Mountain Meadows Massacre and Mormon public relations

In the October 13, 1857 edition of Cannon's San Francisco newspaper The Western Standard, Cannon responded to initial news reports of involvement by Mormons by charging the responsible journalists with writing "reckless and malignant slanders", despite knowing that the southern Utah Mormons were "as innocent of [the massacre] as the child unborn".

[1] The church's official newspaper in Salt Lake City, The Deseret News, was initially slow to comment on the massacre, and remained largely silent until 1869, when it again denied involvement by Mormons.

"[6] In a PBS broadcast soundbite, LDS apostle, Dallin H. Oaks, said, "I have no doubt...Mormons, including local leaders of our church, were prime movers in that terrible episode and participated in the killing.

And what a terrible thing to contemplate, that the barbarity of the frontier, and the conditions of the Utah war and whatever provocations were perceived to have been given, would have led to such an extreme...atrocity perpetrated by members of my faith.

"[7] On September 11, 2007, at the memorial ceremony for the sesquicentennial anniversary of the massacre, Henry B. Eyring, an Apostle who would join the First Presidency of the LDS Church the following month, read an official statement, saying: We express profound regret for the massacre carried out in this valley 150 years ago today, and for the undue and untold suffering experienced by the victims then and by their relatives to the present time.

A separate expression of regret is owed the Paiute people who have unjustly borne for too long the principal blame for what occurred during the massacre.

[13] On August 3, 1999, during excavation for this new monument, a backhoe digging footings accidentally unearthed the remains of 29 victims; this would lead to hard feelings towards the Church by some descendants.

The building of this monument as well as the dedication by Church President Gordon B. Hinckley can be seen in the documentary film Burying the Past: Legacy of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

"[15] In the late 1950s, LDS President David O. McKay created a committee, chaired by Delbert L. Stapley to investigate the Mountain Meadows Massacre.