
     Katherine and Zeke Dumke Jr.; historian Brigham Madsen and 
     several anonymous donors. The American West Heritage Center 
     helped with fund raising.
       ``This is a story that must be heard, not just locally, but 
     regionally and nationally,'' said Alina Bokde, a New Mexico-
     based project manager for the trust. The organization has a 
     program to help tribes regain ancestral lands.
       Allie Hansen of Preston was jubilant Monday. The history 
     buff has shown the massacre site and told the story to 
     thousands of visitors for two decades and successfully 
     lobbied the National Park Service to get it listed on the 
     National Historic Register in 1990.
       When one gets immersed in a historical subject, it starts 
     to seem like a fairy tale, she said. ``This makes reality out 
     of it.''

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