War hysteria preceding the Mountain Meadows Massacre
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Some believe the Mountain Meadows massacre was caused in part by events relating to the Utah War, an 1858 invasion of the Utah Territory by the United States Army which ended up being peaceful. Still others argue that the murders were a result of an intentional robbery of one of the richest wagon trains to ever travel west . . . almost 1,000 head of cattle, $35,000 in gold . . . and/or an overall value of more than $100,000. In the summer of 1857, however, Mormons expected an all-out invasion of apocalyptic significance. From July to September 1857, Mormon leaders prepared Mormons for a seven-year siege predicted by Brigham Young. Mormons were to stockpile grain, and were prevented from selling grain to emigrants for use as cattle feed. As far-off Mormon colonies retreated, Parowan and Cedar City became isolated and vulnerable outposts. Brigham Young sought to enlist the help of Indian tribes in fighting the "Americans", encouraging them to steal cattle from emigrant trains, and to join Mormons in fighting the approaching army.
In August 1857, Mormon apostle George A. Smith, of Parowan, set out on a tour of southern Utah, instructing Mormons to stockpile grain. Scholars have asserted that Smith's tour, speeches, and personal actions contributed to the fear and tension in these communities, and influenced the decision to attack and destroy the Baker-Fancher emigrant train near Mountain Meadows, Utah. He met with many of the eventual participants in the massacre, including W. H. Dame, Isaac Haight, and John D. Lee. He noted that the militia was organized and ready to fight, and that some of them were anxious to "fight and take vengeance for the cruelties that had been inflicted upon us in the States"[citation needed]. On his return trip to Salt Lake City, Smith camped near the Baker-Fancher party. Jacob Hamblin suggested the Baker-Fancher party stop and rest their cattle at Mountain Meadows. Some of Smith's party started rumors that the Baker-Fancher had poisoned a well and a dead ox, in order to kill Indians, rumors that preceded the Baker-Fancher party to Cedar City.[citation needed]. Most witnesses said that the Baker-Fancher train were in general a peaceful party that behaved well along the trail. Recently, most authors agree that the poisoned well, dead ox, Platt murder etc. were rumors deliberately purpetrated by the Mormon church to cover up the murders at Mountain Meadow. Also, as early as 1990 scholars agree that the Paiute Indians did not participate in the massacre. The Paiutes were exonerated by President Hinkley himself during a speech at the three-day memorial of 1990 in Cedar City, UT.
Background
In early 1857, several groups of emigrants from the northwestern Arkansas region started their trek to California, joining up on the way and known as the Baker-Fancher party. This group was relatively wealthy, and planned to restock its supplies in Salt Lake City, as most wagon trains did at the time. The party reached Salt Lake City with about 120 members. In Salt Lake, there was an unsubstantiated rumor that the revered martyr Parley P. Pratt's widow recognized one of the party as being present at her husband's murder.[1]
For the decade prior to the Baker-Fanchers' arrival there, Utah Territory existed as a theocracy led by Brigham Young. As part of Young's vision of a pre-millennial "Kingdom of God", Young established colonies along the California and Old Spanish Trails, where Mormon officials governed by "lay[ing] the ax at the root of the tree of sin and iniquity", while preserving individual rights.[2] Two of the southern-most establishments were Parowan and Cedar City, led respectively by Stake Presidents William H. Dame and Isaac C. Haight. Haight and Dame were, in addition, the senior regional military leaders of the Mormon militia. During the period just before the massacre, known as the Mormon Reformation, Mormon teachings were dramatic and strident. The religion had undergone a period of intense persecution in the American midwest, and faithful Mormons made solemn oaths to pray for vengeance upon those who killed the "prophets" including founder Joseph Smith, Jr. and most recently apostle Parley P. Pratt, who was murdered in April 1857 in Arkansas.
Utah War
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/ASJohnston.jpg/125px-ASJohnston.jpg)
General commanding U.S. expeditionary force sent to subdue
"Mormon Rebellion"
In July 1857, while the Fancher-Baker party was en route to Utah Territory, Mormons began hearing rumors[3] that the United States had launched an expedition to invade the territory and depose its theocratic government. For almost a decade, relations between Utah and the federal government had deteriorated over the issue of polygamy and the role of Mormon institutions versus that of federal ones in the territory.[4] By July 1857, Young's replacement, Alfred Cumming, was appointed, and a fourth of the entire U.S. army, some 2,500 dragoons, were already on the march.
