Essays on American Indian and Mormon History ed. by P. Jane Hafen and Brenden W. Rensink (review)

This volume includes twelve essays, many of which were originally presented and workshopped at the American Indians and Mormons seminar hosted by the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University in 2015. Editors P. Jane Hafen, professor emerita of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Brenden W. Rensink, associate professor of history at Brigham Young University, bring together historical, literary, and anthropological analyses of texts including scriptures from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), indigenous oral traditions, oral history interviews, Native American literature, and LDS records and manuscripts. The essays in this book collectively illustrate how indigenous voices have been excluded from the writing of Mormon history, and how incorporating indigenous perspectives and worldviews into that narrative can offer an important corrective to historical narratives that have privileged white Mormon voices, as well as enriching interpretation of Mormon scriptures for the devout.

The book is divided into two parts. The first section brings together five literary and historical essays that examine the interpretation of Mormon scriptures, analyze early Native encounters with the LDS Church, and dissect the representation of Latter-day Saints in the literature of Native American authors. From a historical perspective, Thomas W. Murphy and Lori Elaine Taylor make the most significant contributions. Both Murphy and Taylor convincingly suggest that Joseph Smith may have been influenced by Iroquois culture when he founded his church. Although there is not any proof of direct contact between Joseph Smith and the Iroquois (60), Murphy uses an analysis of Haudenosaunee oral traditions to conclude that "the Great Peace [following the appearance of Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon] may be … supported by external sources" (34). He bucks the scholarly consensus that "no peoples, places, or events in the Book of Mormon have been substantiated by reliable external sources" (266, n. 69). If Murphy is correct, it means that Smith may have drawn on Iroquois oral traditions when he composed the Book of Mormon.

Many of the chapters in the first section feel as if they were written for a faithful Latter-day Saint audience. Elise Boxer, for example, contends that "Dakota worldviews directly contradict and challenge the Book of Mormon as a literal history of not just Dakota Peoples, but all Indigenous Peoples on this continent" (12). For non-Mormons who have always viewed the Book of Mormon as a piece of fiction, Boxer's argument might seem obvious. Nevertheless, her observation is an important step forward in shifting LDS conceptions of indigenous American history.

Essays in the second part of the volume interrogate the experiences of indigenous Latter-day Saints in the twentieth century. These chapters explore how Catawba Mormons construct their history and identity; the connection between regional economic development and Navajo religious beliefs; the role of Polynesian LDS missionaries among the Navajo; and the histories of the LDS Northern Indian Mission, the Indian Student Placement Program, and American Indian students and programs at Brigham Young University. Farina Noelani King's essay, "Aloha in Diné Bikéyah," is particularly interesting. The history of Mormon missions has been told primarily as the story of the movement of white missionaries from the metropole to the periphery, but King demonstrates that Mormon mission history is much more complicated and involves missionary movement from one edge of the Mormon periphery (Hawaii) to another (Diné Bikéyah). By highlighting the role and experiences of non-Western Latter-day Saints serving missions in America, Europe, or other non-Western nations, historians can contribute to a growing body of literature on both the activities of African, Latin American, and Asian missionaries in Europe and North America (a phenomenon called "reverse mission") and religious engagement among the peoples of the Global South (e.g., the scholarship of Kim Knibbe and Linda van de Kamp).

Another fascinating observation comes from Stan Thayne, in "Mormonism and...