Lean FF, for leading his people from persecution to their own homeland and creating a society out of the desert. There's no evidence that he ordered or showed any support for the Mountain Meadows Massacre, none at all. In fact the only evidence we have shows otherwise. Yes he was a theocrat, but a generally benevolent and tolerant one. As for polygamy, I won't judge his actions, he wasn't the one that instituted the practice and a large number of his wives were merely widows he took care of. That said, unlike Smith, he was a racist. Plus without him the Niners wouldn't have gotten Steve Young...
Well, we do know that he ordered destroyed the cairn the US army built at the site of the massacre but one year later, and we do know he participated in the cover up of the crime, and we do know he used phrases vis a vis the Francher party such as "use them up," and we do know he authorized the purloining of their property, and we do know at the time he was prepared and planning to go to war with the US. But then he changed his mind about going to war, when he realized he would lose, and he may have tried to send a message down to Southern Utah to leave the Francher party alone after he changed his mind perhaps. I suspect he did order the massacre (nothing happened in Utah without his OK, and in fact all property was owed by the LDS church; he did not allow followers to own any property, the better to control them).
There is no way to put lipstick on this pig, and make Young look pretty over any of this. He was a capable leader, but quite authoritarian and paranoid, and well - sociopathic in some ways.
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