Elijah Nicholas Wilson, known as "Yagaiki" when among the Shoshones, and in his later years as "Uncle Nick" when entertaining young children with his adventurous exploits, was a: Mormon American pioneer, childhood runaway, "adopted" brother of Shoshone Chief Washakie, Pony Express rider for the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company, stagecoach driver for Ben Holloday"s Overland Stage, blacksmith, prison guard, farmer, Mormon bishop, prison inmate, carpenter/cabinet maker, fiddler, trader, trapper, and "frontier doctor".
Career
Wilson is remembered today primarily due to a) i) the publication of derivative works based upon, and ii) later-day republications of his 1910 autobiography entitled Among the Shoshones such as: The White Indian Boy: The Story of Uncle Nick Among the Shoshones (a volume of the World Book Company"s In Pioneer Life Series), and The White Indian Boy. And its Sequel, The Return of the White Indian, b) his founding of Wilson, Wyoming, and c) the 1997 movie entitled Wind River.
