The founding families of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were "chased by Indians" as they trekked across the west in the mid-1800s, The New York Times reports in a story about Mormon support for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Fleeing persecution, the families eventually settled in Utah. It was there that Mormons wrongly blamed a September 11, 1857, massacre on the Paiute Tribe.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which 120 settlers from Arkansas were killed as they passed through Utah, has been raised during Romney's previous campaigns for office. "That was a terrible, awful act carried out by members of my faith," he told the Associated Press in 2007.

The Mormon Church has apologized for the massacre.

Get the Story:
Mormons’ First Families Rally Behind Romney (The New York Times 7/17)

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