Show OF millard COUNTY IN THE mm LONG hgo BY JOSIAH F GIBBS former editor of the millard ard county blade writer author and old time resident these reminiscences will deal much with the indians with whom gibbs was ever very friendly A SERIES OF ARTICLES FOR CHRONICLE READERS GIBBS HONORED AT UNVEILING OF THE GUNNISON MONUMENT s a a to those of our readers who are old timers here josiah P F glass needs no introduction to those el of our readers without the state let us say that mr gibbs in an author a writer and an old time newspaper man he Is the best writer who ever located in millard county and his description ot of the famous gunnison Gunn lson massacre in 1853 has never been sur passed by any subsequent historian he has contributed valuable articles to the utah historical quarterly to be permanent records of the past ot of this section mr gibbs is now a retired mining elginer at about his eighty fifth year he ile knows the indian as in ti as any man now living in millard county we feel our read ers will greatly enjoy his feminis celces F B sr I 1 the first white man blan in utah dear mr beck beckwith with this response resDon se to your request to furnish the readers of the chronicle with some either on indian sub ejects or whatever appeals to you will be chatty rather than history cal in presentation it also will at af ford me the pleasure of saying mike boo hello friends to my an chent end long time friends of millard county and their descendants and for the reason that the reminiscences will deal more or less with our rap idly vanishing friends the native american indians Lama red skins or whatever the reader s im agitation agi nation may impel in the matter of names it will be well to briefly in traduce the Pah the first and long time dwellers in Pa livant val ley Esc escalante alanto and Pah at the time of the first meeting of the PaL with white men pret prot ty much all of the region west of the missouri river to the pacific ocean was claimed by spain through its then ownership of mexico to be ex act in her claim of divine right to rule the inhabitants of the earth tern tem pora rily as well dt as spiritually the church of rome practically owned all of south america and a large part of western north america the church of rome has been the most land grabber and pros of ancient and modern times the foregoing will explain the dual objective in the expedition of father escalante and other catholic mission aries arles to utah as e birly arly as 1776 ing from the diary of father esca lante a profoundly earnest and gen tie Us priest on the day of july in the year 1776 we departed from the town of santa fe capital of new now mexico the principal object objective ivo was to dis cover a more direct route to monter ey in Soun thern california than the southern trail then in use their course was north and northwest to southeastern utah then spelled yuta after crossing green riv er the party doubtless followed the open country now marked by the steel rails of the denver and rio grande western railroad as tar far as the mouth of spanish fork canyon where according to a wayside bonu ment in the southeast part of spanish fork city they made their first camp in utah valley september 26 1776 the could not have re bained more than a day or two in utah valley tor for on the ath they were at the indian crossing ot of the santa isabel subsequently nam ed the sevier a short distance to the west of the present highway at the crossing they met the first mem bers hers of the Pa livant tribe whom the spaniards named the bearded yu tas that peculiarity will again be mentioned last fall mustache bill died at kanosh so that you see the liking tor for beard or moustache clings with them to this day and to day there Is another there who Is cultivating a moustache FB FD from rather hazy descriptions ot of the route pursued by the explorers it Is more than probable that from the sevier river they ascended to round valley passed lust just west to where scipio now Is then up the delie defile lie to the top of the divide troia whence seventy five years almost to a day the millard county pioneers looked down onto and over the vast vas t topographical and geological crazy quilt we now know as Pa livant val ley prom from the now holden scipio divide it is evident that their route was al most due west to the present site of oasia oasis on the sevier river near its sharp bend from north and east to nearly directly west on october 8 while encamped at black rock ing ing from escalante s diary the vinter had now set in with great rig or and all the mountain mountain ranges that we could see were covered with snow that epochal snowstorm tore forc ed a hurried march southward tor for the spaniards i doubtless indian runners had hur ried from their first meeting with the to the large Pa livant camp on corn creek aad and that many of the indians visited the explorers on their march from the sevier riv r crossing near mills to blackrock escalante made repeated attempts to explain through an interpreter the always deeply interesting story of primitive christianity of the birth and arid ministrations and up to the cru of the gentle nazarene of the roman church s meaning of the crucifix ard arid sign of the cross esca lante records that the bearded yu tas like their relatives in utah val I 1 ley were a hospitable courteous and kindly people always willing to trade i indian slaves women and children tor for horses guns etc but declined to accept christianity father te to promised the utah valley indians that he would return the following year and establish a mission other more important matters intervened and in vain the natives looked for his return indian remembrance of escalante at A the time of the advent of the millard county pioneers seventy five years later there were a few of the very old members of the Pa livant tribe who could quite vividly kemem her ber the pasing through of the span lards v it was the only red letter day in the entire history of the red men whose isolation from semi chiv was equal lel only by the four footed denizens of the moun bains and deserts it was theirs to too be born and reared in ignorance of all but their stern pitiless environ ment of nature of the often cruel operation of her inexorable laws their outlook on life prescribed by the horizon and the hurrying suns and worlds above them their only hope the happy hunting grounds the whys and wherefores of which were infinitely beyond their wildest imaginings ib th the last respect how ever they were ittle in the rear of advancing civilization we may know more of the operations of natural laws but not more of the genesis and objectives of nature natures s acts indian characteristics in their mental capacities and emo ional characteristics the Pah Pali were it Is now nearly in the past tense typical of their race in brain capacity quick vivid and tense thinking they were far and away a bove the average european and asiat ic fools and imbeciles were con by their almost total ab sence their replies were generally instantaneous and quickly delivered and without evasion unless for reas ons of their own they detested the impertinence of the too inquisitive whites also and a trait rarely understood and even more rarely appreciated by white men their native ideas of entire equality were such that any pro pre tense of superiority on the part of the pale pals faces was an art almost deadly off ottense ense their resentment was ap parent in the tautening of bodies and flashing of eyes rather than in words I 1 HANDS OFF NO familiarity was invariably present in their conduct toward each other and especially toward the white race to be continued next week yes said the storekeeper I 1 want a good bright boy to be partly indoors and partly outdoors that s all right said george but what becomes of me when the door slams shutt |