The Provo River Massacre, also known as the Battle of Fort Utah, was a brutal campaign of extermination carried out in 1850 under the direct orders of Brigham Young against the Timpanogos people in what is now Provo, Utah. Tensions between Mormon settlers and the Timpanogos had escalated over land disputes and trade conflicts. Rather than seeking peaceful resolutions, Young issued an Extermination Order of his own, resulting in the complete removal of the indigenous inhabitants by killing the men and enslaving some women and children.
The Extermination Order Against the Timpanogos
In the late 1840s, as Mormon settlers moved into Utah Valley, they encroached upon the land of the Timpanogos people, who had long lived in the region. Tensions escalated as settlers diverted water sources, took over prime hunting grounds, and spread disease among the native population. When conflicts arose—largely due to Mormon settlers’ expansionist practices—Brigham Young declared that the Timpanogos people were a threat that needed to be eliminated.
Young issued an extermination order against the Timpanogos, leading to a brutal assault on Fort Utah in February 1850. Mormon militia, under Young’s directive, attacked Timpanogos villages, slaughtering men, women, and children. Survivors were executed or sold into slavery among Mormon families. Heads of slain warriors were severed and displayed as trophies in an act of grotesque brutality.
In 1849 Fort Utah was established at present-day Provo. The site of the fort was an area which had been used by the Ute People for centuriesas a major campsite. The fort lay directly in the way of several hunting trails.
By 1850 Ute People had killed and stolen several cattle and horses of the fort’s occupants. One of the Mormon leaders, Isaac Higbee, lobbied for and received permission to “chastize” the Indians. LDS church President and Territorial Governor Brigham Young ordered a selective extermination campaign to be carried out against the Utah Valley Indians (Tumpanawach). All the men were to be killed. The women and children were to be saved, only if they “behave[d] themselves.”
Fred A. Conetah, A History of the Northern Ute People, 1982, Page 39
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=349507
Higbee traveled to Salt Lake City to petition personally for authority to launch a punitive expedition. On January 31 he attended a meeting with President Young, his counselors, the Quorum of the Twelve, and militia commander Daniel H. Wells, Apostle Parley P. Pratt, who had recently returned from his southern exploration, argued that the only alternatives were abandoning Utah Valley (with the resultant break in communications with settlements further south), defending the Utah Valley settlement, or leaving the Utah Valley settlers to their destruction. He recommended “it best to kill the Indians.” Higher responded that “every man and boy [in Utah Valley] held up their hand to kill them off… The record does not indicate that Higbee made any mention of the murder of Old Bishop the incident that had precipitated the dilemma. Willard Richards added to the above by declaring “my voice is for war, and exterminate them.” Young, convinced of the need for action, and persuaded by the unanimous recommendation of all those present, ordered a selective extermination campaign to be carried out against the Utah Valley Indians. He ordered that all the men were to be killed women and children to be saved if they “behave themselves” and military orders were immediately drafted to that effect by General Wells.
Howard A. Christy “Open Hand and Mailed Fist: Mormon-Indian Relations in Utah 1847-52,” 1978. Utah Historical Quarterly. Page 224
https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/uhq_volume46_1978_number3/12
http://ereserve.library.utah.edu/Annual/HIST/4660/Reeve/open.pdf
Kill Them All – Extermination Meeting Minutes
Here is an honest attempt at reading the minutes of this meeting between Brigham Young, the First Presidency, the Twelve Apostles, including Parly P. Pratt and Willard Richards, Isaac Higbee, Bishop of Fort Utah, and Daniel H. Wells, the leader of the Nauvoo Legion Militia.
Brother Isaac Higbee, says Indians are continually prizing our cattle, herding horses, and they shot at our boys. We have lost between 50-60 head. They cannot sustain themselves there. We drink our cattle down in the morning a bring them up at night. The Indians find … our corps .. with arrows. Others with a tomahawk … They say the Mormon are not … They want to fight and will live on our cattle. They say they mean to keep our cattle, and go and get … other Indians to kill us
PPP: my own mind is I can only see 3 ways. The place be abandoned then they could … all the of Creation or we are to defend them, or leave them to destruction.
Higbee: We can not defend our cattle unless there is a company of men. There are 25 close by 50 or 75 on the other side of lake.
P.P.P.: I feel it best to kill the Indians, but when I seen the … on hill you can get instructions.
Higbee: every man try held up their hands to kill them off. We have 60 men to bear arms -They say we are afraid to kill them.
PPP: … different Indians to these. There can be no communication without a settlement at Utah.
WR: My voice is for war, exterminate them.
BY: I say go kill them! (all hands held up)
Higbee: We thought we should want both to do it.
BY: Tell D. Huntington to go and kill them, also Barney Ward. Let the women and children live if they behave themselves
PPP: I would take the women a child, and clothe them, and divide them, make sure they do what we want, dont let them crawl about.
