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Criticism of Mormonism/Books/American Massacre: Difference between revisions

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*Journal of Dimick Baker Huntington, September 1, 1857.
*Journal of Dimick Baker Huntington, September 1, 1857.
{{EndTable}}
===Claims made in "Camp Scott, November 16, 1857"===
{{BeginClaimsTable}}
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====165====
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*The author claims that during meetings with U.S. Army Quartermaster Captian Stewart Van Vliet, Brigham Young had "seen to it that Van Vliet heard nothing of Mountain Meadows," and that the "Mormon leaders worried that if van Vliet relayed news of the situation to Johnston, an invasion of Utah Territory would be expedited."
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*No source provided for this particular claim, although the following citation is Van Vliet quoted in T.B.H. Stenhouse, 357.
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====165====
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*The author claims that Brigham did not preach the sermon at the church meeting attended by Van Vliet because he was "too furious to conduct the service."
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*No source provided. Likely Stenhouse.
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====165====
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*The author claims that Brigham made an "oblique but unrecognized reference to the massacre at Mountain Meadows" to Van Vliet when he said "if the government dare to force the issue, I shall not hold the Indians by the wrist any longer...you may tell the government to stop all emigration across the continent, for the Indians will kill all who attempt it."
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*The author just said earlier that Brigham had "seen to it that Van Vliet heard nothing of Mountain Meadows." Now she's saying that Brigham made an "oblique but unrecognized reference" to it!
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*Bancroft, 505.
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====167====
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*Any "Mormon man" who defied Brigham's declaration of Martial law would be "put to death."
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*Brigham Young proclamation, alternately dated August 5 and September 15, 1857, original copies located in Special Collections, Marriott University Library, University of Utah. Reprinted in Fielding, ''Unsolicted Chronicler'', 395;
*T.B.H. Stenhouse, 358-59.
*The author states that "any man who defied Young's orders would be put to death was made evident in his statement "When the time comes to burn and lay waste our improvements, if any man undertakes to shield his, he will be sheared down." (Young quoted in Waite, 50).
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====167====
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*The date of Brigham's proclamation "was changed from August to September" in order to destroy evidence that it authorized the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
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*Gibbs, ''Mountain Meadows Massacre'', 11.
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====172====
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*The author claims that "droves of Saints leaving California for Utah" and "a matching number leaving Utah of a crisis of conscience spurred by the events of Mountain Meadows" were "doomed to pass over the site of the slaughter."
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*No source provided.
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====172====
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*Ann Eliza Young claims that she "knew instinctively, as did many others, that something was being hidden from the mass of the people."
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*Ann Eliza Young, ''Wife No. 19'', 229.
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====173====
*It is claimed that Brigham Young instructed John D. Lee to write a letter laying the blame for the massacre on the Indians.
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*No source provided.
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====173====
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*Brigham is claimed to have told Chief Walker's successor Arapeen to "help himself to what he wanted" of the "spoils of the slaughter."
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*''Dimick B. Huntington Journal'', September 20, 1857.
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====186====
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*Prior to the massacre, George A. Smith is claimed to "have carried orders to Cedar City leaders to incite their people to avenge the blood of the prophets."
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*No source provided. (Likely Bagley)
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====186====
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*George A. Smith was "sent south not to learn the truth, but to devise an explanation for church leaders could provide to external enemies..."
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*{{CriticalWork:Bagley:Blood of the Prophets|pages=212}}
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====186====
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*George A. Smith "went to lengths to characterize the victims as cowards."
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*George A. Smith report in Juanita Brooks, ''The Mountain Meadows Massacre'', p. 242.
{{EndTable}}
{{EndTable}}


Revision as of 04:13, 16 June 2009


A FAIR Analysis of:
Criticism of Mormonism/Books
A work by author: Sally Denton

Index to claims made in American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows

This is an index of claims made in this work with links to corresponding responses within the FAIR Wiki. An effort has been made to provide the author's original sources where possible.

Claims made in "The Cairn, August 3, 1999"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

xxi
  • In 1999, Church leaders are claimed to have "gone to great lengths to keep the planned renovation secret from the public and the press."
  • No source provided.

xxii
  • The inquiry into the remains was halted before it was completed.
  • No source provided.

xxiii
  •  Author's quote: But the dead would not be allowed to speak.
  • No source provided.

Claims made in "Chapter 1: Palmyra, 1823"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

3
  • Joseph Smith is claimed to have been visited by a "spirit" named Moroni.
  • No source provided.

4
  •  Author's quote: [I]n that moment the charismatic teenager claimed to have become God's chosen instrument to reveal to the world that all religions were false and corrupt.
  •  Internal contradiction: The First Vision preceded Moroni's visit, which the author reports in the next item.
  • No source provided.

4
  • Joseph is claimed to have made "excited proclamations to the public" regarding his First Vision.
  • No source provided.

