Well, I went to the movies and what did I see? …three little Mormons pointing guns at me.
This weekend, Slow Hand Releasing and Black Diamond Pictures released their films September Dawn. The film is an account of the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre. Until a several years ago, in some parts of America, this was the other September 11th.
AGREED
The history and the movie agree on several points. On September 11, 1857 members of the Mormon militia, some disguised as Native Americans, and Paiute Indian auxiliaries massacred the Fancher-Baker wagon train headed for California. Massacre is the right word for this event.
On September 7th, the wagon train which had stopped in the Utah Territory near Cedar City for supplies and rest, was attacked by Indians who, unknown to the train were aided by Mormon locals. The survivors of the Fancher-Baker wagon train siege were told by Mormon militia on the 11th that the Natives attacking them had been dispersed. The Mormons promised to lead them to safety and while the Fancher-Baker immigrants were being escorted to safe grounds, the Mormons (under orders) turned on the people they were “protecting” and killed them. The only ones who were spared were the young children, who were adopted into Mormon families until forcibly reclaimed by the federal government.
PROBLEMS
There is no way to pretend that this is not a horrible story of a people who were outrageously betrayed by the people who were their “hosts”. So, I suppose that is why I had real problems with this movie. The film largely deprives the viewer of the context in which these events occur. Nothing excuses the massacre, but a brief telling of the events surrounding it might help it become more understandible.
Firstly, Utah was at war. Yes, Utah. Called the Utah War in history books, the Mormon leadership and the federal government had broken thier cooperation in running the territory. Until 1857, the federal government had supported the Mormon experiment in Utah. However, growing unease with Mormon autocracy, polygamy, and other unusual practices cause President Buchanan to unseat Brigham Young as governor and he sent one quarter - that’s right, one quarter - of the US military to unseat the Mormon despot from his Salt Lake City throne.
The Mormon leadership for their part had experienced decades of cruelty and persecution from non-Mormons in America. The most notable example is the murder of their founder and prophet Joseph Smith and his brother. They had little reason to trust outsiders to begin with, let alone an invading army. With some reason, they thought that this was armageddon, or at least a war on infidels against the people of God. . . and they acted accordingly.
Mormons took up arms and formed militia and Governor Young established martial law. Everywhere, people were terrified by the coming armies, coming to kill them and destroy their way of life and wipe from the earth the restored Church of Jesus Christ.
The Fancher-Baker party were from Arkansas and Missouri (the state where Prophet Joseph Smith was murdered). It was wrongly assumed by the local Mormon leaders that these people would side with the invaders, or were part of a first stage intelligence gathering. Fear was further fueled by the fact that Cedar City was one of the farthest outposts from Salt Lake City and so was largely on it’s own for any impending war. These people were even more terrified that they were all going to die. Still more, there were rumors that some people in the Fancher-Baker wagon train had been involved in the murder of Joseph Smith.
For all these reasons - among others - the Mormon leaders in Cedar City conspired to kill the Fancher-Baker party.
Again, I say as I did before, there is nothing to justify this act. It was cold blooded murder and, to be sure, if the Mormon leadership had been more open to outsiders or had communicated more openly with the Fancher-Baker party, they certainly would not have killed these people. The Fancher-Baker party were victims not only of their time and location, but also of the ignorance, fear, and pent-up hate of the Mormons.
However, the movie does not explore these issues. It offers instead a morality tale of how religious people slip into bigotry and hatred and kill good kindly people without provocation of any kind. In an early scene, the prayer of the Mormon bishop and the wagon train preacher are contrasted. The preacher offering thanks for the good earth and the kind hospitality and a place to rest; the bishop asking God’s damnation upon “the Gentiles”.
The wagon trainers are good, decent folks, who wear their religion lightly or not at all. They hadve good families and are loving and open in their communication with one another. They have a democratic style of government and even accept a woman in man’s clothes (very unacceptable back then). The Mormons - by contrast - have dysfuctional and abusive families, with a tyrannical church structure engaged in secret conspiracy, violence, and murder.
I’d have liked this movie more if it were a tale of the evils of fear, desperation, ignorance, betrayal and hatred. In stead, it offer a post-9/11 morality tale of how the religious are out to get us with their guns and we are all good, peaceful, “spiritual-but-not-religious” people scared for our lives in the wagon circle. “They” are coming to get us. And even when they come with a white flag - look out! They will still get you!
Boogey, boogey, boogey.
For what it is worth, I give the film a thumbs down. It is at best, anti-Mormon, and at worst just plain anti-religious.
I am a Christian. I know hundred of tother Christians. Also, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Jains, and others practitioners of the religions of the world. While there are crazies in all our religious, most of us are not out to kill the heathen. Sorry to disappoint . . . I know it does not make for a very good movie.
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