"Make It An Indian Massacre:" The Scapegoating of the Southern Paiutes

Abstract

Overall, this project attempts to move dialogue beyond the cause of the Mountain Meadows Massacre to examine how and why Mormon perpetrators manipulated and covered their tracks in order to frame the Southern Paiutes. This thesis is mostly interested in the Latter-day Saints’ relationship with the Southern Paiutes before, during, and after the massacre. And concludes that the Mormon decision to cover-up their role in the massacre by scapegoating the Southern Paiutes had disastrous results.