Author: Fred E. Woods
Publisher: Cedar Fort
ISBN: 9781462110599
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Did you know LDS-sponsored basketball teams were once a major missionary tool? Bounce back in time and discover for yourself how basketball influenced the growth of the Church in Australia. This inspiring book and DVD share the remarkable true stories of early Church basketball stars. Sure to entertain fans of all ages, it's perfect for the whole family!
Mormon Yankees
Author: Fred E. Woods
Publisher: Cedar Fort
ISBN: 9781462110599
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Did you know LDS-sponsored basketball teams were once a major missionary tool? Bounce back in time and discover for yourself how basketball influenced the growth of the Church in Australia. This inspiring book and DVD share the remarkable true stories of early Church basketball stars. Sure to entertain fans of all ages, it's perfect for the whole family!
Publisher: Cedar Fort
ISBN: 9781462110599
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Did you know LDS-sponsored basketball teams were once a major missionary tool? Bounce back in time and discover for yourself how basketball influenced the growth of the Church in Australia. This inspiring book and DVD share the remarkable true stories of early Church basketball stars. Sure to entertain fans of all ages, it's perfect for the whole family!
Yankees in Michigan
Author: Brian C. Wilson
Publisher: MSU Press
ISBN: 0870139703
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 144
Book Description
As Brian C. Wilson describes them in this highly readable and entertaining book, Yankees—defined by their shared culture and sense of identity—had a number of distinctive traits and sought to impose their ideas across the state of Michigan. After the ethnic label of "Yankee" fell out of use, the offspring of Yankees appropriated the term "Midwesterner." So fused did the identities of Yankee and Midwesterner become that understanding the larger story of America's Midwestern regional identity begins with the Yankees in Michigan.
Publisher: MSU Press
ISBN: 0870139703
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 144
Book Description
As Brian C. Wilson describes them in this highly readable and entertaining book, Yankees—defined by their shared culture and sense of identity—had a number of distinctive traits and sought to impose their ideas across the state of Michigan. After the ethnic label of "Yankee" fell out of use, the offspring of Yankees appropriated the term "Midwesterner." So fused did the identities of Yankee and Midwesterner become that understanding the larger story of America's Midwestern regional identity begins with the Yankees in Michigan.
The Yankee West
Author: Susan E. Gray
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 9780807846100
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
Susan Gray explores community formation among New England migrants to the Upper Midwest in the generation before the Civil War. Focusing on Kalamazoo County in southwestern Michigan, she examines how 'Yankees' moving west reconstructed familiar communal i
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 9780807846100
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252
Book Description
Susan Gray explores community formation among New England migrants to the Upper Midwest in the generation before the Civil War. Focusing on Kalamazoo County in southwestern Michigan, she examines how 'Yankees' moving west reconstructed familiar communal i
Religion of a Different Color
Author: W. Paul Reeve
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190226277
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351
Book Description
Mormonism is one of the few homegrown religions in the United States, one that emerged out of the religious fervor of the early nineteenth century. Yet, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have struggled for status and recognition. In this book, W. Paul Reeve explores the ways in which nineteenth century Protestant white America made outsiders out of an inside religious group. Much of what has been written on Mormon otherness centers upon economic, cultural, doctrinal, marital, and political differences that set Mormons apart from mainstream America. Reeve instead looks at how Protestants racialized Mormons, using physical differences in order to define Mormons as non-White to help justify their expulsion from Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. He analyzes and contextualizes the rhetoric on Mormons as a race with period discussions of the Native American, African American, Oriental, Turk/Islam, and European immigrant races. He also examines how Mormon male, female, and child bodies were characterized in these racialized debates. For instance, while Mormons argued that polygamy was ordained by God, and so created angelic, celestial, and elevated offspring, their opponents suggested that the children were degenerate and deformed. The Protestant white majority was convinced that Mormonism represented a racial-not merely religious-departure from the mainstream and spent considerable effort attempting to deny Mormon whiteness. Being white brought access to political, social, and economic power, all aspects of citizenship in which outsiders sought to limit or prevent Mormon participation. At least a part