Editing Mountain Meadows Massacre (section)

==Criticism and analysis==
===Media coverage===
{{Main|Media coverage of the Mountain Meadows Massacre|Mountain Meadows Massacre and Mormon public relations}}
[[File:MMM-Harpersw8-13-1859.jpg|right|thumb|Unburied corpses left after the massacre depicted on the cover of ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'' magazine.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Harper's Weekly]]|location=New York City|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_harpers-weekly_1859-08-13_3_137/mode/1up|via=[[Internet Archive]]|page=513|volume=3|issue=137|date=13 August 1859|title=The Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Utah Territory}}</ref>]]

Initial published reports of the incident date back at least to October 1857 in the ''[[Los Angeles Star]]''.{{sfnp|Christian|1857}} A notable report on the incident was made in 1859 by Carleton, who had been tasked by the U.S. Army to investigate the incident and bury the still exposed corpses at Mountain Meadows.{{sfnp|Carleton|1902}} The first period of intense nationwide publicity about the massacre began around 1872 after investigators obtained Klingensmith's confession. In 1868 C. V. Waite published "An Authentic History Of Brigham Young" which described the events.{{sfnp|Waite|1868}} In 1872, [[Mark Twain]] commented on the massacre through the lens of contemporary American public opinion in an appendix to his semi-autobiographical travel book ''[[Roughing It]]''.{{sfnp|Twain|1872}} In 1873, the massacre was given a full chapter in [[T. B. H. Stenhouse]]'s Mormon history ''[[The Rocky Mountain Saints]]''.{{sfnp|Stenhouse|1873|pp=424–458}} The massacre itself also received international attention,<ref>{{cite news |title=The Massacre of the Hundred Emigrants by the Mormons |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84437055/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |newspaper=[[The Morning Chronicle]]|location=London, England |access-date=August 30, 2021 |date=December 4, 1857}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Treacherous Massacre by Mormons |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84441993/treacherous-massacre-by-mormons-mountai/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]]|newspaper=[[Liverpool Mercury]]|location=Liverpool, England |access-date=August 30, 2021 |date=April 27, 1860}}</ref> with various international and national newspapers also covering John D. Lee's 1874<ref>{{cite news |title=Mountain Meadow |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84444576/mountain-meadow-mountain-meadows-massac/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |newspaper=[[Winfield Courier]]|location=Winfield, Kansas |access-date=August 30, 2021 |date=December 3, 1874}}</ref> and 1877 trials as well as his execution in 1877.<ref>{{cite news |title=John D. Lee's Execution |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84442927/john-d-lees-execution-mountain-meadow/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |newspaper=[[Cincinnati Daily Star]] |access-date=August 30, 2021 |date=March 24, 1877}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=John D. Lee |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84443187/john-d-lee-execution-in-utah-23-mar-187/ |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |newspaper=Green-Mountain Freeman |access-date=August 30, 2021 |date=March 28, 1877}}</ref>

The massacre has been treated extensively by several historical works, beginning with Lee's own ''Confession'' in 1877, expressing his opinion that George A. Smith was sent to southern Utah by Brigham Young to direct the massacre.{{sfnp|Lee|1877|p=225}}

In 1910, the massacre was the subject of a short book by Josiah F. Gibbs, who also attributed responsibility for the massacre to Young and Smith.{{sfnp|Gibbs|1910|pp=7–9, 42}} The first detailed and comprehensive work using modern historical methods was ''[[The Mountain Meadows Massacre (book)|The Mountain Meadows Massacre]]'' in 1950 by [[Juanita Brooks]], a Mormon scholar who lived near the area in southern Utah. Brooks found no evidence of direct involvement by Brigham Young, but charged him with obstructing the investigation and provoking the attack through his rhetoric.

