If I had been there, I would have died first rather than obey bloodthirsty local (and general) Church leaders who abuse their ecclesiastical power like that!

The biggest sin in the Church is the abuse of Church power. Joseph Smith fell to the corruption of power, as did Brigham Young, and it continues to this day. Power corrupts. Absolute power such as Church leaders have corrupts absolutely.

I think I may have reacted much the same way the LDS pioneers did. They were reacting out of fear. The Arkansas wagon train provoked a fight, and they had previously made many threats towards the LDS pioneers. And by then they were quite distraught, tired and pretty paranoid. People react differently when they are under stress.

It say's a lot about the ones who may have participated in the M.M.M. but did not run hide--- Those who did run and hide were cowards.

The Mormons did what they had to do to protect the church and their families. Go read the history.

To Tim:
You have got to be kidding. I have read the history. This was an incident that had zero excuses. Zero! They could have imprisoned their perceived enemies when they had the chance. This was premeditated murder. Acknowledged by the Church and every legitimate historian in and out of the Church. All the excuses of fear, protection, past incidents, etc. etc. evaporate by how the sordid incident went down. Sad, but true. It does no good to try to put icing on a mud cake.

It always amazes me as to what "spin" we can put on things in hind shght.Looking at the situation, any situation,from 100 years ago, is tricky at best. We simply think from our present point of view. What they did, they did from their view. Right?
I had much rather improve the present, than out guess the past, since there is not one single thing you can do about the past. Simply wasted energy.WhatIF? How come? Why? Serves better as a plan for the future rather than a modern form of the Inquisition.

Go read Jaunita Brooks, She has the most accurate book on the MMM.

The book may be ok if it told the WHOLE truth about B.Y.

Linda, I totally agree with your comments, as well as D.R. ramper, you need to really look seriously at what your just said. You are saying that a group of people who had been persecuted, raped, robbed, beat, tarred and feathered, driven from their homes SEVERAL times, had a government that actually encouraged people to exterminate them, as if they were animals, then knowing the president of the country thinks you are starting a war, etc etc and you think they should have turned to their government to put the offenders in prison???? You make me laugh. Joseph Smith and others tried countless times to get the government to acknowledge the unjust treatment they were receiving and not once did they receive the slightest bit of help. I totally don't agree with what transpired as no normal person does, but don't suggest that the government would have helped them out in this instance either by imprisoning those who they feared. We can NEVER know what they were feeling and thinking at that time. As DR said, lets dwell on the present and future!! This is something we CAN do something about!!!

Cindy unfortunately this books trumps all other MMM works by leaps and bounds and nearly every scholar has admitted that. Juanita Brooks history is just that....history.

Brigham Young had all the right in the world to protect the church and it's members from all these scoundrels who hunted and threatened them. It's just unfortunate that it all ended up happening the way it did. The MMM incident kind of reminds me of some of the Bible stories.

It's amazing how people say that "they had every right" and "did what they had to do". Funny, these are the same type of people that criticize and persecute the muslim "zealots" that are "doing what they have to do" and the palestinians that "have every right" to protect themselves from the persecution and violence bestowed upon them by the people of Isreal. You are all a bunch of hipocrites that won't open your eyes to the true history of your church. You make me laugh yet you make me sick.

To JW:

Get real!
"Nothing that any of the emigrants purportedly did or said even if all of it were true came close to justifying their deaths" Sept. 2007 Ensign article by Richard Turley.
Also in the article: "historical research shows that these stories (about poisoning cattle etc.) are not accurate."
So the ruse to have the emigrants surrender and than shoot them to death and having the Paiutes murder the women and children (except those that were six and under) was justified in your eyes?
As far as not knowing what they were thinking at the time,well, it was not "What would Christ do" I can tell you that.