Killings and Aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre

The Mountain Meadows massacre was a series of attacks on the Baker–Fancher emigrant wagon train at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah, culminating on September 11, 1857, in the mass killing of the emigrant party by the Iron County district of the Utah Territorial Militia along with some local Paiute tribesmen. Isaac C. Haight and John D. Lee, who held leadership roles in local military, church, and government organizations, conspired for Lee to lead militiamen disguised as Native Americans, together with a contingent of Paiute tribesmen, in what was initially intended as an attack attributed to Indians. The emigrants fought back, resulting in a siege.

During the early morning of September 7, 1857, the Baker–Fancher party was attacked by an estimated 200 or more Paiutes and disguised militiamen positioned in a ravine near the camp. The emigrants defended themselves by circling and lowering their wagons and digging trenches. Seven emigrants were killed and sixteen wounded in the opening attack. The siege continued for five days, during which the besieged families had little access to fresh water and their ammunition dwindled.

On September 11, 1857, militiamen approached under a white flag, and John D. Lee negotiated a purported truce offering safe escort to Cedar City in exchange for the emigrants surrendering their livestock and supplies. The emigrants were divided into three groups — young children and wounded in wagons, women and older children walking behind, and adult men marched at the rear each beside an armed militiaman. After about two kilometers, the militia and hidden Paiutes killed the men, women, older children, and wounded. Two teenaged girls, Rachel and Ruth Dunlap, briefly evaded death by hiding but were found and brought to Lee; one account states a Mormon woman later recalled hearing that both girls had been raped before being killed. Participants were sworn to secrecy, and the bodies were hastily and inadequately buried, later scavenged by wildlife.

Approximately seventeen young children were spared, reportedly at Lee's insistence, though the infant John Mitchell was killed and Sarah Dunlap, an infant, lost an arm to gunfire but survived. The children were initially taken to Jacob Hamblin's farm and later placed with local Mormon families pending investigation; some accounts state the children were sold or bartered among families. The emigrants' property was stored at the Cedar City LDS tithing office, and some survivors later reported seeing local Mormons wearing clothing and jewelry taken from the dead.

In 1859, Brevet Major James Henry Carleton visited the site to bury victims' remains, reporting evidence of small children among the dead, and his troops erected a memorial cairn and cross. Carleton's report to Congress blamed local and senior church leaders, but ultimately only John D. Lee was charged with murder. Lee's first trial ended in a mistrial; he was convicted at retrial and executed by firing squad at Mountain Meadows. There is no evidence that Brigham Young ordered or condoned the massacre, though the involvement of other church officials in the killings and their concealment remains disputed, as do the numbers and role of the Paiute participants.