By David G.August 5, 2011
On December 29, 1890, the U.S. Seventh Cavalry surrounded a group of ninety Minneconjou Lakota men just west of Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. The wives and children of the Lakota warriors were camped a few yards to the south of the council ground. The Cavalry was engaged in disarming the warriors, who military leaders believed were part of a wide-ranging indigenous conspiracy to push back white settlement. The Lakota men were known to be adherents of the Ghost Dance, a religious phenomenon that originated with the Paiute prophet Wovoka in Nevada and had spread from the Great Basin to the Plains in 1889-1890. During the disarming, a struggle ensued between the troopers and a young Lakota who thought he could hide his rifle under his blanket, and a shot fired into the air. Chaos?and death?followed, as the five hundred members of the Seventh Cavalry proceeded to slaughter not only the by-then largely disarmed men but also the women and children as they fled the scene. Although exact numbers are unknown, perhaps as many as three hundred Lakotas died. It was shown in the aftermath of Wounded Knee that the Ghost Dance was not a broad-based scheme to overthrow U.S. authority, and, more to the point, that most if not all of the Lakotas who lost their lives on December 29, 1890 had died innocently after surrendering without resistance.[1] Although Latter-day Saints had nothing to do with the massacre at Wounded Knee, since 1890 commentators have speculated that Mormons were somehow connected and even the primary movers behind the Ghost Dance movement.
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By ChristopherAugust 3, 2011
We’re absolutely thrilled to introduce and welcome Tona Hangen as our latest guest blogger here at the Juvenile Instructor. Tona introduces herself thus:
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By David G.August 3, 2011
In the wake of the successful nationwide broadcast of Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons on the Documentary Channel, the political website The Daily Beast interviewed the film’s co-producer (and director and star, etc.) Darius Gray to highlight the documentary and the place of blacks in the church. Here are a few snippits:
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By ChristopherAugust 2, 2011
Steve Fleming and I are currently working on a paper examining early Latter-day Saint understandings of what Mormons today refer to as “the Great Apostasy.” Among other things, we are looking at sustained treatments of the subject authored by early Mormons (defined for our purposes here as works written and/or published between 1830 and 1850). While Steve and I feel like we have a pretty good grasp of the most obvious sources, we want to make sure we have all of our bases covered, and that’s where we need your help. What essays, books, pamphlets, etc. attempted to examine the history of the Christian church and/or the apostasy of the early Christian church? Here are a few we’ve already identified:
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By Ben PAugust 1, 2011
We received the following from our good friends at Historic Sites Committee. A few of us JIers (both past and present) have interned with Historic Sites and can attest to the fantastic environment, wonderful people, and important work involved in their projects.
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Purposes: The Church History Department is currently looking for candidates for the position of Historic Sites Curator in the Museums & Historic Sites Division. This individual will assist in identifying, researching, preserving, restoring, and interpreting historic sites significant to the history of the Church.
Work will include: intensive historical research, master planning, large-scale collaborative development projects, interpretive message and exhibit design, interpretive curriculum development, websites, and global outreach. Much of the Historic Sites Curator?s work will bear the imprimatur of the Church and must be of the highest quality and integrity.
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By Jared TJuly 29, 2011
Drew Briney. Silencing Mormon Polygamy: Failed Persecutions, Divided Saints & the Rise of Mormon Fundamentalism, Volume 1. Hindsight Publications, n.p., 2008.
This book, a free review copy, has been sitting on my shelf for perhaps the last two years as I’ve done all I can to avoid a) reviewing it and b) paying for it. I think part of my trepidation was that the issues I had with it were so vast that I just didn’t know where to begin or how to possibly provide a glimpse of the web that the book weaves. I will not take the time to take you through all the twists and turns of the story the author tells, but will instead focus on some issues that make that story suspect. You’ll note in the picture that I read the book thoroughly (what can I say, the summer of 2009 must have been slow).
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By ChristopherJuly 25, 2011
This past Sunday, several of the prayers to open and close meetings in my ward included mention of United States soldiers. This, of course, was not something new. I?ve heard such particular mentions of the military in every ward I?ve ever attended, and it is especially common here in Virginia, where several members of the local congregation (and many, many more throughout the Newport News Stake) serve(d) in the armed forces. I don?t know why my mind focused on this otherwise routine supplication during yesterday?s service; perhaps it was the juxtaposition of one brother mentioning the armed forces as part of a longer list of individuals needing either God?s blessing or our thanks (they were mentioned right after the missionaries and right before the Pioneers), or perhaps I was struck by the particular language used (?please bless those fighting for our country?). Regardless, it got me thinking about the origin of the practice.
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By Ben PJuly 24, 2011
While I generally like to challenge–if not completely burst–historical myths, both in and outside the classroom, I sincerely hesitated to write and publish this post on Pioneer Day. I don’t like being an iconoclast for iconoclasm’s sake. But in hearing the story discussed below several times over the last week (including in the ward I am currently attending, in the classroom, in the Ensign, and even on the internet), I thought this was an issue that needed to be addressed. Thus, I hope that the discussion is more sophisticated than merely degenerating into “average Mormons don’t know diddley squat about history.” That would, indeed, be missing the point.
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By David G.July 18, 2011
Last week my wife and I spent five days conducting field research for my dissertation in the National Archives, Central Plains Region branch in Kansas City, Missouri. Although I’m not writing on a Mormon topic, we flagged anything that might have a Mormon connection in the Bureau of Indian Affairs files we were examining. On Friday, my wife Hope turned to me with an excited look on her face, and handed me this piece of paper:
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By Ben PJuly 11, 2011
And the CHL’s empire expands….
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Job Title: Web Content Strategy Manager
Job Description: The Web Content Strategy Manager will hold a leadership position responsible for developing, planning and delivering all aspects of the written and visual content for the Church History Department website (history.lds.org). The website is a central hub for the various divisions of the Church History Department, including Collections, Preservation, Historic Sites, Publications, the Church History Library, and the Church History Museum. The Church History Department is seeking to aggressively expand its Internet presence through the development of new and unique historical content that will serve Church members and interested outsiders, including researchers and academics. The successful applicant will be deeply versed in Latter-day Saint Church history as well as website strategy and development, and also possess strong writing and analytical skills.
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