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

From the FB post

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September 11th marks the anniversary of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. A five day siege that culminated in the slaughter of some 120 California-bound immigrants in 1857, at the hands of Mormon militiamen (reinstated Nauvoo Legion) from Parowan, Utah.

A month before the emigrants departed Arkansas on their journey west, Parley P. Pratt (LDS Apostle) was shot and stabbed by an estranged husband of his twelfth plural wife in the same state. Additionally there was war hysteria about a possible invasion into the Mormon territory by the U.S. government, placing the population on edge.

The wagon train of emigrants were bound for California on a route that passed through the Utah Territory. After arriving in Salt Lake, the Baker-Fancher party made their way south, eventually stopping to rest at Mountain Meadows. While camping at the meadow, nearby Mormon militia leaders, including Isaac C. Haight (LDS Stake President) and John D. Lee (adopted son, sealed to Brigham Young), joined forces to organize an attack on the wagon train.

Intending to give the appearance of Native American aggression, the militia’s plan was to arm some Southern Paiutes and persuade them to join with a larger party of their own militiamen—disguised as Native Americans—in an attack. During the militia's first assault on the wagon train the emigrants fought back, and a five-day siege ensued. Eventually fear spread among the militia's leaders that some emigrants had caught sight of white men and had likely discovered the identity of their attackers. As a result militia commander William H. Dame ordered his forces to kill the emigrants.

By this time the emigrants were running low on water and provisions, and allowed some approaching members of the militia—who carried a white flag—to enter their camp. John D. Lee, then local Indian agent, told them the Indians had gone, and if the Arkansans would lay down their arms, he and his men would escort them to safety. They were separated into three groups—the wounded and youngest children, who led the way in two wagons; the women and older children, who walked behind; and then the men, each escorted by an armed member of the militia.

Lee led his charges three-quarters of a mile from the campground to a southern branch of the California Trail. As they approached the rim of the Great Basin, a single shot rang out, followed by an order: "Do your duty!" The escorts turned and shot down the men, painted "Indians" jumped out of oak brush and cut down the women and children, and Lee directed the murder of the wounded.

Following the massacre, the perpetrators hastily buried the victims, leaving the bodies vulnerable to wild animals and the climate. Local families took in the surviving 17 children (all under 8 years of age), and many of the victims' possessions were auctioned off.

Initially, the LDS Church denied any involvement by Mormons, and was relatively silent on the issue. Though an early investigation was conducted by Brigham Young, who interviewed John D. Lee on September 29th, 1857. Young sent a report to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs stating the massacre was the work of Native Americans. The Utah War delayed any investigation by the U.S. government until 1859, when Jacob Forney and Major James Henry Carleton conducted investigations. 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. 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 cairn and cross with the inscription “Vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord.”

During a tour of southern Utah, Brigham Young along with some 60 other Saints, visited the massacre site in May 1861. After viewing the inscription on the cross, Wilford Woodruff recorded President Young as saying “it should be vengeance is mine and I have taken a little.” The cross was then torn down and the rocks of the cairn were dismantled, leaving little of the original marker.

Captain James Lynch, who visited the site of the massacre in 1859, recorded his impressions:

"The scene of the fearful murder still bears evidence of the atrocious crime, charged by the Mormons and their friends to have been perpetrated by Indians but really by mormons disguised as Indians, who in their headlong zeal, bigotry and fanaticism deemed this a favorable opportunity of at once wreaking their vengeance on the hated people of Arkansas, and of making another of these iniquitious “Blood offerings” to God so often recommended by Brigham Young and their other leaders. For more than two square miles the ground is strewn with the skulls, bones and other remains of the victims. In places water has washed many of these remains together, forming little mounds, raising monuments as it were to the cruelty of man to his fellow man. Here and there may be found the remains of an innocent infant beside those of some devoted mother, ruthlessly slain by men worse than demons; their bones lie bleaching in the noon day sun a mute but eloquent appeal to a just but offended God for vengeance. I have witnessed many harrowing sights on the fields of battle, but never did my heart thrill with such horrible emotions, as when standing on that silent plain contemplating the remains of the innocent victims of Mormon Avarice, fanaticism & cruelty.”

"Blood offerings” perhaps referencing the early mormon teaching of blood atonement that some crimes are so heinous that the atonement of Christ does not apply. Instead, to atone for these sins perpetrators should be killed in a way that would allow their blood to be shed upon the ground as a sacrificial offering.

Brigham Young taught that a person who "has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and that he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin, and be saved and exalted with the Gods, is there a man or woman in this house but what would say, 'shed my blood that I may be saved and exalted with the Gods?' All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loving themselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood? That is what Jesus Christ meant." - Journal of Discourses, vol.4, pp. 215–21.

Out of all the men involved only John D. Lee was tried in a court of law. He was executed by firing squad on March 23, 1877, nearly twenty years after the massacre.

