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Massacre at Mountain MeadowsMassacre at Mountain Meadows by Ronald W. Walker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I was, I admit, a little skeptical about this book, being as it is "the most professional, transparent account of a controversial event in Mormon history produced under church auspices" (from the Journal of American History review, quoted on the back cover). From other reading, notably Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders, I am aware that the Mormon church has not always put its best foot forward in the enterprise of historiography. That would be why I made sure I found and read The Mountain Meadows Massacre first, knowing that Juanita Brooks set the bar.

I was pleasantly surprised. Walker, Turley, and Leonard live up to the JAH review; their account of the massacre is both professional and transparent. They make the story as clear as it is ever likely to be; they make careful delineations about who shoulders what part of the blame for the way the events at Mountain Meadows unfolded (I have a tag on my blog for "clusterfucks of the old west," and believe me, this qualifies); they (a) remember that Native Americans are not a homogeneous population and that their society is not monolithic, (b) incorporate the perspective of the Paiutes into their narrative from what evidence they have, and (c) include among their appendices (the roster of emigrants known to have been killed and known to have survived; the value of the emigrants' property; the roster of Mormons suspected or proved to have taken part in the massacre) a list of Native Americans known to have participated in the massacre and a list of Native Americans accused of participating who can be proved to have been somewhere else. This is responsible historiography, and I appreciate it.

They also pull in modern research on how atrocities happen and really do an excellent job of showing the steps on the road to Hell: why relations between Mormon settlers and non-Mormon emigrants were so tense; the spread of rumor and gossip (I even buy their theory that the story of the emigrants poisoning dead cattle to kill Indians and Mormons is based in an anthrax outbreak); the terrible snowballing effect of one bad decision after another, until the Mormon leaders Dame and Haight had convinced themselves that the only option left to them was to massacre the Fancher wagon train.

I also appreciate the fact that Walker, Turley, and Leonard track carefully, and incorporate the testimony of, the children who survived because they were judged too young to talk. I've talked other places about children and history, and although that's not really something Walker, Turley, and Leonard are pursuing, the fact is that they treat respectfully the testimony from people who were seven or younger at the time of the massacre. One of the children, who was not quite three at the time of the massacre, nevertheless remembered distinctly and vividly her father being killed while he held her.

The massacre at Mountain Meadows is dreadful both in and of itself and in the way that it demonstrates how horribly easy it is to paint yourself into a corner, how difficult it is for human beings to stand firm against a group decision, even if they think the decision is wrong, and the awful awful things that happen because someone decides it's "too late" to do something better.



View all my reviews

Date: 2016-07-26 08:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] chalcopyrite.livejournal.com
I recently read Under the Banner of Heaven purely based on your review, and thought it was great. I'll be checking this out too.

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