Category: American West

Martha Hughes Cannon was the first female state senator in the United States, elected in Utah shortly after women won the right to vote there. A physician, suffragist, and plural wife, she navigated political campaigns, medical practice, and family life while under intense public scrutiny. In this interview, historian Constance L. Lieber shares the challenges of condensing Cannon’s life into a brief biography, the insights gained from surviving letters and family stories, and the surprising ways Cannon’s perseverance and ingenuity shaped her extraordinary life.

The Utah War is a pivotal episode in the history of the American West. For those crossing the overland trails in 1857, it meant cold camps, political suspicion, and constant fear of attack. One of the most vivid firsthand accounts comes from a civilian teamster named William Clark, whose memoir captures the uncertainty and danger as Johnston’s Army advanced toward Salt Lake City under mounting tension and disrupted supply lines. In this interview, historians William P. MacKinnon and Kenneth L. Alford explore Clark’s remarkable journey—and what it reveals about the Utah War.

John D. Lee played a central role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre—helping plan the killings, deceiving the victims under a white flag, and later admitting to personally murdering “five emigrants and possibly six.” He also looted the bodies, claimed that God preserved his life during the attack, and slept soundly the night after the massacre. Yet, despite these actions—and his own confessions—Lee is still sometimes remembered as a scapegoat. He helped craft that narrative himself, not by initially denying his guilt but by protesting that he alone was punished while others escaped justice.

There was a coverup in the aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It was perpetrated by local religious leaders and massacre participants, some of whom purposefully deceived Brigham Young about what happened. The cover-up set in motion a confusing series of events with consequences that can still be seen today. The tragic story of the massacre’s aftermath is now available in a new book by Rick Turley and Barbara Jones Brown, published by Oxford University Press. In this interview, they explain the complicated aftermath of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.