THE SAINT & THE SAVAGE

 by Kerry Ross Boren

 

[note: My third great-grandfather, Isaac Morley, was an early pioneer to Utah. He established a Mormon colony in central Utah in the midst of Indian country. Here he met the wily Ute Chieftain named Walker. This is the story of their very unique and unusual friendship.] 

Pan-a-Carre Quinker ("Iron Twister"), son of Moonch by his Piute wife Tishum Igh, was born about 1808. In his youth, Pan-a-Carre Quinker felt a yearning in his soul for an unfulfilled destiny. He decided to make a solitary journey to the Land of the Sun to seek a vision from Towats-The Great Spirit. 

The symbol of Towats is the Sun and he is the Father. Earth is the Mother and she produces all life through the love of Towats, through the Sun upon her bosom. In the Ute dialect the sun is called "Tanna." The Land of the Sun was a sacred place high in the Uintah Mountains where the Sky Reader, the Prayer Maker, the Vision Dreamer (i.e. the Medicine Man or Shaman) went to smoke peyote, chant, and speak to the Great Spirit. It was a holy place, high on the mountain above Spirit Lake, on a large flat stone known as the Medicine Rock. 

A legend persists that just before dawn, when the moon is full, and the morning mist wafts across Spirit Lake, the face of an Indian maiden is reflected from the surface of the water; and often at night a white elk can be seen walking across the surface of the lake, accompanied by the gentle sound of tinkling bells. The tale sounds like a myriad of other folk myths, except that this particular account has a genesis based upon an actual event. 

The Utes and Shoshones were ancient enemies, even though they were cousins, and for many years they had fought bloody territorial battles. The dispute culminated in one final great battle between the tribes at Hickerson Park, where many warriors perished on both sides. Because there were so many empty tepees and wailing squaws, a council of peace was held and they at last came to an agreement: everything north of the crest of the high Uintahs was to belong to the Shoshones, and everything to the south would belong to the Utes. Spirit Lake and the surrounding region, known as the Land of the Sun (Tavaputs), was sacred to both tribes, and was therefore considered neutral ground. 

The Land of the Sun was avoided with superstitious fear by everyone except tribal chieftains and medicine men, for it was ostensibly the place where Towats dwelt. The Medicine Rock, high on the mountainside above the lake, was the place where the Shamans practiced their magic. 

Following the peace negotiations between the tribes, Pan-a-Carre Quinker's Father Moonch had married the sister of Chief Fuchawana of the Southern Shoshones; she became the mother of Pan-a-Carre Quinker half -brother Tabby. When Pan-a-Carre Quinker was still an infant, his Father Moonch made a pilgrimage to Spirit Lake. Holding his squirming son by one foot, Moonch dipped the boy three times in the icy waters of the lake. This was not a baptism in the conventional sense; it was both a "toughening" and to imbue the child with the spirit of Towats to make him great as a man grown. 

For all his wealth and power as a man, Pan-a-Carre Quinker was not content, for though he was a great warrior, his heart had not found love among the women of his own tribe. He rode down from Spirit Lake to Hlckerson Park where the Shoshones had made their annual summer encampment. He hid himself in the trees and began to watch his old enemies, for even though they were on neutral ground, there was still animosity between the tribes because of stolen horses. 

One day he saw a young maiden picking bullberries on a hillside with some of the older squaws, and he became enthralled with her beauty. He continued to watch her for several days, hoping to find an opportunity to catch her alone. He would not have hesitated to take her captive and carry her away to his Sanpete Valley homeland, though he preferred her willing interest. But he was an enemy of her people and it was unlikely that she would welcome his advances. Fate conspired to bring him good fortune. 

The young girl at last drifted off by herself. Finding a particularly abundant berry patch, she lingered, and did not notice that the other women had moved on. Seeing his opportunity, young Pan-a-Carre Quinker started to approach to her, but before he could do so, he saw a young Shoshone brave stalking the girl. The Iron Twister vied for position where he could watch. 