4
  • The author claims that Joseph experienced "hundreds of mythical persecutions" throughout his life.
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language
  • The author does not make clear which of Joseph's persecutions she considers "mythical." Perhaps the time that he was tarred and feathered? Perhaps the time that he was shot and killed by a mob?
  •  Internal contradiction: Author later describes some actual persecutions.
  • No source provided.

4
  • Joseph is claimed to have spent his leisure time leading a band of treasure diggers.

4
  • Joseph is claimed to have been "apprenticed" with a man who was described as "a peripatetic magician, conjurer and fortuneteller."
  • Carl Carmer, The Farm Boy and the Angel (1970), p. 53.

5
  • The "autumnal equinox and a new moon" were considered to be "an excellent time to commence new projects."

5
  • Joseph's family is claimed to have had a "nonconforming contempt for organized religion."
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language
  •  History unclear or in error: Joseph's mother and three siblings joined local churches; this can hardly been seen as "contempt" (see JS-H 1꞉7).
  • No source provided.

6
  • Lucy Smith is claimed to have "abandoned traditional Protestantism" in favor of "mysticism and miracles."
  • Lucy joined the Presbyterian Church (JS-H 1꞉7).
  • Many Christians of the day believed in miracles, and saw a decline of miracles as evidence that Christinaity needed to be revitalized, reformed, or restored.
  • Lucy Mack Smith and the Presbyterians
  • No source provided.

7
  • Joseph is claimed to have "detested the plow as only a farmer's son can."
  •  Quotes another author's opinion as if it were fact
  • The author repeats a very recognizable quote from Fawn Brodie. This is Brodie's opinion—there is no primary source to back up this claim.
  •  Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.

7
  • Joseph is claimed to have told stories about the Mound Builders, who, according to the author, were a "thousand-year-old lost race fabled to have been slaughtered and buried on the outskirts of Palmyra."
  • We are unsure how the author determined that the Mound Builders were slaughtered and buried on the outskirts of Palmyra. The author shows that she knows very little about the Mound Builders. In reality, the mounds were quite numerous and were located in many different parts of the country.
  • Joseph Smith's "amusing recitals" of ancient American inhabitants
  • No source provided.

7
  • Joseph entertained his family with tales of the ancient inhabitants of the area.
  • Lucy Smith, Biographical Sketches, p. 85.

8
  • The author claims that Emma was warned not to touch the plates because she would suffer "instant death if her eyes fell upon them."

8
  •  Author's quote: Nephi's two older brothers, Laman and Lemuel, were evil sinners, causing God to curse them and all of their descendants with a red skin.
  •  Quotes another author's opinion as if it were fact
  • There is no mention of "red skin" in the Book of Mormon.
  • The claim that the Lamanites were cursed with a "red skin" originated in Fawn Brodie's book No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith. This indicates that author's shallow research by repeating Brodie's idea without attribution, and without determining that it is unsupported by any source even in Brodie's book.
  • Red skin curse

9
  • The author claims that the Book of Mormon was rooted in "the conviction that all believers were on the road to Godhood, that a heaven existed where all men could be saved and then go on to create their own worlds."
  •  History unclear or in error:
    • Theosis is not a preoccupation of the Book of Mormon.
    • The Book of Mormon likewise says nothing about the saved "creat[ing] their own worlds."
  • No source provided.

9
  • The author claims that Joseph Smith's "evangelical socialism" was a precursor to "Marxian communism."
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language: The differences between the United Order and Marxism are numerous, and include:
    • voluntary versus involuntary
    • focused on God and Christ versus atheistic
    • private ownership versus no private ownership
  • No source provided.

10
  • The author describes the LDS conception of God as "a corporeal being residing on a planet orbiting a star called Kolob and sexually active with a Heavenly Mother and other wives."
  • No source provided.

Claims made in "Chapter 2: Kirtland/Far west, 1831"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

12
  • The author claims that in Kirtland that Joseph Smith was "infected with the virus of speculation."
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language
  •  Quotes another author's opinion as if it were fact
  • How does the author know that Joseph was "speculating"?

13
  • It is claimed that Joseph stated that Independence Missouri was the site of the Garden of Eden and that the location of Far West was where Cain killed Abel.
  • No source provided.

14
  • The author, in describing the Kirtland period, states that Joseph became a "swaggering general in his Army of Israel" and that "[d]rilling and pageantry were quite suddenly pervasive aspects of a once-pacific Kirtland existence."
  •  The author's claim is false The author seems to be confusing Kirtland and Nauvoo.
  • No source provided

14
  •  Author's quote: "He then initiated the secret rituals that would further repel their conventional Christian neighbors-anointings, endowments, proxy baptisms, visions, healings, writhing ecstasies, and, especially, the concepts of 'eternal progression' and 'celestial marriage.'"
  •  History unclear or in error: Proxy baptisms were not introduced until Nauvoo, they were not known at Kirtland. Healings and visions were present from the Church's very beginnings. "Writhing ecstasies" were condemned by LDS scripture by 1831 (see DC 50).
  •  Prejudicial or loaded language: The U.S. Constitution protects private religious practices that do not harm others, including those which might "repel" one's conventional Christian neighbors.
  • No source provided

14
  • The name of the Church was changed to the "Church of Latter-day Saints" in 1834.
  • No source provided.

