The Mountain Meadows Massacre
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 3:38 pm
I ask myself the question how it could come to that. How it came that a group of religious men murdered with the help of Indians 120 people and auctioned the possession in Cedar City? And, knew Brigham Young of this before the massacre? Could he have prevented it? Did he want to prevent it at all?
Here the voices from the transcript of the documentary movie "the Mormons" sent on PBS (frontline):
WILL BAGLEY: People were called to reform and repent and to step up to the mark and practice the old-time religion of Mormonism. The religious leaders were engaged in an orgy of fanatical rhetoric.
NARRATOR: As the Arkansas wagon train approached the town of Cedar City in southern Utah, local Mormon militia leaders, including Major John D. Lee, were on high alert. In Salt Lake City, Governor Brigham Young had promised the federal government he would protect immigrants passing through Utah. But he had also told local Native American leaders that they now had his permission to steal cattle from these wagon trains.
GLEN LEONARD, LDS Church Historian: It was a new policy- "We'll allow the Indians to take the cattle, which will teach the government a lesson that we can't control the Indians." And so the Cedar City leaders decided to take some cattle, using the Indians, "And by the way, if some of those bad guys are killed, we won't truly be sorry."
GLEN LEONARD: But the turning point was, for John D. Lee, "They saw me there. They knew I was there. They knew Mormons were involved. And we can't let them tell that story."
WILL BAGLEY: We know that there was a council meeting in Cedar City at which the military commanders decided that every adult who could testify or bear witness would have to die.
SARAH BAKER MITCHELL(Survivor) : "Each Mormon walking along with our men wheeled around suddenly and shot the man next to him, killing most of them on the spot. I was one of those children. At the time of the massacre, I wasn't quite 3 years old, but even when you are that young, you don't forget the horror of having your father gasp for breath and go limp when you have your arms around his neck, screaming with terror. You don't forget the screaming of other children and the agonized shrieks of women being hacked to death. And you wouldn't forget it, either, if you saw your own mother topple over in the wagon beside you with a big red splotch getting bigger and bigger on the front of her calico dress."
WILL BAGLEY: But 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. But what we do know is the cover-up. And the cover-up can be very clearly documented and it is not ambiguous. It is absolutely clear that this event was purposely distorted and misrepresented and hidden.
NARRATOR: Denials from the church began immediately. They sent letters to Mormon authorities outside Utah saying the Paiute Indians had done it and passed reports to Washington repeating this falsehood. The church's claims were countered within days. In 1858, a report on the front page of The New York Times identified John D. Lee as the instigator of the massacre.
RANDALL PAUL, Author: My great-great-grandfather was John D. Lee, who was the only one brought to trial and convicted for this, in which there was complicity of at least- at least five other leaders, I think, as you read the history, that should have been in that trial. Brigham Young, who was his adopted father, did not support him in the trial. He did not come in and say, "Let's find these other guys, it isn't only John D. Lee's fault here."
JUDITH FREEMAN: The people who participated in the massacre that day, the 75 or 100 men who were involved-I think I became more sympathetic to their plight because of this idea, this Mormon principle of perfect obedience.
These men were ordered to appear at Mountain Meadows. So in a way, they were victims of their own devotion and obedience. And if you can get people to believe that they are doing God's will, you can get them to do anything.
WILL BAGLEY: After having studied this for a decade and having looked at it in great detail, I'm convinced that this was done explicitly at Brigham Young's orders. Nothing happened in Utah Territory that Brigham Young didn't know about. It was an act of vengeance. It was a political act to demonstrate the Mormons controlled the overland road, and it was ordered from the very top.
GLEN LEONARD: As I explored the sources, I felt relieved at what I found. I felt comforted that Brigham Young did what he thought was best in his Utah war policy. But his own personality and his own flamboyant rhetoric caused him to go beyond where he should have gone. His mistake was to stir up some emotions which got out of control. But he didn't order it then, and he didn't condone it.
