Nephi massacre

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Coordinates: 39°42′31″N 111°50′10″W / 39.7085°N 111.8361°W / 39.7085; -111.8361
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Nephi Massacre
LDS Church
MotiveParanoia towards Native American people during Wakara's War

The Nephi massacre was an 1853 incident when a group of

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) commonly called Mormons.[4]
: 138—139 

The murder of the Goshute men occurred in the midst of a series of skirmishes dubbed Wakara's War between Native Americans and Mormons in the present-day Utah region.[3] LDS settlers at Salt Creek Fort in present-day Nephi, Utah invited the group of people inside the fort, took them prisoner, shot them in the back of the head,[3][4]: 158  and buried them in a mass grave.[7] One woman and two children from the group were taken prisoner.[8]

Accounts from local personal journals

Adelia Almira Wilcox, whose husband had been killed by Native Americans two weeks before, wrote in her memoir that those killed in the Nephi massacre were, "shot down without even considering whether they were the guilty ones or not .... They were shot down like so many dogs, picked up with pitchforks [put] on a sleigh and hauled away."[9]

According to another local woman:

This barbarous circumstance [of the Fountain Green massacre] actuated our brethren, counseled by ... President Call of Filmore [sic], to do quite as barbarous an act the following morning, being the Sabbath. Nine Indians coming into our Camp looking for protection and bread with us, because we promised it to them and without knowing [whether] they did the first evil act in that affair or any other, were shot down without one minute's notice. I felt satisfied in my own mind that if Mr. Heywood had been here they would not have been dealt with so unhumanly [sic]. It cast considerable gloom over my mind.[10]: 270–271 

— Martha Spence Heywood, Journal

Background

See also: Mormonism and violence

During the summer of 1853 violence erupted between Native Americans in what is now Utah Valley in Mormonism's largest denomination, the LDS Church. The series of tit-for-tat killings were initiated over land and resource disputes. These conflicts were dubbed Wakara's War (also called Walker's War).[3]

Mass grave discovery

In 2006 the remains of the slain Utes were discovered in an area of Nephi called Old Hallow during a construction excavation.[11][8]

See also

References

  1. Salt Lake Tribune
    . Retrieved May 7, 2023. [The archaeologist] has found nothing to change the history of the Nephi massacre. Rather, he has evidence to suggest that seven men, ages 16 to 25, were killed that day and thrown in a mass grave.
  2. ^
    LDS Church. Associated Press
    . June 8, 2007. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Rood, Ronald (2012). "Massacre in Nephi: Archaeology of a Mass Grave". The Beehive Archive. Salt Lake City: Utah Humanities. Retrieved May 7, 2023.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-83-943365-3-0 – via ResearchGate
    .
  5. ^ a b Carter, D. Robert (February 18, 2006). "Frontier violence traumatized both colonists and Indians". Daily Herald. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
  6. ^ Wimmer, Ryan (December 13, 2010). The Walker War Reconsidered (Master of History thesis). Brigham Young University.
  7. ^ [4]: 137–138 [6]: 145 [5]
  8. ^ a b Trauntvein, Myrna (August 9, 2006). "Skeletal remains found at construction site in Nephi". Nephi Times-News. Nephi, Utah. Retrieved August 17, 2016.
  9. S2CID 254442937
    .
  10. ISBN 9780806165813
    .
  11. ^ Trauntvein, Myrna (June 27, 2007). "Native American remains reveal evidence of being executed". Nephi Times-News. Nephi, Utah. Retrieved August 17, 2016.
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