14
  • Emma is claimed to have driven "the girl" [Fanny Alger] out of her house because she was "unable to conceal the consequences of her celestial relation with the Prophet."

15
  • Joseph issued his prophecy regarding the Civil War after visiting New York and hearing about how President Jackson should deal with "a rebellious South Carolina."

15
  • Failure of the bank in Kirtland caused Joseph to leave Kirtland in the middle of the night.

16
  • Joseph "organized a secret group of loyalists" called the Danites.
  • D. Michael Quinn, quoting Hallwas and Launius, Cultures in Conflict, 8.

16
  • The Danites introduced "blood atonement" who would "save" people by slitting their throats.
  • John D. Lee

20
  • Joseph's "Mohammed speech" in Far West.

Claims made in "Chapter 3: Nauvoo, 1840"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

23
  •  Author's quote: Having suffered beatings and tarrings at the hands of Mormon baiters years earlier, and having faced impending death at various junctures, Smith sensed rightly that events in Nauvoo would be the grand finale of his life.
  •  Internal contradiction: The author earlier characterized Joseph's persecutions as "imaginary"
  • No source provided.

23
  •  Author's quote: Building a spired marble temple took precedence over everything else…
  •  History unclear or in error: the Nauvoo temple was made of limestone that was quarried locally, not marble which would have required importation.
  • No source provided.

23-24
  • Joseph's "falling out" with John C. Bennett is claimed to have been over a woman that "each desired as a plural wife."
  • In fact, Bennett was given multiple opportunities to reform his ways before being excommunicated.
  • John C. Bennett
  • No source provided.

24
  • Nauvoo was claimed to be "the first genuine theocracy in American history."

24
  • The Council of Fifty was "a group of princes" who would rule the "Mormon empire."
  • David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 24. (bias and errors) Review

25
  • Joseph had himself ordained "king" during the time that he was running for President.
  • No source provided.

25
  • Joseph had a "narcissistic" "theme of deceiving self and others."
  • Robert D. Anderson, Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith, p. 225.

26
  •  Author's quote: Nauvoo, unlike Kirtland, had become the sanctuary for strange ceremonials and shrouded rites many members found increasingly alien and offensive…
  •  Internal contradiction: The author earlier stated that these things were introduced in Kirtland
  • On page 14, speaking of Kirtland, the author states: "He then initiated the secret rituals that would further repel their conventional Christian neighbors-anointings, endowments, proxy baptisms, visions, healings, writhing ecstasies, and, especially, the concepts of 'eternal progression' and 'celestial marriage.'"
  •  History unclear or in error: Proxy baptisms were not introduced until Nauvoo, they were not known at Kirtland. Healings and visions were present from the Church's very beginnings. "Writhing ecstasies" were condemned by LDS scripture by 1831 (see DC 50).
  • No source provided.

26
  • A "Mormon historian," (Will Bagley) claims that celestial marriage "allowed the most ordinary backwoodsman to become a god and rule over worlds of his own creation with as many wives as his righteousness could sustain."

26
  • "One historian" (Will Bagley) claimed that Joseph "plunged into new sealings to married women, sisters, and very young girls."

27
  • The founders of the Nauvoo Expositor were "men who knew too much."

27
  •  Author's quote: Smith ordered the Nauvoo Legion to storm the newspaper, destroy the press, and burn all extant issues.
  •  History unclear or in error
  • The Nauvoo City Council (which included some non-Mormon members) ordered the destruction of the Expositor.
  • The suppression of the paper was legal for the day.
  • No source provided

27
  • The author claims that "the constitutional defenders of the First Amendment" called for Joseph Smith's arrest after the destruction of the Expositor.
  • The suppression of the paper was legal for the day.
  •  History unclear or in error: The First Amendment did not apply to local or state governments until after the Civil War.
  • No source provided.

28
  • The book claims that Joseph sent orders to the Nauvoo Legion from Carthage Jail to come and free him.

28
  • The author claims that "lore had it" that Joseph gave the Masonic distress signal "before calling out: 'Oh Lord my God. Is there no help for the widow's son?"
  •  History unclear or in error
  • This is very sloppy research. Despite citing so many sources, the author gets the history wrong. There is no record of Joseph saying more than "Oh Lord, my God."
  • In addition, the author states that Joseph gave the Masonic distress signal before calling out this phrase. In reality, the full phrase "Oh Lord my God. Is there no help for the widow's son" is the Masonic distress signal!

