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NO STORY of Mormon-Indian relations during the pioneer period is complete without recourse to the reminiscent account of Daniel W. Jones. Strangely enough little seems to have been written about this engaging character, and what little is known is gleaned from his own Forty Years Among The Indians, here reprinted for the first time after being out of print for many years. | |
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Born on the frontier of Missouri in 1830, the career of Dan Jones spanned the content west, and extended well into the twentieth century. He died at Mesa, Arizona, in his eighty-fifth year. | |
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His strange and unusual introduction to Mormonism, his conversion, his many relations with the Indians, his experiences succoring the Handcart Pioneers of 1856, his involvement in the Utah War and after, his introduction of Mormonism into Mexico, and his many colonizing activities in Utah and the Southwest, demonstrate a vigorous living of frontier life unmatched by few in his own time. And in a day and place when the unusual became the usual, when the average pioneer and frontiersman led a life of hazard and hardship, Dan Jones led an especially long life of experience and high adventure. | |
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