Florence Garcia's voice trembled with emotion as she spoke about a project to safeguard a mountain burial site of her great aunt, a Shoshone Indian who died in 1861 after being cursed by a tribal medicine man.
For generations, the lure of artifacts has drawn curious graverobbers and vandals to the site. Now a group of Utahns hopes its efforts will stop the grave desecration and be a symbolic gesture of understanding between Utah's whites and Native Americans."I think is so wonderful that they have done this. I can't describe my personal gratitude. It is so touching to me," said Florence Garcia, a 77-year-old Salt Lake resident. "I can't believe that somebody is this interested and kind enough to do this for the Indian people."
Sixteen volunteers from a Boy Scout troop, the U.S. Forest Service and Utah Statewide Archaeological Society worked Friday to restore the grave on a bench above Farmington.
"I talked with the chairman of the Shoshone Tribe and he thought it was one of the greatest projects he had ever heard of. He was just delighted we were doing something. I think it is pure symbolism that whites are paying this respect to Native Americans," said Arlene "Skip" Webb, a member of the Salt Lake-Davis Chapter of the archaeological society and liaison with the Utah Historical Society.
The grave is believed to have been that of the daughter of Northwestern Shoshone Chief Little Soldier. Garcia, Chief Little Soldier's great- granddaughter, said that family oral tradition holds that her great aunt, whose name has since been lost, had been cursed by the tribal medicine man to die during childbirth because she refused to marry him.
She married a young warrior instead and the medicine man's curse came true. She was taken to the site about one mile north of present-day Lagoon amusement park and buried with her pony and live baby.
A Deseret News account from the May 8, 1861, edition reads: "On Saturday last, a young squaw, daughter of Little Soldier, died in his camp near Point of the Mountain, between G.S.L. City and Lehi. The body was taken north for interment on some creek or in some ravine in the vicinity of Farmington.
The funeral passed through this city that evening with the body wrapped in a blanket and lashed on a pony, together with some provisions and other things that were to be deposited with the body of the deceased. A fine young pony was also taken along to be killed by strangulation at the place of interment."
Garcia said that during the burial her great-grandmother pleaded with her father to keep the baby. Chief Little Soldier told her that she too would be buried if she continued objecting.
Later, the medicine man was killed at the behest of Chief Little Soldier. The medicine man had been instructed to build the fire at a prearranged campsite. Little Soldier and his men approached and shot him with an arrow, Garcia said.
Shelley Smith, archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management and consultant to the amateur archaeological society, said the Farmington grave is a traditional talus or rock grave. Graves were dug in a wash and then rocks were used to cover the site. At the Farmington site, the rocks cover an area about 40 feet by60 feet.
"It could have been a clan burial site, but we are not sure," Smith said.
Little Soldier was a chief of the "Weber Utes," which were actually a branch of the Northwestern Shoshone Tribe. He was a contemporary of Chief Three Bear and Chief Pocatello, who led other branches of the tribe. Chief Little Soldier's tribe lived in areas around the Weber River and north end of Great Salt Lake, according to historian Brigham Madsen.
Under a Forest Service special-use permit the volunteers sealed off exposed graves with donated concrete and replaced stones that had been removed over the years by vandals.
Members of the Holladay Boy Scout Troop No. 595 worked on the grave as an Eagle Scout project for Scout Jed Arveseth. With water pumped from a Forest Service truck, the Scouts mixed the concrete in wheelbarrows and spread it over the site.
"I can't believe people would just go up there, move the rocks, dig up the graves and look for artifacts. It is a disgrace. People should respect burial sites like they would a graveyard," Arveseth said.
Over the years, arrow heads, beads and even skeletal remains have been apparently taken from the site.
Garcia asked that if anyone still has artifacts or bones from the grave that they be returned for burial before it is rededicated in September. At that time,volunteers will place a plaque at the site.