The Mountain Meadows Massacre

What is the Mountain Meadows Massacre?

On September 7, 1857, John D. Lee[BIO] led a group of Paiute Indians[BIO] and Mormon militiamen to attack the Baker-Fancher wagon train.[BIO][1] After a prolonged gun battle, siege, and feigned ceasefire agreement,[2] approximately 50 to 60 Mormon militiamen and a number of Paiute Indians arrived and massacred the wagon company on September 11, 1857.[3]

The attackers spared 17 children, all of whom were under the age of six,[4] who were taken in by local Latter-day Saint families before eventually returning to Arkansas.[5]

Timetable of key events relating to Mountain Meadows Massacre.

June 27, 1844

Joseph[BIO] and Hyrum Smith[BIO] are murdered in Carthage Jail.[6]

1846–1869

The Saints leave eastern U.S. territory and gather in Utah and surrounding areas.[7]

1850-1857

The Saints experience various conflicts with the federal government over the management of Utah territory.[8]

May 1857

President James Buchanan's[BIO] administration declares that Utah is "in a state of substantial rebellion" and issues an order to send the military to the territory.[9]

June 1857

The Saints in Utah learn that apostle Parley P. Pratt[BIO] had been murdered in Arkansas.[10]

July 24, 1857

During the annual Pioneer Day celebration, Brigham Young[BIO] and the Latter-day Saints learn that a federal army is marching toward Utah led by General William S. Harney,[BIO] known as the "Squaw Killer" for leading a massacre of Sioux Indians in Nebraska.[11][12]

August 2, 1857

Brigham Young meets with Church leaders to discuss strategies related to the federal troops' impending attack on Utah, including gathering scattered Latter-day Saint settlements in the territory and calling missionaries abroad to come home.[13]

August 3, 1857

The Baker wagon train from Arkansas arrives in Salt Lake City with a group called the "Missouri Wild-cats" while the Fancher train from Kansas camped outside of Salt Lake City.[14] Members of the Baker train at this time reportedly threaten Mormon residents and insult Mormon women.[15]

August 9, 1857

Apostle George A. Smith[BIO] travels to southern Utah to warn the settlers to prepare for the attack by U.S. troops, putting the Saints on high alert.[16]

August 25, 1857

Smith camps near the Baker-Francher party, also known as the "Arkansas Company," on his way back to Salt Lake City, and the party is rumored to have given a "poisoned" ox to the local Native Americans.[17]

ca. September 3, 1857

The Baker-Fancher Party reach Cedar City, Utah.[18] Reportedly, some members of the company boast about murdering Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo and Missouri and threaten to kill more.[19]

ca. September 3, 1857

A drunk member of the Arkansas company reportedly goes to the house of Cedar City mayor Isaac C. Haight,[BIO] who was also stake president and a major in the militia, and harasses him.[20]

ca. September 3, 1857

Isaac Haight writes to William Dame[BIO] requesting assistance with the reportedly unruly wagon train, and Dame responds by ordering the train be allowed to depart in peace.[21]

September 4, 1857

Haight meets with John D. Lee and plans to arm Native Americans to attack the Arkansas wagon train, "give them a brush," and steal their cattle.[22]

September 5, 1857

Haight, Lee, John M. Higbee,[BIO] and Philip Klingensmith[BIO] meet with the Paiute Indians to convince them to attack the wagon train, and the Paiutes agree.[23]

September 6, 1857

In a council meeting in Cedar City, the stake presidency, the bishopric, and other local leaders meet to discuss what to do with the wagon train.[24] The council decides to send a rider to ask Brigham Young what should be done.[25]

The Attack, Siege, and Massacre at Mountain Meadows

September 7, 1857

Lee and the Paiutes make an initial attack on the wagon train, with casualties on both sides. The company circles its wagons and digs in to make a make-shift fort and a siege begins.[26]

September 7, 1857

Haight in Cedar City learns of the initial attack and sends James Haslam[BIO] to ride to Salt Lake City with a letter to Brigham Young asking what they should do.[27]

September 7, 1857

Haight sends Joseph Clewes[BIO] to the meadows to tell Lee to back off from further attacks while they wait for word from Brigham Young.[28]

September 7 or 8, 1857

Mormon militiaman William C. Stewart[BIO] shoots and kills emigrant William Aden,[BIO] but an emigrant known as "the Dutchman" escapes to the wagon corral.[29]

September 8, 1857

On their way to the meadows, a group of men from Cedar City, including Higbee and Klingensmith, kill two emigrants who were on their way to Cedar City seeking help.[30]

September 9, 1857

Lee sends a courier to Haight in Cedar City and suggests that men be sent to protect the emigrants from the Indians so the conflict can be called off.[31]

September 9, 1857

Higbee arrives at the meadows and talks with Lee. They decide they need the militia to end the standoff, so Higbee returns to Cedar City to inform Haight.[32]

September 9, 1857

Haight meets with Dame and they decide that the members of the wagon train need to be killed to cover up the involvement of the Mormons in the violence.[33]

September 10, 1857

Haight gathers militiamen in Cedar City and they leave for the meadows. Cedar City Relief Society minutes record that Eliza Ann Haight,[BIO] Haight's wife, taught the importance of avenging the blood of the prophets[34]

September 10, 1857

In council with Lee, Higbee and Pauite leaders decided to create a "decoy" and pretend to make a truce with the emigrants to draw them out of their wagon circle and kill them all except the "small children."[35]

September 10, 1857

James Haslam arrives in Salt Lake City to see Brigham Young on behalf of Haight. Brigham gives Haslam a letter instructing Haight to "not interfere" or "meddle" with the emigrants, and further tells Haslam to relay to Haight to let them "be protected and guarded out of the territory."[36] The correspondence arrives after the massacre.[37]

September 11, 1857

After a negotiated (false) surrender with the emigrants, 50 to 60 Mormon militiamen, along with an unspecified number of Paiute Indians,[38] attack and kill about 120 members of the company at Mountain Meadows.[39] Seventeen children under the age of six are spared.[40]

September 14, 1857

Unaware of the massacre three days previous, Brigham Young writes to Dame, directing him to prepare for the U.S. Government to arrive in force but to let others pass through the territory peacefully.[41]

November 20, 1857

Lee reports the massacre to Brigham Young, saying the Indians were responsible for it.[42]

Aftermath

1859

Jacob Forney,[BIO] the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, investigates the massacre.[43] Forney and Captain James Lynch[BIO] discover the children who survived the massacre had been living with Mormon families since 1857.[44]

March 1859

John Cradlebaugh[BIO] dismisses the Grand Jury that was convened to investigate the Mountain Meadows Massacre and other crimes in the territory, expressing his frustration with their unwillingness to indict suspects and the lack of cooperation from the community.[45]

May 12, 1859

Judge Elias Smith[BIO] issues an arrest warrant for Brigham Young.[46]

July 5, 1859

Brigham Young records in his office journal that he wanted to bring charges against those responsible for the massacre if there was a fair trial without interference from the U.S. Army.[47]

1861-1865

The American Civil War interrupts further investigation into the massacre.[48]

July 1875

John D. Lee, William H. Dame, Isaac C. Haight, John Higbee, George Adair Jr.,[BIO] Ellott Wilden,[BIO] Samuel Jukes,[BIO] Philip Klingensmith, and William C. Stewart are indicted for their roles in the massacre, and warrants are issued for their arrest.[49]

1874-1876

Some participants in the massacre go into hiding to avoid being brought to trial.[50] Two trials are held against Lee for his role in the massacre. The first trial ends in a hung jury.[51] The second results in his being found guilty.[52]

October 10, 1876

Judge Jacob E. Boreman[BIO] passes the death sentence on John D. Lee.[53]

March 23, 1877

John D. Lee is executed by firing squad.[54]

March 31, 1877

Brigham Young sends a telegraph to President Rutherford B. Hayes[BIO] requesting him to appoint a commission to investigate the massacre and punish the remaining offenders.[55]

Seventy-three years pass.

1950

Latter-day Saint historian Juanita Brooks[BIO] publishes The Mountain Meadows Massacre through the University of Oklahoma Press, the first academic work on the massacre.[56]

April-May 1961

Juanita Brooks and the descendants of John D. Lee petition the First Presidency to reinstate John D. Lee to all his former blessings.[57] In May 1961, the ordinances were performed.[58]

Forty-six years pass.

September 11, 1999

Gordon B. Hinckley[BIO] dedicates a monument at the site of the massacre honoring the memory of the victims.[59]

September 2007

Church leadership addresses the massacre on its 150th anniversary, condemning it.[60]

2008

Latter-day Saint historians Ronald W. Walker,[BIO] Richard E. Turley,[BIO] and Glen M. Leonard[BIO] publish the book Massacre at Mountain Meadows with Oxford University Press.[61]

Expand Timeline

What motivated the Mormons to attack the Baker-Fancher wagon train in the first place?

In response to threats and harassment from the wagon train as it passed through Cedar City, Isaac Haight, the mayor of Cedar City, directed John D. Lee to convince the Pauites to attack and harass the emigrant train.[62]

Then what happened? How did the attack become a massacre?

After the initial attacks on the wagon company by the Paiute Indians under the direction of John D. Lee, the battle became a siege.[63] On the fifth day of the siege, the Iron County militia arrived and negotiated a surrender from the wagon train, which had run low on water and ammunition and needed to tend to their wounded.[64] The negotiated surrender was a ruse, however, and once the emigrants had been disarmed, the militia and Paiutes murdered them all except the youngest children.[65]

Why is it called the Mountain Meadows Massacre?

The attack and massacre took place at the site of Mountain Meadows, which is roughly 35 miles southwest of Cedar City, Utah.[66]

Why did it become a massacre?

There were likely several factors (see table below). One reason given at John D. Lee's second trial was that the massacre was carried out to hide the fact that Mormon settlers were involved in attacking the emigrants.[67][68]

Factors that Contributed to the Massacre

Contributing Factors	Commentary
Political and Military	U.S. Army troops were marching toward Utah,[69] which would be later known as the "Utah War."[70]This would lead to violent rhetoric from Church leaders during this time (1857–1858)[71]as well as generate tension between members of the Church and the United States government.[72]
Political and Military	The Cedar City Council decided that the emigrants knew that the Mormons had been involved in the initial attack on the wagon company and that if they made it to California, there would be grave consequences for the Mormon settlers.[73]
Social	There were rumors that some in the Baker-Fancher company had been in the mob that killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith and that they were boasting about it.[74]
	According to some reports, the emigrant company had given poisoned meat to Indians, leading to Native American deaths.[75]
	Prior to the massacre, there were reported altercations between the emigrants and Paiutes.[76]
Religious	There were rumors that some in the Baker-Fancher company had been involved in the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and this may have pushed some to keep covenants they had made to avenge the martyrdom.[77]
Religious	During this time, Church leaders were delivering sermons that contained "blood atonement" rhetoric, often using graphic language and concepts such as the enemies of the Church and apostates being killed to atone for their sins.[78]

Expand Table

Were any of these reasons enough to justify the massacre?

No.

So who was ultimately responsible for the massacre?

The evidence indicates that responsibility for the massacre rests primarily on members and leaders of the Iron County Militia, including William H. Dame, Isaac Haight, John Higbee, and John D. Lee (see table below).[79]

Key figures involved in the Mountain Meadows Massacre and related events (July–September 1857)

Role	Figure(s)	Commentary
Key Figures	William H. Dame, Colonel, Bishop	William H. Dame was a colonel in the Iron County Militia. He initially directed the emigrants to be left alone, but Isaac Haight and John Higbee convinced him to murder all the adults in the Baker-Fancher Party to cover up Lee's involvement in the initial attack. Dame was indicted for his role in the massacre.[80]
	Isaac C. Haight, Mayor, Stake President, Major	Isaac C. Haight was the mayor of Cedar City, a Stake President, and a major in the Iron County Militia. He planned the initial attack by the Paiutes on the Baker-Fancher Party and then plotted the massacre. Haight was indicted for his role in the massacre.[81]
	John M. Higbee, Major	John M. Higbee was a major in the Iron County Militia and a participant in the massacre of the Baker-Fancher Party. He was indicted for his role in the massacre.[82]
	John D. Lee, Major	John D. Lee was a major in the Iron County Militia. He led the Pauites on the initial attack and siege and managed the faux surrender of the Baker-Fancher Party.[83] Lee was indicted and convicted for his role in the massacre and executed on March 23, 1877.[84]
	Nephi Johnson[BIO]	Nephi Johnson was a second lieutenant in the Iron County Militia, a Paiute interpreter, and a participant in the attack on the Baker-Fancher Party.[85]
	Philip Klingensmith	Philip Klingensmith was a private in the Iron County Militia and a participant in the massacre of the Baker-Fancher Party. He was indicted for his role in the massacre and turned state's evidence to avoid prosecution.[86]
	(Southern) Paiute Indians[BIO]	This Native American tribe is localized in northern Arizona, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah. Members of the tribe attacked and sieged the Baker-Fancher Party with John D. Lee and then assisted the Iron County Militia in the massacre.[87]
	Iron County Militia[BIO]	Iron County Militia was also known variously as the Iron Military District of Utah Territory’s Nauvoo Legion or the Cedar City Militia. It was a local militia in Southern Utah composed entirely of Latter-day Saints and was the military unit that perpetrated the massacre.[88]
	Missouri "Wildcats"[BIO]	The Missouri Wildcats was a group of Missourians reportedly traveling with the Baker-Fancher Party who reportedly made threats against Native Americans and Latter-day Saints.[89]
	Baker-Fancher Party[BIO]	This party was an emigrant train of about 120–150 members traveling from Arkansas to California.[90] They reportedly harassed and threatened the Mormon settlers[91] and were the victims of the massacre.
Church Leadership	Jacob Hamblin[BIO]	Jacob Hamblin was a missionary and Indian interpreter. He housed the surviving children of the Baker-Fancher Party immediately after the massacre.[92]
	George A. Smith	George A. Smith, an apostle, told settlers in Southern Utah to store grain in anticipation of the looming arrival of federal troops.[93]
	Daniel H. Wells[BIO]	Daniel H. Wells was the lieutenant general of the Nauvoo Legion and the second counselor to Brigham Young in the First Presidency. He led Latter-day Saint forces against federal troops in the Utah War.[94]
	Brigham Young	Brigham Young was the President of the Church and the governor of Utah Territory.[95]
Federal	United States Federal Troops	United States President James Buchanan dispatched a military expedition of about 2,500 men to put down a supposed "Mormon rebellion" and install a new governor in Utah Territory.[96]

Expand Table

Was Brigham Young responsible for the Mountain Meadows Massacre?