Initially, the LDS Church denied any involvement by Mormons, and into the 21st century was relatively silent on the issue. In 1872, it excommunicated some of the participants for their role in the massacre.{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|p=273}} Even after irrefutable evidence surfaced in 1999, the LDS Church didn't officially recognize its members' responsibility for the attack through at least 2002.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/06/flirting-with-disaster/2c7e0070-a20e-4500-9490-5fa4472ec386/|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|location=Washington D.C.|title=Flirting With Disaster|first=Donna|last=Rifkind|date=6 March 2002|quote=To this day, the Mormon Church has not officially admitted the extent of its members' responsibility for the massacre, even after construction workers at the site in 1999 unearthed evidence that more or less proved the case.|url-access=subscription}}</ref> 150 years after the tragedy in September 2007, the LDS Church published its first official statement of regret on the topic, and told the [[Associated Press]] via a church spokesperson that the statement should not be seen as an apology.<ref>{{Cite news |date=September 12, 2007 |title=Mormon Church Regrets 1857 Massacre |url=https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2007/09/11/mormon-church-regrets-1857-massacre/61717718007/ |first=Paul|last=Foy|agency=[[Associated Press]]|via=[[The Oklahoman]]|quote=Church leaders were adamant that the statement should not be construed as an apology. 'We don't use the word "apology". We used "profound regret"', church spokesman Mark Tuttle told The Associated Press.}}</ref><ref name=Apologizes>{{Cite news |last=Ravitz |first=Jessica |newspaper=[[The Salt Lake Tribune]] |title=LDS Church apologizes for Mountain Meadows Massacre |url=https://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/lds/ci_6862682}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|title=LDS Church Expresses 'Regret' for Mountain Meadows Massacre|magazine=[[Sunstone (magazine)|Sunstone]]|page=74|url=https://sunstone.org/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/147-74-79.pdf|date=October 2007}}</ref>

In modern times, the murders have been called an act of [[Domestic terrorism in the United States|domestic terrorism]]<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bigler |first1=David L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHUCBQAAQBAJ |title=The Mormon Rebellion: America's First Civil War, 1857–1858 |last2=Bagley |first2=Will|author2-link=Will Bagley |date=2014-10-22 |publisher=[[University of Oklahoma Press]] |isbn=978-0-8061-8396-1 |pages=xi, 179, 299 |quote='Terrorism' is not a word to be taken lightly. But the evidence, coupled with long-forgotten Mormon doctrines, demonstrate that the purpose of the Mountain Meadows atrocity was to strike fear into the hearts of intruders ....|via=[[Google Books]]|url-access=limited}}</ref><ref name="University of Arkansas Press">{{Cite book |last1=Hopper |first1=Shay E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QgrMDwAAQBAJ |title=An Arkansas History for Young People |last2=Baker |first2=T. Harri |last3=Browning |first3=Jane |date=2007-09-01 |publisher=[[University of Arkansas Press]] |isbn=978-1-55728-845-5 |edition=Fourth |pages=200|quote=Prior to the Oklahoma City bombing, the Mountain Meadows massacre was the largest act of domestic terrorism to ever occur on American soil.|via=[[Google Books]]|url-access=limited}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kennon |first=Caroline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH5mDwAAQBAJ |title=Battling Terrorism in the United States |date=2017-07-15 |publisher=[[Greenhaven Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-5345-6141-0 |pages=6, 12|via=[[Google Books]]|url-access=limited}}</ref> in many works of literature,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bigler |first=David L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b6clrgEACAAJ |title=Confessions of a Revisionist Historian: David L. Bigler on the Mormons and the West |date=2015 |publisher=[[University of Utah]] |isbn=978-0-692-37120-6 |location=Salt Lake City |page=133 |via=[[Google Books]]|url-access=limited|quote=September 11 will mark the anniversary of the most horrific terrorist attack in U.S. history. ... I refer to September 11, 1857. ... It was the most horrific terrorist attack in our nation’s history, not as figured by body count, but in the way its victims were slain.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Esmail |first1=Ashraf |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_tEpEAAAQBAJ |title=Terrorism Inside America's Borders |last2=Eargle |first2=Lisa A. |last3=Hamann |first3=Brandon |date=2021-05-03 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-0-7618-7074-6 |page=38 |chapter=Significant Historical Accounts of Domestic Terrorism: The Mountain Meadows Massacre (1857)|via=[[Google Books]]|url-access=limited}}</ref> and is considered the largest act of domestic terrorism in United States history prior to the 1995 [[Oklahoma City bombing]].<ref name="University of Arkansas Press"/><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/03/06/flirting-with-disaster/2c7e0070-a20e-4500-9490-5fa4472ec386/|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|location=Washington D.C.|title=Flirting With Disaster|first=Donna|last=Rifkind|date=6 March 2002|quote=Apart from the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, no single incident of civil terrorism—Americans killing Americans—has resulted in more deaths than the Mountain Meadows Massacre.|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Other descriptors include "the darkest deed of the nineteenth century" and "a crime that has no parallel in American history for atrocity".{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|p=xiii}} LDS historian [[Richard E. Turley Jr.|Richard Turley]] called it "the worst event in Latter-day Saint history",<ref>{{Cite news|publisher=[[NPR]]|url=https://www.npr.org/2008/09/11/94509868/mormon-historians-shed-light-on-sept-11-1857|title=Mormon Historians Shed Light On Sept. 11, 1857|last=Berkes|first=Howard|date=September 11, 2008}}</ref> and historian of the American West [[Will Bagley]] stated it was "the most brutal act of religious terrorism in America history" before the 2001 [[September 11 attacks]].<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=2007-08-03 |title=Wild West: Rescue of the Mountain Meadows Orphans |url=https://www.historynet.com/wild-west-rescue-of-the-mountain-meadows-orphans/|magazine=Wild West|publisher=[[World History Group]]}}</ref>

