Mountain Meadows massacre and Mormon public relations

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mountain Meadows massacre v • d • e
Backgrounds of the Fanchers and the Mormons War hysteria  · Conspiracy and siege Killings and aftermath  · Trials  · Remembrances LDS public relations  · Media depictions
Precursors
Haun's Mill massacre  · Mormon pioneers Paiutes  · Kingdom of God (LDS)  · Utah War Blood atonement  · Plural marriage
Books
Juanita Brooks  · Blood of the Prophets Burying The Past Banner of Heaven  · September Dawn

Mormon public relations have evolved with respect to the Mountain Meadows massacre since it occurred on September 11, 1857. After a period of official public silence concerning the massacre, and denials of any Mormon involvement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) took action in 1872 to excommunicate some of the participants for their role in the massacre. Since then, the LDS Church has consistently condemned the massacre, though acknowledging involvement by local Mormon leaders.

Beginning in the late mid- to late-20th century, the LDS Church has made efforts to reconcile with the descendents of John D. Lee (reinstating him posthumously to full fellowship in the church), as well as those of the slain Baker-Fancher party. The church erected a memorial at the massacre site in 1999, and has opened many of its previously-confidential archival records about the massacre to scholars.

Contents 1 LDS position in the 1800s 2 LDS participation in the 1990 Memorial 3 Standing in the church of LDS massacre participants 4 1999 memorial 5 Statements by prominent LDS leaders about the massacre 6 Notes

[edit] LDS position in the 1800s

The first semi-official public statement by a church official concerning the massacre was by George Q. Cannon, then president of the LDS California Mission. In the October 13, 1857 edition of Cannon's San Francisco newspaper The Western Standard, Cannon responded to initial news reports of involvement by Mormons by charging the responsible journalists with writing "reckless and malignant slanders", despite knowing that the southern Utah Mormons were "as innocent of [the massacre] as the child unborn".^[1]

The church's official newspaper in Salt Lake City, The Deseret News, was initially slow to comment on the massacre. Several months later, the paper disclaimed Mormon involvement,^{[citation needed]} then remained largely silent until 1869, when it again denied involvement by Mormons.^[2]

In 1872, Young excommunicated Lee and Haight for their role in the massacre.^{[citation needed]}

In 1877, soon after John D. Lee was executed for the massacre, Young was interviewed by a reporter, and told him that he considered Lee's fate just. He denied personal involvement, and denied that the doctrine of blood atonement played a role in the massacre, but stated that he believed in the doctrine, "and I believe that Lee has not half atoned for his great crime."^[3]

[edit] LDS participation in the 1990 Memorial

The original cairn Major Carleton had erected over the victims' mass graves on May 20, 1859 contained a granite marker inscribed with the words, Here 120 men, women, and children were massacred in cold blood early in September, 1857. They were from Arkansas, along with a cedar cross bearing the words, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.^[5] This marker was soon torn down by vandals, then re-built in 1864 by the U.S. military, then torn down by vandals again around 1874.^[6] In 1932 a memorial wall was built around the 1859 Cairn.^[7] In 1990, the Mountain Meadows Association built a monument overlooking the Mountain Meadows massacre site, it is maintained by the Utah State Division of Parks and Recreation^[7][8].

On September 15, 1990, more than 2,000 people attended a memorial service at Southern Utah State College, marking the dedication of the memorial. Participants in the memorial service included Judge Roger V. Logan, Jr. of Harrison, Arkansas and J. K. Fancher representing the emigrant families, tribal chairwoman Geneal Anderson and spiritual leader Clifford Jake, representing the Paiute tribe, Rex E. Lee, representing descendants of LDS pioneer families from the area, and a then–first counselor in the LDS First Presidency Gordon B. Hinckley representing the church.

According to quotes from an article in the Saint George, Utah, Spectrum newspaper:^[9]

J.K. Francher, a Harrison, Ark., pharmacist and freelance writer, said...[that he] never dreamed that a memorial service would come to fruition but "the spirit kicked in" and people of differing religious beliefs have reconciled. "The most difficult words for men to utter is 'I'm sorry and I forgive you'."Easing the burden of the victims was also the goal of Paiute Indian Tribal Chairwoman Geneal Anderson of Cedar City....

During the ceremony, descendants of both the victims and perpetrators joined arms on stage and in the audience, some hugging and embracing each other following a challenge by Rex E. Lee, Brigham Young University president.... Gordon B. Hinckley...said he came as a representative of a church that has suffered much over what happened. While people can't comprehend what occurred...Hinckley said he was grateful for reconciliation by the descendants on both sides...."Now if there is need for forgiveness, we ask that it be granted."