No. The evidence indicates that when he learned of the situation in Southern Utah, he instructed Isaac C. Haight to let the emigrants pass without interference.[97]

There is no known evidence suggesting that Brigham was involved in the massacre, but there were accusations made against him by John D. Lee's defense attorney and the popular press.[98]

But didn't John D. Lee accuse Brigham of orchestrating the massacre?

No. While Lee was bitter towards Brigham because he felt betrayed by him,[99] he said that Brigham knew nothing about the massacre, and if he did, he would have prevented it.[100]

Was John D. Lee responsible for the massacre?

Yes, in part. Though Lee was the only man legally held responsible for the massacre,[101] Isaac C. Haight and others also ordered or participated in the event.[102]

Were Native Americans also responsible for the massacre?

Yes, in part. Most sources agree they were willing participants in the massacre, though the massacre was organized and led by the local Mormon leadership of John D. Lee and Isaac Haight.[103]

As of September 2007, the official Paiute position is that the Native Americans had little, if any, involvement in the massacre.[104] This is also the claim made in Paiute oral traditions.[105]

Read More Difficult Questions

300 Primary Sources

Footnotes

BIOJohn Doyle Lee
John Doyle Lee (1812–1877) was born in Kaskasia, Illinois. Lee was an early Latter-day Saint leader and the adopted son of Brigham Young. He served a mission and was ordained a Seventy in 1839. He was admitted to the Council of Fifty in 1845. Lee practiced polygamy and was married to 19 women. Lee participated in Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857 and was found guilty and executed for his role in the massacre in 1870. He was reinstated to full blessings by the Church in May 1961.
BIOPaiute Indian Tribe of Utah
The Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah is part of the Southern Paiutes which are a Native American people inhabiting the Great Basin. They speak a Numic language. During the 19th century the Paiutes lived in bands consisting of several families. These bands lived in different geographical territories throughout Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. Some practiced farming in addition to hunting and gathering. The Paiutes generally traveled by foot instead of by horse.
BIOBaker-Fancher Party
Was a group of American western emigrants from Marion, Crawford, Carroll, and Johnson counties in Arkansas, who departed Carrol County in April 1857. With the exception of 17 children, the entire party were killed was massacred at Mountain Meadows on September 11, 1857.
BIOJoseph Smith, Jr.
Joseph Smith (1805–1844) organized The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Born in Sharon, Vermont, he began to experience visions of deity and angels at a young age. One vision featured the Angel Moroni, who revealed the location of gold plates with an account of ancient Americans. He translated this record and published it as The Book of Mormon. He continued to receive revelations throughout his life which serve as the foundation for the Church's doctrine today. He led the Latter-day Saints across the country from New York to Illinois. In 1844, he was martyred while awaiting trial in Carthage, Illinois.
BIOHyrum Smith
Hyrum Smith (1800–1844) was born in Tunbridge, Vermont. He was the older brother of Joseph Smith, who organized the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and served as the Church's second patriarch. He was one of the Eight Witnesses to the Book of Mormon. In 1837, he became Second Counselor in the First Presidency, and the following year, he was imprisoned alongside Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail. Hyrum Smith became the Church's new patriarch in 1841 after the death of his father, Joseph Smith, Sr., in Nauvoo. Hyrum also served as a member of the City Council, the Nauvoo Legion, and the Council of Fifty. He was martyred along with Joseph Smith in Carthage Jail in 1844.
BIOJames Buchanan
James Buchanan (April 23, 1791-June 1, 1868) Born in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania. Buchanan, after graduating from Dickinson College, moved to Lancaster, being accepted as an apprentice by James Hopkins, a leading lawyer. In 1812, Buchanan was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. In 1814 and 1815, Buchanan was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives as a member of the Federalist Party, and in 1820, would be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1856, he would be elected the 19th president of the United States. In July 1857, believing the Latter-day Saints under the leadership of Brigham Young to be in open rebellion, Buchanan sent an army, under the command of Alfred Cumming, to Utah to replace Brigham as governor. Buchanan would later dispatch Thomas L. Kane to negotiate peace, resulting in the new governor taking office and a cessation of the Utah War. Buchanan died on June 1, 1868, of respiratory failure at his home in Wheatland, Pennsylvania. Buchanan was a long-standing Freemason.
BIOParley P. Pratt
Parley Parker Pratt (1807–1857) was born in Burlington, Otsego County, New York. He joined Sidney Rigdon's congregation (Campbellites) in 1829 and was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1830. Pratt served as an early apostle in the Church. He served missions in the United States and abroad. He was a writer, editor, poet, publisher, teacher, and legislator. He also explored and surveyed what is now known as Parley's Canyon. In 1857, Hector McLean, the former husband of Pratt's plural wife, Eleanor McLean, killed him while Pratt was serving a mission in Arkansas.
BIOBrigham Young
Brigham Young (1801–1877) was an early Latter-day Saint leader. He was born in Whitingham, Vermont. and joined the faith in his twenties after two years of deliberation. He became the President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles following the fractionalization of the Church in Kirtland, Ohio. After Joseph Smith's martyrdom in 1844, Young assumed the presidency and led the Latter-day Saints to settle in the Great Basin region. He was married to fifty-five women and fathered fifty-nine children from sixteen of his wives. He also served as the Territorial Governor for Utah Territory until 1857 and as the prophet until his death.
BIOWilliam S. Harney
William Selby Harney (August 22, 1800 – May 9, 1889) was an American officer in the US Army who briefly commanded the Utah Expedition of federal troops during the Utah War of 1857–1858. Harney also fought in the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, and the First Sioux War where he gained the nickname "Squaw Killer" for his role in the 1855 massacre of an Indian village.
BIOGeorge A. Smith
George Albert Smith (1817-1875) was born in Potsdam, New York. His father was John Smith, a younger brother of Joseph Smith Sr., and was baptized in 1832. His family moved to Kirtland, Ohio in 1833. Smith participated in Zion's Camp and also served several missions. Smith was ordained as an apostle in 1839. He married Bathseba Wilson Bigler in Nauvoo in 1841. Smith came to Utah in 1847 and was involved in various settlement efforts. He served in the First Presidency from 1868 until his death. Smith was also Church Historian and Trustee-in-Trust for the church.
BIOIsaac C. Haight
Isaac Chauncey Haight (May 27, 1813–September 8, 1886). Baptized a member of the Church March 3, 1839 and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois in 1842. He would serve as one of forty men in the Nauvoo police force beginning December 1843. Served a mission in England from 1850 to 1853. While not a participant in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, he played a major leadership role in its planning and execution. Beginning in 1859, Haight avoided capture by hiding from legal authorities. He would be excommunicated in 1870 but reinstated in 1874. Haight died September 8, 1886, in Thatcher, Arizona at the age of 73.
BIOWilliam H. Dame
William H. Dame (July 15, 1819—August 16, 1884) Born in Farmington, New Hamshire. He and his wife joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1842 and moved to Nauvoo in 1844. From there he migrated to Utah in 1848. Dame served as the first mayor of Parowan, Utah in 1851 and later as a president of the Parowan Stake. He was a member of the Utah Territorial Legislature and a commander of the Iron County Militia. On the morning of September 12, 1857, Dame, Isaac Hiahgt, and others arrived at the site of the Mountain Meadows massacre and had a heated argument about who ordered the massacre. Dam was arrested in connection with the massacre on November 18, 1874, and held in custody for two years; however, due to insufficient evidence, the charges against him were dropped.
BIOJohn M. Higbee
John Mount Higbee (May 6, 1827-December 11, 1904) In 1857 Higbee was the marshal of Cedar City and was a major in the local militia. Higbee was an active participant and leader in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. On September 11, at Mountain Meadows, he gave the predetermined signal for the massacre to begin. He would later marry Eunice Bladen on May 14, 1859. In 1896, after Utah achieved statehood, the indictment against him for his participation in the Mountain Meadows Massacrein was dismissed.
BIOPhilip Klingensmith
Philip Klingensmith (1815-1881[?]) First bishop appointed in Cedar City. He was an active participant at Mountain Meadows. Prior to such, he was a member of several councils that planned what to do with the emigrants. In 1871 Klingensmith became the first massacre participant to publicly break his silence when he prepared an affidavit in 1871. Although he was one of the nine men indicted for the massacre, Klingensmith turned state's evidence and became the leading witness for the prosecution in John D. Lee's first trial. Klingensmith returned to Beaver for Lee's second trial but was not called to the witness stand. He is believed to have died sometime in 1881.
BIOJames Haslam
James Holy Haslam (September 16, 1825–March 13, 1913) was an early Latter-day Saint convert and settler of Iron County in Utah Territory. During the events of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Haslam was dispatched as an express rider to Salt Lake City to obtain word from Brigham Young on what to do about the situation with the besieged emigrants passing through the territory. In 1860 he relocated to Cache Valley, settling in Wellsville, where he died in 1913.
BIOJoseph Clewes
Joseph Clewes/Clews (October 12, 1831–September 3, 1894) was an early Latter-day Saint convert and private in the Iron County Militia at the time of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. During the massacre Clewes served as an express rider between the massacre site and Cedar City, headquarters of the militia. Clewes later became disaffected from the Church and moved with his family to San Bernardino, California, where he died in 1894.
BIOWilliam C. Stewart
William Cameron Stewart (January 16, 1827–January 23, 1895) Born in Elangmore, Scotland, He joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1851 and immigrated to Utah in 1853. Stewart was a member of the Iron County Militia who participated in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In the events leading up to the main attack on September 11, 1857, Stewart reportedly shot and killed emigrant William Aden on or about September 8. Stewart also reportedly murdered additional emigrants during the main attack on September 11 and was seen looting some of the bodies afterward. In 1874 Stewart was indicted for his role in the massacre but was never brought to trial. He would later go into hiding, with some reporting that he was in Bull Mountains near the Rio Virgin River. his wife, Mary Ann, living in Cedar City, identified herself as a widow on the 1880 U.S. Census, although Stewart did not pass away until January 23, 1895, in Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico.
BIOWilliam Aden
William Aden (abt. 1838–September 7, 1857) Born in Henry County, Tennessee. Aden was an emigrant member of the Baker-Fancher Company from Tennessee who was killed by Latter-day Saint militiaman William C. Stewart in the days leading up to the Mountain Meadows Massacre on September 7, 1857. Aden's murder that was witnessed by his traveling companion was, according to some sources, the catalyst that motivated members of the Iron County Militia to attack the rest of the company to cover up his death.
BIOEliza Ann Haight
Eliza Ann Haight (October 22, 1815-May 24, 1888) Born in Sempronius, Cayuga, New York. She married Isaac Haight on December 31, 1836. Eliza joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1838 and moved with the Saints to Nauvoo and then the Salt Lake Valley. In 1853 she and her family moved to Cedar City, Utah, where she resided until her death.
BIOJacob Forney
Jacob Forney (November 3, 1815-October 1862) Born in Pennsylvania. He and his wife Elizabeth resided in Bittanning, Pennsylvania, with their daughter. Forney received his commission as superintendent of Indian Affairs for Utah Territory on September 9, 1857. His responsibilities included overseeing relations between Native Americans and the U.S. government, as well as local settlers, including many Latter-day Saints who had settled in the Utah Territory. Forney received his commission as superintendent of Indian Affairs for Utah Territory on September 9, 1857. During this time, he investigated the Mountain Meadows Massacre and was responsible for retrieving the seventeen surviving emigrant children in 1859. During the U.S. Civil War, Forney enlisted and served as a major in the 107th regiment of the Pennsylvania Volunteers. His service was cut short due to illness, and he died in October 1862.
BIOJames Lynch
James Lynch (December 1820-1910) Born in New York. Lynch was a Mexican War veteran. In 1859 he was employed as a teamster at Camp Floyd. That same year he assisted Jacob Forney in recovering the surviving emigrant children. He would later marry Sarah Elizabeth Dunlap, one of the children he helped rescue. he died in Calhoun County, Arkansas, in 1910.
BIOJohn Cradlebaugh
John Cradlebaugh (February 22, 1819 – February 22, 1872) was born in Circleville, Ohio, where he would later practice law and engage in the political affairs of the state. In 1858, he was appointed by President James Buchanan as one of the federal judges for the territory of Utah. In March 1859, Cradlebaugh convened a grand jury in Provo, Utah concerning the Mountain Meadows Massacre and several other unsolved murders and crimes in the territory. The jury declined to return any indictments or deliver a report on the charges, leading to their dismissal. Later, from 1861 to 1863, he would be elected a delegate from Nevada for the U.S. Congress, opposing the admission of Utah into the Union.
BIOElias Smith
Elias Smith (September 6, 1804–June 24, 1888) Born in Royalton, Vermont, the son of Asael Smith, Jr. and Elizabeth Schellenger. In 1809, his father emigrated to Stockholm, New York. Elias was a cousin to Joseph Smith, Jr., and was baptized a member of the Church on August 27, 1835 by Hyrum Smith. Elias was with the Twelve at the conference held at Far West on April 26, 1839, in fulfillment of a prophecy (D&C 118). He married Lucy Brown at Nauvoo on August 6, 1845. After moving with the Latter-day Saints to Utah, he became a judge and an editor of the Deseret News. Elias would later serve as president of all the High Priests in the church from 1870 to 1877 and president of the High Priests' quorum in the Salt Lake Stake of Zion from 1877 to 1888. From 1851 to 1882, he would also serve as probate judge of Salt Lake County. Elias Smith died in his home in Salt Lake City On June 24, 1888.
