On Sept. 11, 1857, a wagon train from this part of Arkansas met with a gruesome fate in Utah, where most of the travelers were slaughtered by a Mormon militia in an episode known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Hundreds of the victims’ descendants still populate these hills and commemorate the killings, which they have come to call “the first 9/11.” Many of the locals grew up hearing denunciations of Mormonism from the pulpit on Sundays, and tales of the massacre from older relatives who considered Mormons “evil.”Wow, those evil Mormons. I guess they were the first terrorists, huh? Well, it turns out -- deep in the article, buried on the second page -- that there's a little backstory that didn't make the first dozen paragraphs.
The massacre was an anomaly for the church, because it was Mormons who were more likely to be targeted in the early days of their religion, which was founded in the 1830s and 1840s.UPDATE:
Hot Air notices the story. One of their comments asks:
"What about the Dorn/Ayers militia from 30 yrs ago?"
That's just crazy talk.
3 comments:
And it was a Mormon woman who wrote the first history of the Mountain Meadow Massacre, and the first biography of John D. Lee. I've been to the site - they keep the history pretty straight on the signs there.
LittleRed1
My father used to always say you could tell a lot about the politics of a person by the history they think is important, and the history they try to bury.
The perpetrators of the Ayers/Dorn bombings are still alive and politically active in this day. The Mormon criminals? Long ago passed away.
"The perpetrators of the Ayers/Dorn bombings are still alive and politically active in this day."
"Guilty as hell, free as a bird", to quote Ayers...
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