JUDITH FREEMAN: Shortly before the events took place on September 11, 1857, the day of the massacre, Brigham Young called a number of Indian tribal leaders to Salt Lake City. And in that meeting- Dimick Huntington was there actually taking notes, and in his diary we have an account of Brigham Young actually instructing the tribal leaders, telling them that they essentially may have all of the wagon trains on a certain route. The Mormons were preparing for war. In a way, it was Brigham Young saying, "Go ahead and have at it."
We have very little evidence of any involvement of Brigham Young in the Mountain Meadows Massacre but we do have this one indication in my great-great-grandfather's diary, saying that at least Brigham Young set the stage for certain events to take place.
DALLIN H. OAKS, LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: I have no doubt, on the basis of what I have studied and learned, that Mormons, including local leaders of our church, were prime movers in that terrible episode and participated in the killing. And what a terrible thing to contemplate, that the barbarity of the frontier, and the conditions of the Utah war and whatever provocations were perceived to have been given, would have led to such an
extreme episode, such an extreme atrocity perpetrated by members of my faith. I pray that the Lord will comfort those that are still bereaved by it, and I pray that he can find a way to forgive those who took such a terrible action against their fellow beings.
Conclusion:
1) Both under Joseph Smith's leadership and under the leadership of Brigham Young; was an absolute obedience demanded by the members. Something we mention in Germany "blind obedience"(Kadavergehorsam). The power under Hitler is a good example for this.
2) Brigham Young played a double game by permitting the Indians to attack, to murder and to rob settlers traveling through.
3) Brigham Young gave speeches which have incited other members to the massacre. One says "Biedermann and arsonists" to it in Germany.
4) The massacre was committed because settlers recognized Mormons and knew that it was not a normal Indian attack. So, they wanted to take the witnesses to be silence.
5) 17 children who were "saved"; were the members given back to against a financial payment later.
6) The massacre was hushed by Brigham Young.
7) Nothing happened in Utah which Brigham Young a little did not know about. It has to be so assumed that he heard about it before the massacre. But even if he had heard about it after the massacre; he did nothing to submit the perpetrators to the police.
Here the voices from the transcript of the documentary movie "the Mormons" sent on PBS (frontline):
WILL BAGLEY: People were called to reform and repent and to step up to the mark and practice the old-time religion of Mormonism. The religious leaders were engaged in an orgy of fanatical rhetoric.
NARRATOR: As the Arkansas wagon train approached the town of Cedar City in southern Utah, local Mormon militia leaders, including Major John D. Lee, were on high alert. In Salt Lake City, Governor Brigham Young had promised the federal government he would protect immigrants passing through Utah. But he had also told local Native American leaders that they now had his permission to steal cattle from these wagon trains.
GLEN LEONARD, LDS Church Historian: It was a new policy- "We'll allow the Indians to take the cattle, which will teach the government a lesson that we can't control the Indians." And so the Cedar City leaders decided to take some cattle, using the Indians, "And by the way, if some of those bad guys are killed, we won't truly be sorry."
GLEN LEONARD: But the turning point was, for John D. Lee, "They saw me there. They knew I was there. They knew Mormons were involved. And we can't let them tell that story."
WILL BAGLEY: We know that there was a council meeting in Cedar City at which the military commanders decided that every adult who could testify or bear witness would have to die.
SARAH BAKER MITCHELL(Survivor) : "Each Mormon walking along with our men wheeled around suddenly and shot the man next to him, killing most of them on the spot. I was one of those children. At the time of the massacre, I wasn't quite 3 years old, but even when you are that young, you don't forget the horror of having your father gasp for breath and go limp when you have your arms around his neck, screaming with terror. You don't forget the screaming of other children and the agonized shrieks of women being hacked to death. And you wouldn't forget it, either, if you saw your own mother topple over in the wagon beside you with a big red splotch getting bigger and bigger on the front of her calico dress."