BIOGeorge Washington Adair, Jr.
George Washington Adair, Jr. (June 27, 1837-September 9, 1909) Born in Alabama. Joined the Church with his family in November 1845 in Fulton, Mississippi. After moving to Nauvoo, they subsequently moved to southern Utah. Adair went to Mountain Meadows with a company from Washington not long after the Arkansas emigrants were first attacked. After the massacre, Adair assisted in burning the dead. Adair was one of only five people arrested for their role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, but the charges against him were dismissed in 1879.
BIOEllott Wilden
Ellott Wilden (September 28, 1833– October 1920) Born in Laughton, Yorkshire, England. His family joined the Church in England and immigrated to the United States in 1849. They lived in Iowa before moving to Utah in 1852, settling in Cedar City. Wilden was a member of the Iron County Militia who was reportedly at the scene of the Mountain Meadows Massacre on September 11, 1857. Although the extent of his involvement with the massacre is unknown, he later left detailed accounts of the events that transpired leading up to the attack. Wilden was indicted for his role in the massacre in 1874 but the charges were ultimately dismissed. In January 1892, Willden gave extensive information regarding the massacre to Church historian Andrew Jenson. Willden died in Beavoer in October 1920.
BIOSamuel Jukes
Samuel Jukes (alt. Jewkes) (1823–1900) Born in Tipton, Staffordshire in central England. His family resided in Staffordshire or Worcestershire for several generations. He married Sophia Lewis in 1851. By 1852, the Jukes joined the Philip De La Mara Company, which departed for Utah in early July. Jewkes was a member of the Iron County militia and a participant in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Jukes was a private in the militia at the time of the massacre and was indicted for complicity in the massacre in 1874 but never brought to trial. Jukes would die in 1900 in Emery County.
BIOJacob S. Boreman
Jacob S. Boreman (August 4, 1831–October 7, 1913) Born in Tyler County, Virginia (now in West Virginia). Boreman graduated from the University of Virginia in law. In 1861, he was elected City Attorney for Kansas City. From 1862 to 1868 he served as judge of the Common Pleas Court of Jackson County Missouri and was twice elected to the Missouri State Legislature. In 1873, he was appointed to serve as one of the federal judges for Utah Territory, being assigned to the second judicial district, which convened in Beaver City. It was there that he presided over both of John D. Lee's trials for his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Boreman spent the remainder of his career and life in Utah, dying in Ogen in October 1913.
BIORutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes (October 4, 1822-January 17, 1893). Born in Delaware, Ohio. Hayes attended Hard Law School beginning in 1843, graduating with an LL.B. Hayes would win the Republican nomination in the 1876 United States presidential election where he would lose the popular vote against Democrat party nominee Samuel J. Tilden, but neither candidate secured enough electoral votes, resulting in the House of Representatives selecting Hayes as the 19th U.S. President. Hayes would serve as President from 1877 to 1881.
BIOJuanita Brooks
Juanita Pulsipher Brooks (January 15, 1898—August 26, 1989) Born in Bunkerville, Nevada. Both her maternal and paternal grandparents were polygamists. her paternal grandfather, Dudley Leavitt, was one of the primary founders of Bunkerville. In 1919 she married Ernest Pulsipher who died in 1920 of lymphoma. After earning her BA degree, she became an instructor of English and Dean of Women from 1925-1933 at the LDS-backed Dixie Junior College in St. George. Brooks was a Latter-day Saint historian and author who published the groundbreaking study The Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1950, among other important books on the American West and Mormon history such as John D. Lee: Zealot, Pioneer Builder, Scapegoat (1961) and an edition of Hosea Stout's diaries.
BIOGordon B. Hinckley
Gordon B. Hinckley (1910-2008) was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He served as the fifteenth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Hinckley graduated from the University of Utah in English literature. After serving a mission to Great Britain, he became a secretary under the Church's Radio, Publicity, and Missionary Literature division. He became an apostle in 1961 and then a member of the First Presidency in 1981. In 1995, he became Church president. He oversaw the expansion of temple construction, increased standards for missionary worthiness, the expansion of the Church into West Africa and East Asia (particularly South Korea).
BIORonald W. Walker
Ronald Warren Walker (October 12, 1939 – May 9, 2016) was a Latter-day Saint historian, former professor at Brigham Young University, and former president of the Mormon History Association. Walker earned his PhD in history from the University of Utah and wrote or edited several books including Wayward Saints: The Social and Religious Protests of the Godbeites against Brigham Young and Massacre at Mountain Meadows, the latter with coauthors Richard E. Turley Jr. and Glen M. Leonard.
BIORichard E. Turley, Jr.
Richard E. Turley, Jr. (born February 18, 1956) is a Latter-day Saint lawyer and historian. He served as Assistant Church Historian from 2008–2016 and as Managing Director of the Church's department of public affairs from 2016–2020. His published books on Latter-day Saint history include Victims: The LDS Church and the Mark Hofmann Case, Massacre at Mountain Meadows and Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath.
BIOGlen M. Leonard
Glen Milton Leonard (1938–) is a Latter-day Saint historian and author. Leonard received a doctorate in history from the University of Utah and has taught at both Brigham Young University and Utah State University. He is the author or coauthor of several books on Latter-day Saint history, including Nauvoo: A Place of Peace, A People of Promise and The Story of the Latter-day Saints. He is the coauthor of Massacre at Mountain Meadows along with Richard E. Turley, Jr. and Ronald W. Walker.
BIONephi Johnson
Nephi Johnson (December 12, 1833-June 21, 1919) Born in Kirtland, Ohio. His parents were early converts and followed the Church from Ohio to Illinois. The Johnsons arrived in Utah in 1848, and in 1850 they were among the first settlers called to the Iron Mission in Parowan. While in Johnson Springs (later renamed 'Enoch') Nephi befriended the local Paiutes and learned their language. As a result, Isaac Haight sent him to Mountain Meadows as an interpreter, where he relayed orders for the Indians to attack in the final massacre. In addition to this testimony at John D. Lee's second trial, Johnson gave other personal statements regarding the Massacre to Brigham Young and other church leaders. He died in 1919 in Mesquite.
BIOIron County Militia
The Iron County Militia, also known as the Iron Military District and the Nauvoo Legion, was a militia of about 450 men based in southern Utah (Iron County). About 50–60 members of the militia were perpetrators of the Mountain Meadows Massacre in September 1857.
BIOMissouri Wildcats
The "Missouri wild-cats" (also known as the "Merycats" or "Americats") were a group of Missouri emigrants reportedly traveling with the Baker-Fancher wagon party through northern Utah Territory in 1857. It is unknown if they accompanied the Baker-Fancher party down to southern Utah to Mountain Meadows. Reportedly the "wild-cats" threatened and insulted Mormon settlers as they traveled with the Baker-Fancher party.
BIOJacob Hamblin
(April 6, 1819 – August 31, 1886). Joined the Church in 1842. Settled in Tooele in 1850 where he came well known for creating good relations between the white settlers and Indians. Brigham Young called Jacob to serve a mission to the southern Paiute Indians in 1854. In his autobiography and testimony at the second trial for John D. Lee, claimed that Lee admitted to him his role in the massacre at Mountain Meadows though he placed blame on the attack on the Paiutes.
BIODaniel H. Wells
Daniel Wells (1814–1891) settled in Commerce, Illinois, before it later became Nauvoo. Prior to becoming a member of the Church in 1848, Wells provided the land for the temple and served as an alderman and justice of the peace, as well as a commissary general in the Nauvoo Legion. In 1857, Brigham Young appointed Wells as the second counselor in the First Presidency. He also served as a member of the territorial legislature and mayor of Salt Lake City from 1866 to 1876.
BIOWilliam Bishop
William Bishop (1836-1890) was an American lawyer who represented John D. Lee during the latter's trial for his role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Bishop edited Lee's confessions and published them posthumously as Mormonism Unveiled; or The Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee in 1877.
BIORobert T. Burton
Robert T. Burton (25 October, 1821–11 November, 1907) Born in Amherstburg, Upper Canada. Joined the Church in 1838. Burton was called by Presiding Bishop Edward Hunter to be his second counselor from 1874 until Hunter's death in 1883. Burton was called to be the new Presiding Bishop until 1884, a calling he served until his death. Burton also served as one of the principal officers in the Nauvoo Legion during its Utah reconstitution and led the territorial militia against the Morrisites during the 1862 Morrisite War.
BIOJames McKnight
James McKnight (December 11, 1828–April 6, 1906) was an early Latter-day Saint convert from Ireland and pioneer who assisted George A. Smith, an apostle and Church historian, in compiling one of the earliest reports of the Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1858.
[1]↩︎
The attack on the wagon train spanned several days beginning on September 7 and ended with a massacre on September 11.
John D. Lee initially claimed the Paiute Indians were entirely responsible for the attack, but later accounts and other corroborating sources confirm they merely assisted the Iron County Militia with varying degrees of involvement.
[2]↩︎
Several sources report that the militiamen approached the wagon company with a white flag to convince the emigrants of their peaceful intentions. As one early account reported:
After fighting for five or six days, a party of Mormons approached the corral with a white flag in hand, to show the emigrants that they were friends. The emigrants directly dressed a little girl in white and placed her at the mouth of the corral. The Mormon party then came in, sat down, and talked to he head man of the train for more than a hour, telling him that they had come as friends of the party to escort them back to Cedar City, about 350 miles behind, provided they would give up their arms, and leave all they had behind. They promised to protect them from the Indians. They marched the party in front of them back on the road about 2,500 yards, where they had to pass through some sedge bushes—the Mormon escorts gave a signal, and all at once the Indians raised in the bushes—the Mormon escort fired first and killed all the men—then they went to work on women and children.
[3]↩︎
There is no early record that explicitly states that the massacre took place on September 11, 1857. However, Brigham Young's letter ordering that no physical harm should befall the emigrants is dated September 10, as well as meeting minutes from the Cedar City Relief Society that reference the emigrants passing through the area.
William Law, an attorney for John D. Lee, gives the day of the week as the "Friday" of September 16 in his introductory comments to the 1877 Mormonism Unveiled. However, this Friday actually corresponds to September 11, 1857.
John D. Lee, in the main body of the book, gives the date of the massacre as being on Friday which corresponds to September 11, 1857.
Wilford Woodruff's journal records John D. Lee's report of the massacre on September 29, 1857, showing it took place before this date.
Charles Willden, in an affidavit from February 18, 1882, stated that he saw the company of emigrants "about the 11th day of September of said year 1857."
Samuel Knight, a participant in the massacre, in his affidavit dated August 11, 1904, mentions the events leading to the Massacre started on the 11th.
[4]↩︎
Some of the children who survived would, later in life, recall the massacre and its aftermath. For instance, Nancy Huff Cates wrote that:
I saw Willis during the massacre; he carried me off the spot; I could not be mistaken. Living with him made me know him beyond a doubt. I saw them shoot the girl after we were gathered up. . . . The scenes and incidents of the massacre were so terrible that they were indelibly stamped on my mind, notwithstanding I was so young at the time.
[5]↩︎
Both government reports and other witnesses mentioned the surviving children being taken into the homes of local Latter-day Saints before their eventual return to Arkansas about two years later.
[6]↩︎
On June 27, 1844, Joseph and Hyrum Smith were assassinated by a mob when they were imprisoned in Carthage, Illinois.
[7]↩︎
The "Mormon Exodus," or the flight of Mormon pioneers from Nauvoo, Illinois, to the Great Basin, began in 1846, with the first companies arriving in the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. The final year of the pioneer exodus is usually listed as 1869 when the transcontinental railroad was completed.
- Melvin L. Bashore provides history of the pioneer exodus and Mormon trail.
[8]↩︎
Most of these conflicts revolved around the issue of church and state because Brigham Young was both territorial governor and president of the Church at the same time.
In 1855, for example, Brigham said in a speech,
Let them [the federal government] send whom they will, and it does not diminish my influence one particle. As I said, the first time I spoke on this stand, my Governorship and ever other ship under my control, are aided and derive direct advantages from my position in the priesthood.
- Brigham says in a speech that his role as governor is influenced by his position in the priesthood.
[9]↩︎
In a letter to William S. Harney, U.S. army officer George W. Lay related Buchanan's declaration that "the civil government of Utah Territory are in a state of substantial rebellion against the laws and authority of the United States," and added, "a new civil governor is about to be designated, and to be charged with the establishment and maintenance of law and order."
- Orders from James Buchanan to march to Utah to put down a supposed rebellion.
[10]↩︎
The Journal History records that on June 23, 1857, news of Pratt's death arrived in Utah by mail. Wilford Woodruff recorded the news on that day in his journal.
Pratt had been murdered by Hector McLean, the estranged husband of Pratt's twelfth plural wife Eleanor, on May 13, 1857.
On July 1, 1857, the Deseret News reported Pratt's assassination.
[11]↩︎
The news was relayed by Abraham O. Smoot and others who learned while in Missouri that federal troops were being marshaled to escort the newly appointed governor of the territory, Alfred Cumming.
- Abraham O. Smoot recalls hearing about federal troops coming to Utah in summer 1857.
[12]↩︎
In September 1855, Harney commanded troops in the Ash Hollow massacre that resulted in the death of over 80 Sioux Indian men and the capture of as many Sioux women.
- Wilford Hill Lecheminant provides biographical detials of William Harney.
[13]↩︎
Wilford Woodruff recorded in his journal that day that other strategies were also considered, such as allying with Native Americans to resist federal forces.
