Over the past two centuries, the relationship between Native American people and Mormonism has included friendly ties, displacement, violence, enslavement, education placement programs, and official and unofficial discrimination. Native American people (also called American Indians) were historically considered a special group by adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement (Mormons) since they were believed to be the descendants of the Lamanite people described in one of the faith's book of scriptures, the Book of Mormon. There is no support from genetic studies and archaeology for the historicity of the Book of Mormon or Middle Eastern origins for any Native American peoples.
The founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, formed proselyting efforts among Native American tribes within six month of organizing his church in 1830 in upstate New York. These efforts continued over the next two decades as church headquarters moved to various Midwestern States. The church allowed some interracial marriages between White and Native American adherents.
A while after Smith was killed in Illinois, the majority of his followers sided with Brigham Young as his successor. Young and followers began moving west as Mormon pioneers to the Intermountain West frontier in 1847, where they both formed alliances with and warred with the 20,000 existing Native American people there. These violent confrontations included massacres (Battle Creek, Provo River, Skull Valley, Nephi, Grass Valley, Circleville, Fountain Green, and Salt Creek) and wars (Black Hawk, Ute, Wakara's, and Posey). Young officially legalized Native American slavery in the Utah Territory in 1852, and within a decade over 400 Native American children were purchased and used as a vital source of labor in Mormon homes until slavery was banned by the federal government in 1865. Within 50 years of Mormon settlement under Young and his successors John Taylor then Wilford Woodruff, the Native American population in what is now Utah was decimated by 86%, and made up only 1.6% of Utah's population in 1890. About 30 White LDS men married Native American women during the LDS colonizing of Utah Territory.
In the 20th century, the church operated the Indian Placement Program from 1954 to 1996, with its peak during the 1960s and 1970s. The number of Native North American adherents of Mormonism grew to 45,000 by 1977. During this time church leaders continued to teach that the skin color of Native Americans was a result of a curse from God and that through following church teachings their skin color would be lightened. In the 21st century these teachings, along with those against interracial marriage were officially renounced for the first time in 2013. Today there are many Native American members of Mormon denominations. There are also many people critical of Mormonism and its teachings and actions around Native American people.
History
Under Joseph Smith
The founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, was fascinated by Native Americans from an early age. Scholars Lori Taylor and Peter Manseau believe religious teachings of then deceased Handsome Lake relayed through his nephew Red Jacket near Smith's town influenced the 16-year-old Smith. Smith later stated that in 1823 a Native American angel visited him and told him about a record that contained an ancient history of Native Americans. Smith said he translated this record from golden plates to the Book of Mormon. Smith stated in the 1842 Wentworth Letter to a Chicago newspaper editor that the book was "the history of ancient America ... from its first settlement by a colony that came from the Tower of Babel ... to the beginning of [400 CE] ... The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country." Throughout the 1800's, adherents cited the common belief of White Christians at the time that Native Americans were "red sons of Israel" descended from the lost tribes as evidence of the authenticity of the Book of Mormon account.
Adherents saw Native Americans as part of God's chosen people and they believed that preaching to them was part of the gathering of Israel which will precede the millennium. The church's long history with Native Americans is tied to their beliefs about the Book of Mormon. According to sociologist Marcie Goodman, historically Latter Day Saints held paternalistic beliefs about Native Americans needing help. Outreach to Native Americans became the first mission of Smith's newly organized Church of Christ, as the purpose of the Book of Mormon was to recover the lost remnant of the ancient children of Israel (e.g. Native Americans). Smith sent prominent members Oliver Cowdery, Parley Pratt, Peter Whitmer, Jr., and Ziba Peterson to a "Lamanite Mission" only six months after organizing the church. Though they did not have any converts and reception was lukewarm among the Seneca, Wyandot, and Shawnee people, they were well received by the Delaware people because the Book of Mormon advocated for a divine destiny for Native Americans and a divine right to their territory in the American "promised land".
During the 1840s, Smith sent missionaries to the Sioux (Dakota), Potawatomi (Bodéwadmi), and Stockbridge (Mahican) people in Wisconsin and Canada. Additionally, representatives from the Sauk (Asakiwaki) and Fox (Meskwaki) people met with Smith at the Latter Day Saint headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois. Smith was quoted in a Nauvoo Council of Fifty meeting as stating "If the Lamanites won't hearken to our council, they shall be oppressed & killed until they will do it." Counselor Orson Spencer stated subsequently that "The gospel to [Native Americans] is, they have been killed and scattered in consequence of their rejecting the everlasting Priesthood, and if they will return to the Priesthood and hearken to council, they shall have council enough, that shall save both them and us." Later, Potawatomi leaders asked the Mormons to join them in an alliance with some other tribes, but Smith declined. The governor of Iowa John Chambers was wary of these meetings which were reported to him by interpreter Hitchcock, as Chambers believed Smith was "an exceedingly vain and vindictive fellow" who might use an alliance with Potowatomi people to start a conflict to seek revenge against Missouri.