BY: We shall have no peace until the men are killed off – Never treat an Indian as your equal.
There was a call of 50 men – get them & take them up with you – they are stengthened up the last year, they gather man from other tribes to come a steal our cattle and horses. It is the western tribe that come to steal in this valley.
Brigham Young, Council meeting for January 31 and Sunday public meeting for February 10. Recorded by Thomas Bullock.
https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/6954191d-118f-466b-8154-def3524d5553/0/7
This led Daniel H. Wells, as the commander of the Nauvoo Legion militia, to issue a special order directing the militia to “exterminate” the natives.
You are hereby ordered to raise forth with a company of fifty officer men and see they are provisioned with horses, guns, and ammunitions, and rations sufficient for twenty days, and present with said company to Fort Utah, in the Utah Valley with as little delay as possible. There to cooperate with the inhbitants of said valley in quelling and staying the operations of all hostile Indians and otherwise act, as the circumstances may require, exterminating such, as do not separate theselves from their hostile clans, and sue for peace.
Daniel H. Wells, Major General, Nauvoo Legion, “Special Order” January 31, 1850
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DanielHWellsSpecialOrderNumber1.png
The campaign was carried out by Mormon militia forces, who attacked Timpanogos villages along the Provo River, slaughtering men, women, and children. Any submissive survivors, only women and children, were captured and enslaved by Mormon families under the guise of “adoption.” The violence was relentless, with decapitations and severed heads being displayed at Fort Utah as trophies.
The early Mormon military sometimes had a policy of “taking no prisoners.” On February 9, 1850, Daniel H. Wells wrote to George D. Grant, “Take no hostile Indians as prisoners” and “let none escape but do the work up clean.” Thus, killing Indians was not just allowed, but was sometimes ordered. Negotiations were often not even attempted; instead, the adversarial military point of view prevailed, which judged success by body count.
Todd M Compton, “Becoming a ‘Messenger of Peace’: Jacob Hamblin in Tooele” Dialogue, February 2011
https://www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V42N01_13.pdf
This massacre highlights the stark hypocrisy of the Mormon Church’s persecution narrative. Today, the church still condemns Missouri’s 1838 Extermination Order against Mormons, but have largely ignored and whitewashed Brigham Young’s own Extermination Orders against indigenous peoples. This event, along with others like the Mountain Meadows Massacre, illustrates the violent theocratic rule of Young, far from the benevolent pioneer the church portrays him to be.
A Forgotten Massacre in Mormon History
The Mormon Church often speaks of the persecution it faced in Missouri, highlighting the 1838 Extermination Order, signed by Governor Lilburn Boggs, which declared that Mormons must be “exterminated or driven from the state.” This order is frequently cited as evidence of the unjust treatment suffered by early church members.
The church forgets to mention that it was first the church leader Sidney Rigdon who called for the “extermination” of those who opposed the Mormon settlements in Missouri. The official Order only responds to the violent rhetoric the church started months earlier.
Rarely acknowledged, however, is that Brigham Young himself issued similar extermination orders against the Indigenous Timpanogos people of Utah, culminating in the Battle of Fort Utah (also known as the Provo River Massacre) in 1850. The difference is that these orders were carried out completely. The Timpanogos people never recovered and never had a place in the Utah Valley again. This was part of the plan so that the “Saints” could settle the area completely.
Why Brigham Young Ordered the Extermination of the Timpanogos People
At the time Brigham Young and his wagons first entered the area we know as Utah in 1847, the Timpanogos People were the first prominent tribe that began to see their resources consumed by the Mormon Pioneers. Before the Mormons had arrived, the Timpanogos had already met with European explorers, mostly the Spanish Franciscan missionaries. This however was the first time the intruders made permanent settlements in the Salt Lake Valley where several indigenous nations hunted and gathered to prepare for the winter. Lumber, hunting grounds, water from natural springs and other essential resources suddenly disappeared. The fragile ecosystem that had fed the indigenous people over the last 10,000 years was turned upside-down in the space of 2 years.
The Timpanogos people in desperation began to steal cattle from the settlers to survive and in February of 1849 made the mistake of taking a cow from Brigham Young’s herd. Brigham Young’s immediate response in retaliation to the lost cattle was the complete extermination of the Timpanogos people.
Battle Creek Massacre Begins Mormon-led Genocide of Indians
The LDS-Church-ordained massacre of the Timpanogos People is known today as the Battle Creek Massacre. Battle Creek still exists today in the (ironically-named) town of Pleasant Grove, Utah and one can hike the steep trail that follows a dry creek (which is wet in the spring and early summer). Brigham Young ordered 35 men to “convince” the Timpanogos to stop stealing cattle and to “take such measures as would put a final end to their depredations in future.” Reference: Manuscript History of Brigham Young
There was no attempt at civil or diplomatic relief to the growing tensions. The Mormon team arrived and immediately encircled the Timpanogos camp and called out for them to surrender. The Timpanogos refused and called out to be left alone.
