[Alex Murphy]

Another good article on the same event was in SignOnSanDiego. It mentions the current support was "a major shift after church leaders had rejected similar appeals in 1999 and 2007.". It also offered this brief description of the massacre:

Mountain Meadows was a frequent stop for wagon trains traveling to California on the old Spanish Trail.

Led by Capt. Alexander Fancher and John Baker, the Arkansas travelers were attacked and engaged in a week of gun skirmishes before a local church elder, John D. Lee, negotiated a truce between the pioneers and a band of Paiute Indians said to be the assailants.

But Lee's truce was a ruse. Wagon train members were beaten, shot at close range or had their throats slit as they marched single-file and unarmed across the meadow.

Seventeen children all under age 7 survived and were taken into Mormon homes. Two years later, they were returned to relatives in Arkansas.

Lee, the only person held responsible, was sentenced to death for the slaughter.

At memorial services marking the 150th anniversary last fall, high-ranking Mormon church official Henry B. Eyring expressed “profound regret” for the events at the meadows. The statement was seen by many as an apology.

Eyring also said the church regretted allowing the Paiute Indian tribe to shoulder much of the blame for the ambush.

A forthcoming book by church historians is expected to lay blame on rogue southern Utah church leaders who worked with Paiute Indians. Church officials maintain there is no evidence connecting then-church president Brigham Young directly to the massacre.

[Tennessee Nana]

Does this mean that the mormons will allow the families of the innocent victims to retrieve their bones ???

Or even enter the area ???

[OB1kNOb]

My mother-in-law had some distant relatives that were in that wagon train. She’ll be interested in reading this. Thanks for posting.

[fproy2222]

Alex, do you think you can find some articles about the thousands of Latter-Day Saints killed by these folks friends and relatives, before they forced the Mormons out of their homes, in the middle of winter, to suffer and even die, from the cold?

[Tennessee Nana]

BTTT

[Zakeet]

I am glad the Saints finally quit tearing down the monuments constructed by the U.S. Army and the Fancher family members (at least eight by my count), before putting up this permanent memorial.

I wish, however, the Mormons would honor the family members' request to erect a cross at the site.

Incidentally, you can read much more about the Massacre, John Lee's trial, and the Mormon cover-up (including Brigham Young's involvement) HERE in this excellent site prepared by a law professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City.