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It's weird there is in a movie about the Ute leader Wakera,

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 Tempanoas 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 traitor 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 Wakara 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, has tremendous grassland, rich fisheries, and timber to make their settlements.

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