Thomas Pabawena Jr. was an influential member of the Washakie Ward and an important leader in early twentieth-century Northwestern Shoshone tribal politics.¹ Thomas’s parents, Ho-tim-a-sow-wop (Jane) and Thomas Pabawena Sr., were part of a group of Western Shoshone who migrated from Nevada to join the Latter-day Saint Shoshone community at Washakie, Utah Territory.² Thomas Jr. was born on 10 April 1883 in Washakie.³ In church records, he was referred to simply as Thomas or Thomas Pabawena, but many of his official government records listed his full name as Thomas J. Pabawena, with the J. likely standing for Jeffson or Jefferson.⁴

Thomas was baptized by Moroni Ward, the second Euro-American bishop of the Washakie Ward, on 21 July 1895.⁵ About a decade later, he married Julia Tospanguitch, who was also raised at Washakie, in a combined ceremony with another Shoshone couple at the Brigham City courthouse on Thanksgiving Day. The brides’ “pretty blankets” and “civilized” manner captivated local white journalists and demonstrated Thomas and Julia’s continued dedication to Shoshone customs while they adopted new Euro-American customs like civil marriage. They used the education they had gained as children at the Washakie day school to sign their marriage licenses at the courthouse.⁶ Together they had eight children, four of whom survived to adulthood: Herbert Martin (1907–1930), Albert Glen (1920–1968), Lucille (1923–1943), and Ben Benson (1926–2001).⁷ Like many Northwestern Shoshone at Washakie, Thomas supported his family through seasonal labor at local and regional farms. He was a practiced beet thinner and sheep shearer and led shearing gangs throughout his prime.⁸ To supplement this seasonal income, he trapped and hunted in the surrounding area.⁹

Thomas filled teaching roles in the Washakie Ward for much of his life. He often bore his testimony, and during a sacrament meeting in 1913 he encouraged others to bear their own testimonies of the gospel.¹⁰ Three years later, he was called as a ward teacher, charged with visiting ward members and checking on their needs.¹¹ He also taught regularly at Sunday meetings even before his call as a Sunday school teacher in 1922, and many of his lessons were centered on early Latter-day Saint history in Ohio and Missouri.¹² Thomas and his brothers, James Martin Pabawena (ca. 1878–1967), John Spencer Pabawena Sr. (1880–1961), and David Hamilton Pabawena (1892–1969), drove their cars down to Salt Lake City for weekend trips to attend General Conference together throughout the years.¹³

Traveling for work and church was an important part of Thomas’s life, and he often took advantage of time away from Washakie to visit relatives. He and his brothers spent many holidays with friends and relatives at their parents’ home in Nevada. One consistent draw for the family was the Sun Dance that their people hosted near Deeth.¹⁴ Thomas’s brothers often spent years living in Nevada among their relatives, especially in 1940 when a census taker recorded all of them living together in Ruby Valley with their families.¹⁵ But census records and his consistent participation in Washakie Ward records indicate that Thomas maintained his primary residence at Washakie before 1935 and moved back before 1950.¹⁶

Thomas’s trips around the Intermountain West also played a role in his activity as an advocate for Native communities in the area. As one of the founding members of the Northwestern Shoshone tribal council in 1917, he traveled to Washington DC to petition the federal government for their rights under the 1863 Treaty of Box Elder.¹⁷ More often, his business on behalf of the tribe took him to Brigham City, Ogden, and Deep Creek in Utah, Wells in Nevada, and the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho.¹⁸ Thomas used his skills in English to write letters, create petitions, and attend protests to attain treaty rights, depose Indian agents, and fight against the World War II–era draft. After the death of fellow Northwestern Shoshone advocate Willie Ottogary in 1929, some political leadership evidently fell upon Thomas to represent the Northwestern Shoshone and he was referred to as “Chief” by white news correspondents.¹⁹ In 1948, Thomas began correspondence with Utah Senator Arthur V. Watkins to reassert their ancestral claims contained in the 1863 Treaty of Box Elder. In a letter sent on 9 March 1949 he declared: “I am individual member of the northerwestern band of the shoshone of the tribes there of. I am desdendant of the one of the signer Box Elder treaty on July 30, 1863. This chief Toswitze. That reason why I represanting over the northerwestern shoshone of the tribes, now I want to the make settlement for the reservation of the northerwestern band of of the Shoshone tribes.”²⁰

Even though he struggled with his eyesight and was “nearly blind” at some points in his life, Thomas’s participation in the church and Native advocacy groups continued until his death on 20 April 1950.²¹ He succumbed to a “four year illness,” some kind of “stomach cancer,” at his home in Washakie and was buried at the Washakie cemetery four days later.²²