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

Norman OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The author peels back the lid on one of the worst secrets of the Mormon settlement of Utah--the massacre of a wagon train by Mormon militiamen and their Native American allies at lowland creek called Mountain Meadows. In 1857, over 100 men, women, and children in a wagon train from Arkansas were murdered in southern Utah by local settlers aided by Southern Paiute warriors. For 50 years, Mormon historian Juanita Brooks's The Mountain Meadows Massacre has been the standard work on the subject. Here, independent historian and Salt Lake Tribune columnist Bagley claims only to extend Brooks's work. But by using documents not available to Brooks and by following her example in pursuing the truth wherever it led him while not going beyond the available evidence, he confirms her private opinion that territorial Mormon leader and governor Brigham Young was heavily involved in both the massacre and its cover-up. In the process, Bagley has produced the new standard work on the massacre. Clean copy. Record # 382145