An Urge

I started to do research, Idaho is hiding information again

My poor Bear River Massacre story. When I was seeking inspiration, when I fought to keep from misplacing my rough draft, when I did something interesting for the first year of my 30’s. It gets eliminated. Good thing I have a pretty good imagination and memory.

   It all started when I was 16. It was Christmas Eve and I was hanging out in my room. I answered the phone call from my Grandma Maughan. My Grandpa Maughan had went to the hospital because he had a heart attack.

   I was really young. I heard people saying weird things. Before he had his heart attack he spoke of how he could have saved his father from the Mormons. He had been robbed of good land.

   I met people that I really never remembered. They knew who I was. Strangely, I didn’t know who they were. Members of my family start to feud. It might have been over possession. Maybe it was years of self pity.

   Then years later, Grandma Maughan died. I learned more about the whereabouts of my family. Many relatives are in Preston, Idaho. I learned of the Shoshone who have died there. As far as my family was concerned, they were sent to keep the confederates from killing the Native Americans.

   I always wondered why my family seemed like the black sheep of the Mormon community. As I have learned, Mormons griped at my grandfather because my dad and my aunt had converted to the Nazerene faith. It took me much research to figure out what was going on. It is hard being a female in this family. Nobody pays attention to me and it is very hard to get any information.

   I searched for information on the Shoshone that died. Many things were happening in the 1800’s. People were driving the Mormons out from one place to the next. Abraham Lincoln was annoyed with the Mormons. There was an Anti-Mormon movement.

   In the movement, Mormons were and non-Mormons were being segregated. My great grandfather John Maughan was chalk full of double standards. He spoke down to those Mormons who shopped in stores that were non-Mormon. Then he went to a store that was non-Mormon.

   But, where was the information on the Shoshone? This movement went on after the massacre. I was at a loss. Then, as though fate was crossing my path, I found a book about the Bear River Massacre.

   I could finally do some research. You know what is strange? I had been told once that Boise has everything. This statement came from my teacher Mrs. Slagle in Emmett where I grew up. That was the most bullshit comment ever. I got a better education from my hometown. Not to mention that the school I went to in Boise went to Emmett to print of their school paper.

   More and more books started popping up from nowhere. Screw the library, I had to go to Borders for the books that I wanted. I got to learn something.

   Back in the day before the white man, Idaho flourished. Shoshone had plenty to eat. Then white men came along and took their food away and they were enslaving Shoshone for their own cruel ways. The Shoshone started to steal. Massacres were taking place left and right.

   Peter Maughan had made it through Idaho from Illinios. He and others had been run from there when the citizens burned down their church. He had been a scout for Brigham Young. He went from bad lands in Utah to Maughan’s Fort where a crop was finally successful.

   The Shoshone gave them hell. They often stole from them. The Mormon’s gave to them to try to stop the theft. The information has been long hidden and unknown because the Civil War broke out.

   During the war, people were using the Pony Express. The starving Shoshone start attacking the Pony Express. There were also imposter Indians, white men were dressing up as Indians and robbing people.

   Abraham Lincoln got numerous complaints. Important information could not go anywhere, innocent people were dieing, the Mormon’s were being blamed for this. The President had sent soldiers training in California to come and remedy the matter. The soldiers wanted to fight in the civil war. They did not want to come to Idaho and mediate.

   Peter had made a group of minute men to police the Indians. It wasn’t enough. The soldiers were sent to fight a battle. The battle turned into a massacre on a snowy morning in January. More than 400 Shoshone were murdered. Among the men there were women and children there. Women were raped and slaughtered. People drowned in the icy river trying to escape the chaos.

   I had to see the site. So, a road trip was planned.

Author's Note

This was from the top of my head. Before it was in fragments, this may make more sense than previously.

Reviews

[Rain]

This is very well done. It's something I've never heard of, and the way you write made it something I wanted to know more about. I like the style you chose to write it in. Blending fact and personal emotions can be tricky. This was great. Rain..