29
  • The author claims that Joseph's death was "second in importance only to that of Jesus Christ."
  • Eliza Snow, Times and Seasons 5 (July 1, 1844), quoted in Hallwas and Launius, 237.

29
  • Allen J. Stout's journal says that he will avenge Joseph's blood to the fourth generation.
  • Stout journal, June 28, 1844.

29
  • D. Michael Quinn said that Joseph "failed to clarify for the highest leadership of the church the precise method of succession God intended.

30
  • Sidney Rigdon is claimed to have "recently apostatized over Smith's attempted seduction of his daughter in to a polygamous marriage."
  • No source provided.

31
  •  Author's quote: Knowing he could not compete with Smith as a seer...
  •  Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
  • Stenhouse (the author's source) did not become a member of the Church until after Joseph's death, and he joined the Church in England. He was in no position at all to know Sidney's thoughts or capabilities in the matter.
  •  The author's claim is false: Sidney's later post-Mormon religious activities show him to be quite convinced that he can deliver oracles from God as Joseph did.
  • T.B.H. Stenhouse, 209.

32
  • The temple is claimed to have "placed under themost sacred obligations to avenge the blood of the Prophet, whenever an opportunity offered, and to teach their children to do the same."
  • John D. Lee in Henrie, 147.

32
  • It is claimed that the "entire Mormon people [became] sworn and avowed enemies of the American nation."
  • Lee in Henrie, 147.

36
  • Brodie's claim that when Brigham spoke in the Adamic language, it "thus acquired status in the Church."
  •  Quotes another author's opinion as if it were fact

36
  • The author claims that Brigham "disposed of his rivals." Stanley P. Hirshson is quoted as claiming that Nauvoo became a "police state."
  • Stanley P. Hirshson, "The Lion of the Lord," 61.

36
  • The author claims that John D. Lee was "an integral component in the new power structure" after Joseph's death.
  • No source provided.

37
  • The author claims that Emma and other Smith relatives returned to Far West and founded the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
  • No source provided.

37
  • The author claims that Joseph wanted people to receive their endowments for the "Mormon road to heaven."
  • Nelson Winch Green, "Fifteen Years Among the Mormons," 41.

37
  • It is claimed that LDS missionaries to England "capitalized on the intolerable social and economic conditions" in order to gain converts.

38
  • Quoting D. Michael Quinn, the author notes that Brigham said that women "have no right to meddle in the affairs of the Kingdom of God."

38
  • The author claims that Brigham "commended his police for nearly beating to death an apostate within the walls of the temple.
  • Although the author provides no source for the claim, it is likely that this refers to the flogging of three men by Nauvoo Police.
  • See: Flogging those out of fellowship?
  • No source provided.

38-39
  • The author mentions "the pending indictment of two leaders of the Church on counterfeiting charges..."
  • Although the author provides no source for the claim, it is likely that this refers a critical claim that Brigham Young, Willard Richards, Parley Pratt, and Orson Hyde were involved in making counterfeit coins.
  • See: Counterfeiting by the apostles at Nauvoo?
  • No source provided.

39
  • The author claims that "thousands of armed Mormons and Gentiles faced off" in Nauvoo.
  •  Presentism or anachronism: Everyone on the frontier in 19th century America was armed—this was necessary for hunting and protection.
  • The Saints were driven out of Nauvoo by the threat of military force.
  • No source provided.

Claims made in "Chapter Four: Winter Quarters—Council Bluffs, 1846"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

47
  • The author claims that in 1846, the U.S. military planned to "seize New Mexico, California, and much of Utah."
  • That members of the Church volunteered for U.S. military service as part of the "Mormon Batallion" is a strange act for people who were "sworn enemies" of the U.S.A. (as she claims above).
  • No source provided.

53
  • The author claims that John D. Lee was sent by Brigham to intercept the payroll from the Mormon battalion in order to consecrate it to the Church.
  • This puts an ominous spin on something benign. Members joined the Mormon battalion in part to provide needed funds for the Church and their families (most of whom remained with the church) to help with the migration west.
  • Brooks, John Doyle Lee, 95.

53
  • The author claims that Brigham "used the battalion earnings to purchase food to stock a store he owned, which he then sold back to his starving Saints at inflated prices."
  • The author claims that one of the battalion members said that "Some of the women, being entirely destitute, desired their husband's share, and some cried for the want of it."
  • No source provided. Possibly Lee in Henrie, 183.

54
  • The author claims that Brigham declared "his own death and resurrection."
  • DeVoto, 454
  • Kelly, 90.

55
  • The author claims that Brigham "overcame resistance" from the Council of the Twelve and "finalized his own ascendancy" in order to be "elevated to a deity."
  • No source provided.

