Mountain Meadows Massacre, (September 1857), in U.S. history, slaughter of a band of Arkansas emigrants passing through Utah on their way to California. Angered by the U.S. government’s decision to send troops into the Utah territory, Mormons there were further incensed in 1857 when a band of emigrants set up camp 40 miles (64 km) from Cedar City. On September 7 or 8, the travelers were attacked by a party of Paiute Indians and some Mormon settlers led by John Doyle Lee. The attackers, promising safe conduct, persuaded the emigrants to lay down their arms. Then, as the band of 137 proceeded southward toward Cedar City, they were ambushed, and all except the young children were massacred. Details of the atrocity leaked out, but Lee’s trial in Beaver in 1875 resulted in a hung jury. Retried the following year, he was convicted of first degree murder and on March 23, 1877, was shot at the site of the massacre.