Heber City government officials, the Wasatch Community Foundation and Timpanogos tribe members gathered at the Heber Cemetery in the pouring rain to honor Chief Tabby-To-Kwanah Aug. 29.
The Timpanogos leader negotiated a peace treaty between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint pioneers and the tribe after his people were forced off their land in the mid-1800s.
Dozens of Chief Tabby’s descendants attended the ceremony.
Perry Murdock, a Timpanogos tribe councilmember, called to his ancestors through song during the ceremony.
Murdock said the thunder is his ancestors responding.
“We believe they speak and let you know they’re there because they control the weather and the events and things,” Murdock said. “Our people believe they’re here watching you for this event. The truth being exposed is what we believe through the rain and thunder all being part of this event.”
Current Timpanogos Chief Mary Murdock Meyer says, when the pioneers arrived in the Heber Valley, there were 70,000 Timpanogos people. A number she now estimates around 500.
She said an 1850 extermination order made by Brigham Young is partly to blame.
“We were systematically erased on purpose,” Meyer said. “So nobody wants to be the one to say, ‘Look, we made a mistake. We made an error.’ Nobody wants to admit their guilt in what happened to us.”
Meyer said the statue is an important step forward for her people.
“Today we get to claim our ancestors and be proud of him, and watch him be honored, and we get to be a part of that,” Meyer said. “We want to be treated as human, and our children need to grow up being able to say, ‘I’m a Timpanogos Indian’ and be proud.”
The Timpanogos Nation wants to see church and state leaders formally apologize for and rescind that extermination order.
The tribe is lobbying for federal recognition through the United States Department of the Interior.