WILL BAGLEY: But 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. But what we do know is the cover-up. And the cover-up can be very clearly documented and it is not ambiguous. It is absolutely clear that this event was purposely distorted and misrepresented and hidden.
NARRATOR: Denials from the church began immediately. They sent letters to Mormon authorities outside Utah saying the Paiute Indians had done it and passed reports to Washington repeating this falsehood. The church's claims were countered within days. In 1858, a report on the front page of The New York Times identified John D. Lee as the instigator of the massacre.
RANDALL PAUL, Author: My great-great-grandfather was John D. Lee, who was the only one brought to trial and convicted for this, in which there was complicity of at least- at least five other leaders, I think, as you read the history, that should have been in that trial. Brigham Young, who was his adopted father, did not support him in the trial. He did not come in and say, "Let's find these other guys, it isn't only John D. Lee's fault here."
JUDITH FREEMAN: The people who participated in the massacre that day, the 75 or 100 men who were involved-I think I became more sympathetic to their plight because of this idea, this Mormon principle of perfect obedience.
These men were ordered to appear at Mountain Meadows. So in a way, they were victims of their own devotion and obedience. And if you can get people to believe that they are doing God's will, you can get them to do anything.
WILL BAGLEY: After having studied this for a decade and having looked at it in great detail, I'm convinced that this was done explicitly at Brigham Young's orders. Nothing happened in Utah Territory that Brigham Young didn't know about. It was an act of vengeance. It was a political act to demonstrate the Mormons controlled the overland road, and it was ordered from the very top.
GLEN LEONARD: As I explored the sources, I felt relieved at what I found. I felt comforted that Brigham Young did what he thought was best in his Utah war policy. But his own personality and his own flamboyant rhetoric caused him to go beyond where he should have gone. His mistake was to stir up some emotions which got out of control. But he didn't order it then, and he didn't condone it.
JUDITH FREEMAN: Shortly before the events took place on September 11, 1857, the day of the massacre, Brigham Young called a number of Indian tribal leaders to Salt Lake City. And in that meeting- Dimick Huntington was there actually taking notes, and in his diary we have an account of Brigham Young actually instructing the tribal leaders, telling them that they essentially may have all of the wagon trains on a certain route. The Mormons were preparing for war. In a way, it was Brigham Young saying, "Go ahead and have at it."
We have very little evidence of any involvement of Brigham Young in the Mountain Meadows Massacre but we do have this one indication in my great-great-grandfather's diary, saying that at least Brigham Young set the stage for certain events to take place.
DALLIN H. OAKS, LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: I have no doubt, on the basis of what I have studied and learned, that Mormons, including local leaders of our church, were prime movers in that terrible episode and participated in the killing. And what a terrible thing to contemplate, that the barbarity of the frontier, and the conditions of the Utah war and whatever provocations were perceived to have been given, would have led to such an
extreme episode, such an extreme atrocity perpetrated by members of my faith. I pray that the Lord will comfort those that are still bereaved by it, and I pray that he can find a way to forgive those who took such a terrible action against their fellow beings.
Conclusion:
1) Both under Joseph Smith's leadership and under the leadership of Brigham Young; was an absolute obedience demanded by the members. Something we mention in Germany "blind obedience"(Kadavergehorsam). The power under Hitler is a good example for this.
2) Brigham Young played a double game by permitting the Indians to attack, to murder and to rob settlers traveling through.
3) Brigham Young gave speeches which have incited other members to the massacre. One says "Biedermann and arsonists" to it in Germany.
4) The massacre was committed because settlers recognized Mormons and knew that it was not a normal Indian attack. So, they wanted to take the witnesses to be silence.
5) 17 children who were "saved"; were the members given back to against a financial payment later.
6) The massacre was hushed by Brigham Young.
7) Nothing happened in Utah which Brigham Young a little did not know about. It has to be so assumed that he heard about it before the massacre. But even if he had heard about it after the massacre; he did nothing to submit the perpetrators to the police.
Okay, you got me there.