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Mountain Meadows massacre
Sketch of the site of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre (from the cover of the August 13, 1859 Harper's Weekly). "The scene was one too horrible and sickening for language to describe. Human skeletons, disjointed bones, ghastly skulls and the hair of women were scattered in frightful profusion over a distance of two miles." (Harpers Weekly August 13, 1859 report)
Location	Mountain Meadows, Utah
Date	September 7–September 11, 1857
Target	Baker-Fancher party of Arkansan emigrants to California
Attack type	Wagon train attack
Weapons	guns
Deaths	100–140
Injured	<17
Perpetrators	Nauvoo Legion (Local Iron County Mormon Militia)

The Mountain Meadows massacre was the massacre of the Baker-Fancher party of emigrants passing through southwestern Utah Territory on Friday, September 11 1857 at Mountain Meadows, a stopover along the Old Spanish Trail.

The massacre was carried out by a Mormon militia led by local leaders, who had mustered militias to keep watch during the time of tension with the United States government known as the Utah War. Mormons convinced some Paiute tribesmen to help besiege the emigrants prior to the massacre, who were blamed by Mormons for at least some of the final massacre, but historians agree Paiute involvement was proportionately small. The emigrants were mostly (and perhaps entirely) from Arkansas, bound for California. Between 100 and 140 men, women and children were killed, sparing about 17 smaller children.

The massacre received wide news coverage, stoking anti-Mormon feelings elsewhere in the United States. Investigations resulted in nine indictments, with only one person tried and convicted: John D. Lee. In 1877 Lee, one of Brigham Young's several adopted sons, was executed by firing squad on the same grounds as the massacre, a fate Young believed just. Lee himself professed that he was a scapegoat for others involved in the massacre, perhaps including Young. Historians disagree about what role, if any, Young played in the massacre or its cover-up.

Background: Mormons' uneasy position in the Utah Territory

Having entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, Brigham Young began establishing colonies throughout the Great Basin. Young sent missionaries to the vicinity of Mountain Meadows from 1851 through 1856 to establish several forts including Parowan and Cedar City, nearly 300 miles from Salt Lake City—about three days' journey each way by special messenger. These settlements, governed relatively independently by local church leaders, received periodic visits from higher officials. Local governments enforced community law and were empowered to arrest, try, and punish its violators. Whispered rumors told of occasional punishments at the hands of church courts that were said to have been meted out secretly.

Local leaders mustered local militias as a police force or for defense against marauding Native Americans, whose territory they were encroaching on. Although area tribes engaged in raids upon settlers' properties to avoid starvation, it would be unusual in their cultural practice to engage in a pitched battle lasting over a day's duration. Although Brigham Young encouraged the militias to feed the Natives rather than fight them, there were a number of armed conflicts. (See the Walker War.)

Settlers yet retained in 1857 a collective memory of other Americans' having driven them—due the Mormons' religious views, political power, and prosperity—from settlement to settlement where the Mormons had formerly attempted to assemble in the United States Midwest. They had then left what were the boundaries of the United States at the time for the unsettled West to establish a theocratic society to practice their religion without interference.

Once in their Utah stronghold, Mormon leaders (1856-58) urged their followers to dramatic reformations toward righteous living, sometimes threatening them with earthly punishments should they not repent, as the Mormons worked to construct that "Zion" which, according to the Mormons' eschatology, must be built up in preparation for Christ's imminent, triumphal return, when God will punish those who have persecuted the righteous—such as the murderers of the Mormons' beloved leaders Joseph Smith, Jr., Hyrum Smith and Parley P. Pratt. (And indeed, in their temple ceremonies, early Mormons vowed sacred oaths never to cease praying for such communal redemption, when God also would "avenge the blood of the prophets on this nation".

Then in late July 1857 their community received exaggerated news reports about a threat to its existence which, due to the importance they gave their communal endeavor, appeared at first to the Mormons to be of near apocalyptic importance: The Mormons were about to be invaded by a large federal army.

Background: the (Baker-)Fancher and Turner-Duke parties

Beginning in 1849, Midwestern families would set off on emigrant wagon trains further westward. From among their number and in the spring of 1857, hundreds of northeastern Arkansas (where once had been, by treaty, the Cherokee Nation) families began their treks to lands opening up for new settlement in the West.

Of this number, and headed to southern California, were about forty families who had just arrived in northern Utah. They have come to be called the Fancher train, party, or company after Captain Alexander Fancher, who had become their main leader. Fancher had journeyed to California from Arkansas previously in 1850 at the height of the Gold Rush and again in 1853.

Soon behind the Fanchers (and leading somewhat over half-as-many cattle) was a party of westward emigrants originating mostly in Arkansas's northern neighbor, Missouri, known as the Turner-Duke party. Both of these—the Duke and Fancher parties—were well- organized-and-equipped for their journeys. Some had sold their homes to settle in California, others, such as Fancher (perhaps, Duke) were driving cattle west for profit. The lure of gold likely motivated some of the the younger men.

Murder of Mormon apostle Parley P. Pratt in Arkansas (1857)

Mormon leader Parley P. Pratt was murdered in Arkansas in May 1857 by the ex-husband of one of Pratt's plural wives. News of his death arrived in the southern Utah area in the early summer of 1857. While on a mission to the southern states, a lawsuit was filed against Pratt by Hector McLean. The lawsuit alleged that Pratt caused an estrangement between McLean and his former wife, Eleanor. Pratt was exonerated by the court in Arkansas. McLean and two accomplices pursued Pratt to Alma, Arkansas, where they shot at and stabbed him. He died on 13 May 1857 and was buried near Fine Springs, Arkansas. Pratt was well known and loved by the people in southern Utah, where news of his murder heightened the sense of persecution felt by the Mormons.

Utah War

On July 18 1857, while the Baker-Fancher party was en route and nearing the Utah Territory, Brigham Young received word from Mormon mail-runners that the the United States was planning a deposition of Young's territorial government. For almost a decade, relations between Utah and the United States government had deteriorated over competing claims by the Mormons' institutions versus the U.S.'s republican form of government for sovereignty within the territory. In 1856, the newly formed Republican Party had begun campaigning for a Constitutional amendment banning the church's practice of plural marriage, which together with slavery it called the "twin relics of barbarism". By July 1857, Young's replacement had already been appointed, and a fourth of the entire U.S. army were already on the march.

The Mormon population was usually eager to trade with emigrant trains but on August 5, 1857, Brigham Young had declared martial law

While for a half-decade Salt Lake City and Washington D.C. sparred with vitriolic rhetoric, Young busily prepared to defend the heart of "Zion" through orders for pioneer settlements furthest afield to pull up their stakes–evacuating Mormon colonies in San Bernardino, Las Vegas, Carson Valley, Fort Bridger, and Fort Supply. All borders were to be sealed to further travel through Utah by emigrants. The settlements in southern Utah were not to retreat but remain as a bulwark against this anticipated non-Mormon aggression. History bears out that the Mormon fears about carnage on civilians by regular U.S. Army troops was quite real, should political tensions have erupted in armed conflict. Mormons likewise feared even citizens' militia, born out of their persecutions by "mobs" in Missouri and Illinois. Mormons termed all armed opponents "the mob", whether the regular U.S. Army or merely citizens' militia.

During the Mormon War, it was widely taught in LDS church meetings (and believed by John D. Lee and others) that the invasion of the Utah territory was the beginning of the Millennium, and that the time had come for the Mormons to establish their world-wide "Kingdom of God".

George A. Smith's circuit through southern Utah

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Mormon policy about "unbridling Indians" against Americans

On September 1, 1857, in Salt Lake City, Brigham Young (who as governor held the title of Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory) met with Indian chiefs from the southern Territory, which included the area around Mountain Meadows. During a one-hour meeting, Young complained that the Americans had come to kill both Mormons and Indians. He told the chiefs that if they fought the Americans, he would give them all the cattle on the southern California trail—referring in essence to such emigrants' cattle as the large herds of the Duke and Fancher parties..