===Varying perspectives===

As described by [[Richard E. Turley Jr.]], [[Ronald W. Walker]], and [[Glen M. Leonard]], historians from different backgrounds have taken different approaches to describe the massacre and those involved:<ref name="Walker2008">{{cite book |last1=Walker |first1=Ronald W. |title=Massacre at Mountain Meadows : an American tragedy |date=2008 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0199747566}}</ref> 
*Portraying the perpetrators (white Mormon settlers) as fundamentally good and the Baker-Fancher party as evil people who committed outrageous acts of anti-Mormon instigation prior to the massacre;<ref name="Nels1942">{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Nels |title=Desert saints : the Mormon frontier in Utah |date=1969 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |location=Chicago |isbn=0226017826}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Buttle |first1=Faye Jensen |title=Utah grows, past and present. |date=1970 |publisher=[[BYU Press]] |location=Salt Lake City |oclc=137245 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/137245 |access-date=5 July 2022 |language=English}}</ref> 
*Describing the opposite view that the perpetrators were evil and the emigrants were innocent;<ref name="Olson2013"/>
*Portraying both the perpetrators and victims as complicated,<ref name="Olson2013"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=B.H.|author-link=B.H. Roberts |title=Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints |date=1965 |volume=4|publisher=[[Brigham Young University Press]] |location=Salt Lake City |isbn=9780842504829|pages=139–145|chapter=The Mountain Meadows Massacre|url=https://archive.org/details/indextocomprehen0004robe/page/139/mode/1up?q=meadow|via=[[Internet Archives]]|url-access=registration}}</ref> and that many different coinciding circumstances contributed to the Mormon settlers committing an atrocity against travelers who, regardless of the authenticity of any accusations of anti-Mormon behavior, did not deserve the punishment of death.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ronald |first1=Walker |title=The New Mormon History: Revisionist Essays on the Past|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_New_Mormon_History/33TZAAAAMAAJ?hl=en |via=[[Google Books]] |date=1992 |publisher=[[Signature Books]] |location=Salt Lake City |isbn=1560850116 |pages=267–301}}</ref>

Prior to 1985, many textbooks available in Utah Public Schools blamed the Paiute people as primarily responsible for the massacre,<ref name="Nels1942"/> or placed equal blame on the Paiute and Mormon settlers (if they mentioned the massacre at all).<ref name="Olson2013">{{cite thesis |last=Olson |first=Casey W. |date= |title=The Evolution of History: Changing Narratives of the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah's Public School Curricula |degree=PhD |page=109 |publisher=[[Utah State University]] |url=https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/2071 |access-date=}}</ref>

===Explanatory theories===

Historians have ascribed the massacre to a number of factors, including [[#Strident Mormon teachings|strident Mormon teachings in the years prior to the massacre]], [[#War hysteria|war hysteria]], and [[#Brigham Young|alleged involvement of Brigham Young]].

