A word about polyamorous marriages in Plains Indian cultures.

A Shoshone family in native dress - photographed in 1895. 

I am so grateful to any of my readers who post reviews of my books, even those who didn’t like my stories and gave me bad reviews.  Davidpizzarro wrote, “The idea that Native Americans in the 19th century accepted homosexuality is absurd. The author is trying to rewrite history, changing the morality of the times to fit his personal modern bias.”  I wish amazon.com had a way for me to respond directly to him.  The Plains Indians certainly did have homosexuals in their culture.  The French called them 'berdache' in the 1700s.  Gay natives have been documented in over 155 tribes, each having their own names and customs for same sex (two-spirit) men and women.  In Crow, a male two spirit was called boté, in Lakota (Sioux) winkte, in Zuni lhamana, in Navajo nádleehí, and in Shoshone tangowaip.

Plains Indians marriage traditions were predominantly polyamorous with both men and woman taking multiple husbands and multiple wives.  This leads me to believe they were polysexual or pansexual as well in their sex play and lovemaking.  In this way, the Plains Indians managed to overcome infant mortality and keep families together even if one or more spouses succumbed to warfare, white man diseases, accidents and old age.  It also provided spouses to share the hard work of survival in bleak lands. 

One Cheyenne woman had five wives and was a great Chief who led her tribe to victories in battle.  Sitting Bull (Custer, 1876, Battle of Little Bighorn) had five wives. 

There is a ton of anthropological material documenting multiple spouses in Indian cultures.  It was the rule rather than the exception, although a few only had one spouse.  Some stayed together for life while many divorced.  Since men and women are sexual animals, I submit they made love as it pleased them.  They did not look at the world through the lens of our Judeo-Christian morality.  

Gender fluidity, polygamy and polyandry were huge problems for white America in the 1700s, 1800s and even in the 1900s.  So, what did they do?  Congress passed laws against it in 1862, 1882, 1887, 1890 and 1892.  Starting in 1890 the Office of Indian Affairs began suppressing plural marriage - and most other aspects of traditional Indian culture, insisting one husband and one wife constituted the only legal marriages.  

Great Salt Lake

Great Salt Lake, the largest salt water lake in our Hemisphere, is a remnant of Lake Bonneville that used to cover most of Utah until about 14,500 years ago.  Since its only outlet is evaporation, it is saltier than seawater.  The lake is approximately 75 miles long and 35 miles wide.  It averages 33 feet deep.  It's coastline, size and depth change over time depending on weather.

In 1776 a Franciscan missionary and explorer of the Southwest, Silvestre Velez de Escalante, was the first white man to note the existence of the lake in his journals.  In 1824 Jim Bridger explored the lake.  John C. Fremont led the first scientific expedition to the lake in 1843.  Howard Stansbury, a major in the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, made the first survey of the lake in 1849.  He published his report and map in 1852.  The local Indians referred to the lake as Pi'a-pa, meaning "big water", or Ti'tsa-pa, meaning "bad water."  In 1847 when Brigham Young entered the valley and laid out the plan for their new city, he named the city Great Salt Lake City after the neighboring lake.  On January 29, 1868 the city council officially dropped the name 'Great' from the city's name.  

A contemporary map of Great Salt Lake by Justin Morris.  Used by permission.  morris.justin@gmail.com  

A major feature of the lake, Antelope Island, could be seen from nearly all the original Mormon Colonies.  

Sunsets over Antelope Island are often dramatic.  

Old Fort Hall

The Old Fort Hall was built in 1834 as a fur trading post on the Snake River in eastern Oregon County.  After being included in United States territory in 1846 upon settlement of the northern boundary with Canada, Fort Hall developed as an important station for emigrants through the 1850s on the Oregon Trail; it was located at the end of the common 500-mile (800 km) stretch from the East shared by the three far west emigrant trails. Soon after Fort Hall, the Oregon and California trails diverged in northwesterly and southwesterly directions. An estimated 270,000 emigrants reached Fort Hall on their way west.

A marker was placed on the original site of the first Fort Hall by the National Register of Historic Places. 

Reproduction of the Old Fort Hall recreated in Pocatello Idaho

Interior of Old Fort Hall reproduction.  

Click here to see an interactive 360° panorama of the reproduction of Old Fort Hall

Click here to see an interactive 360° panorama of the interior of the reproduction of Old Fort Hall

Brigham Young

Brigham Young (born June 1, 1801) was 5' 10" tall and weighed 190 pounds. Note the Freemason pin on his shirt.  

