Late in the morning of July 15, 1853, two Utes, a man and a woman, entered the small cabin of James Ivie Junior, a settler living north of Springville. The Ute woman traded Ivie's wife three large trout in return for three pints of flour.

Mrs. Ivie, who viewed this display of macho manhood run amuck, hurried to get her husband, described by Springville historian Don Carlos Johnson as a man not likely to "turn aside to avoid a set to." Ivie entered the cabin, pulled the enraged Ute away from the prone woman and pushed him out of the door. Shower-o-sho-a-kats, who apparently felt he had met his masculine match and needed to regain the advantage, grabbed his musket as he passed through the doorway.

Before the Ute could get into position to shoot Ivie, the feisty colonist grabbed the barrel of the gun. The two men struggled over possession of the weapon, and the musket broke in two pieces. Ivie retained the barrel, and the Ute held the stock. Not standing on ceremony, the colonist rapidly used the barrel to deliver a vicious blow to the Ute's noggin, knocking the Indian to the ground and severely injuring him.

The fallen Ute's companion, indignant over the colonist's deft offensive action at the expense of his dusky friend, drew his bow and twanged an arrow in Ivie's general direction. The projectile passed through the colonist's loosely fitting hunting shirt, barely missing his shoulder.

Ivie used the trusty barrel to strike the second Ute with a powerful blow. The Indian joined his companion on the ground, unconscious.

Now the unappreciative Ute woman joined the fray, and she was more successful in her attempt to injure Ivie than her male companions had been. She grabbed a piece of wood from a pile near the fireplace of the cabin and rushed out of the structure, hell-bent on avenging her fallen husband's injury. Using her impromptu weapon, the woman struck Ivie in the face, inflicting a deep gash in his upper lip that eventually left the settler with a visible scar for the rest of his life.

Out of necessity, Ivie turned on the woman he initially defended, and rendered her senseless with yet another blow from the now well-used musket barrel. This left standing only Ivie and the Ute who had originally entered the cabin with the Indian woman. He had wisely stayed out of the fracas.

At this juncture, Joseph Kelly, an important resident of Springville, arrived at the log cabin. As Ivie explained what had happened, Kelly grabbed a bucket of water from inside the structure. He threw the liquid on the prone trio of Utes in an effort to revive them.

Kelly sent the only ambulatory Indian to the stream for another bucket of water. Instead of returning, the man hurried to the Ute camp and informed its inhabitants of what had transpired. The news rapidly spread through the Ute camp and, later, the Mormon settlement, causing much excitement in both locations.

Noticing that the Ute did not return to the cabin with the water, Kelly instructed Ivie and his family to leave their cabin immediately and go to the fort. Wisely, Ivie did just that, and it was likely not long before the Utes paid a visit to the small log building. Finding the colonists gone, the Indians returned to their camp, taking their wounded band members with them.

As soon as Aaron Johnson heard of the problem with the Utes, he took immediate steps to protect the settlement. Springville's leader ordered Caldwell's cavalry and Parry's infantry to muster and prepare for action. All other males over 16 years of age formed a home guard to protect the fort while the cavalry and infantry were out on maneuvers.

When the Utes came to the Springville fort, Johnson and William Smith, his interpreter, endeavored to negotiate a settlement. The Utes wanted the settlers to turn Ivie over to them for punishment. Johnson refused to comply with their demand. According to Johnson's son, Don Carlos, the harried leader offered the Utes a gun and an ox as recompense. Some of the hotheaded colonists did not want to give the Indians anything but hot lead. Sensing this, the Utes withdrew to their camp.

Don Carlos Johnson said Aaron Johnson sent Ransom Potter, A.B. Wild and interpreter Smith to the Ute camp in an effort to appease the Indians. Potter and Wild held the horses while Smith went into the camp to placate the Utes. The Indians wanted beef, a gun to replace the broken one and two blankets in exchange for peace, and Smith agreed to give them those items.

A group of Utes returned to the fort with the three settlers to pick up the goods. Leaders at the fort procured an ox and a gun, but finding two blankets proved to be difficult. The colonists lacked bedclothes, and nobody wanted to give up a blanket. George Washington Bean said Ivie did not seem disposed to pay anything. Becoming impatient for payment, the Utes left the fort again and returned to their camp, which they then removed from Springville to a site near Payson Canyon.

