Alejandro Pineda

English 2010
Benjamin Solomon
November 5,2018

Early morning sun at the highest point in the sky, hearing fireworks going off in the back

while the crowd is clapping and cheering. Getting woken up every Labor Day by the loud noises

when I was a child was the beast thing in the world waking up to it was the best feeling. Because

I knew it was going to be a good day when I would hear those noises from the bed of my room.

Knowing that the famous Wellsville Sham Battle was held on that day was always a great

pleasure to watch.

What is the Sham Battle? it’s a local event (mock fight) that my town holds during

Founders Day to remember the battle between the Pioneers

and the Indians. The issue that was going on was that some

of the Shoshone Nation believe that the mock draft be

offensive (racial) and historically inaccurate with what

happen. So many questions are being asked on why it is

racist? why is it offending people if they have done it for the

past 80 years? 

  For me, to be a part of it is interesting to me because some of the point of views that the

members of the Shoshone Nation presented to us did make sense and does related to some of the

issues I've come across about race in my life. A great example would be me. While growing up I

was racially abused due to the fact of just the stereotype that was presented or informed to others
that us Latinos were all bad and all we could do is be lazy and steal things, So I can see where he

is coming with that. Other point of views I can agree on as well like "why is it just coming up

now?" if they have seriously been doing it for about 80 years, and it is now just coming up. 

I've gone about every year to watch the Sham Battle, just because I've had friends in it. I

never assumed that it could be racist like some people have, and that the story is totally wrong. I

just think of it as a mock fight and people reliving a very important part in our history. 

The man above in the picture is Darren Parry, chairman of the Northwestern Band of the

Shoshone Nation. He is the guy that was first

notified about the invited and how it was improperly

inaccurate and demining to the Native Americans.

One main topic that the chairman of the

Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation mention

to the committee and the Wellsville Council is that

“not only is the battle historically inaccurate, the

way Native Americans are portrayed is an issue,

they talk about the Natives sneaking around, spying,

taking children: which was not true."

I do agree with him on the part of the reenactment of the event is “historically

inaccurate”. I believe that if we are reenacting a historic event that it should be accurate and not

discriminate anyone in the process of it. During their town hall meeting Parry expressed his

opinion in multiple ways which one of them caught my attention a lot. He stated “Why do you

paint us red? We are not red,” Parry said. “If you want to strive for historical accuracy or
correctness, why don’t you paint some of your citizens black to portray the slaves that you had

here in town? “if we want to perform it to everyone especially the younger generations that don’t

have any idea of the topic other than when they perform the event on Labor Day. I totally agree

with him on that, I believe it should be accurate and it shouldn’t misrepresent anyone when the

event is being reenact. I had the chance to get to talk to Mr. Parry for about five minutes about

this topic, due to them still discussing what they can do to make the event better or what can be

added on to it. Parry explain to me “it’s a difficult process and it takes patience and

understanding to get a proper solution.” The solutions that they have presented at the local

meetings was not going to be discuss to the public until the following week.

The Wellsville City created a committee, so they could discuss the matter in their weekly

meetings. Darren Parry and he’s partner Robert Lucero, a Cache Valley resident and executive

director of the Ute Indian Tribe Political Action

Committee, are also part of those weekly meetings to

discuss the issue and what they could do to resolve the

issue as well. They wanted to” have the celebration, but be

historically accurate in how you depict us," he said. He also

asked the city to allow the Shoshone Tribe to be a part of

the festivities. “We would come up and perform our native

dances, songs, bring our culture with us," he said. "Let the

community experience that side of what you've been missing."

In the past couple meetings, they have been discussing the possibility of having the

Native Americans being replaced with bank robbers, the reason for that being is the way the
event is performed where they go and take away children and burn down places. They would

replace it with bank robbers robbing a bank and taking money and people as hostages as well.

So, what do I think about all this that is going on? I personally am for and against what is

going on. The reason for me being against the issue because I just really had a hard time finding

that how it was just becoming a huge issue or why it was just being brought up as an issue if it

has been going on for so many years. I do agree on the reasoning of the issue being inaccurate

and miss informing, because me growing up I thought this was what happen. I never gave any

thought to the real event and story behind it. This year they attempted to replace the Native

Americans as robbers and hostages, as I was not really a fan of it because there was no meaning

behind it. They are still weighing out other options to improve the event for the following year.

Sources:

1. https://fox13now.com/2017/09/20/city-leaders-respond-to-concerns-about-

depiction-of-native-americans-in-wellsville-sham-battle/

2. https://www.standard.net/news/government/fate-of-utah-event-with-redface-

native-american-portrayal-handed/article_f63d8877-8641-5ba5-9786-

1e57b0ae3e95.html
3. https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2017/09/18/wellsville-leaders-pledge-to-

revise-sham-battle-with-rising-tensions-over-the-depiction-of-american-indians/

4. https://www.hjnews.com/allaccess/sacred-symbols-wellsville-forming-

committee-to-discuss-sham-battle/article_92e1d1f3-05dc-5e1e-9880-

e199439ec351.html

5. http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/playing-indian-wellsville-sham-battle