Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon
Krakauer, 2003, Excerpts
Most of the Paiutes had ridden away from the Mountain Meadow
in disgust, leaving the Saints with perhaps as few as forty Indian mercenaries.
The Saints decided to end the standoff by means of subterfuge. The next
morning, September 11, Lee sent an English convert named William Bateman toward
the encircled emigrants under a white flag; Bateman was instructed to tell them
that the Mormons were there to intercede with the Indians on the Arkansans’ behalf,
and would escort them to safety past the hostile Paiutes if the emigrants would
hand over their weapons.
Seeing no other alternative, they agreed to his terms and
gave up their weapons. The youngest children and several of the wounded were
placed in a wagon and driven away. They were followed on foot by the emigrant
women and the older children. A few hundred yards behind this group, the men of
the Fancher party were led away in single file, with each emigrant escorted
closely by a Mormon guard.
At this infamous command, each of the Mormons immediately
fired a bullet point-blank into the head of the captive under his purview. Most
of the emigrant men died instantly. The women and children were attacked “by
the Indians, among whom were Mormons in disguise.” Painted Paiutes rushed upon
these victims with guns and knives and began shooting and bludgeoning them to
death and slashing their throats.
The slaughter was over in a matter of minutes, leaving an
estimated 120 emigrants dead. Approximately fifty of the victims were men,
twenty were women, and fifty were children or adolescents. When quiet settled
over the killing field, the Mormons looted the corpses for valuables; after the
Saints gathered what they wanted, they allowed the Indians to take the rest.
The dead emigrants were soon stripped of everything, including every shred of
clothing they’d been wearing.
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