Fanchers' interactions with Mormons preparing for war

Choice of path through southern Utah; Mormon refusal to share stockpiled supplies

The Arkansas emigrant party arrived in Utah in July with over 800 head of cattle but running low on some supplies when they reached the Salt Lake City area on August 3 1857, a major resupply destination for such emigrants. The main train led by Alexander Fancher waited outside Salt Lake City for more than a week as other trains caught up with them. The train led by Captain John Twitty Baker was the last to arrive. These emigrants had to decide which route to take across the Great Basin to California. The northern route meant traveling the Humboldt River Road west across the desert and Sierra Nevada mountains, then southward through California. The southern route, which involved less risk of the emigrants becoming snowbound in the mountains this late in the season, would carry them through the settlements in southern Utah toward the Mohave Desert and then onward toward Los Angeles. At least one couple chose to take the northern route while others from the woman's family tragically went south with the united parties under Captain Fancher. The Mormons that the Fancher train encountered along the way were obeying Young's order to stockpile supplies in expectations of all-out war with approaching U.S. troops and declined to trade with the Fanchers. The Mormons considered the emigrants of an alien status because of Young's orders forbidding travel through Utah without a required pass—which the Fancher-Baker party did not have. However, Captains Baker and Fancher may not have been aware of Young's martial law order since it was not made public until September 15, 1857.

Rumors about Fanchers' poisoning of water and cattle

In the aftermath of the massacre, witnesses gave reports regarding the conduct of the some members of the emigrant parties and its relationship to the event. These fall into three distinct groups. Journals and letters written at the time of the event, interviews with local Indians and settlers by U.S. Federal officials, and participant confessions. There are also statements by relatives and friends of the emigrants testifying to the general character and demeanor of those killed on the train.

Jacob Forney as Superintendent for Indian Affairs in Utah Territory made a report of his investigation of the event to A.B. Greenwood who was Commissioner of Indian Affairs in Washington D.C. This was printed in Senate Executive Document 42 of the 36th United States Congress in response to Senate requests for all the official documents relating to the Mountain Meadows massacre.

I have deemed it a matter of material importance to make strict inquiry relative to the general behavior and conduct of the company towards the people of this territory in their journey through it, and am justified in saying that they conducted themselves with propriety.

Forney discusses the allegations of poisoning wells by the Fanchers and his subsequent investigation which showed no evidence of any difficulty with the Pah-vant Indians living in the area. He states his opinion in the report:

I regard the poisoning affair as entitled to no consideration. In my opinion, bad men, for a bad purpose, have magnified a natural circumstance for the perpetration of a crime that has no parallel in American history for atrocity.

Forney interviewed many individuals in the course of his investigation. He records an interview (made in the presence of William H. Rogers) with David Tullis who was living with Jacob Hamblin at the time.

The company passed by the house on Friday, September 2d or 3d, towards evening; that it was a large respectable-looking company. One of the men rode up to where I was working, and asked if there was water ahead. I said, yes. The person who rode up behaved civilly. The company camped at the spring in the west end of the valley.

William Rogers later related a conversation between Carl (possibly Carlts) Shirts, Forney and himself where Shirts stated:

He (Shirts) was employed by Mr. Hamblin and making adobies at the time. He saw the emigrants when they entered the valley, and talked with several of the men belonging to it. They appeared perfectly civil and gentlemanly.

According to Briggs, such rumors aside, the "poisoning" complaint against Fancher party emigrants that is reported as to time and place has to do with certain words the emigrants used at Corn Creek, where Mormon preacher George A. Smith met with the Fancher party. Local Mormons had already been ordered by Smith to mobilize the militia to prepare to "touch fire to their homes, hide themselves in the mountains, and defend their country to the last extremity" in anticipation of the approaching U.S. troops and so militia scouts searched the trails looking for counterpart spotters thought to have been deployed by the approaching U.S. Army. As one party of Mormon militia scouts led by Jacob Hamblin accompanied George A. Smith in his meeting with the Fancher train, these interrogators presumably had their eyes and ears open. In trial testimony years later, militiaman Silas Smith (George A. Smith's cousin) said that

when some of the emigrant men asked if the Indians would eat a dead ox that lay nearby, it "created suspicion that they would play foul games by some means" , "I could not say they were a rough set of fellows but that was my opinion."

However Silas testified he met the emigrants on two additional occasions, with Silas's testimony evincing no further complaints about their conduct.

Rumors about the participation and conduct of the Missouri "Wildcats"

The Fancher and Duke parties (respectively from Arkansas and Missouri) having assisted each other to some degree on their western migrations, it was thought that the Fancher party may have been joined by a eleven members of a citizen militia calling itself the Missouri "Wildcats". There is debate on whether these miners and plainsmen stayed with the slow-moving Fancher party after leaving Salt Lake City, or even existed. Though the conduct and/or existence of the Wildcats is now questioned, rumors about them at the time antagonized the local population.

The usual mere range "wars" that would erupt between local populations and emigrants' leading vast herds of cattle were to be expected—for example, both the Fancher and Duke parties' stock would compete with locals' for forage and sometimes would break through the Mormon colonists' fences. However, in the case of the Fancher party, much more severe accusations were lodged—including the Fanchers' poisoning of wells, bragging about taking part in Haun's Mill massacre and threats of returning to Utah with an army to wipe out the Mormon population.. At least one account claimed the Wildcats bragged they had the gun that "shot the guts out of Old Joe Smith".

Conspiracy and massacre

Cedar City meetings about the Fancher party

At least nine southern Utah militiamen were sent out as scouts to the area's emigrant trails' mountain passes, looking for advance parties of the United States dragoons. Before these scouts could return with welcome news that U.S. troops likely would not be arriving until spring—and yet as the Fancher party approached Mountain Meadows—several meetings were held in Cedar City and nearby Parowan by local Latter Day Saints (LDS) leaders pondering how to implement Young's directives.

Historian Leonard explains, "Cedar City leaders decided to take some cattle, using the Indians" "won't truly be sorry." Believing he was responding to this policy, Jacob Hamblin began assembling Natives to engage in a cattle raid on the Duke party, which was following the Fancher Party. This raid took place after the Mountain Meadows massacre. At least one Duke party member was killed or wounded in these raids and it ended up that the greater portion of their large herds were run off. After the Dukes had been besieged by Natives for a small period, Hamblin and a party of local Mormon militia arrived at the scene in formal military manner and Hamblin approached the Duke train—after which Hamblin arranged for the Dukes to exchange the majority of their holdings in cattle to be turned over to the warring Natives in exchange for their safe passage to California. Hamblin, however, allowed the Duke party to proceed on their way unmolested. In fact, Hamblin fulfilled his usual duties as an emigrant party scout, leading the Dukes on a course where they would not pass the scene of carnage at Mountain Meadows. And in fact, after the Duke train made it to California, they sent their drovers back to Cedar City and Hamblin assisted them in retrieving part of their livestock.

In the afternoon of Sunday, September 6, at first Isaac B. Haight, president of the Parowan LDS "Stake" and the second in command of the Iron County militia, and other local leaders decided to eliminate ("destroy", "use up") the Fancher wagon train, but hesitated and sent a rider (James Haslam) to carry an express to Salt Lake City (a six-day round trip on horseback) for Brigham Young's advice. Meanwhile, organization among the local Mormon leadership reportedly broke down. Haslam did return with a letter from Young ordering that the emigrants not be harmed, but did not arrive in time to prevent the attack and moreover, after the siege had started Haight resolved to exterminate any adult witnesses.

In President Young’s message of reply to Haight, dated September 10, he writes; “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 f those who are there will leave let them go in peace.

According to trial testimony given later by express rider Haslam, when Haight read Young’s words, he sobbed like a child and could manage only the words, “Too late, too late.”

Historians debate the letter's contents. Brooks believes it shows Young "did not order the massacre, and would have prevented it if he could." Bagley argues that the letter covertly gave other instructions.

After this letter had been received—and with regard the Duke party that was also still in the area, as had been the Fanchers, despite Young's proposed sealing of borders, the militia adhered by clarified orders to confiscate the Missourians' livestock but not kill the Duke party's members.

Siege and massacre at Mountain Meadows

Meeting the Fancher party on his way to Salt Lake City, wagon train scout, Indian agent, and Mormon missionary Jacob Hamblin directed the party to find water and fresh grazing for its livestock at the grassy, mountain-ringed Mountain Meadows. This area was a regular stopover on the Old Spanish Trail which happened to be where Hamblin's own home was located. Before the Fanchers arrived at the Meadows, orders went out for Indian agent and militia officer John D. Lee to assemble Paiute fighters to head towards there for the planned attack. (Lee was a bishop, a scribe for the Council of Fifty and a friend of both Joseph Smith, Jr. and Brigham Young, in both of whose service Lee had performed duties as a constable and of personal protection and was rumored to have meted out sacred punishments as an "Avenging Angel" as well.) John M. Higbee was to command a special contingent of militia drawn from throughout the southern settlements whose initial orders were to coordinate the affair while maintaining a picket around the area's perimeter.

