CLEARFIELD -- A group interested in preserving American Indian history is producing a full-length video on the Bear River Massacre, where U.S. troops killed more than 200 Northwestern Shoshones in 1863.
Battle Creek Productions of Clearfield has been shooting footage of people with knowledge of the 136-year-old battle since January and plans to complete editing by month's end.The key interview is with 80-year-old Mae T. Parry, granddaughter of Yeager Ta boo-chee Timbimboo, who survived the massacre near Preston, Idaho, and shared his recollections of the battle with his descendants.
The video also features interviews with historians including the director of the Fort Douglas Museum and Brigham Madsen, who has been on the faculties of Utah State University, Brigham Young University and the University of Utah.
Spence Kinard, former voice of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, will narrate the video.
The producers obtained documents and photographs from Parry and LDS Church Archives in Salt Lake City.
A brief reenactment of the battle was filmed in Logan Canyon, with a shadow process used during one scene to minimize gore and violence, said Michael Mills, director of production with IMAGIC Entertainment.
The group is marketing the documentary to television and video companies and has received preliminary interest, said Chris Dallin, partner in Battle Creek Productions. The final version will run one to two hours.
"I really feel inspired, almost that we were chosen to tell this story," Dallin said.
Historian Richard James of South Weber has long been acquainted with American Indians of various tribes. The story of the massacre needs to be told because it has not been well documented, James said.
"For somebody to go up along the creek and shoot a couple hundred Indians, that just didn't make the newspaper," James said.
And those with intimate knowledge of the bloody battle are dying off, James said.
Dallin said the story will remind people that "senseless killing" like the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo has happened before.
"For heaven's sake, haven't we learned anything in over 100 years?" Dallin said.
A band of Northwestern Shoshones gathered in the winter of 1863 for the traditional "warm dance," believed to bring on an early spring, Dallin said.
On Jan. 29 a troop of U.S. soldiers attacked the Shoshone band, killing men, women and children, Dallin said.
The documentary chronicles stories of Shoshone women who wrapped their babies in animal skins and hid them in holes on the river bank. The children were found frozen to death after the battle.
The video also tells about the brutal death of a Shoshone named Bear Hunter.
Dallin said the group intends to document other aspects of American Indian life in a series called "Legends of the West" -- for example, Parry has a tasty recipe for chokecherry jam -- but future plans hinge on the video's success.