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Show the Indian dialects in the mountain region and English sufficiently well to answer as an interpretor. In a letter from Jacob Forney, he said that Simons had traded with the Indians, es¬pecially the Shoshoni, for at least 20 yea¬rs. Brigham Young made use of Simons con¬tacts with the Shoshonis and as an inter-mediary with Chief Washakie. Chief Washakie is described by James S. Brown, Indian interpretor and missionary, as a bold, noble, hospitable, honorable man and a great orator. In President Young's journal is found the following statement: "Ben Simons call¬ed on me to see if we would let the Deleware Indians have the upper Weber Valley, providing they would move to this country. I told him "Yes". 'The name, James, is used here but he was more often called Ben or Benji, (According to the diary of James S. Brown, Ben had a brother named James.) There is as much variety in the spelling of Simons' name as in stating his ethnic origin. Here he is called a Deleware, elsewhere a mountain man, a Cherokee, Frenchman, half breed Shawnee and a sub-chief for the Sho-sho-nees. ' (End of quote) When President Young referred to Simons as a 'shrewd operator' he was referr¬ing to his business of trading goods with Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston and his troops at Fort Bridger, then bringing reports back to the Pioneers on the Army's plans and movements. President Young sent a load of salt to the suffering troops as a gift, and General Johnston contemptuously rejected it. The churlishness of Johnston was severly criticised by General Sam Houston, senator to the Congress from Texas. The salt, however, found its way into the hands of some Indians who smuggled it into camp and sold it for $2.50 per pound. Simons also brought in about 900 pounds of salt and it was also sold for $2.50 to $3.00 per pound, plus $1.00 per pound for service berries gathered in the canyons. Ben Simons offered to give President Young half the money he received for the salt, but the President said "No," he didn't want any of Simons' money, he had plenty of his own. 28 CHIEF WASHAKIE Utah Historical Society |
