Mountain Meadows Massacre

The Mountain Meadows massacre was a mass killing of the Fancher-Baker wagon train at Mountain Meadows in Utah Territory in September 1857. It began as an attack, quickly turned into a siege and eventually culminated on September 11, 1857, in a mass killing of the unarmed emigrants by the militia after they surrendered to the Mormons. The entire incident involved members of the local Mormon militia and local Paiute tribesmen recruited by the militia.

The Arkansas emigrants were traveling to California shortly before the Utah War started. Mormons throughout the Utah Territory had been mustered to fight the invading United States Army, which they believed was intended to destroy them as a people. During this period of tension, rumors among the Mormons also linked the Fancher-Baker train with enemies who had participated in previous persecutions of Mormons or more recent malicious acts.

The emigrants stopped to rest and regroup their approximately 800 head of cattle at Mountain Meadows, a valley within the Iron County Military District of the Nauvoo Legion (the popular designation for the militia of the Utah Territory).^[2]

Initially intending to orchestrate an Indian massacre,^{[citation needed]} two men with leadership roles in local military, church and government organizations,^[3] Isaac C. Haight and John D. Lee, conspired for Lee to lead militiamen disguised as Native Americans along with a contingent of Paiute tribesmen in an attack. The emigrants fought back and a siege ensued. Intending to leave no witnesses of Mormon complicity in the siege and avoid reprisals complicating the Utah War, militiamen induced the emigrants to surrender and give up their weapons. After escorting the emigrants out of their fortification, the militiamen and their tribesmen auxiliaries executed approximately 120 men, women and children.^[4] Seventeen younger children were spared.

Investigations, interrupted by the U.S. Civil War, resulted in nine indictments in 1874. Only John D. Lee was ever tried, and after two trials, he was convicted. On March 23 1877 a firing squad executed Lee at the massacre site.

Background

Brigham Young
LDS Church president,
governor and
American Indian superintendent of
Utah Territory,
regent of pre-millennial "Kingdom of God"

Main article: Background of the Mountain Meadows massacre

For a decade prior to the Mountain Meadows massacre, the Utah Territory existed as a theocracy led by Brigham Young. As part of Young's vision of a pre-millennial "Kingdom of God", Young established colonies along the California and Old Spanish Trails, where Mormon officials governed by "lay[ing] the ax at the root of the tree of sin and iniquity", while preserving individual rights.^[5] Two of the southern-most establishments were Parowan and Cedar City, led respectively by Stake Presidents William H. Dame and Isaac C. Haight. Haight and Dame were, in addition, the senior regional military leaders of the Mormon militia. During the period just before the massacre, known as the Mormon Reformation, Mormon teachings were dramatic and strident. The religion had undergone a period of intense persecution in the American midwest, and faithful Mormons made solemn oaths to pray for vengeance upon those who killed the "prophets" including founder Joseph Smith, Jr. and most recently apostle Parley P. Pratt, who was murdered in April 1857 in Arkansas.

Meanwhile, early 1857, several groups of emigrants from the northwestern Arkansas region started their trek to California, joining up on the way and known as the Fancher-Baker party. This group was relatively wealthy, and planned to restock its supplies in Salt Lake City, as most wagon trains did at the time. The party reached Salt Lake City with about 120 members. In Salt Lake, there was an unsubstantiated rumor that the revered martyr Parley P. Pratt's widow recognized one of the party as being present at her husband's murder.^[6]

Escalating tensions

George A. Smith
Apostle who met Fancher-Baker party before touring Parowan and neighboring settlements prior to massacre

Main article: Events preceding the Mountain Meadows massacre

The Mountain Meadows massacre was caused in part by events relating to the Utah War, an 1858 invasion of the Utah Territory by the United States Army which ended up being peaceful. In the summer of 1857, however, Mormons expected an all-out invasion of apocalyptic significance. From July to September 1857, Mormon leaders prepared Mormons for a seven-year siege predicted by Brigham Young. Mormons were to stockpile grain, and were prevented from selling grain to emigrants for use as cattle feed. As far-off Mormon colonies retreated, Parowan and Cedar City became isolated and vulnerable outposts. Brigham Young sought to enlist the help of Indian tribes in fighting the "Americans", encouraging them to steal cattle from emigrant trains, and to join Mormons in fighting the approaching army.

