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    Susie Hio Widgigitch
    (ca. 1856–1931)

    Susie Hio Widgigitch was a noteworthy and fiercely independent Western Shoshone member of the Washakie community.1 She was born around 1856 in Ruby Valley, near Elko, Nevada Territory, to mother Tib-om-bia and father Hio Widgigitch.2 As a child, she traveled the Intermountain West with her father to dig roots and collect pine nuts, following traditional Shoshone subsistence patterns.3 There is little information on Tib-om-bia beyond her name, but Northwestern Shoshone historian Mae Timbimboo Parry recorded that Hio captured a white girl (whose name is unknown) who became his wife while Susie was very young. Susie came to see this girl as a stepmother who helped raise her and taught her English and essential domestic skills.4

    Susie later married Gung-gun-i-gee and they had at least two children together. When she was roughly twenty years old, around the same time Washakie was taking its first steps as a Northwestern Shoshone town, Susie, her family, and her father, Hio, joined the Washakie community.5 Hio applied for a homestead under the name Wig-E-gitch and established a home there.6 At some point, Gung-gun-i-gee passed away, and Susie moved to the Uintah Reservation to marry a Ute man. They bore one child together who passed away after a short time. Susie’s new husband severely abused her; after he cut off one of her fingers, she stole his entire herd of horses and made off for Washakie. As she made her escape, Susie saw her ex-husband and other Ute men from across a river she had forded. She subsequently shot and killed each horse in the herd to deter her pursuers.7

    Not long after her return to Washakie, “Sussie” was baptized as a member of the church on 13 June 1903.8 Tragically, smallpox hit the community, and the disease spread to the Widgigitch family. Hio died on 14 March 1904.9 At considerable personal cost, Susie erected the first large headstone in the Washakie cemetery to commemorate her father.10 Due to legal complications, she did not officially inherit the homestead land until 1917, so she moved to a cabin near the Washakie townsite.11

    Susie participated enthusiastically in the Washakie Ward and shared her thoughts and feelings regarding the gospel more than one hundred times throughout her time there. Ward clerks and secretaries summarized her words as she bore testimony of her chosen faith. On one occasion, she testified that “she believed the Prophet Joseph [Smith] was a true Prophet & that the Book of Mormon is true.”12 Prophets were evidently an important part of Susie’s faith as, every Sunday, she attended the Washakie Ward with a postcard depicting Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, tucked into her belt.13 Susie also used her English language ability to bridge the gap between stake and ward Relief Society officials and interpreted Shoshone remarks for the English-speaking stake Relief Society presidency.14 Later, she flexed her Ute language ability when she spoke in Ute at a Washakie Relief Society party.15

    In 1917, Susie was listed as the wife of Washakie Shoshone George Comalang, but his death in 1918 meant that she continued to provide for herself and rely on the Washakie community.16 Susie presumably lived alone for much of her life at Washakie and provided a variety of services to the region in order to support herself. She made deerskin gloves and tanned hides for customers in northern Utah towns like Brigham City.17 During some summers she traveled to Malad, Idaho, or Huntsville, Utah, pitched her teepee nearby, and worked as a domestic servant for the residents.18 Even with all her traveling, she still called Washakie home and kept her faith; as she stated in a testimony in 1926, “she was glad to be home again said while she was away she always remembered and had her prayers.”19

    Susie was renowned for her Shoshone dancing prowess and participated in celebrations like the Sun Dance regularly throughout her life.20 As she aged, she continued to be a pillar of the Washakie Relief Society and community and retained her independence. Euro-American Grant Parry remembered that Susie “was very old and lived alone and kind of took care of herself.”21

    As Susie continued to attend the Washakie Ward, she “said she would like to go to the temple and do some work there.”22 She felt that the temple was an important conduit to her Shoshone ancestors, and she was endowed on 18 April 1929 to “work [for] my dead relatives as [there is] no record of many of her people.”23 Just two years later, Susie fell ill while working in Huntsville and community members sought her out to bring her back to Washakie.24 A short time later, Susie died on 26 July 1931. According to her obituary, she had five children, and the one daughter who lived to adulthood bore a child who died in infancy. Susie had no living descendants.25 At her funeral on 27 July 1931, community members remembered her for her contributions to the Washakie Relief Society, and the wider Northern Utah region mourned the loss of a “famous” Shoshone woman. She was buried that day in the Washakie cemetery.26

