Amy Hootchew Timbimboo was an influential leader in the Washakie Ward, serving for about four decades in the ward Relief Society presidency.¹ She was born at Washakie, Utah Territory, on 9 November 1893 to Annie Comosavah and Don Carlos Hootchew, both of whom were from Western Shoshone families from Nevada.² The name Hootchew means “bird” in Shoshone. Amy experienced a difficult childhood. When she was five years old, her father died of what was referred to as “black measles,” now known as Rocky Mountain spotted fever,³ and Amy had to live with relatives who did not always treat her well. Her mother subsequently married a Washakie Shoshone named Ona Johnny Ahguite, whom Amy remembered as being a very kind father figure, but he died in 1905 of pneumonia when she was almost twelve. Around that time, Amy and her mother contracted smallpox. Although both survived, Amy always remembered the pain of having her beloved rag dolls, which she had made and named, burned after her recovery as part of the disinfection process.⁴ Around 1907, Annie married again, this time to Shoshone Latter-day Saint Charley Broom.⁵

Despite the upheaval of her childhood, her mother remained a constant in her life. Annie taught her daughter “which wild plants, seeds, berries and nuts to gather for food,” as well as “how to prepare hides to make clothing and shelter.” She also taught Amy about Shoshone hospitality. In addition to her education in “the Indian way,” Amy attended the Washakie day school, where she received a third-grade education. Through her own study, she subsequently improved her English-language reading and writing skills.⁶ Amy valued education throughout her life, using her literacy in her callings in the Washakie Ward and urging her children to attend school.⁷

On 7 September 1902, when Amy was eight years old, she was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Moroni Ward, the second Euro-American bishop of the Washakie Ward.⁸ She first appeared in Sunday School records in 1907, performing a reading in the 7 April meeting.⁹ That August, she attended Relief Society with her mother for the first time, performing a musical number with another girl in the ward.¹⁰ The following year, on 28 March 1908, when she was fourteen years old, she was accepted “as a member of the Washakie [Ward Relief Society] of the Malad Stake of Zion.”¹¹ This began her official association with the ward Relief Society, which would last for more than half a century.

Nearly three weeks after her seventeenth birthday, on 29 November 1910, Amy was married civilly to Moroni Timbimboo, who came from an influential Northwestern Shoshone family.¹² The next year, on 22 March 1911, the couple received their endowments and had their union solemnized in a sealing ceremony in the Logan Temple.¹³ They spent the next sixty-four years together and had nine children, six of whom lived to adulthood: Joanna (1911–1991), Hazel Evelyn (1914–2000), Mae Olive (1919–2007), Frank Leonard (1922–1992), Grace Irene (1925–2006), and Katherine Ivy (1927–1953).¹⁴

In 1915, Amy was called to two significant teaching positions in the ward. First, she was appointed as superintendent of the Religion Class, a weekday religious education course intended to supplement public schools.¹⁵ Then Amy was also called as a Sunday School instructor, serving with her husband, Moroni, the superintendent.¹⁶ Between these two positions, she would play a significant role in educating the Washakie Ward over the next decade.¹⁷

Even as Amy continued in her teaching callings, in August 1920 she was called as first counselor to Mary Ann Morris Ward, the third Euro-American president of the Washakie Ward Relief Society. Amy replaced Minnie James Zundel, who died of gallstones on 13 August.¹⁸ Along with second counselor Mamie Perdash Wongan, Amy regularly taught lessons on scriptural subjects as well as the church’s social service and literature curriculum. She also interpreted for Shoshone sisters who did not understand English.¹⁹ Amy bore her testimony regularly, sharing experiences and recounting a dream that she had of her father, whom she did “not remember ever seeing in life to know him.” She also described seeing her mother, who died in 1925, in a dream: “what a beautifull hom[e] she had and how happy she was.”²⁰

On 26 May 1929, Mary Ann Morris Ward was released as Relief Society president and replaced by Margaret Morgan Parry, who retained Amy and Mamie Wongan as counselors.²¹ That same year, Amy was called as president of the Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association, extending her influence over both the young women and the adult sisters of the ward.²² During these years, Amy was also known for her fine Shoshone bead and leather work. At a Malad Stake Relief Society program in 1931, she presented apostle Anthony Ivins “a pair of white buckskin moccasins,” while Mamie Wongan gave him white gloves, “which were much appreciated by him.”²³

