Indian Missions

The Warning of Samuel, the Lamanite. From The Children's Friend, November, 1925. "Samuel, the Lamanite" was a Book of Mormon prophet who was persecuted for preaching repentence and the advent of Jesus Christ.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in 1830 in New York.^[1] In just over a decade, missionary work grew Church membership into the thousands. Differences in political and cultural practices with the communities around them led to persecution, violence, and multiple forced relocations. The murder of the founder and church leader, Joseph Smith, in 1844 sparked a mass exodus of Latter-day Saints from the United States to the West. Led by a new leader, Brigham Young, Church members arrived in Utah in 1847. Isolated in a new territory, the settlers quickly realized the importance of building relationships with nearby Native American groups.^[2]

"Indian" missions were established almost as quickly as homesteads and farming endeavors.^[3] The Church had a special interest in Indigenous nations, believing them to be a lost tribe of Israel. Many early Church records refer to Native Americans as Lamanites in reference to their book of scripture about the Americas.^[4]  Young instructed missionaries to pursue friendships with Native nations, preaching, “God planted us here in the vallies of Ephraim, our business is to save Israel, we are brought to these vallies for a good purpose.”^[5]

Jacob Hamblin. Painting by Del Parson. This painting depicts Jacob Hamblin on a diplomatic assignment in Central Utah to mediate after a serious attack resulted in three Navajo deaths.

In 1854, the Southern Indian Mission was established.^[6] Twenty-five men were “set apart for this mission: viz To Civilize and Instruct the Indians in this region.”^[7] The men first arrived at Fort Harmony, a small settlement already established, including a fort and some farmland near Ash Creek.^[8] Missionary work did not just include proselyting. A large piece involved their own survival, farming, preparing shelter, and “teaching” the Indigenous nations to do the same. Missionaries were counseled to “take not their [the Indigenous peoples] wild habits and liberty from them at once, but by degrees.”^[9] After a summer of farming and preaching, the missionaries believed that Harmony did not have sufficient water for a large settlement.^[10] Despite objections from Sanpitch, a Ute leader, Southern Paiute Chief Tutsegavits invited a small group of missionaries to permanently settle in the Santa Clara Valley and "live among us."^[11] The missionaries relocated in December and immediately set to work building homes. Their efforts were aided by the local Tonaquint Band.^[12]

The missionaries had success, baptizing many Indigenous people and establishing positive relationships. However, the cultural changes the settlers required from converts were too much for local bands. They told missionaries, “We want you to be kind to us. It may be that some of our children will be good, but we want to follow our old customs.” ^[13]

While missionaries, such as Jacob Hamblin, strove to keep positive relationships, further settlement strained interactions between the settlers and Southern Paiute bands. Hamblin also recorded that the “great numbers of animals” brought in by settlers “destroyed” the vegetation that Southern Paiute bands relied on.^[14] Water use and access was an important early point of conflict between settlers and Indigenous peoples.^[15] Missionaries, such as Hamblin, often acted as intermediaries and translators in these difficult exchanges. Southern Paiute people also suffered from diseases brought by the Euro-American settlers. John Stucki recorded, “they died off so fast that there were hardly any left.”^[16] Survivors slowly became “an ignored people in their own lands.”^[17]