Blessing the land and honoring ancestors, Shoshone spiritual leader Rios Pacheco opened and closed a memorial of the 159th anniversary of the Bear River Massacre with prayer, on Saturday, near Preston.
If we heal the land then we will be healed, he told a group of men and women from Brigham Young University who are working with several Native American tribes in Utah to incorporate their stories in curriculum to be used in teaching Utah’s history.
That is one of the goals of the Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation, said Darren Parry, former chairman of the tribe.
“Ultimately, the story of Bear River is our story. In some ways, I hope you can respect the story that we want to have told, as well as recognize your role in this story. History doesn’t always affirm us. Sometimes history challenges us to think about an uglier past that we don’t want to have. But you see, that’s the power and the benefit of history. It connects us to the past. It connects us to our humanity and our inhumanity. But it always offers us a way forward in a way that connects us not in the prettiest of ways, but to move forward in this new relationship, that is a 21st Century relationship, based on respect. Respect for the truth, and what happened in that past moment. Then and only then, do you get the possibility of reconciliation.”
Brad Parry, a vice-chairman of the tribal council, said the tribe has begun turning the land back to its native state, another of the tribe’s goals.
“When we left here in 1863, there were streams and tributaries running through here. There were wetlands and willows and thickets. Those have all been changed to produce agriculture. We are going to change that back,” he said.
Last fall, the U.S. Conservation Corps cleared about 10 acres of the tribe’s land of Russian olive trees. “We’ll start replanting those with willow trees, cottonwood trees, and other medicinal and culturally appropriate plants for our people. We’ll bring back those river streams and take out those ditch systems that were manmade and turn it back to what was natural.”
The tribe has received about $2 million in federal, state and private funding to completely restore the land ecologically, said Brad.
“Over the next five years, you’ll see this place change from a barren agricultural land to an eco-environment that will have grasses that will bring back birds, fish and other animals that would have been here when we were here,” he said.
The tribe is also working to raise funds to build a the Boa Ogoi (Big River) Cultural Interpretive Center to help tell their story. As Brad was explaining the tribe’s plans, a herd of deer climbed the snow-covered bluff where the Shoshone plan to build the center, along with an amphitheater that overlooks the area where their ancestors gathered in January for the annual Warm Dance. Until that bloody day in 1863, it was a time of renewing relationships and petitioning God to usher in Spring, as thousands of Shoshone from around the region gathered there.
“All we want to do is take the environment back to its natural state so Mother Earth can heal herself and be self-sustaining. That way we can begin to teach people about our heritage, …instead of trying to do it from inside a building,” said Brad.
He invited anyone interested in helping their effort to contact one of the tribal offices: 208-478-5712 in Pocatello and 435-734-286 in Ogden.