Unprovoked gunfire from the Mormons rang out and the divided militia sprang into chaotic action. The initial gunfire took the life of Timpanogos leader of the encampment. At least seven other Timpanogos men were killed and a pursuit began as women and children scattered into the forest… The majority of women and children scattered into the surrounding woods and gathered in a hidden part of the cold mountain creek partially submerged in order to remain undetected of the Mormon militiamen that hunted for them and some of them perished from hypothermia. The remaining women and children were caught and brought back to Salt Lake Valley as slaves…
Shortly after the massacre, Brigham Young ordered over 100 members of the LDS church to move down into the area we call Utah Valley (cities of Lehi down through Spanish Fork) and create settlements on the land that was recently occupied by the slain Timpanogos group in order to push any surviving members of the clan out of the valley permanently.
The Illegal Settlements on Timpanogos Sacred Lands
When the Mormon Settlers sent by Brigham Young (shortly after the massacres) encountered the Timpanogos on their way to settle what we call today Utah Valley, they were stopped by Timpanogos warriors who said that the Mormon settlers were no longer welcome on their lands, the Timpanogos being a peace-loving people. Dimick Huntington swore on the Timpanogos Sun God that the LDS would be peaceful and would not harm any more Timpanogos. This sacred act to the natives meant that the Mormons would keep their word, and they let the Mormon Settlers through.
The Mormons built a reinforced stockade called Fort Utah and built the fort in an area that was considered by the Timpanogos to be off limits to settle on because of the trout runs in the summer. Furthermore, the Timpanogos considered the area to be sacred grounds that were set aside for an annual fish festival that the tribe held on Provo river (a river still world-famous as a trout fishing destination). Timpanogos travelled from many miles away each year to participate in the Festival– Timpanogos from as far as what we call Sanpete County (city of Ephraim).
Mormon settlers proceeded to fence off the land, change game trail patterns, and built on top of a berry field that the Timpanogos had used to gather food for thousands of years according to their own folklore.
Murder of a Timpanog named Old Bishop
That year in the late summer, three Mormon settlers named Rufus Stoddard, Richard Ivie, and Gerome Zabrisky murdered a native man named Old Bishop because they wanted his shirt. Old Bishop was also one of the only indigenous people that was loudly outspoken about the Mormons breaking their promise to not hunt game, a promise which the Mormons had given in exchange for a promise from the Timpanogos to stop stealing cattle.
Instead of resorting to violence, the Timpanogos tribe asked Mormon leaders for material recompense for the death of Old Bishop and Brigham Young refused. Instead, he ordered the men at Fort Utah to “have dominion” over the Timpanogos people. Tensions of course rose from there. Soon, Isaac Higbee (Bishop of Fort Utah) implored the LDS Church leadership Brigham Young, Daniel H. Wells and the First Presidency of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to proactively attack and exterminate the Timpanogos people before any harm came to the Fort Utah settlers. The decision to carry out an attack was swift and 3 days later on February 2nd, 1850, Brigham Young announced the plan to attack in a general assembly of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints where he recruited a militia that left the next day to exterminate any “misbehaving indian.” This meeting is today considered the first official church-sanctioned and openly public call for the genocide of the Timpanogos People, although closed-door planning for it amongst the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the LDS Church (also the government and militia leaders) is recorded to have gone on at least a year prior to February 2nd 1850. The Battle Creek Massacre was not just an anomaly or a skirmish that arose between two military groups (the Timpanogos were a peaceful non-militaristic tribe), it was part of a wider pre-meditated effort over multiple years to make sure all Timpanogos men that did not comply were killed, and their women/children survivors sold through the slave trade of Salt Lake City.
Provo River Massacre Increases Death Toll of Natives by 20 Fold in 2 days
The Timpanogos people got wind of the attack through friendly white settlers and began preparing by reinforcing an abandoned log cabin, and many Timpanogos that were friendly to Mormons found shelter within Fort Utah.
The first day of the attack ended in a stalemate, but in the second day the Mormon militia killed 10 Timpanog warriors and the rest fled. A few more skirmishes resulted in another 8 dead Timpanogos and 1 dead Mormon militiaman.
Brigham Young, on February 8th upon hearing of the death of the Mormon militiaman, ordered the total extermination of the Timpanogos saying: “I want every Indian out.”
The militia acted quickly and surrounded a settlement of Timpanogos families that were completely taken by surprise that cold winter morning. During a two-day period they systematically murdered an estimated 100 men, women and children. Estimates by the US government tend to under-estimate events where the only surviving witnesses are the perpetrators. Scholars estimate 3 – 5 times the size of casualties when studying a combination of historical sources. These estimates also don’t account for widespread violence that was likely taking place in more remote areas of Utah and never officially documented. Since Timpanogos did not have official birth and death records, and since there is no known resurgence of Timpanogos people, we can only imagine today that these Church-ordained mass killings were more wide-spread than is currently known.