====Strident Mormon teachings====
{{Main|Mountain Meadows Massacre and Mormon theology}}

For the decade prior to the Baker–Fancher party's arrival there, Utah Territory existed as a theodemocracy led by Brigham Young. During the mid-1850s, Young instituted a [[Mormon Reformation]], intending to "lay the axe at the root of the tree of sin and iniquity". In January 1856, Young said "the government of God, as administered here" may to some seem "despotic" because "...judgment is dealt out against the transgression of the law of God."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Young |first1=Brigham |author-link=Brigham Young|title=The Powers of the Priesthood Not Generally Understood – The Necessity of Living by Revelation – The Abuse of Blessing |url=https://www.boap.org/LDS/Presidents/B-Brigham-Young-1856-1860.txt |website=Book of Abraham Project |publisher=[[Brigham Young University]] |access-date=February 4, 2019 |date=January 27, 1856 |quote=Is the spirit of the government and rule here despotic? In their use of the word, some may deem it so. It lays the ax at the root of the tree of sin and iniquity; judgment is dealt out against the transgression of the law of God. If that is despotism, then the policy of this people may be deemed despotic. But does not the government of God, as administered here, give to every person his rights? |archive-date=February 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207015950/https://www.boap.org/LDS/Presidents/B-Brigham-Young-1856-1860.txt |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In addition, during the preceding decades, the religion had undergone a period of intense persecution in the American Midwest. In particular, they were [[Missouri Executive Order 44|officially expelled]] from, and an [[Mormon Extermination Order|Extermination Order]] was issued by [[Lilburn Boggs|Governor Boggs]], the state of Missouri during the [[Mormon War (1838)|1838 Mormon War]], during which prominent [[apostle (Latter Day Saints)|Mormon apostle]] [[David W. Patten]] was killed in battle. After Mormons moved to [[Nauvoo, Illinois]], the religion's founder [[Joseph Smith]] and his brother [[Hyrum Smith]] were [[Death of Joseph Smith|killed in 1844]]. Following these events, faithful Mormons migrated west hoping to escape persecution. However, in May 1857, just months before the Mountain Meadows massacre, apostle [[Parley P. Pratt]] was shot dead in Arkansas by Hector McLean, the estranged husband of Eleanor McLean Pratt, one of Pratt's [[plural marriage|plural wives]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Eleanor McLean Pratt| title=[[Millennial Star|The Latter-Day Saints' Millennial Star]]|volume=19|date=May 12, 1857 |pages=425–426 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1MoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA425 |access-date=February 10, 2019 |chapter=To the Honorable Judge of the Court, in the town of Van Buren, State of Arkansas, May 12, 1957 (Mrs. Pratt's Letter to the Judge)}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=[[Millennial Star|The Latter-Day Saints' Millennial Star]]|volume=19 |date=May 12, 1857 |pages=426–427 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t1MoAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA426 |access-date=February 10, 2019 |chapter=Further Particulars of the Murder – To Brother Orson (A letter from Eleanor McLean Pratt)}}</ref> Parley Pratt and Eleanor entered a [[Celestial marriage]] (under the theocratic law of the Utah Territory), but Hector had refused Eleanor a divorce. "When she left San Francisco she left Hector, and later she was to state in a court of law that she had left him as a wife the night he drove her from their home. Whatever the legal situation, she thought of herself as an unmarried woman."<ref>{{harvp|Pratt|1975|p=233 [6]}} "When she left San Francisco she left Hector, and later she was to state in a court of law that she had left him as a wife the night he drove her from their home. Whatever the legal situation, she thought of herself as an unmarried woman."</ref>

Mormon leaders immediately proclaimed Pratt as another [[martyr]],<ref>{{cite magazine |url= http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/u?/MStar,2651 |title = Murder of Parley P. Pratt, One of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |magazine=[[Millennial Star|The Latter-Day Saints' Millennial Star]] |volume=19 |access-date= February 11, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Pratt|1975|p=[16]}} "I die a firm believer in the Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith ... I am dying a martyr to the faith."</ref> with Brigham Young stating, "Nothing has happened so hard to reconcile my mind to since the death of Joseph." Many Mormons held the people of Arkansas collectively responsible.{{sfnp|Brooks |1991|pp=36–37}} "It was in accordance with Mormon policy to hold every Arkansan accountable for Pratt's death, just as every Missourian was hated because of the expulsion of the church from that state."{{sfnp|Linn |1902|pp=519–520}}

