Mountain Meadows Massacre

The Mountain Meadows Massacre (September 7–11, 1857) was a series of attacks during the Utah War that resulted in the mass murder of at least 120 members of the Baker–Fancher wagon train.<ref name="King"/>Template:Efn The massacre occurred in the southern Utah Territory at Mountain Meadows, and was perpetrated by settlers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) involved with the Utah Territorial Militia (officially called the Nauvoo Legion) who recruited and were aided by some Southern Paiute Native Americans.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The wagon train, made up mostly of immigrant families from Arkansas, was bound for California, traveling on the Old Spanish Trail that passed through the Territory.

After arriving in Salt Lake City, the Baker–Fancher party made their way south along the Mormon Road, eventually stopping to rest at Mountain Meadows. The party's journey occurred amidst hostilities between Mormon settlers and the U.S. government, with war hysteria rampant amongst the Mormons.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp<ref name=IvesOnTheColoradoWarHysteria>Template:Cite journal</ref> Acting on rumors of hostile behavior on the part of the travelers, local Mormon militia leaders, including Isaac C. Haight and John D. Lee, made plans to attack them as they camped at the meadow. The leaders of the militia, wanting to give the impression of tribal hostilities, persuaded Southern Paiutes to join with a larger party of militiamen disguised as Native Americans in an attack on the wagon train.

During the militia's first assault, the travelers fought back, and a five-day siege ensued. Eventually, fear spread among the militia's leaders that some immigrants had caught sight of the white men, likely discerning the actual identity of a majority of the attackers. As a result, militia commander William H. Dame ordered his forces to kill the travelers. By this time, the travelers were running low on water and provisions, and allowed some members of the militiaTemplate:Sndwho approached under a white flagTemplate:Sndto enter their camp. The militia members assured the immigrants they were protected, and after handing over their weapons, the immigrants were escorted away from their defensive position. After walking a distance from the camp, the militiamen, with the help of auxiliary forces hiding nearby, attacked the travelers. The perpetrators killed all the adults and older children in the group, in the end sparing only seventeen young children ages six and under.Template:Efn

Following the massacre, the perpetrators buried some of the remains but ultimately left most of the bodies exposed to wild animals and the climate. Local families took in the surviving children, with many of the victims' possessions and remaining livestock being auctioned off. Investigations, which were interrupted by the American Civil War, resulted in nine indictments in 1874. Of the men who were indicted, only Lee was tried in a court of law. After two trials in the Utah Territory, Lee was convicted by a jury, sentenced to death and executed by firing squad on March 23, 1877.

Historians attribute the massacre to a combination of factors, including war hysteria about a possible invasion of Mormon territory and Mormon teachings against outsiders during the Mormon Reformation. Scholars debate whether senior leadership in the LDS Church, including Brigham Young, directly instigated the massacre or if responsibility for it lay only with the leaders of the militia.

History

Baker–Fancher party

Template:Main In early 1857, the Baker–Fancher party was formed from several groups mainly from Marion, Crawford, Carroll and Johnson counties in northwestern Arkansas. They assembled into a wagon train at Beller's Stand, south of Harrison, to emigrate to southern California. The group was initially referred to as both the Baker train and the Perkins train, but later referred to as the Baker–Fancher train (or party). It was named after "Colonel" Alexander Fancher who, having already made the journey to California twice before, had become its main leader.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> By contemporary standards the Baker–Fancher party was prosperous, carefully organized and well-equipped for the journey.<ref>Template:Harvp; Template:Harvp.</ref> They were joined along the way by families and individuals from other states, including Missouri.<ref>Template:Harvp; Template:Harvp.</ref> The group was relatively wealthy, and planned to restock its supplies in Salt Lake City, as did most wagon trains at the time.

