After friendly negotiations with tribal members last week, Wellsville leaders have vowed to rework the town’s annual “Founders’ Day” tradition in which white residents slather themselves in red paint and pretend to attack Mormon settlers.
At the request of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, the so-called “Sham Battle” will be updated so it “depicts historical accuracy and may tell a story rich in heritage and culture,” the city wrote in a letter to residents posted Sunday.
Wellsville officials “agree our depiction of the Native Americans portrayed in the annual Founder’s Day Sham Battle does not convey the relationship the pioneers had, or the respect we have today, for our Native American neighbors.”
“Wellsville city meant no disrespect. We apologize if we’ve offended anyone.”
The city and tribal leaders mutually decided to sit down together after the Sham Battle gained widespread attention with a column and video from The Salt Lake Tribune’s Robert Gehrke.
The footage shows Cache Valley residents in head dresses circling pioneer wagons, whooping and hollering on horseback, with a teepee nearby and a fake cabin on fire. The enactment, part of the town’s Founders’ Day Parade, has been going on since at least 1930. Thousands attended this year’s portrayal on Sept. 4.
Mayor Thomas Bailey has said the mock fight represents the emergency drills that early settlers conducted to protect themselves against possible raids. The narration at the event says “even with the capture of their own children, the settlers stayed. They were determined to make this their home.”
It also mentions the January 1863 “Battle of Bear River” (now classified by historians as a massacre), but the mayor said the city’s event is not actually related to the killing of an estimated 250 Shoshones by U.S. Army volunteers near Preston, Idaho. That massacre — which included beatings of children and the rape of women — is considered one of the deadliest in American history.
The Salt Lake Tribune will update this story throughout the day.