The Mountain Meadows Massacre: 9-11-1857

1
The Mountain Meadows Massacre 9-11-1857

• 150th Anniversary in 2007

2
September 11, 1857

• On that day, every man, woman and child over the
  age of six on a wagon train from Arkansas were
  murdered by 400 Indians and 54 Mormon militia-men
  disguised as Indians in southwest Utah.

3
Survivors

• Only 17 children were spared and returned to
  their families in Arkansas.
• One hundred twenty (120) victims were stripped of
  their clothing, robbed of their valuables and
  left unburied to be devoured by wolves and wild
  animals for a year and a half before being buried.

4
My Call to Action

• As a relative of two of the Arkansas victims, I
  am calling for the state of Utah and the LDS
  (Mormon) Church to act to clear the conscience of
  the church
• They should start by relinquishing owner-ship of
  the massacre site and allowing Federal
  stewardship of it and the surrounding valley.

5
Utahs Historic Preservation Officer (a Mormon)

• Many sources report the belligerent conduct of
  the party as it made its way through Utah
• Some of their oxen were named Brigham Young and
  cursed at.
• They boasted of participation in the execution of
  Joseph Smith and Apostle John Taylor.
• Threats were made to lead an army back from
  California.
• They poisoned a spring causing the death of many
  cattle.

6
McMurtry

• The truth was
• There was no poisoned cow and the spring ran as
  clear as ever.

7
McMurtry Concerning These Charges

• It is clear that he (Brigham Young) used the
  power of his position as church leader to keep
  the truth from coming out, a practice that has
  been followed by many church leaders since.

8
Suppression of Evidence

• Historical records from that time have
  disappeared from a religious institution (the
  LDS) that McMurtry says is among the worlds
  most efficient record-keepers.

9
McMurtry

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  has hoped from the first day to the present that
  if they just stuck together, hunkered down and
  kept quite, time would pass and people would
  forget.
• Time did pass, but people have not even begun to
  forget.

10
Brigham Young (Quoted by McMurtry)

• I am told that there are Brethren who are
  willing to swear against the Brethren who were
  engaged in this affair.
• I hope there is no truth to that report. But if
  there is I will tell you my opinion of you, as
  your fate is concerned.
• Unless you repent at once of that unholy
  intention, and will keep the secret of all you
  know, you will die a dogs death and be damned,
  and go to hell.
• I do not want to hear any more treachery among my
  people.

11
Approach of its 150th Anniversary

• In an 1999 ceremony at Mountain Meadows, LDS
  Church President Gordon B. Hinckley presided over
  the dedication of a new rock cairn.

12
New Historical Marker

• In 1861, Brigham Young and his entourage
  visited the Utah gravesite. He saw the words on
  the cross and said, Vengeance is mine and I have
  taken a little.

13
The Wagon Trains Contents

• 1,000 head of cattle.
• 100,000 in gold coins.
• several fine carriages and horses.

14
McMurtry

• Church members subscribed to a doctrine of blood
  atonement, which instructed them to shed the
  blood of gentiles
• The victims were, in Mormon terms, gentiles,
  enemies of the faith, perfect candidates for the
  enactment of blood atonement.

15
McMurtry on Brigham Youngs letter forbidding the
planned bloodshed

• Of course its possible that this famous letter
  might not have been the only message he
  dispatched to the south. The nice letter may
  have been intended as cover in case things went
  wrong.

16
Juanita Brooks

• Authored the book Mountain Meadows Massacre
  (1950).
• She, herself, is a descendant of the 1857 Mormon
  murderers.
• (Church officials) admitted to burning crucial
  historical documents because they were just too
  incriminating of the church.

17
The Question

• So who can best be the stewards today of this
  tragic piece of American history?

18
The Question

• The Descendants of the Killers or the Federal
  Government?

19
Lees Trial

• McMurtry writes that Brigham Young himself was
  deposed at Lees trial and admitted that he was
  an accessory after the fact, after the
  always-shaky edifice of the Mormon cover-up began
  to crumble.

20
150th Anniversary

• Real justice cannot continue to be denied at
  Mountain Meadows!
• American history must be controlled by the
  Federal Government, not Descendants of the
  Killers, who have a massive conflict of interest
  in the matter.

21
The Testimony of Eye-Witnesses

• There were two piles of bodies, one composed of
  women and children, the other of men.
• The bodies were entirely nude and seemed to have
  been thrown promiscuously together.
• They appeared to have been massacred.

22
The Testimony of Eye-Witnesses

• There were sixty or seventy bodies of women and
  children saw one man on that pile the children
  were from one and two months up to 12 years the
  small children were cut, others stabbed with
  knives had bullets through them. All the bodies
  were more or less torn to pieces.

23
The Descendents of the Victims Families
Respond

• The descendants of mass murderers should not be
  allowed to impose a religious faith on those
  killed by their own ancestors (by baptism for
  the dead into Mormon Church membership after
  their own ancestors had murdered them).
• Closure will never occur on the Mountain Meadows
  murders until the final resting place of the
  victims has been transferred from the Mormon
  Church to the Federal Government.

24
True Feelings

• Two relatives of massacre victims drove up to a
  field in the valley on the 148th anniversary of
  the bloodbath. They report that they asked the
  landowner if they could visit a portion of his
  property where their ancestors remains are said
  to be located.

25
True Feelings

• One visitor discreetly filmed the owners
  response on a small hand-held camera at his side.
  
• The Mormon landowner launched into a tirade of
  cursing and swearing, all caught on film.

26
U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch

• The ground is particularly sacred. We had a lot
  of people die there.

27
Mormons Leaders Have Great Respect for Their
Prophet

• You have to appreciate what this is like. We
  behold him to be a prophet. Imagine yourself
  getting a call from Moses. - Kim Clark
• If Gordon Hinckley called and said, What I
  need you to do is go work on the grounds crew at
  BYU-Idaho, I would say, Yes. -
  Paul Pugmire

28
Dr. R. Henry Migliore

• This is the culture that created Mountain
  Meadows.

29
McMurtry Brigham Youngs revelation on the
massacre.

• I have made that matter a subject of prayer. I
  went right to God with it and asked him to take
  the horrid vision from my sight, if it was a
  righteous thing that my people have done in
  killing those people at Mountain Meadows.
• God answered me and at once the vision was
  removed. I had evidence from God that he had
  over-ruled it all for good and the action was a
  righteous one and well intended.
• - Brigham Young

30
The Loots Value Today

• The 100,000 in gold coins today would be worth
  around 130,000,000. None of it was returned to
  the Arkansas relatives.

31
Conclusion

• And so, President Hinckley, the book of the past
  remains open as the stain of mass murder cannot
  be removed from the pages of time.
• The LDS Church can only move out of the shadows
  of the ugliest event in Mormon church history by
  offering remorse, accepting responsibility, and
  granting restitution.
• For more information on this matter, go to the
  web site at www.1857massacre.com.