54
  •  Author's quote: Young broke the tedium by courting Indian women along the way. Having been "sealed" to two Sioux squaws before leaving winter Quarters, he attempted to persuade others he met ot unite with him on the spiritual journey.
  • No source provided. Possibly Werner, 220?

59
  • The author claims that in Brigham's very first address to the Saints after arriving in the Salt Lake valley that he "gave an ominous warning to all who had come. From this point forward, anyone who refused to live the laws about to be set forth was free to leave."
  •  Internal contradiction: This contradicts what the author states on page 106, where she says that anyone that wanted to leave was "hunted down and killed"
  • No source provided.

59
  • The author claims that Brigham used a divining rod that once belonged to Oliver Cowdery to select the site for the Salt Lake Temple.
  • No source provided. Likely Quinn.

Claims made in "Chapter 5: Salt Lake City, August 24, 1849"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

67
  • The author notes that several new federal officials fled the Utah Territory because they felt threatened.
  • House Exec. Doc. 25, 15 quoted in David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 59. (bias and errors) Review

68-69
  • Blood atonement
  • Gunnison, 83.

69
  • The author claims that apostasy and adultery were punishable by beheading.
  • Gunnison, 72.

70
  • Brigham is claimed to have said that the revelation on polygamy said that "all worthy men" should cleave to as many women as possible.
  • According to the author, this was said by Brigham Young at "an emergency conference of Young's apostles organized in August 1852."

70
  • Brigham said that Adam was God and was a polygamist.
  • According to the author, this was said by Brigham Young at "an emergency conference of Young's apostles organized in August 1852."

73
  • Brigham is said to have threatened to "unsheathe" his bowie knife against the Gladdenites.

I say, rather than that apostates should flourish here, I will unsheath my bowie knife, and conquer or die. [Great commotion in the congregation, and a simultaneous burst of feeling, assenting to the declaration.] Now, you nasty apostates, clear out, or judgment will be put to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. [Voices, generally, "go it, go it."] If you say it is right, raise your hands. [All hands up.] Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this, and every good work.

  • No source provided.

Claims made in "Chapter 6: Sevier River, October 26, 1853"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

79
  • The author claims that Brigham's fortification of villages against attack by the Indians was a reversal of Book of Mormon prophecies regarding the Lamanites.
  • No source provided, although the author dates this to July 21, 1853.

90
  • The author claims that Latter-day Saint elders were "in the habit of confiscating at will younger wives of less ranking members of the church."
  •  Absurd claim: the author would need to provide some evidence for this claim.
  • An abbreviated version of a talk by Brigham Young is sometimes used in this vein, but a review of the contemporaneous text gives a different picture.
  • No source provided.

90
  • In the Gunnison death, the Mormons are claimed to have defamed the victims while blaming the Indians.
  • No source provided.

Claims made in "Chapter 7: Harrison, March 29, 1857"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

103
  • The Fancher wagon train appeared to be "marked" from the time that they arrived at Salt Lake City.
  • David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 162. (bias and errors) Review

Claims made in "Chapter 8: Deseret, August 3, 1857"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

104
  • According to the author, deaths in the handcart companies caused "most Salt Lake Mormons" to lay the blame "squarely at Young's feet."
  •  Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
  • No source provided.

105
  • The book discusses the "Mormon Reformation."
  • N/A

105
  • The author claims that Brigham said that "all backsliders should be 'hewn down'".
  • Josiah F. Gibbs, 'The Mountain Meadows Massacre, 8ff

105
  • A list of thirteen questions was "conceived by Young and expanded by Grant."
  • Gustive O. Larson, "The Mormon Reformation," Utah Historical Society Quarterly 26 (January 1958).
  • Hirshson, 155
  • David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 127. (bias and errors) Review.

106
  • Blood atonement

106
  • Brigham is claimed to have said: "I want their cursed heads cut off that they may atone for their sins."
  • Juanita Brooks and Robert Glass Cleland, eds., A Mormon Chronicle, I:98-99.

106
  • The author claims that "those who dared to flee Zion were hunted down and killed."
  •  Internal contradiction: This contradicts what the author said on page 59, where she claims that Brigham said that anyone was "free to leave."
  • Cannon and Knapp, 268.

106
  • The killing of William R. Parrish, "an elderly Mormon in high standing."
  • Cannon and Knapp, 268.

106
  • Castration of a man by Bishop Warren Snow who was "engaged to a woman Snow wanted to take for a plural wife."
  • David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 132. (bias and errors) Review

106
  • The author claims that the "bloody regime…ended with [Jedediah] Grant's sudden death, on December 1, 1856."
  • David L. Bigler, Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 (Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 1998), 133. (bias and errors) Review

108
  • Surveyor General David Burr "fled for his life."
  • House Exec. Doc. 71, 118-20.