The Shoshone brave had been spurned by the girl and sought his revenge by attacking her. He sneaked stealthily up behind her, threw her to the ground, and began to beat her severely. Pan-a-Carre Quinker sprang up and ran across the clearing to her defense. Pulling the Shoshone brave off the struggling girl, the two warriors were soon locked in vicious combat. But the Iron Twister was a better warrior and killed the Shoshone brave. 

The girl was equally frightened of her rescuer, for he was an enemy of her people, but he soon calmed her fears. He spoke her language, and in quiet tones told her about himself, and when she had quieted, she told him about herself.

 Her name was Sasquina, which in the Shoshone dialect means "White Elk," and she was fourteen snows in age. More importantly, she was the daughter of Chief Fuchawana; her brother, also called Fuchawana, was the tribal medicine man. Pan-a-Carre Quinker was a handsome man and according to legend the two young people fell instantly in love. She brought him to her village and when her father learned that the Iron Twister had saved Sasquina from harm, Pan-a-Carre Quinker was welcomed as an honored warrior. 

Pan-a-Carre Quinker and Sasquina were married in Hickerson Park, with the blessing of the tribe, and they spent their honeymoon at Spirit Lake. They romped and played together and at last the Iron Twister's heart was full. Sasquina was soon pregnant with their first child, and to mark the happy event, he made her a necklace from the backbone of an elk, an animal that was sacred to Towats. Then he went away on a hunt with her people, and when he returned she was nowhere to be found. 

Pan-a-Carre Quinker hunted frantically for his bride. At last the signs made it clear what had happened. Sasquina had gone down to the lake to fetch water and had somehow fallen in and drowned. He never found her body, but he did find one of her tiny moccasins in the water, bobbing on the ripples, the tiny trader bells she had sewn onto it gently tinkling. The strongest warrior in the West was brought to his knees in grief. 

Pan-a-Carre Quinker could not understand why this terrible tragedy had happened to him just as love and happiness had found him. He climbed the steep trail to the Medicine Rock and fasted and prayed for many days, calling upon Towats to tell him why it should be so. Towats heard him. Towats told him more than he ever expected. 

Towats appeared to him in all his radiance and spoke with him face to face. He showed him a glorious vision of the Sacred Caves of Carre-Shinob ("Where the Great Spirit Dwells") and the golden treasures of his ancestors, the Old Ones. He told Pan-a-Carre Quinker that he was to be the guardian of this place, and also of the Sacred Mines from whence the gold derived. Towats said to him: "No more will your name be Pan-a-Carre Ouinker, but you shall have a new name: you shall be called Yah-Keerah, Keeper of the Yellow Metal." 

As for his grief, Towats promised him a sign that Sasquina had not died in vain. When Yah-Keerah (white men, unable to pronounce his new name, called him "Walker") came down from the Medicine Rock, it was near the dawn of day, and the morning sun gave birth to a mist on the surface of the lake. He was startled to hear the gentle tinkling of bells, exactly like the tiny trader bells which Sasquina had sewn to her moccasins. He stopped and looked across the water and saw a herd of elk swimming towards him out of the mist. Their leader, a large white elk, suddenly rose to the top of the water and walked on the surface of the lake! 

The white elk walked across the water and came to stand before him on the shore. It was then that Walker saw the bone necklace around the animal's neck the bone necklace he had given to Sasquina, whose very name meant "White Elk." 

To the present day the legend persists that at certain times one can hear the tinkling of the bells (I have heard them-or was it my imagination?), and some have even claimed to have seen a white elk in the mist on the surface of the lake; and who are we to doubt it? 

Chief Walker, Keeper of the Yellow Metal, was a very spiritual man. He conversed with Towats on many occasions. In 1843, not long after the death of his father Moonch, Walker was at Fort Uintah in the Uintah Basin on a trading expedition. While there he fell quite suddenly ill and was taken in by the past trader, Antoine Robidoux, but he fell into a deep coma and apparently died. Robidoux turned him over to his people for burial. 

