The “Danites” were a secret, oath-bound paramilitary organization formed by members of the early Mormon church in June 1838. While they officially existed for only about five months during the “Mormon-Missouri War,” they have become one of the most enduring and controversial symbols of religious vigilantism. To some, they were a necessary defense against violent mobs; to others, they were a “secret police” used to intimidate dissenters and carry out reprisals against the church’s enemies.
The Secret Origins in Missouri
The group was founded in Far West, Missouri, by Sampson Avard, a recent convert. Avard organized the brethren into companies of tens and fifties, modeling them after Old Testament Israelite armies. The name “Danites” was derived from the biblical tribe of Dan, with Avard reportedly telling members they would “take the kingdom and possess it forever.”
Initially, the Danites focused on “internal security.” They used intimidation and threats to force “dissenters”—former high-ranking Mormons like Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer—to flee the community. However, as tensions with non-Mormon Missourians escalated, the group’s mission shifted toward guerrilla warfare, including raiding and burning nearby towns they believed were centers of anti-Mormon activity.
A Century of Denial
For over a hundred years, the official stance of the LDS Church was that the Danites were an anti-Mormon myth or, at most, a small group of rogue individuals acting without any official approval. Church leaders and historians frequently dismissed the accounts of Danite violence as “fables” created by enemies of the faith to justify the persecution of Mormons. This denial was a cornerstone of early 20th-century LDS history.
“The Danites, as a secret organization, never existed in the Church. It was a bugaboo created by the imagination of its enemies.” — Essentials in Church History (1922), by Joseph Fielding Smith (10th LDS President).
By labeling the group a “bugaboo” or a ghost story, the church leadership effectively scrubbed the Danites from the official narrative for generations. This allowed the church to maintain a sanitized version of its history, painting the Missouri conflict as one where the saints were exclusively passive victims of unprovoked violence.
Recent Transparency and the Joseph Smith Papers
In recent decades, a movement toward historical transparency has led the LDS Church to acknowledge the reality of the Danites. The publication of the Joseph Smith Papers, an exhaustive project to make every document related to the founder available to the public, has provided the evidence necessary to confirm that the group was real and operated with the knowledge of church leadership.
“The Danites were a group of Latter-day Saints who organized in June 1838… and were bound by covenant to support one another and to sustain the First Presidency in all things… Evidence suggests that Joseph Smith and his counselors Sidney Rigdon and Hyrum Smith approved of the organization.” — The Joseph Smith Papers: Glossary (Official LDS Publication).
This admission marks a massive shift from the denials of the previous century. The modern church now acknowledges that the “Danite constitution” and their military activities were part of a coordinated effort to maintain internal control and defend the community through force.
The “Destroying Angels” and the Utah Myth
While the formal Danite organization disbanded after the Mormons were expelled from Missouri in 1838, the spirit of the group traveled west to Utah. In the mid-to-late 19th century, rumors persisted of a group of “Destroying Angels” who enforced the will of Brigham Young.
Men like Porter Rockwell and John D. Lee were often identified by the public as Danites. While no formal “Danite” organization existed in Utah, these individuals often acted as vigilantes or “enforcers” of theocratic order. This historical reality was heavily sensationalized by Victorian-era novelists, which cemented the image of the “Mormon Danite” as a shadowy assassin in the public imagination. They appear in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet (1887).
A Biblical Warning Against “Secret Combinations”
From a biblical perspective, the Danites represent a dangerous departure from the ethics of Jesus. The New Testament warns against “secret combinations” and the use of violence to establish the Kingdom of God. When Peter drew a sword to defend Jesus, the Lord rebuked him, saying, “Those who use the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52).
2 Corinthians 10:4 We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.
Biblical Christianity does not require a secret militia or a “bodyguard” for the truth. The Gospel is advanced through the power of the Holy Spirit, transparency, and sacrificial love—not through oaths of secrecy or the intimidation of enemies. The Danites serve as a historical warning of what happens when a religious group believes that the “ends justify the means.”
The Takeaway
The Danites were a short-lived but highly influential secret society that used violence and intimidation to protect the early Mormon church. While the LDS Church spent over a century denying their existence, recent historical projects like the Joseph Smith Papers have confirmed they were real and leadership-approved. As followers of Jesus, our calling is not to “conquer the kingdom” through secret oaths, but to serve the King through open, honest, and non-violent witness to the world.