110
  • Did Brigham accuse Parley P. Pratt of adultery, as the author claims? The author quotes Brigham's "great-granddaughter" as saying "He was not woman-crazy, but Gospel-crazy."
  • Reva Stanley, The Archer of Paradise: A Biography of Parley Pratt, 163.

110-112
  • It is claimed that Parley P. Pratt was killed because he married Elenore McLean when she was not divorced from her husband.
  • Reva Stanley, The Archer of Paradise: A Biography of Parley Pratt, 163.
  • Steven Pratt, "Eleanor McLean," 227.
  • Fielding, Unsolicited Chronicler, 382.

112-113
  • In Brigham's speech on July 24, 1857, he said that "This American Continent will be Zion...for it is so spoken of by the Prophets." The author interprets this to mean that the "godless American government's moving against them singaled the beginning of their Armageddon scenario" and would result in Brigham's "ascendancy" to rule the Kingdom of God on earth.
  • Fielding, Unsolicited Chronicler, 383.

115
  • The author claims that "Indian" massacres that occurred in Utah Territory were actually carried out by "white-faced Indians who used Mormon slang."
  • No source provided.

115
  • Brigham instructed the people to "hoard their grain," according to the author. People were told to "report without delay any person in your District that disposes of a Kernel of grain to any Gentile merchant or temporary sojourner."
  • Brooks, Mountain Meadows Massacre, xvii-xviii.

120
  • The author claims that "it seem most likely that [Charles] Rich advised the Fancher train to take the Southern Trail."
  • Jacob Hamblin would testify that the Fancher train "being of southern people had preferred to take the southern route."[1]
  • Author's opinion.

120
  • Brigham is noted as having given a "current sermon" in which he vowed to "turn [the Indians] loose" on the emigrants.
  • Basil Parker's memoir, 7.

121
  • Will Bagley claims that "all information about the emigrants' conduct came from men involved in their murder or cover-up."

Claims made in "Mountain Meadows, September 7-11, 1857"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

129
  • Will Bagley claimed that Mountain Meadows was known among the Mormons as "a preferred location for the quiet execution of unpleasant tasks."
  •  Quotes another author's opinion as if it were fact
  • Bagley's errors, negative reviews, and bias are discussed on the page dedicated to his book. It becomes obvious that the author of this work simply relies on Bagley's interpretation, and provides no independent evaluation of the evidence.

131
  • The author claims that "numerous apostates" were traveling with the Fancher Train by the time it reached Mountain Meadows.
  • This claim is repeated frequently until the source is revealed later. See below.
  • No source provided.

133
  • The author claims that William Bateman, who had weeks earlier been "threatened with excommunication for apostasy," was given a chance to redeem himself by "carrying out church orders at Mountain Meadows." According to "Prophet Heber Kimball," Bateman was placed "in the front ranks" to be put "to the test."
  •  The author's claim is false: The author is making a huge assumption here. Heber says,

Some who have been apostates for years past are beginning to come back to us; and, inasmuch as they did not stand and be valiant for the truth, we are now going to place them in the front ranks, and put them to the test.

  • This has nothing to do with William Bateman, and nothing to do with Mountain Meadows.

135
  •  Author's quote: The recommendation of the many apostates in the camp would never be known, or whether they considered their fellow Mormons capable of such cold-blooded treachery.
  • The author again mentions the numerous "apostates" that she believes were part of the Fancher party, yet she provides no evidence of this.
  • No source provided.

136a
  • (Photo caption) The author claims that Joseph Smith "had his first vision in 1820" and then three years later reported that he was "surrounded by 'a pillar of light' during a visitation from the angel Moroni."
  •  Absurd claim: The author appears to have never even studied any of the sources that she used. Any Latter-day Saint knows that the "pillar of light" is associated with Joseph's First Vision.
  • No source provided (unsurprisingly).

136b

(Photo caption) The author claims that Brigham Young called his enemies "Christians" and that the Latter-day Saints left Nauvoo, Illinois because they "had been unable to live in peace with their neighbors."

  • Brigham also regarded himself and the Latter-day Saints as Christians.
  •  History unclear or in error: The Saints left Nauvoo because they were under threat of armed assault. There would have been no peace, but it was not the LDS who threatened the peace.
  • No source provided.

136g

(Photo caption) Did Brigham order the rock cairn memorial at the scene of the massacre dismantled?