Then, even as the squaws were mourning and beating their breasts, Walker suddenly recovered and awoke to tell a strange tale. He said that his spirit had left his body, to soar like an eagle about the mountains. He found himself northward in Shoshone country, above the plains of Wyoming. There he met Towats, high in the clouds, who spoke to him, saying, "Look down." He looked and saw a wagon train2'rolling wickiups"-being driven by white men wearing "high hats" (silk and beaver top hats). Towats told him that it was to these men that he was to reveal the secret of Carre-Shinob; but not to just any of them, but to one man among them, one of their leaders, a man of great good whom Towats showed him. 

'When will this man come?" Walker asked.

"Soon," Towats replied. 

On 14 June 1849, Chief Walker appeared suddenly in Salt Lake City at the head of a large contingent of Utes, to speak with Brigham Young about the intentions of the Mormons towards his people. Brigham replied diplomatically, "No Indian will be turned from a Mormon's door as long as I remain their chief." Walker was pleased with the response and suggested that they smoke the pipe of peace. According to Brigham Young, "When Walker had filled his pipe, he offered the Lord the first smoke, pointing the pipe and stepping toward the sun." After recognizing his sun god, Walker passed the peace pipe around the circle of Mormon leaders. As the pipe was passed among them, Walker's eyes fixed upon Isaac Morley. 

"I have seen you before," Walker told the surprised Mormon patriarch. "I have seen you in a vision. You will come and live among my people. We will be brothers." On 28 October 1849, Isaac Morley set out for the Sanpete Valley with 244 colonists to settle in the midst of the Ute Indians. 

Isaac Morley was born 11 March 1786 at Montague, Massachusetts, a son of Thomas Morley and Editha Marsh. He had been well educated in the finest schools of Salem, Massachusetts, but was endowed with a pioneer spirit that urged him, in 1810, at the age of 24, to venture 600 miles to the Western Reserve of Ohio. He constructed a cabin and cleared the land where the town of Kirtland was soon after built, then returned to Montague to mary his childhood sweetheart, Lucy Gunn. They were married on 20 June 1812, just two days after Congress declared war against Great Britain. 

Isaac Morley served as a Fifer in the Ohio Militia in the War of 1812. He returned to establish a large farm and to build up the town of Kirtland. In September 1830, four Mormon missionaries visited Kirtland. On 15 November 1830, Isaac Morley was baptized and confirmed a member of the Mormon Church by Parley P. Pratt. 

In February 1831 the Prophet Joseph Smith came to Kirtland and lived, with his family, in the Morley household until a log house could be constructed for their use. Eventually, Isaac donated his entire farm to the up-building of the Church. He remained one of Joseph Smith's closest and most trusted friends until the Prophet's martyrdom at the hands of a mob at Carthage, Illinois, on 27 June 1844. 

Isaac Morley followed the Saints throughout the years of their persecutions in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois, and was a prominent Church leader. He founded the towns of Kirtland, Far West, and Lima in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois respectively. He was a participant in many of the significant events of that period, and was imprisoned on several occasions as a Mormon leader hated by the Missourians. In November 1833, Isaac Morley, Sidney Gilbert, and John Corrill were jailed at Independence, Missouri, on false charges, and offered up their lives as a sacrifice for the Saints. They managed to eff ect their release one day prior to their scheduled execution. Morley's courage and integrity were never questioned. 

On 4 February 1846, Isaac Morley bundled his eight (polygamous) wives and other family members into wagons, crossed the frozen Mississippi River from Nauvoo, Illinois, and started westward with the migrating Saints. He became a founder of Winter Quarters (now Florence), Nebraska, where his first wife, Lucy Gunn, died of typhoid fever on 3 January 1847. 

On 23 January 1848, Isaac Morley was appointed president of the second migration to "Zion", the first having been led by Brigham Young the previous year. Morley's company, consisting of 1,229 souls, 397 wagons, and numerous chattels, left Winter Quarters on 1 May 1848, and after many hardships arrived in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake on 23 September. 

He settled first in Session's Settlement, a few miles north of Salt Lake City, but soon established his own community, "Morley's Settlement", which he later named Bountiful, a name derived from the Book of Mormon. On 16 February 1849, President Brigham Young sustained Isaac Morley as President of the High Council of the newly organized Great Salt Lake City. On 12 March 1849, Morley was elected the first Senator of the new Provisional State of Deseret. On 14 June 1849, Isaac Morley met Chief Walker at Salt Lake City; on 28 October 1849, he set out for the Sanpete Valley with 244 colonists to settle in the midst of the Ute Indians. 

