Sanpitch (Ute chief)

Sanpitch was a leader of the Sanpits tribe of American Indians who lived what is now Sanpete County, Utah before and during settlement by Mormon immigrants. He is the father of Black Hawk, for whom the Black Hawk War in Utah (1865–1872) is named. In 1850, after measles from newly arrived Mormon settlers decimated their tribes, Walkara and Chief Sanpitch asked the Mormons to come to the Sanpete Valley teach the band to farm, though this was met with little enthusiasm. After fighting in the Black Hawk War, he was killed on April 18, 1866 near Fountain Green, Utah.

His interactions with early Mormon settlers are chronicled in Gottfredson. The Sanpitch River and Sanpete County take their names from him or his grandfather of the same name.