Mountain Meadows

documented fact · historical event

In September 1857 local Latter-day Saint militia in southern Utah, with some Paiutes, killed about 120 emigrants of the Baker-Fancher party at Mountain Meadows, sparing young children.

Needs human verification

documented fact · historical event

At the 150th anniversary in 2007, the Church expressed profound regret for the massacre and separate regret that Paiutes had wrongly carried principal blame.

Needs human verification

disputed · historical event

Brigham Young's role is disputed: Will Bagley argues Young bears responsibility, while Walker, Turley, and Leonard found no evidence he ordered the massacre.

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150th Anniversary of Mountain Meadows Massacre

Henry B. Eyring (for the Church) · Church Newsroom · 2007-09-11

Event date discussed: 2007-09-11

At the 150th anniversary, Elder Henry B. Eyring expressed the Church's profound regret for the massacre and the suffering of victims' families, and separate regret to the Paiute people, who had wrongly carried principal blame. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Mountain Meadows Massacre (Church History Topics)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Event date discussed: 1857-09

This Church History topic says local Latter-day Saint leaders and militia in southern Utah planned and carried out the September 1857 massacre of about 120 emigrants of the Baker-Fancher party, and summarizes the Church's later acknowledgment and memorial efforts. Summary, not a quotation.

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Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints (Gospel Topics Essay)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · 2014

The Church's essay covers the Danites, violence in Missouri, and Mountain Meadows, and discusses blood atonement sermons by Brigham Young and others as rhetoric that was rarely if ever acted on. Summary, not a quotation.

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The Mountain Meadows Massacre

Richard E. Turley Jr. · Ensign (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) · 2007-09

Event date discussed: 1857-09-11

Written for the 150th anniversary by the Church's then managing director of Family and Church History, the article says that on September 11, 1857 some 50 to 60 local militiamen, aided by Paiute allies, killed about 120 California-bound emigrants, mostly from Arkansas, sparing 17 children age six and under. It sets the attack in the Utah War tensions, rejects the old story that emigrants poisoned a spring at Fillmore, and traces the plan to Cedar City leaders (Isaac Haight, John D. Lee) who defied a council and district commander William Dame's first refusal. It quotes Brigham Young's September 10 letter telling them not to meddle with the emigrants, which arrived two days after the massacre. It notes Haight and Lee were excommunicated in 1870, Lee alone was executed, and Paiutes were unjustly blamed for decades. Summary, not a quotation.

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Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows

Will Bagley · University of Oklahoma Press · 2002

Bagley argues that Brigham Young's rhetoric and policies created the conditions for the 1857 massacre and that Young helped cover it up afterward. Summary, not a quotation.

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House of Mourning: A Biocultural History of the Mountain Meadows Massacre

Shannon A. Novak · University of Utah Press · 2008

A bioarchaeologist's study of remains accidentally unearthed at Mountain Meadows in 1999 during work on a Church-built monument, combined with records of the emigrant families. Novak reconstructs who the Arkansas emigrants were and how they died; the skeletal evidence, including gunshot wounds and blunt-force trauma, bears on how the killing was carried out. Summary, not a quotation.

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Massacre at Mountain Meadows: An American Tragedy

Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard · Oxford University Press · 2008

Three historians with full access to Church archives conclude that local Latter-day Saint militia leaders in southern Utah planned and carried out the 1857 massacre, while finding no evidence that Brigham Young ordered it. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Report on the Subject of the Massacre at the Mountain Meadows, in Utah Territory, in September 1857

Brevet Maj. James H. Carleton, U.S. Army · Little Rock: True Democrat Steam Press · 1860

Event date discussed: 1859

An Army officer's report from his May 1859 visit to Mountain Meadows, where his troops gathered and buried the remains of the victims and raised a rock cairn and cross. Carleton records the scene, interviews local settlers and Paiutes, and concludes that Latter-day Saints, not Indians alone, carried out the killing. The printing also includes William C. Mitchell's report on the seventeen surviving children. Summary, not a quotation.

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Contemporaneous U.S. Army report written with open hostility toward Latter-day Saints. A primary document, not a neutral account.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre

Juanita Brooks · University of Oklahoma Press · 1950

Brooks, a believing Latter-day Saint historian, wrote the first scholarly account of the massacre, showing local Church members' responsibility at a time when the topic was avoided. Summary, not a quotation.

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Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath

Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown · Oxford University Press · 2023

The sequel to Massacre at Mountain Meadows (2008) follows the decades after the 1857 massacre: federal and territorial investigations, efforts to blame Paiutes and to shield perpetrators, the return of the surviving children, the trials and 1877 execution of John D. Lee, and later memorialization. Like its predecessor it was written with access to Church archives and addresses how far Brigham Young and other leaders were involved in the aftermath. Summary of the book's published scope, not a quotation.

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American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857

Sally Denton · Alfred A. Knopf · 2003

An investigative journalist's narrative history of the massacre. Denton argues that Brigham Young's rhetoric, policies and alliance-seeking with Paiutes led directly to the killing, that Young bore responsibility for it, and that he and other leaders covered it up and let John D. Lee take the blame. Summary, not a quotation.

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Narrative history by an investigative journalist that argues Brigham Young was responsible. Not peer-reviewed.

Mormonism Unveiled; or, The Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee

John D. Lee (edited by William W. Bishop) · Bryan, Brand & Co. (1877); 2001 reprint by Fierra Blanca Publications · 1877

Event date discussed: 1857-09-11

Lee's autobiography and confessions, written while awaiting execution and published after it by his attorney William W. Bishop. Lee describes his part in the massacre, says he acted under orders from local leaders, and claims Brigham Young and the Church hierarchy approved of the killing and later protected the perpetrators while making him the scapegoat. Historians use it as a key participant source but treat its claims about Young with caution. Summary, not a quotation.

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Self-serving confession by the only man executed for the massacre, edited and published posthumously by his attorney. A primary document, not a neutral account.

Mormonism: Shadow or Reality?

Jerald and Sandra Tanner · Utah Lighthouse Ministry · 1987

The Tanners' largest work compiles documents on many disputed issues: changes in revelations and the Book of Mormon, First Vision accounts, Adam-God, blood atonement, the Book of Abraham papyri, temple changes, Mountain Meadows, and Church finances. It was an early and influential critical reference. Summary, not a quotation.

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Critical advocacy from an evangelical Christian ministry. Argues against Church truth claims. Not peer-reviewed.

One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church

Richard Abanes · Four Walls Eight Windows · 2002

Abanes, an evangelical writer on new religions, presents a critical narrative history of the Church covering its origins, polygamy, violence in Missouri and Utah, Mountain Meadows, and later public relations efforts. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Critical advocacy from an evangelical author. Not peer-reviewed.