In August 1857, Mormon apostle George A. Smith, of Parowan, set out on a tour of southern Utah, instructing Mormons to stockpile grain. He met with many of the eventual participants in the massacre, including W. H. Dame, Isaac Haight, and John D. Lee. He noted that the militia was organized and ready to fight, and that some of them were anxious to "fight and take vengeance for the cruelties that had been inflicted upon us in the States"^{[citation needed]}. On his return trip to Salt Lake City, Smith camped near the Fancher party. Jacob Hamblin suggested the Fanchers stop and rest their cattle at Mountain Meadows. Some of Smith's party started rumors that the Fanchers had poisoned a well and a dead ox, in order to kill Indians, rumors that preceded the Fanchers to Cedar City. Most witnesses said that the Fanchers were in general a peaceful party that behaved well along the trail.

Among Smith's party were a number of Paiute Indian chiefs from the Mountain Meadows area. When Smith returned to Salt Lake, Brigham Young met with these leaders on September 1 1857 and encouraged them to fight against the "Americans". The Indian chiefs were reportedly reluctant. Some scholars theorize, however, that the leaders returned to Mountain Meadows and participated in the massacre. However, it is uncertain whether they would have had time to do so.

Conspiracy and massacre

Fanchers' arrival at Cedar City

Map depicting Mountain Meadows and surrounding region in 1857, showing path of
Old Spanish Trail

Cedar City was the last major settlement where emigrants could stop to buy grain and supplies before a long stretch of wilderness leading to California.^[7] When they arrived there, however, they were turned a cold shoulder: important goods were not available in the town store, and the local miller charged an exorbitant price for grinding grain.^[8] As tension between the Mormons and the emigrants mounted, a member of the Fancher-Baker party was said to have bragged he had the very gun that "shot the guts out of Old Joe Smith".^[9] Other members of the party reportedly bragged about taking part in the Haun's Mill massacre some decades before in Missouri.^[10] Others were reported by Mormons to have threatened to join the incoming federal troops, or join troops from California, and march against the Mormons.^[11] According to a witness, Alexander Fancher, captain of the emigrant train, rebuked these men on the spot for their inflammatory language.^[12]

Mormon meetings at Cedar City to decide emigrants' fate

After the Fanchers left Cedar City, and before they arrived at the Meadows, several meetings were held in Cedar City and nearby Parowan by local Mormon leaders pondering how to implement Young's directives. At least nine southern Utah militiamen had already been sent out as scouts to the area's emigrant trails' mountain passes, looking for advance parties of the United States dragoons. After the massacre, these scouts would later return with welcome news that U.S. troops likely would not be arriving until spring.

Soon after the Fanchers left Cedar City, Major Isaac C. Haight, Mormon Stake President of Cedar City and second in command of the Iron County militia, sent a letter to William H. Dame, the militia's commanding officer and Stake President of Parowan, asking that the militia be called out against the Fanchers.^[13] Dame reportedly denied the request, but told Haight to let him know if the Fanchers committed any acts of violence.^[14] Haight, however, who was of equal rank to Dame in ecclesiastical matters, settled on a secondary plan to use the Native Americans instead of the militia. Whether Dame was privy to this plan is a matter of disagreement between the witnesses. According to one report, Isaac Haight said the "Indian attack" plan was being put in place under the religious authority of the Cedar City Stake, without Dame's authorization as military commander.^[15] Lee, however, said Haight told him that orders for the "Indian attack" came from Dame.^[16] Philip Klingensmith reported that the orders came from "headquarters" other than Cedar City, but he was unsure whether that meant Parowan or Salt Lake City.^[17]

Maj. John D. Lee, constable, judge, and Indian Agent. He led the initial assault, and falsely offered emigrants safe passage prior their mile-long march down field of massacre. He was the only convicted participant.

Possibly on September 4 1857,^[18] Haight had a meeting with John D. Lee ordering him to assemble Paiute fighters to head towards Mountain Meadows for the planned attack. Lee was a bishop, a territorial legislator, and a friend to Joseph Smith, Jr. and Brigham Young, in both of whose service Lee had performed duties as a constable and of personal protection and was rumored to have meted out secret punishments as a Danite as well. Lee's meeting with Haight, according to Lee, took place late at night in Cedar City at the iron works, while they were wrapped in blankets against the cold.