James McClellan, a resident of Payson, wrote to Brigham Young on July 16, the day after the unfortunate incident at Ivie's cabin. Chief Walker opposed notifying Young, but Arapeen, Walker's brother, told McClellan he wanted the Mormon leader informed of what had happened. The Ute hoped that those involved could settle the problem. Arapeen told McClellan his version of what happened in Springville, and the settler dutifully passed the news along to the Mormon leader.

Arapeen told McClellan that James Ivie knocked down three Utes. In the process, the settler badly injured one of the Indians and destroyed one gun. Arapeen said if the injured Ute warrior survived, one gun would make good recompense. If the Ute died, the blood of Ivie or another settler would be the only thing that could atone for the Indian's death.

While Arapeen talked with McClellan, an Indian messenger arrived on the scene, reporting that the wounded Ute would not likely last much longer. In the event the Indian died, Arapeen said he would try pacifying the band. Don Carlos Johnson and George Washington Bean both said four new envoys -- interpreter Greg Metcalf, Stephen C. Perry, James Guyman and Davis Clark -- visited the new Ute camp. Again, they offered to pay the goods the Utes had agreed upon earlier as recompense, but since the injured Ute was near death, the band refused to accept payment in this manner. They thirsted for blood. In another effort at conciliation, the Mormon colonists administered to Shower-o-sho-a-kats before they left the Indian camp.

Luckily, the four envoys returned to Springville safely. That was not what the Utes had in mind for the colonists. Shortly after the settlers left the Indian encampment, the injured Ute stepped into the Happy Hunting Grounds, and his enraged brethren left in pursuit of the envoys.

Even though the Springville emissaries did not realize they were being chased, they left the main trail and took a short cut from Payson Canyon to Springville. This quirk of fate likely saved their lives.

The Utes stayed with the main trail, and the settlers arrived at the fort in safety. It was likely the same day Young received McClellan's letter that the Mormon president penned a message to Walker and Arapeen. He simply dated this missive July 1853. Young advised the influential Ute brothers "to be peaceful quiet and not hasty."

Apparently, Young had heard yet another version of the event in Springville, for he told Walker and Arapeen that Ivie did not want to make the trade of fish for flour because of the scarcity of breadstuffs. Young told the Utes that Ivie gave the Indians all the bread he had in his house.

In the version Young recounted, the Utes sat down and talked together for awhile after they had received the bread from Ivie. Then one of the men began abusing the woman by kicking and trampling her. Ivie responded by gently pushing the Ute from the house and "in a friendly manner" told him "to behave himself."

The determined Ute returned to the house and resumed beating the woman even more severely than he had battered her before. Ivie escorted the Ute about six paces from the cabin and forcibly told him to stay quiet. The obstinate fellow returned for the third time and beat the woman so violently that Ivie's wife and children "became alarmed and commenced crying." It was only then that Ivie struggled with the Ute for possession of the gun and knocked the Indian down.

Brigham Young's Letter Press Book is so water-damaged at this point in the letter that only a few words at the beginning of each line are legible for the remainder of the communication. The few key visible words indicate that the second Ute tried to shoot Ivie also.

In the last two thirds of the letter, Young made what appears to be a powerful plea for peace that ended with the words, "I love you all when you do well and [follow my] counsel.

On July 18, 1853, a group of Utes visited the small fort at Payson. Not wishing to cause further trouble, the colonists welcomed these Indians and gave them food. After the Utes completed their visit and were leaving the fort, an Indian who George Washington Bean subsequently identified as Wah-woon-ah shot and killed Alexander Keele, who was performing guard duty. This shot not only gained recompense for Shower-o-sho-a-kats' death, but it also opened the infamous Walker War, a guerrilla conflict that plagued Central Utah for the better part of a year.

The lack of two blankets cost Springville dearly. Don Carlos Johnson estimated the war cost that settlement alone $2,000 in pay and supplies for its militiamen and $3,000 in labor and materials to construct a new, larger fort. Before the Walker War came to an end roughly a year later, it also cost some individual settlers heavy losses in crops and livestock.

• D. Robert Carter is a historian from Springville. He can be reached at 489-8256.