Pioneer Day, pt 1: Joseph Smith

Prophet, Priest, King, Judge, Lieutenant General, Mayor, Presidential Candidate, Seer, Astrologist, Capricorn, Treasure Seeker, Scryer, Fraud and Founder of the Mormonism—Joseph Smith. 38years old. Murdered in Carthage Jail. 1844.

This is about Utah Pioneer Day.

I start with Joseph Smith ’s martyr story because the one I learned left out some context and it’s the catalyst for all that is Utah Mormonism.

Mormons are/were a Zionist religion. They gather. So when they move they bring a political and economic power block. Which upsets the  settlers who’ve already claimed the areas Mormons try to settle. I don’t know the details to say yea or nay But people with power displacing People in an established area tends to be unjust.

So, it’s so-called 1844, in
Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Sioux), 
Bodéwadmiakiwen (Potawatomi), 
Ni-u-kon-ska (Osage), 
Sauk and Meskwaki, 
Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo),
and Peoria lands, 
or so-called Nauvoo, Ill.

Joseph Smith’s a polygamist. He’s got a town of which he is the Mayor and a militia of which he is Lieutenant General (which ~2/5 the size of the U.S. army at the time).

People joining in from all over, thanks to men he’s sent off on missions (and then often marries [rapes] those mens’ wives). He’s got a U.S Presidential Campaign running with missionaries campaigning for him across the country and plans to settle in Indigenous lands settlers stole and called Oregon and California. 

But he upset some of his inner-circle with polygamy (some felt isn’t wasn’t being taken advantage of enough). These men make a printing press to tell all. As Mayor and Lt General Joseph Smith ordered his militia: “Destroy the press”

The Illinois Governor is then like, “Too far!” And with Missouri breathing down his neck to extradite Smith, he orders for Joseph’s arrest

Joseph Smith is about to sneak to the so-called Rocky Mountains with his henchmen Porter Rockwell. But there’s a DM from his wife, Emma urging Smith to return and give himself up, show courage to his friends who accuse him of cowardice.

Detail of C.C.A. Christensen's "Mormon Panorama". 1865.

He’s arrested and murdered in his cell by People angry about things that were true and some things that were not true as none of the (white) men involved were respectable. 

Truth in Mormonism has been an amorphous thing from its origins.