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It's weird there is in a movie about the Ute leader Waccarra, who roamed the territory that's now central Utah in the mid-1800s.

Because he was the perfect character. He was brilliant and ferocious, kind of crafty.

Wakera, also known as Wakara or Chief Walker, came from the Tempanooga's band of the U people.

But his influence stretched through the trade routes and the tracks of the larger American West.

He patrolled the old Spanish trail and he stole thousands of horses that he sold in markets as far away as New Mexico.

He was a ruthless trader of enslaved natives. He captured

payutes, mostly women and children. He strong-armed caravans of covered wagons. But the

historian Max Perry Mueller says in his new biography that Wakera also created maps of the mountain

passes and the river crossings of the region. In fact, he helped

shape the boundaries of the southwest, including the first Mormon settlement in the Salt Lake

Valley. Mueller says, as the Mormon pioneers were making their way west in 1847, they weren't

really clear about their destination.

And they're imagining possibilities of where they'll end up.

One possibility is Texas.

Another possibility is California.

But really they had their heart set on the Great Basin, what is now central Utah, pushed West by persecution, but pulled West by the opportunity to missionize

native peoples. And one of the things they've heard is this rich, verdant area around what is today Utah Lake.

It has tremendous grassland, rich fisheries, and timber to make their settlements.

And their hearts are set on locating the new Zion in what becomes central Utah.

But one of the reasons they know anything about Utah Lake is because of Waukera.

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