1/5 Horribly boring, one sided Mormon propoganda
  by Readalot
Do not read this book unless you are a Mormon who wants to genuflect on how justified your people where back in the 1800's in murdering all those innocent men, women and children. Incredibly boring, and one sided crap that has no business being published outside of Utah. Beware, if you dare to read this dribble. What a waste of time...

2/5 Too Biased
  by Shauna
Sally Denton is overly biased in her book. Her motives in writing this book don't seem to be simply for historical preservation or clarity. The book "Massacre At Mountain Meadows" by Ronald W. Walker and R.M. Leonard seems to have more accurate sources, instead of hearsay. It lets the facts guide it.

5/5 Preventable Tragedy
  by Ron Braithwaite (El Indio, Texas United States)
'The Mountain Meadows Massacre' is a story in which multiple factors came together at exactly the same time to produce an epic tragedy. If one or two of these factors hadn't been present, it wouldn't have happened. First, there was the antipathy of the Mormons for the 'gentiles': Second there was the antipathy of the settlers for the Mormons: Third, there was the immense of a war between the Mormons and the Union: Fourth, there was abusive language directed at Mormon leaders: Sixth, there was lethal opporunism on the part of Utah Indians: and Seventh, there was the willingness of John D. Lee and members of the Iron County militia to placate the Indians and destroy Mormon enemies. All of these things added up to produce one of the most destructive pioneer massacres in the history of the nation.

Still, all of the above doesn't quite explain what happened. Civilized white men--under the guise of protectors--gunned down civilized white men, women and children. How did it happen? Fear of an Indian war? Hatred for the anti-Mormon settlers? Anger at the government? I really don't know.

Years ago, while traveling through Southern Utah, I decided to visit the massacre site. Asking locals the location, I only got hard stares. Using Brooks' book, however, I located it. I had to open gates and drive through grassy pastures with little trace of anything resembling even a dirt track. When I arrived at my destination, there were a couple of old picnic tables--nothing more. Maybe seventy-five yards away there was a rock cairn. I remembered Juanita Brooks telling that the bodies of the settlers, when discovered by the owner of the property, were gathered together into a mass grave and buried under a rocky cairn. Sure enough, on the other side of the cairn there was a tiny plaque giving a totally erroneous account of the fight. It went something like this "On such and such a date in 1857, 150 California settlers were killed here, in their fighting pits, in a battle against the Indians."

Nope. That's not what happened at all. Propaganda. I understand that the battle/massacre ground has now been developed with a more accurate description of events. I wouldn't know. I haven't been back since.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico



4/5 AT LAST THE TRUTH
  by Joseph H. Race (SAIPAN, MP United States)
It's definitely a painful story but needed to be told, and Ms Brooks presented a detailed, marvelous manuscript. She told it the way it happened and didn't gloss over the barbarity of the whole situation and covered thoroughly the feelings and sentiments in Utah at the time. John D. Lee took the blame and was executed twenty years later and cleansed the others and the church, neutralizing the ugly massacre so people could move on with their lives, and the Mormons could start working with the US rather than against the federal government. Well worth the time to read and refer to actual documents - very academic and precise, but that I believe makes the book creditible. Good job - not another cover-up.

3/5 Shameful event!
  by oregongirI (Oregon)
THIS IS AMERICAN HISTORY IN PRINT!!! A MORMON WROTE THE BOOK, A MORMON COLLECTED INFORMATION FROM RELIABLE SOURCES, INCLUDING THE MORMON TEMPLE ARCHIVES, THE AMERICAN GOVT. ARCHIVES, DIARIES, TESTIMONIES OF TRIALS, OF THE MASSACRE, SO, WHY SHOULDN'T THE STORY BE TOLD TO AMERICAN STUDENTS AT AN EARLY AGE AS PART OF AMERICAN HISTORY? IS IT LESS OF A MASSACRE THAN THE BATTLE WITH THE INDIANS IN WYOMING? OUR SHAME OF AMERICAN SLAVERY IS TAUGHT AND THE UTAH WAR WITH BRIGHAM YOUNG'S THEOCRACY IN UTAH SHOULD BE TAUGHT. THIS BOOK IS A GOOD INTRODUCTION TO THE MORMONISM OF AMERICA. WE KNOW MORMOMISM CHANGES WITH EACH NEW PROPHET, BUT, IF PROPHET SMITH'S REVELATIONS WERE TRUE, THE DOCTRINES AND COVENANTS WOULD REMAIN THE SAME AND NOT CHANGING DRAMATICALLY WITH EACH NEW PROPHET. CHRISTIANITY IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, TODAY AND FOREVER, MORMONSIM IS NOT CHRISTIANITY AND IS EVER CHANGING. GET THIS BOOK FOR REAL INSIGHT TO THIS CULT, "MORMONISM, AMERICAS ISLAM". GOOGLE, BRIGHAM YOUNG'S SERMONS EXCERPTS AND BE SHOCKED. HIS CONFLICTS WITH THE AMERICAN GOVT. SHOULD NO LONGER BE GLOSSED OVER. AT THE SAME TIME, THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE'S DECLARATION, NO LAMANITES, NO DNA FOR ISRAELITES,EVIDENCE OF STEEL SWORDS, CHARIOT WHEELS OR WARS OF THE ANCIENT TRIBES, FOUND IN AMERICA, MEANS THE BOM IS FICTION. AND, THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE IS ALSO A FALSE TRANSLATION OF THE EGYPTIAN PAPYRI. IN OTHER WORDS, EXPOSE THESE BOOKS OF FICTION AND BE DONE WITH IT, ONCE AND FOR ALL. AMAZING JUANITA BROOKS NEVER PITCHED THE BOM AFTER SHE RESEARCHED FOR THIS BOOK! THE BOOK IS SIMPLY WRITTEN AND A MUST READ!!