In Sally in Three Worlds: An Indian Captive in the House of Brigham Young, Virginia Kerns relates the story of the settlement of Utah through the life of Sally, a Pahvant Ute woman who lived in Brigham Young’s household. On … Continued
America B.C. will be welcomed by thousands of Latter-day Saint readers. In it Fell gives a vigorous blow to anthropological and linguistic orthodoxy by claiming, and to some degree demonstrating, that a wide variety of European peoples crossed the Atlantic … Continued
When pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to Utah, relations between the Mormons and the Native Americans were inevitable. Brigham Young acted as Indian superintendent from 1850 to 1857 and created “Indian Farms,” including a particularly important farm in Spanish Fork, Utah. When the U.S. government took over Indian relations, a Ute Treaty was created in 1865, and the Native American chiefs of the area (including Kanosh, San Pitch, and Sow-e-ett) signed over tribal lands for a reservation and security in the Uintah Valley. Brigham Young, who had earned trust with the chiefs, encouraged the Indians to sign the treaty, saying that if they did not sell their land the government would take it away anyway. Some of the incentives for signing the treaty included “presents” of clothing and blankets. However, the treaty was rejected in Washington, and by 1871 the Utes lost faith in Washington and its promises. Gustive O. Larson chronicles the events leading up to, during, and following the signing of the treaty.
Kendall A. Blanchard deserves praise for attempting, as too few have done, a serious study of the effects of Christian ideals on the traditional Indian economy.
Rejecting Max Weber’s classic thesis that Protestantism provided the ethical underpinning for capitalism, Blanchard adapted S. N. Eisenstadt’s ideas in “The Protestant-Ethic Thesis in an Analytical and Comparative Framework” from The Protestant-Ethic and Modernization in creating his own two-dimensional model relating theology, ethics, and economics. One dimension compares the economic behavior of Navajos who still practice their traditional religion with the economic behavior of Mormon and Nazarene Navajo converts. The other dimension compares the degree of church activity of these Navajo Christians with the degree of their active acceptance of their religions’ ethics.
Using this model, Blanchard concludes that Nazarene and Mormon Navajos make more money, have better jobs, have more education and technical training, and consequently are more successful, from the white viewpoint, than those Navajos who follow their traditional religious ways. His research reveals, however, that the Navajo converts fail to internalize Nazarene and Mormon values, so Weber’s Protestant-ethic thesis cannot explain why they succeed economically. It is not the religious ideology, but the institutional activities of the two churches that causes the economic change, says Blanchard, as the converts accept not theological values, but practical benefits like better education, employment, and standard of living.
Brigham Young has been acclaimed as one of America’s greatest colonizers, empire builders, and religious leaders, and there is no doubt that his achievements left an indelible imprint upon the pages of western frontier history. Many of his accomplishments, however, need to be seen against a silhouette of his experience with the native Americans. His relations with the Indians were more than pious expressions of good will or statements of empty dreams, hopes, and visions for the future of the Indians. They were also more than simple deeds of kindness or acts of violence. The relations of Brigham Young with the Indians were a blend of his social-religious humanitarian philosophy and practical measures that he thought necessary for establishing the Mormon kingdom of God on earth.
Even though he preferred to use peaceful means, he anticipated that conflicts would occur between the Saints and the Indians; so he urged his people to build forts for their protection. When the forts proved inadequate during periods of intense violence, he ordered the Nauvoo Legion to fight the “hostile” natives. Finally, when he realized that some Indian problems could not be solved either by military or peaceful means, he requested the federal government remove the Indians from the Great Basin to some remote unsettled region where the slow change of their life-style would be less troublesome.
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There are reminiscent stories about the last days of the Ute chief Black Hawk. Tormented by his several years’ warpath and pillage, the physically broken warrior toured central and southern Utah asking forgiveness. At times, his rite bordered on self-flagellation. Tonsured at his request as an act of penance, he spoke of his obvious decline and of Brigham Young’s dark prophecy that those who opposed the Saints would inevitably wither. Would the settlers, he asked, absolve him?
At first I set the tableau aside. While aware of Black Hawk’s conciliatory last travels, I thought stories of maledictions and penance were too pat and after the fact. But as my research continued, primary sources confirmed their outline. My experience, with a figure and episode of more than ordinary importance, suggests the incomplete and tentative nature of studies of Native Americans in the Brigham Young era. To be sure, much has been done. Consult the catalog of any large Utah or Mormon repository, and you will find an abundance of articles on Native Americans. But the work is episodic and often uneven. At best scholars have illuminated perspectives rather than panoramas. Just to cite a few examples, we still wait for major studies of the Walker and Tintic wars—not to mention Utah Indian wars in general. We have neither monograph nor book on the Utah militia. With two or three exceptions, Indian biography, tribal surveys, and ecohistories have not been undertaken, at least in depth. Brigham Young’s Indian dealing, his role as ex officio superintendent of Indian affairs, his directives relating to the Gunnison and Mountain Meadows massacres, and his ongoing relationship with Saint and Indian all require further study. Also needed are surveys dealing with government agents and policy, pertinent law, trading and commerce, the overlooked events of the last decade of Brigham Young’s leadership, and Mormon-Indian relations, especially at the daily level of ordinary settlers and tribesmen. Above all, we need summary and synthesis. The length of this laundry list is surprising on at least two counts. Since mid-twentieth century, Mormon history has been a fruitful enterprise. Scores of increasingly sophisticated articles and books arrive each year, yet with short shrift rendered to Indian studies. In contrast, one need only scan the Western Historical Quarterly’sles and reviews to document that at the same time western and national historians have given dramatic and leading attention to the topic.
Striking similarities between the cultures of the Old and New Worlds before 1492 indicate there were early contacts between the hemispheres, resulting in the civilizations influencing each other.
When white Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah, they encountered Shoshoni, Ute, and Paiute natives. This article draws upon Mormon records as well as interviews of natives who knew the old ways. Family and social structure was fluid; native childhood looked permissive to the Mormons. Women had some say in choosing a marriage partner. The article looks at lifestyle during stages of life, marriage, vocational roles, intercultural adaptation, and the social status of women.
No record reveals any significant contact between the Mormons and the Indians of Nebraska before the Saints left Nauvoo; Mormon experiences with the Indians in Nebraska began during the epic march of the Latter-day Saints to the Great Basin. During the Nauvoo period, however, the Saints enjoyed a particularly friendly relationship with some Indian tribes in Iowa—the Sac, Fox, and Potawatomi. On several occasions, these Indian bands came to Nauvoo, and the Mormons frequently sent men to strengthen their ties with these friendly natives before the Mormon hegira. At the same time, Lyman Wight made contact with some Plains Indians in Texas, and James Emmett spent the winter of 1845 among the Sioux in what became South Dakota. But, apparently, no Mormons made contact with the Omaha, Ponca, Otoe, or Pawnee before 1846 when the Saints spent their historic winter among the natives of Nebraska.
Seeking a proper relationship with both Indians and Indian agents, the Mormon leaders on 20 June 1846 visited the Indian agency at Trading Point and met with the government agent and several Indian chiefs. The meeting was friendly, and the government agent promised to do all in his power to help the Mormons in their move west.6
