Mormon leader expresses regret for 1857 massacre

SALT LAKE CITY – A ranking Mormon church official voiced regret Tuesday for the massacre of 120 California-bound pioneers moving through Utah on a wagon train, marking the 150th anniversary of the ambush.

Church Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve, the second tier of leadership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, addressed a memorial service attended by hundreds at Mountain Meadows, the massacre site 35 miles northwest of St. George, Utah.

The church released Eyring’s full remarks on its Web site.

“We express profound regret for the massacre carried out in this valley 150 years ago today, and for the undue and untold suffering experienced by the victims then and by their relatives to the present time,” Eyring said.

On Sept. 11, 1857, the Arkansas emigrants were tricked into laying down their arms with a promise of safe passage and then killed for reasons still not fully understood. The massacre occurred in a climate of war hysteria as Utah Mormons prepared for an invasion by federal troops sent to deal with a defiant Mormon theocracy under church President Brigham Young. Seventeen children, all 6 or younger, were spared.

Eyring’s statement stopped short of making an apology – a word he didn’t use, a church spokesman said. Nor did Eyring take responsibility on behalf of the church for the massacre. Instead, he blamed “local leaders” of the church in Cedar City, Utah, for taking matters into their own hands.

Eyring cited research by church historians that put the responsibility on the local leaders and others acting under their direction. He said Brigham Young tried to convey an order of protection for the wagon train, but the message didn’t arrive in time by horseback.

Some characterized the statement as an apology or close to it.

“We don’t use the word ‘apology.’ We used ‘profound regret,’ ” church spokesman Mark Tuttle said.

Eyring also expressed regret to Paiute Indians, “who have unjustly borne for too long the principal blame for what occurred during the massacre,” he said.

The only person ever held accountable for the massacre was Mormon convert John D. Lee, a major in the Iron County Militia who was tried, convicted and executed at Mountain Meadows 20 years after the slaughter.

Descendants of the pioneers said Eyring’s remarks came close to being an apology.

“He seemed to genuinely regret what happened – and that’s more than we have gotten in the past,” Patty Norris, president of the group Mountain Meadows Massacre Descendants, said Tuesday.