Interactions with Mormon settlers

Template:See also At the time of the Fanchers' arrival, the Utah Territory, though legally a democracy, was effectively a theocracy under the leadership of Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), who had established colonies along the California Trail and the Old Spanish Trail. U.S. President James Buchanan had recently issued an order to send federal troops to Utah, which led to rumors being spread in the territory about its motives. Young issued various orders that urged the local population to prepare for the arrival of the troops. Eventually Young issued a declaration of martial law.Template:Sfnp

The Baker–Fancher party was refused provisions in Salt Lake City and chose to leave there and take the Old Spanish Trail, which passed through southern Utah.Template:Sfnp In August 1857, the Mormon apostle George A. Smith traveled throughout the southern part of the territory instructing Mormon settlers to stockpile grain.<ref name=PeopleVLee/> While on his return trip to Salt Lake City, Smith camped near the Baker–Fancher party on August 25, 1857, at Corn Creek. They had traveled the Template:Convert south from Salt Lake City, and Jacob Hamblin suggested that the wagon train continue on the trail and rest their cattle at Mountain Meadows, which had good pasture and was adjacent to his homestead.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

While most witnesses said that the Fanchers were in general a peaceful party whose members behaved well along the trail, rumors spread about their supposed misdeeds.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> United States Army Brevet Major James Henry Carleton led the first federal investigation of the murders, and the findings were published in 1859. He recorded Hamblin's account that the train was alleged to have poisoned a spring near Corn Creek, resulting in the deaths of eighteen cows and two or three people who ate the contaminated meat. Carleton interviewed the father of a child who allegedly died from this poisoned spring and accepted the sincerity of the grieving father. He also included a statement from an investigator who did not believe the Fancher party was capable of poisoning the spring, given its size. Carleton invited readers to consider a potential explanation for the rumors of misdeeds, noting the general atmosphere of distrust among Mormons for strangers at the time, and that some locals appeared jealous of the Fancher party's wealth.Template:Sfnp

Conspiracy and siege

Template:Main The Baker–Fancher party left Corn Creek and continued the Template:Convert to Mountain Meadows, passing Parowan and Cedar City, southern Utah communities led respectively by Stake Presidents William H. Dame and Isaac C. Haight. Haight and Dame were, in addition, the senior regional military leaders of the Iron Military District of the Nauvoo Legion.<ref name="Walker2008"/>Template:Rp Over half the employees of the Iron County iron manufacturing plant were in that militia district.<ref name=IronMission>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

As the party approached, several meetings were held in Cedar City and nearby Parowan by local LDS Church leaders pondering how to implement Young's declaration of martial law.Template:Sfnp On the afternoon of Sunday, September 6, Haight held his weekly Stake High Council meeting after church services and brought up the issue of what to do with the immigrants.Template:Sfnp The plan for a Native American massacre was discussed, but not all the Council members agreed it was the right approach.Template:Sfnp The Council resolved to take no action until Haight sent a rider, James Haslam,<ref name=CollectedLegal2>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp out the next day to carry an express to Salt Lake City (a six-day round trip on horseback) for Young's advice, as Utah did not yet have a telegraph system.Template:Sfnp Following the council, Haight decided to send a messenger Joseph Clewes south to John D. Lee.<ref name=CollectedLegal2/>Template:RpTemplate:Sfnp What Haight told Lee remains a mystery, but considering the timing it may have had something to do with Council's decision to wait for advice from Young.<ref name=MaMM/>Template:Rp

The dispirited Baker–Fancher party found water and fresh grazing for its livestock after reaching grassy, mountain-ringed Mountain Meadows, a widely known stopover on the old Spanish Trail, in early September. They anticipated several days of rest and recuperation there before the next Template:Convert would take them out of Utah. On September 7, the party was attacked by Nauvoo Legion militiamen dressed as Native Americans and some Native American Paiutes.Template:Sfnp The Baker–Fancher party defended itself by encircling and lowering their wagons, wheels chained together, along with digging shallow trenches and throwing dirt both below and into the wagons, which made a strong barrier. Seven immigrants were killed during the opening attack and buried somewhere within the wagon encirclement. Sixteen more were wounded.Template:Sfnp<ref name="Brigham Young 1986 p. 257">Template:Cite book</ref> The attack continued for five days, during which the besieged families had little or no access to freshwater or game food and their ammunition was depleted.Template:Sfnp Meanwhile, organization among the local Mormon leadership reportedly broke down.Template:Sfnp Eventually, fear spread among the militia's leaders that some emigrants had caught sight of white men, and had probably discerned the identity of their attackers. This resulted in an order to kill all the emigrants,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> with the exception of small children.<ref name=MaMM>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

