Show I 1 FROM THE I 1 IFF irr of 01 1 I moo N mr air C L christensen Chrls was a mis to the navahos and copis and learned their language so well mell that he was called lingo and it stuck having a great interest in all things indian I 1 think my readers will enjo enjoy this bit from his life as heartily as I 1 do he ile lives now in moab utah and 1 Is seventy nine my name is christian lingo chris I 1 was born the t f apr 1855 in nielstrup kielstrup Niel denmark I 1 em grated to utah in 1860 arriving in ili salt lake city on the day of november we camped where the city and county balding now stands and were met by president brigham young and heber C kimball and a welcome address given by fider john van cott interpreter tor for the 40 danes we were directed to go to sanpete county then the granary of utah president young selected a few mechanics blacksmiths woolen factory men and others othera with trades as he had a place tor for everybody to it give them employment at once I 1 and my mother a widow and a 3 T year ear old brother were moved to eph balm by john with a little white mule in shafts and a very heavy wagon we managed to get to fountain green but there the mule gave out and could haul us no farther snow had fallen to a depth of more than four feet which h was v as not an thing in sanpete in those early days we camped tor for several days in the old log meeting house which had no chinking in yet as it was just being built and ou on can ran imagine our discomfort you could have thrown a cat by the tall through any of the cracks apt but the people were wonderful they bro t us wood and something sor to eat and in a few days there came to us an ail old soldier of the danish army of 14 1849 when the danes fought the 1 prussians his name was niels clem suson and he landed us at A old fort ephraim in a cellar 14 x 16 with a 2 ft it rock wall and a two pane win dow on the south for lighting and a chimney in the north where we did 4 our ur cooking in the spring of 1861 we moved out to thel the now clemenson home herd hercl I 1 think it proper to say that my father was accidentally shot by a companion while hunting sage hens on horse shoe creek on the north platt river in the state of 0 nebraska september 1st after his death my mother had a baby girl born in december 1861 she mar ried Cleme risen in february 1861 to this union were born tour four chil dren and the ENTIRE FIVE rive died of diphtheria in 1868 talk about a mother mothers s trials and endurance she died in monticello at the age ago of 89 in 1876 along with many others I 1 was called to go to settle arizona I 1 left ephraim on the of feb reb auary the road was so difficult especially by way of lee a ferry that my wife and I 1 and the baby did not get there until the ath day of april nearly two months on the journey we suffered much we had only a pony team and trav eling was slow when we got to the little colorado river we joined the united order we all ate at a big family table we built tour four forts namely sunset on the east side city west 25 miles farther up the river st joseph on the north eide aide and obed on the south this latter was abandoned because of he be ing on the border ot of the apache do main and at a time when they were bad sunset and brigham built a dam together that cost 3 and a grist mill below it on solid sand stone tor for a foundation in 1878 a rain of twenty one days came and ran us out the river was three miles wide and an aver age over much of that expanse of three feet and seventeen feet deep at the dam but it did not take the j dam out at that time the year before we had 75 mo quia quis chopis hopis Is their right name farming with us with the help of t pres lot smith and co the indiana carried honie home 75 bushels of wheat lot smith was president of the ool ionization of arizona and was very active and diligent in behalf of ahe he t indians I 1 had nothing much to do with all of this construction business as lot kept me out amongst the navi agoes learning their language and telling them why we were in the country and goforth so forth the told us we were welcome to bollito Tol lito the little colorado kiver river a river subject to tire fire and I 1 all ail and often vivid also the navahos were glad to have us between them and the dreaded apaches their bitter enemies so you see there Is always a main reas on oil for the human family to submit to things willingly in 1877 1 I had the best of reason to go to st egorge to do temple work tor for my dead father etc that superb indian missionary jacob had recommended me as a kind of a miracle talking navaho and ute from boyhood days so president young had me set apart as an indian missionary especially to the navahos said he learn navaho thorough ly so many of our missionaries talk too little of the language of the people they go among if aou ou can learn more learn spanish as it will be very profitable to a young man going south he gave me his best clerk fider fitter james G bleak and we wrote down words of navaho to help beginner but when we got through and I 1 went into another room it wasi was no more like navaho than swedish except for a very few words you can not spell nava ho with the english alphabet so we abandoned our effort in that di i lection I 1 used danish letters you can spell any indian name with them it helped me very much for in stance the first word I 1 ever learn ed was clise ayaza yas eita elta which means A goat young one licking snow I 1 heat d the indian children telling what the goats were doing and I 1 memorized it in three months I 1 could pronounce it correct ly I 1 kept my efforts up to learn the naval language tor for eleven years in arizona when president wilford woodruff released me to come to bluff utah he said you aie are no good for anything else so we will keep you on the borders of the la manutes the navahos call me ahmit sah which means A general interpret er they think I 1 can talk to every body the tile utes call me pa we urn um pockets which means navaho talker the hopi call me weepah which means a tall man president young gave me fifteen pairs of sheep shears to teach the navaho to shear sheep when I 1 got among them it if they had any old butcher knife they were lucky for the most used an old hoop iron of a barrel with a rag tied it I 1 was instructed to give them the shears as fast as they learned how to use them I 1 sheared from 15 to 40 a day as I 1 liked the sheep seem ed to enjoy it too for they bucked around a lot possibly they felt jubilant to get off so easy as they vere were accustomed to much mauling at the hands of the indians indiana with such crude tools this cavorting of the sheep made the indian children laugh before I 1 knew it I 1 had the indians broken in to our ways now they go she aning anywhere so you see the mormons have taught the indians many things C L christensen his ills son hebe christensen adds dear old dad cant can t remember a lot of things so he sends you his ex per lences as a gospel slinger among the navahos in regard to don maguire father does not remember him but he was acquainted with cass ehte I 1 also met cass in 1890 father rather never tried to go to the la kl ki mine but has learned much of it it was fatal to all who undertook it merrick and mitchell were killed while tn in search of it and several others the late 11 C goodman headed a party of men and recovered the bodies of those who were killed while in quest of that fateful mine that was pub fished in the times independent of a recent week which no doubt you read one time a man by the name of fielding got killed by the navahos whether he was searching tor for the pi it la ki U mine or not we never knew but father ann anu a were sent out and after several days pow wow the indians consented that the body might be recovered so an old squaw was sent to disclose to fath er or where the body lay father rather found a small note riots book buried with him which proved to be b kit aliby lit H WU abot in th th back 1 while eating his su ap r this old squaw said she bad had carried him tn in blanket four miles to bury him at that thit spot there is no question as to the old navaho mine I 1 have heard mr frank hyde now living in salt lake cit tell of his father placing 16 15 in silver on a blacet as a reward to the navaho who would lead him to the mine and the indian reply ing with a laugh I 1 can get that much in ili an hour there when the hople had the smallpox father helped burn four hundred bades bed es of victims of that dread dis case |