Mountain Meadows Massacre, 1857, Facts, Significance

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The Mountain Meadow Massacre took place during the Utah War.
The main perpetrator of Mountain Meadow Massacre was the Mormon Militia, called the Nauvoo Legion.
During the Mountain Meadow Massacre members of the Nauvoo Legion and Paiute Indians murdered roughly 120 unarmed men, women, and children.
After the Mountain Meadow Massacre, members of the Mormon Church attempted to blame the murders on the Paiute Indians.
The perpetrators of the Mountain Meadow Massacre spared only seventeen children under the age of seven who were deemed to be too young to bear witness to the event.
The two ringleaders of the Mountain Meadow Massacre were Isaac Haight and John D. Lee.
In 1870, the Mormon Church excommunicated the two ringleaders of the Mountain Meadow Massacre, Isaac Haight and John D. Lee.
In 1874, a territorial grand jury indicted nine men for their role in the Mountain Meadow Massacre.
In 1877, John D. Lee was tried and convicted of murder for his participation in the Mountain Meadow Massacre.
On March 23, 1877, John D. Lee was executed by firing squad at Mountain Meadows, protesting that he had been “sacrificed in a cowardly, dastardly manner” by Brigham Young.
On April 20, 1961, the Mormon Church posthumously reinstated John D. Lee’s membership.
In September 2007, on the 150th anniversary of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Mormon Apostle Henry B. Eyring, speaking for the church, formally acknowledged that members of the Mormon militia planned and committed most of the killing.