Timpanogos Extermination Order, January 31, 1850

The Timpanogos Extermination Order, or Special Order No. 2, or "Council meeting for January 31 and Sunday public meeting for February 10. Recorded by Thomas Bullock" from the Church History Catalog.

Today (posted Jan 31, 2023) is the 173rd anniversary of the day the entire Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leadership signed their Timpanogos Extermination Order in a Mormon Fort occupying Timpanogos lands along the so-called Provo River. 

Myths of Mormon & Indigenous cohabitation are half histories that don’t tell you that Mormons intentionally took advantage of Indigenous care-giving right up until they had a population large enough to attack.

Unlike the Mormon extermination order, almost no one knows of this one. They also differ in that the Mormon one was rescinded in the 1970s. The Timpanogos one is still in effect.

Their name is all over the state from Nat’l Parks to high schools to Mormon temples, and Timpanogos aren’t even a federally recognized Tribe. 

We have generational responsibility to unsettle this so-called Zion our ancestors settled. 

Artist depiction of "Fort Utah on the Timpanogas (river) __ Valley of the Great Salt Lake." The Timpanogos extermination order was signed at Fort Utah

January 31, 1850 Timpanogos Extermination Order

173-years-ago, the Prophet, First Presidency, & Quorum of the Twelve Apostles signed an extermination order against the Timpanogos Nation (Special Order No. 2). It has never been rescinded. 

Soon after Brigham & co. first arrived in Timpanogos, Goshute, & Eastern Shoshone land now occupied by Salt Lake City he lied to Timpanogos leader Wakara. As Brigham was telling his followers “This is the Place!”, he told Wakara that Mormons were only passing thru to California, but needed to overwinter. So the People helped the Mormons. Taught them to survive in these lands. 

“I say go [and] kill them… Tell Dimmick Huntington to go & kill them—also Barney Ward—let the women & children live if they behave themselves… We have no peace until the men [are] killed off—never treat the Indian as your equal.” 
- Brigham Young, January 31, 1850

Mormons received these gifts & were friendly for a short time. But once Mormon populations grew, Brigham & his army turned militant. Just 2 ½ years after entering Timpanogos land, the Mormons were intent on exterminating them. 

I don’t think I’ve been to a Mormon history museum that doesn’t address the Mormon Extermination Order signed by the Gov. of Missouri.

Equally, I’ve never been to a museum that address the Timpanogos Extermination Order, signed just 12 years later.

The Mormon one was rescinded in the 1970s. The Timpanogos one is still in effect.

My 3rd Great Uncle Hale received 160 acres of Goshute land and a medal for his service in these massacres known by colonial historians as the Wakara Wars. Today, when Timpanogos leaders submit articles & histories to the Salt Lake Tribune, this liberal paper refuses to publish them. The Timpanogos Extermination Order is nearly unknown among Mormon practitioners & Utahns. But it has not been forgotten by the Mormon authorities or Timpanogos People. 

Timpanogos People continue to live under the thumb of the descendants of these terrorizing genocidal colonists who continue to dominate, desiccate, & destroy Timpanogos lands, waters, & sovereignty. We have a generational responsibility to reckon with this ongoing history & change it in the present for the sake of our futures.

"Every day we are reminded of what our ancestors went through. Our families were torn apart. Children murdered, the old, the women, all those who were brutally murdered & made to suffer & die from violence, then disease, then starvation, our ancestors' graves torn up, the land destroyed, it was genocide plain & simple. Why? What did we do? We didn't do anything. We were living in peace. We were happy. Our children were happy. We loved each other. We cared for each other. & when the Mormons came, we tried to help them. Then they tried to take everything away from us. They wanted it all. They wanted to exterminate us, wipe us off the face of the earth. Why? For our land? For our oil? Now we have nothing."
- Perry Murdock, Timpanogos Council Member

"As Chief Executive of the Timpanogos Nation, I speak for the people when I ask why? We fed you when you were hungry. We helped you when you did not understand our lands. Why then were we forgotten? Historians have never asked us about our history or our ancestors."
- Mary Murdock Meyer 


Learn more from TimpanogosTribe.com
& Phillip Gottfredson’s website: BlackHawkProductions.com & book "My Journey to Understand - Black Hawk's Mission of Peace" 
& from Jared Farmer’s book “On Zion’s Mount”