Willie Ottogary

Willie Ottogary was born in Mantua on July 6, 1869. The son of Peter Ottogary and Sarah Sots-Ze-Ump. Willie was a Shoshone Indian and he spent his childhood in Plymouth. By the 1900 census he was living in Manila with his first wife Alice and working as a farm laborer. They had two children, Bertha born in 1899 and Pearl born in 1901. Alice reportedly died in 1902.
He then married Nancy Smith in 1903 and they had five children. By 1910, the family was living in Elwood and Willie was farming his own land. Bertha died in 1902 and Pearl followed in 1909. Nancy and Willie’s oldest two children died as infants and their fourth son died at the age of 20. Only two, Cheter and Louise lived into adulthood. Apparently, Nancy left the family in October of 1916 (the youngest child was only 4 years old) and fled to Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho (her hometown) and refused to come back.
In 1906, Willie began writing letters to area newspapers from his home on the reservation. In these “letters” he chronicled the events and lives of Washakie Indians. Willie had little schooling, but he didn’t let his less than masterful grasp of grammar stop him from making his mark in journalism. One reporter for the Ogden Standard Examiner exclaimed, “Willie does not conform to syntax or any of the other fixed rules which have ruined the power of expression of more than one budding writer, but he does give on a most intimate knowledge of the events he is recording, and that after all is the test.”
His first recorded letter appeared in the Garland City Globe and was dated July 8, 1906. His letters began being known as Willie Ottogary’s Washakie Letter and appeared in the Garland City Globe and The Journal (out of Logan). He wrote his letters until his death in 1929.
Willie died suddenly of a heart attack on March 18, 1929, at the young age of 55 in his home in Elwood. His last letter to The Journal was dated March 14th. The Journal reported that Willie had more than once travelled to Washington, DC to intercede with the federal government in his unrelenting effort to see land returned to his people. Upon hearing of Willie’s passing nearly the entire tribe from Washakie travelled to Tremonton and assembled across the street from the undertaker to pay respect. The Garland Times reported his death and stated, “Willie Ottogary was a clean living and honest Indian, his word was his bond, and was faithful and true to every trust and had gained the confidence and respect of all.”
Willie is buried in Washakie Cemetery with all but two of his children.
You can read The Wasahkie Letters of Willie Ottogary in the digital collection.

In Washakie Cemetery, Washakie, Box Elder County Utah

This document was last modified .