the crime or were too young to recall what had happened. Due to this, the true details of the
massacre have been changed or lost over the span of time. Before the attack a letter was sent to
the church leader, Brigham Young, to ask permission to remove the emigrants from the Mormon
territory. However, the Mormons did not wait for a reply and began their attack on September 9,
1857. Many Mormons during the time held strong to the fact that the peaceful Indian tribe, the
Paiutes, took part in the attack. However, those who survived say otherwise. Their account
includes the Mormons dressing up as Indians; this was one way that the blame would not be …show more content…
The men, women,
children, and wounded were all taken by a person of the other party. They were walked a little
over a mile before being murdered by the person who had helped them thus far. Only seventeen
children survived the massacre because they were considered “too young to tell tales”. The
Mormons took almost every precaution necessary to ensure that their reputation would not
suffer.
When the news about the attack reached the public, the Mormons had to explain why
they had attacked. They first stated that when the Francher wagon passed through, the emigrants
were extremely rowdy and disruptive. Due to this behavior, the Mormons did not sell them the
items they needed to continue with their journey; The Mormons then stated that because they
were refused the goods they needed they poisoned the wells in the town. However, no evidence
supports this claim and some evidence has been found to completely discredit it. When this was
proven to be a faulty reason to kill over one hundred people, the Mormons then said that