Podcast Info: On 29 January 1863 Col. Patrick Connor and his California Volunteers (US Army, Camp Douglas, Great Salt Lake City, Territory of Utah) rode down a snow covered bluff and attacked a Northwestern Shoshoni winter village--on the Bear River, in the far northern section of Cache Valley, 1.6 km from the present Utah and Idaho boundary line—killing over 400 Shoshone men, women and children.
In the middle of the Civil War (1861-1865) this horrendous event became "lost" or perhaps better said suppressed, or justified by some settlers as God's will. This band of the Shoshone Nation, whose base camp was Cache Valley, save less than a hundred survivors, was annihilated.
Enter Mae Timbimboo Parry (1919-2007), grandmother of Darren Parry, who was the Northwest Band of the Shoshone's matriarch, record keeper and historian. A granddaughter of massacre survivor Pisappih or Red Oquirrh (aka Yeager Timbimboo, born circa 1848, died 1937), Mae heard and felt the painful stories from her grandfather. She not only heard Red Oquirrh's stories, she also listen to and recorded the stories of other survivors; she spoke, presented and lobbied in Boise, Salt Lake City and in Washington, D.C.; and she advised other historians, including Brigham Madsen and Scott R. Christensen. And like her grandfather, Mae told her stories to her children and grandchildren.
Mae, as Darren Parry describes her, "ran out of time," and was unable to take her notebooks and do her final work, that is publish her accounts, her people's stories, their perspectives, their knowing, regarding the massacre. Darren Parry speaks to senior public historian Brad Westwood, about his book, his loving story of his grandmother, the Timbimboos and the Parrys, and most importantly, about his people who died, and those who survived, the massacre on January 29, 1863 on Boa Ogoi.
Bio: Darren Parry is the former chairman of the Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation. He is the driving force behind the proposed Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation Boa Ogoi Cultural Interpretive Center. Parry served on the boards of the American West Heritage Center (Logan, UT) and the Utah State Museum Board. He has also served on the Advisory Board of the Huntsman Cancer Center (SLC, UT). An educator by training, in secondary education with an emphasis in history, Darren graduated from Weber State University (Ogden, UT). During the last year (2019-2020) he ran for election, unsuccessfully, to the U.S. House to represent Utah's 1st Congressional District. In 2017 he was a receipent of the Esto Pepetua Award from the Idaho State Historical Society, for one who has preserved and promoted the history of Idaho.
To read the full shownotes for this podcast, including historical photographs, recommended readings, newsreports and other noteworthy podcasts regarding Parrys book, the massacre and on the NW Band of the Shoshone Nations Boa Ogoi Cultural Interpretive Center, go to SPEAK YOUR PIECE.