As news of the approaching army spread, the coming invasion took on apocalyptic significance. Mormons saw it as a threat to their existence.[5] Members of the First Presidency framed the confrontation as a battle between the Kingdom of God and minions of the Devil.[6] Some Mormons in southern Utah taught that the invasion was the beginning of the Millennium,[7] and the prevailing understanding there was that the U.S. Army intended to wipe out the Mormons as a people.[8] In preparation for a seven-year siege predicted by Brigham Young, Mormon leaders began accelerating an existing program for stockpiling grain.[9] Mormons were told to sell their clothing to buy as much grain as possible,[10] and not to use grain as animal feed nor sell it to emigrants for this purpose.[11]
Defiant against the United States, Brigham Young warned "mobocrats", particularly past Mormon persecutors and the "priests, editors, and politicians who have howled so long about us", to stay away from the territory, or "we will attend to their cases".[12] He stated that if such persons entered the territory, "they will find a 'Vigilance Committee'" and they will "find the Danites".[13] But Young denounced plans by Mormons to rob "innocent" emigrant trains, saying that such robbers themselves would "be overtaken by a 'Vigilance Committee'".[13] He wanted to ensure that "the good and honest may be able to pass from the Eastern States to California...in peace".[14]
Young ordered pioneer settlements furthest afield to pull up stakes–evacuating colonies in San Bernardino (now southern California), Las Vegas (southern Nevada), Carson Valley (western Nevada), and Fort Bridger (western Wyoming).[15] Thereafter, the farthest remaining outpost of Mormonism were the outlying Mormon colonies at Cedar City (led by Stake President-Major Isaac C. Haight) and Parowan (led by Stake President-Colonel William H. Dame), two infant fortress-villages near Mountain Meadows where the massacre took place. These settlements were nearly 300 miles from the Salt Lake City headquarters, and only reachable by a three days' journey on horseback,[citation needed] the messenger's changing mounts at various settlements along the way.[16] Mormons in the area were to be the first defense against a feared "southern invasion"[17] The word from Mormon headquarters was that the approaching U.S. Army had orders to murder every believing Mormon,[18] and that the troops were coming directly from Missouri,[19]
On August 5, 1857, Brigham Young declared martial law.[20] All borders were to be sealed to further travel through Utah by emigrants.[21] Young also made it illegal to travel through Utah without a permit,[22] but no safe conduct pass was made available to the Baker-Fancher train by Territorial or local officials.[citation needed] The party would not have been aware of Young's decree as it was only made public on September 15, 1857.[23]
Emigrant trains arriving from the east presented an opportunity for Mormons to trade or sell foodstuffs and other supplies, and until the Utah War, most were friendly and willing to help travelers pass through the Utah Territory.[24] The Baker-Fancher train encountered residents along the way who were obeying Young's recent order to stockpile supplies in expectations of all-out war with approaching U.S. troops.[25] The Mormons were directed not to sell any food to the enemy, as the emigrant train was labeled. This was confusing to the emigrants of the wagon train because both Fancher and Baker had traveled this route before and had personal relationships with some of the Mormons. [26]
George A. Smith's circuit through southern Utah
On August 3, 1857, Mormon apostle George A. Smith[27] left Salt Lake City to visit the southern Utah communities.[28] He arrived at Parowan on August 8, 1857,[29] and on August 15, 1857, he set off on a tour of Stake President-Colonel W. H. Dame's military district.[30] During the tour, Smith gave military speeches[31] and counseled Mormons that they prepare to "touch fire to their homes, and hide themselves in the mountains, and to defend their country to the very last extremity."[32] Smith instructed Mormons to stockpile grain, and not to sell it to emigrants for animal feed. Mormon scholars have asserted that Smith's tour, speeches, and personal actions contributed to the fear and tension in these communities, and influenced the decision to attack and destroy the Baker-Fancher emigrant train near Mountain Meadows, Utah. [33] John D. Lee accompanied Smith on part of this tour,[34] during which Smith addressed a group of Native Americans in Santa Clara, counseling them that "the Americans" were approaching with a large army, and were a threat to the Native Americans as well as the Mormons.[35] Riding in a wagon afterwards, Lee said he warned Smith that the Native Americans would likely attack emigrant trains, and that Mormons were anxious to avenge the blood of the prophets,[36] and according to Lee, Smith seemed pleased, and said "he had had a long talk with Major Haight on the same subject".[31]
