Mountain Meadows massacre and the media

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Although the Mountain Meadows massacre was covered to some extent in the media during the 1850s,^{[citation needed]}, the first period of intense nation-wide publicity about the massacre began around 1872, after investigators obtained the confession of Philip Klingensmith, a Mormon bishop at the time of the massacre and a private in the Utah militia. In 1872, Mark Twain commented on the massacre through the lens of contemporary American public opinion in an appendix^[1] to his semi-autobiographical travel book Roughing It. In 1873, the massacre was a prominent feature of a history by T.B.H. Stenhouse, The Rocky Mountain Saints.^[2] National newspapers covered the John D. Lee trials closely from 1874 to 1876, and his execution in 1877 was widely covered.

The massacre has been treated extensively by several historical works, beginning with Lee's own Confession in 1877, expressing his opinion that George A. Smith was sent to southern Utah by Brigham Young to direct the massacre.^[3] In 1910, the massacre was the subject of a short book by Josiah F. Gibbs, who also attributed responsibility for the massacre to Young and Smith.^[4] The first detailed and comprehensive work using modern historical methods was Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1950 by Juanita Brooks, a Mormon scholar who lived near the area in southern Utah. Brooks found no evidence of direct involvement by Brigham Young, but charged him with obstructing the investigation and for provoking the attack through his rhetoric.

The most significant works after Brooks include the book Blood of the Prophets by Will Bagley in 2002^[5] and American Massacre by Sally Denton in 2003.^[6] Bagley pointed to what he said was strong circumstantial evidence of Young's involvement through Smith, and through his early September 1857 meeting with Paiute Indian leaders Tutsegabit and Youngwids.^{[citation needed]} Denton also suggested involvement by Young through Smith, but argued against involvement by Paiute leaders.^{[citation needed]}

In historical fiction, the massacre inspired a genre of frontier crime fiction in the 19th century. The massacre has been portrayed in several plays, and in a 2007 motion picture, September Dawn. A documentary entitled Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (2004) covers the massacre, the descendants of the victims and perpetrators, and the forensic evidence discovered at the massacre site.

[edit] Popular descriptions

Mormonism Unveiled; or the Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee, was Lee's account of the massacre, published soon after his execution in 1877.^[7]

In 1872, Mark Twain commented on the massacre through the lens of contemporary American public opinion in an appendix^[11] to his semi-autobiographical travel book Roughing It.

An example of the massacre's early public notoriety, this sketch of the massacre site appeared on the cover of the August 13, 1859 issue of Harper's Weekly. Inside, an article quoted Maj. Carleton's report describing the scene as "one too horrible and sickening for language to describe. Human skeletons, disjointed bones, ghastly skulls and the hair of women were scattered in frightful profusion over a distance of two miles."

In the 1890s, Assistant LDS Church Historian Andrew Jenson collected all the records he could find concerning the massacre. These include Jenson's field notes, excerpts of witnesses' diaries, sworn affidavits, newspaper reports, and the transcriptions from the Mormon church's internal investigations. Many of these are interviews with participants who were granted complete confidentiality with regard to whatever they might say. (A book by LDS historians Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen M. Leonard on the massacre is scheduled to be published by Oxford University Press. A decade in the making, research for the book draws from the Jenson archive. The files have never been open to the public, or for use by historians. Media reports indicate they are scheduled to be available to the public as early as 2008 or 2009.)^{[citation needed]}

The trial of John D. Lee put an idea of an out-of-control theocracy into the public imagination. And, beginning in the late nineteenth century, the tragedy found place in a whole genre of historical treatments, novels—even two silent films. While the historical works among these critiqued (often in polemic fashion) early Utah's religious teachings and rhetoric, a caricature drawn from out of their criticisms came to find its place, in stereotype form, in popular fiction and entertainment.