- Wilford Woodruff records council meeting where actions against US army were discussed.
[14]↩︎
T. B. H. Stenhouse, a former Latter-day Saint, recorded in his book The Rocky Mountain Saints:
A gentleman, a friend of the Author travelled with this Arkansas company from Fort Bridget to Salt Lake City, and speaks of them in the highest terms: he never travelled with more pleasant companions. Hearing the nightly yells of the “Wild-cats,” he advised the Arkansas company to separate from them as much as possible while passing through the settlements, and in going through the Indian country. At that time it was easy to provoke a difficulty; the whole country was excited over the news of the “invading army;” and so much was this gentleman impressed with the necessity of great prudence on the part of the emigrants that, after he had left them on his arrival at Salt Lake City, he afterwards returned and impressed upon the leading men the urgency of refusing to travel further with the Missouri company so near to them. The kindly suggestions were appreciated, and they expressed their desire to act upon them.
It is unclear if the "Wild-cats" continued with the Baker-Fancher train to Southern Utah.
- T. B. H. Stenhouse mentions the "Missouri Wildcats" in 1873, at a time when the rumor began to spread.
[15]↩︎
Basil G. Parker preserved accounts of Mormons in and around Salt Lake City feeling insulted or threatened by members of the Baker-Fancher train in his 1901 Recollections of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
- Basil G. Parker recalls hearing Mormons say they felt insulted and threatened by members of the Baker-Fancher train.
[16]↩︎
In his book Mormonism Unveiled, which was revised after his death by his lawyer, John D. Lee purportedly said that George A. Smith was sent to Southern Utah by Brigham Young to prepare an attack the Baker-Francher train.
However, just before he was executed, Lee said that Smith was there preaching against immigrants generally and did not know if he was preaching specifically against the Baker-Francher company.
George A. Smith himself denied the claim that he was in Southern Utah to stoke violence against emigrants, and instead insisted he preached survival tactics such as storing grain. According to his 1875 deposition:
[Smith] had no knowledge whatsoever of the existence of said emigrant train. . . . Deponent further saith that as an Elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints he preached several times on his way south and also on his return and tried to impress upon the minds of the people the necessity of great care as to their grain crops as all the crops had been short for several years previous to 1857, and many of the people were reduced to actual want and were suffering for the necessaries of life.
[17]↩︎
Several sources, including Smith himself, recorded the rumor that the emigrant party poisoned an ox or some other livestock to give to local Native Americans.
A study in 2013, however, points to anthrax as the most likely culprit for the dead livestock, not deliberate poisoning.
[18]↩︎
The precise date when the Baker-Fancher train reached Cedar City is unclear, but Philip Klingensmith, in his 1875 testimony during the trial of John D. Lee, recalled that it was on Friday, September 3.
- Philip Klingensmith reports that the emigrant train passed Cedar City on or around September 3.
- George K. Bowering provides account of the massacre and the events leading up to it.
[19]↩︎
Charles Willden left a deposition in 1882 where he recalled hearing "some fifteen to twenty men of said company talking in a loud excited and boisterous manner profaning and threatening to do bodily harm and kill some of the citizens of said Lower Town saying and affirming that they had helped to kill Joseph Smith at Carthage."
- Charles Willden heard the emigrants threaten violence against Utah residents and some claimed to have been participants in Joseph and Hyrum Smith's murder on the very day of the massacre.
[20]↩︎
According to testimony given by Annie Elizabeth Hoag at John D. Lee's first trial, a "drunk man" of the emigrant train harassed Haight by threatening that he would shoot him and "send an army of soldiers to take Brigham Young" and "every other damn Mormon in the country."
- Annie Hoag gives testimony of a drunk man confronting Isaac Haight.
[21]↩︎
In a letter written in 1907, James H. Martineau, William Dame's adjutant, recalled how Dame ordered "all possible means should be used to keep the peace until the emigrants should leave and proceed upon their journey."
- James H. Martineau indicates William Dame initially ordered the emigrant company be allowed to pass in peace.
[22]↩︎
According to his posthumous book Mormonism Unveiled, Lee was informed by Haight that "it was decided by the authorities to arm the Indians, give them provisions and ammunition, and send them, after the emigrants, and have the Indians give them a brush, and if they killed part or all of them, so much the better."
Ellott Wilden likewise recalled hearing that "the first plan was that the Indians should not attack the company until the[y] got down on the Santa Clara, and then no white men were to take part, and only men to be killed and booty taken, but no women and children killed."
- John Doyle Lee says Isaac C. Haight plotted to give the emigrants a "brush" and attack them.
- Elliott Wilden shares recollections of Mountain Meadows with Andrew Jenson.
[23]↩︎
According to Lee, he went to the Paiutes with orders to "follow up the emigrants and kill them all, and take their property as the spoil of their enemies," and was able to "satisfy" the Paiutes with the plan.
Andrew Jenson recorded a similar account of this meeting by Mary Campbell which broadly corroborates Lee's version of events:
A short time afterward <or about the same time> she saw Isaac C. Smith [Haight], Klingensmith John M. Higbee, John D. Lee, was passed by the end of her house to the Cottonwoods below where the Indians were camped and held a consultation with them. Soon Same evening the Indians squaws came into the fort and the bucks left for the Meadows; the squaws said the Indians were going to kill the “Mericates.” The Indians started at once. After that an Indian messenger came in every day for several days and called on Isaac C Haight, Finally a council was held, Bro Campbe being in that, but he did not tell his wife, and this council resulted in a company starting for the Meadows, numbering about 20 or 25 men.
- John Doyle Lee recounts meeting with Paiutes to convince them to attack the wagon train.
- Mary S. Campbell shares her recollections of massacre with Andrew Jenson.
[24]↩︎
Elias Morris later recalled how this "council was called at Bro. Dames house" and included both important Church and military leaders of Cedar City.
- William Barton shares his recollections of Mountain Meadows Massacre with Andrew Jenson.
[25]↩︎
According to the late account by Laban Morrill, who was in the council meeting:
At last we touched upon the topic like this: We should still keep quiet, and a dispatch should be sent to Governor Young to know what would be the best course. The vote was unanimous. I considered it so. It seemed to be the understanding that on the coming morning, or next day, there should be a messenger dispatched. I took some pains to inquire and know if it would be sent in the morning. The papers were said to be made out, and Governor Young should be informed, and no hostile course pursued till his return.
- Laban Morrill gives testimony at Lee trial about what he heard in the Cedar City Council.
[26]↩︎
As described by Jacob Forney in his 1859 report of the massacre, after they were initially attacked by a group of Paiutes (led by Lee), they "then corraled the wagons and made a protective fort, by filling with earth the space under the wagons."
- A portion of Jacob Forney's report concerning the massacre; includes excerpts of his interview with David W. Tulis and "Alfred [Hamblin]."
[27]↩︎
The original letter from Haight has not survived, but according to his own description, Haslam paraphrased it as informing Brigham that "that the Indians had got the emigrants corralled at the Mountain Meadows, and Lee wanted to know what should be done."
- James Holt Haslam discusses the Mountain Meadows Massacre and its aftermath.
[28]↩︎
According to the testimony of Ellott Wilden, the Cedar City council dispatched Clewes "to Lee to keep the Indians back" while they waited for James Haslam to finish his express ride to Salt Lake City.
- Elliott Wilden shares recollections of Mountain Meadows with Andrew Jenson.
[29]↩︎
The reason for Smith killing Aden is unknown.
- John D. Lee's final testimony gives the council's reasoning for ordering the massacre.
- Ellott Willden provides testimony of William C. Stewart murdering William Aden.
[30]↩︎
According to Ellott Willden, these two unknown men from the emigrant company were murdered "by Klinginsmith and crowd going to the Meadows."
- Ellott Willden provides testimony of William C. Stewart murdering William Aden.
[31]↩︎
In both his posthumous Mormonism Unveiled and his "Last Confession," Lee claims he asked Haight for assistance in "pacify[ing] the Indians" who were upset at the stalemate and the casualties they had incurred from the fighting.
- John Doyle Lee claims he sent a messenger to Isaac C. Haight asking for help to stop the Indians from attacking the wagon train further.
- John D. Lee's final testimony gives the council's reasoning for ordering the massacre.
[32]↩︎
Higbee left a later account explaining that "after a good deal of deliberation" it was decided to call in the Cedar City militia to break the stalemate between the Mormons and Paiutes and the besieged emigrants.
- John M. Higbee provides account of the events leading up to the massacre.
[33]↩︎
According to one source, "it was decided to destroy the whole company" by what was known as the "tan bark council" consisting of Haight, Dame, and a third unknown member. Another source confirms that the council decided "it seemed to become necessary to kill all to silence the rest" and cover up Mormon participation in the attacks.
- William Barton shares his recollections of Mountain Meadows Massacre with Andrew Jenson.
- Elliott Wilden shares recollections of Mountain Meadows with Andrew Jenson.
[34]↩︎
The Cedar City Ward Relief Society minute book entry from one day before the massacre reads:
Sister Haight said . . . these were squally times, and we ought to attend to secret pray in behalf of our husbands, sons, fathers, & brothers. instructed the sisters to teach their sons & daughters the principles of righteousness, and to implant a desire in their hearts to avenge the blood of the Prophets.
- Cedar City Relief Society minutes say that Eliza Ann Haight taught the importance of avenging the blood of the Prophets.
[35]↩︎
According to Klingensmith during Lee's first trial, "Haight sent for me, and said that orders had come from the camp that they did not get along, and wanted reinforcements; that he had been to Parowan and got further orders from Col. W. H. Dame to finish the massacre, to decoy the emigrants out, and spare only the small children who could not tell the tale."
Another source, Daniel MacFarlane, reported how Lee told the militia, "I will call a truce and get the men out of their Fort and I will send the women and children ahead."
[36]↩︎
The letter reads:
In regard to the 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.
In a later recollection, Hamilton G. Park recalled hearing the following instructions from Brigham to Haslam:
Brother Haslam, I want you to ride for dear life; ride day and night; spare no horse flesh; that company must be protected and guarded out of the territory if it requires all the men in Iron County to do it.
- Letter from Brigham Young 1 day before MMM ordering that the Fancher Company to pass by without any interference.
- Affidavit of Hamilton G. Park (steward to Brigham Young during 1850s) from 1907. Brigham ordered the emigrants not to be attacked.
[37]↩︎
In his testimony from December 4, 1884, Haslam stated that, as the letter was sealed, he did not know its contents but recorded that Isaac C. Haight, after receiving the communication once the massacre was over, simply cried, "Too late, too late."
- James Holt Haslam discusses the Mountain Meadows Massacre and its aftermath.
[38]↩︎
William Bishop (John D. Lee's attorney) provided a list of 52 participants (including Lee) who purportedly participated in the massacre, as well as those who were purportedly accessories before the fact, such as William H. Dame.
The number of Paiute participants remains debated today. Based on his investigation of the massacre, Jacob Forney, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Utah Territory, concluded that Native Americans did participate in, and held some responsibility for, the planning and executing of the massacre, although the bulk of the responsibility was placed onto the Mormons.
According to the Utah American Indian Digital Archive Website, "Paiute oral tradition strongly indicates that the Paiutes did not participate in either the initial attack or the following massacre."
[39]↩︎
The 120 figure is attested by Wilford Woodruff in his journal entry for May 25, 1861, where Woodruff recorded that he and Brigham Young "visited the Mountain Meadow Monument put up at the burial place of 120 persons killed by Indians in 1857." He noted, "A stone at the bottom bore the following inscription: 120 Men, women, & Children, Murdered in Cold Blood Early in Sept. 1857."
The figure of 120 is also accepted by modern scholars of the massacre.
[40]↩︎
In a letter dated May 5, 1857, Jacob Forney provided a list of the surviving children as being:
John Calvin, now 7 or 8 years old; does not remember his name; says his family lived at Horse Head, Johnston co., Arkansas. Ambrose Mironi, about 7 years, and William Taggit, 4 ½ years, brothers; these also lived in Johnston co. Prudence Angeline, 6 years, and Annie, about 3 years; these two are said to be sisters. Rebecca, 9 years; Louisa, 5 years, and Sarah, 3 ½ years; from Dunlap. Betsy, 6 years, and Annie, 3 years; said to be sisters; these know nothing of their family or residence. Charles Francher, 7 or 8 years, and his sister Annie, 3 ½ years. Sophronia or Mary Huff, 6 years, and Elisha W. Huff, 4 years. A boy; no account of him. Those among whom he lived call him William. Francis Hawn or Korn, 4 ½ years old.
Forney, in a letter to Alfred B. Greenwood dated June 27, 1859, noted how, in his estimation, the surviving children were "both remarkably intellectual and, in my opinion, competent witnesses" to testify at a trial.
- Forney writes to Anderson concerning his investigations into massacre. Lists surviving children.
- According to Jacob Forney the children who survived the massacre are "competent witnesses" for a trial.
[41]↩︎
Brigham wrote to William H. Dame:
In regard to letting people pass, or travel through the Territory, this applies to all stranger and suspected persons. . . . we say again let there be no waste, save life always when it is possible, we do not wish to shed a drop of blood if it can be avoided. This course will give us great influence abroad.
- Brigham Young commands the people to refrain from shedding blood if it can be avoided.
[42]↩︎
In his letter to Brigham Young (November 20, 1857), John D. Lee would blame "Some 3 to 500 Indians" for attacking the Fancher-Baker company due to the emigrants reportedly poisoning their animals and water.
Wilford Woodruff in his September 29, 1857 journal entry said that John D. Lee reported to Brigham Young about the massacre, with Lee claiming that "the Indians fought them 5 days until they killed all their men."
- John Doyle Lee, in a letter to Brigham Young, writes that the emigrants poisoned the animals and Indians to be blamed for the massacre.
