What is "tutsegabit"

Tutsegabit was a 19th-century leader of the Piedes bands of the Paiute tribe.

In 1857 Tutsegabit was the chief of six bands of Piedes.

Some have accused Tutsegabit of being one of the people behind the Mountain Meadows massacre. However, there is no evidence that he was anywhere close to Mountain Meadows at that time. It is known that Tutsegabit was in Salt Lake City on September 1, 1857, and that he was ordained an elder by Brigham Young. To have been present at Mountain Meadows when the massacre occurred, he would have had to have returned to southern Utah by September 11. Dimick B. Huntington in his journal claims that Tutsegabit was in Salt Lake City on September 10. Wilford Woodruff records Tutsegabit's ordination as an elder in his September 16 journal entry, but Woodruff does not indicate what day the actual ordination occurred on.