Sanpitch (killed April 18, 1866) was a leader of the
Sanpits tribe of
Native Americans who lived in what is now the
Sanpete Valley
Sanpete County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 27,822. Its county seat is Manti, and its largest city is Ephraim. The county was created in 1850.
History
The Sanpete Valley ma ...
, before and during settlement by
Mormon
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into severa ...
immigrants. The Sanpits are generally considered to be part of the
Timpanogos or Utah Indians
He was the brother of famed
Chief Walkara and the father of
Black Hawk, for whom the
Black Hawk War in Utah (1865–72) is named. In 1850, after
measles from newly arrived Mormon settlers decimated their tribes,
Walkara
Chief Walkara (c. 1808 – 1855; also known as Wakara, Wahkara, Chief Walker or Colorow) was a Shoshone leader of the Utah Indians known as the Timpanogo and Sanpete Band. It is not completely clear what cultural group the Utah or Timp ...
and Chief Sanpitch asked the Mormons to come to the Sanpete Valley to teach the band to farm,
though this was met with little enthusiasm.
In March 1866, as a ploy suggested by Brigham Young to bring Black Hawk to the bargaining table, the elderly Chief Sanpitch was taken into custody and incarcerated in the jail in
Manti. A month later, while he and other jailed Indians were escaping, Sanpitch was shot and wounded. On April 18, 1866, he was found and killed in Birch Creek Canyon (in San Pitch Mountains, between
Fountain Green and
Moroni). The two Mormon men responsible for the chief's death buried his body under a rock slide by shooting at the canyon wall overhead.
Sanpitch's interactions with early Mormon settlers are chronicled in Gottfredson's ''History of Indian depredations in Utah''.
Sanpitch is almost certainly not the same person as the Shoshone chief of the same name who was alive in 1870.
The
Shoshone and
Utes were enemies.
Some sources indicate that he, or his grandfather of the same name, is the
namesake
A namesake is a person, geographic location, or other entity bearing the name of another.
History
The word is first attested around 1635, and probably comes from the phrase "for one's name's sake",
which originates in English Bible translations ...
of
Sanpete County, the
Sanpete Valley
Sanpete County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 27,822. Its county seat is Manti, and its largest city is Ephraim. The county was created in 1850.
History
The Sanpete Valley ma ...
, the
San Pitch Mountains
The San Pitch Mountains are a longUtah, DeLorme Atlas & Gazetteer, p. 34-35. mountain range located in Juab and Sanpete counties in central Utah, United States.}
__TOC__
Description
The range's southwest lies adjacent a north-flowing stretch ...
, and the
Sanpitch River. However, all of them share the origin of their names: the Sanpits people. According to
William Bright
William O. Bright (August 13, 1928 – October 15, 2006) was an American linguist and toponymist who specialized in Native American and South Asian languages and descriptive linguistics.
Biography
Bright earned a bachelor's degree in lingui ...
, their name comes from the
Ute word ''saimpitsi'', meaning "people of the
tules".
References
1866 deaths
19th-century Native Americans
Mormonism and Native Americans
Native American people from Utah
Native American leaders
Native American people of the Indian Wars
People of Utah Territory
Timpanogos tribe
Ute people
Year of birth unknown
1811 births
{{Utah-bio-stub