- Wilford Woodruff's account of John Doyle Lee making his report to Brigham Young about MMM.
[43]↩︎
Beginning as early as October 1857, the press was requesting the U.S. Government investigate the massacre.
Jacob Forney carried out an investigation and concluded that, while the Indians did participate in the massacre, they were secondary to the Mormons. Forney wrote in his report:
I commenced my inquiries without prejudice or selfish motive, and with a hope that, in the progress of my inquiries, facts would enable me to exculpate all white men from any participation in this tragedy, and saddle the guilt exclusively upon the Indians; but, unfortunately, every step in my inquiries satisfied me that the Indians acted only a secondary part.
Forney would also address the rumors that the emigrants poisoned the Indians, concluding that it was "incomprehensible" that they would carry poison with them, and instead concluded that "bad men, for a bad purpose, have magnified a natural circumstance for the perpetuation of a crime that has no parallel in American history for atrocity."
[44]↩︎
In his statement concerning the recovery of the surviving children from the massacre, James Lynch noted that "the children point [John D. Lee] out as one of them that did the bloody work."
Forney listed the following children:
Ambrose Mironi, about 7 years, and William Taggit, 4 ½ years, brothers; these also lived in Johnston co. Prudence Angeline, 6 years, and Annie, about 3 years; these two are said to be sisters. Rebecca, 9 years; Louisa, 5 years, and Sarah, 3 ½ years; from Dunlap. Betsy, 6 years, and Annie, 3 years; said to be sisters; these know nothing of their family or residence. Charles Francher, 7 or 8 years, and his sister Annie, 3 ½ years. Sophronia or Mary Huff, 6 years, and Elisha W. Huff, 4 years. A boy; no account of him. Those among whom he lived call him William. Francis Hawn or Korn, 4 ½ years old.
- James Lynch's statement concerning recovery of survivors from the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
- Forney writes to Anderson concerning his investigations into massacre. Lists surviving children.
[45]↩︎
When he dismissed the grand jury, Crandlebaugh recorded a number of complaints, including the claim that the Latter-day Saint attorneys and jurors "had taken occasion to denounce the courts as vaile and corrupt" aiming to "prevent the proper and due administration of justice."
Cradlebaugh also stated that there seemed to have been "a combined effort on the part of the community to screen the murderers from the punishment due them for the murder they have committed."
- John Cradlebaugh offers discharge of the Grand Jury.
[46]↩︎
In the arrest warrant, Brigham Young was "directly charged with interfering with the courts of Justice, and preventing the punishment of offenders," and, as a result, was accused of "being accessory after the fact" to the massacre.
- Elias Smith issues warrant for Brigham Young's arrest on charge of being accessory after the fact.
[47]↩︎
In the Historian's Office Journal for July 5, 1859, which was originally written in Deseret characters, records:
Attorney Wilson called to see President Young, to consult with him about making some arrests of parties accused of being engaged in that offense. The Pres. said that if the judges would open a court at Parowan or some other convenient location in the south, and would go there and hold a court, unprejudiced and uninfluenced by the presence of the army, so that men could have a fair and impartial trial He would go there himself, and he presumed that Gov. Cumming would also go, and that he would use all his influence to have the parties arrested and have the whole thing matter investigated thoroughly and impartially and justice meeted out to every man; but as for using his influence or making any exertion to arrest men to be treated like dogs and dragged about.
- Brigham Young wants to bring charges against those responsible for the massacre but federal prosecutors do not.
[48]↩︎
The U.S. Civil War began when Confederate troops opened artillery fire onto Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, which eventually led to the fort surrendering after two days of bombardment. The war came to an end when Union General Ulysses S. Grant accepted the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865.
- History.com Website notes U.S. Civil War began April 12, 1861 and ended April 9, 1865.
[49]↩︎
The plea for the indictment for the arrest for John D. Lee was issued on July 21, 1875. It indicates Lee had been indicted along with "William H. Dame. Isaac C. Haight John M. Higby. George Adair Junior. Ellott Wilden. Samuel Jukes. Philip [Klingensmith]. and William C. Stewart."
- Plea for Indictment for John Doyle Lee.
[50]↩︎
Nephi Johnson, in his July 22, 1908 affidavit, disclosed that, at the time of Lees's trial for murder in Beaver City, he "was in hiding, for I did not want to have anything to do in the matter."
He noted Lee would testify that "from all that I know, Brigham Young, nor any official in the Mormon Church never tried to hide any part of the truth" of the massacre.
There were attempts, on February 24 and again on July 21, 1871, for the indictment of John D. Lee and other participants or those who ordered the massacre (William H. Dame, Isaac C. Haight, John M. Higby, George Adair, Jr., Ellott Wilden, Samuel Jukes, Philip Klingensmith, and William C. Stewart) in the massacre.
[51]↩︎
Judge Jacob S. Boreman made his charge to the jury for the first trial on August 3, 1875, informing them that:
It is not necessary to be shown that the defendant did with his own hands any of the killing; but if the killing were done by those with whom we was co-operating, though his part was not to do any of the killing, he is guilty
When the first trial failed in May 1876, the Salt Lake Daily Tribune noted that the blame did not fall on Judge Boreman, who, "under the circumstances, has done the very best he could" but instead, the "disgraceful lethargy" of the officers of justice in Utah. Another reason offered by the Tribune for the failure of the first trial was that "the U.S. Marshal is without funds to pay the heavy costs of the trials."
- Jacob S. Boreman's charge to the jury during John Doyle Lee's first trial.
- Article in Salt Lake Tribune admitting the first trial failed due to the prosecutors' "utter neglect of the business" and "disgraceful lethargy."
[52]↩︎
On October 10, 1876, after the "verdict of the jury duly convicted [Lee] of the crime of murder in the first degree," Judge Jacob S. Boreman sentenced Lee to death, informing him that he would be "taken and in this District be publicly shot until you are dead, and may Almighty God have mercy upon your soul."
- John Doyle Lee's judgment and sentence.
- Jacob Boreman passed the death sentence on John Doyle Lee who chooses to be shot as his method of execution.
[53]↩︎
Judge Jacob S. Boreman was recorded as having told Lee, “From the evidence before them, the jury could not have done otherwise than to find you guilty.”
Lee was offered to choose which method of execution he wanted, and he chose the firing squad instead of hanging.
- Jacob Boreman passed the death sentence on John Doyle Lee who chooses to be shot as his method of execution.
- John Doyle Lee's judgment and sentence.
[54]↩︎
Lee, in his final words as recorded in Mormonism Unveiled, continued to claim he was innocent:
My conscience is clear before God and man. I am ready to meet my Redeemer and those that have gone before me, behind the vail . . . I declare my innocence of ever doing anything designedly wrong in all this affair. I used my utmost endeavors to save those people.
- John Doyle Lee's final words before his execution March 23, 1877.
[55]↩︎
In a telegraph 8 days after Lee's execution, Brigham requested that Present Rutherford B. Hayes appoint a commission to investigate the massacre and to punish the remaining offenders. The telegraph read:
I have before now publicaly [stated] that I was & had been at all times ready to render [any] aid I could to bring to justice the perpetrators of that great crime . . . I now most respectfully ask you as the chief magistrate of the great nation in justice to the people who inhabited this Territory at that period if you have the power & if not to call the attention of Congress to the matter when it meets in June to appoint a commission fully authorized to investigate that inhuman slaughter & with jurisdiction to try & punish the offenders thereof.
It does not appear that any such commission was appointed.
- Brigham Young telegraphs President Rutherford B Hayes asking him to appoint a commission to investigate the massacre and punish the offenders.
[56]↩︎
Brooks's book was a pioneering effort and laid the foundation for modern academic work on the massacre.
She concluded that while Brigham Young did not order the massacre, he did, among other things, foment tensions in the territory that resulted in the violence.
- Summary of Juanita Brooks's 1950 book The Mountain Meadows Massacre.
- Juanita Brooks summarizes her conclusions from her 1950 study of the massacre.
[57]↩︎
On April 20, 1961, the First Presidency made the decision to reinstate Lee to full membership:
It was the action of the council after considering all the facts available that authorization be given for the re-instatement to membership and former blessings to John D Lee.
- First Presidency makes the decision to reinstate John Doyle Lee to full membership (ordinances performed May 8-9, 1961).
- Juanita Brooks's letter from 1961 discussing the details of restoring John D. Lee's Church blessings.
[58]↩︎
The ordinances reinstating Lee were performed May 8-9, 1961. Historian and Lee biographer Juanita Brooks, working with Lee descendants, was instrumental in having Lee's blessings restored.
[59]↩︎
As reported in the Deseret News, the stated purpose of the monument, which was commissioned by the Church, was to foster "healing and reconciliation" between descendants of the victims and the perpetrators.
- Deseret News reports on the dedication of the monument at the massacre site.
[60]↩︎
Commenting on the recently released book, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Henry B. Eyring, on the sesquicentennial anniversary of the event, noted that there were two significant conclusions reached in the volume:
(1) that the message conveying the will and intent of Brigham Young not to interfere with the immigrants arrived too late, and (2) that the responsibility for the massacre lies with local leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the regions near Mountain Meadows who also held civic and military positions and with members of the Church acting under their direction.
An article addressing the massacre by Richard E. Turley, Jr., one of the contributors to the book, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, was published in the September 2007 issue of the Ensign. It referred to the massacre as "a terrible episode" in the history of the Church, one has "continued to cause pain and controversy for 150 years."
[61]↩︎
A follow-up volume to Massacre at Mountain Meadows titled Vengeance is Mine was published in 2023, providing extensive analysis of both the massacre itself and the legal efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.
In the preface to Massacre at Mountain Meadows, the authors point out that they had institutional backing and support from the Church to undertake their historical enterprise.
The institutions with which we have been professionally associated—Brigham Young University and the Family and Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—were generous in supporting this book, both in allowing us professional time to research and write, and in funding the work of colleagues and research assistants who helped with the project. Throughout, we were given the freedom to make our own judgments and have retained full editorial control over our manuscript—all the more remarkable given the sensitivity of our topic.
[62]↩︎
According to the testimony of Laban Morrill, the council in Cedar City planned an attack on the emigrant train in response to what they considered were "threats in regard to us as a people" to the effect that "they would destroy every d--d Mormon."
This was after Isaac Haight, the mayor of Cedar City, conspired with John D. Lee to give the wagon train "a brush" with the help of local Indians in response to these perceived threats. After this initial skirmish matters escalated dramatically, which resulted in the ultimate decision to wipe out the entire emigrant train except for the youngest children.
- Laban Morrill gives testimony at Lee trial about what he heard in the Cedar City Council.
- John Doyle Lee says Isaac C. Haight plotted to give the emigrants a "brush" and attack them.
[63]↩︎
One contemporary report of the early stages of the attack described it this way:
Surrounded by superior numbers, and by an unseen foe, we are told the little party stood a siege within the corral of five or seven days, sinking their wagon-wheels in the ground, and during the darkness of night digging trenches, within which to shelter their wives and children.
- Article in Harper's Weekly (1859) charges the Mormons with being the most active participants in the massacre.
[64]↩︎
Multiple sources report a "surrender" being discussed between John D. Lee, leading the militia, and the emigrant train. Lee entered the besieged wagon circle with a white flag offering to protect the emigrants and escort them out of the Mountain Meadows valley if they in turn relinquished their arms.
The July 29, 1871 edition of the Corinne Reporter newspaper reported:
By the message accompanying this flag, they were promised protection. Alas! that it should prove to be “such protection as vultures give to lambs.” But the message was not from Indians, it was from Major Lee, a regularly constituted officer of the military forces of the territory of Utah, one of the Territories of the United States. What should they do but believe its promise.
[65]↩︎
According to several accounts, the signal to begin the massacre was "Halt!" upon which the Indians leapt from the hills down onto the company and the Mormon militiamen turned and fired on the emigrants.
One of the massacre survivors, Martha Elizabeth Evins, described the ruse thus:
Finally several white men, found to be Mormons and disguised in Indian garb, under the leadership of three white men, posing as government arms and ammunition they would be escorted back east to the nearest village of Cedar Valley. The immigrants surrendered all their arms and ammunition and reluctantly agreed to retrace their steps under escort toward Cedar Valley. When the party had traveled about one mile from the spring and campsite the Utah group called a halt, placed all children under seven years old in one wagon and sent them ahead. With the aid of a large number in hiding, they immediately opened fire on the unarmed immigrants, killing the entire hand.
[66]↩︎
In an article published by the Los Angeles Star, October 10, 1857, J. Ward Christian reported on the location of the Massacre in relation to Cedar City:
The scene of the massacre is differently designated as Santa Clara Cañon, the Mountain Springs, and the Mountain Meadows. But all agree in locating it near the rim of the Great Basin, and about fifty miles from Cedar City, the most southern of the Mormon settlements.
- Christian attributes Mountain Meadows Masscare to retribution for Pratt's murder.
[67]↩︎
During John D. Lee's second trial, Jacob Hamblin testified that Lee's rationale for a total massacre of the emigrants was to cover up Mormon involvement in the violence that had broken out between the two groups.