On September 7 the party began to be attacked by as many or more than 200 Paiutes and Mormon militiamen disguised as Native Americans. The 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 emigrants were killed during the opening attack and were buried somewhere within the wagon encirclement. Sixteen more were wounded. The attack continued for five days, during which the besieged families had little or no access to fresh water and their ammunition was depleted.

Following orders from Haight in Cedar City, 35 miles away, on Friday September 11 Higbee ordered a group of militiamen not in disguise to march and stand in a formal line a half-mile from the Fanchers, then Lee and William Batemen approached the Baker-Fancher party wagons with a white flag. Lee told the battle-weary emigrants he had negotiated a truce with the Paiutes, whereby they could be escorted safely to Cedar City under Mormon protection in exchange for leaving all their livestock and supplies to the Native Americans. Accepting this, they were split into three groups. Seventeen of the youngest children along with a few mothers and the wounded were put into wagons, which were followed by all the women and older children walking in a second group. Bringing up the rear were the adult males of the Fancher party, each walking with an armed Mormon militiaman at his right. Making their way back northeast towards Cedar City, the three groups gradually became strung out and visually separated by shrubs and a shallow hill. After about 2 kilometers Higbee gave the prearranged order, "Do Your Duty!" Each Mormon then turned and killed the man he was guarding. All of the men, women, older children and wounded were massacred by Mormon militia and Paiutes who had hidden nearby.

A few who escaped the initial slaughter were quickly chased down and killed. Two teenaged girls, Rachel and Ruth Dunlap, managed to clamber down the side of a steep gully and hide among a clump of oak trees for several minutes. The girls were spotted by a Paiute chief from Parowan, who took them to Lee, who ordered the girls killed depite both the chief and the girls' pleadings for mercy.

Cover-up

All of the Mormon participants in the massacre were then sworn to secrecy and told to blame the attack on the Paiutes. Eyewitness accounts from Mormons that implicate the Paiutes (at first entirely so and then only in part) are set against Paiute accounts that absolve them from participation in the actual massacre. Historian Bagley believes that

the problem with trying to tell the story of Mountain Meadows—the sources are all fouled up. You've either got to rely on the testimony of the murderers or of the surviving children. And so what we know about the actual massacre is—could be challenged on almost any point.

Whatever the case, the many dozens of bodies were hastily dragged into gullies and other low lying spots, then lightly covered with surrounding material which was soon blown away by the weather, leaving the remains to be scavenged and scattered by wildlife.

Lee went to Salt Lake and told to Young the story of the Fanchers' having poisoned a beef and spring which killed Indians and Mormons, for which the Indians had massacred the train, which story Young passed on to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Surviving children

Approximately seventeen children were deliberately spared because of their young ages. In the hours following the massacre Lee directed Philip Klingensmith and possibly two others to take the children (a few of whom were wounded) to the nearby farm of Jacob Hamblin, a local Indian agent. (A photograph of four-year-old survivor named Nancy Saphrona Huff, taken when she was a young woman back in Arkansas, is featured in the documentary Burying the Past. (Note: it can be viewed by clicking on the footnote.)) By August 1859, Jacob Forney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Utah had retrieved the children from the Mormon families housing them and gathered them in preparation of transporting them to their relatives in Arkansas. He placed the children in the care of families in Santa Clara prior to transportation. Forney and Capt. Reuben Campbell (US Army) related that Lee sold the children to Mormon families in Cedar City, Harmony, and Painter Creek. Sarah Francis Baker, who was three years old at the time of the massacre, later said, "They sold us from one family to another." As early as May 1859, Forney reported that none of the children had ever lived with the Indians, but had been transported by white men from the scene of the massacre to the house of Jacob Hamblin. In July 1859 he wrote of his refusal to pay claims by families who alleged they purchased the children from the Indians, stating he knew it was not true.

Distribution of spoils

The Paiutes reportedly received a portion of the Baker-Fancher party's significant livestock holdings as compensation for their part in the massacre. Many of the murdered emigrants' other belongings (including blood stained and bullet-riddled clothing stripped from the victims' corpses) were brought to Cedar City and stored in the cellar of an LDS warehouse as "property taken at the siege of Sevastopol." There are conflicting accounts as to whether these items were auctioned off or simply taken by members of the local population. Some of the surviving children subsequently claimed to have seen Mormons wearing their dead parents' clothing and jewelry.

Investigations and trials

The investigation of the Mountain Meadows massacre took place in three waves: (1) an initial investigation prior to the American Civil War; (2) an investigation in the 1870s that led to nine indictments and to the trials and execution of John D. Lee, and (3) an investigation beginning in the 1890s and into the early 20th century.

Pre-Civil War investigation

Although the Utah militia members had put responsibility for the massacre on the Native Americans, many non-Mormons immediately began to suspect Mormon involvement or complicity, and called for a federal investigation. An informal investigation was conducted by Garland Hurt, the Utah Territory's U.S. Indian Agent, and one of the last remaining federal officials to remain in Utah after Brigham Young had declared martial law on August 5 1857.

In the days following the massacre, Hurt received conflicting reports as to who was responsible for the massacre. The Paiutes said that Mormons had executed the emigrants, while Hurt's employees believed Mormons had incited Paiutes to perform the massacre. Hurt sent a translator to investigate, who returned on September 23 with the report that Pauites admitted participating, and implicating John D. Lee and "the Bishop of Cedar City" Hearing reports that Mormons intended to kill him, he determined on September 27, 1857 to flee the territory without an offered Mormon escort and seek protection from the advancing federal army at Fort Bridger. The Utah War interrupted any further federal investigation until 1859, and the LDS Church conducted no investigation of its own.

In 1859, two years after the massacre, investigations were made by Jacob Forney, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs (Garland Hurt's superior), and Brevet Major James Henry Carleton. 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. 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 rock cairn.

Part of Forney's investigation included gathering up the surviving children from local families after which they were united with extended family members in Arkansas and other states. Several Mormon families claimed and received financial compensation from the federal government for the children's care, including Jacob Hamblin; some even protested that the amounts paid were insufficient although the conditions some of the children lived under were criticized by Carleton in his report. Forney concluded that the Paiutes did not act alone in the massacre, and that it would not have occurred without the white settlers.

Carleton issued a report to the United States Congress in which he called the mass killings a "heinous crime" and blamed local and senior church leaders for the massacre. However, years later only Lee was charged with murder for his involvement. Lee's first trial ended in a mistrial, but he was convicted on re-trial and executed by firing squad at Mountain Meadows.

In March 1859 in Provo, Utah, Judge John Cradlebaugh, a federal judge brought into the Utah Territory after the Utah War, convened a grand jury concerning the Mountain Meadows massacre and other murders, but the Mormon jury declined to to issue any indictments.

Investigations into the massacre were cut short by the American Civil War in 1861.

1870s investigation and trials

The second wave of investigation began in 1871, when federal officials obtained the affidavit of Phillip Klingensmith, a member of the militia. He had been a private in one of the platoons from Cedar City, where he was a blacksmith and Mormon bishop. By the 1870s, however, he had become an ex-Mormon and moved to Nevada.

Lee, Dame, Klingensmith and two others were all arrested and indicted during the 1870s for their role in the massacre. Warrants were obtained for the arrest of four others including Haight and Higbee - each of which went into hiding to escape arrest and trial. Klingensmith escaped prosecution by agreeing to testify against Lee. .

The causes and circumstances of the Mountain Meadows Massacre remain contested and highly controversial. According to historian of the Utah War MacKinnon

After the war, Buchanan implied that face-to-face communications with Brigham Young might have averted the , and Young argued that a north-south telegraph line in Utah could have prevented the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Although there is no evidence that Brigham Young ordered or condoned the massacre, the roles of Cedar City church officials in ordering the murders and Young's concealing of evidence in their aftermath are still questioned. Moreover, while by all accounts native American Paiutes were present, historical reports of their numbers and the details of their participation are contradictory. Young's use of often inflammatory and violent language in response to the perceived Federal colonialism has also been cited as adding to the tense atmosphere that helped precipitate the attack.

Later investigations

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In the 1890s, Assistant LDS Church Historian Andrew Jenson collected all the records he could find concerning the massacre. These includes Jenson's field notes, excerpts of witnesses' diaries, sworn affidavits, newspaper reports, and the transcriptions from the Mormon church's internal investigations. Many of these are interviews with participants who were granted complete confidentiality with regard to whatever they might say.

A book by LDS historians Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard on the massacre is scheduled to be published by Oxford University Press. A decade in the making, research for the book draws from the Jenson archive. The files have never been open to the public, or for use by historians. Media reports indicate they are scheduled to be available to the public as early as 2008 or 2009.

