When Settler Blood was spilled in Owyhee County ID

Gasoline, groceries, and housing are expensive.  Life in Idaho is a challenge.  It’s also nowhere near as challenging as it was before statehood, or even territorial recognition.  We can go to museums and see old, grainy black-and-white pictures and get a sense of the grueling, long days and sweat equity that built our modern world.  If you want to know what real hardship and danger were like, travel through historic Owyhee County.

All that remains are the Ghosts of the Dead

A historical marker gives a brief overview.  Indigenous tribesmen attacked a party making its way along the Oregon Trail.  In the initial attack, 11 died, including some children.  Named the Utter Disaster after the leader of the wagon train, I’ve often wondered if it gave way to the utter disaster phrase we sometimes hear applied to mistakes in modern life.

I did some reading about the attack and learned that some pioneers had attempted to shelter in banks along the river.  That’s where some died.  I try to see the viewpoint of the tribes.  In some cases, they saw invaders.  I equate it to the story of the Nez Perce, who saw a valley where they buried their dead being transformed into farms and ranches.  They were mortified.  One culture saw open space, another considered it sacred.

Time Provides an Understanding of the Attack

We’re still coming to grips with our differences.  Determining right and wrong is supposed to be easy, and sometimes that’s true.  But history is often muddy.  We should acknowledge the past and that it's messy, and honor the dead on all sides.