Nephi massacre
| Nephi Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of Wakara's War | |
Cabin near the site of the Salt Creek Fort, where the massacre took place. | |
| Location | 39°42′31″N 111°50′10″W / 39.7085°N 111.8361°W Nephi, Utah |
| Date | 2 Oct 1853 |
| Target | Group of Goshute Western Shoshone people |
Attack type | Mass execution |
| Weapons | Guns, blunt weapons |
| Deaths | 7 males, ages 10–35 |
| Perpetrators | Members of the LDS Church |
| Motive | Paranoia towards Native American people during Wakara's War |
The Nephi massacre was an 1853 incident when a group of Mormons invited a group of peace-seeking Goshute Native American men, children, and one woman into their fort in Nephi, Utah and executed the seven men and took the remaining three as prisoners. The settlers were acting in retaliation for the recent deaths of four Mormons in the Fountain Green massacre done by a different nation of Native American called Ute. The settlers were from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) commonly called Mormons.
The murder of the Goshute men occurred in the midst of a series of skirmishes dubbed Wakara's War between Native Americans and Mormons in the present-day Utah region. LDS settlers at Salt Creek Fort in present-day Nephi, Utah invited the group of people inside the fort, took them prisoner, shot them in the back of the head, and buried them in a mass grave. One woman and two children from the group were taken prisoner.