Mormon leaders were teaching that the [[Second Coming]] of Jesus was imminent – "...there are those now living upon the earth who will live to see the consummation" and "...we now bear witness that his coming is near at hand".{{sfnp|Young|Kimball|Hyde|Pratt|1845|pp=2 & 5}} Based on a somewhat ambiguous statement by Joseph Smith, some Mormons believed that Jesus would return in 1891{{sfnp|Erickson|1996|p=9}} and that God would soon exact punishment against the United States for persecuting Mormons and martyring Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Patten and Pratt.<ref>{{Cite book
| last=Grant| first=Jedediah M.| author-link=Jedediah M. Grant| chapter=Fulfilment of Prophecy—Wars and Commotions| date=April 2, 1854| title=Journal of Discourses| editor-last=Watt| editor-first=George D.|editor-link=George D. Watt| volume=2| place=Liverpool| publisher=[[Samuel W. Richards]] & [[Franklin D. Richards (Mormon apostle)|Franklin D. Richards]]| chapter-url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Journal_of_Discourses/Volume_2/Fulfilment_of_Prophecy%E2%80%94Wars_and_Commotions| pages=148–49|quote="It is a stern fact that the people of the United States have shed the blood of the Prophets, driven out the Saints of God,...consequently I look for the Lord to use His whip on the refractory son called 'Uncle Sam';..."| title-link=Journal of Discourses}}</ref> In their [[Endowment (Latter Day Saints)|Endowment ceremony]], faithful early Latter-day Saints took an [[Oath of vengeance|oath]] to pray that God would take vengeance against the murderers.<ref name=HeberKimballDiary/><ref>{{harvp|Beadle|1870|pp=496–497}} (describing the oath prior to 1970 as requiring a "private, immediate duty to avenge the death of the Prophet and Martyr, Joseph Smith").</ref><ref name=CannonDiary/>{{efn|In 1904, several witnesses said that the oath as it then existed was that participants would never cease to pray that God would avenge the blood of the prophets on this nation", and that they would teach this practice to their posterity "unto the 3rd and 4th generation".<ref>{{harvp|Buerger|2002|p=134}}</ref> The oath was deleted from the ceremony in the early 20th century.<ref>{{harvp|Buerger|2002|pp=139–40}}</ref>}} As a result of this oath, several Mormon apostles and other leaders considered it their religious duty to kill the prophets' murderers if they ever came across them.<ref>{{harvp|Buerger|2002|p=135|ps=: George Q. Cannon's endowment in Nauvoo included, "an oath against the murders of the Prophet Joseph as well as other prophets, and if he had ever met any of those who had taken a hand in that massacre he would undoubtedly have attempted to avenge the blood of the Martyrs." Heber C. Kimball said in the temple he, "covenanted, and will never rest...until those men who killed Joseph & Hyrum have been wiped out of the earth."}}</ref><ref name=HeberKimballDiary>{{cite archive|last=Kimball|first=Heber C.|author-link=Heber C. Kimball|date=21 December 1845 |institution=[[Church History Library]] | location=Salt Lake City|item-id=MS 3469|collection-url=https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/record/d3fa5858-4a29-4e21-bf13-3ca1637d7284/0?view=summary&lang=eng|collection=Heber C. Kimball journal, 1845 November-1846 January}}</ref><ref name=CannonDiary>{{cite archive|last1=Cannon|first1=Abraham H.|author-link=Abraham H. Cannon|date=6 December 1889 |institution=[[Brigham Young University]] | location=Provo, Utah |repository=[[L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library]] |item-id=Vault MSS 62, Vol. 11|box=2, Folder 1|collection-url=https://bhroberts.org/records/0Bjthi-jFrlQb/abraham_h_cannon_records_his_father_george_q_cannon_saying_he_made_the_oath_of_vengeance_in_the_nauvoo_endowment|via=B.H. Roberts Foundation|collection=Abraham H. Cannon Diaries|page=205}}</ref> The sermons, blessings, and private counsel by Mormon leaders just before the Mountain Meadows massacre can be understood as encouraging private individuals to execute God's judgment against the wicked.{{efn|Examples of these teachings include:
*{{harvp|Quinn|1997|p=247|ps=: The "Diary of Daniel Davis, July 8, 1849", held in the LDS archives states that Young said "if any one was catched stealing to shoot them dead on the spot and they should not be hurt for it".}}
*{{harvp|Young|1856b|p=247|ps=: Young states that a man would be justified in putting a javelin through his plural wife caught in the act of adultery, but anyone intending to "execute judgment...has got to have clean hands and a pure heart...else they had better let the matter alone".}}
*{{harvp|Young|1857b|p=219|ps=: Young states, "[I]f [your neighbor] needs help, help him; and if he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it".}}
*{{harvp|Young|1855|p=311|ps=: "[I]n regard to those who have persecuted this people and driven them to the mountains, I intend to meet them on their own grounds...I will tell you how it could be done, we could take the same law they have taken, viz., mobocracy, and if any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats. (All the people said, Amen)."}}
*{{harvp|Quinn|1997|p=260|ps=: "LDS leaders publicly and privately encouraged Mormons to consider it their right to kill antagonistic outsiders, common criminals, LDS apostates, and even faithful Mormons who committed sins 'worthy of death'."}}}}

