Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows (review)

Blood of the Prophets describes the 11 September 1857 murder of over one hundred men, women, and children who had been traveling in a wagon train from Arkansas through southern Utah. The perpetrators were local Mormon settlers aided by Southern Paiute warriors. A man who viewed the human skeletal remains on the landscape two years later labeled the event a "crime that has no parallel in American history for atrocity" (xiii). Will Bagley has exhaustively researched historical documents about this episode, expanded on Utah historian Juanita Brooks's 1950 interpretations, and given modern scholars a comprehensive record of the tragedy. He makes a compelling argument that addresses the lingering questions: What did Brigham Young know of the attack, and when did he know it?

The book opens with a prologue introducing the geography of Utah and the time depth for Southern Paiute occupation. Nineteen chapters trace a historical chronology that begins with the publication of The Book of Mormon in 1830. Early chapters discuss Mormon movements from New York to Ohio to Missouri and detail the emerging role of the Nauvoo Legion. Later sections cover the Mormon exodus to Utah, political tension in 1857, and the massacre and its aftermath. However, Bagley does not end his book with the 1877 execution of John D. Lee, the only Mormon ever tried for the crime. Instead, his epilogue introduces the reader to investigations undertaken by archaeologists and osteologists on recently discovered human skeletal remains and discusses the 11 September 1999 monument dedication by church president Gordon B. Hinckley.

Blood of the Prophets expands our current state of knowledge and offers provocative conclusions. The innocent Arkansas wagon train was unfortunate to leave the state where Mormon apostle Parley Pratt had been recently murdered and arrive in Utah after Pratt's vengeful widow had returned to Salt Lake. Amid the growing hysteria of war rumors, the church's Oath of Vengeance was about to surface, and only children below the age of seven were likely to survive blood atonement. Even if Brigham Young did not order the massacre, as Indian superintendent and territorial governor he manipulated the Paiute beforehand to the extent that he appears directly responsible for the tragedy (379). At the very least, he was an accessory to murder after the fact (378).

Bagley is well qualified to write on this subject, having edited numerous books on Mormon history and serving as a columnist for the Salt Lake City Tribune. He did a masterful job gleaning details of the incident from unpublished journals, personal letters, and recollections of Mormons who were opposed to any cover-up. Even so, he notes that key documents are still missing.

It is unfortunate that more details have not survived in Southern Paiute oral history, because the Paiute were the targets of blame for so long. Geneal Anderson, tribal chair, recalled that in 1990 she was asked, "How many Paiutes were involved?" She answered, "That's your history, not ours" (375). The Mountain Meadows massacre is a part of American history. How we handle that fact now will affect our national character as much as what happened in 1857. Bagley's book is an excellent step in the right direction. It will stand the test of time as a scholarly account of the disaster.