Descendants of Ira Hatch Would Become Members of Navajo Tribe
Sons of Noted Utah Pioneer Seek Membership in Councils Because of Fact That Mother Was an Indian.
By John Bristol.
MOAB, Feb. 23. — Jim Hatch, a trader with the Indians, and Joe Hatch, a farmer, are residents of Fruitland, N. M. They are brothers, sons of a white father and a Piute mother, and are seeking to establish their rights to become members of the Navajo tribe of Indians.
This tribe owns vast areas of land in New Mexico, located in the Navajo reservation, and of late years has been established that much of this land overlies oil sands. The council of the Navajo tribe has been given the right to control the granting of leases to oil operators on these lands, and every member of the tribe will share in the profits derived from the production of oil on any part of these lands.
C. J. Christensen of Moab, a pioneer of southern Utah and for forty-seven years a missionary among the Navajos and Utes, and John Y. Young of Blanding, also a pioneer of southern Utah and likewise for many years a missionary among the Indians, have interested themselves in the endeavor of the Hatch brothers to establish their rights as members of the Navajo tribe.
Both pioneers personally knew Ira Hatch, father of Jim and Joe Hatch, and also knew the Piute mother of the two men. Mr. Christensen first became acquainted with Ira Hatch in the mission field in Arizona, among the Hopi and Navajo Indians. The Hopis had given the name of Pu-um-ee-muns, meaning “Eagle Alighting on the Ground,” to Mr. Hatch. The name was derived from the familiar posture of the old pioneer — slightly bent forward, with both arms hanging loosely at his sides — several inches from each side. Hatch was popular among both tribes. Between 1855 and 1860 Hatch had been a missionary among the Mojave Indians and was well known throughout the Indian country of southern Utah and Arizona.
IRA HATCH
Early Days Recalled
In narrating events related to the efforts of the sons of Ira Hatch in establishing their rights to participate as members of the Navajo tribe in the possible wealth to be derived from the oil-bearing lands on the reservation, and receiving back the days of 1859 are revived.
In the autumn of that year Brigham Young called upon Jacob Hamblin, a noted pioneer of southern Utah, to make a visit to the Moqui Indians of Arizona.
On October 20, 1859, Jacob Hamblin and his party, consisting of Marion Shelton, Thales Haskell, Taylor Crosby, Benjamin Rhell, Ira Hatch and John W. Young, left the Santa Clara settlement, thirty miles south of Mountain Meadows, on the journey to the Moquis.
The party remained among the Indians a few days only at that time, but in the following year Hamblin and his little band of Moquis accompanied by a party including George A. Smith, Jr., son of President George A. Smith. In the month of October, 1860, a party of nine men, including Ira Hatch, was organized at the Santa Clara settlement.
When Smith failed to return after a visit Hamblin sent two men after him, and they found him severely wounded. Three bullets had been fired into his body, as well as a number of arrows. The wounded man was brought back to the camp and died on the trail on the return to Santa Clara.
The white men were being followed by hostile Navajos and it was impossible to interfere, as the stopping of the column would have brought on a fight with the overwhelmingly larger number of hostiles.
Three years later Ira Hatch told the young man the story of the lad’s father some years before he died.
Jacob Hamblin, in his narrative of experiences among the Indians, states that he knew no man more brave, more cool-headed than Ira Hatch.
Chief Shows Friendship
Prayers that the Navajo chief was friendly toward the white people.
In many of the written annals of southern Utah the chief is referred to as a “Spanish Yank,” a corruption of the Indian name. C. J. Christensen of Moab, who has been a missionary among the Indians for many years, also acted as interpreter, speaks the Navajo, Moqui and Ute languages fluently and is authority for the statement that the real spelling of this chief’s name is Dah-nish-yant, meaning “He Did Tell the Truth.”
This chief had married a Piute woman at Kanab, his wife being a descendant of Chief Kanosh.
Such intermarriage among the tribes was not an uncommon custom of the day, especially unusual it for one of the Indian aristocrats of the Navajos to marry a despised Piute or Hopi.
To escape the nagging of their fellow tribesmen, the couple crossed the south side of the Colorado River and remained there a number of years.
Their firstborn was a daughter, and shortly after her birth the parents moved to Kanab where the mother’s people resided. After a few years the mother died and the father left the little girl in care of a white family.
He returned to his own people and later was married to a woman of that tribe.
When the daughter of Dah-nish-yant attained womanhood she was married to Ira Hatch, and of this union four children were born — three sons and one daughter.
The oldest son, Starns Hatch, died twenty years ago and the daughter died fifteen years ago. Jim and Joe, the surviving sons, reside at Fruitland, N. M.
Fights for His Wife
At the time that George A. Smith, Jr., was killed the wives of Jacob Hamblin and Ira Hatch were with the party of the white men, and the Hatch Navajos claimed the right to take the wives as members of their tribe and attempted to seize her.
Hatch clipped one of the hostiles over the face with a heavy rawhide quirt until he was forced back.
Being surrounded by a hostile band, with a wounded man on their hands, this was a brave deed; but withal it was fraught with danger and invited possible disaster to every member of the party.
It is related, however, that the older Indians cried out: “He is worthy of his wife; see how he fights for her.”
This turned the tide in favor of the whites, for the older Indians fell in behind the column as well as taking the lead, and thus prevented the bloodthirsty younger hostiles from swooping down and annihilating the whites.
Hamblin, in his narrative, states that at times the hostile Indians came so close that they were within range of the rifles of the whites.
As related above, the protection given by the older Indians ceased too soon and Smith was killed.
Ira Hatch was popular among both the Hopis and Navajos, having at no time any trouble with them with the exception of the encounter mentioned.
He accomplished a great deal of good among them and his memory is revered among them, even to the generation grown up since his death at Fruitland, N. M., some years ago.
Missionaries and other whites who knew his wife speak of her as an Indian woman of fine fiber, as a good wife, and as a mother who trained her children so that they were a credit and blessing to her until she was laid in her grave.