Historian, descendant of a participant
Juanita Brooks
1898–1989
2 topics · 2 dated events · 1 source
Their part in each topic
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
Historian, descendant of a participant
Brooks, herself descended from a southern Utah participant, published The Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1950 against the wishes of local church leadership and made it impossible to keep blaming the Paiutes. Her verdict — that Brigham Young and George A. Smith did not order the massacre but preached the sermons and built the conditions that made it possible, and that Young was an accessory after the fact — is still the axis around which the argument turns. Turley and Brown dedicated their 2023 volume to her.
Speaking Truth to Power
The one they left alone
Brooks published the first honest history of the Mountain Meadows massacre in 1950, five years after Brodie's book and with far more damaging documents, and was not excommunicated. She was obstructed instead: the First Presidency declined to open the David H. Morris collection, a friend refused to write a letter on her behalf and the two women never spoke again, and Milton R. Hunter of the First Council of the Seventy said publicly he could not understand why a woman who claimed to be a good Mormon would spend her time digging into such things. On a 1979 KSL-TV documentary she said, haltingly, that she had been disfellowshipped on publication; the scholarly consensus is that she was not, and the corpus records the claim and the doubt without settling it. She remained a believer and a member. Her case is the strongest evidence in this topic that discipline was a choice rather than an automatic consequence.
In the timeline
2 events across 2 topics, chronological. Only events this person was actually part of — present at, responsible for, or the subject of — not every event where the name comes up.
Juanita Brooks publishes The Mountain Meadows Massacre
Brooks, a southern Utah writer descended from a participant, published the first documented account by a Latter-day Saint. She concluded that Brigham Young and George A. Smith did not order the massacre but preached the sermons and set the conditions that made it possible, and that Young was an accessory after the fact. She also recorded that other Mormon scholars had been counselled off the subject with enough force that they feared for their positions and membership.
Juanita Brooks publishes the massacre — and is not cut offhinge
Brooks's The Mountain Meadows Massacre appeared five years after Brodie's book, with more damaging documents and a faithful author. She was obstructed rather than tried: the First Presidency kept the David H. Morris collection closed to her, a fellow Relief Society president refused to write on her behalf, and a member of the First Council of the Seventy said publicly he could not understand why a woman claiming to be a good Mormon would spend her time digging into such things.
Sources in their own name
Source records in the database whose author line names this person. Each links to the topic that uses it.
Juanita Brooks
The founding modern account and its verdict: leaders did not order the massacre but created the conditions, and Young was an accessory after the fact.
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