Unsettling Mormonism
an archive of unsettling histories, mythistories, and mystories
from U.S. & Mormon settler colonialism, white supremacy, and imperialism
from U.S. & Mormon settler colonialism, white supremacy, and imperialism
 Mormonism was Made In The U.S.A. – made on stolen Indigenous lands. Like the U.S. military, car companies, and the Boy Scouts, Mormonism also loves to Play Indian while attempting to naturalize their whiteness and/or Christianity in this land. The mythistoric beginnings of life on earth in Mormonism occur in the Garden of Eden. Like other forms of US protestant-Christianity, Mormon-Adam and Eve are depicted as a skinny, cisgender, hetero, abled, white couple surrounded by charismatic megafauna from all over the world. Unlike other forms of US protestant-Christianity, Mormon-Adam and Eve are created on this continent, in so-called Adam-ondi-Ahman, in so-called Missouri, on Osage, Kiikaapoi, and Očhéthi Šakówiŋ lands.  This is also where Joseph Smith planned to build his own settler-State of Zion to prepare for the Second Coming of Christ. This mythistry serves to both naturalize and deify whiteness and Christianity in this land. And like the Doctrine of Discovery, this narrative attempts to grant the Mormon Church – as the only Church with this supposed knowledge – divine rights to the lands. My Great Grandma’s genealogy record goes back to Adam and Eve – fabricating hereditary ties to these stolen lands – reifying this settler-mythistry in my family history. Mormonism teaches that God purified this continent during the Flood of Noah by committing complete genocide on all of its life. Later, God gives his Promised Land to Lehi’s People – ancient-Israeli migrants who were white and conventionally attractive. God’s People lose the land after all the white Christians in story are killed by the “cursed” brown People. History is blended with fiction in the Book of Mormon when an ancient white Prophet prophecies Columbus's so-called discovery of God's Promised Land. The Mormon-American history narrative continues, teaching that God guided Columbus to restore white-Christianity to His “Promised Land." This narrative doesn't address the fact that in the 100 years after Columbus's invasion of this land, 90% of its Indigenous People are killed by colonialism. Continuing with the Mormon-America mythistry: Columbus's restoration of white Christianity to this land laid the foundation for “Our Divine Constitution” to be written and signed by a group of wealthy, white-supremacist, Christian, human-owning men who were supposedly guided by God to lay the religious-freedom-foundations necessary for the Restoration of the Only True Church. Nineteenth century Indian-fetishes and Indigenous genocide helped Joseph Smith built a religious movement on (mis)appropriation of Indigenous lands and cultures. The Manifest Destiny-era of the U.S. settler project help Brigham Young and my People occupy the “vales of Utah” and build their Zionist State in preparation for the End of Days. This mythistry and history are soaked in the white-supremacist, settler-colonial violence of its time.  collage by nicholas b jacobsen
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 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”)
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 Israelis 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.  collage by nicholas b jacobsen  by nicholas b jacobsen a b o o k o f r e c k o n i n g in vulnerability and submission A found-object poem built from the three canonical, sacred, and exclusively Mormon texts: "The Book of Mormon", the "Doctrine and Convenants", and the "Pearl of Great Price". Each text object was chosen to tell a story that would highlight the white-supremacist, racist, and terraphobic language found throughout these texts, so that we may be able to reckon with it. Warning to readers: Some of this language is violent. And some of you may need no reminder of this sort of violence. "The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas... The record gives an account of two great civilizations. One came from Jerusalem in 600 B.C. and afterward separated into two nations, known as the Nephites and the Lamanites... After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principle* / among the ancestors of the American Indians." - Introduction to the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith Jr., et al. 1 Wherefore, this is the land of promise, and the place for the city of Zion. | Do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it, that it be not defiled, | that I may reserve unto myself a pure people before me | having their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God. | These are made white in the blood of the Lamb | that we may be purified even as he is pure. | 2 And, as I, the Lord, in the beginning cursed the land | and the earth with a sore curse, and was angry. | For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever. | 3 And the Lord cursed the earth with a sore curse, and many of the inhabitants thereof died. | 4 By nature, they fall. | And behold I will destroy all flesh from off the earth. | 5 Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest? | 6 And when Enoch heard the earth mourn, he wept, and cried unto the Lord, saying: O Lord, wilt thou not have compassion upon the earth? | 7 And the Lord said: I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air; | for the presence of the Lord shall be as the melting fire that burneth, and as the fire which causeth the waters to boil | and consume the wicked with unquenchable fire. | 8 And the day cometh that they must be burned. | And the earth shall pass away so as by fire | that I may reserve unto myself a pure people before me. | 9 Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. | | | Touch not that which is unclean. | Save yourselves. | | 10 Be ye clean | | | and chasten her until she overcomes and is clean before me | white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; | a virgin. And she was exceedingly fair and white. | And behold the whiteness thereof did exceed all the whiteness, yea, even there could be nothing upon earth so white as the whiteness thereof. | 11 Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins. | I will curse them even with a sore curse, and they shall have no power. | 12 Wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. | 13 They became