Healing on Sacred Ground

In 1872, a baby boy was born to a Shoshone family on the Fort Washakie Reservation in Wyoming. His father, Onda-Bow-Low-See, was a scout for the United States Cavalry, which meant his family often traveled by stagecoach.

One day, while on a bumpy stagecoach, the young boy lost his balance. He fell under a wheel and his leg was severely crushed, causing a deep injury. Knowing his son needed serious attention, Onda-Bow-Low-See turned to his parents: Anka-dewy-itse and his wife, Tza-gah.

The boy and his grandparents set off traveling west through a snowy pass. The boy lay on a horse-pulled sled made of deer hide. As they traveled, his leg swelled and became infected. After a long journey, they arrived at their sacred healing place, Baa-da-see (now Cache Valley, Utah) on the Shoshone “Holy Hill.” The boy was exhausted, and his grandparents set up camp under a teepee, staying by his side and praying for him for several days. Each morning, they awoke hoping the boy would recover.

Then one morning, at dawn, the boy heard a voice calling him: “Arise!” To his amazement, he stood and walked. The pain in his leg was gone. When his grandfather Anka-dewy-itse saw the boy standing alive and well, he gratefully proclaimed, “Our Damma Appa [Heavenly Father] has healed you!” Although healed, the boy had a slight limp and was renamed “Nee-a-ma-ah,” meaning “leaning to one side.”

Nee-a-ma-ah and his grandparents returned home to Wyoming. Years later, Nee-a-ma-ah longed to return to the Holy Hill where he was healed. He traveled to Utah and found that things in Baa-da-see were very different. Log cabins and houses splayed across the land, and men with long beards had preached to and baptized many Shoshone people.

The sacred Holy Hill was now home to the Logan Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Through Church missionaries, Nee-a-ma-ah learned many teachings that aligned with his own people’s beliefs. He found that they believed in the same God—a God of healing and peace.

On August 1, 1897, Nee-a-ma-ah was baptized in the Bear River. His name was changed to Moses Neaman. He met and married Rebecca Widgagee, and they were sealed in the Logan Utah Temple.

Moses’s Posterity

Moses’s journey of faith has greatly blessed six generations of his posterity. His great-granddaughter Odessa, from Toppenish, Washington, still shares his story today. “Little did Moses know that he would change the lives of his family,” she says. “I am so thankful for my ancestors, my pioneers. They laid the path for me to enjoy all the blessings of the restored gospel.”

As Native Americans, Odessa and the Neaman family face challenges balancing their faith and culture. But their ancestors were strong examples of sticking to their faith in the Lord, and that gives Odessa and her family members strength and confidence to carry on. “If they can do it,” she said, “then I can do it.”

Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught: “Connecting with our ancestors can change our lives in surprising ways. From their trials and accomplishments, we gain faith and strength.”

Odessa and other descendants of Moses Neaman were all blessed by connecting with their ancestor.

In what ways can you connect with your family history to gain similar blessings?