The building of the monument as well as the dedication and speech by President Hinckley can be seen in the documentary film Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

[edit] Standing in the church of LDS massacre participants

Most of the main participants in the massacre remained in good standing with the LDS Church long after the massacre. In the fall of 1870, however, several of them, including Isaac C. Haight and John D. Lee, were excommunicated for their role in the massacre. After Lee's execution by firing squad, Brigham Young told a reporter that although Young believed in the doctrine of blood atonement, "Lee has not half atoned for his great crime".^[10]

In the late 1950s, LDS President David O. McKay created a committee, chaired by Delbert L. Stapley to investigate the Mountain Meadows massacre. This committee recommended that McKay restore John D. Lee's church membership, and McKay allowed one of Lee's grandsons to be baptized by proxy for him, and the church restored Lee's priesthood and full fellowship in the church. When Juanita Brooks expressed intention to publicize this church action, according to Brooks, Stapley threatened to undo the church action on behalf of Lee. The act was publicized in Brook's' biography of Lee, however, and no recission was made, although Stapely recommended Brooks' excommunication, which McKay declined.^[11] In 2007, LDS Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland, whom Brooks taught English in high school, said that he believed Brooks was an "absolutely faithful Latter-day Saint…who had…probably helped the church come to grips with something that all of us wish had never happened."^[12]

[edit] 1999 memorial

In 1999 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built and agreed to maintain a second monument at Mountain Meadows.^[13] On August 3, 1999, during excavation, a backhoe moving a wall originally erected by Carleton accidentally unearthed the remains of at least 29 victims. The Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation was upset that a directive not to disturb much below the surface had been misinterpreted by these construction contractors.

Anthropologists from the University of Utah and Brigham Young University, having to turn down requests that streamed in from people curious if DNA tests could ascertain familial relationships with the victims, still worked around the clock to quickly perform various forensic examinations on the bones before they were returned for reinterment in a private ceremony on September 10. Yet some aspects of the massacre's written accounts could now be reassessed against forensic knowledge gleaned from these reports. For example, anthropologist Shannon Novak's team found that out of approximately 20 skulls of adults examined, five showed the tell-tale signs of bullet entries to the backs of heads in agreement with historical written reports, while five others instead showed entry to their fronts.^[14] Novak subsequently has researched the background and lives of the massacre's victims, to appear in her book House of Mourning, to be published in 2008.

During meetings held in connection with the various ceremonies, the Mountain Meadows Foundation, based in Arkansas, sought to buy this area, encompassing three different emigrant gravesites, from its owner, the LDS church, to be administered through an independent trustee or else for the property to be kept in the LDS church's hands but for it to be leased to the federal government for oversight as a national monument. The church declined this idea, yet bought more parcels nearby as a preserve from resorts development.^[15] During ceremonies dedicating the monument, Hinckley said, "That which we have done here must never be construed as an acknowledgment of the part of the church of any complicity in the occurrences of that fateful day."

[edit] Statements by prominent LDS leaders about the massacre

In 2007, as the 150th anniversary of the attack approached, PBS interviews with high-ranking LDS Church officials who had made themselves accessible for interviews about Mormon topics were posted online. In his interview, LDS apostle and descendant of massacre participants Jeffrey Holland spoke of the church's recent attempts to express regret "not for the church, not institutionally. No, try as people may, there has never been any smoking gun in Brigham Young's hand or anyone else's at that level of leadership of the church. But there was clearly local responsibility."^[16] In a PBS broadcast soundbite, LDS apostle Dallin Oaks said, "I have no doubt...Mormons, including local leaders of our church, were prime movers in that terrible episode and participated in the killing. And what a terrible thing to contemplate, that the barbarity of the frontier, and the conditions of the Utah war and whatever provocations were perceived to have been given, would have led to such an extreme...atrocity perpetrated by members of my faith. I pray that the Lord will comfort those that are still bereaved by it, and I pray that he can find a way to forgive those who took such a terrible action against their fellow beings."^[17]

Brian Patrick interviewed LDS Church Historian Glen Leonard for his documentary Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In the documentary, Leonard makes many profound statements as to the LDS Church's involvement in the massacre and the coverup. Leonard is one of the co-authors of the book the LDS Church is writing about the massacre.

[edit] Notes

v • d • e Mountain Meadows massacre series Fanchers' and Mormons' backgrounds  · War hysteria  · Conspiracy and siege  · Massacre  · Trials  · Remembrances  · LDS public relations  · Depictions