“The Book of Mormon as Mormon Settler Colonialism,” by Elise Boxer from “Essays on American Indian and Mormon History”

collage by nicholas b jacobsen

The Book of Mormon as Mormon Settler Colonialism by Elise Boxer from “Essays on American Indian and Mormon History”

Turning “Indigenous Peoples into Lamanites, (is) a process that began in 1830 with the first printing of the Book of Mormon”.

Even the definition of who is a Lamanite grew as Mormon settler colonialism spread. 

“The Book of Mormon is (used) to construct a Lamanite identity and history in which Indigenous Peoples exist only to legitimize the presence of Mormon settlers on this continent. By depicting Indigenous Peoples as Lamanites, (and) immigrants to this continent, the Book of Mormon provides the necessary justification for Indigenous removal and possession by Mormon settlers along the Mormon Corridor (Idaho, Utah, Arizona)”

Because “Lamanites lost their rights to their homelands due to their own wickedness.” Mormons act as if contemporary Indigenous Peoples have no rights to this land as they still carry the mark of unrighteousness: “the skin of blackness.” 

Through the Book of Mormon “the settlement and colonization of this continent (is seen as) inevitable. Lamanite prophets prophesied the arrival of Mormon settlers and subsequently, their own dispossession because of their spiritual wickedness. Thus, removal and displacement [of Indigenoues Peoples] was justified.”

“This erasure of Indigenous Peoples and history by Mormon settlers is an extention of the larger American colonial project of removal and genocide of Indigenous Peoples.”

Just as Mormon God put a “mark upon” the Lamanites, Mormons use the Lamanite narrative to mark Indigenous People “as the racialized ‘other’.”’

The Book of Mormon “ignores (Indigenous Peoples) unique history that intimately connects them to the land,” as in their own creation stories they “have been here since time immemorial.”

“Failing to understand a people’s connection to land makes it impossible to understand their history and culture. When Indigenous Peoples have been depicted as immigrants to this continent the goal is to extinguish tribal title to land.”

​"Indigenous worldviews must be acknowledged and restored as an integral component to our understanding of the historical past. And (doing so) challenges the Book of Mormon as a literal history of (these Peoples).”