In [[Cedar City, Utah|Cedar City]], the teachings of church leaders were particularly strident. Mormons in Cedar City were taught that members should ignore dead bodies and go about their business.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moorman|first=Donald R.| last2=Allred Sessions|first2=Gene|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Camp_Floyd_and_the_Mormons/zKJuAAAAMAAJ?hl=en|title=Camp Floyd and the Mormons|page=142|year=2005|publisher=[[University of Utah Press]]|via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[BYU Studies]]|publisher=[[Brigham Young University]] |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43044655|page=51|title=Selections from the Andrew Jenson Collection|volume=47|issue=3}}</ref> Col. William H. Dame, the ranking officer in southern Utah who ordered the Mountain Meadows massacre, received a [[patriarchal blessing]] in 1854 that he would "be called to act at the head of a portion of thy Brethren and of the [[Lamanites]] (Native Americans) in the redemption of Zion and the avenging of the blood of the prophets upon them that dwell on the earth".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bates |first=Irene M. |date=1993-10-01 |title=Patriarchal Blessings and the Routinization of Charisma |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V26N03_11.pdf |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought|Dialogue]] |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=12 |doi=10.2307/45228651 |issn=0012-2157}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1451401&q=dame&parent_i=1451339|title=Patriarchal Blessings: Transcriptions and Copies|last=Brooks|first=Juanita|author-link=Juanita Brooks|chapter=Patriarchal blessing of William H. Dame, February 20, 1854|page=62|via=[[University of Utah]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis|first=Harold W. |last=Pease|title=The Life and Works of William Horne Dame|degree=Masters of Arts|url=https://atom.lib.byu.edu/smh/12253/ |institution=[[Brigham Young University]]|date=1971|pages=64–66}}</ref> In June 1857, Philip Klingensmith, another participant, was similarly blessed that he would participate in "avenging the blood of Brother Joseph".<ref>{{cite book|first=Anna Jean |last=Backus|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mountain_Meadows_Witness/x_QRAQAAIAAJ?hl=en|title=Mountain Meadows Witness: The Life and Times of Bishop Philip Klingensmith|location=Spokane|publisher=Arthur H. Clark Co.|date=1995|pages=118, 124|via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name=Junius>{{Cite book |last=Wicks |first=Robert S.|chapter-url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/187/oa_monograph/chapter/201663| chapter='To avenge the blood that stains the walls of Carthage jail' |url=https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1041&context=usupress_pubs |title=Junius And Joseph: Presidential Politics and the Assassination of the First Mormon Prophet |last2=Foister |first2=Fred R. |date=2008-09-26 |publisher=[[Utah State University Press]] |isbn=978-0-87421-526-7 |doi=10.2307/j.ctt4cgn0s|via=[[Project Muse]]}}</ref>{{rp|p=245}}

