None Left to Tell

reflects on the hardships of the four-month journey from Arkansas to California. Her children have become “feral,” with six-year-old Nancy dragging a dead snake and her 17-year-old daughter, Mary, encouraging the behavior to keep her snake-fearing brothers away. 

The family is making the difficult trek primarily for Mary’s health, as her tuberculosis has improved in the dry climate. Katrina misses the civility of her old life but focuses on her family’s survival, repeating a personal mantra: “We’re safe. We’re together. We’re nearly there” (7).

As the wagon train approaches Corn Creek, Katrina’s nine-year-old son, William, frightens his sisters with tales of Mormons. Katrina scolds him, recalling their wagon train leader, Captain Alexander Fancher, had assured them the Mormons were friendly traders. 

When they finally reach the creek, Katrina sees her husband, Peter, standing over a steer he has just shot. She notices a scratch on his neck, which he explains he got when the agitated animal charged him with its horn.

The scratch on Peter’s neck quickly becomes a severe, swollen infection, and he falls gravely ill. The next morning, the local Paiute, led by Chief Kanosh, order the wagon train to leave Corn Creek. 

As Peter’s condition worsens, Peter’s brother, Uri, and son James ride to the nearby Mormon settlement of Fillmore for a doctor. They are met by a hostile Mormon militia who refuse them aid, calling them “gentiles” and accusing them of being associated with the man who killed Mormon apostle Parley P. Pratt. Unable to get medicine, Uri and James return empty-handed. Peter dies soon after. The party buries him in a shallow grave, forced to move on quickly.

The perspective shifts to Kahpeputz, a young Bannock woman who has been given the name “Sally.” Sally had been a servant in Utah governor Brigham Young’s household and in a political gesture, was given by Young to Chief Kanosh as his fourth wife. 

Disliked by Kanosh’s other wives, Sally is sent alone to the Mormon town of Fillmore to bake bread with a settler named Lucy Robison. On her way, she passes the emigrants’ camp and finds Nancy Huff crying over her father’s death. Feeling a connection, Sally gives Nancy a small, cherished yucca horse that belonged to her deceased childhood friend, Tyee.

In Fillmore, a Mormon settler named Lucy Robison is surprised when Sally arrives alone and speaks some English. Sally explains that the emigrants left behind four dead steers and offers Lucy two of the skins in exchange for the month’s bread. Lucy sends her 14-year-old son, Proctor, to skin the animals. When Proctor returns hours later, he collapses from his horse, his face red and an eye swollen shut.

Proctor’s condition rapidly deteriorates. He explains that while skinning the carcasses at Corn Creek, a drop of the dead steer’s blood got into his eye. The local bishop and doctor, Bishop Brunson, examines the boy and concludes he was poisoned. Brunson blames the “gentiles” of the Fancher party, theorizing they doubled back and laid poison on the steers they had abandoned at Corn Creek after being turned away from Fillmore when they sought medicine.

Proctor dies from the infection. At his funeral, Apostle George A. Smith delivers a sermon that stokes the congregation’s fear and anger. He recounts the history of Mormon persecution by gentiles in Missouri and Illinois, linking it to the current political standoff with the U.S. government. He casts the emigrants as part of this ongoing threat and urges the community to prepare for a holy war, telling them to trust in God but “keep your gun powder dry” (42).

In an excerpt from a sermon delivered in August 1855, Utah Governor and Latter-Day Saints (LDS) Church President Brigham Young addresses the persecution his people have faced. He declares his intention to retaliate against their enemies by employing the same tactics used against them, specifically endorsing mob rule. Young then gives a direct and violent order to his followers, instructing them to cut the throats of any “miserable scoundrels” who enter their community. A scribe’s note adds that the congregation voiced its approval of this command with a unanimous “Amen.”

In a letter, Brigham Young warns that if the U.S. government continues to challenge his authority, he will stop all travel across the continent, threatening to unleash “the knife and the tomahawk” (45) of his Indigenous allies on wagon trains.

Back at Corn Creek, Sally watches as several Paiutes fall ill and die after eating the meat from the steers left by the emigrants. The village women engage in ritual mourning, cutting their hair and slashing their skin with sharp rocks. Sally, an outsider, participates only superficially, feeling disconnected from their grief.

Chief Kanosh travels to Salt Lake City to consult with Brigham Young about the recent deaths. While he is gone, Sally reflects on her past. 

Sally was captured as a child and eventually sold to a Mormon man who gave her as a servant to Brigham Young’s wife, Clara. She recalls serving biscuits and jam during meetings between Young and local chiefs, where she caught the eye of Kanosh during a closing prayer. Days later, Clara informed her that she would be sent to Kanosh as a wife.

