The Massacre, Affair and Legacy of the Mountain
Meadow
Monument of the victims in Mountain Meadows Massacre, September 2020
In 1857 September 7-11, An groups of Mormon militiamen attacked and killed over 120 emigrants of the Arkansas wagon train in the Mountain Meadow in Utah and take in the 17th survivors who are under seven years of ages old and give them to local Mormon families. This atrocity in the middle of the Utah War that was crisis between the Mormon and US army where the population of the latter saints was worried about possible invasion and destruction of their faith similar to what they experienced in Missouri 19 years later. Immediately following that incident, the mormons tried to cover up the massacre by blaming the Indians they allied with, perpetrators families were miscommunicated from the Church and tried to prevent the possible invasion by the US military. Then US army led by Major James Henry started investigating the incident before the War of Secession stop that immediately and focusing on Robbie E. Lee marching army.
In late 1870s, US started reached out on the meadow perpetrators as a show a force after humiliating themselves in the in the war secession war a decade prior. The Mormon church led by Brigtham Young in Salt Lake City tried to make sure they were overseeing the cases of Meadows but got rejected harshly by the US military officials as they think the Latter Day Saints will reduce their involvement in the massacre of meadows and try to prevent harsh penalties for the Mormons in Utah. Union military would later find, jailed and eventually executed anyone that were involved with the massacre including the main local leaders of the massacres and make sure that the victims would be the last ones who would be killed by Mormonism in US solis.
This whole case grew into a larger issue in Utah and beyond as the question of Mormons religion and Utah territory became state were coming to question under increase federal authority in Philadelphia. This affair in Utah increase already existing distrust of the LDS Church and anti-Mormon rhetoric spread among Federal officials who believe the religion in this would be troublesome and described by Californian governor as
“Murderous polygamists cult”.
This affair between the Mormon church and Federal Government regarding the case of handling the massacres of Mountain Meadows to fill tension with the US army in Utah would be known as Meadow Affair 1874-1877 by other later historians in the American humiliation era.
Anti Mormon political cartoon of Skull of Utah have victims of Meadows goes to the cave of despair, 1876
The response of the US government was came at a surprise and shock for the Mormons living in Utah as the Union harsh penalty and frequently overturn the church authority from the case leave them to believe that they would be powerless to protect their religion in the future. This affair would make them remember what they had experienced in the state of Missouri with persecute, violence and eventual order to expelled them from the state entirely by the Sixth Missouri governor, Lilburn Boggs.
This enlightening previous paranoia of an invasion by the US military that were presences in the Utah war of 1857 and the teaching of outsiders in Mormon teachings increase following the Affair. The Mormon doctrine becomes more Isolated outside of Utah and the increasing anti-Mormon sentiment across American states makes the church paranoid and distrusted gentiles. These actions were led the main reasons why the Mormons decided to revolt to be independent country separate from the United States who were supported by the Confederacy during the War of 1881.
This is not only affected Utah but the rest of America as the massacre were use as fuel to distrust Mormons as violent cultists who murder innocent travelers who pursue in the American dream and justify their oppression against the faith of the Latter Day Saints . The Meadows massacre were unfortunately used to justify violence and riots against the Mormon community as a dangerous threat for American citizens whom were aspire to kill them like in Meadows. This even has multiple massacres against the Mormons for retaliation in Mountain Meadows and other hateful beliefs against the LDS in the Utahn troubles into late 19th and early 20th century. Even in 2024, they are still Americans who distrust and have biases against the Mormons because of the incident of meadows massacre in Utah even though many Mormons believe those who are responsible were monsters who taking out their paranoia on unarmed innocent civilians.
The massacre didn’t stop at the wagon train in mount meadows, but only fuel the flames of anti Mormon violence across America into the hateful inferno that we still felt to this day.