Empty Cradleboards and Filled Primary Chairs
Do primary leaders still encourage putting 2 fingers behind your head to resemble feathers when singing the phrase “are about the Lamanites in ancient history” in the song “Book of Mormon Stories?” It’s been many years since I was in a sharing time setting but I remember performing this song this way when I taught primary many years ago. I grew up doing it and it seemed like everyone else did too. Did we ever collectively stop?
I’ve spent many years grappling with thoughts about the church’s impact on indigenous people. My Mormon heritage taught me to feel that I had some sort of claim to Native American experiences which were not mine to claim. Even as I write this I grapple with how to convey my thoughts. The best way I can sum up this “claim” would be, because I felt I “knew” the “true” identity of the indigenous people of the Americas, I failed to understand I was participating in racism. Why did I feel like I knew their true identity? Because my scriptures told me so. Prior to a rewording in 2006, the Book of Mormon stated Lamanites were “the principle ancestors of the American Indians” and this message is still consistent in our online and print materials.
As someone who isn’t an academic scholar or Church historian, I can’t speak fluently about the colonialist and Manifest Destiny influence on church doctrine, policies, and practices so I want to share the following story. As a parent who was diligent about the goal of raising children in righteousness, my family read scripture stories every night before bed. We used the comic book style ones because of the young age of our children. One night we had the lesson about the “curse of darkness” upon the Lamanites. I didn’t like presenting a story about peoples’ skin color being turned darker due to iniquity. That being said, I chose to continue the lesson because I had been taught that regardless of the ick factor, this was Doctrine.
Living in a small town (Eagle Mountain Utah circa 2008) my children did not have the gift of being raised in a diverse community the way I had and it was something I felt they were missing out on. My regret about that fact grew to absolute concern when we were taking a road trip to see my parents in Southern California. As we traveled we made stops for food and gas and in one restaurant my then 6 year old asked my husband and me “Why are there so many Lamanites here?” We both looked at each other in horror. What the freaking heck had we been teaching our child? We instantly knew we had done/were doing something wrong. We realized we should have made an opportunity to discuss race as a family and because we hadn’t, my son’s entire knowledge of race was based on racist scripture.
I’d like to say that moment shook me completely off my foundation of deeply held beliefs but instead it was more like I had suddenly discovered a huge crack in the foundation and was standing there trying to figure out who to call and how it would get fixed? As I re-read that last sentence I realize how dependent I was on people more spiritual than I or more wise than I, to tell me what I was supposed to do. As if life was just a set of rules and instructions to follow.
The messages I heard about the Lamanites my entire life shaped my view of indigenous people in a way that objectified them like the action figures in the Book of Mormon playset my kids played with on Sundays. Ever since I was little I’d look at the vast landscape on the drive from Orange County to Salt Lake and daydream a view of Book of Mormon battles through the backseat window. At the in-laws family campout, they had it on good authority that right there in Fishlake National Forest was the actual Gadianton Robbers hideout.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned more church history and specifically its impact on Indigenous peoples of North America. I learned about The Lamanite Project which was a church effort that removed 50,000 indigenous children from their homes and placed them with LDS families. There’s a infamous quote from then Elder Spencer Kimball explaining that the children placed with Latter Day Saint families were getting whiter skin. I found out from family members that human remains and artifacts of Native Americans were on display at LDS visitor centers throughout the 60s and 70s. It’s like we’ve just taken whole cultures and erased them and put in our own created characters, you know? And when I think about that I picture empty cradleboards and kids in primary chairs holding 2 fingers up behind their heads. It makes me weep. I recognize my part and know I can’t fix what’s been done but with all the resources out there I can learn and become anti-racist in thought and action.
I want to acknowledge I write this from the ancestral land of the Cowlitz tribe.
