Forgotten History - A Massacre In The Meadows.
America is going through some hard times right now. It's nothing new, but due to our pampered lives, we aren't used to it. Only 100 years ago death came often and it came quick. Such was the tragedy that occurred in Utah in September of 1857.
Backstory
When I was in Utah a few weeks ago digging for Topaz and Red Beryl I decided to take a back road home. Part of the reason was I was waiting for a response from @drpuffnstuff to see if we could meet up in St. George for breakfast. Part of it was I love taking the back roads to see the hidden side of America. The route I took, without knowing, would lead me to the hallowed ground of "Mountain Meadows".
What Happened?
Mountain Meadows was the site of a massacre of over 120 men, women, and children. No one was spared and only the lucky survived, which happened to be only children under 7 years of age who were deemed too young to understand or recall the events.
Passing through Utah at the time was a dangerous thing to do. Utah was highly religious under the Latter Day Saints(LDS), also known as Mormons and was on the brink of war with the United States. The LDS had only recently settled Utah after escaping persecution in Missouri and the surrounding states. The Mormons were very suspicious of anyone coming through the Utah territory because they were having problems with the US government. So when a wagon train of 140 people came passing through Salt Lake City a combination of fear and paranoia drove the Mormons to shun the emigrants.
A series of negative stories about the settlers spread throughout the territory and whipped Utah militiamen into a frenzy. One story was some of the members of the wagon train were from a group in Arkansas that had participated in the killing of a Mormon Apostle. The militiamen devised an attack on the emigrants, they would dress like Native Americans and hire Paiute Native Americans to attack the wagon train and make it look like the Natives did it. Something not uncommon during this time.
On Sunday, September 5th, 1857 the emigrants reached Mountain Meadows and they set up camp there. They expected to rest on the Sabbath, let their herd of cattle graze and then move on out of Utah to Nevada 40 miles away.
On September 7th, 1857 the militiamen attacked. The settlers quickly formed a defensive formation with the wagons, filling them with dirt, digging trenches below them and also piling dirt all around them. After the first day of the siege 7 emigrants had been killed.
The siege continued for 4 days as the emigrants' provisions depleted the situation looked grim. During this time the Mormons panicked that some of the emigrants had identified them as not being Paiute and could, therefore, say the story of a Native American attack was manufactured. So on September 11th, 1857 two militia men carried a white flag and approached the emigrants. The militiamen told the emigrants that they had worked out a truce with the Paiutes, whom the Mormons had tricked the emigrants into believing they were being attacked by.
The emigrants had to agree to give their livestock to the Paiutes and then they would be escorted back to Cedar City about 40 miles East by the Mormons. The emigrants agreed and they were led out of their fortifications. Each emigrant escorted by a militiaman guard. Shortly after everyone was out an order was given and every emigrant over the age of 7 was slaughtered.
Only 1 man was ever brought to justice, John D. Lee. He was executed at the site many years later. The rest of the perpetrators lived out their lives freely, unfortunately.
Being There
Perhaps it's only in the mind, but when I have been to places with immense history, Washington D.C., Kamakura, and now Mountain Meadows you can feel something. I don't know how to describe it, a sense of awe, a presence perhaps. That feeling hit me as soon as I stepped into the meadow. It was an uncomfortable feeling this time though. I walked around what was supposedly the circle where the wagons had been placed. The emigrants didn't have a chance as they were surrounded on one side by steep foothills and a ravine with a small river on the other. They had no escape.
As I walked back to the memorial I saw the list of family after family that had been completely wiped out and I had to stop. It was too emotional to think about the Fathers and Mothers and their children murdered in cold blood for no reason.
I left that place with a black spot in my soul, but also with perspective. Our problems are so small, little differences about how we want to live our lives, yet it seems some entities are making them out to be bigger than they are and worthy of violence. I think Americans need to visit more places like this to put their differences into perspective. Live and let live under freedom.
I used Wikipedia, Mountain Meadows Landmarks, and personal knowledge(Growing up around Mormons) as sources.
Thanks for reading.
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What a sobering story, especially with all the anti-immigrant rhetoric. People just want to live in peace, and yet, even the so called righteous have no room or pity for the stranger.
It was much more complex, with the Mormons on the verge of war with the US everyone who was not Mormon was looked upon as a spy or saboteur. There is a saying history repeats itself when the last of a generation dies off who could have remembered it.