There is a general consensus among historians that Brigham Young played a role in provoking the massacre, at least unwittingly, and in concealing evidence after the fact. He used inflammatory and violent language preceding the attack—even inserting an Oath of Vengeance into the LDS Temple endowment ceremony where initiates "covenant and promise that you will pray and never cease to pray to Almighty God to avenge the blood of the prophets [Joseph and Hyrum] upon this nation, and that you will teach the same to your children and to your children's children unto the third and fourth generation."

John D. Lee cited this oath in his confession shortly before his execution:
"I believed then as I do now, that it was the will of every true Mormon in Utah, at that time, that the enemies of the Church should be killed as fast as possible, and that as this lot of people had men amongst them that were supposed to have helped kill the Prophets in the Carthage jail, the killing of all of them would be keeping our oaths and avenging the blood of the Prophets.”

The direct culpability of Brigham Young is still hotly debated among historians.

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This one was tough. It was a bit hastily cobbled together with quite a bit of plagiarism (eh, it's a FB post). The topic was a new one to me. One I knew very little about until a short time ago. A topic that is both relevant, tragic and interesting. This post just begins to scratch the surface. I recommend reading some of the links below and checking out Lindsay's podcast on the topic.

If you have any additional information or insights, leave them in the comments.

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Crash Course:
Blood Atonement - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_atonement
Oath of Vengeance - http://www.mormonthink.com/glossary/oath-of-vengeance.htm
Mountain Meadows massacre - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre
Year in Polygamy, Mountain Meadows massacre (podcast) - http://www.yearofpolygamy.com/tag/mountain-meadows-massacre/
Peace and Violence among 19th-Century Latter-day Saints, LDS Gospel Topic Essay - https://www.lds.org/topics/peace-and-violence-among-19th-century-latter-day-saints?lang=eng
Mountain Meadows Massacre - http://www.historynet.com/mountain-meadows-massacre
Last confession and statement of John D. Lee - http://www.mtn-meadows-assoc.com/jdlconfession.htm
Affidavit of Jame Lynch - https://www.mtn-meadows-assoc.com/james_lynch.htm
Blood of the prophets : Brigham Young and the massacre at Mountain Meadows (book) - https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Prophets-Brigham-Massacre-Mountain/dp/0806136391

Having recently finished the book Blood of the Prophets, your mother's statement makes my blood boil.

That is definitely something worth bringing up and correcting her about, even if you don't implicate Brigham Young or the church.

https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Prophets-Brigham-Massacre-Mountain/dp/0806136391

If you can find it in their archive, the History Channel did a very good documentary on it. I would recommend you watch it.

This book, "Blood Of The Prophets," was written by the dean of the history department at the U. of U., and it is probably the definitive history of it.

https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Prophets-Brigham-Massacre-Mountain/dp/0806136391/ref=sr_1_3?Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=0&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=0&qid=1562545185&refinements=p_27%3AWill+Bagley&s=books&sr=1-3&unfiltered=1

Just some observations: The first two links you provided were duplicates, the third one was by a private individual whose travelsite covers many sites of interest around the country and is likely not mormon. His is an article, not a public monument.

The 2007 article by Turley is a good one, and one of the very first put out by the church that at least gives some background an mormon involvement. But it's an article in the Ensign, again not on a public plaque for the world to see. The church, under Hinckley, dedicated the site in 1999 and on a picture on the very link YOU posted states:

"Built and maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints out of respect for those who died and were buried here and in the surrounding area following the massacre of 1857"

IOW, passing visitors, who may encounter this site and its history for the first time, will have no inkling of the central role the church played in the massacre itself. The church instead passes itself off as 'the good guy' by generously creating this monument out of the goodness of their hearts.

Following the massacre the US Army, out of respect for the dead, erected a rock cairn. The church omits mentioning that when Brigham Young visited the site on May 25, 1861 he purposefully desecrated the monument by having it torn down. In Wilford Woodruff's diary he related how Young then stated: "Vengeance is mine and I have had a little." The Rock Cairn was leveled to the ground. Does that sound like the actions of a man who had any regrets as to what happened there?

http://www.1857massacre.com/MMM/brigham_young_desecrated.htm

Will Bagley's "Blood of the Prophets" describes the MMM coverup in great detail as does Juanita Brooks in her "The Mountain Meadows Massacre".

The church, I believe, owns the Haun's Mill site. You'd have to ask them why they've done nothing with it.

RE: Gov. Bogg's extermination order: I suggest you read "The 1838 Mormon War in Missouri"by LeSeuer who documents the attitudes and behavior the mormons brought into Missouri; how a whole county, Caldwell, was created just for them, and how the mormons failed to live up to their agreements with the locals and carried out extensive depredations themselves. Sidney Rigdon's infamous "Salt Sermon" set the stage for what followed. IOW, rather than being the peaceful, gentle victims portrayed in mormon mythology the mormons themselves were guilty of a massive sense of entitlement and criminal activity that brought retribution on themselves.

All Stuff You Never Heard in Sunday School.

The LDS leadership should ask the Marriotts to replace the Book of Mormon in the nightstand with Will Bagley's book. Just for one week every year in memoriam.