Killings and aftermath

Template:Multiple image On Friday, September 11, 1857, two militiamen approached the Baker–Fancher party wagons with a white flag and were soon followed by Indian Agent and militia officer John D. Lee. Lee told the battle-weary emigrants that he had negotiated a truce with the Paiutes. Under Mormon protection, the wagon-train members would be escorted safely back to Cedar City, Template:Convert away, in exchange for turning all of their livestock and supplies over to the Native Americans.Template:Sfnp Accepting this offer, the emigrants were led out of their fortification, with the adult men being separated from the women and children. The men were paired with a militia escort and when the signal was given,Template:Sfnp the militiamen turned and shot the male members of the Baker–Fancher party standing by their side. The women and children were then ambushed and killed by more militia that were hiding in nearby bushes and ravines. Members of the militia were sworn to secrecy. A plan was set to blame the massacre on the Native Americans.

File:Image-Nancy Sephrona Huff.jpg

Survivor Nancy Saphrona Huff (4) was taken away along with her family's possessions by John Willis to reside at his house until she was returned to relatives in Arkansas two years later.<ref name=Vengeance/>Template:Rp

The militia did not kill small children who were deemed too young to relate what had happened. Nancy Huff, one of the seventeen survivors and just over four years old at the time of the massacre, recalled in an 1875 statement that an eighteenth survivor was killed directly in front of the other children. "At the close of the massacre there was eighteen children still alive, one girl, some ten or twelve years old, they said was too big and could tell, so they killed her, leaving seventeen."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The survivors were taken in by local Mormon families.Template:Sfnp Seventeen of the children were later reclaimed by the U.S. Army and returned to relatives in Arkansas.Template:Sfnp The treatment of these children while they were held by the Mormons is uncertain, but Captain James Lynch's statement in May 1859 said the surviving children were "in a most wretched condition, half starved, half naked, filthy, infested with vermin, and their eyes diseased from the cruel neglect to which they had been exposed."<ref name=CollectedLegal1/>Template:Rp Lynch's July 1859 affidavit added that they when they first saw the children they had "little or no clothing" and were "covered with filth and dirt".<ref name=CollectedLegal1>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

File:Christopher Fancher.jpg

Survivor Christopher "Kit" Fancher as an adult.

Leonard J. Arrington, founder of the Mormon History Association, reports that Brigham Young received the rider, James Haslam, at his office on the same day. When he learned what was contemplated by the militia leaders in Parowan and Cedar City, he sent back a letter stating the Baker–Fancher party was not to be meddled with, and should be allowed to go in peace (although he acknowledged the Native Americans would likely "do as they pleased").<ref name="Brigham Young 1986 p. 257"/><ref name=BYletter/> Young's letter arrived two days too late, on September 13, 1857.

The livestock and personal property of the Baker–Fancher party, including women's jewelry, clothing and bedstuffs were distributed or auctioned off to Mormons.<ref name="King"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Some of the surviving children saw clothing and jewelry that had belonged to their dead mothers and sisters subsequently being worn by Mormon women, and the journalist J.H. Beadle said that jewelry taken from Mountain Meadows was seen in Salt Lake City.Template:Sfnp

Investigations and prosecutions

An early investigation was conducted by Brigham Young,<ref name="Brigham Young 1986 p. 257"/> who interviewed John D. Lee on September 29, 1857. In 1858, Young sent a report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs stating that the massacre was the work of Native Americans. The Utah War delayed any investigation by the U.S. federal government until 1859, when Jacob Forney and U.S. Army Brevet Major James Henry Carleton conducted investigations.<ref name=Forney-1859>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In Carleton's investigation, at Mountain Meadows he found women's hair tangled in sage brush and the bones of children still in their mothers' arms.<ref name = "Fisher">Template:Cite web</ref> Carleton later said it was "a sight which can never be forgotten." After gathering up the skulls and bones of those who had died, Carleton's troops buried them and erected a cairn and cross.<ref name = "Fisher"/>