  • No source provided

137
  • The author claims that the "Mormon apostate refugees" were "blood atoned."
  • The author finally provides a source for her comments about "Mormon apostates" being part of the Fancher party.
  • Backus' book was noted by the Salt Lake Tribune to suffer from a key flaw, namely that the
survivor recollections used as source material is a serious flaw in the book. Sarah Baker [one witness] was 3 when the massacre claimed her parents. Trial testimony showed that participants in the crime had been ordered never to speak of it, even among themselves. Surviving children were parceled out to Mormon families. The two Baker girls went to John D. Lee's home. What opportunity was there to learn anything of the massacre?
Baker's own statement that her information came from reading and from discussion with contemporaries only confirms that she had no special knowledge. One would expect a child to be traumatized by the massacre and incapable of adequately understanding what was happening around her.[2]
  • Reports of apostates joining the wagon train did not appear until many years after the Massacre.[3] For the author to be persuasive on this point, more information (e.g., identity of the supposed murdered apostates) is needed.
  • Anna Jean Backus, Mountain Meadows Witness: The Life and Times of Bishop Philip Klingensmith (Arthur H. Clark Co, 1996), 136.

141
  •  Author's quote: Neither that tally nor any later count would include the Mormon "backouts" murdered that day.
  • Yet another reference to Mormon "apostates" being part of the Fancher party, which is based on dubious evidence.
  • Since no later counts (even those made by those hostile to the Church) mention the supposed apostates, this is probably good evidence that such apostate victims never existed.

141
  • John D. Lee claimed that Brigham Young advised them to claim that the massacre was performed by Indians alone.
  • Lee, 251.

142
  • The "scheme to blame the atrocity on the Indians" is claimed to have been conceived and crafted "with the characteristic meticulousness for which Brigham Young was famous."
  • Leaders in southern Utah were already planning to blame the Massacre on Indians before Brigham Young had even heard of it. After an initial skirmish with the party, one of the immigrants was killed and another wounded. "A witness of white involvement had now shared the news within the emigrant corral. If the surviving emigrants were freed and continued on to California, word would quickly spread that Mormons had been involved in the attack....Despite plans to pin the massacre on the Paiutes—and persistent subsequent efforts to do so—Nephi Johnson later maintained that his fellow militiamen did most of the killing."[4]
  • Jacob Hamblin testified that he told Brigham the facts soon after the massacre. Hamblin reported that Brigham said that "as soon as we can get a court of justice, we will ferret this thing out, but till then don't say anything about it." Hamblin said that Lee's trial was "the first time I ever felt that any good would come of it [telling the story]. I kept it to myself until it was called for in the proper place."[5]
  • Author's opinion.

Claims made in "Deseret, September 12, 1857"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

152
  • The event was referred to as the "blood feast of the Danites."
  • No source provided.

152
  • It is claimed that it is "inconceivable that a crime of this magnitude could have occurred" without being directly ordered by Brigham Young, and that "[v]irtually every federal officer who became involved in future investigations" of the massacre concluded that Brigham "personally ordered" the attack.
  •  Absurd claim: why is in "inconceivable" that a crime could be committed in southern Utah without Brigham's direct order? The Massacre site was, which required an arduous horseback race of nearly 300 miles, which took from 7–13 September to send and receive a message from Brigham Young.[6] Is Brigham to be held responsible for every crime committed in the territory?
  • Brigham Young ordered Mountain Meadows Massacre?
  • The initial prosecution of those responsible for the murders failed because federal officials were so anxious to tie them to Brigham Young—but the evidence to do so did not exist.
  • Brigham Young and the prosecution of Mountain Meadows Massacre
  • The author notes that Lee "would have carried out no orders which he thought would be contrary to the wishes of Brigham Young," citing Juanita Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, p. 80.

153
  • The author claims that the murderers reported that a "divine revelation from Brigham Young" was read aloud which commanded them to attack the "cursed gentiles" and "attack them, disguised as Indians" and "leave none to tell the tale."
  • C. V. Waite, The Mormon Prophet and His Harem (1866), 66.

154-155
  • Helen Brockett "was told by her grandmother that her great-grandfather J.J. Davidson had been ordered by Brigham Young to go south to participate in the slaughter." It is claimed that "Young called in the Avenging angels and told them to use bows and arrows to shoot the people in the back after they were already dead to make it look like Indians did it."
  • The author here relies on a third hand account—something Brokett's grandmother said that her great-grandfather said that Brigham Young said. This is unpersuasive when contemporary evidence indicates that Brigham ordered the immigrants be allowed to pass unmolested.
  • Brigham Young's letter commanded those in southern Utah to leave the immigrants alone.
  • Brigham Young did not order the Mountain Meadows Massacre
  • Ronald W. Walker, "'Save the Emigrants': Joseph Clewes on the Mountain Meadows Massacre," Brigham Young University Studies 42 no. 1 (2003), 139–152. PDF link
  • Author's telephone interview with Helen Brockett, October 18, 2002.

156
  • The author claims that the Church invented the myth of "poisoned springs."
  •  History unclear or in error: "The Church" did not invent the "poisoned spring" myth. Some members of the Church who wished to justify their murders after the fact used claims about poisoning to excuse their deeds. (It may be that some sincerely believed the springs to have been poisoned, when anthrax was instead responsible for the deaths of livestock.)[7] In any case, the sincerity of belief that the springs were poisoned in no way justifies the massacre.