Major Isaac C. Haight, the stake president of Cedar City, met with Smith again on August 21.[37] Haight told Smith he had heard reports that 600 troops were already approaching Cedar City from the East, and that if the rumors were true, Haight would have to act without waiting for instructions from Salt Lake City. Smith agreed, and "admired his grit".[31] Smith later said he was uncomfortable, perhaps "on account of my extreme timidity", because some of the militia members were eager that "their enemies might come and give them a chance to fight and take vengeance for the cruelties that had been inflicted upon us in the States", such as the Haun's Mill massacre.[31]
On his return to Salt Lake City, Smith was accompanied by a party including Jacob Hamblin of Santa Clara, a newly appointed Mormon missionary to the Natives in the region who also ran a federally funded Indian farm near Mountain Meadows.[38]
Also traveling north with the Smith party were several Native chiefs from southern Utah Territory[39] On August 25, 1857, Smith's group camped next to the Baker-Fancher party, headed the opposite direction, at Corn Creek (now Kanosh). Smith later said he had no knowledge of the Baker-Fancher party prior to meeting them on the trail.[40] When the Baker-Fancher party inquired about places to stop for water and grazing, Jacob Hamblin directed them to Mountain Meadows,[41] near his home and, the Indian farm, a regular stopover on the Old Spanish Trail.
Some members of Smith's party later testified that during their encampment they saw the Baker-Fancher party poison a spring and a dead ox, with the expectation that Native Americans would be poisoned.[42] Silas S. Smith, the cousin of George A., testified that the Baker-Fancher party suspiciously asked whether the Native Americans would eat a dead ox.[43] Although the poisoning story supported the Mormon theory that Native Americans had been poisoned and therefore conducted a massacre on their own,[44] Modern historians generally discount the testimony and rumors about the poisoned ox and spring as false.[45] [46]
Interactions on road toward Mountain Meadows
The Mormons considered the emigrants of an alien status because of Young's orders forbidding travel through Utah without a required pass—which the Baker-Fancher party did not have.[25] However, Captains Baker and Fancher may not have been aware of Young's martial law order since it was not made public until September 15, 1857.[23]
Meanwhile the Mormons that the Baker-Fancher train encountered along the way were obeying Young's order to stockpile supplies in expectations of all-out war with approaching U.S. troops and declined to trade with the Fanchers. This friction was added to by the "range war" that would be expected to erupt between local populations and any emigrants' leading vast herds of cattle—and indeed, both the Fancher and Duke parties' stock would compete with locals' for grazing and sometimes would break through the Mormon colonists' fences. With the murder and the expulsion of U.S. Government surveyors, there was no demarcation of the territorial lands claimed by Native Americans, Mormons, and those that the Americans purchased from Mexico (Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo).[48] Yet in the war panic, such mundane complaints escalated into more ominous charges.
For example, according to John D. Lee, "They swore and boasted openly... that Buchanan's whole army was coming right behind them, and would kill every God Damn Mormon in Utah.... They had two bulls which they called one "Heber" and the other "Brigham", and whipped 'em through every town, yelling and singing... and blaspheming oaths that would have made your hair stand on end."[49]
While Jacob Hamblin was in Salt Lake City he heard that the members of the Baker-Fancher train had "behaved badly [...and had] robbed hen-roosts, and been guilty of other irregularities, and had used abusive language to those who had remonstrated with them. It was also reported that they threatened, when the army came into the north end of the Territory, to get a good outfit from the weaker settlements in the south."[50] But most scholars today recognize this as propoganda spread by the Mormon church in order to exonerate the murderers.
