About the Native Saints Dataset

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Brief History of the Dataset

Native Saints: The Washakie Ward is a digital history resource that tells the story of the Washakie Ward, a Northwestern Shoshone congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that was founded in 1880 in northern Utah. The project was prepared by the Church History Department (CHD) in collaboration with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation (NWBSN). In 2023, project historians and NWBSN elders began meeting regularly to discuss the research, interpretation, and presentation of the data.

Native Saints: The Washakie Ward is published on two CHD platforms. First, the Church History Biographical Database hosts the Washakie Ward Dataset, which has profiles of approximately 1,600 Shoshone individuals whose names appear in missionary and congregational records from the 1870s through 1940. The profiles include vital data as well as a summary of that individual’s affiliation with the Church. Second, the Native Saints page on the Church Historian’s Press website features long-form historical essays, biographies of key community members, maps, photographs, a chronology, and other supplementary materials.

When Euro-American Latter-day Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the Northwestern Shoshone under the leadership of Sagwitch Timbimboo largely chose accommodation rather than opposition to the settlers. As Shoshone people began joining the Church in the 1870s, Euro-American missionaries in the Northwestern Shoshone Mission, such as George Washington Hill and Isaac E. D. Zundel, recorded the names of those baptized in their journals, letters, and reports. After the founding of the Washakie Ward in 1880, clerks inscribed minutes of sacrament, priesthood, Relief Society, Sunday School, and youth meetings. Euro-American missionaries served as the earliest clerks, but after 1900 Shoshone Latter-day Saints educated at the Washakie day school increasingly assumed clerical responsibilities in the ward.

Although worship was conducted primarily in Shoshone well into the 20th century, the minutes were recorded in English. These terse translations of Shoshone words, filtered through the lens of the clerk, nevertheless offer glimpses into what the Washakie Saints thought and said about their faith. Congregational records also documented births, deaths, and other vital information in the community. Unfortunately, fires in 1887 and 1891 destroyed the earliest ward records, but more than two dozen record books created after 1902 have survived and are housed at the Church History Library.

Stake and temple records also preserve valuable information about the Washakie Saints, especially during the early years for which ward records are no longer extant. The Washakie Ward was initially in the Box Elder Stake, but in 1888 the congregation was transferred to the Malad Stake. Following their baptisms in the 1870s, Washakie Saints received endowment and sealing ordinances in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City. The Shoshone Church members subsequently donated their labor to help construct the Logan Temple and then, following its dedication in 1884, performed ordinances within it. After the Shoshone received their temple ordinances, temple clerks recorded their names, birth years and places, and parents’ names.

Research Process for Collecting the Data

Between 2023 and 2026, FamilySearch and CHD missionaries, working under the direction of project historians, painstakingly indexed these records by name. They compiled vital data as well as dates when individuals received Church ordinances such as baptism, confirmation, ordination, and temple ceremonies such as sealings or eternal marriages; served in callings (or positions) such as in the bishopric, Relief Society presidency, and Sunday School superintendency; and participated in ward organizations such as the Relief Society and Sunday School. Project missionaries also captured each person’s range of Church participation—when they offered prayers, administered the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, gave talks, bore testimonies, and shared comments. Project missionaries subsequently reviewed the indexed data for accuracy.

Native Saints profiles in the Church History Biographical Database feature each individual’s vital information drawn from the indexed Church records, including names, birth year, birthplace, parents’ names, marriages, death year, and death place. Indigenous people often use multiple names during their lifetimes: a Native name given to them as an infant as well as one or more Native names used as an adult. As Northwestern Shoshone interacted more frequently with Euro-Americans, they often also received an English or scriptural name. When Northwestern Shoshone Latter-day Saints began using given names and surnames in the 1870s and 1880s, they sometimes used Native appellations for both names, such as Sagwitch Timbimboo. Others adopted an English name as their given name and retained their adult Native name as a surname, like Alma Shoshonitz. Women are listed under their birth surname, with married and other names included under alternate names. NWBSN elders provided guidance on preferred spellings used in profiles. Native Saints profiles feature all names associated with an individual that appear in Church records.

Northwestern Shoshone oral recordkeeping practices preserved much information about births, marriages, and deaths, but they rarely registered when those events occurred. As Northwestern Shoshone Latter-day Saints became familiar with the Euro-American dating system in the late 19th century, they usually had to approximate their birth years, resulting in a range of reported birth years in Church records for some individuals—sometimes up to 20 years. Similarly, when community members died in the 1870s or 1880s, when Washakie Ward records are not extant, their descendants later had to estimate the death years. In these instances, profiles present birth and death years with a range using qualifiers such as “between X and Y” or “circa.” In addition, profiles use a circa date for Shoshone customary marriages one year prior to the birth of the first known child. When Church records do not preserve an individual’s reported birth, marriage, or death year, project historians have utilized civil records such as birth records, censuses, marriage licenses, and death records when available.

Some individuals in the Washakie Ward Dataset, such as Bishop Moroni Timbimboo, appear hundreds and even thousands of times in Church records. To enhance the legibility of the data, project historians have created timelines that overview each individual’s affiliation with the Church as evidenced by their ordinance data and Church service. A drop-down menu includes all of the indexed Church participation data for each person. Whenever possible, links connect users to the records associated with the data in the CHL catalog.

Selected Collections Used to Compile the Data

For a more comprehensive list of collections used to compile the data, see “Guide to Church History Library Collections.”

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