The settlement of Sanpete Valley was the beginning of the most unusual friendship between Isaac Morley, president of the Mormon colony, and Walker, chief of the Sanpete Utes. The Mormon colonists pitched their tents in the Sanpete Valley for the first time on 21 November 1849. Morley pointed prophetically at an eminence rising in the distance and said: "There is the termination of our journey in close proximity to that hill. God be willing, we will build our city [there]." 

Some of the colonists were dissatisfied with the choice. Seth Taft gave vent to his feeling by exclaiming, "This is only a long, narrow canyon, and not even a jack‑rabbit could exist on its desert soil!" But Father Morley (as he was affectionately known) was adamant, saying, "This is our God-appointed abiding place; and stay I will, though but ten men remain with me." 

There was a compelling reason why Isaac Morley chose"Temple Hill" as the site of the new city. Chief Walker had point out the hill as being sacred to the Utes. His ancestors, the "Old Ones", he explained, once had an altar on the hill's crest where human sacrif ices had been performed. A learned scholar of the Book of Mormon, Morley believed the hill to be the very same one mentioned in Alma 1:15, and named the place "Manti" in its honor. 

There were ancient caverns beneath the hill, Chief Walker said. Morley's curiosity was instantly piqued. He asked Walker to show him the caverns, but the Chief balked. "Heap bad place," he said fearfully. "You no go there-never come out!" 

"Why is it dangerous?" Morley asked. "Are there evil spirits there?"

"Worse," said Walker. "You will see when the warm weather comes." He refused to elaborate further. Shortly thereafter he and his people departed while the colonists settled in for the winter. 

During the first winter at Sanpete Valley, a very few of the settlers had time to erect log cabins before the snow became too deep for gathering logs. A few families turned their wagon boxes on end with canvas covers stretched across them for wind breaks, and they suffered greatly from the penetrating cold. The majority of the colonists, including Isaac Morley, made dugouts in the south side of Temple Hill. 

By 23 March 1850 the snow had nearly disappeared and the colonists discovered that water had soaked three feet into the ground. They began digging irrigation ditches, ploughing and planting. Then, on an evening of a certain warm day, the settlers were disagreeably confronted by a loud hissing and rattling from snakes. Upon awakening from hibernation, hundreds of rattlesnakes had made their way unnoticed from caves within Temple Hill, and were suddenly in the colony. 

The spotted serpents were seen twisting and coiling over practically every rock on the hillside, and many were already underfoot. The men immediately armed themselves with pine knot torches and began the battle of extermination. One settler killed thirty in a matter of a few minutes, and the total of the first night's slaughter was over five hundred! 

The extermination continued for several evenings before the crisis ended. Since rattlesnakes travel during the early evening, it was not uncommon for the colonists to awaken in the morning to find a rattlesnake curled on the toot of the bed or in a cupboard. "They invaded our homes with as little compunction as the plagues of Egypt did the palace of Pharaoh," wrote one settler. While horse and cattle were bitten, not one settler was poisoned by the invading horde. 

Chief Walker rode into the camp at the head of a contingent of his band to gather dead snakes, which the Utes considered a delicacy. Approaching Father Morley, Walker grinned broadly. "You still want to visit caves in hill?" he asked. 

Morley permitted the starving Indians to retrieve the frozen carcasses of cattle that were dying daily; of the 250 cattle brought into Sanpete Valley in November, only 100 remained alive when the snow melted. He also invited Walker's people to come and eat the Mormon 'tiegup" (a Ute term for food acquired by persistent begging). Walker was willing to trade valuable firs, oxen or ponies or 'tiegup'' but Morley refused to accept them, giving the supplies as a token of friendship. Morley wrote to Brigham Young: "It seems to be a trying time all around, and those who have the most wisdom can make a display of it for the most good." 

