MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE—COMPLETE CONFESSION OF BISHOP JOHN D. LEE.  
In the month of September, 1857, the company of emigrants, known as the “Arkansas Company,” arrived at Parowan, Iron county, Utah, on their way to California. At Parowan young Aden, one of the company, saw and recognized one William Laney, a Mormon resident of Parowan. Aden and his father had rescued Laney from an anti-Mormon mob in Tennessee several years before, and saved his life. He (Laney) at the time he was attacked by the mob was a Mormon missionary in Tennessee. Laney was glad to see his friend and benefactor, and invited him to his house and gave him some “garden sauce” to take back to the camp with him. The same evening, it was reported to Bishop (Colonel) Dame, that Laney had given potatoes and onions to the man Aden, one of the emigrants. When the report was made to Bishop Dame, he raised his hand and crooked his little finger in a significant manner to one Barney Carter, his brother-in-law, and one of the “Angels of Death.” Carter, without another word, walked out, went to Laney’s house with a long picket in his hand, called Laney out and struck him a heavy blow on the head, fracturing his skull, and left him on the ground for dead. C. Y. Webb and Isaac Naoman, President of the “High Council,” both told me they saw Dame’s man?uvres. James McGuffee, then a resident of Parowan, but through oppression has been forced to leave there and is now a merchant in Pahranagat Valley, near Pioche, Nev., knows these facts. About the last of August, 1857, some ten days before the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the company of emigrants passed through Cedar City. George A. Smith, then first counsellor in the Church and Brigham Young’s right-hand man, came down from Salt Lake City, preaching to the different settlements. I at that time was in Washington county, near where St. George now stands. He sent for me. I went to him and he asked[385] me to take him to Cedar City by way of Fort Clara and Pinto settlements, as he was on business and must visit all the settlements. We started on our way up through the canyon. We saw herds of Indians, and he (George A. Smith) remarked to me that these Indians, with the advantages they had of the rocks, could use up a large company of emigrants, or make it very hot for them. After pausing for a short time he said to me, “Brother Lee, what do you think the brethren would do if a company of emigrants should come down through here making threats? Don’t you think they would pitch into them?” I replied that “they certainly would.” This seemed to please him, and he again said to me, “And you really think the brethren would pitch into them?” “I certainly do,” was my reply, “and you had better instruct Colonel Dame and Haight to tend to it that the emigrants are permitted to pass, if you want them to pass unmolested.” He continued, “I asked Isaac (meaning Haight) the same question, and he answered me just as you do, and I expect the boys would pitch into them.” I again said to him that he had better say to Gov. Young that if he wants emigrant companies to pass without molestation that he must instruct Col. Dame or Major Haight to that effect; for if they are not ordered otherwise they will use them up by the help of the Indians. He told the people at the Clara not to sell their grain to the emigrants, nor to feed it to their animals, as they might expect a big fight the next spring with the United States. President Young did not intend to let the troops into the territory. He said: “We are going to stand up for our rights, and will no longer be imposed upon by our enemies, and want every man to be on hand with his gun in good order and his powder dry,” and instructed the people to part with nothing that would sustain life. From the 1st to the 10th of September, 1857, a messenger came to me—his name was Sam Wood—and told me that President Isaac C. Haight wanted me to be at Cedar City that evening without fail. This was Saturday. He told me that a large company of emigrants had gone south. I think he lived at Harmony, twenty miles south of Cedar City.
