Chief Walkara

The article I've chosen from my research is one belonging to Wild West Magazine. The article is from a scholarly and historic source, and it was written by a man named, Robert L. Foster. The article is a very simplified overview of Chief Walkara and his involvement in the Walker War. It begins with Walker's (walkara's) history. It is claimed that he may have been one of the greatest horse thieves the great west has ever seen. It offers numerical facts about the number of horses he perhaps stole in one California raid (as many as 3,000). The source offers much information that is rather hard to find as well. For instance, Walkara  means "yellow" in the Ute language, and for that reason he painted himself with yellow war paint and wore yellow buckskin on raids and to battle. This article is, majorly, focused on Walker, and being focused on Walker it has to include the story of the Walker War. It does such by centralizing the reasoning behind the conflict (between the Utes and the Mormons) on slavery. Foster argues that the entire conflict derives from the Ute slave trade that Walker had supported throughout his entire life. It began with Mexican citizens encouraging and accepting the slave trade (by purchasing slave children) for many years. Once the Mormons entered the Utah territory it was believed that they would be accepting of the slave trade as well. When they didn't accept, the Utes turned to violence against the children they were trying to sell, thus forcing the Mormons to trade and save them. After a while Brigham Young decided to end this slave trade permanently, and this is when the actual Walker War began. It lasted around 10 months and left relatively few dead, however it is still an important and notable historic conflict. Foster's article on the topic provides a good overview of what happened over a six  year period, and offers an interesting look into the life of Chief Walkara.