a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations. | 14 And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them. | 15 This people shall be scattered, and shall become a dark, a filthy, and a loathsome people, beyond the description of that which ever hath been amongst us. | 16 They were led by their evil nature that 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. | Cursed shall be the land for their sakes. | 17 And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done. | 18 And their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white** / pure and a delightsome people, | white like unto the Nephites, | a civil and a delightsome people. | 19 And the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose | that they may once again be a delightsome people. | For ye shall be a delightsome land, | yea, exceeding of all beauty. | 20 And the whiteness thereof did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow, | A virgin, most beautiful and fair above all other virgins. | 21 I fear that their skins will be whiter than yours. | 22 This is Zion—the pure in heart | have shed innocent blood, which crieth from the ground against them. | 23 And now I ask of you, having your garments stained with blood: Behold, what will these things testify against you? | *words changed in the 2007 edition of the Book of Mormon **word changed in 1981 edition of the Book of Mormon
 "this is (not) my home" - digital collage by nicholas b jacobsen i won’t say much, I think the video says enough
I don't know this video’s name yet. I'm not even sure it is done The video was arranged a few months ago, the audio was arranged over 3 years ago This audio has been in my phone all those years, while in shuffle it has come on a lot in those months, so maybe it was ready to come out. I also want to acknowledge the vast influence Latter Day Labia's work has had on me and this piece and to appreciate the work she does in that valuable archive 💙  collage by nicholas b jacobsen, feat. Washington County statue of Robert D. Covington I grew up in so-called “Utah’s Dixie” (Nuwu land). Until I started this unsettling I’d never had an Indigenous, Black, or Brown Mormon-affiliated friend. I think these two facts are related. Many of my fellow settlers from Utah's Dixie will argue til red in the face that Utah's use of Dixie isn't about enslavement or the Confederacy, but strictly about the mission to grow cotton in these Nuwu lands in the Mojave Desert. But, one, this argument ignores the fact that the association between the word Dixie and cotton IS about enslavement, no matter when the Confederacy rose. And, two, even if the roots of Utah's Dixie weren't about enslavement and the Confederacy (they were) they grew to become associated, especially during the civil rights era when this church spoke in open defiance of the rights of Black people / Africans in the U.S.  Gary Staheli, right, donates Confederate flag to Student body President Mel Bowler, left, and Doug Schmutz, D-Day general chairman Dixie College’s Civil Rights era yearbooks feature images mock enslavement-auctions, white students in Blackface, and the Student Body Pres. receiving a Conf. Battle Flag. (The number of things named/built to memorialize the Confederacy spiked during Civil Rights Era)  Info from 2016 Southern Poverty Law Center study In 1952, Brown vs. Board of Education is being argued In 1952, Dixie Junior College’s sport teams start calling themselves Dixie “Rebels” In 1954, based on Brown vs. Board of Education, the supreme court rules that racial segregation in public schools in unconstitutional. In 1955, Emmett Til was brutally murdered and Rosa Parks is arrested for riding a bus. In 1956, The school makes a Confederate soldier its mascot and other white supremacists in the U.S.'s Dixie bomb four Black churches and the homes of civil rights leaders King, Ralph Abernathy, and E.D. Nixon. In 1960, Dixie begins flying the Confederate flag as a school symbol and Ruby Bridges starts attending a formerly segregated school in New Orleans. In 1992, people in Los Angeles rebelled after the cops who were caught on tape beating Rondey King were acquitted. In 1994, Dixie officially drops its use of the Confederate flag as a school symbol. In 2008, while I was at student, Dixie College changed their Confederate mascot to a "Red Storm." In 2012, Dixie removed their multi-figure bronze Confederate soldier statue in 2012. In 2021 they're dropping the name entirely. As Utah historian Will Bagley said, "The name Dixie reflects the sympathy that the southern Utah and the Mormon people felt for the Confederacy."  Bronze statue of Utah's Dixie founder Robert D. Covington Robert Dockery Covington was called by Brigham Young in 1857 to lead settlers to Nuwu lands (Washington, UT) and grow cotton. Covington was chosen because he had experience in the field. Before Utah, he owned people and forced them to grow cotton for him in Mississippi.
The Sheriff of Utah's Dixie Albert Washington Collins enjoyed entertaining fellow settlers with sharing stories about how he whipped and raped the people his family used to own, breed, and profit from. Both men were vocal Confederate sympathizers. Covington’s statue stands in the Washington City Museum courtyard in a round of statues depicting founders of Utah's Dixie, right next to the park I grew up playing in, and to the chapel I went to church in. Washington City Museum also has a statue of John D. Lee, the man held responsible for the Mountain Meadows Massacre, but brought that statue inside the Museum. Why is Lee's statue hidden inside and not Covington's? Why do we white people seem to be able to be justly ashamed of ourselves for white on white crime but never the for the violences we enact on Indigenous, Black, Brown, and Asian peoples. |
AuthorI am nicholas b jacobsen, an artist, researcher, historian, educator, and organizer. I am a trans-non binary Euro-settler raised in the Nuwu lands of so-called Utah. My family has been Mormon and Utahn for as long as either of those concepts have existed. My ancestors sacrificed everything--their identities, homelands, jobs, health, & safety to become Mormon, Utahn, U.S. American, & white--to settler their Zion. I take it as my personal responsibility to unsettle what my ancestors settled. and to help my fellow settlers do the same through writing, art, and community building. ArchivesCategories
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