The Mormon Militia: Mountain Meadows Massacre 1857

1838 attack on the Mormons in Missouri

and the death of Joseph Smith

After the Mormon church founder the blessed Joseph Smith, had been brutally mobbed and murdered in 1838, who died with 17 other Mormon settlers at the Haun's Mill Massacre by the Missouri Militia, a Mormon Defense militia was formed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Joseph Smith died for teaching only a slightly different version of the Bible, a faith seen today as another form of American Christian.

A local Missouri Carroll County and Arkansas militia who disliked unfamiliar religions were organized enough to keep tabs on Mormon activities. The elder Brigham Young was assumed then to allow a doctrine called "Blood Atonement", and kept tight their following members, trusting little, any non-Mormons. The Doctrine spoke of an "Eye for an Eye".

The Missouri state in the mid-1800s was currently under the authority of David Rice Atchison, a Pro-slaver and later a supporter of the Southern Confederate States, who never investigated or prosecuted for the Church of Mormon's loss of their founder, and who considered the Mormons as outsiders and a false religion. Arkansas' Harrison town remains the national headquarters of the hate organization, the KKK, who also have a history of intolerance against a list of faiths and are connected to local Missouri & Arkansas militia in that area. The Mormon Blood Atonement Doctrine had been invoked because of the chaos and hatred in Missouri where the Mormons were unwelcome and attacked. Part of the operations to keep tabs on religious groups was led by Samuel Bogart a Methodist Minister (A church of England). At some point an Extermination order was given to execute the Mormons in Missouri, thus beginning the Mormon War, and the majority of Mormons eventually left to Utah.

Massacre of Missouri and Arkansas Wagon Party

In 1857, on route to Utah, where Mormons had later settled almost 20 years later after leaving Missouri, in the Mountain Meadows, a count of 120 men, women, and children were killed who were from Arkansas and Missouri Carroll County. A wagon party of Non-Mormons had come to set claim in the new settlements of Utah. The Missouri and Arkansas Non-Mormon wagon party had the means to take stake in Utah's current Land-wars.

The Mormon Militia, once only used for defense, raided the wagon parties, stealing jewelry, anything of value, and taking over 800 cattle, and sixty (60) horses. The Mormon Militia had allied with a Native American tribe called The Paiutes Native Americans, with a few members who led the attack, and while the Mormons retained their territory, the allied Paiutes retained the supplies and their territory as well. It was an attack that gave both parties an advantage in the region. The Mormon Militia militarized "in disguise" as fellow Native Americans in the attack, then afterwards redressed in new cloths waving white flags.

"There is debate on why the Mormons dressed as Natives, but the Paiutes were at least allies and had an agreement. This massacre is considered part of the Utah Wars, but seems to be a personal war to avenge conflicts in 1838"

"Although many versions of the history begin with the death of the Wagon party 1857, the conflict started in Missouri 1838 where the Haun's Mill Massacre killed the Mormon founder Joseph Smith. The Mormon leader Brigham Young was a dear friend of Joseph Smith and his men too had memories according to research. The anger magnified when Joseph Smith's death was never investigated in a corrupt local administration"

The Missouri and Arkansas dead were found by new passing wagons, and a U.S. Army investigation found buried bodies as evidence. Brigham Young ordered silence in Mormon circles, but the Federal Government had found 15 surviving children to testify.

The Mormon Aftermath of 1857

The attention to the trial by the Government was put-off until after the American Civil War, ordered to halt for a time, priority not being on Mormon affairs, and by 1875 (almost 20 years later), the trial was finally pushed forward. In 1874 a year earlier, a book was published to target the Mormon Church titled "Tell it All" with a preface by Harriet Beecher Stowe (English woman from the Beecher Family in Missouri). She was anti-polygamy and anti-Mormon, the book demonized the Mormon religion as wanting to enslave the fair skinned English white woman "A pornographic fantasy of bondage and rape", she portrayed the Utah Mormons.

Brigham Young's adopted son John D. Lee (a scribe for the founder Joseph Smith) was brought forth as the ringleader of the Mountain Meadow Murders, taking the sentence for all involved and was the only one prosecuted. He was then convicted and sentenced to death in 1877.

Aftermath of the Mormon Wars

The LDS Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) of course no longer accepts this doctrine (Blood Atonement Doctrine), or supports a militia, and in 1998 said:

Mormon Leader "It is time to leave the entire matter in the hands of God", "It can not be recalled, it can not be changed."

In 1955, Arkansas' Harrison town a monument was placed in the town square to remember the attacks. There have been at times reported that religious teachings coming from Utah have taught that people of  different skin tone are born of sin, however this outlook maybe from Anti-Mormons spreading division, possibly from white-supremacist who may have eventually infiltrated the Mormon Church, or may have come from other more recent histories. Today, many Tongans are part of the Mormon and Methodist Faith but who do not practice Polygamy. Polynesians are also not part of past conflicts.

Posted in: A.P.I. A. Studies