11 september 1857--mormon mountain meadow massacre (mormons murdered settlers)

[niyad]

''the most hideous example of the human cost exacted by religious fanaticism in American history until 9/11.'' (the movie "september dawn" related some of these events)



A Utah Massacre And Mormon Memory




As families tramp all over the country this summer, visiting historic sites, there's one spot -- Mountain Meadows in southwestern Utah -- that won't be on many itineraries. Mountain Meadows, a two-hour drive from one of the state's popular tourist destinations, Zion National Park, is the site of what the historian Geoffrey Ward has called ''the most hideous example of the human cost exacted by religious fanaticism in American history until 9/11.'' And while it might not be a major tourist destination, for a century and a half the massacre at Mountain Meadows has been the focus of passionate debate among Mormons and the people of Utah. It is a debate that cuts to the core of the basic tenets of Mormonism. This, the darkest stain on the history of the religion, is a bitter reality and challenging predicament for a modern Mormon Church struggling to shed its extremist history.

On Sept. 11, 1857, in a meadow in southwestern Utah, a militia of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons, attacked a wagon train of Arkansas families bound for California. After a five-day siege, the militia persuaded the families to surrender under a flag of truce and a pledge of safe passage. Then, in the worst butchery of white pioneers by other white pioneers in the entire colonization of America, approximately 140 men, women and children were slaughtered. Only 17 children under the age of 8 -- the age of innocence in the Mormon faith -- were spared.

After the massacre, the church first claimed that local Paiute Indians were responsible, but as evidence of Mormon involvement mounted, it placed the sole blame for the killings on John D. Lee, a militia member and a Mormon zealot who was also the adopted son of the prophet Brigham Young. After nearly two decades, as part of a deal for statehood, Lee was executed by a firing squad in 1877. The church has been reluctant to assume responsibility -- labelling Lee a renegade -- but several historians, including some who are Mormon, believe that church leaders, though never prosecuted, ordered the massacre.

Now, 146 years later, Lee's descendants and the victims' relatives have been pressing the Mormon Church for an apology. The move for some official church acknowledgment began in the late 1980's, when a group of Lee descendants, including a former United States secretary of the interior, Stewart Udall, began working to clear their ancestor's name. In 1990, descendants of victims and perpetrators began urging the Mormon Church to accept responsibility for the massacre and to rebuild a crumbling landmark established at the site by United States Army troops in 1859.

. . . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/24/opinion/a-utah-massacre-and-mormon-memory.html

Mountain Meadows massacre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mountain Meadows Massacre Part of the Mormon wars

Date September 7–11, 1857
Location Mountain Meadows, Utah Territory, United States
Deaths 120–140 members of the Baker–Fancher wagon train
Non-fatal injuries Around 17
Accused Utah Territorial Militia (Iron County district), Paiute Native American auxiliaries
Weapons guns, Bowie knives

The Mountain Meadows massacre was a series of attacks on the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train, at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah. The attacks began on September 7 and culminated on September 11, 1857, resulting in the mass slaughter of the emigrant party by members of the Utah Territorial Militia from the Iron County district, together with some Paiute Native Americans. The militia, officially called the Nauvoo Legion, was composed of southern Utah's Mormon settlers (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the LDS Church). Intending to leave no witnesses and thus prevent reprisals, the perpetrators killed all the adults and older children—about 120 men, women, and children in total. Seventeen children, all younger than seven, were spared.

The wagon train, mostly families from Arkansas, was bound for California on a route that passed through the Utah Territory, during a conflict later known as the Utah War. After arriving in Salt Lake City, the Baker–Fancher party made their way south, eventually stopping to rest at Mountain Meadows. While the emigrants were camped at the meadow, nearby militia leaders, including Isaac C. Haight and John D. Lee, 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 Paiute Native Americans 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. The militia members assured the emigrants they were protected and escorted them from the hasty fortification. After walking a distance from the camp, the militiamen, with the help of auxiliary forces hiding nearby, attacked the emigrants and killed all of them that they thought were old enough to be potential witnesses to report the attack.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 children, and many of the victims' possessions were auctioned off. Investigations, after interruption by the American Civil War, resulted in nine indictments during 1874. Of the men indicted, only John D. Lee was tried in a court of law. After two trials in the Utah Territory, Lee was convicted by a jury, sentenced to death, and executed by a Utah firing squad on March 23, 1877.

Today, historians attribute the massacre to a combination of factors, including war hysteria about possible invasion of Mormon territory and hyperbolic Mormon teachings against outsiders, which were part of the excesses of the Mormon Reformation period. Scholars debate whether senior Mormon leadership, including Brigham Young, directly instigated the massacre or if responsibility lay with the local leaders in southern Utah.

. . . .




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Meadows_massacre

[FLPanhandle]

1. Ain't religion great

9/11/1857 - Mormons killing others indiscriminately.

9/11/2001 - Muslims killing others indiscriminately.


Maybe the problem is religions.

[niyad]

2. and let us not forget the Burning Times.

[cyclonefence]

3. Is this the basis for the Sherlock Holmes story

A Study in Scarlet?

[Brother Buzz]

4. To this day, there is no evidence Brigham Young was involved

There is no evidence in existence, so far as is known, to incriminate him (Brigham Young) as an accessory before the fact, unless it is connected with his military position. It was claimed all the way through that orders had come from headquarters. He was Commander in Chief of the Utah militia, and it hardly seemed possible that the militia would be detailed to do such sanguinary work without some slight sanction from Salt Lake City. - McGlashan

C. F. McGlashan, a California journalist investigated the massacre in 1871 and discover a wider cover-up after interviewing many people that actually participated in the Utah militia, but could not uncover any proof Brigham Young had a direct hand in it. The Mormon cover-up and whitewash mostly worked.