Under Brigham Young
After Smith's death and six months of a succession crisis, Brigham Young became leader of the majority of Smith's followers and the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Young discussed an alliance with some Native American nations with other top leaders but these efforts were abandoned in 1846 as Young's followers were preparing to migrate west. According to former Church Historian and emeritus church Seventy Marlin Jensen, before Mormon colonization of the region there were about 20,000 Native American people in the Great Basin. These included the Shoshone, Goshute, Ute, Paiute, and Navajo nations. The settlers initially had some peaceful relations, but because resources were scarce in the desert, hostilities broke out. As tens of thousands of LDS colonizers arrived and took over the land, and resources Native Americans had used for thousands of years diminished, native nations felt they had to resist for their survival. By the 1850s there were already hundreds of Mormon colonial settlements made in the Mountain West stretching hundreds of miles from Idaho to Southern California, and Young petitioned the federal government to remove all Native people to distant reservations.
Relationship during Utah War Mormon relations with Native Americans were a significant factor in President Buchanan's decision to order the U.S. army to Utah, beginning a conflict that would later be called the Utah War. Brigham Young and other church leaders taught that by accepting baptism and intermarriage with Mormons, Native Americans would fulfill a Book of Mormon prophecy that Lamanites would return to the House of Israel. While it is no longer a core tenet of the Latter-day faith, at the time leaders taught that "the time had arrived when all the wicked should be destroyed from the face of the earth, and that the Indians would be the principal means by which this object should be accomplished." Gaining Native American allies was a key part of Brigham Young's strategy to maintain independence from the United States.
In 1855 Brigham Young called 160 missionaries to preach to North American Native Americans from the west coast to the Mississippi; over the next three years at least three hundred missionaries would construct mission forts among tribes along major immigration trails. In a report to the commissioner of Indian affairs, Garland Hurt wrote, "There is perhaps not a tribe on the continent that will not be visited... [to create] a distinction in the minds of the Indian tribes of this Territory between the Mormons and the people of the United States." Reports from Indian agents across the country confirmed Hurt's statements. Furthermore, in the spring of 1857, Brigham Young violated federal law when he travelled outside of his jurisdiction as Utah's Superintendent of Indian affairs to meet with Native American leaders throughout the Oregon territory and give them gifts, which he later falsely reported were presents he gave to Indians in Utah.
Federal law made it a crime to alienate Indians from the United States government, and the president had the power to use military force to stop anyone attempting to do so. As continuing problems from the territory became harder for US politicians to ignore, Stephen A. Douglas stated that "The Mormon Government, with Brigham Young at its head, is now forming alliance with Indian tribes in Utah and adjoining territories--stimulating the Indians to acts of hostility." Despite public denials of this accusation, Nauvoo Legion commanders were concurrently ordered to warn Native Americans that they must unite together with the Mormons against the US government or be killed off by Americans separately. As Brigham Young cut off emigration routes between the Eastern states and California (blaming Native American violence for the closures) President Buchanan ordered the US army to escort a new governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs to the Utah territory.
Ultimately, while Mormons were able to establish some alliances with Southern Paiute tribes, the refusal of tribes in the north of Utah disrupted one of Brigham Young's primary war strategies. In particular, Young was taken by surprise by the Bannock and Shoshone attack on the Mormon missionary Fort Lemhi for the benefit of the US troops. This miscalculation of Native American alliances led him to begin overtures of peace with the US army.
Young's policies after the Utah War By 1860 the population of Mormon migrants in Utah had grown to 40,000 and within another ten years that number had doubled to 86,000. By 1890 Native Americans made up only 1.6% of Utah's population. Over a century later in 2010 that number had remained about the same at 1.3%. Within 50 years of Mormon settlement the population of Utah's Native Americans had gone from 20,000 to under 2,700, a large decline of 86%. Young stated, "towards so degraded and ignorant a race of people, it was manifestly more economical and less expensive, to feed and clothe, than fight them."