Lee also stated that "White men have interposed and the emigrants know it, and there lies the danger in letting them go."
According to militiaman Elliot Willden, "It seemed to become necessary to kill all to silence the rest, hence the tan Bark Council and other councils in Parowan and Cedar to decide what to do in the dillemma."
[68]↩︎
John D. Lee led the initial attack and realized that the emigrants identified him as a white man leading the Indians. In another incident of violence, an emigrant known as "the Dutchman" witnessed a Mormon militia member murder another emigrant.
These factors led to the decision to wipe out the entire emigrant company so that news would not reach the government in California.
- Ellott Willden provides testimony of William C. Stewart murdering William Aden.
- John D. Lee's final testimony gives the council's reasoning for ordering the massacre.
[69]↩︎
Heber C. Kimball addresses this in a fiery speech dated July 26, 1857:
The President of the United States, shall be cursed, in the name of Israel’s God . . . Send 2,500 troops here, our brethren, to make a desolation of this people! God Almighty helping me, I will fight until there is not a drop of blood in my veins.
The event that led to the Utah War was a raid made on the office of George P. Stiles, recorded by Hosea Stout in his journal for December 30, 1856:
Last night the Law library of Judge Stiles & T.S. Williams was broken open and the books and papers thereof taken away. A privy near by was filled with books a few thousand shingles and laths added and the concern set on fire and consumed.
- Heber C. Kimball teaches that Deseret will take physical action against any U.S. troops who decide to invade the area.
- Hosea Stout records the raid made on the office of Stiles that led to the Utah War.
[70]↩︎
As historian Richard E. Turley noted about the "Utah War":
Over the preceding years, disagreements, miscommunication, prejudices, and political wrangling on both sides had created a growing divide between the territory and the federal government. In retrospect it is easy to see that both groups overreacted—the government sent an army to put down perceived treason in Utah, and the Saints believed the army was coming to oppress, drive, or even destroy them. In 1858 this conflict—later called the Utah War—was resolved through a peace conference and negotiation. Because Utah’s militiamen and the U.S. troops never engaged each other in pitched battle, the Utah War has been characterized as “bloodless.”
- Mountain Meadows Massacre being addressed in the Ensign during the 150th anniversary of the massacre.
[71]↩︎
Examples of such rhetoric during this time include a sermon from Heber C. Kimball on July 26, 1857, which was published in the Deseret News:
Send 2,500 troops here, our brethren, to make a desolation of this people! God Almighty helping me, I will fight until there is not a drop of blood in my vein. Good God! I have wives enough to whip out the United States, for they will whip themselves: Amen.
In another sermon from August 1857, Kimball said, "We intend to kill the poor curses ourselves, before they get to the Big Mountains."
The Relief Society minutes in Cedar City for September 10, 1857, one day before the Mountain Meadows Massacre, talk about members implanting "a desire in their [children's] hearts to avenge the blood of the Prophets."
[72]↩︎
One early example of a speech reflecting this tension is found in a sermon from John Taylor dated August 9, 1857:
I said, We have been outrageously imposed upon by United States' officials. They send out every rag-tag and bob-tail, and every mean nincompoop they can scrape up from the filth and scum of society, and dub him a United States; officer . . .
And Brigham Young, in his Proclamation as Governor on September 15, 1857, urged the people to resist the U.S. troops when they would try to enter the territory, instructing them to "forbid all arms forces, of every description, from coming into this territory under any pretense whatever."
Other sermons, letters, and journal entries from prominent Church figures of the time also reflect this tension.
[73]↩︎
During John D. Lee's second trial, Jacob Hamblin testified that Lee's rationale for a total massacre of the emigrants was to cover up Mormon involvement in the violence that had broken out between the two groups.
Lee also stated that "White men have interposed and the emigrants know it, and there lies the danger in letting them go."
According to militiaman Elliot Willden, "It seemed to become necessary to kill all to silence the rest, hence the tan Bark Council and other councils in Parowan and Cedar to decide what to do in the dillemma."
[74]↩︎
Charles Willden, one of the militia who participated in the massacre, in a late recollection, reported:
I heard some fifteen to twenty men of said company talking in a loud excited and boisterous manner profaning and threatening to do bodily harm and kill some of the citizens of said Lower Town saying and affirming that they had helped to kill Joseph Smith at Carthage.
- Charles Willden heard the emigrants threaten violence against Utah residents and some claimed to have been participants in Joseph and Hyrum Smith's murder on the very day of the massacre.
[75]↩︎
Multiple sources shared the story of the emigrants giving poisoned meat to the natives, causing conflict with the tribes who they would later report took part in the massacre. It is unclear whether these reports are true or not.
[76]↩︎
George A. Smith, in January 1858, repeated the rumor that the emigrants acted sometimes in a violent fashion towards the Mormon settlers and the Native Americans:
It is rumored that one hundred of the Company were killed, the loss of the Indians is unknown, but must have been considerable, as the company fortified themselves with their Wagons, and made a Spirited defence. . . The Indians spared the lives of the children, which have since been ransomed, and cared for by some of the Southern settlers, who speak the Indian language.
- George A. Smith writes that migrants acted in an antagonistic, sometimes even violent, fashion towards LDS and Indians.
[77]↩︎
William Clayton recorded Heber C. Kimball making an oath of vengeance:
I have covenanted, and never will rest nor my posterity after me until those men who killed Joseph and Hyrum have been wiped out of the earth."
Hosea Stout, after seeing the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, wrote in his journal that he "resolved in my mind that I would never let an opportunity slip unimproved of avenging their blood upon the head of the enemies of the church" and wrote of his wish to "avenge their blood and then their children and children's children to the fourth generation as long as there is one descendant of murderers upon the earth."
- William Clayton's record of Heber C. Kimball making a covenant to never rest until he avenges murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.
- Allen Joseph Stout resolved to avenge the blood of Joseph and Hyrum Smith while there remains descendants of their murderers on the earth.
[78]↩︎
Brigham Young gave some fiery sermons concerning "Blood Atonement" in the years leading up to the massacre. This involved murderers paying the price for their crimes.
In a sermon from February 18, 1855, Brigham Young taught that, if the murders of Joseph Smith were to repent of their sins, they would have to "be willing to have their heads chopped off, that their blood might run upon the ground, and the smoke of it rise before the Lord as an incense for their sins."
Elsewhere, in a sermon from July 8, 1855, Brigham was recorded as teaching that "in regard to those who have persecuted this people . . . we could take the same law they have taken, viz., mobocracy, and if any miserable scoundrels come here, cut their throats."
Two years after the massacre, in a letter dated September 27, 1859, Denala R. Eckels, who was not a Latter-day Saint, wrote a letter to Lewis Cass and spoke of blood atonement and other teachings in the territory as "no more abstract theories, but are strong, living, active, controlling principles that permeate the whole body and are obeyed from the heart."
[79]↩︎
These were the men, among others, indicted for their role of the massacre.
- Petition for Indicted. Bonds for bail are discussed. Any outstanding arrest warrants moved to be cancelled.
- Plea for Indictment for John Doyle Lee.
[80]↩︎
William H. Dame was indicted in 1874 for "feloniously, deliberately, premeditatedly, wilfully and of his malice aforethought, [making] an assault" and for kill[ing] and murder[ing]."
Historians Ronald Walker and Richard Turley described William H. Dame in Massacre at Mountain Meadows:
As the senior militia officer in southern Utah, he originally directed [Isaac] Haight not to attack the emigrants. During the early morning hours of Thursday, September 10, [1857], however, he consented to their death. He argued with Haight after the massacre over how the killings would be reported to authorities.
[81]↩︎
According to Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy, even though Haight "was not at the massacre itself, he was a chief leader in its planning and execution." The book adds, "He sent the militiamen to the Meadows and obtained approval from Colonel William Dame for the emigrants’ destruction."
[82]↩︎
Higbee was an active participant in the massacre. The book Massacre at Mountain Meadows notes that he "led two groups of massacre participants to the Meadows from Cedar City" and "gave the signal for the massacre to begin."
[83]↩︎
One account reported how "after Major Lee had announced that fatal order to his troops, and instructed them as to how he intended to carry it out, 'he sent a flag of truce into the emigrants’ fort, offering to them that if they would lay down their arms he would protect them.'"
- July 1871 newspaper article in The Corinne Reporter places blame for massacre on Brigham.
[84]↩︎
The book Massacre at Mountain Meadows notes that Lee "led the first attack on the emigrants" and "reportedly admitted [to personally] killing five or six emigrants."
[85]↩︎
According to Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Johnson "acted as a Paiute language interpreter at the Meadows and gave the orders . . . for Indians to attack" the emigrants.
Johnson was identified by John D. Lee's defense attorney as one of the members of the militia "who were on the ground, and aiding in or consenting to the killing of over one hundred and twenty men, women, and children, at the Mountain Meadows." Johnson admitted in personal statements that he was at the massacre, but played down his role or involvement in the killing.
[86]↩︎
The book Massacre at Mountain Meadows notes that Klingensmith was "a key supporter of the massacre and used his role as local bishop to exert his influence." He murdered at least two emigrants during the massacre but turned states evidence to avoid prosecution.
[87]↩︎
According to the Utah American Indian Digital Archive,
Scholars suggest that the Southern Paiutes and other Numic speaking peoples began moving into the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau around 1000 A.D. Prior to contact with Europeans, the Paiutes’ homeland spanned more than thirty million acres of present-day southern California, southern Nevada, south-central Utah, and northern Arizona.
The Paiute involvement in the massacre is shown in multiple sources related to the incident.
[88]↩︎
About 70 members of the militia, or 15% of the unit, participated in the massacre in some capacity, either as direct or secondary participants.
- Appendix on the Iron County Militia lists its members.
[89]↩︎
It's unknown whether the Wildcats actually traveled with the Baker-Fancher Party down to Southern Utah or, if they did, what the true extent of their threats were. The claims about the threats made against the Saints are mostly hearsay or from later secondhand recollections.
- T. B. H. Stenhouse mentions the "Missouri Wildcats" in 1873, at a time when the rumor began to spread.
- Thomas Croppers shares a story of cattle being poisoned, blaming the emigrants.
[90]↩︎
A list of the members of the Baker-Fancher party has been compiled in the book Massacre at Mountain Meadows.
- List of the emigrants part of the Baker-Fancher party.
[91]↩︎
Several sources recounted hearing insults and threats from members of the wagon train. However, corroborating these accounts is difficult since many of them are hearsay.
[92]↩︎
Hamblin was called by Brigham Young to work with the Paiutes of southern Utah and was an important explorer and colonizer in southern Utah and northern Arizona.
According to Jacob Forney's report of the massacre, "These children; sixteen in number, I have now in my possession. Thirteen I got in Santa Clara, at Mr. J. Hamblin’s, who collected them in pursuance to my directions, and three I got in Cedar City on our way home, left there by Mr. Hamblin. I am pleased to say that Mr. Hamblin has discharged his duty in relation to the collection and keeping of those children."
- BYU Harold B. Lee Library gives biographical entry to its holdings of Jacob Hamblin's papers.
- Forney writes to Anderson concerning his investigations into massacre. Lists surviving children.
[93]↩︎
In an 1874 deposition, Smith swore that he "tried to impress upon the minds of the people the necessity of great care as to their grain crops as all the crops had been short for several years previous to 1857, and many of the people were reduced to actual want and were suffering for the necessaries of life."
- George A. Smith's affidavit from 1875. Denies any role in planning the massacre or knowledge of it until after the fact.
[94]↩︎
Wells joined the Church in 1846 and served multiple civic and religious roles in Utah.
- Biographical summary of Daniel H. Wells provided by The Joseph Smith Papers.
- Biographical entry for Daniel H. Wells by the Church Historian's Press.
[95]↩︎
Brigham became president of the Church in 1847 and the governor of Utah in 1850. He directed Latter-day Saints throughout Utah to store grain and gather together in a siege mentality during the Utah War of 1857. He also took steps to cooperate with Indians during the war but encouraged people to refrain from shedding blood, even while also vowing to resist federal troops with force if necessary.
[96]↩︎
BYU's Harold B. Lee Library, explaining its holdings connected to the Utah War, explained:
From May 1857 to July 1858, the Utah Expedition, otherwise known as Utah War, Utah Campaign, Buchanan's Blunder, Mormon War, or Mormon Rebellion, was a result of President Buchanan’s decision to replace Governor Brigham Young with Governor Alfred Cumming. The Presidency feared the Mormon community would not accept a non-Mormon governor, resulting in the suspension of mail to Utah and 2,500 troops accompanying Cumming’s journey. Upon news of advancing troops Utah men were called to bear arms and Northern communities were evacuated. After several months of this standard, and continually hoping for peace, the Mormon leader’s willingness to accept Cumming was heard. The agreement ended with the installation of Governor Cumming and a permanent government garrison near Salt Lake City in exchange for peace and amnesty.
- Harold B. Lee Library briefly describes the Utah War and the federal expeditionary force.
[97]↩︎
In a letter dated September 10, 1857, Brigham Young instructed Isaac Haight the following, with respect to the Fancher company:
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.
- Letter from Brigham Young 1 day before MMM ordering that the Fancher Company to pass by without any interference.
[98]↩︎
For example, an 1871 pseudonymous article in the Corinne Reporter said of Brigham Young, "No explanations can relive you from the charge of responsibility in this bloody matter. No man who knows you, and has a fair idea of your doctrines and 'policy' can doubt. You stand condemned before the bar of an enlightened public opinion."
