I thought the news article I stumbled across couldn’t possibly be right, but it nailed it: For the first time in history, the LDS church in its official church magazine the “Ensign”, has chosen to address the events surrounding the Mountain Meadows Massacre. After 150 years of secrecy and cover-ups, I am stunned at this release, and have few words left but to suggest you read the article.
Although some aspects of the incident as described are debatable, and some damning evidence is glossed over, it is a far more fair treatment than I ever expected to read in the covers of a Church-sponsored magazine. It freely admits the complicity of local leaders and alludes to Brigham Young’s involvement in stirring up local sentiment against U.S. settlers, and places the blame squarely on the shoulders of those to whom it belongs, rather than on the shoulders of the Paiute Indians who were wrongfully attributed to having committed the crime for more than a hundred years.
As the September 11 anniversary of this event draws closer, it’s a welcome change from the posturing of years past, and can hopefully set the matter to rest.