    Cite this page

    Susie Hio Widgigitch(ca. 1856–1931), Native Saints, accessed May 28, 2026 https://www.churchhistorianspress.org/native-saints/biographies/susie-hio-widgigitch

      Footnotes

      1. [1]Neither Euro-American nor Shoshone scribes recorded Susie’s surname with any consistency. Popular spellings include variations and combinations of Wigegee, Widgagee, Widgiguitch, Hiwegegee, Highyou, Highyougo, Hiyouco, and even Hiorirdgaguich. Homestead records indicate that her father, Hio Widgigitch, differentiated the pronunciation and spelling of their name from another Washakie family, the Widgagees, as early as 1890. Hio is simply recorded as “Wig-E-gitch,” as opposed to Eddie Peah John Widgagee, the patriarch of the Widgagee family, whose name is recorded as “Wedgagee,” indicating a slight phonetic difference between the two. Toward the end of her life, it seems that Susie provided her name for the endowment ceremony as Widgigitch, and most contemporary records produced by her peers follow this general spelling, including her death certificate and obituary. (“Susie Hio Widgigitch,” Church History Biographical Database, history.churchofjesuschrist.org; Indian Land Records, 1884–1930, pp. 56–57, Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City [Church History Library hereafter cited as CHL]; Logan Temple Endowments of the Living, 1884–1957, microfilm 178054, vol. A, p. 554, 18 Apr. 1929, FamilySearch Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City [FamilySearch Library hereafter cited as FSL]; Margaret Morgan Parry, “Famous Squaw Goes to Happy Hunting Ground,” Bear River Valley Leader [Tremonton, UT], 6 Aug. 1931, 1; Utah Death Certificates, 1904–51, DGS 4121512, file no. 76, 26 July 1931, familysearch.org; “Susie Hio Widgigitch,” “Hio Widgigitch,” and “Eddie Peah John Widgagee,” Church History Biographical Database, history.churchofjesuschrist.org.)

      2. [2]Washakie Branch, part 1, image 156, Record of Members Collection, 1836–1970, CHL; Fort Hall, ID, Indian Census Rolls, 1885–1939, DGS 7141191, image 198, 1 Apr. 1932, familysearch.org; Utah Church Census Records, 1914–60, DGS 8621607, image 1931, familysearch.org; Mae Timbimboo Parry, Helen Pubigee Timbimboo, and Bruce Parry, interview by Margaret Garr Jaggi, 17 Oct. 2002, transcript, p. 3, Special Collections and Archives, Merrill–Cazier Library, Utah State University, Logan, UT; “Hio Widgigitch,” Church History Biographical Database, history.churchofjesuschrist.org. The most consistent birth date across censuses and some church records is 1856, but one source places her birth as early as 1843. (Washakie Ward General Minutes, 1902–33, 1943–62, vol. 8, pp. 142–43, 26 July 1931, CHL. Various dates between 1843 and 1856 were commonly recorded; in many instances, even when Susie likely provided the information herself, the dates were qualified with “about” or similar indications of uncertainty. See, for example, Logan Temple Endowments of the Living, 1884–1957, microfilm 178054, vol. A, p. 554, 18 Apr. 1929, FSL.)

      3. [3]Parry, Timbimboo, and Parry, interview, 17 Oct. 2002, p. 4.

      4. [4]Parry, Timbimboo, and Parry, interview, 17 Oct. 2002, pp. 3–4, 6; see “Mae Olive Timbimboo,” Church History Biographical Database, history.churchofjesuschrist.org.

      5. [5]Parry, “Famous Squaw Goes to Happy Hunting Ground,” 1.

      6. [6]Indian Land Records, 1884–1930, p. 56, CHL.

      7. [7]Parry, Timbimboo, and Parry, interview, 17 Oct. 2002, pp. 4–5.