of those efforts came through persistent attacks on the collective Mormon body, ways in which outsiders suggested that Mormons were physically different, racially more similar to marginalized groups than they were white. Medical doctors went so far as to suggest that Mormon polygamy was spawning a new race. Mormons responded with aspirations toward whiteness. It was a back and forth struggle between what outsiders imagined and what Mormons believed. Mormons ultimately emerged triumphant, but not unscathed. Mormon leaders moved away from universalistic ideals toward segregated priesthood and temples, policies firmly in place by the early twentieth century. So successful were Mormons at claiming whiteness for themselves that by the time Mormon Mitt Romney sought the White House in 2012, he was labeled "the whitest white man to run for office in recent memory." Ending with reflections on ongoing views of the Mormon body, this groundbreaking book brings together literatures on religion, whiteness studies, and nineteenth century racial history with the history of politics and migration.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190226277
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351
Book Description
Mormonism is one of the few homegrown religions in the United States, one that emerged out of the religious fervor of the early nineteenth century. Yet, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have struggled for status and recognition. In this book, W. Paul Reeve explores the ways in which nineteenth century Protestant white America made outsiders out of an inside religious group. Much of what has been written on Mormon otherness centers upon economic, cultural, doctrinal, marital, and political differences that set Mormons apart from mainstream America. Reeve instead looks at how Protestants racialized Mormons, using physical differences in order to define Mormons as non-White to help justify their expulsion from Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois. He analyzes and contextualizes the rhetoric on Mormons as a race with period discussions of the Native American, African American, Oriental, Turk/Islam, and European immigrant races. He also examines how Mormon male, female, and child bodies were characterized in these racialized debates. For instance, while Mormons argued that polygamy was ordained by God, and so created angelic, celestial, and elevated offspring, their opponents suggested that the children were degenerate and deformed. The Protestant white majority was convinced that Mormonism represented a racial-not merely religious-departure from the mainstream and spent considerable effort attempting to deny Mormon whiteness. Being white brought access to political, social, and economic power, all aspects of citizenship in which outsiders sought to limit or prevent Mormon participation. At least a part of those efforts came through persistent attacks on the collective Mormon body, ways in which outsiders suggested that Mormons were physically different, racially more similar to marginalized groups than they were white. Medical doctors went so far as to suggest that Mormon polygamy was spawning a new race. Mormons responded with aspirations toward whiteness. It was a back and forth struggle between what outsiders imagined and what Mormons believed. Mormons ultimately emerged triumphant, but not unscathed. Mormon leaders moved away from universalistic ideals toward segregated priesthood and temples, policies firmly in place by the early twentieth century. So successful were Mormons at claiming whiteness for themselves that by the time Mormon Mitt Romney sought the White House in 2012, he was labeled "the whitest white man to run for office in recent memory." Ending with reflections on ongoing views of the Mormon body, this groundbreaking book brings together literatures on religion, whiteness studies, and nineteenth century racial history with the history of politics and migration.
The Boomers
Author: Matt Logue
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 1460715152
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
From heartbreak to triumph: how our national basketball team went from misfits to superstars The Boomers' Olympic triumph in Tokyo was possibly the most celebrated bronze medal in Australian sporting history. But the path to this moment is littered with heartache, setback and adversity. The long and arduous journey was recalled by Boomers' leading scorer and five-time Olympian, Andrew Gaze, on Channel 7's Olympic coverage that day, as he held back tears and paid tribute to the champions of the moment and to the pioneers of the past. Over six decades, countless basketball players and officials have invested immeasurable hours to bring basketball in this country to the point where we now have more than a million registered players and an Olympic medal-winning team. Not least among these dedicated servants to the game was Andrew Gaze's father, Lindsay. In this unauthorised biography of our national team, Matt Logue goes back to the beginning - to the DNA of the Boomers - to tell the story of today's success and to honour the people, such as Lindsay Gaze, who fought against the odds to make it happen. It's a story of toil, emotion and national pride; a celebration of talent and international triumph; and a salute to the pioneers. And it's not over yet!
