Native Indians remains found near the old hollow in Nephi, Utah.

During the 1950's, the young boys of Nephi liked to re-enact what we saw Gene Autry do on the films at the Venice Theater. Every Saturday, there was a standing invitation to go to the old hollow at 300 North, between 1st and 2nd east, and play "Cowboys and Indians". Regardless of who came to the weekly ritual, all were welcome. We didn't need to have a real cap gun, so a piece of wood was used as a rifle or a hand with the thumb up and finger extended. There were no rules, just fun town stuff. Kids would come and go and the war games continued. When me and my brothers headed home, we would go near an older mans home, who used to scold us for playing "Cowboys and Indians" at that location. On a weekly basis, he would advise us not to play there, as it was disrespectful. I could never understand, nor could any of the other boys, but now I do. Although other newspapers didn't report it, The Times News did, and I have re-printed the story of the massacre there. Before being to judgmental, one has to understand the whole atmosphere at the time. During 1853, the people of Juab County were in great fear of the local Native Americans, as we were in the middle of the Walker War. One day, several pioneers were killed up Salt Creek Canyon while they were immigrating to Sanpete County. The next day, when other Native Indians came down to the Fort for food, several of them were massacred by our local militia, initially believing they were under attack. The bodies were quickly buried near the homes in the recently taken photo. At the time that was our local junkyard, which was just outside the Fort Wall. Their actions were kept quiet secret for a long time, but the older man knew as somebody in his family may have been a part of it. As I had been involved in some archeological digs with then Kevin Jones and Ron Rood, I was able to better ascertain of what took place there and why. It is somewhat of a bad story, but part of our history.