PORTAGE, Box Elder County, Utah — On a warm, windy April afternoon, birds chirped a happy song as Rios Pacheco paused under a large overhead sign identifying the Washakie Cemetery.
Located in a remote, peaceful area — three miles west of Interstate-15 and a few miles south of Portage — the cemetery serves as a sacred resting place for hundreds of members of the Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation.
Before guiding a group to visit the graves of his people, Pacheco — a tribal historian, spiritual leader and cultural adviser — offered a blessing in the Shoshone language.
“They are still here,” he said, referring to the spirits of his ancestors. “We want to be respectful to our people but also to our Creator, because He has given us all this life.”
After the blessing, the 72-year-old led the group through the cemetery, identifying key individuals and families who were part of the Washakie Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The first grave belongs to Sagwitch Timbimboo, a prominent Shoshone chieftain and Bear River Massacre survivor. A blue Book of Mormon and King James Bible have been placed at the headstone.
Three days after his baptism in May 1873, the Shoshone chieftain was ordained an elder in Salt Lake City. Later, in 1875, he became the first Northwestern Shoshone to receive his endowment in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. On the same day, Wilford Woodruff sealed Sagwitch Timbimboo to his wife, Beahwoachee.
When Sagwitch Timbimboo fell ill in 1887, tribal members carried him down from the mountains and buried him at the exact spot where he died. The cemetery was then established around his gravesite, Pacheco said.
The Shoshone chieftain, who was instrumental in leading his people to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ and establish the Washakie Ward, is among 1,600 Shoshone individuals featured in a new digital history project, “Native Saints: The Washakie Ward.”
For more than two years, historians in the Church History Department have collaborated with members of the Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation to create a searchable database that preserves the story of the conversion of the Northwestern Shoshone in the 1870s and the history of the Washakie Ward, an Indigenous Latter-day Saint congregation in northern Utah that operated from 1880 to 1966. The new digital database launched on May 28.
Collecting and preserving these stories is important because they can strengthen families, Pacheco said of the project.
“We can see that they survived a great tragedy,” he said. “Yet they continually called upon Father in Heaven through prayer to guide them to take care of their families and search for a place to gather as family and a community. ... We see how resilient they were with the changing world.”
The Washakie Ward
David Grua, lead historian on the project, said the Washakie Ward had its origins in the early 1870s as Shoshone bands from Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada faced challenges from incoming Euro-American migrants and settlers competing for the same scarce resources.
One decade earlier, on Jan. 29, 1863, the U.S. Army attacked a Shoshone winter encampment near present-day Preston, Idaho, killing approximately 400 Shoshone adults and children in what became known as the Bear River Massacre.
As United States officials pressured the survivors and other indigenous peoples in the area to move to reservations, some Shoshone experienced spiritual manifestations — dreams and visions — that convinced them to accept Latter-day Saint baptism.
During the mid-1870s, nearly 1,000 Shoshone and Bannock people were taught and baptized. In 1880, a core group of about 200 Shoshone Saints established Washakie, a farming village four miles from the Utah-Idaho border.
“It was a community, a congregation and a place where they could learn the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Grua said.
The Shoshone learned to be Latter-day Saints in a small meetinghouse, where they served in callings, held sacrament meetings, offered prayers, sang hymns, gave talks and taught classes — all in their own language — even into the 1950s and 1960s.
“This allowed them to have a space where Shoshone culture, language and values persisted,” Grua said. “At other reservations in the United States, there was a strong emphasis to try to root out the language and to punish children for speaking it.”
In the late 1870s and early 1880s, the Washakie Shoshone helped build the Logan Utah Temple. After it was dedicated in 1884, they received sacred ordinances for themselves and their deceased ancestors, including family members who died at the Bear River Massacre in 1863.
Through the years, the Shoshone Saints manifested their gospel devotion through a high level of Church attendance, temple worship and generous payment of tithes and offerings. The ward was one of few units in the Church to register 100% compliance in 1922.
At April 1926 general conference, President Heber J. Grant called Yeager Timbimboo, Sagwitch Timbimboo’s son, a Bear River Massacre survivor and the first Shoshone called as a counselor in a ward bishopric, out of the audience to speak. His was the first conference address given in a language other than English, Grua said.