Carleton interviewed a few local Mormon settlers and Paiute Native American chiefs and concluded that there was Mormon involvement in the massacre. He issued a report in May 1859, addressed to the U.S. Assistant Adjutant-General, setting forth his findings. Jacob Forney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Utah, also conducted an investigation that included visiting the region in the summer of 1859. Forney retrieved many of the surviving children of massacre victims who had been housed with Mormon families and gathered them up for transportation to their relatives in Arkansas. Forney concluded that the Paiutes did not act alone and the massacre would not have occurred without the white settlers,<ref name=Forney-1859/> and Carleton report to the U.S. Congress called the mass killings a "heinous crime",Template:Sfnp blaming both local and senior church leaders for the massacre.

In March 1859, Judge John Cradlebaugh, a federal judge brought into the territory after the Utah War, convened a grand jury in Provo concerning the massacre, but the jury declined any indictments.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Nevertheless, Cradlebaugh conducted a tour of the Mountain Meadows area with a military escort.Template:Sfnp He attempted to arrest John D. Lee, Isaac Haight, and John Higbee, who fled before they could be found.Template:Sfnp Cradlebaugh publicly charged Brigham Young as an instigator to the massacre and therefore an "accessory before the fact".Template:Sfnp Possibly as a protective measure against the mistrusted federal court system, Mormon territorial probate court judge Elias Smith arrested Young under a territorial warrant, perhaps hoping to divert any trial of Young into a friendly Mormon territorial court.Template:Sfnp Apparently because no federal charges ensued, Young was released.Template:Sfnp

File:John D. Lee pre-execution photo.png

The scene at Lee's execution by Utah firing squad on March 23, 1877. Lee is seated, next to his coffin.

File:Justice at last.jpg

1877 article on John D. Lee's execution.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Further investigations were cut short by the American Civil War in 1861,.Template:Sfnp The U.S. posted bounties of $5000 USD (Template:InflationTemplate:Inflation/fn) each for the capture of Haight, Higbee, Stewart, and Philip Klingensmith. Dame, Klingensmith, Ellott Willden, and George Adair Jr. were indicted and arrested while warrants to pursue the arrests of four others who had gone into hiding (Haight, Higbee, William C. Stewart, and Samuel Jukes) were being obtained. Klingensmith escaped prosecution by agreeing to testify.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Brigham Young excommunicated some participants, including Haight and Lee, from the LDS Church in 1870. Philip Klingensmith had been a bishop but then had left the church and moved to Nevada by the time of his arrest.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

Lee was arrested on November 7, 1874.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His first trial began on July 23, 1875, in Beaver, before a jury of eight Mormons and four non-Mormons.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> One of Lee's defense attorneys was Enos D. Hoge, a former territorial supreme court justice.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The trial led to a hung jury on August 5, 1875. Lee's second trial began September 13, 1876, before an all-Mormon jury. The prosecution called Daniel Wells, Laban Morrill, Joel White, Samuel Knight, Samuel McMurdy, Nephi Johnson, and Jacob Hamblin.Template:Sfnp Lee also stipulated, against advice of counsel, that the prosecution be allowed to re-use the depositions of Young and Smith from the previous trial.Template:Sfnp Lee called no witnesses in his defense,Template:Sfnp and was convicted.