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
ISBN: 1460715152
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
From heartbreak to triumph: how our national basketball team went from misfits to superstars The Boomers' Olympic triumph in Tokyo was possibly the most celebrated bronze medal in Australian sporting history. But the path to this moment is littered with heartache, setback and adversity. The long and arduous journey was recalled by Boomers' leading scorer and five-time Olympian, Andrew Gaze, on Channel 7's Olympic coverage that day, as he held back tears and paid tribute to the champions of the moment and to the pioneers of the past. Over six decades, countless basketball players and officials have invested immeasurable hours to bring basketball in this country to the point where we now have more than a million registered players and an Olympic medal-winning team. Not least among these dedicated servants to the game was Andrew Gaze's father, Lindsay. In this unauthorised biography of our national team, Matt Logue goes back to the beginning - to the DNA of the Boomers - to tell the story of today's success and to honour the people, such as Lindsay Gaze, who fought against the odds to make it happen. It's a story of toil, emotion and national pride; a celebration of talent and international triumph; and a salute to the pioneers. And it's not over yet!
Hispanics in the Mormon Zion, 1912-1999
Author: Jorge Iber
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585442058
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
As immigrants came to the United States from Mexico, the term "Greater Mexico" was coined to specify the area of their greatest concentration. America's southwest border was soon heavily populated with Mexico's people, culture, and language. In Hispanics in the Mormon Zion, 1912-1999, however, Jorge Iber shows this Greater Mexico was even greater than presumed as he explores the Hispanic population in one of the "whitest" states in the Union--Utah. By 1997, Hispanics were a notable part of Utah's population as they could be found in all of the state's major cities working in tourist, industrial, and service occupations. Although these characteristics reflect the population trends in other states, Iber centers on those aspects that set Utah's Hispanic comunidad apart from the rest. Iber focuses on the significance of why many in the Utah Hispanic comunidad are leaving Catholicism for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). He examines how conversion affects the Spanish-speaking population and how these Hispanic believers are affecting the Mormon Church. Iber also concentrates on the geographic separation of Hispanics in Utah from their Mexican, Latin American, New Mexican, and Coloradoan roots. He examines patterns of Hispanic assimilation and acculturation in a setting which is vastly different from other Western and Southwestern states. Hispanics in the Mormon Zion, 1912-1999 is an important source for scholars in ethnic studies, American studies, religion, and Western history. Drawing on both oral and written histories collected by the University of Utah and many notable organizations including the American G.I. Forum, SOCIO, Centro de la Familia, the Salt Lake Catholic Diocese, and the LDS Church, Iber has compiled an interesting and informative study of the experience of Hispanics in Utah, which represents "another fragment in the expanding mosaic that is the history of the Spanish-speaking people of the United States."
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 9781585442058
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 232
Book Description
As immigrants came to the United States from Mexico, the term "Greater Mexico" was coined to specify the area of their greatest concentration. America's southwest border was soon heavily populated with Mexico's people, culture, and language. In Hispanics in the Mormon Zion, 1912-1999, however, Jorge Iber shows this Greater Mexico was even greater than presumed as he explores the Hispanic population in one of the "whitest" states in the Union--Utah. By 1997, Hispanics were a notable part of Utah's population as they could be found in all of the state's major cities working in tourist, industrial, and service occupations. Although these characteristics reflect the population trends in other states, Iber centers on those aspects that set Utah's Hispanic comunidad apart from the rest. Iber focuses on the significance of why many in the Utah Hispanic comunidad are leaving Catholicism for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). He examines how conversion affects the Spanish-speaking population and how these Hispanic believers are affecting the Mormon Church. Iber also concentrates on the geographic separation of Hispanics in Utah from their Mexican, Latin American, New Mexican, and Coloradoan roots. He examines patterns of Hispanic assimilation and acculturation in a setting which is vastly different from other Western and Southwestern states. Hispanics in the Mormon Zion, 1912-1999 is an important source for scholars in ethnic studies, American studies, religion, and Western history. Drawing on both oral and written histories collected by the University of Utah and many notable organizations including the American G.I. Forum, SOCIO, Centro de la Familia, the Salt Lake Catholic Diocese, and the LDS Church, Iber has compiled an interesting and informative study of the experience of Hispanics in Utah, which represents "another fragment in the expanding mosaic that is the history of the Spanish-speaking people of the United States."