Economic circumstances during the Great Depression and World War II led many Shoshone Saints to leave Washakie for work, although many still considered it their home and returned on weekends.
As the population dwindled, Euro-American Church leaders misunderstood this connection. The ward was reclassified as a branch in 1960 and then closed in 1966. The Church sold the property.
In 1987, the tribe adopted a constitution as the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation.
Learn and pass it on
Bradley Parry grew up listening to stories.
The tribal vice chairman for the Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation Tribal Council said that when his grandmother, Mae Timbimboo Parry (1919-2007), the tribal historian, believed a grandchild was ready, she would share family stories or create a scrapbook of ancestral stories she had recorded.
She first heard the stories as a child at Washakie, where her grandfather, Yeager Timbimboo, would gather the children on winter nights to share family histories. With a pencil and notebook, Mae recorded stories and preserved her family history throughout her life.
“Mae Parry was probably the largest storyteller we’ve had in the last 70 years,” Bradley said. “She was basically teaching us, ‘You need to learn this. I’ve given you this, now you need to learn it, and you need to pass it on.’”
There are many inspiring and faith-building stories to share.
Another of Sagwitch Timbimboo’s sons, Pisappíh Timbimboo — also known as Frank Warner — was among the first Native Americans to serve as a missionary.
Moroni Timbimboo — Yeager Timbimboo’s son — was the first Shoshone to be called as a bishop of the Washakie Ward, serving from 1939 to 1945 (previous ward leaders were non-Shoshone).
Moroni married Amy Hootchew Timbimboo in the Logan Temple. She served for four decades in the ward Relief Society presidency.
Cohn Shoshonitz Zundel, a daughter of Bear River Massacre survivors, was the first Shoshone woman called as a counselor in the Relief Society presidency.
Cohn’s daughter, Lucy Z. Peyope Alex, was part of the first generation raised in the Church. At age 14, she was called as secretary in the Relief Society presidency and served faithfully throughout her life.
“These are my grandmother’s stories coming back to life,” said Bradley Parry, who served a mission in South Carolina. “We have to share stories with each other, not just within our own family.”
Said Grua: “They tell us so much about how the gospel was received by the Northwestern Shoshone, how it was transmitted to their children and their descendants. They deserve to be remembered.”
Native Saints project
The Native Saints project is available on two cross-linked websites.
The first — churchhistorianspress.org — features historical essays, biographies of key community members, maps, photographs, a chronology and other supplementary materials.
The Washakie Ward digital database is hosted by the Church History Biographical Database and contains the records of over 1,600 Shoshone individuals, including children who died before they could be baptized, through 1940.
These names appear in 19th-century missionary journals, letters, reports and more than 25 Washakie Ward record books at the Church History Library.
Volunteers and staff at the Church History Library indexed records by person, gathering vital data like parents’ names, birthdates, birthplaces, spouse names and death dates and places, along with baptismal and ordinance information. They also documented church participation, such as prayers offered, talks delivered, comments made, musical numbers performed and activities associated with leadership and other callings.
The project started in late 2023, when a team of Church History Department historians began meeting with the tribal members of The Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation, including Bradley Parry, Patty Timbimboo-Madsen, Pacheco, Gwen Timbimboo-Davis and others. The historians prepared records and documents, which the tribal members then reviewed and approved.
The historians also consulted with other historians and scholars, including Scott R. Christensen from the Church History Department. As a graduate student at Utah State University in the 1980s, Christensen researched and wrote Sagwitch Timbimboo’s biography.
Christensen’s work fostered a positive relationship with the Northwestern Shoshone, leading to the Native Saints project. He recalls his first visit to Mae Timbimboo Parry, who described her people’s history as a “very dear possession.”
“That rang in my ears for years, and it still does. I thought, ‘I’ve got to do right by these dear people who are sharing this history with me.’ That was always at the heart of the work I did,” Christensen said. “Their history is very important to them.”
As the project progressed, Grua said the stories came alive, revealing an enduring legacy of faith. He hopes these preserved records will bless and inspire Washakie Ward descendants while providing others with a fresh perspective on Church history.
“These individuals were part of a people who were being pushed aside and displaced, and yet they found solace and power in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ,” Grua said. “Learning about them, their faith, dedication and commitment to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been tremendously gratifying.”
Added Pacheco, “It helps me understand how much my people have given everything to return back to Him.”
