The Other Slavery and the Spirit of Pestilence
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24224835 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Seth Archer (Utah State University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 541-563 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnohistory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0014-1801 • E-ISSN: 1527-5477 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/00141801-12536987 |
| OpenAlex | W7221759173 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 21 |
This essay examines a ritual killing by equestrian Utes during a measles outbreak in 1849 Utah. A close reading of a handful of firsthand accounts, alongside a consideration of tribal histories and anthropological scholarship on band societies, reveals the incident as a cultural response to mortality stemming from the new malady. In the process, the author illuminates the nature of Indigenous captive slavery in the nineteenth-century American West. While Mormon settler pressure on natural resources would soon squeeze equestrian peoples, leading to armed conflict across the region, western Utes operated from a position of strength in 1849. In fact, measles would prove a temporary setback for raiding bands, whose hegemony over pedestrian societies expanded in the 1850s. The author considers various explanations for the ritual killing, ultimately arguing that it is best understood as a companion or “mirror” sacrifice—evidence of Ute cultural persistence amid various adaptations to a colonial market in enslaved people.
Colonialism · measles outbreak · Mormon settlers · ritual murder · Sacrifice · Ute people · Indigenous Cultures and History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Mormonism, Religion, and History
| Highly cited | No |
|---|