Posted on 04/03/2008 9:07:12 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
LDS Church leaders have agreed to seek national landmark status for the church-owned Mountain Meadows Massacre site in southern Utah where Mormons attacked a California-bound wagon train on Sept. 11, 1857.
A national landmark designation would ensure that the 120 Arkansas emigrants of the Fancher/Baker wagon train company who were killed by Mormon militia and some Paiute Indians "will always be remembered as part of our nation's history," said Marlin K. Jensen, an LDS general authority and official historian for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Jensen met Friday in Arkansas with about 20 representatives of the Mountain Meadows Association, the Mountain Meadows Massacre Descendants and the Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation. Each group has a slightly different mission, but all had asked the church to seek landmark status for Mountain Meadows.
The site is already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but requirements for a landmark designation are much more stringent, according to Jensen. The process involves documenting the historic significance of the site, a public comment period, and reviews by the National Park Service and a government-appointed board of experts. The secretary of the interior will make the final decision.
At Friday's meeting, Jensen also discussed proposed plans to create a second memorial with interpretive markers at the Burgess upper grave site, where remains of some of the victims are thought to be buried. Descendants were worried that new housing might encroach on the area, which they consider to be sacred land, so the church purchased 600 additional acres to avert any development.
The descendant groups were surprised and pleased by the church's gesture, said Patty Norris, president of the MMM Descendants. The church had declined to support previous requests to seek national landmark status for the massacre site.
"It was a very good meeting and a very good day for the church and the descendants," said Norris, great-great-great- granddaughter of Tryphenia Fancher, a toddler who witnessed the slaughter of her entire family on the plains of Utah. "When I got involved some 10 years ago, one of my main goals was to work toward making sure that site was preserved and that we found those upper graves and properly marked them. So today was a huge thing for me personally."
There is not much else to do, Norris said. "Everybody's on the same page. We are going to move forward together. It's a big relief."
LDS officials were relieved, too.
"It couldn't have been a more amicable meeting," said Jensen, who was joined in Arkansas by Richard Turley, assistant church historian, and Steven Olsen, managing director of the LDS history department. "We brought good news and they gave us several standing ovations."
The meeting was held in Carrollton, where the 17 surviving children were returned to their next of kin in 1859. The town erected a marker for the massacre victims in 1955.
"To come here and put a human face [on] this tragedy really has been sobering and humbling," Jensen said.
Six months ago, Mormon leaders gathered at Mountain Meadows with the three descendants groups, Paiute representatives and others at a 150th anniversary memorial service to honor the victims of the massacre.
At that time, Henry B. Eyring, then an LDS apostle and now a member of the church's governing First Presidency, acknowledged that the responsibility rested with regional LDS leaders who also held civic and military positions and with members of the church acting under their direction.
"What was done here long ago by members of our church represents a terrible and inexcusable departure from Christian teaching and conduct," Eyring said at the September service. "We cannot change what happened, but we can remember and honor those who were killed here."
Jensen, Turley and Olsen will remain in Arkansas through Sunday, speaking to various LDS groups about Mormon involvement in the massacre.
LDS Church members there still experience some tension with their neighbors over this episode, Jensen said. "We need to equip them to deal with it in a good way. . . . When we are open and listen and express our regret, walls come tumbling down."
They didn't. It was called the Mormon Wars for a reason.
Mormons were killed by non-mormons. Non-mormons were killed by Mormons.
It wasn't just ONE incident. Good grief, if you are a Mormons, you sure are lacking in your knowledge of your own religion's past.
Of course they tend to dwell on only the ones where the Mormons were the victims.
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Just what do you believe the biggest reason for the “good” folks in the east wanted to get rig of the LDS for.
Why were the “christian” mobs driving the LSD off their lands?
When did the Mormons ride into a farm and tell a family to get out of town at the risk of loosing their lives?
What time of year were the Saints forced to cross the river on the ice and live outside without proper shelter?
Why did the mayer of Nauvoo have the printing office closed?
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Just what would the Tannerites and Deckerites consider good credible references?
