Status Updates From Utah's Black Hawk War

Despite Black Hawk's agreement to end the war, federal troops must be called in to subdue the Mormons and the indigenous tribes, which are beyond Black Hawk's control.

Black Hawk has been wounded, a serious development in the War.

Commercial trade in stolen goods funds the war on one side, with pressure building on the LDS leadership to ask for federal help.

A treaty is signed, but not by Black Hawk or his followers.

After twenty years of attempted co-existence and uneasy tension, a war breaks out, but someone blames it on a woman being obstinate and not agreeing to marry a man who beat one of his wives to death.

The inevitable collision when food is scarce and over 100,000 people move into an area which can barely sustain half that number.

The topic of Indian/Mexican slavery rears its ugly head. It seems the incredible violence of our national history has been smoothed over with benign neglect. So easy to forget, not so easy to delve into details.

This is a fascinating story about land-stealing by Congress using power to "extinguish native title" and enforce "removal to reservations," which involved a lot of death.