158
  • It is claimed that on September 1, 1857, Brigham enlisted the support of the Indians "against the wagon train."
  •  Misrepresentation of source: Huntington's diary indicates that Indians were being recruited to scatter all cattle ahead of the approaching U.S. army and any other wagon trains. This had nothing to do with attacking people.
  •  Quotes another author's opinion as if it were fact: the author here likely follows Will Bagley's Blood of the Prophets which likewise contains a serious distortion of Huntington's journal.
  • Dimick Huntington Diary, 1 September 1857
  • Journal of Dimick Baker Huntington, September 1, 1857.

Claims made in "Camp Scott, November 16, 1857"

Page Claim Response Author's sources

165
  • The author claims that during meetings with U.S. Army Quartermaster Captian Stewart Van Vliet, Brigham Young had "seen to it that Van Vliet heard nothing of Mountain Meadows," and that the "Mormon leaders worried that if van Vliet relayed news of the situation to Johnston, an invasion of Utah Territory would be expedited."
  • No source provided for this particular claim, although the following citation is Van Vliet quoted in T.B.H. Stenhouse, 357.

165
  • The author claims that Brigham did not preach the sermon at the church meeting attended by Van Vliet because he was "too furious to conduct the service."
  • No source provided. Likely Stenhouse.

165
  • The author claims that Brigham made an "oblique but unrecognized reference to the massacre at Mountain Meadows" to Van Vliet when he said "if the government dare to force the issue, I shall not hold the Indians by the wrist any longer...you may tell the government to stop all emigration across the continent, for the Indians will kill all who attempt it."
  • The author just said earlier that Brigham had "seen to it that Van Vliet heard nothing of Mountain Meadows." Now she's saying that Brigham made an "oblique but unrecognized reference" to it!
  • Bancroft, 505.

167
  • Any "Mormon man" who defied Brigham's declaration of Martial law would be "put to death."
  • Brigham Young proclamation, alternately dated August 5 and September 15, 1857, original copies located in Special Collections, Marriott University Library, University of Utah. Reprinted in Fielding, Unsolicted Chronicler, 395;
  • T.B.H. Stenhouse, 358-59.
  • The author states that "any man who defied Young's orders would be put to death was made evident in his statement "When the time comes to burn and lay waste our improvements, if any man undertakes to shield his, he will be sheared down." (Young quoted in Waite, 50).

167
  • The date of Brigham's proclamation "was changed from August to September" in order to destroy evidence that it authorized the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
  • Gibbs, Mountain Meadows Massacre, 11.

172
  • The author claims that "droves of Saints leaving California for Utah" and "a matching number leaving Utah of a crisis of conscience spurred by the events of Mountain Meadows" were "doomed to pass over the site of the slaughter."
  • No source provided.

172
  • Ann Eliza Young claims that she "knew instinctively, as did many others, that something was being hidden from the mass of the people."
  • Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 19, 229.

173

  • It is claimed that Brigham Young instructed John D. Lee to write a letter laying the blame for the massacre on the Indians.
  • No source provided.

173
  • Brigham is claimed to have told Chief Walker's successor Arapeen to "help himself to what he wanted" of the "spoils of the slaughter."
  • Dimick B. Huntington Journal, September 20, 1857.

186
  • Prior to the massacre, George A. Smith is claimed to "have carried orders to Cedar City leaders to incite their people to avenge the blood of the prophets."
  • No source provided. (Likely Bagley)

186
  • George A. Smith was "sent south not to learn the truth, but to devise an explanation for church leaders could provide to external enemies..."

186
  • George A. Smith "went to lengths to characterize the victims as cowards."
  • George A. Smith report in Juanita Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, p. 242.

Endnotes

  1. [note]  Jacob Hamblin statement in James Henry Carleton, Report on the Subject of the Massacre at the Mountain Meadows, in Utah Territory, in September, 1857 of One Hundred and Twenty Men, women and Children, Who Were from Arkansas (Little Rock, AR: True Democrat Steam press, 1860), 6; cited by Turley, Walker and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 101.
  2. [note]  Harold Schindler, "'Mountain Meadows' Account Lacks Substantiation (review of Mountain Meadows Witness: The Life and Times of Bishop Philip Klingensmith by Anna Jean Backus)," Salt Lake Tribune (17 March 1996).
  3. [note]  Turley, Walker and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 109-110.
  4. [note]  Richard E. Turley Jr., "The Mountain Meadows Massacre," Ensign (September 2007): 14.off-site
  5. [note]  Turley, Walker and Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 124–125.
  6. [note]  Richard E. Turley Jr., "The Mountain Meadows Massacre," Ensign (September 2007): 14.off-site
  7. [note]  Jacob Hamblin, (September 1876), "Testimony of Jacob Hamblin" off-site

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