I obeyed the summons. President Haight met me. It was near sundown. We spent the night in an open house on some blankets, where we talked most all night. He told me that a company of emigrants had passed through some two days before, threatening the Mormons with destruction, and that one of them had said he had helped to kill old Joe Smith[386] and his brother Hyrum, that other members of the company of emigrants had helped drive the Mormons out of Missouri; that others had said they had come to help Johnson’s army clean the Mormons out of Utah; that they had the halters ready to hang old Brigham and Heber, and would have them strung up before the snow flew; that one of the emigrants called one of his oxen (a pair of stags) “Brig.” and the other “Heber;” and that several of the emigrants had used all kinds of threats and profanity. John M. Higbee, the City Marshal, had informed them that it was a breach of the city ordinance to use profane language, whereupon one of them replied that he did not care a —— for the Mormon laws or the Mormons either; that they had fought their way through the Indians, and would do it through the —— Mormons; and if their god, old Brigham, and his priests would not sell their provisions, by —— they would take what they wanted any way they could get it; that thus enraged, one of them let loose his long whip and killed two chickens, and threw them into the waggon; that the widow Evans said, “Gentlemen, those are my chickens; please don’t kill them; I am a poor widow;” that they ordered her to “shut up,” or they would blow her —— brains out, etc.; that they had been raising trouble with all the settlements and Indians on their way; that we were threatened on the North by Johnson’s army; that now our safety depended on prompt and immediate action; that a company of Indians had already gone South from Parowan and Cedar City to surprise the emigrants, who were then at the Mountain Meadows, and he wanted me to return home in the morning (Sunday), and send Carl Schurtz (Indian interpreter) from my home (Harmony), to raise the Indians South, at Harmony, Washington, and Santa Clara, to join the Indians from the North and make the attack upon the emigrants at the Meadows. I said to him, “Would it not be well to hold a council of the brethren before making a move?” He replied that “every true Latter-Day Saint that regarded their covenants knew well their duty, and that the company of emigrants had forfeited their lives by their acts,” and that Bishop P. K. Smith (Klingensmith) and Joel White had already gone by way of Pinto, to raise the Indians in that direction, and those that had gone from Parowan and here would make the attack, and might be repulsed. “We can’t now delay for a council of the brethren. Return immediately, and start Carl Schurtz; tell him that I ordered you to tell him to go; and I want you to try and get there before the[387] attack is made, and make the plan for the Indians, and will send Nephi Johnson, the interpreter, to the Meadows as soon as he can be got to help Carl Schurtz manage the Indians.” I did just as I was ordered. The Indians from the North and about Harmony had already started for the Meadows before I reached home. Schurtz started immediately to do his part.
I arrived at home in the night, and remained till morning. I thought over the matter, and the more I thought the more my feelings revolted against such a horrid deed. Sleep had fled from me. I talked to my wife Rachel about it. She felt as I did about it, and advised me to let them do their own dirty work, and said that if things did not go just to suit them the blame would be laid on me. She never did believe in blood atonement, and said it was from the devil, and that she would rather break such a covenant, if she had to die for so doing, than to live and be guilty of doing such an act. I finally concluded that I would go; that I would start by daybreak in the morning, and try to get there before an attack was made on the company, and use my influence with the Indians to let them alone. I crossed the mountains by a trail, and reached the Meadows between nine and ten in the morning, the distance from my place being about twenty-five miles. But I was too late. The attack had been made just before daybreak in the morning, the Indians repulsed, with one killed and two of their chiefs from Cedar City shot through the legs, breaking a leg for each of them. The Indians were in a terrible rage. I went to some of them that were in a ravine. They told me to go to the main body, or they would kill me for not coming before the attack was made. While I was standing there I received a shot just above the belt, cutting through my clothes to the skin, some six inches across. The Indians with whom I was talking lived with me at Harmony. I was Indian Farmer. They told me I was in danger, and to get down into the ravine. I said that it was impossible for me to do anything there, and I dare not venture to the camp of the emigrants without endangering my life. I mounted my horse and started south to meet Carl Schurtz. I travelled sixteen miles and stopped on the Megotsy to bait my animal, as there was good grass and water. I had rode over forty miles without eating or drinking. This is the place where Mr. Tobin met his assassinators. About sunset I saw Schurtz and some ten or fifteen white men and about one hundred and fifty Indians. We camped.
[388]
During the night the Indians left for the Meadows. I reported to the men what had taken place. They attacked the emigrants again, about sunrise the next morning, which was Tuesday, and had one of their number killed and several wounded. I, with the white men, reached the Meadows about one o’clock p.m. On the way we met a small band of Indians returning, with some eighteen or twenty head of cattle. One of the Indians was wounded in the shoulder. They told me that the Indians were encamped east of the emigrants, at some springs. On our arrival at the springs we found some two hundred Indians, among whom were the two wounded chiefs, Moqueetus and Bill. The Indians were in a high state of excitement; had killed many cattle and horses belonging to the company. I counted sixty head near their encampment, that they had killed in revenge for the wounding of their men. By the assistance of Oscar Hamblin (brother of Jacob Hamblin) and Schurtz, we succeeded in getting the Indians to desist from killing any more stock that night. The company of emigrants had corraled all their waggons but one for better defence. This corral was about one hundred yards above the springs. This they did to get away from the ravine and from the rocks on the west. The attack was renewed that night by the Indians, in spite of all we could do to prevent it.