The Yankee Road
Author: James D. McNiven
Publisher: Wheatmark, Inc.
ISBN: 1627871411
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 579
Book Description
Publisher: Wheatmark, Inc.
ISBN: 1627871411
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 579
Book Description
Reconstruction and Mormon America
Author: Clyde A. Milner
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806165863
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 267
Book Description
The South has been the standard focus of Reconstruction, but reconstruction following the Civil War was not a distinctly Southern experience. In the post–Civil War West, American Indians also experienced reconstruction through removal to reservations and assimilation to Christianity, and Latter-day Saints—Mormons—saw government actions to force the end of polygamy under threat of disestablishing the church. These efforts to bring nonconformist Mormons into the American mainstream figure in the more familiar scheme of the federal government’s reconstruction—aimed at rebellious white Southerners and uncontrolled American Indians. In this volume, more than a dozen contributors look anew at the scope of the reconstruction narrative and offer a unique perspective on the history of the Latter-day Saints. Marshaled by editors Clyde A. Milner II and Brian Q. Cannon, these writers explore why the federal government wanted to reconstruct Latter-day Saints, when such efforts began, and how the initiatives compare with what happened with white Southerners and American Indians. Other contributions examine the effect of the government’s policies on Mormon identity and sense of history. Why, for example, do Latter-day Saints not have a Lost Cause? Do they share a resentment with American Indians over the loss of sovereignty? And were nineteenth-century Mormons considered to be on the “wrong” side of a religious line, but not a “race line”? The authors consider these and other vital questions and topics here. Together, and in dialogue with one another, their work suggests a new way of understanding the regional, racial, and religious dynamics of reconstruction—and, within this framework, a new way of thinking about the creation of a Mormon historical identity.
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806165863
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 267
Book Description
The South has been the standard focus of Reconstruction, but reconstruction following the Civil War was not a distinctly Southern experience. In the post–Civil War West, American Indians also experienced reconstruction through removal to reservations and assimilation to Christianity, and Latter-day Saints—Mormons—saw government actions to force the end of polygamy under threat of disestablishing the church. These efforts to bring nonconformist Mormons into the American mainstream figure in the more familiar scheme of the federal government’s reconstruction—aimed at rebellious white Southerners and uncontrolled American Indians. In this volume, more than a dozen contributors look anew at the scope of the reconstruction narrative and offer a unique perspective on the history of the Latter-day Saints. Marshaled by editors Clyde A. Milner II and Brian Q. Cannon, these writers explore why the federal government wanted to reconstruct Latter-day Saints, when such efforts began, and how the initiatives compare with what happened with white Southerners and American Indians. Other contributions examine the effect of the government’s policies on Mormon identity and sense of history. Why, for example, do Latter-day Saints not have a Lost Cause? Do they share a resentment with American Indians over the loss of sovereignty? And were nineteenth-century Mormons considered to be on the “wrong” side of a religious line, but not a “race line”? The authors consider these and other vital questions and topics here. Together, and in dialogue with one another, their work suggests a new way of understanding the regional, racial, and religious dynamics of reconstruction—and, within this framework, a new way of thinking about the creation of a Mormon historical identity.
