Chosen Whiteness and Indigenous Erasure in Mormonism, pt. 1: Tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh

collage by nicholas b jacobsen

Mormonism is foundationally settler-colonial. Thru this myth of ancient-Israeli-kinship between Northern European Mormons and Indigenous Peoples (with their mythic “skin of blackness”) Mormons place themselves as their Indigenous “brother’s keeper.”

This paternalistic relationship formed the many missions to the Lamanites, which Joseph and Brigham taught would make Indigenous people white and beautiful again.

It influenced the enslavement / adoption programs run by Brigham in early Utah territory.

It influenced the “Indian” boarding school / foster program known as “Lamanite Placement Program” which Spencer W. Kimball taught was turning Indigenous peoples white.

AND at its core this kinship myth established Northern European Mormons, as the keepers of the keys to their “Zion” which “will be built on the American continent”(according to their 10th article of faith), as the rightful heirs of this supposedly “Promised Land.” This myth of cursed skin marks Indigenous People’s land rights as in a fallen state, and Northern European Mormons as the true heirs.

Which is reified for them in the story of Ephraim and Manasseh.

I know it, my son: (Manasseh) also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother (Ephraim) shall be greater than he, and (Ephraim’s) seed shall become a multitude of nations. (...) And he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
- Genesis 48:19-20 

Mormon’s seem to have a More-Worthy-Younger-Brother complex: Ephraim is the More-Worthy-Younger-Brother to Manasseh. Nephi is the More-Worthy-Younger-Brother to Laman. Joseph Smith was the More-Worthy-Younger-Brother to Hyrum. 

"The Book of Mormon came to Ephraim, for Joseph Smith was a pure Ephraimite, and the Book of Mormon was revealed to him.” - Brigham Young (Journal of Discourses 2:268–69.)

In a sort of spin-off of British Israelism, Early Mormon leaders taught that they as holders of the Keys to the One True Church and of Northern European heritage were physical descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, specifically the tribe of Ephraim via the Tribe of Joseph (of Egypt). 

"The Book of Mormon prophet Lehi was a descendant of Manasseh," the Less-Worthy-Older-Brother to Ephraim. Lehi as the original father of Lamanites (read: Indigenous Peoples) are descendants of Manasseh. And as this church teaches that "many Latter-day Saints [a predominantly white church] are of the tribe of Ephraim" –– this Biblical Mormon family tree teaches that European-settler Mormons are related to Indigenous Peoples. 

My Great Grandmother, a fourth-generation Mormon, wrote in our family history that the House of Ephraim and the House of Manasseh are the "leaders of the whole Anglo-Saxon race." 

This is lineage is so important to Mormons that "a vital part of every patriarchal blessing," a sacred, once-in-a-lifetime, prophetic blessing, "is the declaration of lineage." And even though today this church teaches that tribes are not declared based on "race or nationality" I and "many (other white) Latter-day Saints" was told in my patriarchal blessing that I am "of the tribe of Ephraim". 

This sibling story is also a part of the Mormon myth of Indigenous whiteness. The Book of Mormon teaches that Indigenous peoples, as descendants of Lamanites, are ancestrally white but have been cursed with “a skin of blackness". But according to the Book of Mormon and Mormon leaders, God has promised Indigenous Peoples that if they assimilate to Mormonism the curse will be lifted and they will be made "pure and delightsome" again.

This mythic family history has also bred a paternalistic relationship between Mormon-settlers and Indigenous Peoples through which Mormon-settlers have written their history of colonization to be one of salvation rather than one of assimilation and genocide. One of the many myths and histories shared by the Mormon-settler-Imperial project and the U.S.-settler-imperial-project.

This genealogical narrative serves to naturalize whiteness in this land and mark it as divine (just as their myth of Adam and Eve’s originary whiteness in this land). It also notably places whiteness as a mark of a righteous People and "a skin of blackness" to be a mark of a cursed People. 

These are both moves to innocence as these tellings render all of the violence of this history of genocidal land theft as innocent, destined, and divine.