Bear River was done by the U.S. Military sent there to protect the overland route. Col. Conner was promoted to General after he slaughtered 250 indians, including women and children. Connor was not Mormon, neither were the participants.
I can’t speak about the Circleville massacre, don’t know anything about it.
The Shoshone Indians were on the warpath because the Mormons had murdered a 12 year Indian boy who supposedly stole a horse. The young man, a chief's son, was later exonerated, but the damage was done.
The Mormons spotted a large gathering of Shoshones, mostly women and children, led the army to the site of the massacre (by none other than Porter Rockwell), and picked off Indians fleeing the scene in an attempt to escape the slaughter.
It is ludicrous to attempt to place all of the blame for the tragedy on the army.
Nobody knows how many people were murdered in the massacre, but most estimates place about 500 Indians at the scene and virtually everyone agrees that very few survived.