On the Trail West

The wagons were circled for the night. Dusk was falling, and the weary pioneers were preparing to sleep. The men were tired. They hadn’t come as far that day as they would have liked. There was no trail now, and men had to trudge ahead and break down the sharp prairie grasses to keep them from injuring the oxen’s feet. Some had scouted ahead to find the easiest way forward for the wagons. A wagon had broken an axle which they’d had to stop and set up a temporary forge to repair. All had been done with an air of tension and with too little sleep. They’d been up at 3am when the stationed guards had spotted six Sioux Indians scouting the camp. The Indians had retreated as soon as they’d been seen, but everyone was tense. It was a relief to keep moving, but the broken axle had slowed their progress. It was one of those days that needed to end so they could start fresh.

I’m not sure what Joseph Matthews was doing when the alarm came up. Currying a horse? Finishing a meal? Checking to make sure a wagon was secure? Whatever the men were doing was dropped. The Indians were back, and this time, they said, they’d taken Porter Rockwell and his horse. In moments several men were on horses after them. Soon, however, the report was proven false. Porter Rockwell was in camp. There were two horses missing, neither of which belonged to him. The missing horses had been running when they left camp, which made the men believe that they’d been driven off. Nobody was certain. Many of the men looked for them, aided by the light of a half moon. The search was called off at 11pm. They couldn’t find the horses.

Shots were fired early the next morning. The guards were on edge and had fired when they’d heard the brush stir nearby. This time it was just wolves.

William Clayton and Porter Rockwell went back to try to find more signs of the horses, but returned empty handed in time for the wagons to roll out by 8:30.

The country here was dry and sandy. The trees gave way to brush. The pioneers kept a weary eye out for Indians, but never saw more than a rattlesnake or a prairie dog. At 2:30 they stopped to rest and dig for water since there was no ready source nearby. While they rested, a party was formed to look for the horses one last time. Porter Rockwell, Joseph Matthews, Thomas Brown, and John Eldredge were chosen to go.

Brigham Young instructed the four chosen men before they set out. He was concerned about their safety and warned them not to go too far. Just to the bluff, not as far back as the camp from the night before. The four men shouldered their rifles and set off on their horses.

The signs of the missing animals were not easy to pick out from the tracks of the oxen and the other horses from camp, but the four had a pretty good idea of which way to go. Each broken shrub, each furrow in the dusty ground told a story to the trackers. They were getting closer. They came to the bluff where they had been told to turn back. There was still plenty of daylight, and they were closer to the missing horses. The animals had been important to their owners, and they couldn’t be that much farther from finding them. They chose to keep going.

They were about a mile out from the previous night’s camp site when Porter sensed movement from the corner of his eye. “Wolf,” he muttered, and slid from his saddle to sight his gun at it. As he leveled his weapon to fire, an Indian burst from the brush. More sprang up from behind boulders and dips in the land that didn’t look capable of harboring a man. The Indians leaped for Rockwell and Matthews’ horses, but Porter Rockwell reacted quickly. He jumped back into his saddle and leveled his pistol. The Indians drew back. The two parties faced each other. Four rough pioneers on horseback, and fifteen Pawnee Indians on foot. Some of the Indians had guns, others held bows with their strings taught, arrows trained on the pioneers. Should they stand their ground? Should they fight? Should they run and risk the shots and arrows as they fled? The tension was palpable.

The Indians moved first. They were suddenly enraged, and with loud cries they retreated back about fifty yards. Six had guns and sent balls whizzing about the pioneers’ heads. The pioneers turned their horses and fled the way they’d come. The Indians didn’t pursue them. Soon they were safely back with the rest of their party.

It wasn’t long before Brigham Young asked to see the returned men privately. “You went farther than I asked you to go.” He stated. He wasn’t asking them if they had. He already knew. The men nodded and began to explain. President Young cut them off. “You were saved today. The Indians left because there was an army of Nephite warriors beside you that they could see and you could not. If you think the Lord will save you again when you disregard my instructions, brethren, think again!”

When I was writing down the story of Joseph Matthews and the Antelope, I came across a useful website that had several journal entries that mentioned Joseph Matthews. One of them was about an encounter with the Indians. It was brief, and there wasn’t much detail about it. On Christmas day when we met with some of our extended family, I talked to one of my aunts. She is one of our family history gurus. I was delighted to learn that she and an uncle have recently been in contact with someone who works for the church history department and have been going through documents to find which of the stories grandma told were closest to any original accounts of what actually happened. As I talked with my aunt about the stories told about Joseph Matthews, she mentioned the story about the Indians. It was one I’d never heard my grandma tell; I’d only read the summary in the journal online. She told me grandma’s version, but warned me that it was one that could have been overinflated as it was passed along. I took what I found online and what my aunt told me and blended them to write it down.

According to the journals I read, there was a brief skirmish with the Indians (15 Pawnee) that occurred much the same way that my grandmother said it had. There were 15 Indians and 4 Pioneers. The journal entry says that the Indians were ready to fight, but were ‘bluft by the four men’ (here’s the link) It seems pretty unlikely to me that 15 men would stand down to four without good reason. I think an army of stripling warriors would be reason enough, don’t you?