OCR Text |
Show 370 UTAB SUPERINTENDENCY. The seventeenth child was recovered last April. None of the children were claimed by or were living with or among the Indians. They were taken from the field of slaughter the evening of the day their friends were killed, and conveyed in a wagon to Mr. Hamblin's house, in the east end of the valley, by John D. Lee and Daniel Tullis, and perhaps others. The following day the children were divided out and placed in different Mormon families, in Cedar City, Harmony, Santa Clara, &c., from whence they were collected, in pursuance of my di-rections. A massacre of such unparalleled magnitude, on American soil, must sooner or later demand thorough investigation. I have availed myself, during the last tmelve months, of every opportunity to obtain reliable information about the said emigrant company, and the alleged causes of and circumstances which led to their treacherous sacrifice. Mormons have been accused of aiding the Indians in the commission of this crime. I commenced my inquiries without prejudice or selfish motive, and with a hope that, in the progress of my inquiries, facts mould enable me to exculpate all white men from any participation in this tragedy, and saddle the guilt exclusively upon tbe Indians ; but, unfortunately, every step in my inquiries satisfied me that the Indians acted only a secondary part. Conflicting statements were made to me of the behavior of this emigrant company, while traveling through the Territory. I have accordingly deemed it a matter of material im-portance to make strict inquiry to obtain reliable information on this snbject ; not that bad conduct on their part could in any degree pal-liate the enormity of the crime, or be regarded as any extenuation. My object mas common justice to the surviving orphans. The result of my inquiries enables me to say that the company conducted them-selves with propriety. They were camped several days at Corn creek, Fillmore valley, adjacent to one of our Indian farms. Persons have informed me that, whilst there camped, they poisoned a large spring with arsenic, and the meat of a dead ox with strichnine. This ox died, nnqucstionably, from eating s poisonous weed, which grows in most of the valleys here. Persons in the southern part of the Territory told me last spring, when on a sonthkrn trip, that from fifteen to twenty Pall-vant Indians (of those on Corn Creelr farm) died from drinking the water of the poisoned spring and eating of the poisoned meat. Other equally unreasonable stories were told me about these unfortunate people. That an emigrant company, as respectable as I believe this was, would carry along several pounds of arsenic and strichnine,al)parently for no other purpose than to poison cattle andIndians, is too mlprobable to be true. I cannot learn that the Pah-vants had any difficulty with these people. The massacre took place only about one hundred miles south of Corn creek, and yet not any of those Indians were present. Bad white men have magnified anatural cause to aid them in exciting the southern Indians, hoping that, by so doing, they could be relied upon to exterminate the said company and escape detection themselves. Thus, on thc Monday morning subsequent to the Friday, 4th or 5th of September, the day they camped at the spring, the Indians com-menced firing upon them, and continued daily until and during the |