Lee was entitled under Utah Territorial statute to choose the method of his execution from three possible options: hanging, firing squad, or decapitation. At sentencing, Lee chose to be executed by firing squad.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In his final words before his sentence was carried out at Mountain Meadows on March 23, 1877, Lee said that he was a scapegoat for others involved.Template:Sfnp Brigham Young stated that Lee's fate was just, but it was not a sufficient blood atonement, given the enormity of the crime.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Criticism and analysis

Media coverage

File:MMM-Harpersw8-13-1859.jpg

Unburied corpses left after the massacre depicted on the cover of Harper's Weekly magazine.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Initial published reports of the incident date back at least to October 1857 in the Los Angeles Star.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp In 1873, the massacre was given a full chapter in T. B. H. Stenhouse's Mormon history The Rocky Mountain Saints.Template:Sfnp The massacre itself also received international attention,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with various international and national newspapers also covering John D. Lee's 1874<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and 1877 trials as well as his execution in 1877.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</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.Template:Sfnp

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.Template:Sfnp The first detailed and comprehensive work using modern historical methods was 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.Template:Sfnp 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>Template:Cite news</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>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Apologizes>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In modern times, the murders have been called an act of domestic terrorism<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="University of Arkansas Press">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in many works of literature,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</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>Template:Cite news</ref> Other descriptors include "the darkest deed of the nineteenth century" and "a crime that has no parallel in American history for atrocity".Template:Sfnp LDS historian Richard Turley called it "the worst event in Latter-day Saint history",<ref>Template:Cite news</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>Template:Cite magazine</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">Template:Cite book</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">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</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>Template:Cite book</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>Template:Cite book</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">Template:Cite thesis</ref>

Explanatory theories

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

Strident Mormon teachings

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>Template:Cite web</ref>

In addition, during the preceding decades, the religion had undergone a period of intense persecution in the American Midwest. In particular, they were officially expelled from, and an Extermination Order was issued by Governor Boggs, the state of Missouri during the 1838 Mormon War, during which prominent 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 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 wives.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</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>Template:Harvp "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>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Harvp "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.Template:Sfnp "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."Template:Sfnp

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".Template:Sfnp Based on a somewhat ambiguous statement by Joseph Smith, some Mormons believed that Jesus would return in 1891Template:Sfnp and that God would soon exact punishment against the United States for persecuting Mormons and martyring Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, Patten and Pratt.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In their Endowment ceremony, faithful early Latter-day Saints took an oath to pray that God would take vengeance against the murderers.<ref name=HeberKimballDiary/><ref>Template:Harvp (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/>Template:Efn 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>Template:Harvp</ref><ref name=HeberKimballDiary>Template:Cite archive</ref><ref name=CannonDiary>Template:Cite archive</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.Template:Efn

In 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>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</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>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref> In June 1857, Philip Klingensmith, another participant, was similarly blessed that he would participate in "avenging the blood of Brother Joseph".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=Junius>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

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",Template:Efn 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>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</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>Template:Cite news</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>Template:Harvp (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

George A. Smith Apostle who met the Baker–Fancher party before touring Parowan and neighboring settlements before the 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>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp

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>Template:Cite news</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/>Template:Rp 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.Template:Sfnp

Brigham Young

File:Brigham Young.jpg

Historians debate the role of Brigham Young in the massacre. Young was 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 languageTemplate:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp 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:

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."Template:Sfnp 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.Template:Sfnp

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>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</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>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

Remembrances

The first monument for the victims was built two years after the massacre, by Major Carleton and the U.S. Army. This monument was a simple cairn built over the gravesite of 34 victims, and was topped by a large cedar cross.Template:Sfnp The monument was found destroyed and the structure was replaced by the U.S. Army in 1864.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> By some reports, the monument was destroyed in 1861, when Young brought an entourage to Mountain Meadows. Wilford Woodruff, who later became President of the Church, said that upon reading the inscription on the cross, which read, "Vengeance is mine, thus saith the Lord. I shall repay", Young responded, "it should be vengeance is mine and I have taken a little."Template:Sfnp<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1932, residents of the surrounding area constructed a memorial wall around the remnants of the monument.<ref>Template:Harvp</ref>