Scholarship about the massacre

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Theocratic "Kingdom of God" in the Western frontier (1846–1858)

When they left Illinois in 1846 for what were then outside of the confines of the United States, Mormon leaders believed they were responsible to God alone to administer divine law. Brigham Young, as steward of God's Kingdom until Christ's return, was annointed its "king and prest", by the Council of Fifty, who acted as a theocratic legislature, although one of comparatively little power. After the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo annexed Utah to the United States in 1848, the LDS Church accepted a territorial government for Utah with Young as its governor, yet a time Utah continued to operated as a de facto theocracy.

Early Mormon teachings on theocratic law (1845-1858)

In the theoretical framework for Mormon Celestial law Brigham Young and other church leaders favored capital punishment for certain sins, including (depending on circumstances) theft and adultery. Young may have led listeners to understand that vigilantes within Mormon communities could be authorized to privately enforce this Celestial law against thieves without penalty.

Young believed in a doctrine of blood atonement for certain serious sins, for which Jesus' atonement was not enough, and the guilty must personally atone through having their own blood shed in order to achieve the Mormons' highest degree of salvation. Because of political realities, Mormon leaders stopped short of implementing the blood atonement doctrine as a part of the Utah Territory's official theocratic law, but warned that its time of implementation "is not far distant". However, some of the First Presidency's sermons have been interpreted as condoning voluntary or compassionate blood atonement by private individuals as a means to ensure the victim's salvation.

Despite Mormon leaders' fiery rhetoric on the doctrine, however, there are no known cases of homicide, including the Mountain Meadows massacre, conclusively linked to enforcement of the blood atonement doctrine by individuals or local LDS clergy, other than through Utah's regularly enforced official capital punishment practice for murder, to which John D. Lee himself was later subjected for his role in the massacre.. Still, John D. Lee and others perceived themselves justified in their participations in the Mountain Meadows massacre through appeals to such early Mormon teachings on theocratic law; and after the murderous tragedy, newspapers and books widely publicized the doctrine and linked it to the massacre. Yet for the most part during this period (termed by historians the Mormon Reformation), Mormons' sins were deemed sufficiently washed away through rebaptism and repentance.

• Early polemical works. Juanita Brooks. Change in attitudes by Mormon scholars.

Memorials

Early markers and memorials

The original cairn Major Carleton had erected over the victims' mass graves had been inscribed with the words, Here 120 men, women, and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas, along with a cross bearing the words, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.

A marker was placed in the Carrollton, Arkansas town square in 1955 in commemoration of the surviving children's return to their next of kin there in 1859—to which a replica of Carleton's original wooden cross and cairn was added in 2005.

(The LDS church allowed descendants of Lee to perform Mormon saving ordinances on John D. Lee's behalf in 1961.)

1990 monument

Starting in 1988 descendants of both the Baker-Fancher party victims and the Mormon participants collaborated to design and dedicate two monuments to replace the neglected and crumbling marker on the site. There are now three monuments to the massacre, two of them in Utah.

Mountain Meadows Association built a monument at Mountain Meadows in 1990, maintained by the state of Utah. On September 15 1990, more than 2,000 people attended a memorial service at Southern Utah State College, marking the dedication of the memorial. Participants in the memorial service included Roger Logan and J. K. Fancher representing the emigrant families, tribal chairwoman Geneal Anderson and spiritual leader Clifford Jake, representing the Paiute tribe, Rex E. Lee, representing descendants of LDS pioneer families from the area, and a then–first counselor in the LDS First Presidency Gordon B. Hinckley representing the church. In blog commentary at the LDS blog timesandseasons.org, attendee Catherine Baker wrote:

I am a descendant of Captain Jack Baker of the Baker-Fancher train, and I attended the 3-day dedication ceremony in Cedar City in 1990 - ”forgiveness and reconciliation.” In the auditorium/gymnasium at the university, President Hinckley spoke at length. It was very moving and almost ethereal. The descendants were seated on the floor of the gym , while members of the church were seated in the stands surrounding us. At one point, President Hinckley asked all those in attendance if they had a relative, or knew someone who participated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre to stand - about two-thirds of the people stood (as a humorous aside: I was sitting next to my 86-year-old uncle, Bill Baker (a man of few words that are always dry and monotone) and he poked me in the side and whispered out of the side of his mouth to me, ”eek gad - maybe they called us all here just to finish us off.” But I digress . . . at this ceremony, President Hinckley spoke eloquently on the subject and he said he was there ”to ask our, the descendents, forgiveness. He also exonerated members of the Piute nation - in the presence of their current Chief. The Piute Chief sang/recited an old Piute prayer at the end of the ceremony and we all left with tears in our eyes.

According to an article in the Saint George, Utah, Spectrum newspaper:

During the ceremony, descendants of both the victims and perpetrators joined arms on stage and in the audience, some hugging and embracing each other following a challenge by Rex E. Lee, Brigham Young University president.... Gordon B. Hinckley...said he came as a representative of a church that has suffered much over what happened. While people can't comprehend what occured...Hinckley said he was grateful for reconciliation by the descendants on both sides...."Now if there is need for forgiveness, we ask that it be granted."

J.K. Francher, a Harrison, Ark., pharmacist and freelance writer, said... never dreamed that a memorial service would come to fruition but "the spirit kicked in" and people of differing religious beliefs have reconciled. "The most difficult words for men to utter is 'I'm sorry and I forgive you'."Easing the burden of the victims was also the goal of Paiute Indian Tribal Chairwoman Geneal Anderson of Cedar City....

1999 LDS Church monument. Foundation's petition to purchase site

In 1999 the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built and agreed to maintain a second monument at Mountain Meadows.

On August 3, during excavation for the LDS designed project, a backhoe moving a wall originally erected by Carleton accidentally unearthed the remains of at least 29 victims. The Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation was upset that a directive not to disturb much below the surface had been misinterpreted by these construction contractors.

Anthropologists from the University of Utah and Brigham Young University, having to turn down requests that streamed in from people curious if DNA tests could ascertain familial relationships with the victims, still worked around the clock to quickly perform various forensic examinations on the bones before they were returned for reinterment in a private ceremony on September 10. Yet some aspects of the massacre's written accounts could now be reassessed against forensic knowledge gleaned from these reports. For example, anthropologist Shannon Novak's team found that out of approximately 20 skulls of adults examined, five showed the tell-tale signs of bullet entries to the backs of heads in agreement with historical written reports, while five others instead showed entry to their fronts. Novak subsequently has researched the background and lives of the massacre's victims, to appear in her book House of Mourning, to be published in 2008.

During meetings held in connection with the various ceremonies, the Mountain Meadows Foundation, based in Arkansas, sought to buy this area, encompassing three different emigrant gravesites, from its owner, the LDS church, to be administered through an independent trustee or else deeded to the federal government for a national monument. The church declined this idea, yet bought more parcels nearby as a preserve from resorts development.

Descendants' celebrations and remembrances

A commemorative wagon-train encampment assembled at Beller Spring, Arkansas on April 21–22, 2007, with some participants in period dress, to honor the sesquicentennial of their ancestors' embarkation on the ill-fated journey.

Mormons' Midwest persecution (1838-1847)

Mormons of the 1850s had a collective memory of prior persecution and violence relating to their religious views, political power, and prosperity. The persecution began in Missouri during the early 1830s, when Mormons settled there, to establish a Zion in Jackson County. The Mormons moved numerous times in response to continued violence and persecution by non-Mormons. Eventually conflicts arose which resulted in the Mormon War. The Missouri government sided against the Mormons in this war, and the governor issued an Extermination order against the Mormons. Within a week of that order, a group of eighteen Mormons were massacred at Haun's Mill while attempting to repulse an attack by a vigilante militia. Faced with the full military power of Missouri, the Mormons surrendered, and moved to Illinois in 1839. Some Mormon leaders were imprisoned in Liberty Jail, but eventually allowed to escape.

In Illinois, Mormons established Nauvoo where they prospered with Joseph Smith, Jr. as mayor. In June 1844, Smith was arrested and imprisoned in Carthage on charges related to the destruction of the printing press of the Nauvoo Expositor which had criticized Smith for his theocratic intentions and practice of plural marriage. Smith and his brother Hyrum were assassinated by a large mob which stormed the jail. Further violent conflicts occurred between Mormons and their opponents. The Mormons negotiated with Governor Thomas Ford in 1846 for their voluntary removal, thus averting a civil war. Except for a remnant who stayed, the majority of Latter-day Saints followed their senior apostle Brigham Young and trekked West where they settled in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Mormons retained a profound sense that they had been wronged by the United States, and that God would soon exact vengeance of their tormentors.

