Item Detail
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3739
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0
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0
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English
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John Doyle Lee : Villain or Scapegoat?
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Mankind
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1976
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5
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60-67
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Although the entire Mormon community was antagonistic toward interlopers on their territory, John Doyle Lee was blamed for the massacre of about 140 emigrants at Mountain Meadows, Utah, in September 1857. Paiute Indians attacked the emigrants; a group of Mormons under John D. Lee offered to cover the emigrants' retreat to Cedar City, but massacred them on the way. Lee's close relationship to Brigham Young preserved his freedom until the 1870s when the federal government assumed jurisdiction over criminal cases in Utah. Lee was eventually apprehended, tried, and executed for what was essentially a community crime. Following his death in 1877, his family fought to clear his name, at least in the eyes of the Mormon Church, and Lee was reinstated in the church in 1961.