Fred, you're pretty good at stringing whole derogatory sentences against Christian churches together ( See below..) Not unlike the founding prophets of Mormonism have done over the years.
Since the charges against God's Church has not changed since before I joined His Church...
We can only repeat the truth, no matter how often those who do not want to follow God's church try to deceive others into also not following Him.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's Church on earth
Source and links for these acts you are accusing Christians of.
You didn't answer my post about the “friends and relatives” claim you made, Fred...can't you back up your “half-true lie”?
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After a night's sleep, I can see that your misunderstanding on this one is my fault.
As I was growing up, the term “friends and relatives” was used to refer to people who had something in common.
You who are Mormon bashers and/or anti-Mormon, would fall in the category of “friends and relatives”.
Even being from the same end of the country, when so many of the people in that end of the country were armed anti-Mormons, to the way I was using the term, would be “friends and relatives”.
Most any wagon train from the east, from the way I used the term, would have been looked on as “friends and relatives”.
Sorry to have used a term that caused confusion.
You who are Mormon bashers and/or anti-Mormon, would fall in the category of “friends and relatives”.
Even being from the same end of the country, when so many of the people in that end of the country were armed anti-Mormons, to the way I was using the term, would be “friends and relatives”.
Most any wagon train from the east, from the way I used the term, would have been looked on as “friends and relatives”.
Boy, nothing like really stretching to find an alibi for a vicious ambush massacre of innocent men, women and children over the age of eight, Fred.
You paint with a REALLY broad brush to bash Christians. Guess I'll copy your spam message and substitute Christian where you use mormon. Did I see you post at one time that you are a convert? You don't seem to be too knowledgeable of mormon history.
The bodies of the Mountain Meadows Massacre were left unattended and unburied for days to rot in the weather. What is many, many times worse? I'm waiting for your links.
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I use you folks here at FR for the role models,
You are the ones that say it is you christians vs, us Mormons, not us.
If you do not like the distentions you make, stop using them.
That's a new one, Fred. Link is to archives of the NY Times. My virus protection isn't controlled by the LDS church.
Good dodge to try and keep others from reading of the atrocities committed by the mormons at the MMM.
Where are the links to the source for your comment that there were "many, many worse things done to mormons"?
Funny, someone complains consistently about the "half true lies" posted here, and then they post a blatant lie and won't back it up with sources.
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That's a new one, Fred. Link is to archives of the NY Times. My virus protection isn't controlled by the LDS church.
Good dodge to try and keep others from reading of the atrocities committed by the mormons at the MMM.
Where are the links to the source for your comment that there were “many, many worse things done to mormons”?
Funny, someone complains consistently about the “half true lies” posted here, and then they post a blatant lie and won't back it up
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I try to be helpful and see what I get.
I guess Fred forgot post #43 above........
It appears that Fred is studiously avoiding presenting evidence for his claim that "many, many worse things were done to mormons" than the atrocious massacre of over 120 men, women and children at Mountain Meadows by mormons, after which the bodies were left to lie and rot in the weather for days and days.
I sure would like to see some proof of THAT statement...what is "many, many times worse"?
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I guess Fred forgot post #43 above........
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If you would truly take the time and interest to learn about God's Church, you would know why your assumption about what I said is wrong.
If you would truly and prayerfully take all the time you needed to finally understand the Truth.....your eyes would be opened to exactly what I've been saying.
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If you would truly and prayerfully take all the time you needed to finally understand the Truth.....your eyes would be opened to exactly what I've been saying.
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to me, Your words have confirmed that you have no desire to know anything about those who you say you are trying to convert.
Your actions are anti-LDS, and not pro Christ.
Don't feel bad, there are many here at FR that do not want to learn the difference.
Well, to me you have confirmed you've hit a dead-end. And no longer seek the Truth.
Your actions are anti-LDS, and not pro Christ.
Your words are anti-Christian, and anti-Jesus. Your whole religion is anti-Christian.
Mormonism's founders were horribly deceived by Satan...and consumed with power.
Don't feel bad, there are many here at FR that do not want to learn the difference.
At last we can totally agree.
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