MT. PLEASANT—The memory of Chief Sanpitch, the leader of Utes living in the San- pete Valley at the time Mormon pioneers arrived, was honored last Saturday as a monument to him was unveiled near the entrance to Mt. Pleasant.
The theme of the ceremony was reconciliation. Sanpitch, who stood up for his right to remain on the land but also worked for peace between his people and the Mormons, ended up being murdered by some of the settlers in 1866.
The crowd that gathered for the unveiling included representatives of the Ute Tribe as well as residents of the valley, many of whom were undoubtedly descen- dents of Mormon colonizers.
“This is a special day because we’re all here together,” said Larry Cesspooch, a Ute, documentary film maker and spiritual leader in the Ute Tribe. “…My prayer is that all of us can stand together in humanity.”
Later in the ceremony, Cesspooch beat a drum while he prayed silently. He explained that as he beat the drum, he tried to focus on the spirit of Sanpitch, and the spirits of the ancestors of his people, who are buried in the Sanpete Valley.
Still later during the unveiling event, Cesspooch said, “We sit as one group of human beings. Regardless of the past,…we need to move forward together.”
Abe Kimball, a leader in the North Sanpete Art Council, the group that commissioned sculp- tor Brad Taggart, an art professor at Snow College, to create the monument, talked about the final days of Sanpitch’s life.
At Brigham Young’s direction and in an attempt to bring the Utes to peace talks, several Native Americans, including Sanpitch, were jailed in Manti.
They escaped, but as they did, settlers shot and wounded Sanpitch. A month later, settlers spotted the chief in Birch Creek Canyon between Fountain Green and Moroni. They shot and killed him, and then shot at the canyon wall to intentionally trigger a rock slide. The chief ’s body was buried under the rocks.
In the statue, Kimball said, Sanpitch appears to be pleading for his life but at the same time has his hand out as if still pleading for peace.
Taggart did extensive re- search on Chief Sanpitch and the 19th Century Utes before sculpting the monument. He said a documentary on Sanpitch’s life titled “The Lost Tomahawk” and commissioned by the Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area (MPNHA), ends with a statement about the chief being forgotten.
Taggart said when he watched the documentary, “I sort of smiled and felt privileged to make sure he’s remembered.”
“We’re very passionate about what we’ve accomplished,” Lisa Potter, another leader in the North Sanpete Art Council, said as she, Cesspooch, Kimball and Taggart cut a ribbon thatwas holding a shroud over the statue. Potter said she hoped the community, too, would be proud of the monument. Then Kimball and Taggart pulled the shroud over the top of the statue.
Cesspooch lit a feather on fire (although wind blew the fire out). Then, in the tradition of Ute blessings, he walked around the statute touching it with the feather and praying that the monument would be protected from vandalism.
In comments after the ceremony, Kimball said art council representatives had met with the Ute Tribal Council in Salt Lake City and asked their permission to install the statue.
According to Kimball, their reaction was, “’There’ve been lots of statues, but no one has ever come and asked us before.’”
“We had to tell a story that’s not 100 percent positive,” Kimball said. “Where there has been dep- redation incidents, all we could do is tell the truth.”
The monument was funded by a $30,000 grant from the MPNHA and a $9,000 grant from the Utah Division of Museums and Arts.
