Did Brigham Young Order the Mountain Meadows Massacre?

On September 11, 1857, Latter-day Saints, assisted by a group of Paiutes, killed between 100 and 140 men, women, and children of an Arkansas wagon train at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah. There is no way to soften that. So this episode asks the harder questions head-on: how did a people who had been driven from their own homes commit the worst atrocity in their history; and did Brigham Young order it?

Jasmin Rappleye, Neal Rappleye, and Stephen Smoot sit down with Dr. Casey Griffiths — assistant professor of Church history and doctrine at BYU, co-host of the Church History Matters podcast, and former president of the John Whitmer Historical Association — to walk through the definitive primary-source research: Massacre at Mountain Meadows (Ronald Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr., and Glen Leonard) and Vengeance Is Mine (Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown), both from Oxford University Press, along with Casey's What You Don't Know About the 100 Most Important Events in Church History.

===Informed Saints Credits=== Produced by The Ancient America Foundation Producer: Spencer Clark Hosts: Stephen Smoot, Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye

In this episode: • The Utah War of 1857: why President James Buchanan sent roughly a third of the U.S. Army (~2,500 troops) toward Utah — and why the press branded it "Buchanan's Blunder" • The Nauvoo Legion's Sebastopol strategy, Lot Smith's famously polite wagon-burnings, and the army's miserable winter at Fort Bridger • Thomas L. Kane's dash via Panama to broker peace — arriving in Salt Lake on Christmas Day • The Baker–Fancher party from Arkansas: denied provisions town by town, and the anthrax outbreak near Fillmore that fed poisoning rumors • What (maybe) happened in Cedar City — and why stake president Isaac Haight sought retribution after the wagon train had already left • The plan to blame the Paiutes, John D. Lee's role as on-site commander, and William Dame's fateful approval • James Haslam's ride to Salt Lake and Brigham Young's letter — "let them go in peace" — arriving two days too late • September 11: the false flag of truce, the "do your duty" signal, and the 17 young children who survived • The Haight–Dame blow-up at the site, the original letterbook, and why the evidence points away from Brigham Young ordering the massacre • Trials, a deliberately hung jury, the Pittman-shorthand transcripts, and John D. Lee's execution at Mountain Meadows • Mormonism Unveiled, Mark Hofmann forgeries, and how the "Brigham Young ordered it" myth persists from Under the Banner of Heaven to American Primeval • President Henry B. Eyring's 2007 statement at the 150th anniversary — and what facing this history honestly asks of all of us

Go deeper: Massacre at Mountain Meadows — Walker, Turley & Leonard (Oxford University Press): https://amzn.to/4fsHtYU

Vengeance Is Mine — Turley & Jones Brown (Oxford University Press): https://amzn.to/4yLAQKf

What You Don't Know About the 100 Most Important Events in Church History — Casey Griffiths, Mary Jane Woodger, and Susan Easton Black: https://amzn.to/4fDL7PX

Trial transcripts online (Turley & Jones Brown): https://mountainmeadowsmassacre.com

Church Resources: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2007/09/the-mountain-meadows-massacre?lang=eng https://history.byu.edu/mountainmeadowsmassacre

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