[edit] Academic treatment

An Illustration of the Mountain Meadows massacre, from a seminal 1873 history of the Mormons by T.B.H. Stenhouse.^[12] Stenhouse was a liberal Mormon insider and pro-Mormon editor of the Salt Lake Telegraph.^[13]

The first historical work to discuss the massacre in any depth was an 1873 work by T.B.H. Stenhouse entitled The Rocky Mountain Saints.^[14] Stenhouse had been a prominent Mormon leader for decades, and editor of the pro-Mormon Salt Lake Telegraph.^[15] Stenhouse was a liberal, however, and in the late 1860s, he joined a group of intellectual Mormons seeking liberal reform, known as the Godbeite, who were later expelled from the church for apostasy. Stenhouse's work on the massacre was drawn from newspaper reports, Klingensmith's affidavit, and some personal journalistic investigation.

Nephi Johnson
Youthful
militia-interpreter to area Paiutes at time of atrocity

Juanita Brooks came to publish in 1950 what was up until recently the definitive work on the massacre, The Mountain Meadows Massacre. Brooks as a young school teacher was at the deathbed of Nephi Johnson in 1919 and heard Johnson's last words, his cries of "blood, blood, blood!"

Documentaries:

• The documentary film Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre (2004) contains footage of forensic analysis of human remains from the massacre. The film also chronicles the struggle of the massacre descendants from both sides who are still haunted by the tragedy, as well as the LDS Church dedicating a monument to the victims.
• The PBS series The Mormons (2007), aired on PBS in two parts on April 30 and May 1, 2007, discussed the effects of the Mountain Meadows massacre on the church's image today.

[edit] Historical fiction and portrayals

• The play Fire In The Bones (1978) by Thomas F. Rogers is a depiction of the massacre from the perspective of John D. Lee, and is based heavily on Juanita Brooks' research.
• The play Two-Headed (2000) by Julie Jensen depicts two middle-aged Latter Day Saint (Mormon) women reflecting on the massacre that occurred when they were children.
• The novel Red Water (2002) by Judith Freeman depicts John D. Lee's role in the massacre from the perspective of three of his nineteen wives.
• The film September Dawn (2007), released August 24, 2007,^[16] directed by Christopher Cain, is described by a press release as portraying the "point of view held [by] direct descendants ... that the iconic Brigham Young had complicity in the massacre, a view denied by the Mormon Church."^[17] Reportedly, the film depicts a love story set at the time of the massacre.^[18]

[edit] See also

• Anti-Mormonism
• Portrayals of Mormons in popular media

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

1. Bagley, Will (2002), Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-3426-7 .
2. Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1889), The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: History of Utah, 1540–1886, vol. 26, San Francisco: History Company, LCC F826.B2 1889, LCCN 07018413, <http://books.google.com/books?id=2OwNAAAAIAAJ>  (Internet Archive versions).
3. Brooks, Juanita (1950), Mountain Meadows Massacre, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-2318-4 .
4. Denton, Sally (2003), American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 0-375-41208-5 . Washington Post review and Letter to the editor in response to the review.
5. Gibbs, Josiah F. (1910), The Mountain Meadows Massacre, Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Tribune, LCC F826 .G532 LCCN 37010372, <http://books.google.com/books?id=BUoOAAAAIAAJ> .
6. Klingensmith, Philip (September 5, 1872), Affidavit, written at Lincoln County, Nevada, in Toohy, Dennis J., “Mountain Meadows Massacre”, Corinne Daily Reporter (Corinne, Utah) 5 (252): 1, September 24, 1872 .
7. Lee, John D. (1877), Bishop, William W., ed., Mormonism Unveiled; or the Life and Confessions of the Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee, St. Louis, Missouri: Bryan, Brand & Co., <http://books.google.com/books?id=zmp2CKy6sv4C> .
8. Stenhouse, T.B.H. (1873), The Rocky Mountain Saints: a Full and Complete History of the Mormons, from the First Vision of Joseph Smith to the Last Courtship of Brigham Young, New York: D. Appleton, ID=LCC BX8611 .S8 1873, LCCN 16024014, ASIN: B00085RMQM, <http://books.google.com/books?id=UEgOAAAAIAAJ> .
9. Twain, Mark (1873), Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing, <http://books.google.com/books?id=BKgvAAAAMAAJ> .

[edit] External links

• “‘Horrible Massacre of Emigrants!!’: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in Public Discourse” by Douglas Seefeldt, a professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln