File photo of Darren Parry addressing the crowd assembled near the Bear River Massacre site.

PRESTON – The Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation has shortened its 159th annual commemoration of the 1863 Bear River Massacre to be held on Saturday, Jan. 29 to memorialize those who lost their lives.

A file photo of Lanny Thom the final speaker at the Bear River Massacre Memorial spoke in the Shoshone language and then read in English some tribal members that passed during the massacre.

Tribal Councilman Darren Parry said due to the widespread COVID-19 infection in the area this year’s program will be condensed to about 30 minutes.

“We are not inviting the public this year and won’t be setting up chairs or have the burn barrels going,” Parry said. “We will probably have one of the tribal members speak and we will do the flag ceremony.”

The shortened ceremony will be held on the bluff overlooking the massacre site on Hot Spring Road. It is about a half a mile west of the memorial erected by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers on US-91 northwest of Preston.

“We are going to try and to stream the service on the tribe’s Facebook page,” Parry said. “If (Utah) Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson shows up, we will certainly give her the time she wants.”

He said they didn’t want anyone to think the tribe was being reckless with the pandemic numbers as high as they are right now.

“We are still raising money for our interpretive center,” Parry said. “We estimate the center will cost about $6 million.”

A file photo of Northwest Band of Shoshone Chairman Darren Parry’s Tepee on the Bear River Massacre site.

The ground of the massacre is sacred to the Northwest Band and they would like to a restore it to the way it looked in 1863. When they get the interpretive center finished, they hope people will come and learn about their culture and about the community there.

The tribe wants to continue to tell the story of Shoshone culture from the Bear River massacre being a significant point to their past and how they have progressed since then.

The Bear River massacre was the single greatest loss of Indian lives in American history. On the morning of January 29, 1863, Col. Patrick Edward Conner and about 200 California volunteers attacked the winter camp of the Northwest Shoshone in the area near Preston along the Bear River. Between 250 and 500 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, homes were burned, supplies and horses were stolen.



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