Expression of regret for the Mountain Meadows Massacre (2007)

In a PBS interview LDS apostle Jeffrey Holland said

I grew up in the shadow of Mountain Meadows and knew about it—sometimes in sort of hushed tones— ...from my childhood on. .... As a teenager, ... I first came in contact with Juanita book . Juanita was my high school English teacher.... Certainly she never talked about it in any public way....What little bit I knew, I knew from her book,...the way most of us became acquainted with the challenge, the difficulty, the tragedy of Mountain Meadows. ...

Nobody's done more than President Hinckley in current times, in current terms, to try to get closure, to try to express regret, apologies or whatever—not for the church, not institutionally. No, try as people may, there has never been any smoking gun in Brigham Young's hand or anyone else's at that level of leadership of the church. But there was clearly local responsibility. I don't think anybody's denying that. ... What we do know is that lives were taken, and that never should have been. ...

When I knew Juanita and knew her family, she was an...absolutely faithful Latter-day Saint. ... I saw her living out her life with the peace and tranquility who had...probably helped the church come to grips with something that all of us wish had never happened. ...

I'm willing to be held to the highest possible standard, ... although I have thought why hasn't the Haun's Mill experience, prior to Mountain Meadows, why hasn't anybody been exorcized about that? What about the parents who lost children there? Now, two wrongs do not make a right. ... But I think it's at least context, and it's history. And probably, while a great many people may or may not know the phrase Mountain Meadows, I don't know that anybody knows Haun's Mill. And I'm just very happy, frankly, that they don't. ...Let's not dredge up anything that doesn't have to be dredged up. ...

The only thing that I would say—this is not to raise some sort of persecution complex ...—but we are a church which has had an extermination order issued against us. That is unprecedented in the history of this God-fearing nation. There has never been an extermination order against a religious belief, except us. Now, we're not whining about that. ... Our people knew what it was like to be hated; they knew what it was like to have their children killed; they knew what it was like to have their prophet murdered in cold blood. ... Their blood has been spread across six states, and then across the Oregon Trail. ...

That isn't justification. ... Everybody has known tough times. But you raise a very sensitive, difficult subject, and at the very least, in fairness to those who went through it and experienced it, it has to be seen in some frontier context of what had been a very, very difficult 30 years for Mormon pilgrims. ...

In a soundbite PBS broadcast in 2007 LDS apostle Dallin Oaks said:

I have no doubt, on the basis of what I have studied and learned, that Mormons, including local leaders of our church, were prime movers in that terrible episode and participated in the killing. And what a terrible thing to contemplate, that the barbarity of the frontier, and the conditions of the Utah war and whatever provocations were perceived to have been given, would have led to such an extreme episode, such an extreme atrocity perpetrated by members of my faith. I pray that the Lord will comfort those that are still bereaved by it, and I pray that he can find a way to forgive those who took such a terrible action against their fellow beings.

Depictions in the media

• The semi-autobiographical travel book Roughing It (1872) by Mark Twain within its Appendix B comments on the massacre based upon public perceptions of Americans during the mid nineteenth century.
• The play Fire In The Bones (1978) by Thomas F. Rogers is a depiction of the massacre from the perspective of John D. Lee, and is based heavily on Juanita Brooks' research.
• The play Two-Headed (2000) by Julie Jensen depicts two middle-aged Latter Day Saint (Mormon) women reflecting on the massacre that occurred when they were children.
• The novel Red Water (2002) by Judith Freeman is a fictionalized account of John D. Lee's role in the massacre from the perspective of three of his nineteen wives.
• The documentary film Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (2004) contains footage of forensic analysis of human remains from the massacre.
• The PBS documentary The Mormons (2007), aired on PBS in two parts on April 30th and May 1st, 2007 and discussed the effects of the Mountain Meadows massacre on the church's image today.
• The film September Dawn (2007), slated for wide release on August 24, 2007, directed by Christopher Cain, is described by a press release as fictionalizing the "point of view held direct descendants ... that the iconic Brigham Young had complicity in the massacre, a view denied by the Mormon Church." Reportedly, the film depicts a love story set at the time of the massacre.