During the latter part of February 1850, there occurred an incident which threatened to sever the close friendship between Chief Walker and Isaac Morley. The conflict arose over a tribal custom which Morley found unacceptable.

 Chief Walker's mother, Tishum Igh, was a small, wrinkled old woman, who had reached an age when she was no longer productive, and had to be cared for by the rest of the starving tribe. According to tribal custom, she must die to make way for others. A common practice among the Utes was to lasso the oldest squaws in the tribe, and lock them up to starve to death. On this particular occasion, Walker decided to kill his mother in order to end her suffering more quickly. 

The chief brutally attacked her with his fists and a knife, each blow landing soundly on her skull, any one of which might have ended a person's life; but Tishum Igh was a leathery tough old woman who had weathered many a hardship, and was stronger than the average soul. She managed to make good her escape by slipping from her son's grasp and hid in the bulrushes of Sanptich Swamp for several days. 

Father Morley found her there and tried to get her to come stay with him, but she would not; she did, however, accept some 'tiegup" from him on which to subsist. Morley went directly to Chief Walker's wickiup and counseled him to take his old mother back and care for her. Walker sat in grim silence, his arms folded stubbornly.

"You have told me you wanted to be like the Mormons," Morley argued, "and adopt the Mormon way of life. Mormons do not kill their mothers, nor leave them to die of starvation. You have read the Book of Mormon; you said you believed its teachings. The Book of Mormon says we must have mercy upon the poor and honor our father and our mother. You must have mercy on your old mother and let her come back to your village."

"You know nothing of the customs of my people," Walker said sternly. "Do you think only Mormons know what is best?" Stubbornly then, he would speak no more, and Morley left. A few days later Tishum Igh crawled back to the wickiups where Walker let her eke out a tentative existence. 

Nothing more came of the matter until about 1 March 1850, when Walker rode his white horse up to the door of Morley's dugout and demanded that the one-year-old son of father Morley by his plural wif e, Hannah Blakeslee Finch, be handed over to him. The boy, Thomas Simeon Morley, a big-eyed and curlyhaired lad, was Father Morley's pride, a son of his old age, as Walker was well aware. Morley demanded to know why the request was being made, to which Walker replied that it was a whim of his squaw to have a boy. 

'Take bread or beef instead of my papoose," Morley pleaded, but Walker would have none of Hannah Morley began to cry.

"You will give Walker the papoose," the chief said sternly, "or Walker will kill all of the Mormonee in Sanpete Valley." He leaped down from his horse and stepped forward to take the child form his father's arms. Hannah fainted. 

"if you will leave my papoose with his mother," Morley pleaded, "and do no harm to the settlers in Sanpete, you may take my life if I have off ended you." 

"I do not care about your lif e," spat Walker. "Walker want the papoose." Walker took the crying child in his arms, leaped upon his horse, wheeled, and rode away with his wafting braves.

Two weeks passed and not a single Indian was seen in the area. Then, at daybreak on 13 March 1850, Walker and his band rode into the settlement and went directly to Morley's dugout. 

Little Simeon, dressed in buckskins, his face painted white with red stripes, and wearing a headband with a single feather in it, was tied onto the back of a small pony. Walker, in contrast to his attitude of a fortnight earlier when he had taken the boy, now wore a broad smile on his handsome, high-cheekboned face. 

"Walker bring your papoose home," he said. "All is right."  

And all was right. Morley was well aware that the wily chieftain had used the incident as a kind of test, and when the Mormon leader sent no militia to recover the child, it was concluded that Morley was a man of honor who could be trusted, and who lived the precepts he taught. Now Walker had another surprise in store for Morley: he announced that he was ready to be baptized for the remission of his sins, and had convinced his brother Arapeen to do likewise. 

On 13 March 1850, Chief Walker and his brother Arapeen waded into the ice-choked waters of City Creek and submitted to immersion under the trusted hand of Isaac Morley. Walker became the first of his people to be confirmed a member of the Mormon Church. Other of his people soon followed suit. 

