Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by Ronald Walker, Richard Turley and Glen Leonard, Oxford University Press, 2008, is a scholarly history. Its strength is that its three authors, two of them then employed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had unrestricted access to church records while researching the 1857 killing of about a hundred and twenty emigrants by Latter-day Saint militia and some Paiute participants, and it concludes local leaders planned and carried out the massacre while Brigham Young did not order it. Its limit is that the authors' institutional affiliation leads some readers to weigh the conclusions cautiously, even though the documentary basis behind them is not in dispute.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Reliability tier 1: a scholarly history from Oxford University Press whose authors, two then employed by the church under study, had unrestricted access to its records, its documentary basis not in dispute even where the authors' institutional affiliation leads some readers to weigh its conclusions cautiously. NotesThe fullest account of the killing of about a hundred and twenty emigrants by Latter-day Saint militia and some Paiute participants in southern Utah in September 1857. Written by three historians, two of them then employed by the church, with unrestricted access to church records and published by a university press. It concludes that local leaders planned and carried out the massacre and that Brigham Young did not order it, while treating the climate he created as part of the account. Its authorship has led some readers to weigh it cautiously; its documentary basis is not in dispute.
Citation
AuthorRonald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Glen M. Leonard
PublisherOxford University Press
Publication Year2008
Source TypeScholarly work
Claims Backed By This Source (8 claims)
This source backs 8 claims across the atlas. As facts: 7 well-attested. Plus 1 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Historical Figures, 1 claims: 1 general references.
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