JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Utah celebrated its biggest state holiday this weekend, Pioneer Day. It marks the 1847 arrival of Latter-day Saint pioneers, commonly called Mormons, in the Salt Lake Valley. Every year, there are fireworks and parades. This year, one celebration also included a rare acknowledgment of some darker pioneer history. Ciara Hulet with member station KUER reports from Provo.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CIARA HULET, BYLINE: Pioneer Day is akin to Fourth of July for Utah. Pioneers coming here kicked off the birth of the state and gave the persecuted Latter-day Saints a homeland.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HULET: Even though it's a sweaty summer night, hundreds of Utahns are celebrating downtown. They start a conga line as the violins sing, and a line dance breaks out.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing) Kick off your Sunday shoes.
HULET: But one thing that's not usually talked about on this holiday is how the settlers secured their safe haven by driving Native people out. Many Utahns have never heard of a tragic event that happened near here in 1850 known as the Provo River Massacre. In February, members of the Timpanogos Nation gathered for a memorial walk to teach people what happened to their ancestors.
PERRY MURDOCK: Their blood's in the ground, and their spirits' still around here.
HULET: Tribal council member Perry Murdock sing to call them.
MURDOCK: (Singing in non-English language).
(SOUNDBITE OF DRUMMING)
HULET: After the pioneers arrived, tensions were high between the two groups. Historian D. Robert Carter.
D ROBERT CARTER: And then there was a murder that really sort of tipped things off.
HULET: Settlers accused a Native man of stealing a shirt. Carter says they killed him over it. Conflict escalated, and the pioneers asked their prophet and elected governor what to do.
CARTER: Brigham Young said, I say go and kill them.
HULET: The area's militia was given extermination orders for any Timpanogos people who didn't surrender. That led to a battle. Carter says the Timpanogos killed one settler, and the militia killed at least 40 Native people. The tribal nation says it may actually be more than a hundred.
MARY MURDOCK MEYER: Our people are still living in fear, a lot of them.
HULET: Mary Murdock Meyer is chief executive of the Timpanogos Nation.
MEYER: This termination order's still in effect, and it's still being utilized in the aspect, we're still being ignored. Like we've been exterminated from public view.
HULET: She says the roughly 1,000 Timpanogos people want the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or Utah's governor to publicly apologize and rescind the extermination orders.
MEYER: It would just make our people be more at peace, maybe have some faith in the state, maybe children not growing up in fear anymore.
HULET: The governor's office didn't respond to NPR's interview requests, and the church declined to comment by deadline. But Utah's House minority leader says she'll start conversations about a rescindment.
And at the Pioneer Day celebration in Provo, Mayor Marsha Judkins took the unusual step of opening the concert with an acknowledgment of the hidden history.
MARSHA JUDKINS: And so as we gather tonight, we do so with gratitude for the opportunity to learn from one another and to recognize the many stories and histories that have shaped Provo and Utah Valley.
HULET: Then she invited Chief Meyer to the stage.
MEYER: Our history is not pretty. It's very, very sad.
HULET: Sam Andersen, a recent Brigham Young University graduate, says this was the first time he's heard about the extermination order.
SAM ANDERSEN: Oh, yeah. I was really, really shocked, honestly.
HULET: He said it was hard to hear as a Latter-day Saint, but he thinks it was an appropriate recognition on Pioneer Day.
ANDERSEN: I don't have any problem, obviously, with, like, us celebrating our pioneer ancestors and what they did and the sacrifices they made. But I think, like, the most beneficial history for us to celebrate is one that's also holistic and includes all the voices and stories that happened.
HULET: Anderson hopes Utah can take the best from history and leave the worst behind by rescinding the order.
For NPR News, I'm Ciara Hulet in Provo, Utah.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.