Remembrances of the Mountain Meadows massacre

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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

There have been several commemorations of the Mountain Meadows massacre.

Contents 1 Non-Mormon markers and memorials at Mountain Meadows 2 Commemorations in Arkansas 3 LDS Church's 1999 memorial 4 150th Anniversary 5 Notes

[edit] Non-Mormon markers and memorials at Mountain Meadows

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.^[1] This marker was soon torn down by Brigham Young,^{[citation needed]} then re-built in 1864 by the U.S. military, then torn down again around 1874.^[2] In 1932 a memorial wall was built around the 1859 Cairn.^[3] 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^[3][4].

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:^[6]

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."

[edit] Commemorations in Arkansas

A marker was placed in the Carrollton, Arkansas town square in 1955 in commemoration of the surviving children's return to their next of kin there in 1859—to which (elsewhere in Carrollton) a replica of Carleton's original wooden cross and cairn was added in 2005.

A commemorative wagon-train encampment assembled at Beller Spring, Arkansas on April 21–22, 2007, with some participants in period dress, to honor the sesquicentennial of their ancestors' embarkation on the ill-fated journey.^[7]

[edit] LDS Church's 1999 memorial

Main article: Mountain Meadows massacre and Mormon public relations

In 1999 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built and agreed to maintain a second monument at Mountain Meadows.^[8] During excavation for the monument, however, a backhoe moving a wall originally erected by Carleton accidentally unearthed the remains of at least 29 victims, allowing anthropologists to conduct forensic examinations.

The Mountain Meadows Foundation, based in Arkansas, was wary of the LDS Church's sole ownership of the property and oversight of the memorial. It 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.^[9] 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] 150th Anniversary

On September 11, 2007, approximately 400 people, including many descendants of those slain at Mountain Meadows, gathered to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the massacre. At this commemoration, Elder Henry B. Eyring of the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles issued a statement on behalf of the LDS Church's First Presidency expressing regret for the actions of local church leaders in the massacre. During the commemoration, Elder Eyring stated, "We express profound regret for the massacre carried out in this valley 150 years ago today, and for the undue and untold suffering experienced by the victims then and by their relatives to the present time... What was done here long ago by members of our church represents a terrible and inexcusable departure from Christian teachings and conduct. We cannot change what happened, but we can remember and honor those who were killed here." ^{[10] [11] [12]}

[edit] Notes