The Mormon Menace
Author: Patrick Mason
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199792879
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
"It incarnates every unclean beast of lust, guile, falsehood, murder, despotism and spiritual wickedness." So wrote a prominent Southern Baptist official in 1899 of Mormonism. Rather than the "quintessential American religion," as it has been dubbed by contemporary scholars, in the late nineteenth century Mormonism was America's most vilified homegrown faith. A vast national campaign featuring politicians, church leaders, social reformers, the press, women's organizations, businessmen, and ordinary citizens sought to end the distinctive Latter-day Saint practice of plural marriage, and to extinguish the entire religion if need be. Placing the movement against polygamy in the context of American and southern history, Mason demonstrates that anti-Mormonism was one of the earliest vehicles for reconciliation between North and South after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Southerners joined with northern reformers and Republicans to endorse the use of newly expanded federal power to vanquish the perceived threat to Christian marriage and the American republic. Anti-Mormonism was a significant intellectual, legal, religious, and cultural phenomenon, but in the South it was also violent. While southerners were concerned about distinctive Mormon beliefs and political practices, they were most alarmed at the "invasion" of Mormon missionaries in their communities and the prospect of their wives and daughters falling prey to polygamy. Moving to defend their homes and their honor against this threat, southerners turned to legislation, to religion, and, most dramatically, to vigilante violence. The Mormon Menace provides new insights into some of the most important discussions of the late nineteenth century and of our own age, including debates over the nature and limits of religious freedom; the contest between the will of the people and the rule of law; and the role of citizens, churches, and the state in regulating and defining marriage.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199792879
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
"It incarnates every unclean beast of lust, guile, falsehood, murder, despotism and spiritual wickedness." So wrote a prominent Southern Baptist official in 1899 of Mormonism. Rather than the "quintessential American religion," as it has been dubbed by contemporary scholars, in the late nineteenth century Mormonism was America's most vilified homegrown faith. A vast national campaign featuring politicians, church leaders, social reformers, the press, women's organizations, businessmen, and ordinary citizens sought to end the distinctive Latter-day Saint practice of plural marriage, and to extinguish the entire religion if need be. Placing the movement against polygamy in the context of American and southern history, Mason demonstrates that anti-Mormonism was one of the earliest vehicles for reconciliation between North and South after the Civil War and Reconstruction. Southerners joined with northern reformers and Republicans to endorse the use of newly expanded federal power to vanquish the perceived threat to Christian marriage and the American republic. Anti-Mormonism was a significant intellectual, legal, religious, and cultural phenomenon, but in the South it was also violent. While southerners were concerned about distinctive Mormon beliefs and political practices, they were most alarmed at the "invasion" of Mormon missionaries in their communities and the prospect of their wives and daughters falling prey to polygamy. Moving to defend their homes and their honor against this threat, southerners turned to legislation, to religion, and, most dramatically, to vigilante violence. The Mormon Menace provides new insights into some of the most important discussions of the late nineteenth century and of our own age, including debates over the nature and limits of religious freedom; the contest between the will of the people and the rule of law; and the role of citizens, churches, and the state in regulating and defining marriage.
Abraham's Conceits
Author: Peter Shaw
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1453518517
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 136
Book Description
In the second half of the 1800s, the United States turns her attention to the demands of Manifest Destiny, which include killing or containing the tribal people of North America and establishing a transcontinental, Anglo nation. Among the last tribes impacted are those in the Columbia River Valley and on the Columbia Plateau of the Pacific Northwest. At the same time, a movement called Washani sweeps across that area in reaction to the ascent of the Anglo-Americans. The spiritual leader is a shaman and prophet of the Wanapum tribe named Smoholla, 1813-1895. His influence on the other tribes becomes enormous. One of these is the Yakima, of what is now eastern Washington, and this tribe is one of two featured in the story. James Wilbur grows up in Upstate New York, son of a Presbyterian minister. Most, if not all, of our founding fathers were Presbyterians. His