And John D. Lee's defense attorney William Bishop claimed:
Brigham Young is the real criminal, and that John D. Lee was an instrument in his hands. That Brigham Young used John D. Lee, as the assassin uses the dagger, to strike down his unsuspecting victim; and as the assassin throws away the dagger, to avoid its bloody blade leading to his detection, so Brigham Young used John D. Lee to do his horrid work; and when discovery becomes unavoidable, he hurls Lee from him, cuts him away from the Church, and casts him far out into the whirlpool of destruction.
Others, such as Fanny Stenhouse, claimed that even if he didn't directly command it, Brigham must have implicitly approved of the massacre. She wrote, "Brigham Young, who was at the time Governor of the Territory and also Indian Agent, made no report of the [massacre]. Let that fact of itself speak for his innocence or guilt."
[99]↩︎
In his final interview before his execution, Lee said he felt he had been "sacrificed in a cowardly and dastardly manner" by Brigham, whom Lee called a "reptile" that was "leading the people astray downward to destruction."
- John D. Lee reportedly says he doesn't know that George A. Smith spoke out specifically against the Baker-Fancher party.
[100]↩︎
In 1871 Lee recorded in his journal that Brigham knew nothing about the massacre and would not have allowed it:
I had a lengthey interview with the reverend Mr. Braun. . .Brigham Young knew nothing of the Mountain Massacre until it was all over; & verry Much regretted it when he heard of it, & I am satisfied that he never would have suffered it, could [he] have preventd.
- John D. Lee in private journal testifies that Brigham Young did not know about the massacre until after it happened and would have tried to stop it if he could.
[101]↩︎
Judge Boreman sentenced Lee to death on October 10, 1876. The sentence was carried out by firing squad on March 23, 1877.
- Jacob Boreman passed the death sentence on John Doyle Lee who chooses to be shot as his method of execution.
- David O. Calder says John Doyle Lee's distorted view of doctrine caused massacre.
[102]↩︎
In his April 10, 1871 affidavit, Philip Klingensmith testified that Issac C. Haight "said to me that it was the orders from headquarters that all but the little children of [the Fancher Company] were to be killed."
An arrest warrant was issued for Haight by Joshua L. Thomas on January 28, 1884, though no lawsuit resulted from this (Haight would die in 1886).
In a July 21, 1914 affidavit, George F. Gibbs recollected Brigham Young, upon learning of Haight's role in the massacre, said that he deserved "a rope fasted around [his] neck" and that such "would prove salutary medicine for [Haight]."
[103]↩︎
According to his April 10, 1871 affidavit, Philip Klingensmith (who was a participant in the massacre) testified that "Lieutenant-Colonel Haight said to me that it was the orders from headquarters that all but the little children of said company were to be killed."
In his February 1863 statement concerning the massacre at the House of Representatives, Judge John Cradlebaugh said he "was citied by the Indian chiefs" of the locality who "gave the names John D. Lee, President Haight, and Bishop Higbee, as the big captains."
In his book, Mormonism Unveiled (1877), John D. Lee would claim that Haight was the dominating personality, in spite of the higher rank of William H. Dame in the militia. Recalling the aftermath of the massacre, Lee recorded:
Colonel Dame was perfectly cowed. He did not offer to deny it again, but said: “Isaac, I did not know there were so many of them.” “That makes no difference,” said Haight, “you ordered me to do it, and you have got to stand up for your orders.”
[104]↩︎
In September 2007, Forest Cuch, the executive director of the Utah division of Indian affairs and a member of the Ute tribe, was quoted as saying the following:
The LDS Church has got to stop making that association. They're constantly associating the Mormon militia with the Indians. Instead, say there were 60 members of the Mormon militia and two Paiute Indians.
- Carrie A. Moore records Forest Cuch referring to the Paiute involvement in the massacre as a "myth" and something he is tired of hearing; applauded MMM Foundation for "striving for the truth."
[105]↩︎
In the article "History: The Paiutes" hosted on the Utah American Indian Digital Archive Website, the following claim is made:
While many aspects of the massacre are still shrouded in mystery, it is important to stress that Paiute oral tradition strongly indicates that the Paiutes did not participate in either the initial attack or the following massacre.
- UAIDA Website claims that Paiute oral tradition indicates the Paiutes did not participant in MMM or its aftermath.
[106]↩︎
Local church leadership and members of the Church in Cedar City played an important role, such as Isaac C. Haight (stake president and militia leader) who sent John D. Lee, a militia major, to lead an attack on the emigrant company. In his book from 1877, Mormonism Unveiled, John D. Lee notes how Isaac C. Haight and other participants in the massacre "all voted, every man of them . . . on Friday morning [September 11, 1857] . . . to kill all the emigrants."
In his April 10, 1871 affidavit, Philip Klingensmith testified that Isaac C. Haight informed him "that it was the orders from headquarters that all but the little children of [the Fancher-Baker] company were to be killed."
- John D. Lee gives the day of the Mountain Meadows Massacre as a Friday (corresponding to September 11, 1857).
- Affidavit of Philip Klingensmith re: involvement in Mountain Meadows Massacre in Daily Corrine Reporter.
[107]↩︎
James Haslam, in his affidavit, recounted that Haight "had a message written to send up to Brigham Young, and he wished to get a man to take it up."
He added, "He had not found one when I went down there to his house, and he asked me if I would take it. I told him I would if it was possible to take it."
- James Holt Haslam discusses the Mountain Meadows Massacre and its aftermath.
[108]↩︎
The November 12, 1857 edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune reported that the emigrants had poisoned animals:
[The emigrants] also had an ox with them which had died, and they put strychnine in him, for the purpose of poisoning the Indians; also put poison of some description in the water, which is standing in holes. This occasioned several deaths among them, within a few days after the departure of the train.
And on November 20, 1857, John D. Lee reported to Brigham Young that the emigrants had poisoned meat and that it had killed some of the natives:
The co. there poisoned the Meat of an ox which thee gave the Pah van, Indians to eat, causing 4 of them to Die, immediately besides Poisoning a number more the co. also Poisoned the water where they Encamped, killing many of the catle of the Setlers;
Also, in 1858, Colonel Thomas L. Kane recorded in his journal that Indian Chief Kanosh reported to him the following:
One or two of the Indians got thirsty and stooped down to drink at this Spr[in]g where the Emigrants got their water and drank and one died and a number more came very near dying. . .They killed a beef for them but must have poisoned it. For four men and a number of women & children (the number I don't remember[?] of them) died of eating that beef.
[109]↩︎
A 2013 academic paper argued the animals died due to anthrax, not deliberate poisoning:
A careful review of the historical records, along with the more recent scientific literature, seems to exclude the likelihood of actual poisoning in favor of a more recent theory that would point to the bacterium Bacillus anthracis as the possible cause of human and animal deaths.
Jacob Forney, in 1859, would question the reliability of the claim the emigrants had poisoned the animals and water, asking, calling it "incomprehensible" that "an emigrant company, and especially farmers, would carry with them so much deadly poison," and adding that he regarded the rumors as being "entitled to no consideration."
- Study in International Journal of Legal Medicine concludes that the Emigrants did Not Poison the Water Supply and Animals.
- A portion of Jacob Forney's report concerning the massacre; includes excerpts of his interview with David W. Tulis and "Alfred [Hamblin]."
[110]↩︎
The original letter sent to Brigham Young is not extant, but in an 1885 testimony the express rider who took the letter to Brigham, James Haslam, related some of its contents:
He had a message written to send up to Brigham Young, and he wished to get a man to take it up. He had not found one when I went down there to his house, and he asked me if I would take it. I told him I would if it was possible to take it. Did he then state the nature of that message that he wanted you to carry and deliver? He gave me the message to read. Did you read it? Yes, sir. State the contents of it as near as you possibly can. The same as I stated before: that the Indians had got the emigrants corralled at the Mountain Meadows, and Lee wanted to know what should be done. Lee at this time was major of what was called the Post, and he was the Indian agent. My question was in relation to the emigrants—what do you mean by the Post? It was a fort and intended to devise means of protection from the Indians. Was that message placed in an envelope and sealed? Yes, sir. To whom was it addressed? To Brigham Young, governor of Utah Territory.
- James Holt Haslam discusses the Mountain Meadows Massacre and its aftermath.
[111]↩︎
In the first letter letter, Brigham Young instructed Isaac C. Haight not to interfere with the Fancher Company "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."
Brigham Young concluded his second September 14, 1857 letter to William H. Dame with the following instruction:
We say again let there be no waste, save life always when it is possible, we do not wish to shed a drop of blood if it can be avoided.
- Letter from Brigham Young 1 day before MMM ordering that the Fancher Company to pass by without any interference.
- Brigham Young commands the people to refrain from shedding blood if it can be avoided.
[112]↩︎
In his report from May 25, 1859, Major James Henry Carleton claimed a Pah-Ute chief named "Jackson," who was one of the attacking party, informed federal investigators that "orders came down in a letter from Brigham Young that the emigrants were to be killed" by the Native Americans. He added:
A chief of the Pah-Utes named Touche, now living on the Virgin River, told me that a letter from Brigham Young to the same effect was brought down to the Virgin River band by a man named Huntingdon, who, I learn, is an Indian interpreter and lives at present in Salt Lake City.
- James Henry Carlton's 1859 claim that two Native Americans reported to federal investigators they carried a letter from Brigham Young ordering them to kill those in the Fancher train.
[113]↩︎
There are a number of records of Brigham condemning, not condoning, the Massacre. For example, in a letter to Thomas L. Kane dated December 15, 1859, Brigham affirmed he had no knowledge of the Massacre until after the fact and the very thought of it makes him ill:
Neither yourself, nor any one acquainted with me, will require my assurance that, had I been apprized of the intended onslaught at the Meadows, I should have used such efforts for its prevention as the time, distance, and my influence and facilities would have permitted. The horrifying event transpired without my knowledge, except from after report, and the recurring thought of it ever causes a shudder in my feelings.
In a telegraph eight days after Lee's execution, Brigham communicated with Present Rutherford B. Hayes, requesting the U.S. President to appoint a commission to investigate the massacre and to punish the remaining offenders:
I have before now publicaly [stated] that I was & had been at all times ready to render [any] aid I could to bring to justice the perpetrators of that great cime . . . I now most respectfully ask you as the chief magistrate of the great nation in justice to the people who inhabited this Territory at that period if you have the power & if not to call the attention of Congress to the matter when it meets in June to appoint a commission fully authorized to investigate that inhuman slaughter & with jurisdiction to try & punish the offenders thereof.
[114]↩︎
The full account from Brigham reads:
Within some 2 or 3 months after the massacre [John D. Lee] called at my office, and had much to say with regard to the Indians, their being stirred up to anger and threatening the settlements of the whites, and then commenced giving an account of the massacre. I told him to stop, as from what I had already learned by rumor, I did not wish my feeling harrowed up with a recital of details.
- Brigham Young answers questions concerning the Massacre as part of his Deposition in July 1875. Denies role in planning the Massacre.
[115]↩︎
In his journal for September 29, 1857, Wilford Woodruff reported that John D. Lee arrived "with an express and an awful tale of Blood" concerning the emigrants and that "Brother Brigham when speaking of the cutting of the throats of women & children" said "that it was heart rending" and "makes our hearts sick."
- Wilford Woodruff's account of John Doyle Lee making his report to Brigham Young about MMM.
[116]↩︎
In a letter dated September 10, 1857, (one day before the massacre), Brigham Young wrote to Isaac C. Haight, instructing him to tell the people that they "must not interfere with them until they are first notified to keep away."
He added, "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."
- Letter from Brigham Young 1 day before MMM ordering that the Fancher Company to pass by without any interference.
[117]↩︎
In a letter dated Septemebr 14, 1857, (three days after the massacre), Brigham wrote to William H. Dame, instructing him to tell the people to "save life always when it is possible, we do not wish to shed a drop of blood if it can be avoided."
- Brigham Young commands the people to refrain from shedding blood if it can be avoided.
[118]↩︎
Brigham was president of the Church from 1847 until his death in 1877 and was governor of Utah Territory from 1850 until his removal by federal officers in 1857.
- Biographical entry for Brigham on the Church Historian's Press website.
[119]↩︎
William Bishop claimed Brigham used his position as both governor of the territory and the leader of the Church to convince the people that all who rejected the Church and Brigham "were to suffer death, and the wealth of the unbelievers to become the property of the so-called Saints" and that the people residing in Utah lived in fear of "blood atonement" if they were oppose or refuse his commands as "Brigham Young had the sole control of everything in Utah; his word was law."
- William Bishop gives date of Massacre as September 16, 1857 and day of week as Friday; imputes blame to Brigham Young due to his being both Governor of Utah and being President of the LDS Church.
[120]↩︎
In the warrant, Brigham Young was "directly charged with interfering with the courts of Justice, and preventing the punishment of offenders," and, as a result, was accussed of "being accessory after the fact" to the massacre.
- Elias Smith issues warrant for Brigham Young's arrest on charge of being accessory after the fact.
[121]↩︎
Brigham ultimately did not go down to southern Utah on the advice of his personal physician, who stated "with his present health, and state that it is so feeble, [Brigham's] life would be in danger by making the journey from here to Beaver, and could not be taken without the greatest danger."
