Editing Mountain Meadows Massacre (section)

===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>