Wakara [also known as Walkara and Walker]

Established himself as leader of Ute Indians in Utah County; formed profitable trade relationship with Euro-American fur traders; actively involved in stealing horses from settlements along the Spanish Trail and selling prisoners captured from other Great Basin Indian groups as slaves during the 1830s and 1840s; established uneasy peace with the Mormons; key participant in the 1853–1854 Walker War; died of pneumonia in Meadow, Utah. (See Thrapp, Encyclopedia of Frontier Biography, 3:1496–97; Larson, “Walkara, Ute Chief”; Sonne, World of Wakara; Tina Kelley and Kathryn L. MacKay, “Wakara,” in Utah History Encyclopedia, 615; GQC journal, Oct. 17, 1853.)