Sorted here is documentation relating to the adoption of American Indian children by Mormon families in regions where “Weber Utes” lived. Even though most of these children probably weren’t “Weber Utes,” their frequently lesser status within their adopted families is a stark demonstration of pioneer prejudice and views on “Lamanites.” And these children’s condition would have been noticed by other Native people of this area.
- Captivity, Adoption, Marriage, and Identity: Native American Children in Mormon Homes, 1847-1900, thesis by Michael Kay Bennion
- 1849: In Woods Cross, Daniel Wood adopts three Indian children, supposedly “orphans of the Black Hawk War” — but years before that war even occurred; All three die young, from diphtheria and/or pneumonia
- 1850s: Fanny Gardner, an Indian girl who was born on the Weber River, is purchased by Thomas Sprague and given to the Archibald Gardner family; her brother, Muchikee, continues to visit her at the Gardner household in Salt Lake County
- 1850s-70s?: In Ogden, Ann Blythe Barker purchased a little girl whom she named Rhoda; various accounts exist regarding her origins and eventual fate, with some stating that she ultimately died from tuberculosis as a teenager, and another claiming she lived to adulthood. Little Soldier is sometimes named as a culprit in her capture, sometimes as a benevolent friend who often checked in to observe her wellbeing.
- 1853: Jacob Hamblin adopts Albert, a Goshute/Shoshone boy, but gives drastically different accounts of the event
- See more on Jacob Hamblin: The Life and Death of Albert Hamblin, thesis by Rachel Stuart-Hirschfield
- 1863/1870: Jannie Hull Riley, a survivor of the Bear River Massacre, was adopted by the Hull family of Franklin, Idaho, and later lived in Hooper, Utah