Notes

1. Technically—every able-bodied Utahn between ages eighteen and forty-five (Shirts 1994; MacKinnon 2007).
2. Cradlebaugh 1863.
3. (Smith 2001, p. A1).
4. James Lynch testified (1859) that 140 victims were "murdered in cold blood" (Thompson 1860, p. 82); Superintendent Forney, about 115 (Thompson 1860, p. 8); a 1932 monument, about 140 less 17 children spared. Brooks (introduction, 1991) believes 123 to be exaggerated—citing several reports of less than 100. The 1990 monument lists 82 identified by careful research of descendants of survivors (see , stating there are others still unknown. See also Bagley 2002.
5. Twain 1873, p. 576.
6. Gibbs 1910, p. 13.
7. Briggs 2006, p. 320, n.26. For example, the southern Utah pioneer and militia scout of the time John Chatterley later wrote that he had received threats from a "secret Committee, called ...'destroying angels'". Such rumors generated the charge that Brigham Young was directing enforcement through a secret society of "Danites"—a charge, since there is no direct evidence of a Danite organization in the Utah territory, that appears to be nominally false.<The genesis of this cruftology is that although such secret would validate the term "Danite", this wikieditor doesn't want to be tagged as some whack anti-Mo conspiracy theorist.> See Cannon & Knapp 1913, p. 271.
8. Novak & Rodseth 2006, p. 7
9. Quinn 1997, p. 236.
10. Young et al. 1845, p. 5 ("here are those now living upon the earth who will live to see the consummation" of the Millennium). Mormon leaders during the 1856–57 period taught that Jesus would return in 1891 Erickson 1996, p. 9.
11. Melville 1960, p. 33–34; LDS D&C 65:2, 5–6; Joseph Smith, Jr. (1844), History of the Church 6:290, 292; John Taylor (1853), JD 1:230. John D. Lee, in particular, was of this view. See John D. Lee diary, 6 Dec. 1848.
12. Grant 1854, p. 148 "t is a stern fact that the people of the United States have shed the blood of the Prophets, driven out the Saints of God,… onsequently I look for the Lord to use His whip on the refractory son called 'Uncle Sam'.".
13. Buerger 2002, p. 134.
14. {Harvardnb|Wallner|2006}
15. Smith 2001, p. A1. Many Arkansas families were part Native American in their ancestry. Additionally, Cherokee in the "boot heel" of Missouri, legally dispossessed of the right to live in that state in 1825, had passed for white or crossed over to this very part of Arkansas as well.
16. See a map of their trek at a massacre descendants' website: .
17. Finck 2005.
18. Bagley 2002; the 1850 San Diego County, Calif. census Roll: M432_35; Page: 280; Image: 544.
19. Fancher family correspondence (Fancher & Wallner 2006).
20. Bancroft 1889.
21. Linn 1902, Chap. XVI, 4th full paragraph.
22. ^ Carleton 1859. Cite error: The named reference "carleton" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
23. ^ Bagley 2002 Cite error: The named reference "bagley" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
24. (Fancher & Wallner 2006).
25. (Smart 1994)
26. It is believed that Hector and Eleanor were not formally divorced, but rather Eleanor claimed to be a single woman once leaving Hector and marrying Parley, see . Either way, Hector was unhappy with the result of the lawsuit and was later convicted of Pratt's murder. See also http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/mtn_meadows/9.html and http://www.prattconference.org/area_info.htm.
27. Brooks 1950, p. 36-37.
28. MacKinnon 2007
29. 35th United States Congress, 1 Session (1857). Nomination of Alfred Cumming as Governor of the Territory of Utah. Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America. Vol. 10. Washington D.C.: GPO. pp. p. 275. Retrieved 2007-06-21. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |origdate= ignored (|orig-date= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
30. ^ Young 1857 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFYoung1857 (help); Bagley 2002; Denton 2005, pp. 114–115 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFDenton2005 (help).
31. MacKinnon 2003.
32. Bagley 2002, p. 93 ....As a Mormon woman evacuating Carson Valley explained, "The last trains of this year would not get through, for they were to be cut off."
33. MacKinnon 2007.
34. Lee 1877, p. 251 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLee1877 (help).
35. Brooks, pp. 40–42 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBrooks (help); Bagley 2002, pp. 113–114; Denton 2003, p. 158. Historian Glen Leonard (co-author of the upcoming book Tragedy at Mountain Meadows) in an interview for the PBS series The Mormons explains it as "a new policy allow the Indians to take the cattle, which will teach the government a lesson that can't control the Indians." Whitney 2007 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFWhitney2007 (help)
36. Bigler 1998, pp. 167–68. Yet note that Robert Crockett in his review of Bagley's book argues that while Young "asked Indian tribal leaders to help scatter the cattle of the army and of all emigrants on the trail in front of the army in order to completely close the trail. ... When Brigham Young told the Indian tribes he wanted assistance in fighting the Americans, he meant only the army." Crockett 2003.
37. See Salt Lake Cutoff and the California Trail and Spanish Trail Cut a Roundabout Path Through Utah
38. ^ "Malinda (Cameron) Scott Thurston Deposition". Mountain Meadows Association. 1877-10-15. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
39. ^ Shirts 1994.
40. Thompson 1860, p. 75-80
41. Rogers 1860
42. Briggs 2006, p. 320
43. Briggs 2006.
44. Brooks 1950, p. xxi.
45. Burns & Ives 1996, Episode 4; http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no88.htm; http://www.youknow.com/chris/essays/misc/mtnmeadows.html
46. Mountain Meadows Massacre in Tietoa Mormonismista Suomeksi.
47. Whitney 2007 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFWhitney2007 (help)
48. Brigham Young to Isaac C. Haight, Sept. 10, 1857, Letterpress Copybook 3:827–28, Brigham Young Office Files, LDS Church Archives.
49. James H. Haslam, interview by S. A. Kenner, reported by Josiah Rogerson, Dec. 4, 1884, typescript, 11, in Josiah Rogerson, Transcripts and Notes of John D. Lee Trials, LDS Church Archives.
50. See this review of Bagley's book by Jeff Needle of the Association of Mormon Letters where this subject is debated. For more information see
51. "Remembering Mountain Meadows", published in the LDS Church's Church News 23 June 2007, with information gleaned from lectures by historians Ron Walker and Richard Turley on a bus tour of the massacre site on 28 May
52. Gibbs 1910, p. 230
53. Brooks 1950, p. 51
54. http://www.xmission.com/~country/reason/lee_mm.htm
55. Which insinuating tableau raised the eyebrows of federal investigators (See Carleton 1859's mention that the sisters were later found naked with slit throats.)—then was used to a striking effect in a turn-of-the-century exposé. (See Gibbs 1910, who says that fifty years after the massacre a Mormon woman who was a child at the time of the massacre recalled hearing LDS women in St. George, about 15 miles from the Mountain Meadows, say both girls were raped before they were killed—which is repeated in Denton 2003.) Brooks 1950, p. 105, The Mountain Meadows Massacre argues that "circumstances surrounding the massacre make highly improbable....surrounded by excited Indians, with more than fifty Mormon men in the immediate vicinity." Brooks (whose biography of Lee had been commissioned by the Lee family) holds as more reliable an eyewitness account confirming the poor Dunlap girls had been murdered despite their pleadings, without any further insinuations.
56. (Whitney & Barnes 2007).
57. (Brooks 1950, p. chapt.8)
58. Multiple sources claim that Lee protested and prohibited the death of all children that were assumed to be under the age of eight, and directed that they be placed in the care of one who was not involved in the massacre. See for example, http://www.mtn-meadows-assoc.com/jdlconfession.htm. Not all of the young children were spared, however; at least one infant was killed in his father's arms by the same bullet that killed the adult man.
59. John D. Lee's Confessions state that he directed Knight and McMurdy to take charge of the children as well.