In the afternoon of Sunday, September 6, Major Haight held his weekly Stake High Council meeting after church services, and brought up the issue of whether to what to do with the emigrants.^[19] The Council believed that there were U.S. armies approaching from the north and the south,^[20] and it was reported at the meeting that the Fancher-Baker party had threatened to "destroy every damned Mormon", and some of them had claimed to have killed Joseph Smith^[21] that they would wait at Mountain Meadows and then join with the approaching armies in a massacre of Mormons.^[22]

The planned Native American massacre of the Fancher train was discussed, but not all the Council members agreed it was the right approach.^[23] The Council resolved to take no action until Haight sent a rider (James Haslam) out the next day to carry an express to Salt Lake City (a six-day round trip on horseback) for Brigham Young's advice.^[24] The Council also resolved to send a messenger south to John D. Lee, instructing Lee to stay the planned Indian massacre at Mountain Meadows.^[25]

John M. Higbee was directed to command a special contingent of militia drawn from throughout the southern settlements whose initial orders were to coordinate the affair while maintaining a picket around the area's perimeter.

Siege (September 7–September 111857)

A witness said that a Mormon Indian Agent, John D. Lee, left his home in Harmony on September 6 1857 in the company of 14 Native Americans and headed toward Mountain Meadows.^[26] In the early morning of Monday, September 7^[27] the Arkansan "Fancher" party began to be attacked by as many or more than 200 Paiutes^[28] and Mormon militiamen disguised as Native Americans. The Fancher party defended itself by encircling and lowering their wagons, wheels chained together, along with digging shallow trenches and throwing dirt both below and into the wagons, which made a strong barrier. Seven emigrants were killed during the opening attack and were buried somewhere within the wagon encirclement. Sixteen more were wounded. The attack continued for five days, during which the besieged families had little or no access to fresh water and their ammunition was depleted.^[29]

Map of the Meadows
by Josiah F. Gibbs

According to one report, they attempted to send a little girl to a nearby spring for water, dressed in white, and she was fired upon, but escaped unharmed back to the camp.^[30] When two emigrant horsemen attempted to retrieve water, one was shot while another escaped, but not before seeing that the shooter was a white man.

On September 9, local Mormon leader Isaac C. Haight and his counselor Elias Morris visited Dame in Parowan, where the council decided that the militia would allow the emigrants to pass safely.^[31] After the Parowan council meeting, however, Haight spoke with Dame confidentially, relating the information that the emigrants probably already knew that Mormons were involved in the siege. This information changed Dame's mind, and he reportedly authorized a massacre.

Massacre

Maj. John H. Higbee, said to have shouted the command to begin the killings. According to his own story, he reluctantly participated after the massacre, only to bury the dead from what he thought was an "Indian attack".

Following orders from Haight in Cedar City, 35 miles (56 km)) away, on Friday September 11 John Higbee ordered a group of militiamen not in disguise to march and stand in a formal line a half-mile from the Fanchers,^[32] then Lee and William Batemen approached the Fancher-Baker party wagons with a white flag.^[33][34] Lee told the battle-weary emigrants he had negotiated a truce with the Paiutes, whereby they could be escorted safely to Cedar City under Mormon protection in exchange for leaving all their livestock and supplies to the Native Americans.^[29] Accepting this, they were split into three groups. Seventeen of the youngest children along with a few mothers and the wounded were put into wagons, which were followed by all the women and older children walking in a second group. Bringing up the rear were the adult males of the Fancher party, each walking with an armed Mormon militiaman at his right. Making their way back northeast towards Cedar City, the three groups gradually became strung out and visually separated by shrubs and a shallow hill. After about 2 kilometers Higbee gave the prearranged order, "Do Your Duty!"^[35] Each Mormon then turned and killed the man he was guarding. All of the men, women, older children and wounded were massacred by Mormon militia and Paiutes who had hidden nearby.

A few victims who escaped the initial slaughter were quickly chased down and killed. Two teenaged girls, Rachel and Ruth Dunlap, managed to climb down an embankment to hide among oak trees for a time, but were spotted by a Paiute chief from Parowan, who took them to Lee. Lee ordered the girls killed despite pleadings for mercy by the chief and the girls. Captain Carleton^[36] mentions that the sisters were later found naked with slit throats. This scene was vividly recounted in a turn-of-the-century exposé by Gibbs.^[37]

Spared children and distribution of spoils

Christopher "Kit" Fancher, a massacre survivor, who was four years old at the time, was the son of Captain Alexander Fancher. He said, "He and...his little sister Tryphena, were taken and placed in Mormon homes....[Kit] was called "Charley" by the Mormons."^[38] After two years, the siblings were returned to family in Arkansas

