Massacre in Utah still echoes in Arkansas
Little Rock AR Democrat-Gazette 11Jul99 C7
By John Magsam: Arkansas

and

Boston MA Herald 16Jul99 C7 Recalling a religious massacre in Utah http://www.bostonherald.com/bostonherald/colm/jack07161999.htm By Jack Williams

The descendents of the surviving children of the Fancher wagon train, wiped-out in the tragic Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857, still live in Carroll and Boone counties in Arkansas, as well as elsewhere. Now, the descendents and others interested in honoring the victims, as the Mountain Meadows Association have worked to build a new monument to commemorate the site of the massacre. And the LDS Church is paying for the monument.

For year's historians have debated the elements of the story, an account of which the Democrat-Gazette includes in their article. Key among the points debated is LDS Church involvement. "Everybody wants to spin the story. People are still looking for a smoking gun, but I don't think at this point we'll ever find one," said Weber State University history professor Gene Sessions. Sessions has studied the massacre for the past 20 years in an attempt to understand exactly what happened. But most historians seem uncertain that the whole story of the massacre will ever be known.

Williams, writing in the Boston Herald, compares the massacre to the religious hatred in the Balkans that U.S. citizens have found so inexplicable. He says that Americans look at Bosnia and Kosovo saying, "Thank God it can't happen here."

Williams point is that this kind of intolerance happens among humans and can and has happened here. Williams ends his argument saying, "Entire families were wiped out because of fear, hatred and a misplaced sense of loyalty to religion. Those are the same reasons given today for the cycle of killings in the Balkans. We'd like to hope we never encounter circumstances so extreme that we justify vengeance. Maybe modern day Americans have moved beyond these terrible extremes of human nature. But perhaps we're just lucky to live in prosperous times and protected by just laws. We can only hope we never will be faced with a combination of conditions that could place us in a position where violence is perceived as the only alternative. Once again we have been reminded by deadly events in Kosovo that civilization is often a thin veneer."

Meanwhile, the Mountain Meadows Association has announced that the dedication of the new memorial at Mountain Meadows will be held on September 11th. See http://www.mtn-meadows-assoc.com/DEDICATION/Dedication.htm for details.