60. Klingensmith 1875; Carleton 1859 ("... when told of the 17 orphan children who were brought by such a crowd to her house of one small room there in the darkness of night, two of the children cruelly mangled and the most of them with their parents' blood still wet upon their clothes, and all of them shrieking with terror and grief and anguish, her own mother heart was touched.").
61. Nancy Saphrona Huff picture archived at buryingthepast.com
62. (Rogers 1860)
63. (Thompson 1860) Capt.Campbell p.15, J.Forney p.79
64. (Bagley 2002, p. p.237)
65. (Thompson 1860)p. 57, 71
66. Weekly Stockton Democrat; 5 June 1859. As quoted at this website http://1857massacre.com/MMM/WeeklyStocktonDemocrat.htm. "Both and a boy named Miram recognized dresses and a part of the jewelry belonging to their mothers, worn by the wives of John D. Lee, the Mormon Bishop of Harmony. The boy, Miram, identified his father's oxen, which are now owned by Lee."
67. Briggs 2006, pp. 316–17.
68. Hamilton 1857.
69. Hurt 1859, p. 95–96.
70. Hurt 1859, p. 96. This would have been Isaac C. Haight, who was actually the stake president of Cedar City, which ranks higher than a bishop. There were several bishops in Cedar City.
71. Hurt 1857; Hurt 1859, p. 97.
72. Forney 1859, p. 1.
73. Fisher 2003.
74. After the massacre, the decision was made to take the children to the nearby Hamblin home; however, Hamblin was gone at the time of the killings. Hamblin's testimony in this regard is as following (Q=attorney in Lee's trial; A=Hamblin):
    "Q: What became of the children of those emigrants? How many children were brought there?
    A: Two to my house, and several in Cedar City. I was acting subagent for Forney. I gathered the children up for him; seventeen in number, all I could learn of.
    Q: Whom did you deliver them to?
    A: Forney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Utah."
75. Brooks, pp. 78–79 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBrooks (help)
76. Carleton, 1859 & p.14 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCarleton1859p.14 (help)
77. Forney 1859, p. 1.
78. Carleton 1859
79. Cradlebaugh 1859, p. 3 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFCradlebaugh1859 (help); Carrington 1859, p. 2.
80. Brooks 1950, p. 133
81. Briggs 2006, p. 315.
82. Briggs 2006, p. 315
83. Briggs 2006, p. 315
84. http://library.dixie.edu/info/Collections/Brooks/TragedyatMountainMeadowsMassacre.html
85. (MacKinnon 2007, p. endnote 50)
86. (MacKinnon 2007, p. 57)
87. Minutes of meeting of Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, 12 Feb. 1849, p. 3 (LDS Archives), cited in Quinn 1997, p. 238.
88. Melville 1960, p. 33.
89. Quinn 1997, p. 238–39.
90. Fillmore 1850, p. 252
91. John Taylor (1857), JD 5:266 ("We used to have a difference between Church and State, but it is all one now. Thank God."). In 1856, Young said "the government of God, as administered here" may to some seem "despotic" because "t 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"; however, "does not give every person his rights?" (Young 1856, p. 256) harv error: no target: CITEREFYoung1856 (help). Removed as governor during the Utah War, Young yet retained a great deal of control until his death in 1877 (Melville 1960, p. 48).
92. Young 1857, p. 219 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFYoung1857 (help).
93. Theft was an early and acute problem even before the Saints arrived in the Territory, and according to the "law of God", the penalty for theft was to have one's throat cut. For example, on the Mormon Trail, Young threatened adherents who had stole wagon cover strings and rail timber with having their throats cut "when they get out of the settlements where his orders could be executed" (Roberts 1932, p. 597) harv error: no target: CITEREFRoberts1932 (help). Young also gave orders that "when a man is found to be a thief,...cut his throat & thro' him in the River" (Diary of Thomas Bullock, 13 December 1846). Young believed for repeated sins decapitation "is the law of God & it shall be executed". (See the diary of Willard Richards, Dec. 20, 1846; Watson, Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1846-1847, p. 480.) In Utah, Young said "a theif should not live in the Valley, for he would cut off their heads or be the means of haveing it done as the Lord lived." (See the Diary of Mary Haskin Parker Richards, 16 Apr. 1848).
94. A Mormon who listened to a sermon by Young in 1849 recorded that Young said "if any one was catched stealing to shoot them dead on the spot and they should not be hurt for it." (See the diary of Daniel Davis, 8 July 1849, the LDS archives, as quoted in (Quinn 1997, p. 247)). Young 1856b, p. 247 (anyone intended to "execute judgment…has got to have clean hands and a pure heart,…else they had better let the matter alone").
95. "their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins". (See Young 1856d, p. 53.)
96. To do so, the guilty party must have "their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins". (See Young 1856d, p. 53.) The blood atonement doctrine was initially taught in 1845, but was most frequently preached during the Mormon Reformation in 1856 and 1857. The doctrine was mainly directed toward "covenant breakers" who broke their temple covenants by such sins as adultery or miscegenation and needed to make a blood atonement to enter the Celestial Kingdom. (See Young 1852; Grant 1854a, p. 2; Pratt 1855, p. 357; Young 1856b, p. 246; Kimball 1857a, p. 174; Young 1857b, p. 219.) Later, however, the doctrine was applied to the sins of apostasy. (See Young 1857b, p. 220; Kimball 1857b, p. 375.) and murder, (See Kimball 1859, p. 236 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFKimball1859 (help).) which were usually considered unpardonable. (See Young 1857b, p. 220; LDS D&C 42:18; Penrose 1883, p. 376.)
97. Young 1856b, p. 245–46; Kimball 1857a, p. 174; Young 1857b, p. 219.
98. Young 1856b, p. 247 (stating that if "you found your brother in bed with your wife, and put a javelin through both of them, you would be justified, and they would atone for their sins, and be received into the kingdom of God"); Young 1857, p. 219 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFYoung1857 (help) ("f 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")
99. Young 1856b, p. 245 (acknowledging that it might seem, based on rhetoric from the pulpit, that "every one who did not walk to the line was at once going to be destroyed", but thus far, he said, nobody had been killed, though implementation of the doctrine "is not far distant"); Young 1867, p. 30 ("Is there war in our religion? No; neither war nor bloodshed. Yet our enemies cry out 'bloodshed,' and 'oh, what dreadful men these Mormons are, and those Danites! how they slay and kill!' Such is all nonsense and folly in the extreme. The wicked slay the wicked, and they will lay it on the Saints.")
100. Young 1877, p. 242 (when Young was asked after Lee's execution if he believed in blood atonement, he replied, "I do, and I believe that Lee has not half atoned for his great crime".).
101. Lee 1877, p. 251–52 harvnb error: no target: CITEREFLee1877 (help).
102. 1857, p. 219–20 harvnb error: no target: CITEREF1857 (help) (stating that the "law of God" was not yet "in full force", but in the meantime, "if this people will sin no more, but faithfully live their religion, their sins will be forgiven them without taking life")
103. Utah State Division of Parks and Recreation Shirts (1994). See pictures on 1990 Monument
104. See pictures at 1999 Monument.
105. Smith 2001
106. [http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/225923/1 "Mountain Meadows reconciliation"] , editorial in The (Provo, Utah) Daily Herald; 19 June 2007
107. Brown, Barbara Jones (April 24, 2007). "Mountain Meadows relatives mark 150th anniversary". Deseret Morning News. Retrieved 2007-06-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
108. Bagley 2002, p. 11–12
109. Ford 1854, p. 411–12
110. Holland, Jeffrey R. (March 4, 2006). (Interview) http://www.pbs.org/mormons/interviews/holland.html. Retrieved 2007-06-14. {{cite interview}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |program= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |subjectlink= ignored (|subject-link= suggested) (help)
111. MacDonald, G. Jeffrey (April 28, 2007). "Debating History: Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?". Washington Post. pp. p. B09. Retrieved 2007-04-28. {{cite news}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help)
112. Press release (2007-03-26).
113. See Farms review, Variety , or Politico.com.

