Editing Brigham Young (section)

==== Mountain Meadows Massacre ====
{{main|Brigham Young and the Mountain Meadows Massacre}}
[[File:Brigham Young and company 1870.PNG|thumb|left|upright=2|Young (seated near the middle, wearing a tall [[beaver hat]]) and an exploring party camped at the [[Colorado River]] in 1870]]

The degree of Young's involvement in the [[Mountain Meadows Massacre]], which took place in [[Washington County, Utah|Washington County]] in 1857, is disputed.<ref>{{cite news |first=Emily |last=Eakin |title=Reopening a Mormon Murder Mystery; New Accusations That Brigham Young Himself Ordered an 1857 Massacre of Pioneers |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/12/books/reopening-mormon-murder-mystery-new-accusations-that-brigham-young-himself.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=October 12, 2002 |edition=Late Edition-Final |page=Section B, Page 9, Column 2}}</ref> [[Leonard J. Arrington]] reports that Young received a rider at his office on the day of the massacre, and that when he learned of the contemplated attack by members of the church in Parowan and Cedar City, he sent back a letter directing that the [[Fancher party]] be allowed to pass through the territory unmolested.<ref>[https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/6d91027a-46ca-4e91-b6b4-04895f99e9e5/0/0 Brigham Young to Isaac C. Haight, September 10, 1857], Letterpress Copybook 3:827–828, Brigham Young Office Files, LDS Church Archives</ref> Young's letter reportedly arrived on September 13, 1857, two days after the massacre. As governor, Young had promised the federal government he would protect migrants passing through Utah Territory, but over 120 men, women, and children were killed in this incident. There is no debate concerning the involvement of individual Mormons from the surrounding communities by scholars. Only children under the age of seven, who were cared for by local Mormon families, survived, and the murdered members of the wagon train were left unburied. The remains of about 40 people were later found and buried, and U.S. Army officer [[James Henry Carleton]] had a large cross made from local trees, the transverse beam bearing the engraving, "Vengeance Is Mine, Saith The Lord: I Will Repay" and erected a [[cairn]] of rocks at the site. A large slab of granite was put up on which he had the following words engraved: "Here 120 men, women and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas." For two years, the monument stood as a memorial to those traveling the [[Old Spanish Trail (trade route)|Spanish Trail]] through Mountain Meadow. According to Wilford Woodruff, Young brought an entourage to Mountain Meadows in 1861 and suggested that the monument instead read "Vengeance is mine and I have taken a little".<ref>{{Cite book | last=Denton | first=Sally | year=2003 | title= American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows | place=New York | publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]] | isbn=978-0-375-41208-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dHSPDQAAQBAJ|page=210}}</ref>