Adding Some Names to the Literary Corral

In “The West--A Literary State of Mind” (View, April 1), writer Frank Waters is quoted as saying that the “golden myth of the West is an epic of cruel conquest” (with the cavalry wiping out Indians), and Westward expansion is a joke and blot on American history.

When Mormon pioneers under the leadership of Brigham Young migrated west from Nauvoo, Ill., and first settled the Great Salt Lake valley in July, 1847, they befriended and fed Indian tribes and carved out new settlements throughout the West.

I suggest researcher-writer Waters visit the Tucson and Huntington libraries and write another book on the 19th-Century Mormons who helped build up the American West.

KENNETH LLOYD LARSON, Los Angeles