Mary Hull

Born in either the fall of 1858 or the winter of 1859, Pasoats was just four winters old when her parents were murdered and her world torn apart. She was part of the Native American Northwestern Shoshone tribe who were living at their winter encampment at Bear River in what is now Franklin County, Idaho. The tribe was led by Chieftains Sagwitch, Pocatello and Bear Hunter. An influx of settlers into the area chasing both gold and land had increasingly encroached on the Shoshone traditional hunting territory, resulting in the tribe raiding farms and ranches for food and trying to drive the immigrants from the Shoshone lands. January is the coldest and harshest month of the year in Idaho with sub-zero temperatures and scarcity of food. Increasing competition for the limited food available equals starvation for some. It was frigid early morning on 29 January 1863 when the United States Army attacked the Shoshone camp in what is now known as the Bear River Massacre. It must have been an horrific experience for four-year-old Pasoats. During the following four hours up to 493 of her tribe were killed near their lodges, while of the attacking force only 14 soldiers were killed and 49 wounded (7 mortally). Pasoats received six wounds during the battle as the soldiers gave no quarter to women and children. She was likely left for dead. During the aftermath the army raped and pillaged, destroying 75 lodges, taking 1,000 bushels of wheat and flour and 175 Shoshoni horses, as well as bashing in the heads of those slowly dying of their wounds. Pasoats was lucky to survive the battle. The bodies of Shoshoni who had been defending themselves and their homes were left where they lay for the wolves and crows. William Gibson Hull (1841-1931), who would have been around 18 years old at the time, had followed the troops and witnessed some of the battle. Later he would recall, “Never will I forget the scene, dead bodies were everywhere. I counted eight deep in one place and in several places they were three to five deep… two-thirds of [the dead] being women and children.” He came across the wounded Pasoats and took her home to his parents Thomas Hull (1805-1886) and Mary Hull (nee Benson) (1812-1876) who lived in Cache Valley. It is not known if the Hull family attempted to find any of Pasoat's surviving extended family, but they tended her wounds and she was fostered by them and given the very English name of Jane. She also became known, rather disrespectfully, as ‘Indian Jannie’. When her adoptive mother, Mary, died on 16 September 1876, Pasoats went to live with William Gibson Hull and his family in Hooper. Shortly afterwards she met and married George Heber Riley with whom she would have 10 children. Riley is said to have been a drunk, so her life cannot have been an easy one. Pasoats died in Hooper on 19 October 1910 and was buried in the Hooper City Cemetery. How she felt about her tragic history and the near annihilation of her tribe is unknown, but she would have carried those six scars upon her body for her entire life. In 1990 the site of the Bear River Massacre was designated a National Historic Landmark. The Shoshone know the slaughter as the ‘Massacre of Boa Ogoi’. In 2008 the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation purchased the site, originally their own land that had been stolen from them, in order to protect it as a sacred burial ground. The Bear River Massacre must surely go down as one of the most shameful in American history and also contributes to the sordid history of how native peoples have been treated in their own lands worldwide. Source: Rewritten by Debbie McCauley (4 May 2020).