Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows/Index

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows A work by author: Will Balgey

Use of sources

Index to claims made in Blood of the Prophets

Claims made in SECTION TITLE

Page	Claim	Response	Author's sources
xiv	Author's quote: ...Like the faithful who sat through his fire-and-brimstone sermons, I believe Brigham Young meant exactly what he said [about blood atonement]....	Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this. Blood atonement	[ATTENTION!]
7	Author's quote: [celestial marriage] allowed the most ordinary backwoodsman to become a god and rule over worlds of his own creation with as many wives as his righteousness could sustain....	Prejudicial or loaded language "Celestial sex" "Rule over worlds of his own creation"? Theosis or human deification	[ATTENTION!] Compare treatment in American Massacre: [[American Massacre/Index/Chapter {{{chap}}}#26|p. 26]].
9	Author's quote: ...[Mormons gave] total submission to a leader they considered ordained by God....	Omissions: "total submission"?	[ATTENTION!] Compare treatment in Under the Banner of Heaven: p. 45.
15	Joseph Smith fought against freedom of the press because of the destruction and suppression of the Expositor.	Nauvoo Expositor	[ATTENTION!]
15	Joseph Smith was charged with seduction, polygamy, counterfeiting, and setting up a theocracy.	Nauvoo Expositor Joseph Smith and polygamy Counterfeiting at Nauvoo? Theocracy: Council of Fifty? Theocracy: Nauvoo city charter? Theocracy: power usurped at Nauvoo?	[ATTENTION!]
16	[ATTENTION!] Expositor?	Nauvoo Expositor	[ATTENTION!] Compare treatment in American Massacre: [[American Massacre/Index/Chapter {{{chap}}}#27|p. 27]].
21	Author's quote: [Temple requires members] to avenge the blood of the Prophet, whenever the opportunity offered, and to teach their children to do the same....	Oath of vengeance in temple endowment?	[ATTENTION!]
27	Mormons saw Indians as instrument of vengeance for Joseph's murder.	Omissions: Indians as instrument of vengeance?	[ATTENTION!]
27	Author's quote: [Joseph Smith] plunged into new sealings to married women, sisters, and very young girls....	Prejudicial or loaded language  Presentism or anachronism: "Marriages to very young girls"? "Sealings to married women" Divine manifestations to plural wives and their families	[ATTENTION!] Compare treatment in American Massacre: [[American Massacre/Index/Chapter {{{chap}}}#26|p. 26]].
33	Innuendo about death of federal officials	"Another troubling tendency of Bagley’s is his habit of almost—but not quite—accusing Mormondom of criminal acts for which there can be no answer because no real facts are given. Federal officials “died mysteriously” (39), and Wakara died “probably of pneumonia but perhaps from poison,” all following conflicts with Mormons (33)."[1]	[ATTENTION!]
36	Author's quote: [missionaries] were called to prepare the Indians for their role in the impending apocalypse....	Omissions: Indians as instrument of vengeance?	[ATTENTION!]
37	Indians regarded by Mormons "as a weapon God had placed in their hands."	Omissions: Indians as instrument of vengeance?	[ATTENTION!]
39	Innuendo about death of Wakara from pneumonia "but perhaps from poison."	"Another troubling tendency of Bagley’s is his habit of almost—but not quite—accusing Mormondom of criminal acts for which there can be no answer because no real facts are given. Federal officials “died mysteriously” (39), and Wakara died “probably of pneumonia but perhaps from poison,” all following conflicts with Mormons (33)."[2]	[ATTENTION!]
50-52	Blood atonement is presented as an active teaching, as prelude to the Massacre.	Blood atonement	[ATTENTION!]
51	Blood atonement to be implemented for those guilty of "the unpardonable sin."	Use of sources: unpardonable sin Blood atonement	[ATTENTION!]
58	Treatment of violent past of Alexander Fancher.	Double standard: Double standard: violence in immigrants	[ATTENTION!]
63	Treatment of violent past of John "Jack" Baker.	Double standard: Double standard: violence in immigrants	[ATTENTION!]
77	Author credits the report of Judge William W. Drummond on Mormon "murders."	The author's claim is false: William W. Drummond and murders	[ATTENTION!]
98	[ATTENTION!]	Charles W. Wandell/"Argus" source	[ATTENTION!]
99	Author's quote: ...[A]ll information about the emigrants' conduct came from men involved in their murder or cover-up....	Junaita Brooks pointed out that accounts of provocation from the immigrants appeared within days as far away California, and from multiple sources.  Double standard: Double standard of skepticism	[ATTENTION!] Compare treatment in American Massacre: [[American Massacre/Index/Chapter {{{chap}}}#121|p. 121]].
