No Innocent Settlers, pt. 2: Milton R. Hunter, Mormon author and mythistorian

Milton R. Hunter (right), his nephew (left), and Mormon President Howard W. Hunter (middle, no relation) at Machu Pichu Peru, 1965

Milton is my Great Granduncle. 
Uncle Milton’s gonna help me talk about how Mormon settler-colonization didn’t end with Brigham Young. 

As a 28-yr-old Milton earned a master’s degree from BYU.

As a 32-yr-old he earned a Ph.D. in History from Berkley.

He spent the next 17 years teaching seminary (church-school that Mormons go to during the week)

As a 37-yr-old his book “Brigham Young, the Colonizer” was published. This book was used as a textbook in Utah schools.

As 42-yr-old he was placed into this Church’s First Council of the Seventy which sent him on missions to study the structures of so-called Mesoamerica to find proof of the Book of Mormon.

As a 47-yr-old his co-authored book, “Ancient America and the Book of Mormon,” was published.

As a 49-yr-old he co-founded the New World Archeological Foundation. 

That same year his book, “Utah Indian Stories,” was published. 
As a 62-yr-old he visited Machu Picchu with future Mormon President, Howard W. Hunter (no relation) 

The New World Archeological Foundation (NWAF) seeks to find archeological proof of the historicity of the Book of Mormon by studying “the origins and subsequent trajectory of civilization (complex societies) in…Mesoamerica.” 

The NWAF is the reason Richard Hansen is in El Mirador, Guatemala. They sent him there as a BYU student.

Historiographer Gary Topping writes that Uncle Milton writes with a "myopic cultural vision.” "Fully imbued with the patriotism, the chin-up optimism, and the faith in progress held by Mormons and other US Americans during the World War Il period, the books promote unrestrained industrial development and exploitation of natural resources.” They also ignore “cultural diversity in the region, and portray Native Americans in a disparaging manner.”

Our people not only committed genocide on the Peoples Indigenous to this land, their grandchildren then helped create the myths of innocence which continue to destroy lives & lifeways of Indigenous Peoples. 
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Settler colonialism never ended. This is our family heirloom. Our inheritance is to help destroy those myths and build a world based on shared realities. 
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P.S. If you’d like to help me buy a couple of Milton’s books, venmo @nicholas-jacobsen-1
P.P.S. I learned of Uncle Milton when I read my CounterPunch article on Mormon Archeologist, Richard Hansen,  to my mom who told me, “I thought the church already had archeological evidence of the BoM? My grandpa’s brother wrote a book on it.”