When the attack commenced, Oscar Hamblin, William Young, and myself started to go to the Indians. When opposite the corral, on the north, the bullets came around us like a shower of hail. We had two Indians with us to pilot us; they threw themselves flat on the ground to protect themselves from the bullets. I stood erect and asked my Father in heaven to protect me from the missiles of death, and enable me to reach the Indians. One ball passed through my hat and the hair of my head, and another through my shirt, grazing my arm near the shoulder. A most hideous yell of the Indians commenced. The cries and shrieks of the women and children so overcame me that I forgot my danger and rushed through the fire to the Indians, and pleaded with them, in tears, to desist. I told them that the Great Spirit would be angry with them for killing women and little children. They told me to leave or they would serve me the same way, and that I was not their friend, but a friend of their enemies; that I was a squaw, and did not have the heart of a brave, and that I could not see blood shed without crying like a baby, and called me cry-baby, and by that name I am known by all[389] the Indians to this day. I owe my life on that occasion to Oscar Hamblin, who was a missionary with the Indians, and had much influence with the Santa Clara Indians. They were the ones that wanted to kill me. Hamblin shamed them, and called them dogs and wolves for wanting to shed the blood of their father (myself), who had fed and clothed them. We finally prevailed on them to return to camp, where we would hold a council; that I would send for big Captains to come and talk. We told them that they had punished the emigrants enough, and may be they had killed nearly all of them. We told them that Bishop Dame and President Haight would come, and may be they would give them part of the cattle, and let the company go with the teams. In this way we reconciled them to suspend hostilities for the present. The two that had been with Hamblin and myself the night before said they had seen two men on horseback come out of the emigrant’s camp under full speed, and that they went toward Cedar City.
Wednesday morning I asked a man—I think his name was Edwards—to go to Cedar City and say to President Haight, for God’s sake, for my sake, and for the sake of suffering humanity, to send out men to rescue that company. This day we all lay still, waiting orders. Occasionally a few of the Indians withdrew, taking a few head of animals with them. About noon I crossed the valley north of the corral, thinking to examine their location from the west range. The company recognized me as a white man, and sent two little boys, about four years old, to meet me. I hid from them, fearing the Indians, who discovered the children. I called the Indians, who wanted my gun or ammunition to kill them. I prevailed with them to let the children go back to camp, which they very soon did when they saw the Indians. I crept up behind some rock, on the west range, where I had a full view of the corral. In it they had dug a rifle-pit. The wheels of their waggons were chained together, and the only chance for the Indians was to starve them out, or shoot them as they went for water. I lay there some two hours, and contemplated their situation, and wept like a child. When I returned to camp, some six or eight men had come from Cedar City. Joel White, William C. Stewart, and Elliot C. Weldon, were among the number, but they had no orders. They had come merely to see how things were. The Meadows are about fifty miles from Cedar City. Thursday afternoon the messenger from Cedar City returned. He said that President Haight had[390] gone to Parowan to confer with Col. Dame, and a company of men and orders would be sent on to-morrow (Friday); that up to the time he had left, the council had come to no definite conclusion. During this time the Indians and men were engaged in broiling beef and making up their hides into lassos. I had flattered myself that bloodshed was at an end. After the emigrants saw me cross the valley, they hoisted a white flag in the midst of their corral.
Friday afternoon four waggons drove up with armed men. When they saw the white flag in the corral, they raised one also, but drove to the springs where we were, and took refreshment, after which a council meeting was called of Presidents, Bishops, and other Church officers and members of the High Council, societies, High Priests, &c. Major John M. Higbee presided as chairman. Several of the dignitaries bowed in prayer, invoked the aid of the Holy Spirit to prepare their minds, and guide them to do right, and carry out the counsels of their leaders. Higbee said that “President J. C. Haight had been to Parowan to confer with Col. Dame and their counsel, and orders were that, this emigrant camp must be used up.” I replied, “Men, women, and children?” “All,” said he, “except such as are too young to tell tales; and if the Indians cannot do it without help, we must help them.” I commenced pleading for the company, and I said, though some of them have behaved badly, they have been pretty well chastised. My policy would be to draw off the Indians, let them have a portion of the loose cattle, and withdraw with them, under promise that they would not molest the company any more; that the company would then have teams enough left to take them to California. I told them that this course could not bring them into trouble. Higbee said, “White men have interposed, and the emigrants know it, and there lies the danger in letting them go.” I said, “What white man interfered?” He replied that in the attack on Tuesday night two men broke out of the corral and started for Cedar City on horseback; that they were met at Richey’s Spring by Stewart, Joel White, and another man, whose name has passed from me. Stewart asked the two men their names when they met at the spring, and being told in reply by one of the men that his name was Aden, and that the other was a Dutchman from the emigrant’s company, Stewart shoved a pistol to Aden’s breast, and killed him, saying, “Take that, —— you.” The other man (the Dutchman) wheeled to leave as Joel White fired and wounded him. I asked him how he[391] knew the wounded Dutchman got back to the emigrants’ camp. He said because he was tracked back, and they knew he was there. I again said that it was better to deliver the man to them, and let them do anything they wished with them, and tell them that we did not approve such thing............