It’s difficult to fathom what the Shoshone chief had already endured. Sagwitch had witnessed the near annihilation of the Northwestern Shoshone, including members of his own family, and was wounded at the hands of U.S. troops at the Bear River Massacre in 1863. He watched as their lands were stolen and his people were cheated and treated as an inferior race. They suffered destitution and were often days from starvation.