Survivor Nancy Sephrona Huff, four years old at tragedy, "was taken away by John Willis, whom she lived with until she was returned to relatives in Arkansas two years later."^[39]

Approximately seventeen children were deliberately spared because of their age.^[40] In the hours following the massacre Lee directed Philip Klingensmith, Samuel McMurdy,^[41] and possibly J. Willis and Samuel Knight^[42] to take the children (a few of whom were wounded) to the nearby farm of Jacob Hamblin, a local Indian Agent.^[43] From there, the children were taken to Cedar City, where foster parents were found among local Mormon families.^[44]

After searching the bodies for valuables, Lee, Higbee, and Klingensmith made speeches and ordered the participants not to tell anyone, including their wives, and to blame the massacre on the Native Americans alone.^[45] Dame and Haight arrived at the scene late that night and stayed at the Hamblin ranch; they were not present during the massacre.

On September 12 1857, the many dozens of bodies were hastily dragged into gullies and other low lying spots, then lightly covered with surrounding material which was soon blown away by the weather, leaving the remains to be scavenged and scattered by wildlife.^[29] After the hasty burials, the participants gathered at the emigrant camp for a council, where Dame, Haight, and other church and military leaders thanked the participants for their zeal, and thanked God for delivering their enemies into their hands.^[46] The militia then performed the Mormon prayer circle ordinance, during which they again made sacred oaths not to reveal the role of Mormons in the massacre.^[47]

The Paiutes reportedly received a portion of the Fancher-Baker party's significant livestock holdings as compensation for their part in the massacre. Many of the murdered emigrants' other belongings (including blood stained and bullet-riddled clothing stripped from the victims' corpses) were brought to Cedar City and stored in the cellar of an LDS warehouse as "property taken at the siege of Sevastopol."^[48] There are conflicting accounts as to whether these items were auctioned off or simply taken by members of the local population. Surviving children saw Mormons wearing their parents' clothing and jewelry.^[49]

Belated message from Young

The express rider Haslam returned with a letter from Young ordering that the emigrants not be harmed, but did not arrive in time to prevent the attack and moreover, after the siege had started Haight had fully resolved to murder any adult witnesses.

On September 8, 1858, just before Young received Haight's message, Capt. Stewart Van Vliet of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps arrived in Salt Lake City. Van Vliet's mission was to inform Young that the U.S. did not intend to attack the Mormons, but intended to establish an army base near Salt Lake, and to request Young's cooperation in procuring supplies for the army. Young informed Van Vliet that he was skeptical that the army's intentions were peaceful, and that the Mormons intended to resist occupation. ^[50]

President Young’s message of reply to Haight, dated September 10, read: "In regard to emigration trains passing through our settlements, we must not interfere with them until they are first notified to keep away. You must not meddle with them. The Indians we expect will do as they please but you should try and preserve good feelings with them. There are no other trains going south that I know of[.] [I]f those who are there will leave let them go in peace."^[51]

According to trial testimony given later by express rider Haslam, when Haight read Young’s words, he sobbed like a child and could manage only the words, "Too late, too late."^[52]

Historians debate the letter's contents. Brooks believes it shows Young "did not order the massacre, and would have prevented it if he could."^[53] Bagley argues that the letter covertly gave other instructions.^[54]

Investigations and prosecutions

While taking into account evidence Brigham Young did not order the massacre and lack of direct evidence Young condoned of it, historians question the roles of local Cedar City Mormon church officials in ordering the murders and Young's concealing of evidence in their aftermath.^[55] Young's use of inflammatory and violent language^[56] in response to the Federal expedition added to the tense atmosphere at the time of the attack. After the massacre, Young stated in public forums that God had taken vengeance on the Fancher party.^[57] It is unclear whether Young held this view because he believed this specific group posed an actual threat to colonists or were directly responsible for past crimes against Mormons. According to historian MacKinnon, "After the war, Buchanan implied that face-to-face communications with Brigham Young might have averted the [Utah War], and Young argued that a north-south telegraph line in Utah could have prevented the Mountain Meadows Massacre."^[58]

Part played by Paiutes

Paiute tribesmen (circa 1880)

