Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows [Paperback]

Will Bagley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

The massacre at Mountain Meadows on September 11, 1857, was the single most violent attack on a wagon train in the thirty-year history of the Oregon and California trails. Yet it has been all but forgotten. Will Bagley's Blood of the Prophets is the most extensive investigation of the events surrounding the murder of some 120 men, women, and children since Juanita Brooks published her groundbreaking study, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, in 1950. Drawing from a wealth of primary sources, Bagley explains how the murders occurred, reveals the involvement of territorial governor Brigham Young, and explores the subsequent suppression and distortion of events related to the massacre.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In 1857, over 100 men, women, and children in a wagon train from Arkansas were murdered in southern Utah by local settlers aided by Southern Paiute warriors. For 50 years, Mormon historian Juanita Brooks's The Mountain Meadows Massacre has been the standard work on the subject. Here, independent historian and Salt Lake Tribune columnist Bagley claims only to extend Brooks's work. But by using documents not available to Brooks and by following her example in pursuing the truth wherever it led him while not going beyond the available evidence, he confirms her private opinion that territorial Mormon leader and governor Brigham Young was heavily involved in both the massacre and its cover-up. In the process, Bagley has produced the new standard work on the massacre. This well-written and well-thought-out analysis is essential for all libraries with collections on the West or the Mormons.
Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Will Bagley is an independent historian who has written about overland emigration, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and the Mormons. Bagley has published extensively over the years and is the author and editor of many books, articles, and reviews in professional journals. Bagley is the series editor of Arthur H. Clark Company's documentary history series, KINGDOM IN THE WEST: The Mormons and the American Frontier. Bagley has been a Wallace Stegner Centennial Fellow at the University of Utah and the Archibald Hannah, Jr. Fellow in American History at Yale University's Beinecke Library. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows has won numerous awards including a Spur Award from Western Writers of America, the Bancroft History Prize from the Denver Public Library, Westerners International Best Book, and the Western History Association Caughey Book Prize for the most distinguished book on the history of the American West. So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1812-1848 is the first of four volumes of Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails Series.

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806136391
• ISBN-13: 978-0806136394
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1.2 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #616,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Will Bagley has written and edited more than twenty books on overland emigration, frontier violence, railroads, mining, the creation of computer search technology, and the Mormons. Some love him, some hate him, but his work has won every major prize in Western History--an Old Joe, the Spur, the Wrangler, the Caroline Bancroft, the John W. Caughey Prize for the year's most distinguished book on the history of the American West, and the Merrill J. Mattes Award for Excellence in Writing. He is not "anti" anything: he simply tries to tell the stories and find the truth of what happened.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

178 of 213 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Massacre, The Controversy, and an Authoratative History November 27, 2002

By R. Hardy HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

On 11 September 1857, a wagon train traveling from Arkansas and headed to California, was ambushed in a valley in Southwestern Utah. The Mountain Meadows Massacre involved the slaughter of 120 men, women, and children, and although the technology of massacres has now far overtaken it, it was one of the worst mass murders in US History. No one disputes these facts, but there is a good deal of dispute about the details. _Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows_ (University of Oklahoma Press) by Will Bagley, who writes for the _Salt Lake Tribune_, gives details, but since the book demonstrates the involvement of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the massacre, it will be a controversial effort. Bagley shows, however, that the church has long campaigned to keep details of the massacre hidden, and he gives documentation that the reason for this is that leaders of the church provoked the killings and members of the church committed them. Even though stories of Mormon complicity in the massacre were present immediately afterwards, and have been demonstrated by historians in this century, the church has continued to deny culpability. The deniers will have to contend with this big, well documented book. It cannot close the issue forever; one of the lessons of Bagley's history is that history itself can never be fully written. This is to the chagrin of Mormon leaders. At a memorial ceremony in 1999, president of the church Gordon B. Hinckley declared that it was "time to leave the entire matter in the hands of God" and ordered: "Let the book of the past be closed." Fat chance.

