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reiterated his policy. He warned that if they killed Indians for stealing they would have to "answer for it."29 Leaders of the Utah Valley settlement were not persuaded. Determined to take action, Isaac 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." Higbee 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. Wells's "Special Order No. 2," dated January 31 and addressed to Capt. George D. Grant, commander of the militia company sent from Great Salt Lake City, reads in part: You are hereby ordered . . . to cooperate with the inhabitants of said [ U t a h ] Valley in quelling a n d staying the operations of all hostile I n d i a n s a n d otherwise act, as the circumstances m a y require, e x t e r m i n a t i n g such, as do not separate themselves from their hostile clans, a n d sue for peace.
The next day Young met with Capt. Howard Stansbury, head of a unit of U.S. Army Topographic Engineers carrying out land surveys in Utah, who encouraged an attack on the Utah Valley Indians and offered his fullest support. On February 2, 1850, Young addressed the general assembly and announced his decision.3" 29 Ibid., January 29, 1850. Young proposed: " W h y should men have a disposition to kill a destitute, naked Indian, who may steal a shirt or a horse and think it no harm, when they never think of meting out a like retribution to a white man who steals, although he has been taught better from infancy?" 10 An account of the dialogue of the January 31 meeting can be found in BYC, Microfilm reel 80, box 47, folder 6. Brigham Young is quoted as stating: "I say go [and] kill them. . . . Tell Dimick H u n t i n g t o n to go and kill them—also Barney Ward—let the women and children live if they behave themselves. . . . We have no peace until the men [are] killed off—never treat the Indian as your equal." Wells's Special Order No. 2 can be found in the U t a h State Archives,