A few days after the massacre, September 29, 1857, John D. Lee briefed Brigham Young on the massacre. According to Lee, more than one hundred and fifty mobbers of Missouri and Illinois, with many cattle and horses, dammed the Saints leaders, poisoned not only a beef given to the Native Americans, but poisoned a spring which killed both Saints and Native Americans. The Native Americans became enraged and after a long siege killed all and stripped the corpses of clothing. The Mormons spared eight to ten children. A second group, with a large cattle herd, would have suffered the same fate had not the Saints intervened and saved them. Wilford Woodruff recorded Lees's account as a "tale of blood."^[59]

On September 30, 1857, Mormon Indian Agent George W. Armstrong sent a letter to Young from Provo with information of the massacre. In his account, the emigrants gave the Native Americans poisoned beef. After many Native Americans died, they "appeased their savage vengeance" by killing fifty-seven men and nine women. There was no mention of survivors.^[60]

Decades later, Young's son, 13 years old in 1857, said he was in the office during that meeting and that he remembered Lee blaming the massacre on the Native Americans.^[61] Some time after Lee's meeting with Young, Jacob Hamblin said he reported to Young and George A. Smith what he said Lee had related to Hamblin on his journey to Salt Lake.^[62] Brigham Young was mistaken when he later testified, under oath, that the meeting took place "some two of three months after the massacre".^[63] When Lee attempted to relate the details of the massacre, however, Young later testified he cut Lee off, stopping him from reciting further details.^[64]

Rumors of the massacre began to reach California in early October. John Aiken, a "gentile" who traveled with the mail carrier John Hurt through the killing field, reported to the Los Angeles Star that the unburied putrefied corpses of the women and children were more generally eaten than the men.^[65]

Confirmation of the massacre was received from the Mormon J. Ward Christian. Christian claimed that the emigrants had cheated the Native Americans who sold them wheat at Corn Creek, put strychnine in water holes and poisoned a dead ox. According to Christian, the party consisted of 130 to 135. All were killed by Native Americans with the exception of fifteen infant children, that have since been purchased with much difficulty by the Mormon interpreters.^[66]

And when Brigham Young sent his report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1858, he said the massacre was the work of Native Americans.^[67]

Paiute leaders maintain that Mormon accounts of Paiute initiation of the siege are untrue. Stoffel and Evans assert that Paiutes had no history of attacking wagon trains^[68] and no Native Americans were charged, prosecuted, or punished by federal officials as a result of the Mountain Meadows massacre. Tribal oral history accounts taken in 1980s and 1990s relate stories of Paiutes witnessing the attack from a distance rather than participating. There are some stories, which relate some Paiute were present, but did not initiate or participate in the killings. A corroborating oral history of Sybil Mariah Frink tells of witnessing the planning of the massacre at her home in Harmony. She contends she followed fourteen Mormons who had disguised themselves as Native Americans to the scene of the massacre. She makes no mention of any Native Americans participating in the attack. Authors Tom and Holt summarize the state of proof regarding the massacre:

The fact that so much evidence, including relevant pages from the journals of many settlers, has been lost or destroyed, testifies to many Native Americans and their sympathizers that much of the official history cannot be considered to be complete or truthful. However, there is certainly some evidence that Native Americans with base camps on the Muddy and Santa Clara Rivers were at least involved in the initial siege of the wagon train."^[69]

While by all accounts native American Paiutes were present, historical reports of their numbers and the details of their participation are contradictory.^[70]

Eyewitness accounts from Mormons that implicate the Paiutes (at first entirely so and then only in part) are set against Paiute accounts that absolve them from participation in the actual massacre. Historian Bagley believes "the problem with trying to tell the story of Mountain Meadows—the sources are all fouled up. You've either got to rely on the testimony of the murderers or of the surviving children. And so what we know about the actual massacre is—could be challenged on almost any point. _ "^[71]

Orchestration by militia

Although militia members put responsibility on the Natives, many non-Mormons began to suspect Mormon involvement and called for a federal investigation.^[72] Territorial U.S. Indian Agent Garland Hurt, in the days following the massacre, sent a translator to investigate, who returned on September 23 with the report that Paiutes attacked the emigrants and after being repulsed three time the Mormons tricked the wagon train members into surrender and killed them all.^[73] On the September 27, Hurt, the last federal Agent in Utah Territory, escaped more than seventy five Mormons dragoons for the safety of the American Army with the help of members of the Ute tribe of Native Americans.^[74]

On Lee's journey to Salt Lake City to report the massacre, he passed Jacob Hamblin going the opposite direction, and according to Hamblin, Lee admitted killing emigrants, including adolescent children, and stated that he acted under orders from officials in Cedar City.^[75] Lee denied making these admissions^[76] or breaking his oath of secrecy.^[77]