Bagley knows what he is up against. The fate of the Fancher party's wagon train from Arkansas until its doom can only be reconstructed from problematic reports: "Almost every acknowledged 'fact' about the fate of these murdered people is open to question." However, Bagley has firmly placed the massacre within larger church history. He demonstrates why the Mormon leaders viewed the presence of Arkansans going through the state as an outrage against them. He shows how they were already expecting a showdown by the US Army because of their famous polygamy, their refusal to install a reliable court system, and Brigham Young's tendency to make pronouncements like "I live above the law and so do this people." When the Fancher party passed from Salt Lake City into the impoverished southern Utah, interpreters were available to rally the Indians, and the book gives evidence that Young himself had encouraged the Indians to seize the valuable stock of the well-supplied wagon train. Various church officials of the region organized the Indians, and painted themselves up to look like Indians; this happened without a doubt, though church officials will disagree that it happened to the extent that Bagley has well documented. All, saving some children under seven years old, were slaughtered in separate scenes of bloody chaos. The questions about Brigham Young's involvement before the massacre will always remain, and Bagley shows how the Mormons have argued that their prophet could not have committed any such evil. The evidence he gives here is plain, however.

Bagley not only gives a history of the massacre and its aftermath, but also a history of the histories about it, graciously noting how much he has depended on the work of Mormon historian Juanita Brooks. Bagley has confirmed most of Brooks's findings, and has new material to report. This is not just newly-found fading documents from dusty archives, although there is plenty of that. He can summarize new forensic evidence, from a dig to make a new memorial at the Mountain Meadows site in 1999; the bones, some of women and children, had not been damaged by the clubs or tomahawks of Indians, but by the bullets of Mormons. Bagley's smooth narrative makes fascinating reading, and his well-referenced arguments clear up much of what happened at Mountain Meadows, before, during, and after the massacre. He writes that although there is much obscure in the matter, "Its causes and effects are not an impenetrable mystery." He shows that those who think of themselves as God's anointed have chosen to rely on mystery and have failed to admit or atone for crimes that history has made plain.

125 of 151 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars What Did Brigham Young Know and When Did He Know It? October 5, 2002

By Crack Reviewer

Format:Hardcover

Will Bagley has chosen to tackle one of the most difficult subjects in Western American History--the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Bagley is to be commended for examining new sources of information, re-examining old sources, and drawing deeper conclusions than in previously written material.

This book challenges Juanita Brook's "Mountain Meadows Massacre" as being the most authoritative book dealing with the subject. Brook's book was well-written and meticulously researched. However, Brooks was too accepting of unsupported statements and failed, perhaps, to reach certain logical conclusions.

For those who are unaware, in 1857, an unfortunate group of pioneers traveling by covered wagon from Arkansas passed through Utah Territory on their way to California. The journey happened to coincide with the murder of LDS Church Apostle, Parley P. Pratt, in Arkansas shortly before. It also occurred at the same time President Buchanan was sending the United States Army to Utah to gain control over the "disloyal" Mormons. In September of 1857, as the pioneers were camped in the Mountain Meadows west of Cedar City they were initially assaulted by a group of Indians (there may have been Mormon settlers dressed as Indians among the group as well). When several days of hard fighting failed to destroy the pioneers, a group of Mormons appeared on the scene and pretended to negotiate a ceasefire with the Indians. As soon as the Arkansas pioneers laid down their guns, they were than slaughtered by a group including both Mormons and Indians. It is estimated 120 people were butchered in this fashion.

Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever tried in a court of law for this crime and that occurred twenty years later after a massive cover-up took place involving church leaders and the whole community in southern Utah. Lee alone paid the penalty for this event. He was executed by firing squad in 1877 for his role in the massacre.

Many haunting questions remain unanswered: 1. How many Mormons were involved in the massacre? 2. Was the massacre the result of action by local church leaders, or a directive from the President of the Church? 3. Why did the church allow the property of the emigrants to be looted by settlers and Indians? 4. Why was there a need to cover-up the details of this incident for so many years afterwards? 5. Why was John D. Lee the only man punished for the crime?

Bagley's answers are more disturbing than anything that has ever been written about the massacre so far. He concludes that the killing of the settlers had to be ordered in some fashion by high church leaders. And, it is difficult to explain away the actions of Apostle George A Smith who left Salt Lake City and rode south at the time to condemn the pioneers in the wagon train, at the same time they arrived in Salt Lake City. It is also difficult to explain away the journal entries of Dimick Huntington which provide support for the theory that church leaders encouraged Indians to attack the pioneers.

