 Although he wrote in his unofficial capacity, one of the authors, Turley, had been serving as an administrator over the church's historical programs since 1986.Beginning their work in 2001, the authors did not intend to respond to earlier treatments on the massacre, but to instead take a "fresh approach" and amass all possible primary sources.Aside from available academic and scholarly sources, they were also granted access to the LDS First Presidency's archives.