Young first heard about the massacre from second-hand reports,^[78] After Lee reached Salt Lake City, Lee met with Young on September 29 1857,^[79] according to Lee, he told Young about Mormon involvement. Young, however, later testified that he cut Lee off when he started to describe the massacre, because he could not bear to hear the details.^[80] Lee, however, said he told Young of involvement by Mormons. Nevertheless, according to Jacob Hamblin, Hamblin heard a detailed description of the massacre and Mormon involvement from Lee and reported it to Young and George A. Smith soon after the massacre. Hamblin said he was told to keep quiet, but that "as soon as we can get a court of justice, we will ferret this thing out".^[81]

With regard to the new policy to unbridle Natives to steal cattle, roughly at the same time of the massacre Indian agent Hurt received word that militia leadership at Ogden had arranged for the Snake tribe to run off over 400 cattle that were being driven toward California.^[82]

Federal investigations in 1859

Maj. James H. Carleton, later-prominent Indian fighter of American Southwest, who investigated the massacre site in 1859 and erected an early marker.

John Cradlebaugh, the federally appointed Utah territorial judge, who attempted unsuccessfully to indict Mormons for alleged religious crimes, including the Mountain Meadows massacre, during the Utah Territory's theocratic period.

The Utah War interrupted further federal investigation and the LDS Church conducted no investigation of its own. Then in 1859, two years after the massacre, investigations were made by Hurt's superior, Jacob Forney,^[83] and also by U.S. Army Brevet Major James Henry Carleton. In Carleton's investigation, at Mountain Meadows he found women's hair tangled in sage brush and the bones of children still in their mothers' arms.^[84] Carleton later said it was "a sight which can never be forgotten." After gathering up the skulls and bones of those who had died, Carleton's troops buried them and erected a rock cairn.

By August 1859, Jacob Forney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Utah had retrieved the children from the Mormon families housing them and gathered them in preparation of transporting them to their relatives in Arkansas. He placed the children in the care of families in Santa Clara prior to transportation.^[85] Forney and Capt. Reuben Campbell (US Army) related that Lee sold the children to Mormon families in Cedar City, Harmony, and Painter Creek.^[86] Sarah Francis Baker, who was three years old at the time of the massacre, later said, "They sold us from one family to another."^[87] As early as May 1859, Forney reported that none of the children had ever lived with the Native Americans, but had been transported by white men from the scene of the massacre to the house of Jacob Hamblin. In July 1859 he wrote of his refusal to pay claims by families who alleged they purchased the children from the Native Americans, stating he knew it was not true.^[88] Forney had seen to the gathering up the surviving children from local families after which they were united with extended family members in Arkansas and other states.^[89] Families received compensation for the children's care, including Jacob Hamblin;^[90] some protested that the amounts were insufficient—although Carleton's report criticized the conditions under which some of the children lived.^[91]

Forney concluded that the Paiutes did not act alone and the massacre would not have occurred without the white settlers,^[92] while Carleton's report to the U.S. Congress called the mass killings a "heinous crime",^[93] blaming both local and senior church leaders for the massacre.

In an early federal investigation of the massacre, two Paiute chiefs named Jackson and Touche said that Brigham Young sent a letter to at least two Paiute bands that the Fancher-Baker party was to be killed, and that the letter was brought by Dimick B. Huntington.^[94] Scholars disagree on whether to credit this report as factual, since Huntingon's journal does not indicate he made a trip to southern Utah.^{[citation needed]}

A federal judge brought into the territory after the Utah War, Judge John Cradlebaugh, in March 1859 convened a grand jury in Provo, Utah concerning the massacre, but the jury declined any indictments.^[95]

1870s prosecutions of John D. Lee

Philip Klingensmith, a Bishop in the church and a private in the militia. Participated in the killings, and later turned state's evidence against fellows, after leaving the church.

Further investigations, cut short by the American Civil War in 1861,^[96] again proceeded in 1871 when prosecutors obtained the affidavit of militia member Phillip Klingensmith. Klingensmith had been a bishop and blacksmith from Cedar City; by the 1870s, however, he had left the church and moved to Nevada.^[97]

During the 1870s Lee,^[98] Dame, Philip Klingensmith and two others (Ellott Willden and George Adair, Jr.) were indicted and arrested while warrants were obtained to pursue the arrests of four others (Haight, Higbee, William C. Stewart and Samuel Jukes) who had successfully gone into hiding. Klingensmith escaped prosecution by agreeing to testify.^[99] Brigham Young removed some participants including Haight and Lee from the LDS church in 1870. The U.S. posted bounties of $500 each for the capture of Haight, Higbee and Stewart while prosecutors chose not to pursue their cases against Dame, Willden and Adair.

