Giggles and smiles turned to respectful gazes and somber faces as Darren Parry, former chairman of the Northwest Band of the Shoshone, led Edith Bowen Laboratory School fourth graders around a small footpath overlooking the site of the Bear River Massacre on Tuesday. Every few feet, he stopped at different signs explaining the events that took place there on Jan. 29, 1863.
Parry explained to the children how differences in ways of life contributed to the conflict between the Native Americans and settlers before the massacre.
“Those two cultures didn’t understand each other. They didn’t understand how each other live,” Parry said. “The Shoshones didn’t have any concept of personal property. What that means is we didn’t have things that were just ours.”
Tension increased with altercations between settlers and the tribes. Eventually, after a few natives stole horses from settlers in Cache Valley, United States Colonel Patrick Edward Connor was ordered to take action. Read the rest of the story on HJnews.com.
This story is made possible thanks to a community reporting partnership between The Herald Journal and Utah Public Radio.
