The Church History Department and the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation have collaborated on a digital history project titled Native Saints: The Washakie Ward, a resource documenting the history of a Northwestern Shoshone congregation in northern Utah that operated from 1880 through 1966.
A Collaborative History Project
The digital resource aims to tell the story of the Washakie Ward, a Northwestern Shoshone congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to the Church History Department, the project was developed in collaboration with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation (NWBSN), with historians and NWBSN Elders meeting regularly starting in 2023 to discuss research, interpretation, and the presentation of historical data.
Digital Data and Profiles
The project is presented across two primary platforms. The first is the Church History Biographical Database, which hosts the Washakie Ward Dataset. This database contains profiles for approximately 1,600 Shoshone individuals whose names appear in missionary and congregational records spanning from the 1870s through 1940. These profiles include vital data and summaries of each individual's affiliation with the Church.
Expanded Historical Context
The second platform is the Native Saints page on the Church Historian’s Press website. This site features long-form historical essays, biographies of key community members, maps, photographs, a chronology, and other supplementary materials. The database includes details such as names, birth years, birthplaces, parents' names, marriages, death years, and death locations.
Early Shoshone Interactions
The records reveal how Northwestern Shoshone people interacted with Euro-American settlers. When Latter-day Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the Northwestern Shoshone, led by Sagwitch Timbimboo, largely chose accommodation over opposition to the settlers. As Shoshone members began joining the Church in the 1870s, missionaries such as George Washington Hill and Isaac E. D. Zundel recorded the names of those baptized in journals, letters, and reports.
Clerical and Language Traditions
Following the founding of the Washakie Ward in 1880, clerks recorded minutes for sacrament, priesthood, Relief Society, Sunday School, and youth meetings. While Euro-American missionaries served as the earliest clerks, Shoshone Latter-day Saints educated at the Washakie day school increasingly assumed clerical responsibilities after 1900. Although worship was conducted primarily in Shoshone well into the twentieth century, the meeting minutes were recorded in English, often providing terse translations of Shoshone words through the lens of the clerk.
Preserving Vanished Records
The historical record faced significant challenges due to physical loss. Fires in 1887 and 1891 destroyed the earliest ward records. However, more than two dozen record books created after 1902 survived and are currently housed at the Church History Library. Additionally, temple and stake records have preserved vital information for the early years when ward records were not extant. Shoshone members received endowment and sealing ordinances in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City and later performed ordinances in the Logan Temple following its dedication in 1884.
Meticulous Indexing Methods
The research process involved intensive indexing by FamilySearch and Church History Department missionaries between 2023 and 2026. They compiled data on Church ordinances—including baptism, confirmation, ordination, and temple ceremonies like sealings—as well as service in various callings such as the bishopric, Relief Society presidency, and Sunday School superintendency. Project missionaries also captured details of individual participation, such as when members offered prayers, administered the sacrament, gave talks, or shared testimonies.
