Apostle George A. Smith trades an ox for an Indian boy, December 26 and 27, 1850.
Document Introduction
Beginning on 7 December 1850, Apostle George A. Smith led an expedition of colonizers to establish what would come to be called the Iron Mission. The group founded Parowan in Southern Utah and Smith presided over Mormon settlement efforts in the region. On the initial trip to Southern Utah, Smith recorded in his journal the bitter winter weather they experienced somewhere south of present-day Nephi, Utah, after the group had crossed the Sevier River. Smith also described an encounter with Ute Indians who shot two of his family’s prized oxen with arrows. As a result, one of Smith's oxen died. In compensation, Smith traded the dead ox for a Native American boy. Smith would later serve as lead defense attorney at the trial of New Mexican trader Don Pedro León Luján who was found guilty of trading for Native American children and for doing so without a license. Immediately following that trial, on January 23, 1852, Smith introduced An Act for the Relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners to the Utah territorial legislature. Smith’s journal entries for December 26 and 27, 1850, recount the circumstances of the trade for the Native American boy.
