Chosen Whiteness and Indigenous Erasure in Mormonism, pt. 4: "white and delightsome"

collage by nicholas b jacobsen

 “And behold the whiteness thereof did exceed all the whiteness, yea, even there could be nothing upon earth so white as the whiteness thereof.” - 3 Nephi 19:25

In the early 1800’s, when Joseph Smith was a boy, it was a common for the everyday white-supremacist of the time to believe that some ancient white people emigrated to this land long-ago, but were eventually wiped out by the ancestors of contemporary Indigenous People. This belief is rooted in their white-supremacist ideologies which say that only white people can build the kinds of structures, cultures, and civilizations that Europeans witnessed in the earthworks of the Moundbuilder nations and temples of Maya, Inca, Aztecs, and Olmecs. This white-supremacist logic lives not only in the Book of Mormon but in the popular conspiracy theories of "Ancient Aliens". 

In this mythistry, the existence of these structures IS proof that some ancient white people have been here. So the next questions become: What happened to these Peoples? Where are they now? 

As a record of its time, the 19th century, the  Book of Mormon imagines answers to these questions.

​The Book of Mormon introduces itself as "a record of God’s dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas, the [white] Nephites and the [dark] Lamanites." After centuries of war the Nephites are completely wiped out by the Lamanites who "are among the ancestors* of the American Indians."  (*until 2007 this text read, “the principle ancestors”)​

collage feat. Book of Mormon illustration of Lehi's family emigrating and the Manifest Destiny angel by nicholas b jacobsen

collage feat. paper cut-outs of a pair of Nephites and a pair of Lamanites by nicholas b jacobsen

The main storyline of the Book of Mormon begins with Lehi’s family who are described as a “white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome" people. They are Chosen by God to populate and replenish this Promised Land. This family arrives around 600 B.C. and shortly split into two groups: Nephites and Lamanites. The Nephites “were generally more righteous than” the Lamanites, who rebelled against their God, father, and brothers.

The Lamanites "were led by their evil nature (and) they became wild, and ferocious, and a blood-thirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness."​

collage feat image two women playing Indian by playing Nephites and Lamanites at the Mormon Miracle Pageant. Image is from Leticia Alvarado's "Abject performances"

To keep the "generally more righteous" Nephites from intermarrying with these evil-natured Lamanites, God cursed the Lamanites. "As they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome that they might not be enticing unto (the Nephites) the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon (the Lamanites)." God went on to warn the Nephites that if any of "the seed of (the Nephites) mixeth with (Lamanite) seed ... they shall be cursed" with the same "skin of blackness" curse.

But this white God is a merciful white-supremacist, so he makes the Lamanites and their posterity, "the American Indians," an “optimistic promise." If the Lamanites or "American Indians" forsake their People’s lifeways and accept the Book of Mormon as their history and Mormonism as their religion then “they shall (become) a pure and a delightsome People," “white like unto the Nephites,” who are “a civil and delightsome People.”

"Joseph Preaching to the Indians" by C. C. A. Christensen from "Mormon Panorama," 1865

So, basically, Mormonism teaches that contemporary Indigenous Peoples are descendants of ancient white Israelites who lost their rights to this so-called Promised Land when they were cursed with "a skin of blackness" which they still carry. But if they assimilate to Mormonism and stop living their Indigenous lifeways, they will have their curse of dark skin lifted and they'll return to their original state as a pure, white, and attractive people again. 

This is contemporary doctrine reified through the Book of Mormon.

When the Chruch’s “Race and Priesthood” gospel topics essays says: “Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse,” they are only referring to the African Salvation ban and the Curses of Cain and Ham.

This church and Book of Mormon still teaches that among the ancestors of contemporary Indigenous peoples are white ancient Israelites who’ve been cursed with “a skin of blackness”.
And this church has never apologized, repented, or taken accountability for the lived realities of genocide and assimilation (like the Lamanite Student Placement Program) that Mormon settlers have enacted based on this doctrine.​

collage by nicholas b jacobsen