The Ute chief’s list of grievances with white settlers was never documented well in his own lifetime. On the surface it might appear as though Black Hawk’s motivation in waging war was simply knee-jerk. A closer examination, however, suggests something deeper, linking to his psyche.

The factors that compelled Black Hawk to brazenly lead others onto the warpath appear to have largely been based on a need to live true to his tribal heritage by seeking revenge, to demonstrate valor and resistance, motives ultimately overarched by a hope for the preservation of his people and a brighter future for their children. Black Hawk’s final years reveals a figure, though broken in health, so courageous he came to admit and even express sorrow for his own mistakes.

A man racked with grief, a noble leader who sought forgiveness and reconciliation in the camp of his enemies.

By the time the Black Hawk war erupted, the U.S. government had already carved out pockets of land, recognizably remote and out-of-the-way, and designated these places as Indian reserves.

This trend of forced removal had begun along the East coast shortly after the arrival of the first colonist bearing ships from Europe. Some of the whites who lived along the central and southern Utah corridor in the mid-1800s had in their earlier lives been eyewitnesses if not actual participants in the wave of major, forced relocations of Native Americans.

The Ivie family was among a sizable group of people who had joined the LDS church in the early 1830s while living in a region of northeastern Missouri known as the Salt River Valley. This contingency of native Southerners were prominent in Monroe County and their mass-conversion to Mormonism sent shockwaves throughout the state.

These Saints formed a church unit known as the Allred Settlement, comprised of a group of people who would maintain close ties over the ensuing years extending beyond Missouri and Illinois, across the plains to Utah. The Ivies were among those who had observed the government’s forced removal of Cherokee communities from the Carolinas, western Georgia and eastern Tennessee, a brutal campaign that sent thousands of men, women and children on a forced march known as the “Trail of Tears” to the Indian Territory that would eventually become part of the state of Oklahoma.

In Utah members of the Ivie family had a series of confrontations with Native Americans. The family’s patriarch, James Russell Ivie, played a role in igniting the Walker War near Springville in July of 1853 when he broke his gun over a Ute brave’s head, a man who was allegedly beating an Indian woman for making a poor trade with the whites.

Only a few years earlier at the Provo settlement, the Ivies’ son Richard started a short-lived but bloody conflict with local Timpanogas Utes when he killed an Indian whites referred to as “Bishop.” Negative relations continued after the Ivies moved to Sanpete and later to Round Valley when they settled at Scipio.

Black Hawk, whose close relatives were among the victims in Utah County, was well aware of the ongoing feud between his people and particular settlers like the Ivies. These people and their livestock seem to have been especially targeted because of longstanding grudges stemming from previous acts of violence.

In fact, James Ivie fell from Indian arrows when he was ambushed near his home during the raid on Scipio in June of 1866. Likewise, during the war white settlers saw Black Hawk as enemy number one and it seems nearly every stratagem possible was devised to lure him into a trap.

The opportunity finally came as the chief and his warriors were cutoff along the Sevier River south of Salina the day after the attack on Scipio by a group of about 30 militiamen under General William B. Pace.

A soldier crept close enough to shoot Black Hawk from his horse during the intense engagement. The injured leader, however, managed to escape with most of his braves but his health steadily declined thereafter.

Black Hawk remained a highly respected figure in his tribe and eventually realized that prolonged war was only leading to greater suffering and misery for his people. In 1869 the war chief decided on a path of peace and turned to Brigham Young to aid him in making his decision known to all people. The man’s “mission of peace” extended from St George to Springville. He said he was “sick of blood” and said he bore the curse of warfare. In Mormon meeting houses up and down the trail Black Hawk emphasized his desire for peace and forgiveness.

In Sanpete County he may have visited every settlement but he spoke at public meetings at Gunnison, Manti, Ephraim, Spring City, Mt Pleasant, Fairview, Moroni, and Fountain Green. In one of these it was recorded that Black Hawk said he “had buried the hatchet and meant to keep it buried” and that he “had found his heart and it was good.” The tall, distinguished Native American leader was accompanied on the journey by several of his closest companions.

In Utah County, the ailing man finished his great objective and returned to Spring Lake, the place of his birth, where he died and was buried the following year.