Winter 1985
The Winter 1985 Issue focuses on the life and impact of Spencer W. Kimball, exploring his teachings and relationships with various communities, particularly Native Americans. Leonard J. Arrington highlights Kimball as an "Apostle of Love," emphasizing his compassionate leadership style. James N. Kimball reflects on the vast emotional and spiritual landscape of his grandfather's heart, while Edward L. Kimball discusses his relevance in contemporary times. Eugene England examines the connections between Mormons and Native Americans, framing their interactions through the lens of "Lamanites" and the spirit of the Lord. Keith Parry addresses the cultural clashes faced by Joseph Smith, particularly in the context of sacred beliefs. Stanley B. Kimball shares insights into the captivity narratives encountered by Mormons during their westward migration from 1846 to 1865. Lawrence G. Coates discusses the Mormons' engagement with the Ghost Dance movement, while Ronald Dennis recounts Captain Dan Jones's influence on Welsh Indians. And much more!
Although I had heard his addresses in general conference and in at least one stake conference, I was first impressed with Spencer Kimball as a spiritual leader on 6 April 1954, when he spoke in…
As a first cousin once removed from President Spencer Woolley Kimball (which doesn’t mean much in a family as extended as ours), I considered myself a sort of shirt-tail relative. That is, I was clearly…
Spencer Kimball wrote in his journal in 1951, on the occasion of David O. McKay’s becoming president, “I am positive that the appointments of His Twelve by the Lord and the subsequent deaths control the Presidency…
My parents grew up conditioned toward racial prejudice—as did most Americans, including Mormons, through their generation and into part of mine. But something touched my father in his early life and grew constantly in him until he and my mother were moved at mid-life gradually to consecrate most of their life’s earnings from then on to help Lamanites.
Dialogue 18.4 (Winter 1984): 65–80
Shortly after the church was organized, one of Joseph Smith’s main priorities during his lifetime was preaching to the Native Americans, who he believed to be the descendants of the Lamanites.
The captivity narrative is one of the oldest literary genres of the New World: some 1,000 examples survive from the sixteenth century. It is also one of the earliest forms of popular literature in the…
Late in the nineteenth century, thousands of Indians resentful of reservation life gathered in groups to chant and dance themselves into hypnotic trances until they collapsed from exhaustion. Some Plains Indians, while shuffling steps to…
The first group of Welsh converts to Mormonism arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on 26 October 1849 after a voyage of more than eight months. They had buried more than one-fifth of their number…
Perhaps others than Helen John, Amy Avery, Golden and Thelma Buchanan, and Spencer W. Kimball might have compounded an equally powerful scheme for blessing the lives of Indians, but to these individuals fell that lot.
Was it only yesterday that men first sailed around the moon? You and I § marvel that men should travel so far and so fast. Yet if they have traveled far, then I have traveled…
Misconceptions of native Americans began with the misnomer “Indian” based on a navigational error. Mainstream Mormon art, literature, and music, which grants the American Indians a Book of Mormon history and destiny as Lamanites, embraces…
Max Hansen dipped his brush into the can and reached to the ceiling, spreading paint thickly and smoothly across the plyboard surface. He paused a moment, listening to a faint tapping sound. Rain? No. A…
“Lamanite! I am not a Lamanite. They are a wicked people. I am not a wicked person.” I can well remember my father, Albert H. Harris, saying this, both in church and to anyone else…
Things just get worse.
Which heavenly linoleum stripe
Leads to universal Emergency?
The resident angel could scour my soul.
A deacon offers the broken bread.
Aware of awkward wait as bishop
Receives the bread of ritual first,
I take it up, thoughtless of blessing,
Beyond my chrysanthemums and barbed fence,
aproned sisters, some in hair nets like cafeteria cooks,
whisk their casseroles to the kitchen of the old wardhouse.
Richard Bushman said that this book “may be the most brilliant book ever writ ten on Mormonism, in the sense of shed ding new light on virtually every aspect of Mormon history and in offering…
During the 1970s a comprehensive history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in sixteen volumes was contemplated as one of the projects of the Historical Department of the Church, with Leonard J.…
Paul Edwards is a man of uncommon talents, generously endowed with wit and wisdom, who possesses his share of good sense and good will and justifiably enjoys the confidence and esteem of his colleagues and…
It wasn’t written primarily for a Mormon audience. And it wasn’t expected to sell well in Salt Lake City. But Bob Gottlieb and Peter Wiley, both outsiders to the LDS Church and to Utah, have…
With the possible exception of Louis L’Amour, Wallace Stegner has probably been interviewed more frequently than any other living Western writer. This is an impressive tribute to Stegner’s accessibility to representatives of both scholarly and…
Search for Sanctuary received the 1985 Francis M. Chipman Award from the Mormon History Association. A historical narrative, it describes a little-known aspect of the 1857-58 Utah War. Brigham Young sent men out to discover…
Good fiction strikes me with that same mysterious combination of exhilaration and grief that comes from new knowledge, from new visions that replace the dear old ones. Because they are good fiction, I recommend that…
The sight of seventeen venerable women smiling confidently from the dust jacket is intimidating. I know I’d better like this book. Please let me like this book! Well, it did prove motivating. One day after…