Thus, historians argue that southern Utah Mormons would have been particularly affected by an unsubstantiated rumor that the Baker–Fancher wagon train had been joined by a group of eleven miners and plainsmen who called themselves "Missouri Wildcats",{{efn|It is uncertain whether the Missouri Wildcat group stayed with the slow-moving Baker–Fancher party after leaving Salt Lake City.<ref>{{harvp|Brooks|1991|p=xxi}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Bagley|2002|p=280|ps=: Bagley refers to the "Missouri Wildcats" story as "Utah mythology".}}</ref>}} some of whom reportedly taunted, vandalized and "caused trouble" for Mormons and Native Americans along the route (by some accounts claiming that they had the gun that "shot the guts out of Old Joe Smith").<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[Utah Historical Quarterly]]|url=https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/volume_24_1956/s/95982|title=An Historical Epilogue|via=[[Issuu]]|volume=24|issue=4|date=1956}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|last=Burns |first=Ken|author-link=Ken Burns |date=1996 |title=The West: Death Runs Riot |url=https://www.pbs.org/video/death-runs-riot-ubgazx/ |format=film |publisher=[[PBS]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Williams |first=Chris |date=1993 |url= http://www.youknow.com/chris/essays/misc/mtnmeadows.html |title=The Mountain Meadows Massacre: An Aberration of Mormon Practice |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071014055604/http://www.youknow.com/chris/essays/misc/mtnmeadows.html |archive-date=October 14, 2007}}</ref> They were also affected by the report to Brigham Young that the Baker–Fancher party was from Arkansas where Pratt was murdered.<ref name=PeopleVLee>{{Cite news |last=Young |first=Brigham |author-link=Brigham Young |title=Deposition, People v. Lee |place=Salt Lake City |newspaper=[[Deseret News]] |date=August 4, 1875 |volume=24 |issue=27 |page=8 |url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2641490|via=[[University of Utah]]}}</ref> It was rumored that Pratt's wife recognized some of the Mountain Meadows party as being in the gang that shot and stabbed Pratt.<ref>{{harvp|Stenhouse|1873|p=431}} (citing "Argus", an anonymous contributor to the ''Corinne Daily Reporter'' in Corinne, Utah whom the author met and vouched for).</ref>

====War hysteria====
[[File:GeorgeAlbertSmith.jpg|thumb|upright|[[George A. Smith]] [[apostle (Latter Day Saints)|Apostle]] who met the Baker–Fancher party before touring [[Parowan, Utah|Parowan]] and neighboring settlements before the massacre]]
{{Main|War hysteria preceding the Mountain Meadows Massacre}}

The Mountain Meadows massacre was caused in part by events relating to the Utah War, an 1857 deployment toward the Utah Territory of the United States Army, whose arrival was peaceful. In the summer of 1857, however, the Mormons expected an all-out invasion of apocalyptic significance. From July to September 1857, Mormon leaders and their followers prepared for a siege that could have ended up similar to the seven-year [[Bleeding Kansas]] problem occurring at the time. Mormons were required to stockpile grain, and were enjoined against selling grain to emigrants for use as cattle feed.<ref name=PeopleVLee/> As far-off Mormon colonies retreated, Parowan and Cedar City became isolated and vulnerable outposts. Brigham Young sought to enlist the help of Native American tribes in fighting the "Americans", encouraging them to steal cattle from emigrant trains, and to join Mormons in fighting the approaching army.<ref name=Overland>{{cite book |last1=Lyman |first1=Edward Leo |title=The Overland Journey from Utah to California: Wagon Travel from the City of Saints to the City of Angels |date=2004 |publisher=[[University of Nevada Press]] |isbn=978-0874175011 |edition=Hardcover |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Overland_Journey_from_Utah_to_Califo/2Yh5AAAAMAAJ?hl=en}}</ref>{{rp|p=130}}

Scholars have asserted that [[George A. Smith]]'s tour of southern Utah influenced the decision to attack and destroy the Fancher–Baker emigrant train near Mountain Meadows, Utah. He met with many of the eventual participants in the massacre, including W. H. Dame, Isaac Haight, John D. Lee and Chief Jackson, leader of a band of Paiutes.<ref>{{cite news |last=Martineau |first=James H. |title=Correspondence: Trip to the Santa Clara |newspaper=[[Deseret News]] |date=September 23, 1857 |volume=9 |issue=5 |pages=3 |url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2576550 |via=[[University of Utah]]}}</ref> He noted that the militia was organized and ready to fight and that some of them were eager to "fight and take vengeance for the cruelties that had been inflicted upon us in the States."<ref name=Overland/>{{rp|p=133}}
Among Smith's party were a number of Paiute Native American chiefs from the Mountain Meadows area. When Smith returned to Salt Lake, Brigham Young met with these leaders on September 1, 1857, and encouraged them to fight against the Americans in the anticipated clash with the U.S. Army. They were also offered all of the livestock then on the road to California, which included that belonging to the Baker–Fancher party. The Native American chiefs were reluctant, and at least one objected they had previously been told not to steal, and declined the offer.{{sfnp|Huntington|1857}}

====Brigham Young====
{{Main|Brigham Young and the Mountain Meadows Massacre}}
[[File:Brigham Young.jpg|thumb|upright|Historians debate the role of [[Brigham Young]] in the massacre. Young was [[theodemocracy|theocratic]] leader of the Utah Territory at the time of the massacre.]]