Starting in 1988, the Mountain Meadows Association, composed of descendants of both the Baker–Fancher party victims and the Mormon participants, designed a new monument in the meadows; this monument was completed in 1990 and is maintained by the Utah State Division of Parks and Recreation.<ref>Template:Harvp</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1999, the LDS Church replaced the U.S. Army's cairn and the 1932 memorial wall with a second monument, which it now maintains.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In August 1999, when the LDS Church's construction of the 1999 monument had started, the remains of at least 28 massacre victims were dug up by a backhoe. The forensic evidence showed that the remains of the males had been shot by firearms at close range and that the remains of the women and children showed evidence of blunt force trauma.<ref name = "Fisher"/><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

File:Memorial at the Site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, 1991. 03.jpg

Memorial monument built at the site in 1990

In 1955, to memorialize the victims of the massacre, a monument was installed in the town square of Harrison, Arkansas. On one side of this monument is a map and short summary of the massacre, while the opposite side contains a list of the victims.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> In 2005, a replica of the U.S. Army's original 1859 cairn was built in the community of Carrollton, Arkansas,<ref name=Ravitz>Template:Cite news</ref> the former county seat of Carroll County, Arkansas.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> It is maintained by the Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation.<ref name="Ravitz"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2007, the 150th anniversary of the massacre was remembered by a ceremony held in the meadows. Approximately 400 people, including many descendants of those slain at Mountain Meadows and Elder Henry B. Eyring of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles attended this ceremony.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Apologizes/>

In 2011, the site was designated as a National Historic Landmark after joint efforts by descendants of those killed and the LDS Church.<ref name=stack1>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2014, archaeologist Everett Bassett discovered two rock piles he believes mark additional graves. The locations of the possible graves are on private land and not at any of the monument sites owned by the LDS Church. The Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation has expressed their desire that the sites be conserved and given national monument status.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Other descendant groups have been more hesitant in accepting the sites as legitimate grave markers.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In Media

Works of non-fiction

• Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath, by Richard E. Turley, Barbara Jones Brown, (2023)
• Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley, Glen M. Leonard (2008)
• House of Mourning: A Biocultural History of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, by Shannon A. Novak (2008)
• Burying The Past, a documentary film by Brian Patrick (2004)
• American Massacre, by Sally Denton (2003)
• Blood of the Prophets, by Will Bagley (2002)
• The Mountain Meadows Massacre, by Juanita Brooks (1950)

Works of historical fiction

• None Left to Tell, novel by Noelle West Ihli (2024) – Tells the story of the Mountain Meadows massacre from the perspectives of three women and one child who were involved.
• American Primeval by Mark L. Smith (2024) – The miniseries examines the fight to gain control of the American West and the violent clash between religion and culture. The main plot has the Massacre as a backdrop.
• Variation West by Ardyth Kennelly (2014) – A novel of 4 generations of a family in Utah, beginning with 2 fictional daughters of John D. Lee, with the Mountain Meadows massacre as backdrop.
• September Dawn by Christopher Cain (2007) – The film is a fictional love story between real characters who were involved in the massacre.
• Red Water by Judith Freeman (2002) – A novel about how the wives of John D. Lee have to come to terms with their husband's actions.
• Redeye by Clyde Edgerton (1995) – A novel about a fictional bounty hunter, Cobb Pittman, who with his catch dog, Redeye, tracks down Mormons responsible for the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
• The Star Rover by Jack London (1915) – Protagonist Darrell Standing is reincarnated as Jesse Fancher.

See also

• Aiken massacre, a lynching reportedly ordered by Mormon leaders two months later
• Anti-Mormonism
• Christian terrorism
• Christianity and violence
• Haun's Mill massacre, an attack on Mormons
• History of the Latter Day Saint movement
• Missouri Executive Order 44, an 1838 governor's order that Mormons be "exterminated" or driven from Missouri
• Mormonism and violence
• Native American people and Mormonism
• Terrorism in the United States

References

References

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Further reading

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External links

• Mountain Meadows Association
• Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation
• PBS Frontline documentary: The Mormons, Part One, episodes 8 & 9: Mountain Meadows.