Guest Post: Mormons, Indian Displacement, and Useable Pasts

Jared Farmer is the author of On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape (Book Cover), a cultural and environmental history of Mount Timpanogos and Utah Lake. The book is an outgrowth of his dissertation at Stanford University, where he studied under the preeminent historian of the American West, Richard White. Jared’s work is a fascinating example of cutting-edge approaches to place, memory, religion, and nature. His first book, Glen Canyon Dammed: Inventing Lake Powell and the Canyon Country, examined the controversial transformation of Glen Canyon of the Colorado River into the reservoir Lake Powell. Jared has agreed to provide us with some tidbits from On Zion’s Mount.

Dear readers of The Juvenile Instructor,

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Review: Afternoon Session of UVSC’s Mormon Studies Conference

Christopher has already ably outlined the morning session of today’s conference at UVU on Mormon schismatics. Here I will summarize the proceedings from the afternoon.

The afternoon session was comprised of three speakers on three different and important groups that traced their origins to Joseph Smith, Jr. R. Jean Addams presented on the Church of Christ, Temple Lot (Hedrickites), Vickie Cleverley Speek spoke about the Strangites, and Michael Van Wagenen summarized his research on the Wightites in Texas. Like the morning session, the three speakers first presented their individual papers and then combined for a panel and Q/A session. This format allowed for questions that examined the three groups in comparison to one another, which was one major objective of the conference.

R. Jean Addams is a history buff living in Washington state and his presentation was a summary of Hedrickite history f

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Joseph Smith Was Killed in 1846

Joseph Smith was killed in 1846 by a mob in Alton, Illinois, near the Illinois-Missouri border.  Unless I am mistaken, the foregoing statement is quite obviously false on two accounts (1846; Alton).  Yet, I was quite surprised to find that the source of this mistake is a well-known historian of U.S. religious history.

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Review: Morning Session of UVSC’s Mormon Studies Conference

The following is a review of the morning session of the Eighth Annual Mormon Studies Conference at Utah Valley State College.  A review of the afternoon session is forthcoming here at the Juvenile Instructor.  

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Guest Request: Needed: A Good Intro to Mormonism

John Turner, assistant professor of history at the University of South Alabama and contributing editor at the Religion and American History blog, asked me to post the following for him. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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?We Are Now Rocking in the Cradle of Liberty?: The Memory of Persecution and Images of the West as a Refuge

“The history of our persecutions is unparalleled in the history of past ages.”[1] So argued George A. Smith, leader and historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on July 24, 1852 in Utah territory, five years after the Latter-day Saints left their homes in the Midwest and settled in the Great Basin. Smith, like most other Americans, of course ignored the history of oppression of Native Americans and slaves of African descent. For Smith, the only history of persecution that mattered in this context was that of biblical prophets, the early Christians, and all true followers of Christ. What made the nineteenth-century persecutions of the Latter-day Saints “unparalleled” in Smith’s argument was that they had

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Mormonism in Their Own Words

I’m happy to be blogging for JI on a more permanent basis. I have always enjoyed being a token “model-minority” in Mormon country:)

I thought it might be interesting to post some the words of Japanese Americans used when dealing with Mormonism. Some of these quotations come from oral interviews and probably represent the Nikkei’s long-standing relationship with the the area’s dominant religion as well as their perceptions of history, while the other addresses how Japanese American ethnicity and Mormonism interacted historically. If you like this first set of sources, maybe I’ll do a post with more of them.

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The JI Welcomes Joel as a New Permablogger

Bit by bit, the Juvenile Instructor is diversifying. We now have a female permablogger (Heidi), two permas that wish they were Latinos (David and Chris), a Latino that was raised to be more white than Latino (Jared, hehe), two permas that wish they were black (Stan and Jordan), a member of AARP (SC), a young kid with the hairline of an AARP member (Ben), and now an Asian American…Joel.

In all seriousness, we are happy to announce that Joel has agreed to remain with us. He’s a fine young scholar that brings a new and fascinating perspective to our discussions here at the JI. Let’s welcome Joel.

Mr. Smoot Goes to Washington: Mike Paulos and Harvard Heath’s Lectures at Benchmark Books

Ok, not the most original title for a blog entry about Reed Smoot, but anyway…On February 22, 2008, Mike Paulos, editor of The Mormon Church on Trial: Transcripts of the the Reed Smoot Hearings and Harvard Heath, editor of In The World: The Diaries of Reed Smoot spoke at Benchmark Books on what has been recognized as one of the pivotal moments for Mormonism’s 20th Century transition (and a pivotal individual). Again, a special thanks to Brent Brizzi for his laborious and well done transcription. [I’ve left in the incidentals this time…it’s just part of the experience]:

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“The Saints of the Missouri”: An Anti-Mormon Ballad from the Isle of Man, 1841

In 1841, apostle John Taylor traveled to the Isle of Man, a small island situated in the middle of the Irish Sea, in between Ireland and England.  He there introduced the gospel to the Cannon family (his in-laws), as well as other future prominent Mormon families, including the Quayles and the Cowleys.[1]  Taylor encountered fierce opposition from the primarily Methodist clergy he encountered in the Isle of Man, as well as from the Manx press.  The following excerpt comes from a letter to the editor of Mona’s Herald in April 1841.  This satirical piece of poetry purports to represent the Mormon message being spread by Elder Taylor.

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