The Mountain Meadows Massacre

Juanita Brooks must be commended for writing as thorough a history of the Mountain Meadows massacre as she has; it seems she spent decades gathering and sifting information, including affidavits, personal letters, newspaper accounts, and documents from the LDS archives, to present as accurate a picture as possible. And still so much is lost or buried in history and irretrievable today. How many people were actually killed remains in dispute, the number ranging anywhere from 60-something to 120. The causes of the near-hysteria exhibited by the southern Utah Mormons at the time, and the fact that the well-stocked Fancher wagon train was their target, are many and varied: fear of attack by the US army, fear that through-trains would incite Californians to attack the Mormon settlements, a desire to avenge recent Mormon murders in the States, and the Fancher party's own intimidating behavior toward the Mormon's in the villages they passed through, have all been forwarded as causes. The role of the Indians involved is vague; they at first were expected to do all the killing while the whites looked on; this isn't what happened, though some Indians did participate and did much looting of the wagons afterward. Finally the role of Brigham Young in what appeared at first would be a complete "cover-up" only to have one man, John D. Lee, take the blame for everything - perhaps because he was the leader of the attackers and certainly because it would help keep the high officials of the church from appearing guilty, is explored by Brooks. It took a hundred years, but in 1961 John D. Lee was finally "reinstated to membership and former blessings" by the LDS supreme council. The Mountain Meadows tragedy is a fascinating story where somewhat cloudy intelligence got mixed up with fear and paranoia, allowing circumstances to get beyond control. It wasn't the first time something like it happened, and it won't be the last. Brooks's account of it is superb historical writing, however.

This was the book that first got me interested in the Mountain Meadow Massacre, what I called the 9-11 of 19th Century. It was one of the biggest mass murders in the history of the American west and ironically speaking, the killers were white men, murdering white people in cold blood. With considerable courage, the author painted a very clear picture of what this massacre was all about and within her limited means, gave a cause and effect of the incident. I used that term "limited means" because the author was (now deceased) a member of LDS and she probably compromised some of more inflamatory elements of the massacre so other writers like Will Bagley and Sally Denton can go at it. Her defense of John D. Lee was bit surprising to me but I figured that she knew that Lee was nothing more then a scrapgoat for the Mormon Church. But she did not take any inroads to the actual responsibility of the massacre. Like I wrote in the earlier reviews on books written by Bagley and Denton, I would considered this book to be a valuable first book of three that honestly deal with the Mountain Meadow Massacre.

Brooks, although not a professional historian, did throuough research and offered a balanced view of the massacre even though she was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as well. The book's conclusions are well argued and the documents are used in a fair and balanced way. Brooks also does an effective job of discussing the background of the massacre with clear chapters on the "Mormon War" of 1857 that was coming. Unlike many authors, Brooks overcomes the tendancy to become emotional or polemical about the massacre. Instead of using the book to further her own agenda, (either to be an apologist or what is called an "Anti-Mormon" and tear down the church), Brooks attempts to bring to light not only the massacre itself but the motivations behind it and the cover-up that happened afterwards. Anyone studying the Mountain Meadows Massacre need to read this book first or at least second or their research is woefully incomplete!

Juanita Brook's book was objective on both sides, pointing out the atmosphere among the LDS people at the time of the Mountain Meadows Massacre while also showing the inconsistencies in some of the LDS explanations. If there is one clear point in the book it is that in times of prejudice and war, even good people will do horrific things. This does not justify the massacre but does attempt to explain the paranoia and fear which existed in Southern Utah at that time. I find Juanita's research to be very fair and quite accurate. It parallels the research done by Josiah F. Gibbs in his book which was printed in 1910, much closer to the time of the massacre. Mr. Gibbs is not LDS and it is obvious he does not like the LDS, but certainly his book verifies that the research which Juanita performed was very accurate. Having read many of the books and information regarding this massacre, I believe Juanita has done her research well and attempted to get the truth out. One painfully obvious truth which comes out is the quickness with which the U.S. Government took action in trying to find the guilty parties. Perhaps if they had taken such quickness with the killings and mobbings upon the LDS in Missouri, Illinois and other states, this massacre could have been avoided.