- Brigham Young's physician informs court he cannot attend proceedings in Beaver without putting his health at risk.
[122]↩︎
Brigham would also state that he did not know of the massacre until sometime after it occurred when John D. Lee called to his office, resulting in "my feeling harrowed up with a recital of details."
- Brigham Young answers questions concerning the Massacre as part of his Deposition in July 1875. Denies role in planning the Massacre.
[123]↩︎
In a letter to T. B. H. Stenhouse dated April 13, 1859, George A. Smith wrote of the emigrants, including the "Americats," stating they were "continuing the old policy of shooting three Indians whenever they approached their camps, without even ascertaining their intentions."
In his affidavit dated July 5, 1875, James M. Mangum testified that the Indians told both him and John D. Lee that "the Americats had poisoned some beef at Corn Creek and that many of their men had died through eating it," resulting in the Indians threatening vengeance "and were very wrathful" against the emigrant parties.
- Blame is placed on the Indians, and the emigrants poisoned the animals is repeated.
- James M. Mangum's Affidavit (excluded from evidence in John Doyle Lee's first trial). Positive picture of Lee as peacemaker and Indians as being violent against the emigrants is painted.
[124]↩︎
In his 1877 Mormonism Unveiled, John D. Lee would claim that he left a camp of Indians "in a frenzy of excitement" and that they threatened to kill him "unless I agreed to lead them against the emigrants, and help kill them." Lee also wrote of their demand to "kill all the 'Mericats,' as they called them" and if not, the Indians "would declare war against the Mormons and kill every one in the settlements."
The claim that the Indians threatened to declare war on the Mormons unless they helped kill the Missouri Wildcats is also found in John M. Higbee's February 1894 account of the massacre who recalled Lee informing him that "if [John D. Lee] and the Mormons did not help them to kill the Merry Cats they would join the Soldiers and fight the Mormons."
However, it's possible that these accounts are inventions by Lee and Higbee to justify their participation in the violence against the emigrants.
- John M. Higbee's 1894 recollection of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
- John Doyle Lee claims ignorance of Brigham Young's September 10, 1857 letter, and puts the blame on the Indians for the massacre.
[125]↩︎
John D. Lee's first report of the massacre to Brigham Young, written just two months after the event, lied by omission by saying the wagon company "fell victims to [the Indians'] wrath near Mountain Meadows" since the emigrants had, he said, "enraged" them. The report omitted any mention of Lee and militia members orchestrating the attack.
- John Doyle Lee, in a letter to Brigham Young, writes that the emigrants poisoned the animals and Indians to be blamed for the massacre.
[126]↩︎
In this report, Smith and McKnight recorded, based on claims passed along to them by the massacre perpetrators, that "the Indians had killed the entire company, with the exception of a few small children."
- Account of massacre written by Smith and McKnight at Cedar City. Much of the blame is put onto the Indians.
[127]↩︎
In a sermon dated March 8, 1863, Brigham attempted to impute blame for the Native Americans for the Massacre:
A company of emigrants were traveling on the route to California. Nearly all of that company were destroyed by the Indians. That unfortunate affair has been laid to the charge of the whites.
Some who were blamed for the massacre would also attempt to blame the Indians in an attempt to downplay their own role in the event, such as John D. Lee who, in his Mormonism Unveiled (1877), claimed that the Indians threatened to kill him unless he agreed to lead them against the emigrants and help kill them after meeting them "in a frenzy of excitement."
In their affidavit from April 9, 1877, Anson and Mary Call recollected that in October 1857 Lee told him that the only culpable party to the massacre were the Indians and that no "whites" engaged in it.
[128]↩︎
Garland Hurt, writing to the Interior Secretary Jacob Thompson, noted that the Indians "acknowledged having participated in the massacre of the emigrants, but said that the Mormons persuaded them into it."
- Garland Hurt's statement that the Indians participated in the massacre due to the influence of Church members.
[129]↩︎
His first trial ended with a hung jury, but Lee was found guilty in his second trial. On March 23, 1877, he was executed by firing squad.
Lee would maintain his being innocent "of ever doing anything designedly wrong in all this affair." He also noted, "It seems I have to be made a victim—a victim must be had, and I am the victim. I am sacrificed to satisfy the feelings—the vindictive feelings, or in other words, am used to gratify parties."
- John Doyle Lee's final words before his execution March 23, 1877.
[130]↩︎
Some of the men indicted for their role in the massacre, such as John Higbee and Isaac Haight, went into hiding. Others, such as Phillip Klingensmith, turned state's evidence to avoid prosecution.
[131]↩︎
In March 1859, Judge John Cradlebaugh pulled together a grand jury in Provo, Utah, to raise indictments related to the massacre and other unresolved violent crimes in the territory. Political infighting between Cradlebaugh, Governor Alfred Cumming, and local Latter-day Saint leaders resulted in no charges being brought and the jury discharged at that time.
[132]↩︎
Forney, based on the evidence he gathered at the time, concluded in his report prepared for the United States Senate that the massacre was carried out "by white men [Mormons] and Indians."
[133]↩︎
In April 1858, U.S. President James Buchanan issued an amnesty proclamation "to the inhabitants of Utah, who shall submit to the laws," offering them "a free pardon for the seditions and treasons heretofore by them committed." This was ratified by Governor Alfred Cumming in June 1858.
Federal Indian agent Jacob Forney understood this amnesty offer was for "any offense whatever committed prior to the issuing of the pardon," which could have included the massacre.
[134]↩︎
The war lasted between 1861 and 1865 and diverted federal attention away from affairs in Utah (a territory that remained loyal to the Union) to focus on the threat of Southern secession.
- History.com Website notes U.S. Civil War began April 12, 1861 and ended April 9, 1865.
[135]↩︎
In his letter to Wm. W. Belknap dated May 21, 1872, Brigham wrote that the judges wanted the Mountain Meadows Massacre case to remain open to paint a negative picture of the Church and "inflame public opinion against our community."
- In a letter, Brigham Young believes the judges wanted inquiry into massacre to remain open to paint a negative picture of the Church.
[136]↩︎
Horace Greely, an American newspaperman and editor, in a letter dated July 18, 1859, noted how "there is some basis of truth for the current Gentile conviction that Mormons have robbed, maimed, and even killed persons in this Territory, under circumstances which should subject the perpetrators to condign punishment, but that Mormon witnesses, grand jurors, petit jurors and magistrates determinedly screen the guilty."
- Mormons are guilty of horrendous acts of evil, including murder, in the Utah territory. Mormons are protecting their own at a judicial level. Based, in part, on testimony of surviving children.
[137]↩︎
In a sermon dated August 12, 1857, Heber C. Kimball, rousing up anti-government sentiment, said:
Send 2,500 troops here, our brethren, to make a desolation of this people! God Almighty helping me, I will fight until there is not a drop of blood in my vein. Good God! I have wives enough to whip out the United States, for they will whip themselves.
Just one week prior to the massacre, Brigham, in a letter to his nephew John Young, wrote that if the U.S. Government were to attack, the Saints would be ready to respond:
We had determined years ago, if a mob again attack us, whether led by their own passions, or constitutionally legalized by the General Government or Government of any of the States or territories that we will resist their aggressions; by making an appeal to God, and our own right arms, for that protection which has ever been denied us by Christianized and civilized nations.
There are other examples of such sermons by Church leaders, both before and after the Massacre.
[138]↩︎
The Cedar City Relief Society minutes for September 10, 1857, (the day before the massacre) reads:
These were squally times, and we ought to attend to secret pray in behalf of our husbands, sons, fathers, & brothers. instructed the sisters to teach their sons & daughters the principles of righteousness, and to implant a desire in their hearts to avenge the blood of the Prophets.
- Cedar City Relief Society minutes say that Eliza Ann Haight taught the importance of avenging the blood of the Prophets.
[139]↩︎
Both faithful and disaffected Latter-day Saints preserved mention of an "oath" or covenant to avenge the blood of the martyrs Joseph and Hyrum Smith upon "this nation"—meaning the United States—as once being part of the endowment ceremony.
William Clayton, for example, recorded Heber C. Kimball saying in a meeting on December 21, 1845, in Nauvoo that he had "covenanted, and never will rest nor my posterity after me until those men who killed Joseph and Hyrum have been wiped out of the earth."
Disaffected Latter-day Saints Increase and Maria Van Deusen published exposés of the endowment in the 1840s and portrayed the oath as administered in the Nauvoo Temple this way:
You do solemnly swear, in the presence of Almighty God, his holy angels, and these witnesses, that you will avenge the blood of Joseph Smith on this nation, and teach the same to your children; and that you will, from this time henceforth and forever, begin and carry out hostilities against the nation, and to keep the same intent a profound secret, now and forever. So help you God.
[140]↩︎
Abraham H. Cannon, son of George Q. Cannon, recorded in 1889: "[George Q. Cannon] understood when he had his endowments in Nauvoo that he took an oath against the murderers of the Prophet Joseph as well as other prophets, and if he had ever met any of those who had taken a hand in that massacre he would undoubtedly have attempted to avenge the blood of the martyrs."
Both faithful and disaffected members in Utah also left accounts of making this oath or covenant, although most of these descriptions are paraphrases.
[141]↩︎
There are no available records from the Church related to the Nauvoo-era endowment ceremony. The records that are available are mostly polemic works from disaffected former members.
Although several temple exposés indicate that the Saints themselves were obliged to violently oppose the United States, other versions of the oath indicate that the Saints were praying to God to avenge the blood of the martyrs, similar to the practice in Revelation 6:9-11.
[142]↩︎
An example of such rhetoric comes from Brigham Young's February 18, 1855 sermon, where he is recorded as having said the following:
If they had any respect to their own welfare, they would come forth and say, whether Joseph Smith was a Prophet or not, ‘We shed his blood, and now let us atone for it;’ and they would be willing to have their heads chopped off, that their blood might run upon the ground, and the smoke of it rise before the Lord as an incense for their sins.
After John D. Lee's execution in March 1877, Brigham would comment that such would be an (albeit, insufficient) example of "Blood Atonement," showing he understood “Blood Atonement” to be related to state/theocratic-sanctioned capital punishment. When asked by a reporter if he believed in "blood atonement," Brigham answered "I do" adding that he believed:
Lee has not half atoned for his great crimes. The Saviour died for all the sins of the world by shedding his blood, and then I believe that he who sheds the blood of man willingly, by man shall his blood be shed.
There are other examples of such rhetoric from contemporary sources as well.
[143]↩︎
The Chicago Daily Tribune for September 17, 1872, noted:
Some years ago, an army officer placed in the valley a small slab, with the roughly-out inscription: "Vengence is mine, saith the Lord." This was at once removed by order of Brigham Young.
A similar account was reported by Captain George F. Price in a letter dated May 25, 1864, which was reprinted in the Union Vadette, on June 8, 1864.
- Brigham Young is reported to have removed the slab commemorating massacre placed there by a US army officer by George F. Price.
- Brigham Young is reported to have removed the slab commemorating massacre in Chicago Daily Tribune.
[144]↩︎
Wilford Woodruff recorded how he and Brigham visited the location of the massacre and encountered the monument which he described as being "A stone at the bottom bore the following Inscription: 120 Men, women, & Children, Murdered in Cold Blood Early in Sept 1857." There is no reference to Brigham having a negative reaction to this nor wishing for its destruction.
- Wilford Woodruff's account of Brigham Young visiting the area of Mountain Meadows where the massacre took place.
[145]↩︎
Juanita Brooks, in her biography of Lee, described:
On [April 20, 1961] the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve of the Mormon Church met in a joint session and "It was the action of the Council after considering all the facts available that authorization be given for the re-instatenent to membership and former blessings to John D. Lee." On May 8 and 9 following, the necessary ordinances were performed in the Salt Lake Temple.
Historian Will Bagley explained that the request came from some of Lee's descendants.
- Juanita Brooks reports the restoration of John D. Lee's temple blessings.
- Bagley describes the restoration of John D. Lee's temple blessings.
[146]↩︎
For example, speaking on the 150th anniversary of the massacre, Henry B. Eyring acknowledged that "the responsibility for the massacre lies with local leaders" of the Church and that the Church expresses "profound regret for the massacre carried out in this valley 150 years ago today and for the undue and untold suffering experienced by the victims then and by their relatives to the present time."
There are other such instances, including an entire article dedicated to the Mountain Meadows Massacre in the September 2007 issue of the Ensign.
[147]↩︎
Church leaders since the nineteenth century have publicly condemned or decried the massacre. John Taylor, for example, decried the massacre as a "relentless, diabolical, sanguinary deed" and an "outrageous infamy."
Charles W. Penrose, an apostle and later a member of the First Presidency, in 1884 likewise called the massacre a "horrible affair," an "awful tragedy," and a "crime."
More recently, Henry B. Eyring said what the perpetrators of the massacre did was "a terrible and inexcusable departure from Christian teaching and conduct."
[148]↩︎
Attending the service were Church officials, local residents of southern Utah, and descendants of the Baker-Fancher party. As reported by the Deseret News, Elder Henry B. Eyring said at the ceremony:
We express profound regret for the massacre carried out in this valley 150 years ago today, and for the undue and untold suffering experienced by the victims then and by their relatives to the present time. . . . A separate expression of regret is owed the Paiute people who have unjustly borne for too long the principal blame for what occurred during the massacre.
- Church News reports on the 150th anniversary memorial service for the massacre.
- Deseret News reports on the 150th anniversary memorial service of the massacre.