Brigham Young.  Daguerreotype by Marsena Cannon reportedly taken in Cannon's gallery in the Old Fort in December 1850 about the time he was appointed Governor of the Territory of Utah by U.S. President Millard Fillmore.

Daguerreotype by Marsena Cannon 1851-1852

Brigham Young in an 1853 engraving by Frederick Piercy with a facsimile of his signature.

Daguerotype taken by Marsena Cannon in Great Salt Lake City in 1853.  

This popular portrait of Brigham Young was cropped out of the daguerreotype below.  

Marsena Cannon took this rare daguerreotype portrait of Brigham Young with Margaret Pierce, one of his plural wives, in the late 1850's.

Brigham Young photographed by Charles Roscoe Savage circa 1855.  

Another daguerreotype portrait of Brigham Young taken by Marsena Carson in 1858 during the Utah War.

Brevet Brigadier General Albert Sidney Johnston

Albert Sidney Johnston (February 2, 1803 – April 6, 1862) served as a general in three different armies: the Texian Army, the United States Army, and the Confederate States Army. He saw extensive combat during his 34-year military career, fighting actions in the Black Hawk War, the Texas War of Independence, the Mexican–American War, the Utah War, and the American Civil War.   - Wikipedia

Portrait of Gen. Albert S. Johnston, taken at Camp Floyd, Utah Territory, 

by Samuel C. Mills, during the winter of 1858-59.  He is wearing the uniform of a brevet brigadier general. 

General Johnston stood over 6' tall and weighed 200 pounds.  He had thick brows over intense eyes that commanded with a glance.  He was 55 when he took command of the Utah Expedition.  He was a popular leader with his soldiers.  

General Johnston was briefly furloughed in 1860 in Kentucky before the War Department sent him to California to command the Department of the Pacific from San Francisco.  He resigned his commission when he heard Texas had joined the secession.  He soon became the Confederacy’s leading General in the field.  On April 6, 1862, the 59 year old General bled to death from an untended leg wound received while astride the horse he had ridden throughout the Utah War.  He died at the Battle of Shiloh, the highest-ranking officer, Confederate or Union, killed during the Civil War.  He was buried in Austin, Texas. 

The Old Adobe Tabernacle on Temple Square

Work began in 1851.  It was dedicated April 6, 1852.  Truman O. Angell was the architect.  

The Old Adobe Tabernacle with a Bowery.   By 1854 the congregations had already outgrown the Old Tabernacle so they built a bowery over the outdoor space.  

Joseph Ridges installed his pipe organ in the Old Tabernacle in 1857.  This is the organ Connal Lee heard.  

The adobe Tabernacle was used until 1877 when it was razed to make way for the Assembly Hall built on the same site.  

(The following examples of construction techniques were photographed in the new Tabernacle, completed in 1867.  The notes refer to the old Adobe Tabernacle.)

Since metal nails were a rare and expensive commodity in the newly settled Great Basin, the Saints often used other means of binding timbers, such as the wooden pegs visible in this photo.

Grow notes, "Wherever they were cracked the timbers were wrapped with green rawhide, which contracted when dry and made a tight binding. This rawhide is still steel tight" (original thesis, 74). The builders used leather strips to strengthen timbers without adding excess weight.

David Candland

David Candland, born 1819, was baptized a Mormon by Lorenzo Snow in 1841.  In 1842 he moved to Nauvoo where he worked as a school teacher and store clerk and eventually became secretary to Brigham Young.  He served a mission to Great Britain in 1846 where he wrote the first Mormon pamphlets published in England.  They were known as The Fireside Visitor, or Plain Reasoner.  He signed the tracts David C. Kimball because Heber C. Kimball adopted him in Nauvoo as his spiritual son. 

In 1852 he traveled to Utah with the Ezra T. Benson company.  In 1855 he was appointed paymaster in the Territorial Mormon Militia.  In Great Salt Lake City, he taught school, clerked, was stage manager for the Deseret Dramatic Association and served as doorkeeper at the Salt Lake Tabernacle.

David Candland circa 1864 - 45 years old

David Candland with wife (Mary Anne) Anna Long Woodhouse Candland circa 1855.  David was 40 when he met Connal Lee.  

In 1856, under the direction of Brigham Young, David Candland opened the Globe Restaurant and Bakery with his partner, William Staines.  In 1859 he was appointed to represent Salt Lake County in the Utah Territorial Legislature. 

The Candland / Marriott Connection

Many of the American Candlands are also members of the Marriott family, as in, Marriott Hotels. Harry Candland (1903-1962) married Eva Fontella Marriott (1905-1992). Her brother, J. Willard Marriott Sr (1900-1985) was the founder of Marriott Hotels.