Lee's first trial began on July 23 1875 in Beaver, Utah before a jury of eight Mormons and four non-Mormons.^[100] The prosecution called five eye-witnesses: Philip Klingensmith, Joel White, Samuel Pollock, William Young, and James Pierce.^[101] Due to an illness, George A. Smith was not called as a witness, but provided deposition testimony denying any involvement in the massacre,^[102] as did Brigham Young, who said he could not travel because he was an invalid.^[103] The defense called Silas S. Smith, Jesse N. Smith, Elisha Hoops, and Philo T. Farnsworth,^[104] who were part of George A. Smith's party on August 25 1857 when he camped near the Fancher-Baker party in Corn Creek. Each of them testified that they either saw, or suspected, that the Fancher-Baker party poisoned a spring and a dead ox, later eaten by Native Americans.^[105][106] The trial ended in a hung jury on August 5 1875.

Lee's second trial began September 13 1876, before an all-Mormon jury. The prosecution called Daniel Wells, Laban Morrill, Joel White, Samuel Knight, Samuel McMurdy, Nephi Johnson, and Jacob Hamblin.^[107] Lee also stipulated, against advice of counsel, that the prosecution be allowed to re-use the depositions of Young and Smith from the previous trial.^[108] Lee called no witnesses in his defense.^[109] This time, Lee was convicted.

Lee just prior execution
(seated next to coffin)

At his sentencing, as required by Utah Territory statute, he was given the option of being hung, shot, or beheaded, and he chose to be shot.^[110] In 1877, executed by firing squad at Mountain Meadows (a fate Young believed just, but not a sufficient blood atonement, given the enormity of the crime, to get him into the celestial kingdom).^[111] Lee himself professed that he was a scapegoat for others involved.

I have always believed, since that day, that General George A. Smith was then visiting Southern Utah to prepare the people for the work of exterminating Captain Fancher's train of emigrants, and I now believe that he was sent for that purpose by the direct command of Brigham Young.

The knowledge of how George A. Smith felt towards the emigrants, and his telling me that he had a long talk with Haight on the subject, made me certain that it was the wish of the Church authorities, that Fancher and his train should be wiped out, and knowing all this, I did not doubt then, and I do not doubt it now, either, that Haight was acting by full authority from the Church leaders, and that the orders he gave to me were just the orders that he had been directed to give, when he ordered me to raise the Indians and have them attack the emigrants.^[112]

Media coverage and commentary

Main article: Mountain Meadows massacre and the media

Although the massacre was covered to some extent in the media during the 1850s,^{[citation needed]}, the first period of intense nation-wide publicity about the massacre began around 1872, after investigators obtained the confession of Philip Klingensmith, a Mormon bishop at the time of the massacre and a private in the Utah militia. In 1872, Mark Twain commented on the massacre through the lens of contemporary American public opinion in an appendix^[113] to his semi-autobiographical travel book Roughing It. In 1873, the massacre was a prominent feature of a history by T.B.H. Stenhouse, The Rocky Mountain Saints.^[114] National newspapers covered the Lee trials closely from 1874 to 1876, and his execution in 1877 was widely covered.

The massacre has been treated extensively by several historical works, beginning with Lee's own Confession in 1877, expressing his opinion that George A. Smith was sent to southern Utah by Brigham Young to direct the massacre.^[115] In 1910, the massacre was the subject of a short 1910 book by Josiah F. Gibbs, who also attributed responsibility for the massacre to Young and Smith.^[116] The first detailed and comprehensive work using modern historical methods was Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1950 by Juanita Brooks, a Mormon scholar who lived near the area in southern Utah. Brooks found no evidence of direct involvement by Brigham Young, but charged him with obstructing the investigation and for provoking the attack through his rhetoric.

The most significant works after Brooks include the book Blood of the Prophets by Will Bagley in 2002^[117] and American Massacre by Sally Denton in 2003.^[118] Bagley pointed to what he said was strong circumstantial evidence of Young's involvement through Smith, and through his early September 1857 meeting with Paiute Indian leaders Tutsegabit and Youngwids.^{[citation needed]} Denton also suggested involvement by Young through Smith, but argued against involvement by Paiute leaders.^{[citation needed]}

In historical fiction, the massacre inspired a genre of frontier crime fiction in the 19th century. The massacre has been portrayed in several plays, and in a 2007 motion picture, September Dawn. A documentary entitled Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (2004) covers the massacre, the descendants of the victims and perpetrators, and the forensic evidence discovered at the massacre site.