Chief Walker had undergone the Mormon rites. It was only fair that Isaac Morley join in the rites of the Ute elders. He was invited to participate in a purif ication rite to be held in a sweat lodge near a spring of water. Inside the lodge, cold water was poured over heated rocks to create steam, and the men, stripped to their skin, went inside. Father Morley, unaccustomed to displaying his nakedness publicly, was the last to enter. As he stood before the circle of solemn Utes, he noted that they were looking intently at his genitals. He asked Walker if something was wrong. 

"You are different," the chief replied, "not like us." He pointed to Morley's penis. 

"It is called circumcision," Morley explained. 

"Did you have an accident?" Walker inquired curiously. "Mebbe a wound in battle?"

Morley explained that it was a religious custom, to cause all good and righteous men to look like Jesus

"If Jesus had this done, then it is good for Utes to do it and look like Jesus," Walker reasoned. 

"I think baptism is enough," Morley counseled. Walker appeared to be offended. He insisted that if Jesus looked like this, and Morley had it done to look like Jesus, then Walker, as a great chief of the Utes, should look like this too. At last Morley agreed that it was the right thing to do. 

Walker retrieved his hunting knife and handed it to Morley, urging him to perform the ceremony, but Morley declined, saying he had no experience in such matters. Walker then turned to his brother Arapeen, who backed away uncertainly, his eyes wide with fear. Walker realized that, as chief, he would have to set the example, and he was determined to do so. 

"I will be the first to look like Jesus," said Walker, pinching his foreskin between his thumb and forefinger. With a quick slice of his knife, he cut it free. "He stood there," wrote Morley, "a broad grin on his face, with blood trickling down his bare legs, holding the trophy aloft for all to see-his badge of courage."

Chief Walker proceeded around the circle of men, beginning with Arapeen, and as they held their foreskin taut, he sliced each one away. The braves endured the ceremony without a single protest, not wanting to be less courageous than their chief. Walker collected the foreskins--23 in all-and stretched them around willow rings to dry. "Thereafter," recorded Morley, "each man carried the strange trophy in his medicine bag, as a sign of favor from Towats." 

On 17 July 1853, Walker was incited to war when James Ivie, who lived on Spring Creek in Utah Valley, struck a belligerent brave over the head with a broken gun barrel, killing him. Angered because the Mormons refused to turn Ivie over to him for justice, Walker declared war on the settlers. Outbreaks occurred all over the Territory. At Manti, Father Morley ordered the settlers into a newly constructed fort.

Though the Walker War raged for several months, with many killed on both sides, it is a tribute to the respect Walker held for Isaac Morley that no attacks were made upon Manti, in the very center of Walker's realm. Indeed, one day Walker rode into Manti and asked Father Morley to negotiate a peace between himself and Brigham Young. 

The peace was made, but at a cost. Church leaders and a faction of disgruntled Manti residents began to levy an attack upon Isaac Morley for having too much influence with the Indians. It began with a venal feud between Isaac Morley and Bishop John Lowry, Sr. The greatest issue between them was Lowry's "distaste" for Indians and Morley's favoritism of them. 

Lowry's problems with the Indians began when Chief Walker asked Brigham Young if it was possible for him to marry a Mormon woman. Young gave his consent on condition that the woman agreed. 

Walker had his eye on Bishop Lowry's daughter, Mary. Dressed in his finest Spanish-style clothing, Walker entered the Lowry home without knocking. He expressed his intentions to the frightened girl, describing his great wealth, and even promised to forsake his Indian ways and adopt those of the white man if she would marry him. Afraid of the consequences should she refuse him, Mary Lowry blurted out that she was already married to a white man. Walker demanded to know who it was, and Mary told him it was her sister's husband, Judge Peacock. Walker angrily plunged his knife into the kitchen table and left. 

Bishop Lowry, when he learned of the incident, went directly to Father Morley and demanded that Chief Walker be reprimanded. Morley insisted that Walker had been entirely within his rights to propose and had done nothing wrong: moreover, Morley pointed out that Mary Lowry's lie, when found out, could incite another Indian war. Lowry left in a huff, accusing Morley of caring more about the Indians than he did his own people.

