I have been hesitant posting
this on this website, concerned some one would accuse me of making a
joke of both the Native people and the LDS church. While the story
is laughable perhaps, it is never the less, the disturbing truth. - Phillip B
Gottfredson
According to the Book of Mormon, the church believed they had a divine obligation to convert the aborigines to Mormonism according to church doctrine, and in so doing the so-called
"loathsome" Indians would become a "white and delightsome people" and would be forgiven of the sins of their forefathers. (Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 5:21-23) According to church doctrine, the nature of the dark skin was a curse, the cause was the Lord, the reason was because the Lamanites
"had hardened their hearts against him, (God)" and the purpose was to make them
"loathsome" unto God's people who had white skins. Ezra Booth wrote the following in the early 1800's:
"In addition to this, and to co-operate with it, it has been made known by revelation, that it will be pleasing to the Lord, should they form a matrimonial alliance with the Natives; and by this means the Elders, who comply with the thing so pleasing to the Lord, and for which the Lord has promised to bless those who do it abundantly,
gain a residence in the Indian territory, independent of the agent.
(meaning government Indian agents)" Note: November 8, 2007 LDS Church leaders make a change in the Book of Mormon.
This photograph I found in the state
archives in Utah that appeared in the Deseret News in 1904, and had the following caption:
"Pahvant with skin disease, exhibited in sideshows by Mormons who believed his skin was
turning white because he had joined the church. He died near Kanosh. Pauschaunt The Enigma. Aged Utah Indian who is being taken to the
World's Fair. The aged Pauvant Indian of a southern Utah tribe, now
nearly extinct, has been brought to Salt Lake to be taken to the
World's Fair at St. Louis to be exhibited as a wonder. His name is
Pauschaunt, and readers of the Deseret News know something of the
discussion that has arisen over ""the reason for his having turned
white"". He declares that it is in fulfillment of a promise made to
him long ago. That he should ""become white through forsaking the
ways of war and pursuing the paths of peace and religion"".
Physicians have asserted that the change is simply the result of
disease. But whether that conclusion is correct or the views that
some others entertain are right, he is nevertheless the object of
much curiosity. The change is said to have commenced 35 years ago
and gradually extended until a great part of his body has become as
white as a Caucasian's. Pauschaunt has been in Salt Lake since
Friday in company with Dr. C.I.Foote of Los Angeles, and Mr. James
George of Kanosh, the latter acting as interpreter, as the aged
aborigine does not speak a word of English. He is said to be 103
years old and is exceedingly nimble and active for an old man. He
appears to be delighted at the prospects of his trip to St. Louis.
Deseret Evening News Monday,
June 6,1904.
Donor: Charles Kelly. Rights
management Digital image copyright 2009, University of Utah. All
rights reserved. Holding institution Utah State Historical Society"
According to the
Mayo Clinic:
"Vitiligo (vit-ih-LI-go) is a condition
in which your skin loses melanin, the pigment that determines the
color of your skin, hair and eyes. Vitiligo occurs when the cells
that produce melanin die or no longer form melanin, causing slowly
enlarging white patches of irregular shapes to appear on your skin.
Vitiligo affects all races, but may be more noticeable and
disfiguring in people with darker skin. Vitiligo usually starts as
small areas of pigment loss that spread with time. These changes in
your skin can result in stress and worries about your appearance.
There is no
cure for vitiligo. The goal of treatment is to stop or slow the
progression of pigment loss and, if you desire, attempt to return
some color to your skin."
This is the same skin
condition that Michael Jackson had.
Recent DNA studies of the exact origin
of the American Indian people have scientifically proven that they
came from north-east Asia. Over 150 Indian tribes and 6000 thousand
individuals have been tested. Dr. David Glenn Smith University of
Calif., Dr. Dennis O'Rourke University of Utah, Dr. Stephen L.
Wittington, and LDS Church anthropologist and scholar Thomas Murphy
have publically stated that there is no archeological evidence, no
historical evidence, no linguistic evidence and no DNA evidence
exists that proves the American Indian people are descendents of
Israel and that would prove the Book of Mormon is a history of the
American Indian. In other words like the legend of little green
skinned Leprecons living in the forests of Ireland is a myth, so are
Lamanites a myth.
The following is a
quote of LDS president Spencer W. Kimball:
"I saw a striking
contrast in the progress of the Indian people today as against
that of only fifteen years ago. Truly the scales of darkness are
falling from their eyes, and they are fast becoming a white and
delightsome people....
The day of the
Lamanites is nigh. For years they have been growing delightsome,
and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were
promised. In this picture of the twenty Lamanite missionaries,
fifteen of the twenty were as light as Anglos;...The children in
the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their
brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation.
At one meeting a
father and mother and their sixteen-year-old daughter were
present, the little member girl...was several shades lighter
than her parents...There was the doctor in a Utah city who for
two years had had an Indian boy in his home who stated that he
was some shades lighter than the younger brother just coming
into the program from the reservation. These young members of
the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness. One
white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were
donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the
process might be accelerated.
The day of the
Lamanites has come....today the dark clouds are dissipating."
(Improvement Era, December 1960. pages 922-23)
The
Gottfredson
Files