In his report of his investigation of the massacre, Superintendent for Indian Affairs in Utah Territory, Jacob Forney[51] said: "I [...made] strict inquiry relative to the general behavior and conduct of the company towards the people of this territory ..., and am justified in saying that they conducted themselves with propriety."
In Forney's interview with David Tullis who had been living with Jacob Hamblin, Tullis related that "[t]he company passed by the house...towards evening.... One of the men rode up to where I was working, and asked if there was water ahead. I said, yes. The person who rode up behaved civilly."[52]
In addition, William Rogers later related where Shirts related he "saw the emigrants when they entered the valley, and talked with several of the men belonging to it. They appeared perfectly civil and gentlemanly."[53]
Brigham Young's attempt to enlist Native Americans to fight "the Americans"
Brigham Young, as Superintendent of Indian Affairs in the Utah Territory, built strong diplomatic ties with the area's Native American tribes. When it became clear there would be an invasion by U.S. troops, he sought to enlist them to join Mormons in fighting the "Americans". Young sent his trusted interpreter Dimick B. Huntington to various tribes with wagon loads of food. Huntington told Native Americans that the Utah War was a battle, prophesied in the Book of Mormon, between Mormons and Native Americans, on the one hand, and "gentiles" (non-Mormon whites) on the other.[54] Young's message for the tribes was that they should "be at peace with all men except the Americans".[55] Scholars disagree whether Young intended the Native American tribes to fight all non-Mormon Americans, including emigrants, or just the approaching U.S. Army.[56]
No disapproval was expressed by Huntington when told by Shoshones that cows, horses, and mules had been stolen from Californians.[57] Wilford Woodruff recorded Young's message to the Mormon apostles on August 26, 1857, "The Gentile emigrants [will] shoot the indians wharever they meet with them & the Indians now retaliate & will kill innocent People.",[58] On August 30, 1857, Huntington gave a group of northern tribes "all the beef cattle & horses that was on the road to Cal[i]fornia, the North rout[e]".
On September 1, 1857, frontiersman James Gemmell was in Young's office with Hamblin, who had accompanied the group of tribal leaders (including Ammon, Kanosh, Tutsegabit, and Youngwids), and George A. Smith on his return to Salt Lake, all of whom had camped near the Baker-Fancher party.
When Hamblin told Young that the Arkansas train was near Cedar City, Young said, according to Gemmell (whose statement derives from an 1896 posthumous source named Wheeler), that if he were in charge of the Nauvoo Legion he "would wipe them out."[58] These chiefs then met with Huntington and Brigham Young, where the Native American leaders were given "all the cattle that had gone to Cal. the south rout[e]." The Native American leaders questioned this, because previously, the Mormons had told them not to steal cattle. Young acknowledged this, but said, "now they have come to fight us & you, for when they kill us then they will kill you."[59] Modern scholars generally agree that Brigham Young was authorizing Native American leaders to steal emigrant cattle.[60] And there is evidence that a policy that Native Americans should steal emigrants' cattle was put into effect against emigrant groups other than the Baker-Fancher party.[61]
In fact, President Hinkley exonerated the Paiute Nation of any participation in the Massacre during his 1990 speech at the three-day memorial services held in Cedar City and Mountain Meadow. [Baker descendent]
Notes
- ^ Stenhouse 1873, p. 431 (citing "Argus", an anonymous contributor to the Corinne Daily Reporter whom Stenhouse met and vouched for).
- ^ In 1856, Young said "the government of God, as administered here" may to some seem "despotic" because "[i]t lays the ax at the root of the tree of sin and iniquity; judgment is dealt out against the transgression of the law of God"; however, "does not [it] give every person his rights?" Young 1856, p. 256 .
- ^ Church leaders mentioned such rumors in sermons as early as July 2 (Heber C. Kimball: JD 5:86) and July 5, 1857 Young 1857c, p. 5 (referring to rumors of the approaching troops and warning them to stay away).
- ^ In 1856, the newly formed Republican Party had campaigned against Mormon practices of polygamy as "relics of barbarism", and Democrat James Buchanan, assuming office in March 1857, was under political pressure to subdue the perceived Mormon rebellion.