father believes God is a Presbyterian and that Methodism is a lesser religion. Naturally, James finds his way to what his father considers the Devil's trifecta: Methodism, the Methodist ministry and missionary work. James Harvey Wilbur marries Lucretia Ann Stebens on 3/9/1831, when both are nineteen. They have a daughter named Ann. Lucretia Wilbur is not a church-chosen partner for James. She smokes cigarettes, drinks whiskey and is a free thinker. The Wilburs are sent west by ship to build the first church in Portland, Oregon, and to tend to that flock. Thirty years go by. Ann grows up, marries and dies of influenza. The Wilburs, then forty-nine, head to the Columbia Plateau to begin a new life, arriving at the Yakima Indian Reservation in 1859. Both teach English; James works to convert the Indians to Methodism. The Yakima call him Father Wilbur right away; not out of affection, as is historically recorded, but as a joke, his being afflicted with paternalism and prone to pontification. James goes back east to Washington and badgers Abraham Lincoln about the corrupt government agent at the reservation, so President Lincoln appoints James to that post. James now uses his combined power to further his own agenda for the Yakima, which is assimilation through commercial agriculture. He soon realizes that isolation and death are the true aims of the reservation system, and that his helping the Yakima to transcend those intentions is an abomination to almost all the other White people. He is not dissuaded. Reservation life in the 1800s is marginal. Father Wilbur offers food, education and land, in exchange for conversion. Teams of oxen, John Deere plows, seeds, fruit trees, cattle, homestead claims; it grows, as the converted Yakima (eventually about 25% to agriculture and a lesser percentage to Methodism) become established in the world of market agriculture. Almost immediately, these farms and ranches become self-sustaining. To fund his program, however, James turns to misallocation of government funds - all in God's name. James Wilbur has maniacal rules, and his main rules conflict with the traditions of the people. The Yakima have a social security system dependent on polygamy, whereby widows and orphans are woven back into the community, also sheltering the aged in the process. It's not about wealth, sex or power. It's about survival through remarriage and adoption. James thinks of polygamy in sexual terms and gets hopelessly stuck there. Along with a bit of Mormon History, there is a comparison of these two forms of polygamy. The land of the Columbia Plateau is initially fertile, and James has no trouble selling the produce of the new Yakima farmers, because more settlers come to Oregon every day. After 1884, James helps converted Indians file homestead claims off the reservation. The Yakima are a conservative people and most of them reject Christianity and market agriculture. These people are known as Traditionals, and are referred to by James as blanket Indians. They don't recognize his rules concerning monogamy and religion. If you want the supplies and assistance available through Father Wilbur, you may have only one spouse. For him, it's a simple trade of survival for conversion, but for those who feel they have no choice, it's a family-destroying and heart-wrenching experience. The other main rule, about Methodism, has more rules attached. No leaving the reservation, no drinking, no gambling and no dancing are among them. He adds to the damage of his insistence by demanding these changes be both immediate and absolute. Father Wilbur never keeps a dime of the redirected money for himself. He gets away with this despotism and funding his program through theft for six years, until 1870, when the army returns after the start of Reconstruction. His crimes are then discovered, he is fired as agent, and most of the personal restrictions he imposed are abolished. In an instant, he falls from power. Even his church casts a dubious eye on him and suggests he might better contribute by contacting unsurrendered Indians. Lucretia convinces the church's leaders that she can watch the flock while James is away, her already having rapport with the people, and James walks off into the wilderness. What happens next involves a band of Nez Perce, a secular Jew named Sam Rathckowscki and the story of Abraham and Isaac, which is at the core of this book. Abraham's conceits are two: that he owns his children, and that God speaks to him. Abraham and his family enter the story. Catherine the Great, her last lover, and her son Paul the Nut also make cameo appearances. Sam's story is told, taking him from northern Russia to New York City, and then west as an interpreter with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, where he is invited to join the band of Nez Perce just mentioned. He remains there and marries four Nez Perce women. If you want to know what happens to James Harvey Wilbur in the wilds of Idaho, what transpires in his month with the Nez Perce, and about his then drinking antebellum whiskey at the White House with President Grant (in a meeting that really took place) you'll want to read this historically accurate and slightly fictionalized story, most of which is true.