While fetching water, Sally learns the truth about the mysterious illness from Awan, Chief Kanosh’s son. He explains that the cattle died from eating locoweed, a poisonous plant, and that the people who ate the tainted meat were also poisoned. He says his mother, Inola, suspected this but was ignored by the other women. 

Awan tells Sally that war with the U.S. government has begun and that the Mormons are their allies. Sally reveals her birth name, Kahpeputz, to Awan, and they form a secret bond.

In August 1857, Brigham Young issues a two-part proclamation. Addressing the citizens of Utah, he declares that a hostile U.S. force is invading with the intent to destroy them. Citing a long history of betrayal, persecution, and violence by the U.S. government, he asserts their duty to defend themselves and officially declares martial law throughout the territory.

In the second part, addressed to the commander of the invading army, Young reasserts his authority as governor and superintendent of Indian Affairs. He forbids any armed forces from entering Utah without his express permission. He warns that the army’s hostile actions have agitated the local Indigenous tribes, and as a consequence, he can no longer guarantee the safety of westward-bound caravans. He concludes that these travelers now cross the territory at their own peril.

Katrina experiences grief as her wagon train nears Mountain Meadows. Tensions are high after a hostile encounter in Cedar City, where Uri argued with the Mormon militia over their refusal to trade supplies. Uri suspected the Mormons had received the party’s stolen cattle from the Paiutes, after recognizing their brands on animals the Mormons rode out of town. After the confrontation, Captain Fancher had the party leave the area quickly.

In Fillmore, Lucy Robison reflects on her past. She recalls her conversion to Mormonism, the violent persecution she and her husband Vick endured in New York and Illinois, and the sacred oath they took in the Nauvoo temple to avenge the murder of their prophet, Joseph Smith. 

Throughout Lucy’s community, war preparations are in full swing, as ordered by Brigham Young. Meanwhile, Vick has just received approval from church leaders to take a second wife.

Chief Kanosh returns from Salt Lake with Mormon militia battalion leaders Major John Higbee and Major Isaac Haight, along with Apostle George A. Smith. 

The Mormon leaders deliver inflammatory speeches, framing their conflict with the U.S. government as a shared struggle against American oppression. Haight tells the Paiutes that taking the emigrants’ cattle and plunder is “payment for all that the American government has stolen” (77) from them. He notes the wagons are already arriving in the Meadow canyon.

The Fancher party arrives at the lush Mountain Meadows. That evening, they are visited by a starving group of Mormon deserters, or “apostates.” One man recounts a horrific story of his son’s wife being ritually executed for infidelity under the church’s doctrine of “blood atonement.” A woman from the group warns Captain Fancher that local Mormons are furious with his party, believing they poisoned the steers at Corn Creek. Fearing danger by association, the deserters refuse the offer to camp with the wagon train and quickly move on.

While Kanosh is gone, Sally and Awan grow closer. Awan shares that his mother’s twin sister was abducted by Ute raiders as a child. This trauma resonates with Sally’s own. Their shared history helps Sally connect with the other women. Inola, Awan’s mother and Kanosh’s first wife, begins to treat Sally with kindness, even giving her a warm rabbit-skin blanket.

Bishop Brunson visits Vick Robison late at night, ordering him to join the Mormon militia reinforcements heading north to fight the U.S. Army. Vick reveals a secret plan to his wife, Lucy: Brigham Young has sanctioned Indigenous raids on wagon trains to create chaos and pressure the U.S. government. He tells her that Chief Kanosh and the Paiutes are already moving south to stampede the Fancher party’s cattle. Vick then leaves to join the militia.

At dawn, the Fancher party is ambushed at Mountain Meadows. Gunfire erupts from the heavy mist. Katrina, who is away from her own wagon, witnesses a neighbor’s seven-year-old daughter, America Dunlap, get shot and fall into a campfire. Assailants with bare chests and arms and legs painted red and white charge the camp but are driven back by the emigrants’ return fire. Uri is badly wounded in the shoulder.

Katrina rushes back to her wagon and is relieved to find her children are alive. The men of the wagon train, under the command of a wounded Captain Fancher, begin to circle the wagons and dig a defensive trench. The injured Uri orders Katrina to drive her wagon to close a gap in the formation and sends her sons, James and William, to help dig. Terrified but determined, Katrina calms the panicked oxen by singing the song that Peter used to sing to placate them. She successfully maneuvers the wagon into place, passing the bodies of her slain neighbors as the siege begins.