References

1. Abanes, Richard (2003), One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church, New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, ISBN 1568582838.
2. Bagley, Will (2002), Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-3426-7.
3. Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1889), The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: History of Utah, 1540–1886, vol. 26, San Francisco: History Company, LCC F826.B2 1889, LCCN 07018413 (Internet Archive versions).
4. Beadle, John Hanson (1870), "Chapter VI. The Bloody Period.", Life in Utah, Philadelphia: National Publishing, pp. 177–195, LCC BX8645 .B4 1870, LCCN 30005377.
5. Bigler, David (1998), Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896, Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, ISBN 0-87421-245-6.
6. Briggs, Robert H. (2006), "The Mountain Meadows Massacre: An Analytical Narrative Based on Participant Confessions" (PDF), Utah Historical Quarterly, 74 (4): 313–333.
7. Brooks, Juanita (1950), Mountain Meadows Massacre, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-2318-4.
8. Buerger, David John (2002), The Mysteries of Godliness: A History of Mormon Temple Worship (2nd ed.), Salt Lake City: Signature Books, ISBN 1560851767.
9. Burns, Ken; Ives, Stephen (1996), New Perspectives on the West (Documentary), Washington, D.C.: PBS.
10. Cannon, Frank J.; Knapp, George L. (1913), Brigham Young and His Mormon Empire, New York: Fleming H. Revell Co..
11. Carleton, James Henry (1859), Special Report on the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Washington: Government Printing Office (published 1902).
12. Carrington, Albert, ed. (April 6 1859), "The Court & the Army", Deseret News, 9 (5): 2 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
13. Carrington, Albert, ed. (1 December 1869), "Mountain Meadows Massacre", Deseret News, 18 (43): 6–7 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
14. Christian, J. Ward (October 4 1857), Hamilton, Henry (ed.), "Horrible Massacre of Arkansas and Missouri Emigrants", Los Angeles Star, San Bernardino (published October 10 1857) {{citation}}: |contribution= ignored (help); Check date values in: |date= and |publication-date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
15. Cradlebaugh, John (March 29 1859), Anderson, Kirk (ed.), "Discharge of the Grand Jury", Valley Tan, vol. 1, no. 22, p. 3 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |publication-date= (help).
16. Cradlebaugh, John (February 7, 1863), Utah and the Mormons: a Speech on the Admission of Utah as a State, 37th United States Congress, 3rd Session {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link) CS1 maint: location (link).
17. Crockett, Robert D. (2003), "A trial lawyer reviews Will Bagleys' Blood of the Prophets", FARMS Review, 15 (2): 199–254.
18. Denton, Sally (2003), American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 0-375-41208-5. Washington Post review and Letter to the editor in response to the review.
19. Dunn, Jacob Piatt (1886), Massacres of the Mountains: A History of the Indian Wars of the Far West, New York: Harper & Brothers.
20. Erickson, Dan (1996), "Joseph Smith's 1891 Millennial Prophecy: The Quest for Apocalyptic Deliverance", Journal of Mormon History, 22 (2): 1–34.
21. Fancher, Lynn-Marie; Wallner, Alison C. (2006), 1857: An Arkansas Primer To The Mountain Meadows Massacre.
22. Fillmore, Millard (September 26 1850), "I nominate Brigham Young, of Utah, as governor of the Territory of Utah", in McCook, Anson G. (ed.), Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America, vol. 8, Washington, D.C.: GPO (published 1887), p. 252 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
23. Finck, James (2005), "Mountain Meadows Massacre", in Dillard, Tom W. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, Little Rock, Arkansas: Encyclopedia of Arkansas Project.
24. Fisher, Alyssa (2003-09-16), "A Sight Which Can Never Be Forgotten", Archaeology, Archaeological Institute of America {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
25. Ford, Thomas (1854), A History of Illinois, from its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847, Chicago: S.C. Griggs & Co..
26. Forney, J. (May 5 1859), "Visit of the Superintendent of Indian Affairs to Southern Utah", Deseret News, vol. 9, no. 10 (published May 11 1859), p. 1 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |publication-date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
27. Gibbs, Josiah F. (1910), The Mountain Meadows Massacre, Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Tribune, LCC F826 .G532 LCCN 37010372.
28. Grant, Jedediah M. (March 12, 1854), "Discourse", Deseret News, vol. 4, no. 20 (published July 27 1854), pp. 1–2 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |publication-date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
29. Grant, Jedediah M. (April 2 1854), "Fulfilment of Prophecy—Wars and Commotions", in Watt, G.D. (ed.), Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, His Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, vol. 2, Liverpool: F.D. & S.W. Richards (published 1855), pp. 145–49 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
30. Hamilton, Henry, ed. (1857), "Horrible Massacre of Arkansas and Missouri Emigrants", Los Angeles Star (published October 10 1857) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |publication-date= (help).
31. Hurt, Garland (December 4 1859), "Letter from Garland Hurt, Utah Territorial Indian Agent, to Col. A.S. Johnston, U.S. Army", in Thompson, Jacob (ed.), Message of the President of the United States: communicating, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, information in relation to the massacre at Mountain Meadows, and other massacres in Utah Territory, Washington, D.C., pp. 92–98 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |publication-year= ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
32. Hurt, Garland (October 24 1857), The Executive Documents Printed by Order of the Senate of the United States, First Session of the Thirty-sixth Congress, Washington, D.C.: George W. Bowman (published 1860) {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
33. Kimball, Heber C. (January 11 1857), "The Body of Christ-Parable of the Vine-A Wile Enthusiastic Spirit Not of God-The Saints Should Not Unwisely Expose Each Others' Follies", in Watt, G.D. (ed.), Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, and the Twelve Apostles, vol. 4, Liverpool: S.W. Richards (published 1857), pp. 164–81 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
34. Kimball, Heber C. (August 16 1857), "Limits of Forebearance-Apostates-Economy-Giving Endowments", in Watt, G.D. (ed.), Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, and the Twelve Apostles, vol. 4, Liverpool: S.W. Richards (published 1857), pp. 374–76 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
35. Kimball, Heber C. (August 28 1859), "Greater Responsibilities of Those Who Know the Truth, &c.", in Lyman, Amasa (ed.), Journal of Discourses Delivered by President Brigham Young, His Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, vol. 7, Liverpool: Amasa Lyman (published 1860), pp. 231–37 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help).
36. Klingensmith, Philip (September 5 1872), written at Lincoln County, Nevada, Toohy, Dennis J. (ed.), "Mountain Meadows Massacre", Corinne Daily Reporter, 5 (252), Corinne, Utah (published September 24 1872): 1 {{citation}}: |contribution= ignored (help); Check date values in: |date= and |publication-date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
37. Klingensmith, Philip (July 23–24, 1875), written at Beaver City, Utah, Testimony, First trial of John D. Lee, Braintree, MA: Mountain Meadows Association{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
38. Lee, John D. (1977), Bishop, William W. (ed.), Mormonism Unveiled; or the Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee, St. Louis, Missouri: Bryan, Brand & Co..
39. Linn, William Alexander (1902), The Story of the Mormons: From the Date of their Origin to the Year 1901, New York: McMillan (scanned versions).
40. Lynch, James (July 22 1859), Affidavit of James Lynch Regarding the Mountain Meadows Massacre September 1857 Sworn Testimony {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link); also included in Brooks (1991) Appendix XII.
41. MacKinnon, William P. (2003), "'Like Splitting a Man Up His Backbone': The Territorial Dismemberment of Utah" (PDF), Utah Historical Quarterly, 71 (2): 1850–96.
42. MacKinnon, William P. (2007), "Loose in the stacks, a half-century with the Utah War and its legacy" (PDF), Dialogue, a journal of Mormon thought, 40 (1): 43–81.
43. McMurtry, Larry (2005), Oh what a slaughter : massacres in the American West, 1846-1890, New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN ISBN 074325077X {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help). BookReporter.com review.
44. Melville, J. Keith (1960), "Theory and Practice of Church and State During the Brigham Young Era" (PDF), BYU Studies, 3 (1): 33–55.
45. Mitchell, William C. (April 26 1860), List of the Mountain Meadows Massacre Victims, Letter to A. B. Greenwood, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
46. Novak, Shannon; Rodseth, Lars (2006), "Remembering Mountain Meadows: Collective violence and manipulation of social boundaries", Journal of Anthropological Research, 62 (1): 1–25, ISSN 0091-7710{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link).
47. Penrose, Charles W. (July 4 1883), "An Unpardonable Offense", Deseret News, vol. 32, no. 24, p. 376 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
48. Pratt, Parley P. (December 31 1855), "Marriage and Morals in Utah", Deseret News, vol. 5, no. 45 (published January 16 1856), pp. 356–57 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |publication-date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
49. Quinn, D. Michael (1997), The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power, Salt Lake City: Signature Books, ISBN 1-56085-060-4.
50. Rogers, Wm. H. (February 29 1860), "The Mountain Meadows Massacre", Valley Tan, vol. 2, no. 16, pp. 2–3 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link); also included in Brooks (1991) Appendix XI.
51. Sessions, Gene (2003), "Shining New Light on the Mountain Meadows Massacre", FAIR Conference 2003, FAIR.
52. Shirts, Morris (1994), "Mountain Meadows Massacre", in Powell, Allen Kent (ed.), Utah History Encyclopedia, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
53. Smart, Donna T. (1994), "Parley Parker Pratt", in Powell, Allen Kent (ed.), Utah History Encyclopedia, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
54. Smith, Christopher (January 21, 2001), "Forensic Study Aids Tribe's View Of Mountain Meadows Massacre", Salt Lake Tribune, pp. A1, ISSN 0746-3502 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
55. Smith, George A. (September 13 1857), "Remarks, Bowery", Deseret News, vol. 7, no. 29 (published September 23 1857), pp. 2–3 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |publication-date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
56. Stenhouse, T.B.H. (1873), The Rocky Mountain Saints: a Full and Complete History of the Mormons, from the First Vision of Joseph Smith to the Last Courtship of Brigham Young, New York: D. Appleton, ID=LCC BX8611 .S8 1873, LCCN 16024014, ASIN: B00085RMQM {{citation}}: Missing pipe in: |id= (help).
57. Thompson, Jacob (1860), Message of the President of the United States: communicating, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, information in relation to the massacre at Mountain Meadows, and other massacres in Utah Territory, 36th Congress, 1st Session, Exec. Doc. No. 42, Washington, D.C. {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
58. Turley, Richard E., Jr. (September 2007), "The Mountain Meadows Massacre", Ensign, Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ISSN 0884-1136 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link).
59. Twain, Mark (1873), Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing.
60. Waite, C.V. (Catherine Van Valkenburg) (1868), The Mormon Prophet and His Harem: Or, an Authentic History of Brigham Young, His Numerous Wives and Children, Chicago: J.S. Goodman & Co..
61. Walker, Ronald W. (2003), ""Save the emigrants," Joseph Clewes on the Mountain Meadows massacre" (PDF), BYU studies, 42 (1): 139–152.
62. Whitney, Helen; Barnes, Jane (2007), The Mormons (Documentary), Washington, D.C.: PBS.
63. Young, Brigham; Kimball, Heber C.; Hyde, Orson; Pratt, Parley P.; Smith, William; Pratt, Orson; Page, John E.; Taylor, John; Woodruff, Wilford; Smith, George A.; Richards, Willard; Lyman, Amasa M. (April 6 1845), Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-Day Saints, New York: LDS Church {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
64. Young, Brigham (February 5 1852), Speach by Gov. Young in Joint Session of the Legeslature (sic), Brigham Young Addresses, Ms d 1234, Box 48, folder 3, LDS Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link) CS1 maint: location (link).
65. Young, Brigham (March 2, 1856a), "The Necessity of the Saints Living up to the Light Which Has Been Given Them", in Watt, G.D. (ed.), Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, vol. 3, Liverpool: Orson Pratt (published 1856), pp. 221–226 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
66. Young, Brigham (March 16, 1856b), "Instructions to the Bishops—Men Judged According to their Knowledge—Organization of the Spirit and Body—Thought and Labor to be Blended Together", in Watt, G.D. (ed.), Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, vol. 3, Liverpool: Orson Pratt (published 1856), pp. 243–49 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
67. Young, Brigham (March 16, 1856c), "Difficulties Not Found Among the Saints Who Live Their Religion—Adversity Will Teach Them Their Dependence on God—God Invisibly Controls the Affairs of Mankind", in Watt, G.D. (ed.), Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, vol. 3, Liverpool: Orson Pratt (published 1856), pp. 254–60 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
68. Young, Brigham (September 21, 1856d), "The People of God Disciplined by Trials—Atonement by the Shedding of Blood—Our Heavenly Father—A Privilege Given to all the Married Sisters in Utah", in Watt, G.D. (ed.), Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, and the Twelve Apostles, vol. 4, Liverpool: S.W. Richards (published 1857), pp. 51–63 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link).
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See also

• List of members of the Fancher party
• Illinois Mormon War (1844–1845)
• Mormon Exodus (1846–1857)
• Morrisite War (1862)

External links

• Mountain Meadows Association – "An unusual mix of historians and descendants of massacre victims and perpetrators" (The Salt Lake Tribune).
• An account of the Mountain Meadows Massacre from the Court TV Crime Library
• The Mountain Meadows Massacre -Ensign article by Richard E. Turley Jr., Managing Director, Family and Church History Department (LDS Church)
• Background articles from Comprehensive History of the Church, Messages of the First Presidency - President Wilford Woodruff, and The Restored Church
• Images of the current Mountain Meadows monument and surrounding area
• Resources and Links from the Mountain Meadows Association
• Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought Search the site for many references to Mountain Meadows massacre; research, articles, and personal interview with Juanita Brooks by Mormon scholars and noted historians.
• Mark Twains Accounts of the Goshutes, a Uto-Aztecan Tribe (Ute/Paiute) in Utah.
• Paiute Indians on Utah.gov

• 1857 in the United States
• History of Arkansas
• History of the American West
• History of the Latter Day Saint movement
• History of Utah
• Massacres by Native Americans
• Massacres in the United States
• Religiously motivated violence in the United States
• Religious scandals
• Mormonism-related controversies
• Archaeological sites in Utah