Mae Timbimboo Parry

Mae Timbimboo Parry (May 15, 1919 – March 20, 2007) was a storyteller for the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation of Utah, activist, and member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She is known for her recounting of the Bear River Massacre and for her work with the Shoshone Nation and the state of Utah, as well as for lobbying for legislation that would protect the culture and land-rights of Native Americans. For her work, Parry has received multiple awards.

Early life Sherman Institute in Riverside, California. Indian Boarding School where Mae Timbimboo Parry and her sisters attended for three years. Mae Timbimboo Parry was born on May 15, 1919, in Washakie, Utah, to her parents Moroni and Amy Hewchoo Timbimboo. Although not an Indian Reservation, at the time of her birth and growing up years, Washakie was home to a significant population of Northwestern Shoshone. Even though the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone believed this land to be theirs, the title to the land belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and would remain that way for decades.

Family life During her time at LDS Business College in 1938, Mae married her childhood friend, Grant Parry, after the fashion of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Salt Lake Temple and remained together for 68 years until her death. Darren Parry features his grandmother in his book, The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History. He attended an unveiling of a painting from Chief Sagwich's perspective that hangs in the Hutchings Museum in Lehi, Utah. In her later years, she would develop Parkinson's disease; she died in Clearfield, Utah at the age of 87.

Northwestern Shoshone historian Mae Parry worked hard to change public memory of the massacre of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone at Bear River by the command of Colonel Patrick Connor. While in high school, Parry began a process of recording her people's history in writing, an endeavor that had never been done by her people before and a process that has preserved her people's history for generations to come. Mae Parry would spend much of the rest of her life dedicated to recording her people's history and making it known to the world. One of her primary aims as a historian was to change the name of "The Battle of Bear River" to "The Bear River Massacre." In 1976, Parry published an article titled "Massacre at Boa Ogoi" which vividly described the massacre that happened to the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone by the hands of US soldiers on January 29, 1863, from the oral histories that survived among her people. This was a significant event in the history of the Northwestern Shoshone that changed the course of their history and affected how the United States army would interact with Native Americans in the future. This event had previously only been publicly understood from the perspectives of the soldiers and settlers involved with the event; however, through Parry's advocacy, the name of the event was changed thereby influencing public perception as well. She told stories that her grandfather, Chief Sagwich, had witnessed at the battle. The Chief gave his account of picking up his living brand new infant daughter from his dead wife's arms and having the infant placed in a cradle board. The Shoshone hung the cradle board in a nearby tree. It saved the girl's life. She was named by her white family, Jane Hull. The history also included the accounts of Shoshone mothers hiding beneath the riverbank and letting their children float down the river so that their cries would not attract the attention of the United States soldiers. Although her work greatly influenced how modern historians understand what took place at Bear River on January 29, 1863, she has been criticized for emphasizing her family's role above other survivors' families at the time of the massacre and since. However, her written history and advocacy has proved as an influential perspective for modern historians to understand the legacy and impact of this massacre on the Shoshone people. Through the work of Mae Parry, both the history and the culture of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone were preserved and passed down to future generations. As a result, many people were baptized. Indeed, Parry stated that all but one man joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, mostly because he was afraid of the water, and would need to be baptized by immersion. In 1968, she and other representatives went to Washington, D.C. to negotiate a bill that would further reduce acreage on Native American reservations. In addition, she worked in 1957 against a bill that would terminate the wardship status of Native Americans in certain states, including the state of Utah.

Overall, Parry's lasting legacy was that of rebranding the name of the Battle of Bear River to the Bear River Massacre to better represent the Native American perspective. She is known for her championship of Native American rights on a national and state level, as well as her role as a local leader.