LDS public relations

Main article: Mountain Meadows massacre and Mormon public relations

After a period of official public silence concerning the massacre, and denials of any Mormon involvement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) took action in 1872 to excommunicate some of the participants for their role in the massacre. Since then, the LDS Church has consistently condemned the massacre, though acknowledging involvement by local Mormon leaders. In September 2007, the LDS Church published an article in its official publications marking 150 years since the tragedy occurred.^[119].

Beginning in the late mid- to late-20th century, the LDS Church has made efforts to reconcile with the descendents of John D. Lee (reinstating him posthumously to full fellowship in the church), as well as those of the slain Fancher-Baker party. The church erected a memorial at the massacre site in 1999, and has opened many of its previously confidential archival records about the massacre to scholars.

Commemorations

Non-Mormon markers and memorials at Mountain Meadows

Early cairn at
Mountain Meadows
Photograph taken in 1898.
Stones of this marker scattered at least twice by vandals during
19th century^[120]

The original cairn Major Carleton had erected over the victims' mass graves on May 20 1859 contained a granite marker inscribed with the words, Here 120 men, women, and children were massacred in cold blood early in September 1857. They were from Arkansas, along with a cedar cross bearing the words, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.^[48] This marker was soon torn down by Brigham Young,^{[citation needed]} then re-built in 1864 by the U.S. military, then torn down again around 1874.^[121] In 1932 a memorial wall was built around the 1859 Cairn.^[122] In 1990, the Mountain Meadows Association built a monument overlooking the Mountain Meadows massacre site, it is maintained by the Utah State Division of Parks and Recreation^[122][123].

On September 15 1990, more than 2,000 people attended a memorial service at Southern Utah State College, marking the dedication of the memorial. Participants in the memorial service included Judge Roger V. Logan, Jr. of Harrison, Arkansas and J. K. Fancher representing the emigrant families, tribal chairwoman Geneal Anderson and spiritual leader Clifford Jake, representing the Paiute tribe, Rex E. Lee, representing descendants of LDS pioneer families from the area, and a then–first counselor in the LDS First Presidency Gordon B. Hinckley representing the church.

According to quotes from an article in the Saint George, Utah, Spectrum newspaper:^[124]

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

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

Commemorations in Arkansas

Replica of 1857 marker at
Mountain Meadows
erected in 2005 in Carrollton, Arkansas

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

A commemorative wagon-train encampment assembled at Beller Spring, Arkansas on April 21–22, 2007, with some participants in period dress, to honor the sesquicentennial of their ancestors' embarkation on the ill-fated journey.^[125]

LDS Church's 1999 memorial

Main article: Mountain Meadows massacre and Mormon public relations

In 1999 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built and agreed to maintain a second monument at Mountain Meadows.^[126] During excavation for the monument, however, a backhoe moving a wall originally erected by Carleton accidentally unearthed the remains of at least 29 victims, allowing anthropologists to conduct forensic examinations.

The Mountain Meadows Foundation, based in Arkansas, was wary of the LDS Church's sole ownership of the property and oversight of the memorial. It sought to buy this area, encompassing three different emigrant gravesites, from its owner, the LDS church, to be administered through an independent trustee or else for the property to be kept in the LDS church's hands but for it to be leased to the federal government for oversight as a national monument. The church declined this idea, yet bought more parcels nearby as a preserve from resorts development.^[127] During ceremonies dedicating the monument, Hinckley said, "That which we have done here must never be construed as an acknowledgment of the part of the church of any complicity in the occurrences of that fateful day."

150th Anniversary

On September 11, 2007, approximately 400 people, including many descendants of those slain at Mountain Meadows, gathered to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the massacre. At this commemoration, Elder Henry B. Eyring of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles issued a statement on behalf of the LDS Church's First Presidency expressing regret for the actions of local church leaders in the massacre. During the commemoration, Elder Eyring stated, "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... What was done here long ago by members of our church represents a terrible and inexcusable departure from Christian teachings and conduct. We cannot change what happened, but we can remember and honor those who were killed here." ^{[128] [129] [130]}

Notes