Augusta Bowen Cleveland Smith, frail wife of John Lyman Smith had endured many hardships following the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo.  In the freezing winter, their first baby was born and died in a wagon box at Winter Quarters.  She was tiny in stature and thin, never weighing as much as 100 pounds.  But she made up in spirit what she lacked in physical strength.

While her husband was serving his mission in Europe, Augusta Smith and the children lived in a 2-story, adobe brick home, west and across the street from the Tabernacle.  The children, along with the neighbor children, played in the yard around the home, while their mother tended to her household duties.

One day, an old Indian squaw approached the yard where the children were playing.  She had a gunny sack thrown over her shoulder in which she placed whatever she could beg or find.  Coming to Don Alexander Smith, a toddler barely able to talk, she smiled and said, “You be my papoose?”  He nodded his head, and she proceeded to stow him in the sack, sling sack and baby over her shoulder, and start up City Creek Canyon trail toward the Indian camp. 

Attracted from the house by the hysterical noise of the remaining children, Augusta learned to her dismay, that her baby was being kidnapped by an Indian squaw.  Without waiting for help, she quickly hurried after the departed squaw and baby, who had quite a head start.

She caught up with the Indian woman at the hillside, and demanded her baby, still hidden in the sack.  “Me have no white baby”, the squaw denied.  Again Augusta demanded her child, and upon being refused, she attacked the squaw bodily with such fury, the squaw was forced to release the child.

When questioned about the experience in later years, Don Alexander chuckled, and said,  “ I thoroughly enjoyed the ride in the sack”.