      8. [8]Washakie Ward Record Book, 1887–1909, image 48, CHL. It’s possible that Susie attended the Washakie Ward, and was perhaps baptized, before her departure to the Uintah Reservation, but many of the records that would hold such information were lost in fires that consumed most Washakie records before 1903. (See “The Washakie Ward.”)

      9. [9]Washakie Ward Record Book, image 54, CHL.

      10. [10]Margaret Garr Jaggi, “The Garr Family Saga: The Connecting Power of Oral Narrative,” All Graduate Plan B and Other Reports, no. 878 (2003): 74.

      11. [11]“Estate of Indian Valued at $15,000,” Salt Lake Telegram, 28 Sept. 1917, 4; Parry, Timbimboo, and Parry, interview, 17 Oct. 2002, p. 6.

      12. [12]Washakie Ward Relief Society Minutes and Records, 1926–37, 1959–61, vol. 1, image 120, 5 June 1928, CHL.

      13. [13]Parry, Timbimboo, and Parry, interview, 17 Oct. 2002, p. 11.

      14. [14]Washakie Ward Minutes, 1883–1910, image 128, 20 Nov. 1909, CHL.

      15. [15]Washakie Ward Relief Society Minutes and Records, vol. 1, image 39, 20 Mar. 1926, CHL.

      16. [16]Indian Census Rolls, Goshute, 1917–23, DGS 7141219, no. 44, 25 June 1917, familysearch.org; Washakie Branch, part 1, image 156, Record of Members Collection, CHL; see “George Comalang,” Church History Biographical Database, history.churchofjesuschrist.org.

      17. [17]1900 U.S. Census, Washakie, Box Elder Co., UT, enumeration dist. 207, p. 15A; Matthew E. Kreitzer, ed., The Washakie Letters of Willie Ottogary: Northwestern Shoshone Journalist and Leader, 1906–1929 (Utah State University Press, 2000), 122.

      18. [18]Parry, Timbimboo, and Parry, interview, 17 Oct. 2002, pp. 6–7.

      19. [19]Washakie Ward Relief Society Minutes and Records, vol 1, image 36, 16 Nov. 1926, CHL.

      20. [20]Parry, Timbimboo, and Parry, interview, 17 Oct. 2002, p. 11.

      21. [21]Grant Morgan Parry, interview by Paula B. Watkins, 29 May 2013, transcript, p. 13, CHL; see “Grant Parry,” Church History Biographical Database, history.churchofjesuschrist.org.

      22. [22]Washakie Ward Relief Society Minutes and Records, vol. 1, image 17, 6 Apr. 1926, CHL.

      23. [23]Washakie Ward Relief Society Minutes and Records, vol. 1, image 69, 24 May 1927, CHL; Logan Temple Endowments of the Living, 1884–1957, microfilm 178054, vol. A, p. 554, 18 Apr. 1929, FSL.

      24. [24]Parry, Timbimboo, and Parry, interview, 17 Oct. 2002, p. 7.

      25. [25]Parry, “Famous Squaw Goes to Happy Hunting Ground,” 1; Utah Death Certificates, 1904–51, DGS 4121512, file no. 76, 26 July 1931, familysearch.org; Washakie Ward General Minutes, vol. 8, pp. 142–43, 26 July 1931, CHL. John T. Garr, an early Cache Valley settler, had a relationship with an unknown Shoshone woman in the 1850s that resulted in a son, Johnny Garr. Later Garr descendants, seeking to identify their Shoshone ancestor, who they believed was named Susie, concluded that Susie Widgigitch was the woman. While it is likely that John T. Garr had a relationship with a Shoshone woman around that time who subsequently bore Johnny Garr, it is unlikely that it was Susie Widgigitch due to her projected birth dates, which would indicate that Susie was no older than eleven at the time of this marriage. Further, the absence of any such relationship in recollections provided by Washakie community members and obituary is notable. For more on the Garr family’s supposed relation to Susie, see Margaret Garr Jaggi, “The Garr Family Saga: The Connecting Power of Oral Narrative” (Plan B, Utah State University, 2003), https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/gradreports/878.

      26. [26]Parry, “Famous Squaw Goes to Happy Hunting Ground,” 1; Washakie Ward General Minutes, vol. 8, p. 138, 27 July 1931, CHL.