Mary Ann Angell Young - known to the Mormons as 'Mother Young'

After Brigham Young's first wife died, Mary Ann married Brigham Young on March 31, 1834.  She had six children with Brigham.  Mary Ann was a skilled herbalist and folk doctor.  During her trek across the plains to the Salt Lake Valley in 1848, she used these skills to treat many fellow pioneers. She also brought many seeds with her and is credited with planting the beautiful trees that grow along the eastern end of South Temple Street in Salt Lake City, which was once known as Brigham Street.  

A daguerreotype taken around the time Connal Lee met her.  She was 57 in 1859 when she introduced Connal Lee to her brother, Truman Osborn Angell, who designed the Salt Lake Temple.   

Social Hall - State Road (now State Street)

 On l January 1853, Amasa M. Lyman dedicated the Social Hall which, according to Orson F. Whitney, was "the chief altar in Utah upon which incense was burned to the dramatic muse" throughout the 1850s.  The hall was located just south of the Lion House on State Road (now State Street) in Great Salt Lake City. The auditorium was 40 by 60 feet, which could hold approximately 300 patrons. However, according to one actor, nearly 400 people often crowded into the small building to see a play. The basement held two dressing rooms and a banquet hall. The building was made of adobe brick with shingle roof.  The newly organized Deseret Dramatic Association gave their first performance on the 20 by 40 foot stage on 19 January 1853.

Earliest known photograph taken in 1858 before the walls were covered in stucco.
The adobe house on left was leased by Governor Cummings during his term.  

Social Hall on right, home leased by Governor Cumming on left. 

Replica built in 1980 in This is the Place Heritage Park near the mouth of Emigration Canyon

Orrin Porter Rockwell and his Hot Springs Brewery and Hotel

Orrin Porter Rockwell, the Mormon's 'Destroying Angel', photographed by Mary Evens in June 1866

On July 29, 1858, Orrin Porter Rockwell counted out $500 and purchased from Evan M. Green sixteen acres of real estate at Hot Springs near Point of the Mountain (on the road between Great Salt Lake City and Lehi). The trail was traveled by every city bound trooper in Johnston's Army.  Mr. Rockwell had it in mind to build a place where a man could buy a glass of home brewed beer, stable his animals, stay overnight, or just stop to pass the time of day. He called it the Hot Springs Brewery and Hotel. In it's prime this property included a hotel with dining facilities, stable, and brewery.  A Pony Express station was added in 1860.  At the peak of business, the Hot Springs Brewery and Hotel claimed to produce 500 gallons (16 barrels) of "good lager beer" each day.  ---Harold Schindler's biography, Orrin Porter Rockwell

Advertisement for Hot Springs Brewery and Hotel, The Valley Tan, 1859-06-01

Sketch of Hot Springs Brewery and Hotel, Stable

Photograph of Rockwell's Stable 

County Courthouse on the northeast corner of 2nd South and 2nd West

The first County Courthouse was built of adobe bricks in 1855.  

Council House on the corner of Main Street and South Temple

Built in 1849 and 1850, the first public building in the territory.  Used as territorial offices and housed the University of Deseret.  Housed the territorial library.  The Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah met in this building.  It was also the first police headquarters of the city.  The Mormon church performed endowments here until the Endowment House was completed in 1855.  Built of local red sandstone and adobe bricks.  

Major Robert Harris of The Nauvoo Legion

The handsome Robert Harris was photographed here in his Nauvoo Legion uniform.

William Carter Staines, the "English Gentleman"

William Carter Staines “had little liking for books when a boy, and hated the confinement of the school room.  He had a passion for floriculture and horticulture, manifested most practically in after years, when also he deeply regretted his early indifference to education. What helped to make school distasteful to him was an accident which befell him when he was 13 years of age. While playing on the ice, he fell, injuring his spine and causing a deformity, attended with much pain, from which he suffered severely for twenty years. In fact, he was never entirely free from it. This misfortune, while it materially lessened his stature, did not detract from the pleasant impression made by his frank, open countenance and kindly manner. As a youth he worked with other laborers in his father's garden.” – Latter-Day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia by Andrew Jenson (1914)

William Carter Staines

William Carter Staines, first territorial librarian, member of the territorial legislative assembly, a wine and spirit merchant, co-owner with David Candland of The Globe Restaurant and Bakery

The parlor in the Staines mansion during the time Governor Cumming was in residence.  

The Staines Mansion in 1858 when Governor Cumming stayed in it during the Move South.

William Jennings purchased the house in 1867 and expanded it.  Jennings named it Devereaux House after his family's estate in England.