The Oatman massacre is among the most famous and dramatic captivity stories in the history of the Southwest. Roys Oatman, a dissident Mormon, led his family and a few others on a journey west, believing a prophecy that they would find the fertile "Land of Bashan". On February 18, 1851, a band of southwestern Indians attacked the family on a cliff overlooking the Gila River in present-day Arizona. All but three members of the family were killed. The...