September 11, 1857 - The Mountain Meadows Massacre

collage by nicholas b jacobsen

On September 11, 1857:

• 27-years after the Indian Removal Act was signed by Andrew Jackson
• 19-years after the Mormon Extermination Order was signed
• 10-years after Mormon settlers first arrived in these Indigenous lands 
• 8-years after George Albert Smith ordered the removal of Indigenous peoples from their home/land.
• 7-years after Brigham Young signed the Timpanogos extermination order (which killed 90% of the Timpanogos)
• 4-months after the start of the “Utah War”
• Exactly 116-years before the US-backed right-wing Chilean dictator Pinochet’s rise to power (w support from CIA)
• and 144-years before the Twin Towers were destroyed​

Artist depiction of the Mountain Meadows Massacre

On this 9/11, my people massacred ~120 Euro-settler migrants, the Baker-Fancher wagon train, (in front of their children) who were passing through Mormon-occupied Nuwu (Southern Paiute) territory in so-called Southern Utah on their way to California.

For the 5 days prior to 9/11 this wagon party was assaulted by my People who were dressed in Red Face in order to make the U.S. believe that "Indians" were the perpetrators of this massacre.

Artist depiction of the Mountain Meadows Massacre showing "Indians" as the aggressors

Image of Utah Mormon men dressed in Red Face taken from Jared Farmer's "On Zion's Mount"

When the Mormon Militia members feared that their whiteness had been discovered they decided to approach in white skin, under a white flag and offer safe passage away from their "Indian" assailants. While escorting the Baker-Fanchers away, my People turned on a signal and massacred men, women, children (and possibly non-binary folk). 

On 9/11, all in the Baker-Fancher party deemed old enough to remember were massacred by the Mormon Utah Territory Militia. Everyone except for seventeen children, 6-years-old and younger who were not murdered, but abducted and adopted into Mormon families. (Mormons were also “adopting” enslaved Nuwu children then too) The Baker-Fancher’s property was then stolen and divided up.

The children remembered. And their children are now Baby Boomers. 

Artist depiction of the Mountain Meadows Massacre

It took 150 years for Mormons to stop blaming the Nuwu for this horror. 

"For 150 years no one asked for our account" - Lora Tom, of the Paiute Nation.

After 150 years of genocide and dominance the LDS Church only expressed “profound regret” to the Nuwu for blaiming the Mountain Meadows Massacre on them. On that same day the church made it very clear they were not apologizing though, as Mark Tuttle, a church spokesman shared, “We don’t use the word ‘apology.’ We used ‘profound regret." And a few years later, Dallin H. Oaks, when asked if the church would apologize for it's anti-LGBTQIA2s+ history, said, "I know that the history of the church is not to seek apologies or to give them," and made clear that the church doesn't "seek apologies...and we don't give them."

 Fuck repentance I guess 🤷🏼

Mountain Meadows Massacre stone monument

The stones used to build the Mountain Meadows Massacre monument were found on the site of the massacre. They been there for millenia already as Nuwu and their Pueblo ancestors cared for this land. The stones were witnesses to this massacre and now they remember the massacre for us. 

My great-great-great grandpa and his father may have been a part of this massacre as they were enlisted in the Iron County militia at this time. But because of the lies and secrecy surrounding this event at the time, I have no way of knowing for certain if these ancestors participated or refused. Given that they did leave town and weren't powerful Mormons, I assume they were there. 

What still lives in my body as generational witness to these horrors?

Artist depiction of John D. Lee's execution by firing squad

Brigham Young's spiritually-adopted son #JohnDLee, who led the massacre, was the only person held responsible. No one has really been held legally responsible for the massacres of Indigenous people during this period. John D. Lee's descendants include U.S. Senators Mike Lee, Gordon H. Smith, and Mark and Tom Udhall. Tom Udall is being considered for #SecretaryOfInterior (person in charge of managing all the stolen land in the U.S.) by Biden. Udall’s dad, Stewart Udall, served in this position under Kennedy and Johnson.

Indigenous people often talk about their responsibilities to their ancestors or how their ancestors are with them. I often wonder what my ancestors think of the work I do. Do they regret the ways they chose to survive and believe? Are they with me now helping to change the world they helped build?

Suggested reading: Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Will Bagley. 2002