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Ahead of 'September Dawn,' Mormon Church revisits dark period
In response to the new movie, the church sheds light on the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre.
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Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have expressed sympathy. "My heart has gone out to the descendants," Elder Dallin Oaks said in a recent PBS documentary. "What a terrible thing to contemplate, that the barbarity of the frontier and the conditions of the Utah war, whatever provocations were perceived to have been given, would have led to ... such an extreme atrocity perpetrated by members of my faith."
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The church, says author Will Bagley, is on the horns of a dilemma: "Until you can embrace confession, you can't repent. If you can't repent, there's no forgiveness."
His 2002 book on the massacre, "The Blood of the Prophets," argues that evidence points to Brigham Young hatching the plot to scare the US from its march to war. Religious leaders then used Mormon imagery of apocalypse and vengeance to whip up subordinates.
Like Mr. Bagley, the new movie "September Dawn," puts the blame on top Mormon leaders and religious fanaticism, at times using heavy-handed contrasts with the protestant piety of the immigrants.
The forthcoming history written by three Mormon authors sees many universal – rather than just Mormon dynamics at play. The book looks at other atrocities in different cultures and finds commonalities with Mountain Meadows, including the tendencies to demonize outsiders during times of war.
But the religion played a role: "There were statements made both in Salt Lake City and by local leaders down in southern Utah that tended to inflame emotions," says coauthor Ron Walker. "To that extent, ... there is a measure of culpability."
After reading their manuscript, Jan Shipps, a preeminent non-Mormon scholar, urged the writers to flesh out the religious backdrop. But she praises the book's research, and says it's a big deal that the church is publishing a synopsis in next month's church magazine.
"Can you imagine what that means in the official magazine of the church that's going all over the world to people who have just joined the church?" says Dr. Shipps.
Being a fifth-generation Mormon like Bylund doesn't make the massacre any less jarring to faith.
"The children who died – you can't be out here without thinking about them," he says, looking across the sage-strewn meadow. He could see the bullet holes in the bones dug up by the backhoe.
Yet he also thinks of his ancestors who were chased out of Missouri and Illinois by violent mobs. They feared the Army's arrival, and having to start over again.
He asks other Mormons whether they could imagine getting swept up in the massacre had they been in the local militia in 1857. "I've never met anyone who has this type of heritage who would say no," say Bylund. And would they regret it afterward? "They all said yes."
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Did Young order the massacre?
People have long speculated that Mormon leader Brigham Young orchestrated the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The new movie "September Dawn" depicts Young holding a secret meeting of Mormon leaders where the idea of the massacre is proposed and Mr. Young approved. There is no proof of that.
When a messenger was sent to Young asking what to do with the train, the leader sent word to let it pass. That message came too late, however, and not all scholars take it at face value.
Historian Will Bagley, in his widely respected book "Blood of the Prophets," fanned the debate in 2002 with two major new pieces of incriminating evidence.
First, in a meeting days before the attack, Young authorized Indian chiefs from southern Utah to steal cattle from emigrants – a "criminal act," says Bagley, who argues Young knew it would lead to the killing of innocents.
Second, one of Young's sermons warned that if the advancing US Army attacks, he would no longer protect emigrants from Indians: "I will say no more to the Indians, let them alone, but do as you please. And what is that? It is to use them up."
Bagley admits the case against Young remains "circumstantial." Nevertheless, he says, "the best historical evidence is that Brigham Young ordered it [and] covered it up."
The upcoming, church-blessed account will argue that the plan was hatched by Mormons in southern Utah, not Young. Coauthor Richard Turley argues that only one of the Indian chiefs at the meeting can be shown to be in the region of the fighting, and he was on a peaceful mission.
"Were there things said in Salt Lake City by President Young that lent themselves to create this atmosphere of tension in the south? Well, of course there were," says Mr. Turley. "But doggone, when you are in a war, things are said that you later on wish weren't said."
Decisive proof for either view may never emerge.
"I don't know whether Brigham ordered it, but he was a part of the context that made it possible," says Jan Shipps, a preeminent outside scholar of Mormonism.
