Why don't they teach about the Mountain Meadows Massacre in school? (war, general)

[Coem]

I thought I knew everything about American History, until a few weeks ago when I read about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. For those who don't know, this event happened in Utah on September 11, 1857. A group of Mormon settlers and natives attacked and murdered 120 men, women and children who were passing through Utah on their way to California. Why was I never taught anything about this in school or even heard of it up until now? It seems to me like it would be a big enough event that it should be included in any book about the history of that time period. Do you think it's because historians tend to focus so much on slavery and the Civil War around this time period, that the early history of the American West is generally passed over? Or is it that people just tend not to want to discuss the more shameful aspects of their history? Does anyone know if there's a monument or anything where the massacre took place?

[DC at the Ridge]

I learned about the massacre when I was in school. Of course, many of those killed came from Northwest Arkansas, so it was more a part of Arkansas history than American history. That said, I credit my teacher with looking at the event as part of something bigger, the conflict between the Mormons and the US government as settlers were pushing westward and the control of resources in the American West.

[Rudbeckia]

I recently read Under the Banner of Heaven, and when I read about the massacre I was very surprised it was never brought up in any history classes I have ever taken. With Romney having run for president and the recent developments in Texas, I think more people are learning about the Mormon religion, and maybe one day it will be added to the history books.

[John Walmsley]

Originally Posted by Coem

I thought I knew everything about American History, until a few weeks ago when I read about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. For those who don't know, this event happened in Utah on September 11, 1857. A group of Mormon settlers and natives attacked and murdered 120 men, women and children who were passing through Utah on their way to California. Why was I never taught anything about this in school or even heard of it up until now? It seems to me like it would be a big enough event that it should be included in any book about the history of that time period. Do you think it's because historians tend to focus so much on slavery and the Civil War around this time period, that the early history of the American West is generally passed over? Or is it that people just tend not to want to discuss the more shameful aspects of their history? Does anyone know if there's a monument or anything where the massacre took place?

I think there is a tendency to gloss over, or ignore, unpleasant events in our history, at least on the high school level. Mountain Meadows was a shameful chapter in our history, but there have been many others, such as the Gnadenhutten Massacre in Ohio in 1792, when 96 Christian Indians of the Moravian Mission were killed, after being wrongly held responsible for attacks on white settlements. The story of the forced relocation of the Cherokees from their ancestral Georgia homeland called the 'Trail of Tears' is a little better known. The decades-long, on-and-off warfare with Native Americans in colonial America, culminating in the bloody King Phillip's war is less known, but was one of the most violent periods in the settlement of America.

To return to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the state of Utah built a memorial overlooking the site in 1990 and the LDS church built a memorial on the siege site in 1999. Memorials commemorating the incident were also built in Arkansas.

[harry chickpea]

I guess if you didn't learn about that massacre, you didn't get to learn about how the Mormons were hounded out of Navoo? The government and the U.S. people have little tolerance for successful sects that don't fall into certain mainstream standards, and sometimes even those that are mainstream are suspect. The thread continues even today.

To list a few groups, in no particular order, that have been persecuted:
Irish Catholics
Italian Catholics
French Catholics
Mormons
Chinese
Germans
Japanese
Blacks
Perfectionists
Moonies
Muslims
Hare Krishna
Branch Davidians
Cherokees
Mexicans
The fundamentalist Mormon sect in Texas
the list goes on and on...
We are a nation of equal opportunity persecution. It would be notable, except that every other country has a dark side as well.

An interesting rumination is "What would have happened to Utah, had the Confederates won?" I suspect Utah might have held as an independent nation for at least a few years.
Without the strong central government, the Balkanization of the U.S. would be a given.

[_redbird_]

While a student at Haskell Indian Jr. College, which is now Haskell Indian Nations University, we learned there are umpteen massacres in american history (on both sides) which were never part of any public school curriculum. There just isn't enough time or space to go over them all.

There was a copy of an old newsprint showing the first thanksgiving came about after a village of Native Americans was massacred, the real thanksgiving had no Indians present.

But since I don't have a proper citation for it, I never bring it up. Its just heresay (sp?), and we all know what that's worth.

There was a strong Mormon presence at our campus and I took a field trip to Kansas City, MO to visit Mormon education places. I never knew the Mormons were so hated in the early days. But one doesn't have to go far (see R&P forums) to see evidence that the Mormon religion is still maligned.

[b. frank]

Originally Posted by Coem

I thought I knew everything about American History

This was your first mistake.

Imagine all the other info that somehow got left out of your education because, trust me, even with years upon years of learning US History, you still won't know it all. Even if you could, the inferences you make about it will be wrong a certain amount of the time (as is the case with all pro historians).

So don't fool yourself - just keep learning about what interests you and you will uncover many, many more little-known facts.

By the way - I was taught about the MM Massacre in my 11th grade US History class. But I'm sure there are plenty of other atrocities that I never heard of back then.

[Towhee]

Originally Posted by b. frank

But I'm sure there are plenty of other atrocities that I never heard of back then.

There are now, too.

[b. frank]

Originally Posted by Marianinark

There are now, too.

I was talking about the fact that I hadn't heard of them, not the fact that they existed.

But you are still right. There have always been many atrocities and always will be and I will always learn about only a fraction of them.

[motormaker]

I wonder what a history book would weigh if all the little things in American history was in it and how many years would it take to go through it.