Battle at Fort Utah

The Battle at Fort Utah (also known at Fort Utah War or Provo War) was a battle between the Timpanogos Tribe and remnants of the Nauvoo Legion at Fort Utah in modern-day Provo, Utah. The Timpanogos people initially tolerated the presence of the settlers, and the two groups enjoyed some moments of mutual friendship. However, after three Mormons murdered a Timpanogos man called Old Bishop and a hard winter where Timpanogos took around 50 Mormon cattle, settlers in Fort Utah petitioned to go to war with the Timpanogos. Isaac Higbee, Parley P. Pratt and Willard Richards convinced Brigham Young to exterminate any Timpanogos hostile to the Mormon settlement. Young sent the Nauvoo Legion down with Captain George D. Grant. and later sent General Daniel H. Wells to lead the army. After the Timpanogos defended themselves from their village and an abandoned cabin, they fled their camp. The Mormons pursued the Timpanogos from Chief Old Elk's tribe and any other Timpanogos they found in the valley, killing Timpanogos from Chief Old Elk's tribe and other tribes even if they had no history of attacking the Mormons. The Nauvoo Legion killed around 100 Timpanogos.

Around February 1849, Dmick B. Huntington spoke with Timpanogos leader Little Chief about some of the settlers' missing cattle. Little Chief said that Roman Nose and Blue Shirt were great thieves who had decided to live off of the settlers' cattle all winter. Little Chief said that the Mormons should kill these renegades, perhaps out of fear that his tribe would be blamed and killed for the missing cattle. Captain John Scott took fifty men into Utah Valley to put a "final end" to the "depredations.". On March 3, 1849, Scott's men made their way down the Provo river and asked Little Chief and his camp about where the renegades were. Little Chief's tribe was understandably worried about the fifty armed men, and Little Chief agreed to show Scott where the renegades were. Little Chief's two sons guided Scott's men to the renegade's camp near Battle Creek Canyon. Scott's men surrounded the camp, which consisted of several men and their families. The renegades refused to talk and opened fire on the company, even though they were considerably weaker. Scott's men dropped rocks on the renegades in the creek, which caused the women and children to surrender. Old Elk and Stick-in-the-Head, leaders of local Timpanogos tribes, watched the settlers "relentlessly shoot down" the remaining Timpanogos. This contributed to their later mistrust of the settlers during the events preceding the Battle at Fort Utah.

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