LDS.org posts link to 1857 massacre

A vicious slaughter followed when the unarmed settlers were marched from their circled wagon train, and all but the youngest children were murdered. "Despite plans to pin the massacre on the Paiutes — and persistent subsequent efforts to do so — militiaman Nephi Johnson later maintained that settlers did most of the killing," Turley wrote.

An express rider had been sent to Brigham Young in Salt Lake City asking what to do with the emigrants. The church president's reply was dated Sept. 10, the day before the killings. It arrived in Cedar City on Sept. 13, two days after the massacre. In it, Young told the local authorities that if the emigrants who were there will leave, "let them go in peace."

During a Deseret Morning News telephone interview, Turley said the article is coming out before the book because of renewed interest in the massacre.

"I think the recent PBS documentary (on the Mormons) created additional interest on this subject," he said. He wrote the Ensign piece before the documentary was issued, and "recent public interest made it seem like a good time to just post it on LDS.org

Oxford University has a juried press, and "they go through a lot of particulars to make sure that things they publish are up to their standards," he said.

The authors have sought to be "as thorough and as complete as possible with our research, so we can say with complete honesty we have dug as deep as possible."

That doesn't mean every detail is known.

"History as a craft has its limitations," Turley said. "History must be based on evidence, and evidence from 150 years ago is sometimes hard to bring together." Sometimes the picture that forms is only partial, he said.

"But we've made a valiant effort, a concerted effort, to bring together all the puzzle pieces we can to give the clearest picture of what happened 150 years ago."

Material came from far-flung sources, from New England to southern California, from the Pacific Northwest to the Southeast.

Authors "spent literally months of labor in the National Archives, and received cooperation from public and private repositories around the country."

Asked if the LDS Church has been cooperative and helpful, he replied, "Yes, very much so."

The book covers "an extremely painful subject, so unquestionably there will be people who feel pain at the recitation of the events," Turley said. "But our feeling was that, in order for real healing to occur, there must be a straightforward confronting of the facts."

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