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Criticism

• Critics who use the Mountain Meadows Massacre against the Church argue that Brigham Young hid knowledge of the massacre from U.S. army representative Captain Stewart Van Vliet. They use this as evidence of Brigham's duplicity and complicity in the attacks.

Source(s) of the criticism

• Will Bagley, Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows (University of Oklahoma Press, 2002), ???.
• Sally Denton, American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, (Secker & Warburg, 2003), 165.

Response

These claims are impossible. The timeframe and distances involved simply don't work:

Army Quartermaster Captain Stewart Van Vliet came to Salt Lake City on 8 September and left after midnight on 14 September 1857 to arrange for the advancing army's provisions. Denton tells us that Brigham Young carefully shielded Van Vliet to hear nothing of the massacre, because if Van Vliet came to know about it, "an invasion of Utah Territory would be expedited" (p. 165). There is no historical support for this claim. The claim is also impossible to support. Because the massacre was not over until 11 September 1857,23 there is no possibility that Brigham Young could have known of the massacre before his last meeting with Van Vliet on 13 September 1857."^[1]

Endnotes

1. [back]  Robert D. Crockett, "The Denton Debacle (Review of: American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857)," FARMS Review 16/1 (2004): 135–148. off-site PDF link

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

Mountain Meadows Massacre wiki articles

• Mountain Meadows Massacre
  • Brigham Young ordered Mountain Meadows Massacre?
    • Amerindians as instrument of vengeance?
    • Huntington diary says Indians to "raise allies" for the planned massacre?
    • Indian chief Arapeen given booty from Massacre?
    • Indian chiefs Tutsegabit and Youngwuds sent by Brigham to Mountain Meadows?
    • Indian chief Tutsegabit "rewarded" for massacre with priesthood ordination?
    • Brigham's letter mysteriously lost?
  • Brigham Young ordered MMM memorial demolished?
  • Brigham Young and the prosecution of Mountain Meadows Massacre
    • Church blocked prosecution?
    • Church interference in trials?
    • Deal with Brigham Young for massacre prosecution?
    • Frank Lee evidence?
    • John D. Lee scapegoated?
    • Judge and the deal?
    • Prosecutors bribed?
    • Prosecution dictated to jurors?
    • Witnesses told what to say?
  • Orders to starve Gentiles?
  • Rape by Albert Hamblin?
  • September Dawn film (2007)

Personalities in Mountain Meadows

• Anonymous source: "Argus"
• Thomas Kane: cover-up?
• Bishop Philip Klingensmith
• Thomas Kane: negative portrayal
• George A. Smith carried orders?
• Worries about Capt. Stewart Van Vliet?
• Charles W. Wandell - the "Argus" source

FAIR web site

Mountain Meadows Massacre FAIR articles

• FAIR Topical Guide: Mountain Meadows FAIR link
  
• Gene Sessions, "Shining New Light on the Mountain Meadows Massacre," 2003 FAIR Conference presentation. off-site

Videos

Shining New Light on the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Gene A. Sessions , 2003 FAIR Conference

• Part 1:Shining New Light on the Mountain Meadows Massacre
• Part 2:Shining New Light on the Mountain Meadows Massacre
• Part 3:Shining New Light on the Mountain Meadows Massacre
• Part 4:Shining New Light on the Mountain Meadows Massacre
• Part 5:Shining New Light on the Mountain Meadows Massacre
• Part 6:Shining New Light on the Mountain Meadows Massacre

External links

Mountain Meadows Massacre on-line articles

• Thomas G. Alexander, "Review of Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows," Brigham Young University Studies 31:1 (January 2003): 167–. off-site
• Robert H. Briggs, "Sally Denton’s American Massacre: Authentic Mormon Past versus the Danite Interpretation of History (Review of: American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857)," FARMS Review 16/1 (2004): 111–134. off-site PDF link
• Justin Butterfield, "Let the Book of the Past Be Reopened: The Latest on the Mountain Meadows Massacre]" (review of Ron Walker's May 2006 Mormon History Association presentation), Mormon Wasp blog, 1 July 2006 (accessed 3 July 2006). off-site
• Lawrence Coates, "review of Anna Jean Backus Mountain Meadows Witness: The Life and Times of Bishop Philip Klingensmith," Brigham Young University Studies 36:4 (1996–97): 225–. off-site
• Lawrence Coates, "Review of Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows," Brigham Young University Studies 31:1 (January 2003): 153–. off-site
• Robert D. Crockett, "The Denton Debacle (Review of: American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857)," FARMS Review 16/1 (2004): 135–148. off-site PDF link
• Robert D. Crockett, "A Trial Lawyer Reviews Will Bagley's Blood of the Prophets," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): 199–254. off-site PDF link
• Eric A. Eliason, "Review of: Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896," FARMS Review of Books 12/1 (2000): 95–112. off-site PDF link
• Ronald K. Esplin and Richard E. Turley, Jr., "Mountain Meadows Massacre," Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, (New York, Macmillan Publishing, 1992), 2:966–968. off-site off-site
• Henry B. Eyring, "Remarks at 150th Anniversary of Mountain Meadows Massacre," (11 September 2007), Washington County, Utah. off-site
• Daniel C. Peterson, "Editor's Introduction," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): ix–lxii. off-site PDF link
• Paul H. Peterson, "Review of Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows," Brigham Young University Studies 31:1 (January 2003): 159–. off-site
• W. Paul Reeve and Ardis E. Parshall, "review of Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by Will Bagley," Mormon Historical Studies (Spring 2003): 149–157.
• Richard E. Turley Jr., "The Mountain Meadows Massacre," Ensign (September 2007): 14–21. off-site (Key source)
• Ronald W. Walker, "'Save the Emigrants': Joseph Clewes on the Mountain Meadows Massacre," Brigham Young University Studies 42:1 (2003): 139–152. PDF link

Printed material

Mountain Meadows Massacre printed works

• Juanita Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1950).
• Juanita Brooks, The Mountain Meadows Massacre (Norman University of Oklahoma Press, 1962).
• W. Paul Reeve and Ardis E. Parshall, review of Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by Will Bagley, Mormon Historical Studies 4/1 (2003): 149—57.
• Richard Turley, Ron Walker and Glen Leonard, Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Oxford University Press, 2008). ISBN 0195160347. ISBN 978-0195160345. (Key source)