The Latter-Day Saint Indian Slave Trade and Genocide, LDSNews.org, Feb 1, 2024
https://web.archive.org/web/20241014125048/https://ldsnews.org/the-latter-day-saint-indian-slave-trade-and-genocide/
The Hypocrisy of Mormon Persecution Claims
The Mormon Church teaches its members about the injustices committed against them, particularly in Missouri, where they were forcibly expelled. Yet, the church remains largely silent about its own role as the aggressor in Utah, where Brigham Young enacted the very same policies that had once victimized his people. Young’s extermination order against the Timpanogos was not an isolated event—his tenure was marked by acts of violence, including the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857, where over 100 unarmed settlers (men, women, and children) were slaughtered under the direction of Mormon leaders.
Despite this history, the LDS Church continues to portray Brigham Young as a revered prophet and visionary leader. A recent church statement defended him, claiming that he is “by any historical standard, egregiously mischaracterized as a villainous, violent fanatic.” The evidence suggests this is not a mischaracterization, but contrary to the narrative the church promotes. Young was not merely a pioneer and prophet but a theocratic dictator who wielded his power through coercion, violence, and systematic oppression.
A Legacy of Whitewashing and Revisionism
The church’s refusal to confront Brigham Young’s violent legacy reflects a broader pattern of historical revisionism. While church leaders demand that the world remember the suffering of 19th-century Mormons, they actively suppress or downplay the suffering inflicted upon others at Mormon hands. This selective memory allows the church to maintain its persecution complex while avoiding accountability for its own past atrocities.
The battle at Fort Utah was not a mere skirmish; it was an act of genocide carried out under the orders of a man whom the church still reveres as a prophet. Suppose the LDS Church truly values honesty and integrity. In that case, it must be acknowledged that Brigham Young was not just a bold pioneer but a violent expansionist whose actions led to the deaths of countless Indigenous people. The historical record is clear—Young’s leadership was built on bloodshed, and no amount of revisionism can erase the brutal reality of his reign.
Confronting the Truth
As discussions about Brigham Young’s legacy continue, it is vital to remember those who suffered under his rule. The Timpanogos people were not faceless obstacles to Mormon settlement; they were a thriving society decimated by a campaign of extermination. Acknowledging this truth does not diminish the hardships early Mormons faced—it simply places them in a broader and more honest historical context.
The church cannot have it both ways. It cannot demand recognition for the injustices it suffered while refusing to acknowledge the injustices it committed. To move forward with integrity, the LDS Church must be willing to confront its own history—not through faith-promoting whitewashing, but through an honest reckoning with the past.
Despite Brigham Young’s well-documented history of racism, violence, and authoritarian rule, the church-owned universities—Brigham Young University (BYU), BYU-Idaho, BYU-Hawaii, and BYU-Pathway Worldwide—still bear his name as a supposed honor. This is the same man who ordered extermination campaigns against Indigenous peoples, preached white supremacy, and implemented the Priesthood Ban on Black members, a policy the church now disavows. Even his once-taught doctrines of Blood Atonement and Adam-God Theory—which he declared as revelation—have been officially redacted by the church. If his own religious teachings are no longer accepted, why does he still deserve the distinction of having an entire university system named after him? The church’s continued veneration of Brigham Young raises serious questions about its priorities and willingness to confront its past.
Brigham Young’s legacy is one of violence, racism, and authoritarian control, yet the church continues to sanitize his history to promote him as “egregiously mischaracterized” while demanding unwavering loyalty from its members. The Provo River Massacre and other acts of brutality carried out under his orders expose a stark contradiction in the church’s narrative—how can an institution that decries its own persecution simultaneously justify its own acts of massacre and extermination? For those who question, research, and deconstruct their faith, these historical realities can be devastating. While breaking from the remnants of authoritarian control and spiritual manipulation, if you have wrestled with the truth about Mormon history and its impact on your faith, you are not alone. Share your story at wasmormon.org, join the conversations to voice truth, and connect with others who have walked the same path.
More reading:
- Lilburn Boggs’ Extermination Order and Mormon War
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_at_Fort_Utah
- The Mormon Mountain Meadows Massacre
- Church Mischaracterized Since 1830: Fact or Fiction
- https://www.reddit.com/r/exmormon/comments/1ah5kwr/on_this_day_february_2nd_1850_brigham_young/
- Manuscript History of Brigham Young Kindle Edition by Brigham Young
- Founding Fort Utah, D. Robert Carter
- https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/12/01/new-website-slavery-early-utah/