In the early days of the Utah territory, Mormon leaders decided to exterminate anything that got in the way of their plans to build their Kingdom of God. This episode delves into the ghastly execution of the Timpanogos tribe that occupied lands Mormons invaded. It also tells the story of the “Wasters & Destroyers” contest where Mormons devised a contest to kill as many animals as possible, which added to the devastation.
Shownotes:
- Donate to Sunstone and the History Podcast (leave us a note in the comment section to say hi!)
- Daniel Hanmer Wells and Events of His Time
- The Whites Want Everything by Will Bagley
- A History of Utah’s American Indians by Forrest S. Cuch
- The Wasters and Destroyers article, Utah Historical Quarterly 1994 – VOL LXII – No 1
- A Historical Study of the Exploration of Utah Valley and the Story of Fort Utah
- Ute perspectives of the Timpanogos Massacre
- Donate to the Timpanogos tribe
I started listening to this podcast after the two episodes on the history of Polygamy that you did on Mormon Stories. Finally caught up (and now I’m sad that there are no more episodes yet). It’s great to hear good history, well-organized and clearly presented! So many “history” podcasts fail on one of those if not all three. Keep up the good work!
Also, as someone raised Mormon but who only lived in UT while attending college (go Cougars! or something), I can follow about 75% of the obscure jokes and references you two make, but I have no idea how to begin to contextualize most of them for my never-mo partner when she’s listening with me. 🙂