- ^ George A. Smith, 2 August 1857, JD 5:101; Young 1875 (at the time of the massacre, the Mormon leadership believed reports that the troops had the "ostensible design for destroying the Latter-day Saints").
- ^ Young 1857d, p. 75 (teaching on July 26, 1857 that "God has commenced to set up his kingdom on the earth, and all hell and its devils are moving against it."); Heber C. Kimball, 2 August 1857, JD 5:129 ("The world is going to seek to destroy us from the earth. (Voice: 'They will destroy themselves.') They will destroy themselves, as the Lord liveth, and the day of their destruction has come. (Voices: 'Amen'.)").
- ^ Lee 1877, p. 251 .
- ^ Hamblin 1876 ;Morrill 1876 .
- ^ Huntington 1857, p. 2 (counseling Native Americans to stockpile all the berries and wheat they could glean in preparation for the seven-year siege predicted by Brigham Young); Heber C. Kimball, 23 August 1857, JD 5:171; Heber C. Kimball, 6 September 1857, JD 5:213 (predicting that imminently, "the people of the nations will come by hundreds and by thousands for food, and for raiment, and for protection" in the Utah Territory).
- ^ Heber C. Kimball, 6 September 1857, JD 5:213.
- ^ Young 1875 ; Smith 1875 .
- ^ Young 1857c, p. 5–6 .
- ^ a b Young 1857c, p. 6
- ^ Young 1857c, p. 6 .
- ^ MacKinnon 2003 .
- ^ Gibbs 1910, p. 13 .
- ^ Briggs 2006, p. 318 .
- ^ George A. Smith, 2 August 1857, JD 5:101; Young 1875 (at the time of the massacre, the Mormon leadership believed reports that the troops had the "ostensible design for destroying the Latter-day Saints"); Hamblin 1876 (saying this was the understanding among southern Utah Mormons).
- ^ Smith 1857
- ^ Young 1857a
- ^ Bagley 2002, p. 93 As a Mormon woman evacuating Carson Valley explained, "The last trains of this year would not get through, for they were to be cut off."
- ^ Young 1857 ; Bagley 2002 ; Denton 2005, pp. 114–115 .
- ^ a b Young 1857a .
- ^ Stenhouse 1873, p. 428 .
- ^ a b Shirts 1994 .
- ^ Abanes 2002, p. 245, 566 ; Bagley 2002, p. 98 .
- ^ Smith was a territorial legislator and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In the Nauvoo Legion, he was just a private (see George A. Smith [July 4, 1852], JD 1:79; Smith 1875 ), although one Parowan resident understood that part of the purpose of Smith's trip was to organize the regiment, inspect the troops, and provide instructions (see Martineau 1857 ).
- ^ Smith 1857, p. 221 (saying he left the day after his last Salt Lake sermon, recorded at JD 5:101).
- ^ Martineau 1857 .
- ^ Martineau 1857 . In addition to Parowan, the tour included visits to Cedar City and Santa Clara, and the groups stopped at Mountain Meadows to eat dinner on August 20 (see Martineau 1857 ) with a group of missionaries who lived there (see Smith 1857, p. 222 ).
- ^ a b c d Smith 1857, p. 221-225
- ^ Smith 1857, p. 221 ; Smith 1857, p. 221 (Smith warned Cedar City residents "it might be necessary to set fire to our property, and hide in the mountains".
- ^ Smith 1875 ; Hamblin 1876 (Smith was sent to represent "Young's mind" that Mormons "save everything like breadstuff, and use it when we wanted it"); Lee 1877, pp. 221–22 (quoting Smith as saying, "I have been sent down here by the old Boss, Brigham Young, to instruct the bretheren of the different settlements not to sell any of their grain to our enemies. And to tell them not to feed it to their animals, for it will all be needed by ourselves.").
- ^ (Lee 1877, pp. 221–22) .
- ^ (Lee 1877, pp. 223) .
- ^ (Lee 1877, pp. 223–225) .
- ^ Martineau 1857 .
