It has always been interesting to me how we can hold to one idea that caught our attention and ‘mind’s eye’ years ago, maybe as a youth. Even though it was erroneous in one or many of its precepts, we were still loyal to it and maybe even argued in its behalf. As we become more mature and even educated we may come to the realization that it was a false way of thinking. I wonder how many Americans, even today, still believe that Native Americans are ignorant savages, and that “the only good one is a dead one.” The same could be said about any number of societies of people that a person has not commonly associated with. I love the story that I told in an earlier volume, about honesty. I will just give a short version here; A white man was out hunting with a group of Native American guides. As they arose in the morning for the first day of the planned hunt, the white man asked the guide where he could best hide his wallet and valuables so that they would not get stolen. The Guide told him to, “Just hang them in the tree and that he would not have to worry about them getting stolen, because there were no white men around for almost fifty miles. To a white man, Indians were thieves and to the Indians, white men were thieves.
Even though I appear to be a full-blooded Norwegian, my mother was part Chippewa and was born and raised on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota. Having 9% Native American blood, I have compassion for them both historically and currently. Only people who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (Mormons) would recognize that Indians are people who are and will be referred to as Lamanites. They are the people who descended from those who survived one of the worst wars in the history of this country. A war mostly unknown and historically unrecorded in school history books of our day. It was the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites that completely extinguished those who were identified as Nephites and the victors are today known as Lamanites or American Indians. The war took place approximately 420 years A.D. There were nearly 1000 years of records of the Nephite peoples were kept and abridged by their religious leaders and hid up in a cave, only to come forth in our day. That record is referred to today as the ‘Book of Mormon’. General Mormon’s son, Moroni (a righteous prophet), when the war finally ended, was the only Nephite known to have survived. He had to hide because the Lamanites were victorious. Hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered. At the time both the Lamanites and the Nephites had become vicious and cruel people. It was prophesied the Lamanites would one day repent and become a righteous people. White Europeans discovered, conquered and then settled this land and with few exceptions treated the Indians, or Lamanites with disdain and hatred, and killed them almost to the point of annihilation.
At the same time very few people knew what our God, in Heaven, had in store for them. But the cover page of the Book of Mormon, written by Mormon, states in regard to that record;
“Wherefore, it is an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites—Written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel; and also to Jew and Gentile—Written by way of commandment, and also by the spirit of prophecy and of revelation—Written and sealed up, and hid up unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed—To come forth by the gift and power of God unto the interpretation thereof—Sealed by the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord, to come forth in due time by way of the Gentile—The interpretation thereof by the gift of God. An abridgment taken from the Book of Ether also, which is a record of the people of Jared, who were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, when they were building a tower to get to heaven—Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever—And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations—And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ.”
The Book of Mormon was written specifically to the Lamanites, with great expectations of them. Orson Pratt, – an apostle and member of the Twelve when Brigham Young was the President of the Church, said: “…The book of Mormon states that the Lamanites are to be the principal builders of the New Jerusalem. This remnant of Joseph will be filled with the wisdom of God; and by that wisdom they will build that city. Faithful Priesthood will assist them. We will have the privilege to be numbered with them, not they numbered with us.
In our day gambling casinos are literally changing the nature of reservation lands that were set aside for Native Americans to live on and to govern themselves. I have hope, however, that a new and different kind of change will come.
My wife and I visited the Crazy Horse Monument in South Dakota a few years ago and were very impressed with its size and greatness. I came across this beautiful prophecy by Chief Crazy Horse, describing his final vision to Chief Sitting Bull. “Upon suffering beyond suffering,” said Crazy Horse in 1877, “The Red Nation (Lamanites) shall rise again, and it shall be a blessing for a sick world. A world filled with broken promises, selfishness and separations. A world longing for light again. I see a time of seven generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the sacred Tree of Life and the whole Earth will become one circle again. In that day, there will be those among the Lakota who will carry knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things and the young white ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom. I salute the light within your eyes where the whole Universe dwells. For when you are at that center within you and I am at that place within me, we shall be one.” Crazy Horse‘s words were more prophetic than he knew.
It doesn’t appear that much is happening now but the Spirit of the Lord shall be shed forth upon the hearts of every man among these remnants of Joseph (laminates) and they will hear the Gospel in their own tongue, the power of the Holy Ghost will be shed forth upon those who are ordained unto this power. There is such a saying that when the day comes the Lord God will work mightily by signs, wonders and miracles in various ways that will have an influence over these remnants of Joseph to convert them and bring them to a knowledge of the truth, that the prayers of their ancient fathers, and of the Prophets and Elders who once dwelt on this American continent, may be fulfilled upon their heads.” (source: http://jod.mrm.org/17/289) -A great many Native Americans have suffered for centuries and continue to suffer today. Things will one day change; “For in that day, for my sake shall the Father work a work, which shall be a great and a marvelous work among them;” said Nephi of old. (Nephi 21;9) “But before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose. (D&C 49:24)