(From the Dec/Jan Zephyr) Ken Sleight Remembers: Life in Navajo Country

Excerpt:

We all know that it was Brigham Young’s policy that it was better to feed the Indians than to fight them. But if a fight was necessary, so be it. The early Mormons in Illinois and Missouri made a show to defend their property as they were being chased out. But I wonder how many of those early pioneers felt the Indians had the same right as they to defend themselves.

The response of the Indians in San Juan County, Utah, was much the same as elsewhere. They fought such encroachment and the taking of their lands and property. What they didn’t account for, as elsewhere, was the heavy hand of government troops. Indians were either compelled to submit or to be beaten into submission.

I’ll not recount all the battles and racial problems between the whites and the Indians in San Juan. That would take volumes. But here are a few…

To read more of Ken’s article, click the image below:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2015/12/01/ken-sleight-remembers-life-in-navajo-country/