There is a consensus among historians that Brigham Young played a role in provoking the massacre, at least unwittingly, and in concealing its evidence after the fact. However, they debate whether Young knew about the planned massacre ahead of time and whether he initially condoned it before later taking a strong public stand against it. Young's use of inflammatory and violent language{{sfnp|MacKinnon|2007|p=57}} in response to the Federal expedition added to the tense atmosphere at the time of the attack. Following the massacre, Young stated in public forums that God had taken vengeance on the Baker–Fancher party.{{sfnp|Bagley|2002|p=247}} It is unclear whether Young held this view because he believed that this specific group posed an actual threat to colonists or because he believed that the group was directly responsible for past crimes against Mormons. However, in Young's only known correspondence prior to the massacre, he told the Church leaders in Cedar City:

{{blockquote|In regard to emigration trains passing through our settlements, we must not interfere with them until they are first notified to keep away. You must not meddle with them. The Indians we expect will do as they please but you should try and preserve good feelings with them. There are no other trains going south that I know of[.] [I]f those who are there will leave let them go in peace.<ref name=Vengeance>{{Cite book |last=Jones Brown |first=Barbara |title=Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath |last2=Turley |first2=Richard E. |authorlink2=Richard E. Turley, Jr. |date=2023 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Vengeance_Is_Mine/8464EAAAQBAJ?hl=en |via=[[Google Books]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-767573-1 |location=New York City}}</ref>{{rp|p=42}}<ref name=BYletter>{{cite archive|last1=Young|first1=Brigham|author-link=Brigham Young|date=10 September 1857 |page=827 |institution=[[Church History Library]] | location=Salt Lake City|repository=Letterbook, Vol. 3, 1856 August 20-1858 January  |item-id=CR 1234 1|collection-url=https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/99279f54-9c69-41a1-ac5d-e6069f9a2920/0/1701|collection=Brigham Young Office Files}}</ref>}}

According to historian MacKinnon, "After the [Utah] war, U.S. President James Buchanan implied that face-to-face communications with Brigham Young might have averted the conflict, and Young argued that a north-south telegraph line in Utah could have prevented the Mountain Meadows massacre."{{sfnp|MacKinnon|2007|loc=endnote p. 50}} MacKinnon suggests that hostilities could have been avoided if Young had traveled east to Washington D.C. to resolve governmental problems instead of taking a five-week trip north on the eve of the Utah War for church-related reasons.{{sfnp|MacKinnon|2007|p=59}}

A modern forensic assessment of a key affidavit, purportedly given by William Edwards in 1924, has complicated the debate on complicity of senior Mormon leadership in the Mountain Meadows massacre.<ref>{{Cite news |last=De Groote |first=Michael |date=2010-09-07|title=Mountain Meadows Massacre affidavit linked to Mark Hofmann |url=https://www.deseret.com/2010/9/7/20384994/mountain-meadows-massacre-affidavit-linked-to-mark-hofmann |access-date=2020-06-15 |newspaper=[[Deseret News]]|publisher=LDS Church}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|publisher=	[[Council for Secular Humanism]] |last=Jeffreys |first=Keith B. |date=2010 |url= https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2002/10/22160058/p26.pdf |page=26|title=Mountain Meadows Massacre Artifact Now Believed To Be A Fake |journal=[[Free Inquiry]] |volume=22 |issue=4|via=[[Center for Inquiry]]}}</ref> Analysis indicates that Edwards's signature may have been traced and that the typeset belonged to a typewriter manufactured in the 1950s. The [[Utah State Historical Society]], which maintains the document in its archives, acknowledges a possible connection to [[Mark Hofmann]], a convicted forger and extortionist, via go-between Lyn Jacobs who provided the society with the document.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50203408-76/affidavit-lee-hofmann-massacre.html.csp |title=Mountain Meadows affidavit Hofmann forgery? |last=Smart |first=Christopher |date=Sep 10, 2010 |work=[[Salt Lake Tribune]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite press release |title=Probable Hofmann Forgery Uncovered |url=http://history.utah.gov/events_and_news/press_room/forgery.html |publisher=[[Utah State Historical Society]] |date=2010 |access-date=May 26, 2011 |archive-date=September 5, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100905005521/http://history.utah.gov/events_and_news/press_room/forgery.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>