History of Indian Depredations in Utah (ePub)

"Gottfredsen...is one of the few surviving officers of the Black Hawk war militia...served as sergeant in Captain Day's company during 1867 and 1868...published a history entitled 'Indian Depredations of Utah.'" -Salt Lake Tribune, August 4, 1933

"History of Indian Depredations in Utah...gives personal experiences...quotes from reliable histories, diaries, records...along with his Indian accounts, he tells of the origins of the Black Hawk War...a prolonged war of hit-and-run fashion." -Daily Herald (Provo), March 20, 1970

"One of the splendid results of Peter Gottfredson's life was the interest he took in compiling the History of Indian Depredations in Utah. Being a partaker in some of the Indian wars...in 1919 he published a book regarding the Indian wars of Utah which will stand as a record for all times to come." -Deseret news, February 24, 1934

"Peter Gottfredson, a Danish convert...became the Mormons' most prolific compiler of first- and secondhand accounts of nineteenth-century 'Indian depredations.'" -Race and the Making of the Mormon People (2017)

How did hardy Mormon pioneer settlers survive the frequent hit and run raids on their isolated settlements during the Black Hawk War from 1865 to 1872?

In 1919, Peter Gottfredson (1846-1934), a participant and survivor of the Black Hawk War would write of his own personal experiences as well of those first-hand accounts of others in his book titled, "History of Indian Depredations in Utah."

The Black Hawk War, or Black Hawk's War, is the name of the estimated 150 battles, skirmishes, raids, and military engagements taking place from 1865 to 1872, primarily between Mormon settlers in Sanpete County, Sevier County and other parts of central and southern Utah, and members of 16 Ute, Southern Paiute, Apache and Navajo tribes, led by a local Ute war chief, Antonga Black Hawk. The conflict resulted in the abandonment of some settlements and hindered Mormon expansion in the region.

The years 1865 to 1867 were by far the most intense of the conflict, though intermittent conflict occurred until federal troops intervened in 1872. The Utah Territory spent $1.5 million on the war (equivalent to $32.98 million in 2022), and later requested reimbursement from the United States Government.

In introducing his book, Gottfredson writes:

"In collecting and compiling this history of Indian depredations in Utah, it has been my purpose to obtain my information first handed, as far as possible. I was personally acquainted with conditions in Sanpete and Sevier Valleys during the years 1863 to 1872. It fell to my lot to be herd-boy in Thistle Valley, which was then a favorite haunt of the Indians, and they often told us that we were trespassers on their domain. In 1865, when the Black Hawk war broke out, I had left Sanpete to locate in Sevier Valley, which was then most exposed to Indian raids....

"I have also made it a point to obtain information from reliable histories and individual diaries and records, and by interviewing persons who were actually in the places and took part in the affairs as recorded. And finally I obtained much information from newspaper files and documents in the Church Historian's Office."