101	Mormons in American Fork refuse to trade with the Fancher party.	Charles W. Wandell/"Argus" source	[ATTENTION!]
114	Bowie knife to throat? [ATTENTION!]	Charles W. Wandell/"Argus" source	[ATTENTION!]
121	The author claims that Mountain Meadows was known among the Mormons as "a preferred location for the quiet execution of unpleasant tasks."		[ATTENTION!] Compare treatment in American Massacre: [[American Massacre/Index/Chapter {{{chap}}}#129|p. 129]].
137	The author dismisses the letter which Brigham Young wrote sparing the immigrants by writing, "Whatever the letter's intent, it carried a hidden but clear message for Isaac Haight: make sure the Mormons could blame whatever happened on the Paiutes."	Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.  Misrepresentation of source: Brigham Young ordered massacre? Brigham Young letter	[ATTENTION!]
117 and others	The author frequently refers to dubious, anonymous, or folklore evidence without much skepticism.	Use of sources: double standards of skepticism	[ATTENTION!]
119-120	Account of William Hawley	Use of sources: William Hawley account	[ATTENTION!]
143	Account of William Hawley	Use of sources: William Hawley account	[ATTENTION!]
151	It is claimed that Jacob Hamblin's adoptive son Albert raped two women at the Massacre, which tales "cannot be discounted entirely."	Use of sources: Rape by Albert Hamblin?	[ATTENTION!]
170	Brigham meets with two Indian chiefs (Tutsegabit and Youngwuds) on 1 September, who then participated in the massacre.	History unclear or in error: these chiefs were not at Mountain Meadows. Omissions: Tutsegabit and Youngwuds at Mountain Meadows?	[ATTENTION!]
170	Brigham supposedly "rewarded" Indian chief Tutsegabit for his role in the massacre by ordaining him to the priesthood.	Prejudicial or loaded language: Dimmick Huntington said that Tutsegabit was ordained to "preach the gospel & baptize among the house of lsreal [sic]."[3]	[ATTENTION!]
170a	Brigham supposedly "rewarded" Indian chief Arapeen with booty from the Massacre.	Misrepresentation of source: Indian chief Arapeen given booty?	[ATTENTION!] Compare treatment in American Massacre: [[American Massacre/Index/Chapter {{{chap}}}#170|p. 170]].
196	Brigham gave a gift of salt to the U.S. army, which it was implied was poisoned.	Use of sources: Gift of salt?	[ATTENTION!]
198	Col. Thomas Kane a "hypochondriac."		[ATTENTION!]
220	Bagley claims to have found another source by John D. Lee, upon which he relies.	"Anonymous sources are usually worthless....Blood of the Prophets...spends several pages with the "Discursive Remarks,"...[and] attributes the work to John D. Lee, as if another Lee account can be trusted."[4]	"Discursive remarks," anonymous manuscript in Utah State Historical Society archives. [ATTENTION!]
269	Wandell source is "flawed and sometimes suspect."	The author now tells us how flawed this source is, but has used him uncritically on p. 98, 101, 114.  (needs URL / links) Charles W. Wandell/"Argus" source	[ATTENTION!]
274	Wandell letters are "a mix of fact, folklore, and propaganda."	The author now tells us how flawed this source is, but has used him uncritically on p. 98, 101, 114.  (needs URL / links) Charles W. Wandell/"Argus" source	[ATTENTION!]
304-305	It is claimed that Jacob Hamblin's adoptive son Albert raped two women at the Massacre, and Hamblin would later blame this on John D. Lee.	Use of sources: Rape by Albert Hamblin?	[ATTENTION!]
367	Author says that historian Thomas Alexander claimed that "the Indians made them do it."	Misrepresentation of source: Use of sources: Alexander on reasons	Thomas G. Alexander, Utah, the Right Place: The Official Centennial History (Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 1995), 132.  [ATTENTION!]
378	The massacre is not an aberration, but a "fulfillment" of Joseph's teachings.		[ATTENTION!]
379	Author's quote: Early Mormonism’s peculiar obsession with blood and vengeance created the society that made the massacre possible if not inevitable....		[ATTENTION!]

Endnotes

1. [note]  W. Paul Reeve and Ardis E. Parshall, "review of Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows, by Will Bagley," Mormon Historical Studies (Spring 2003): 154.
2. [note]  Reeve and Parshall, 154.
3. [note]  Lawrence Coates, "Review of Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows," Brigham Young University Studies 31 no. 1 (January 2003), 153–. off-site
4. [note]  Robert D. Crockett, "A Trial Lawyer Reviews Will Bagley's Blood of the Prophets," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): 199–254. off-site