Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857

Abstract

Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows. By Will Bagley. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. Pp. xxiv, 493. Illustrations, maps, preface, acknowledgments, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95.) American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857. By Sally Denton. (New York: Knopf, 2003. Pp. xxiii, 306. Author's note, map, illustrations, notes, bibliography, acknowledgments, index. $26.95.) At dawn on September 7, 1857, at Mountain Meadows, a valley about thirty-five miles from Cedar City in southern Utah, a party of Mormons assisted by Paiute Indians opened fire on the California-bound Baker-Fancher wagon train which had come from Arkansas. The Arkansans fended off the surprise attack and withstood a siege for five days during which they lost 15 men from their party of at least 137 people, three-fourths of whom were women and children. Long out of water and running low on ammunition, on September 11 they accepted the word of John D. Lee, leader of the Mormons, who claimed that the attackers were Indians and that he and his men could lead the travelers to safety if they would give up their arms and leave their wagons. Divided into groups of men, women and children, and wounded, they walked a mile or so before they were massacred. In a few awful moments of shooting and throat-cutting, the men were killed by Mormons walking next to them, and the women and children were slaughtered by whites and Indians who had come out of concealed positions. The attackers allowed seventeen children to survive, reasoning that they were too young to be reliable witnesses. One girl was later butchered, though, when her captors decided she was mature enough to give a convincing account. The normally competent Mormon pioneers provided only a slipshod burial. A settler from the area described the scene a few weeks after the massacre: "At one place I saw nineteen wolves pulling out the bodies and eating the flesh" (Bagley, p. 173). Eighteen months after that, there was still abundant evidence of what had taken place: "Human skeletons, disjointed bones, ghastly skulls and the hair of women were scattered in frightful profusion over a distance of two miles" (Bagley, p. 173). Some of the surviving children, who were taken in by Mormon families, watched as their hosts used equipment that had belonged to their families and wore their parents' clothing. Brigham Young, who was the territorial governor of Utah as well as the revered leader and prophet of the Church of Latter-day Saints, declared that the event was an Indian massacre, although there was much available evidence to the contrary. Few people outside Utah accepted that version of events. Various federal officials, in particular the courageous Judge John Cradelbaugh, investigated the massacre and attempted to prosecute a number of Mormons, but their fellow churchmen and citizens uniformly refused to cooperate. Not until 1871, when a participant who had left the church gave a voluntary confession, did the government make any progress. John D. Lee, a fugitive from a federal warrant since 1859 who was living rather openly, was arrested and tried on two occasions, the first ending in a hung jury. He was found guilty in the second trial after Young secured an informal agreement from the federal prosecutor that no further indictments would take place. Lee was executed in March 1877. The first creditable history of these events was The Mountain Meadows Massacre (1950) by Juanita Brooks. She described Utah settlers' fear and hatred of the American government and how it had been heightened by the actions and speeches of Young, who was determined to meet federal interference with military force. Brooks made it clear that the Mormons were responsible for what had happened, but she also accepted the cover-up story that the Arkansans had provoked the attack by obnoxious and threatening behavior which included poisoning a water hole, killing a number of Indians. …