- ^ In addition to Jacob Hamblin, the party included Philo T. Farnsworth and Elisha Hoops from Beaver, Silas S. Smith and Jesse N. Smith from Parowan (Smith 1875 ; "Case of the Defense", Salt Lake Tribune, 3 August 1875) and Thales Haskell from Santa Clara. Silas S. and Jesse N. Smith were cousins of George A. Smith (id.).
- ^ these chiefs included Ammon, Kanosh, Tutsegabit, and Youngwids (Brooks 1950, p. 27 ; Bagley 2002, p. 113 ).
- ^ Smith 1875 .
- ^ Carleton 1859, p. 2-4
- ^ Testimonies of Elisha Hoops and Bishop Philo T. Farnsworth, "Case of the Defense", Salt Lake Tribune, 3 August 1875.
- ^ Briggs 2006, p. 320 .
- ^ Brooks 1950, p. 185 ; George A. Smith in the Journal History of the Church reported allegations concerning the poisoning of several springs and that this action by members of the Baker-Fancher train gave the Native Americans "a determination to exterminate the emigrants."
- ^ Brooks 1950, p. 105 ("The poisoned meat story was not only unlikely, but scholars outside the Mormon church believe it to be propoganda reported after the fact - while the poisoned springs was quite clearly fabrication; to poison a running stream of any size would take a great amount of poison, and if several Saints had died, their names and homes and other details would have been given."); Bagley 2002, pp. 109–10 ; Turley 2007 ("Historical research shows that these stories are not accurate. While it is true that some of the emigrants’ cattle were dying along the trail, including near Fillmore, the deaths appear to be the result of a disease that affected cattle herds on the 1850s overland trails. Humans contracted the disease from infected animals through cuts or sores or through eating the contaminated meat. Without this modern understanding, people suspected the problem was caused by poisoning."); Forney 1859 ("I regard the poisoning affair as entitled to no consideration. In my opinion, bad men, for a bad purpose, have magnified a natural circumstance for the perpetration of a crime that has no parallel in American history for atrocity.")
- ^ Bagley 2002, pp. 110 (citing George Davis, of the Duke party that followed the Baker-Fancher train and camped at the same site in Corn Creek).
- ^ Bankroft 1889, p. 550
- ^ Professional Surveyor Magazine
- ^ "Death runs Riot - Mountain Meadows". PBS. 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-21.
They swore and boasted openly... that Buchanan's whole army was coming right behind them, and would kill every God Damn Mormon in Utah.... They had two bulls which they called one "Heber" and the other "Brigham", and whipped 'em through every town, yelling and singing... and blaspheming oaths that would have made your hair stand on end.
- ^ Hamblin 1881, p. 42-43
- ^ Forney's report, given to U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs, A.B. Greenwood, was printed in Senate Executive Document 42 of the 36th United States Congress in response to Senate requests for all the official documents relating to the Mountain Meadows massacre
- ^ Thompson 1860, p. 75-80
- ^ Conversation between Carl (possibly Carlts) Shirts, Forney and himself. Shirts had been employed by Hamlin making adobe bricks at the time. (See Rogers 1860 .)
- ^ Huntington 1857, p. 11-12 .
- ^ Huntington 1857, p. 3-13 .
- ^ Sources arguing that Young sought to enlist Native Americans in a war against all "gentiles", including emigrants, include Brooks, pp. 40–42 ; Bagley 2002, pp. 113–114 ; Denton 2003, p. 158 . Sources arguing that Native American leaders were only authorized to fight the Army and steal emigrant cattle, but not fight emigrants, include Crockett 2003 ("When Brigham Young told the Native American tribes he wanted assistance in fighting the Americans, he meant only the army.").
- ^ Huntington 1857, p. 4 .
- ^ a b Bagley 2002, p. 114 .
- ^ Huntington 1857, p. 7-13 .
- ^ Brooks, pp. 40–42 ; Bagley 2002, pp. 113–114 ; Denton 2003, p. 158 ; Bigler 1998, pp. 167–68 ; Whitney 2007 (historian Glen Leonard argues that Young instituted "a new policy [to] allow the Indians to take the cattle, which will teach the government a lesson that [Mormons] can't control the Indians."); Crockett 2003 (arguing that Young "asked Indian tribal leaders to help scatter the cattle of the army and of all emigrants on the trail in front of the army in order to completely close the trail.")
