Church Denies Tribe from Stewarding Mass Grave Sit

[blackcrowheart]

Church Denies Tribe from Stewarding Mass Grave Site
Posted by: "[e-mail]" [e-mail] anahooey
Thu Jun 21, 2007 7:41 pm (PST)
SALT LAKE CITY - Descendants of the 120-member Arkansas immigrant party
slaughtered in southern Utah by pioneer Mormon settlers say their plea for
federal stewardship of the Mountain Meadows mass grave site has been rejected by
leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Phil Bolinger of Hindsville and Scott Fancher of Harrison, both members of
the Arkansas-based Mountain Meadows Monument Foundation, say they got the news
June 6 in a telephone call from Elder Marlin Jensen, who supervises the
church history department.
"He told us that President [Gordon B. ] Hinckley had turned us down. He doesn
´t think it´s in the best interests of the church to allow federal
stewardship in the meadows," said Bolinger, the foundation president who is related
to 30 of those killed. "That really bit me bad."
Jensen declined an interview, but confirmed through spokesman Kim Farah that
the church will not pursue federal stewardship of the site. A similar request
also was rejected in 1999.
Descendants want the site in the hands of a neutral third party because they
believe the institutional church was complicit in the murders.
"It´s not right for the people who had complicity to the killings to be the
grave owner," said Bolinger, who discussed the issue with Jensen on April 25
in Salt Lake City.
"I asked him, ` How you do you think the Kennedy family would feel if the
Lee Harvey Oswald family had control of the Kennedy tomb ?´"
History hangs the Sept. 11, 1857, event on southern Utah Mormon leaders and a
small band of Paiute Indians, leaving the culpability of then-church
president Brigham Young up for debate. A forthcoming book from church historians
takes the same position.
Headed to California, the wagon train led by Capt. Alexander Fancher and John
Baker arrived in the Utah territory at the same time the federal government
was mounting pressure on the Mormon church for its practice of polygamy and
disregard of federal oversight.
They camped first near Salt Lake City and then headed south to the meadow, a
well-known stopover on the Old Spanish Trail. The immigrants were attacked
and spent a week engaged in gun skirmishes before local Mormon Elder John D.
Lee rode in on horseback with a white flag to negotiate their rescue.
Persuaded to walk singlefile and unarmed from the valley, the immigrants were
shot at close range, stabbed or beaten to death. Their bodies were not
buried.
Seventeen children were spared, all of them under age six - young enough,
some said, not to remember or speak of what they saw. The youngsters were
adopted by local families and later returned to their relatives in Arkansas.
Lee was tried, convicted and executed for the massacre 20 years later and is
the only person ever held responsible.
Today, the Mountain Meadows monument site is a 2, 500-acre parcel in a
rolling scrubpine and sagebrush valley about 35 miles northwest of St. George.
The land is a patchwork of public and private holdings, some of which was
passed down through families from pioneer ancestors.
There are four known mass grave sites and two memorials - the rock pyramid
known as the Carelton Cairn on the valley floor and a memorial wall on Dan Sill
Hill, which overlooks the valley and is inscribed with the known names of
victims from the 29 different families on the wagon train.
The monument is already on the National Park Service´s Register of Historic
Places, but the designation doesn´t guarantee public access or public input
before construction or other site changes, foundation attorney Scott Fancher
said.
Foundation members believe a higher designation, such as national monument
status, would better protect the interests of all and salve the wounds of many
Fancher party descendants, Bolinger said.
"Federal stewardship of this grave site... that´s all it would take to put
this to bed," he said.
The foundation has support for a higher designation from the Arkansas
congressional delegation, but the Mormon church would have to donate the land to
the U. S. Department of Interior for that effort to begin, Fancher said.
Federal oversight might also have prevented the Aug. 3, 1999, maintenance
work on the cairn when a church crew accidentally unearthed the remains of at
least 28 men, women and children. A forensic evaluation was begun, but cut
short on an order from Utah´s then-Gov. Mike Leavitt, a descendant of some who
participated in the massacre.
At a dedication ceremony of the rebuilt cairn that September, Hinckley said
the church carries a moral responsibility to remember the victims, but fell
short of acknowledging church complicity in the crime.
Mormon church leaders are committed to appropriately preserving the Mountain
Meadows site, Farah said.
"The church has owned the monument site at Mountain Meadows for many years.
The property is open to the public and considerable time and resources are
allocated to ensure that the property is well-maintained, open to the public and
that those who perished there are appropriately remembered," she said.
Farah also confirmed what Washington County recorder´s office records show -
over the past few months, the church has increased its holdings in the
meadow.
Since March, at least two families have deeded their property over to the
church.
"The church intends to administer and maintain this property in like manner,
thereby preserving it from either residential or commercial development,"
said Farah.
Bolinger said the foundation, one of three descendant groups, shared concerns
that residential development in fast-growing Washington County would damage
the site. But he´s rankled by the church´s acquisition of more land and says
he´ll continue to push for federal stewardship.
"It´s the highest honor we could pay these people," Bolinger said.

Tue - June 19, 2007
By Jennifer Dobner - AP