On 20 May 1933, the Washakie Ward Relief Society celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. Amy was the main speaker and recounted the organization’s history: “I am glad that the Prophet Joseph Smith has organized the Relief Society among the women in this last dispensation. I am so proud of its perfect organization.” She remembered attending Relief Society with her mother as a girl, where the sisters would “open the meeting with an Indian song” and then devote the remaining time to testimony bearing. Under President Mary Ann Ward, the Shoshone sisters learned “to love flower gardens,” while President Margaret Parry “trained [them] in beautiful music, to sing it and to understand it.” Amy concluded with her testimony: “I know that God lives. He has heard my prayers and healed me from sore afflictions.”²⁴

During the 1930s, Amy’s husband, Moroni, served as first counselor to Joseph Parry, the fourth Euro-American bishop of the ward. In 1935, Moroni also served a short-term mission among the Assiniboine on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana.²⁵ In late 1938, Malad Stake President Thomas W. Richards recommended that Moroni be called as the Washakie Ward’s first Shoshone bishop. As part of the recommendation, Richards described Amy as the “most capable and faithful Indian woman in the ward.”²⁶ After receiving the call, Moroni went home to confer with Amy. “‘Oh, you’ve got to accept that call,’” he recalled her saying. He was set apart by apostle George Albert Smith on 22 January 1939.²⁷

Despite the significant time commitment of Moroni’s calling, Amy continued to be an indispensable fixture in the Relief Society. On 17 February 1939, Rhoda Moemberg Woonsook was called as the ward’s first Shoshone Relief Society president. She selected Juanita Perdash as first counselor and Amy as second.²⁸ In 1940, however, Rhoda and her husband, Henry Woonsook, moved to Idaho, necessitating Rhoda’s release. She was replaced by Emmeline Pabawena Neaman as president.²⁹ Although Amy was not retained in the new presidency, she was called to teach the Relief Society’s “Work and Business” class.³⁰

During World War II, employment opportunities in the defense industry pulled many Shoshone Latter-day Saints, including Moroni and Amy, away from Washakie.³¹ In 1943, they both found employment in the defense industry, first at the Defense Depot and then at Hill Air Force Base near Ogden. This precipitated their move to Clearfield, Utah. However, they commuted to Washakie on the weekends to participate in the ward and care for their farm and raise their sheep.³² Due to Emmeline Neaman’s failing health, she was released as Relief Society president on 25 June 1944, and Amy was called in her place, with Emmeline continuing as a counselor.³³ Unfortunately, no Washakie Ward Relief Society minutes are extant for the 1940s, so little is known about Amy’s tenure as president. She appears to have been released in May 1946.³⁴ By 1948, Moroni was back in the bishopric, serving as second counselor to Euro-American Newell Cutler, while Amy was serving as first counselor to Floy B. Cutler in the Relief Society presidency.³⁵ Moroni and Amy lived in Clearfield through the 1950s, but they continued to attend church and serve in their callings in Washakie.³⁶ They moved back to Washakie in 1960, the same year the unit was reclassified as a branch due to continued outmigration.³⁷

Community members continued to see Washakie as their perpetual home even as the defense industry pulled residents away. With declining membership numbers, the unit was closed altogether in 1966.³⁸ Without consulting Moroni or Amy, Euro-American church leaders decided to sell the church farm, including the Washakie townsite. In 1969, under the direction of local church leaders, farm employees burned some houses—many of which still contained personal papers and other property—to prepare for the sale. Moroni and Amy personally witnessed some of these traumatic burnings. Perhaps out of deference to their church service, the Timbimboo home at Washakie was not burned.³⁹ With their beloved community gone, in 1969 the couple moved to Plymouth, Utah.⁴⁰ In 1972, they were lauded for their skills “in handiwork, fashioning articles from leather and accenting each article with intricate beadwork.”⁴¹ Three years later, at age eighty-six, Moroni died of natural causes at a hospital in Ogden, Utah.⁴²

Amy outlived her husband by nearly a quarter of a century. She was regularly highlighted in Utah newspapers for her bead and leather work and, along with her daughter Mae Timbimboo Parry, her commitment to preserving Shoshone foodways, culture, and history. For her one hundredth birthday in 1993, the Lakeside Review interviewed her and published a detailed story about her life.⁴³ On 14 May 1999, at the age of 105, she passed away from natural causes in Layton, Utah. She was buried next to her husband in the Clearfield City Cemetery.⁴⁴