Earlier in the day, Walker derided recent books that have blamed Young in various degrees for the massacre, written by people he called "revisionist historians."

He pointed to Mountain Meadows books by local author Will Bagley and journalist Sally Denton, saying they and others who have written about early LDS history, including David Bigler and D. Michael Quinn, "write with unmistakable flair," but "seem to have an attitude."

"A strain of skepticism runs through their work, especially about pious Mormon claims. In approaching early Mormon Utah, they tend to focus on a few themes."

Bigler suggests the key to understanding Utah history is plural marriage, Walker said, while Bagley "believes the Mountain Meadows Massacre suggested the real nature of early Mormonism." He quoted Bagley's writing that such behavior was less an aberration than "a fulfillment of (church founder Joseph) Smith's radical doctrines."

"Though each of the authors has his own concerns, generally their portraits are the same," he said.

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E-mail: carrie@desnews.com