“Indigenous People are the Original Mormons: a perfect expression of settler-ideology.”

"Lamanite Warrior Action Figure" by Latter-day Designs

>>more quotes from the Unsettling Mormonism episode of the Red Nation podcast<<

The above image is a Book of Mormon toy you can buy.

The product description for the “Lamanite Warrior Action Figure,” by Book of Mormon Figures reads:

“Lamanite Warriors "were lazy and idolatrous...wild and ferocious" believing in the false traditions of their fathers. They trusted in their own abilities and not in the strength of the Lord. The Book of Mormon tells that "the heads of the Lamanites were shorn, they were naked, save it were skin which was girded about their loins..." (Alma 3) They were armed with bows, arrows, stones and slings. "...They had marked themselves with red in their foreheads after the manner of the Lamanites..." These wicked warriors "...reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery..."
"Ages 4 and up.  3 inch Lamanite Warrior, made out of durable vinyl."

The Introduction to the Book of Mormon teaches that “the Lamanites…are among the* ancestors of the American Indians.” (*which until 2006 read: “the principle ancestors of the American Indian.”)

The Quotes:

"It just seems such a perfect expression of a settler-ideology that, not only does it destroy to replace, but it IS the original.” - Nick Estes

“Mormons saw themselves as one of the lost Ten Tribes of Israel through Joseph. And Joseph had two sons. And one of those sons (Mannasah) is supposedly your ancestors. And (the other) is my British Mormon ancestors. So Mormons see themselves, through the Tribes of Israel as blood related to Indigenous peoples, at least British Mormons.” - nic

“So then to fast forward. These ancient Israeli migrants come here. Again there’s two sons. One’s named Nephi. One’s named Laman. Layman’s like, 'I'm not gonna do what you say Dad/God.’ So Dad/God gets mad and is like, 'Well now you have a curse of a skin of blackness.” And this is so that (the Lamanites) won’t be 'enticing unto' My people. … And then goes in to say you also can’t intermarry and so the (curse of dark skin) was literally to make them unattractive.” - nic

"Later on in the Book (of Mormon) there’s a promised that, currently says, 'pure and delightsome,' but from 1841 to 1981 read 'white and delightsome.' Which (the turning Indigenous people 'white') was one of the main points of pride during the Lamanite Student Placement Program.” - nic

“These programs (of assimilation), the trying to convert (Native) people, the trying to place (Native) children with (white) Mormon families, was a direct line of genocide that came because (Mormons) were not able to win the war of extermination.” - Kobi

“So the idea is that Mormons are descendants of the original Peoples of the ‘Americas,’ that they are the First People. and so (Richard Hansen) believes that it was actually his People who built El Mirador in Guatemala. and so he wants to go in and try to make this some kind of Mormon tourist resort / Disneyland and claim, not only claiming that this land is their land, like the song, but that this culture is theirs.” - Kobi

“I’m trying not to sound insensitive, but this is just fucking racist.” - Nick Estes

​“Can this church be decolonized? I don’t think so. What’s left without your Book of Mormon? without your belief that you have divine right to this land? Without the land you’re headquartered in? Without the wealth developed from that stolen land? Like what’s left?” - nic