Bagley is subject to criticism because much of any account of the massacre is simply "interpretation". Bagley chooses to interpret evidence to blame church leaders. In fact, the evidence may be capable of different interpretations. Perhaps, Bagley doesn't give Brigham Young enough credit for the letter he sent to the Southern Utah communities instructing them to leave the pioneers alone. (which somehow arrived just a day or two too late to prevent he massacre). Also, its difficult to rely on much of anything John D. Lee said. Lee wrote and said many contradictory things about the massacre. Additionally, his statements may have been motivated by a desire to escape criminal responsibility for his acts. Much of the other evidence in the book is both dated and circumstantial.

However, if there is a conclusion that can be drawn from the book it is this. The true and complete story of the massacre has never been told. Obviously, there is much more to it than has ever been explained. That the church participated in a coverup of the events cannot be denied. And, one has to ask why, if no one "higher up" had any culpability for what occurred.

Will Bagley is to be applauded for tackling a difficult subject and having the courage to reach the conclusions that he has. Perhaps, his book will result in more thoughtful research and inquiry into this subject.

105 of 134 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Laying the blame at Brigham's feet August 15, 2002

By E. Johnson

Format:Hardcover

For years the slaughter of the Fancher wagon train at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah has been a point of contention for the Mormon Church. Who is to blame? According to the official version of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mormon John D. Lee was the primary villain who, as the lone scapegoat, paid for his crime when he was executed in 1877. Although the massacre had been discussed in "anti-Mormon" books, it was a loyal Mormon by the name of Juanita Brooks who bravely penned "The Mountain Meadows Massacre" in 1950. Her book created a firestorm by giving credible reasons to believe that several Mormons in high positions were, in fact, responsible for the tragic event of September 11, 1857.

Now a new book by historian Will Bagley is going to cause the Mormon Church even more consternation as he attempts to lay blame for the massacre directly at the feet of second LDS President Brigham Young. This was a theory privately held by Brooks, but she could not prove this at the time of her book. On page 363 Bagley writes, "A historian's professional and personal conclusions often differ, as was the case with Brooks' final assignment of responsibility for the massacre at Mountain Meadows. In the last revision of her book, she stressed the importance of Young's manipulation of the Indian leaders and the military orders placing `each man where he was to do his duty.' She retained her original conclusion that the existing evidence did not prove that Brigham Young and George A. Smith specifically order the massacre, but it showed they `set up social conditions that made it possible.' In a private letter to Roger B. Mathison of the University of Utah Library, she went much further: she had `come to feel that Brigham Young was directly responsible for the tragedy.' John D. Lee, she believed, would make it to heaven before Brigham Young."

Bagley states, "Claiming that Brigham Young had nothing to do with Mountain Meadows is akin to arguing that Abraham Lincoln had nothing to do with the Civil War" (p. 379). He discounts the vilification of the Arkansas immigrants/victims as nothing but lies perpetrated by the murderers themselves. Bagley recognizes the complicated events leading up to the tragic event, but he makes it clear that one cannot overlook the fact that this was an act to avenge the blood of Mormon apostle Parley P. Pratt who was killed in May of 1857 by the legal husband of his 12th wife, Eleanor McLean, in Arkansas. Bagley's "smoking gun" (?) is the journal of Dimick Huntington, a source never seen by Brooks. Huntington recorded a meeting that Young had with local Indians on September 1, 1857 where he agreed to give the emigrants' cattle to the Indians. Says Bagley, "He [Young] encouraged his Indian allies to attack the Fancher party to make clear to the nation the cost of war with the Mormons" (p. 379).

Bagley's book is a must read for anyone who wants to get beyond the LDS Church spin on this very thorny issue. Mormon Church historian Richard Turley and his loyal band of researchers will be coming out next year with what will certainly look like a rebuttal to Bagley's conclusions. Regardless, "Blood of the Prophets" is sure to shake up many Mormons who for the first time will realize that it is quite possible their second president was responsible for the murders of 120 innocent men, women, and children.