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1453518517
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 136
Book Description
In the second half of the 1800s, the United States turns her attention to the demands of Manifest Destiny, which include killing or containing the tribal people of North America and establishing a transcontinental, Anglo nation. Among the last tribes impacted are those in the Columbia River Valley and on the Columbia Plateau of the Pacific Northwest. At the same time, a movement called Washani sweeps across that area in reaction to the ascent of the Anglo-Americans. The spiritual leader is a shaman and prophet of the Wanapum tribe named Smoholla, 1813-1895. His influence on the other tribes becomes enormous. One of these is the Yakima, of what is now eastern Washington, and this tribe is one of two featured in the story. James Wilbur grows up in Upstate New York, son of a Presbyterian minister. Most, if not all, of our founding fathers were Presbyterians. His father believes God is a Presbyterian and that Methodism is a lesser religion. Naturally, James finds his way to what his father considers the Devil's trifecta: Methodism, the Methodist ministry and missionary work. James Harvey Wilbur marries Lucretia Ann Stebens on 3/9/1831, when both are nineteen. They have a daughter named Ann. Lucretia Wilbur is not a church-chosen partner for James. She smokes cigarettes, drinks whiskey and is a free thinker. The Wilburs are sent west by ship to build the first church in Portland, Oregon, and to tend to that flock. Thirty years go by. Ann grows up, marries and dies of influenza. The Wilburs, then forty-nine, head to the Columbia Plateau to begin a new life, arriving at the Yakima Indian Reservation in 1859. Both teach English; James works to convert the Indians to Methodism. The Yakima call him Father Wilbur right away; not out of affection, as is historically recorded, but as a joke, his being afflicted with paternalism and prone to pontification. James goes back east to Washington and badgers Abraham Lincoln about the corrupt government agent at the reservation, so President Lincoln appoints James to that post. James now uses his combined power to further his own agenda for the Yakima, which is assimilation through commercial agriculture. He soon realizes that isolation and death are the true aims of the reservation system, and that his helping the Yakima to transcend those intentions is an abomination to almost all the other White people. He is not dissuaded. Reservation life in the 1800s is marginal. Father Wilbur offers food, education and land, in exchange for conversion. Teams of oxen, John Deere plows, seeds, fruit trees, cattle, homestead claims; it grows, as the converted Yakima (eventually about 25% to agriculture and a lesser percentage to Methodism) become established in the world of market agriculture. Almost immediately, these farms and ranches become self-sustaining. To fund his program, however, James turns to misallocation of government funds - all in God's name. James Wilbur has maniacal rules, and his main rules conflict with the traditions of the people. The Yakima have a social security system dependent on polygamy, whereby widows and orphans are woven back into the community, also sheltering the aged in the process. It's not about wealth, sex or power. It's about survival through remarriage and adoption. James thinks of polygamy in sexual terms and gets hopelessly stuck there. Along with a bit of Mormon History, there is a comparison of these two forms of polygamy. The land of the Columbia Plateau is initially fertile, and James has no trouble selling the produce of the new Yakima farmers, because more settlers come to Oregon every day. After 1884, James helps converted Indians file homestead claims off the reservation. The Yakima are a conservative people and most of them reject Christianity and market agriculture. These people are known as Traditionals, and are referred to by James as blanket Indians. They don't recognize his rules concerning monogamy and religion. If you want the supplies and assistance available through Father Wilbur, you may have only one spouse. For him, it's a simple trade of survival for conversion, but for those who feel they have no choice, it's a family-destroying and heart-wrenching experience. The other main rule, about Methodism, has more rules attached. No leaving the reservation, no drinking, no gambling and no dancing are among them. He adds to the damage of his insistence by demanding these changes be both immediate and absolute. Father Wilbur never keeps a dime of the redirected money for himself. He gets away with this despotism and funding his program through theft for six years, until 1870, when the army returns after the start of Reconstruction. His crimes are then discovered, he is fired as agent, and most of the personal restrictions he imposed are abolished. In an instant, he falls from power. Even his church casts a dubious eye on him and suggests he might better contribute by contacting unsurrendered Indians. Lucretia convinces the church's leaders that she can watch the flock while James is away, her already having rapport with the people, and James walks off into the wilderness. What happens next involves a band of Nez Perce, a secular Jew named Sam Rathckowscki and the story of Abraham and Isaac, which is at the core of this book. Abraham's conceits are two: that he owns his children, and that God speaks to him. Abraham and his family enter the story. Catherine the Great, her last lover, and her son Paul the Nut also make cameo appearances. Sam's story is told, taking him from northern Russia to New York City, and then west as an interpreter with the Lewis and Clark Expedition, where he is invited to join the band of Nez Perce just mentioned. He remains there and marries four Nez Perce women. If you want to know what happens to James Harvey Wilbur in the wilds of Idaho, what transpires in his month with the Nez Perce, and about his then drinking antebellum whiskey at the White House with President Grant (in a meeting that really took place) you'll want to read this historically accurate and slightly fictionalized story, most of which is true.