- ^ However, scholars disagree whether the southern Native American tribal leaders could have returned to the Mountain Meadows area in time to participate in the siege of the Baker-Fancher party,[citation needed] especially given that two of these leaders, Tutsegabit and Youngwids, returned to Salt Lake some time between September 10 and 16, where Young ordained Tutsegubbets an Elder.[citation needed]
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- Hamblin, Jacob (1881), "Jacob Hamblin: A Narrative of His Personal Experience", Faith Promoting Series, vol. 5.
- Hamilton, Henry, ed. (1857), "Horrible Massacre of Arkansas and Missouri Emigrants", Los Angeles Star (published October 10, 1857).
- Higbee, John M. (February 1894), "Statement", in Brooks, Juanita, Mountain Meadows Massacre, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-2318-4, at 226–35.
- Huntington, Dimick B. (1857), Journal, LDS Archives, Ms d. 1419.
- Hurt, Garland (October 24, 1857), Letter from Garland Hurt, Utah Territorial Indian Agent, to Col. A.S. Johnston, U.S. Army.
- Kimball, Heber C. (January 11, 1857), "The Body of Christ-Parable of the Vine-A Wile Enthusiastic Spirit Not of God-The Saints Should Not Unwisely Expose Each Others' Follies", in Watt, G.D., Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, and the Twelve Apostles, vol. 4, Liverpool: S.W. Richards, 1857, at 164–81.
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- Klingensmith, Philip (July 23–24, 1875), at Beaver City, Utah, Testimony, First trial of John D. Lee, Braintree, MA: Mountain Meadows Association.
- Lee, John D. (1877), Bishop, William W., ed., Mormonism Unveiled; or the Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee, St. Louis, Missouri: Bryan, Brand & Co..
- Linn, William Alexander (1902), The Story of the Mormons: From the Date of their Origin to the Year 1901, New York: McMillan (scanned versions).
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- Turley, Richard E., Jr. (September 2007), "The Mountain Meadows Massacre", Ensign, Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ISSN 0884-1136.
- Twain, Mark (1873), Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing.
- Waite, C.V. (Catherine Van Valkenburg) (1868), The Mormon Prophet and His Harem: Or, an Authentic History of Brigham Young, His Numerous Wives and Children, Chicago: J.S. Goodman & Co..
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- Webb, Loren (September 16, 1990), "Time for healing, LDS leader says about massacre", Saint George Spectrum:
- Whitney, Helen & Jane Barnes (2007), The Mormons (Documentary), Washington, D.C.: PBS.
- Young, Brigham; Heber C. Kimball & Orson Hyde et al. (April 6, 1845), Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-Day Saints, New York: LDS Church.
- Young, Brigham (February 5, 1852), Speech by Gov. Young in Joint Session of the Legeslature (sic), Brigham Young Addresses, Ms d 1234, Box 48, folder 3, LDS Church Historical Department, Salt Lake City, Utah.
- Young, Brigham (July 8, 1855), "The Kingdom of God", in Watt, G.D., Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, His Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, vol. 2, Liverpool: F.D. & S.W. Richards, 1855, at 309–17.
- Young, Brigham (March 2, 1856a), "The Necessity of the Saints Living up to the Light Which Has Been Given Them", in Watt, G.D., Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, vol. 3, Liverpool: Orson Pratt, 1856, at 221–226.
- Young, Brigham (March 16, 1856b), "Instructions to the Bishops—Men Judged According to their Knowledge—Organization of the Spirit and Body—Thought and Labor to be Blended Together", in Watt, G.D., Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, vol. 3, Liverpool: Orson Pratt, 1856, at 243–49.
- Young, Brigham (March 16, 1856c), "Difficulties Not Found Among the Saints Who Live Their Religion—Adversity Will Teach Them Their Dependence on God—God Invisibly Controls the Affairs of Mankind", in Watt, G.D., Journal of Discourses by Brigham Young, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, His Two Counsellors, the Twelve Apostles, and Others, vol. 3, Liverpool: Orson Pratt, 1856, at 254–60.
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