Bishop Lowry found himself in a quandary. He confronted his daughter and demanded that her lie be made truth. That same night Mary became Judge Peacock's plural wife, then fled to Salt Lake City. John Lowry never ceased blaming Morley for the entire affair. Lowry's faction pressured Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball to effect Morley's replacement. A special Ward meeting was convened on Wednesday, 23 November 1853, and the resultant confrontation between the two factions resulted in Isaac Morley's resignation. Brigham Young called for Morley to return to Salt Lake City immediately. 

Following the April 1854 General Conference of the Church, Isaac Morley returned to Manti to put his business affairs in order. He visited for the last time with his old friend, Chief Walker, who was camped on Meadow Creek. Morley wrote in his journal: 

There were tears in Walker's eyes. He was ill, and thought we might never see one another again. I told him that Towats would never allow brothers to be parted, and that should either of us die, or us both, we would meet again in the Lord's Heaven. He seemed pleased and comforted at that. "When Walker die," he said, "my brother Morley will speak to Towats when I am buried?" I told him I would. We parted with an embrace, which thing is not customary with Walker. He is the most unforgettable man I have ever known. 

On 29 January 1855, after a protracted bout with pneumonia, Chief Walker died at his camp on Meadow Creek in Millard County. A day or two later, several Ute Indians rode into Salt Lake City looking for Isaac Morley. They informed him of Walker's death and urged him to come. Heber C. Kimball and others cautioned Morley that Walker had often expressed the desire to have several Mormons killed and buried with him, to accompany him on his journey to the land of medicine dreams. Morley, however, had given his promise to Walker to consecrate his grave and commend his soul to Towats, and left immediately with the Indians. 

The body of Walker had already been buried, entombed in a deep crevice near the top of the mountain above Meadow Creek. It was early February when Morley arrived there, led by Arapeen and a few sub-chiefs. As they neared the burial place, the sound of crying could be heard emanating from the tomb. Two Piede children, a boy and a girl, had been entombed alive, condemned to slowly starve to death, their crying calculated to scare away evil spirits which might try to steal Walkers soul on its three-day journey to the great beyond. Afterwards, Morley wrote in his journal: 

Never has my heart been rended more than when I heard the pathetic crying of those children, and could do nothing to alleviate their suffering, nor secure their release. According to Indian custom, they must frighten away the evil spirits and protect the soul of the chief., to remove them or rescue them from starvation and freezing would have precipitated another war and the annihilation of the settlers. I could do nothing in the end but ease my troubled conscience with the knowledge that the deaths of two children would save the lives of dozens or hundreds of our people, and I was comforted in my belief that their tender sacrifice would ensure their eternal salvation. So I left them there, in the hands of the Lord, and the company of my dead Ute brother, Chief Walker of Sanpete.

Isaac Morley remained an active legislator in Utah Territory until 1857, at which time he declined the nomination for another term to become full-time Church Patriarch. He never ceased his colonizing enterprises. A firm believer in the "United Order" he helped to found the Muddy Mission in Nevada, and the communal town of Orderville in Kane County, and North Bend (later called Fairview) in Sanpete County. 

In March 1864, while living with his daughter Lucy Diantha Allen and her family in North Bend, Isaac Morley developed severe rheumatism. As he lay in his sick bed for some months, another Indian war-the Black Hawk War-broke out in Utah. Once more the Utes rose up against the Mormon settlers, and Father Morley's mood plunged into a despair from which he never recovered. While the Black Hawk War raged around him, Isaac Morley died at his daughter's home on 24 June 1865. He was seventy-nine. He was buried at the foot of Temple Hill in Manti. His spirit walks in the land of medicine dreams with his brother Walker.

 

 

Sources:

The Gold of Carre‑Shinob, Kerry Ross Boren & Lisa Lee Boren, Bonneville Books, Springville, Utah 1998.

Following the Ark of the Covenant, Kerry Ross Boren & Lisa Lee Boren, Bonneville Books, 2000.

Isaac Morley journals (unpub.).

Indian Depredations On Utah, Peter Gottfredson, 1911 Court Minutes, Sanpete County, Utah 1850-1854