Season 2 Episode 19 The Indians of Utah

Description

The Native Americans are an integral part of Latter-day Saint history, but their story has been strained out of Church history. Native Americans were considered as part of the House of Israel that too must be gathered. Brigham Young was given authority to redeem the “Lamanites” by the Prophet Joseph Smith, and ever after felt a keen responsibility for their welfare. Because of these Church-fostered sympathies it became a frequent accusation against the Latter-day Saints that they were in collusion with the Indians against the United States. There were several hundred Indians in the Salt Lake Valley when the Vanguard Company arrived in July 1847. They were at first friendly, but that later changed. It was over the issue of the use of the land that a clash of cultures resulted between the Latter-day Saints and the Indians. There was an inevitable competition for resources between them. The Indians expected payment for the use of the land. The diseases of the white men would wreak havoc among the tribes before the nineteenth century was out.