Diné dóó Gáamalii : Navajo Latter-day Saint Experiences in the Twentieth Century / Farina King.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

King, Farina, author.

Series:

Lyda Conley series on trailblazing indigenous futures.

Lyda Conley Series on Trailblazing Indigenous Futures

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indian Latter Day Saints.

Navajo Indians--Missions.

Navajo Indians.

Navajo Indians--Religion.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints--Missions--Navajo Nation, Arizona, New Mexico & Utah.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

King, Farina--Family.

King, Farina.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (314 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Lawrence, Kansas : University Press of Kansas, [2023]

Summary:

"Dine doo Gaamalii is a history of twentieth-century Navajos, including author Farina King and her family, who have converted and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), becoming "Dine doo Gaamalii"--both Dine and LDS. Drawing on Dine stories from the LDS Native American Oral History Project, King illuminates the mutual entanglement of Indigenous identity and religious affiliation, showing how their Dine identity made them outsiders to the LDS church and, conversely, how belonging to the LDS community made them outsiders to their Native community. The story that King tells shows the complex ways that Dine people engaged with church institutions within the context of settler colonial power structures. The lived experiences of Dine in the church programs sometimes diverged from the intentions and expectations of those who designed them"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Table of Contents

Front Matter(pp. i-iv)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.1

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.1

Table of Contents(pp. v-vi)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.2

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.2

List of Images(pp. vii-viii)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.3

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.3

Foreword(pp. ix-xiv)

Patty Limerick

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.4

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.4

Over the last five centuries, the Indigenous peoples of North America have had to invest an enormous share of their energy and time in challenging and correcting the multitude of stereotypes and misguided assumptions imposed on them. Meanwhile, over nearly two centuries, the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have had to navigate their way through an obstacle course of misapprehensions, misconceptions, and misinterpretations produced and circulated by "Gentiles." Public understandings of both groups still fail to rest on accuracy, context, and respect.

Publishing a "collective biography" of Diné who are also Latter-day Saints, Farina King. . .

Acknowledgments(pp. xv-xviii)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.5

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.5

Introduction(pp. 1-19)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.6

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.6

This narrative begins with my father's story, which shaped my life and relations as Diné dóó Gáamalii-Latter-day Saint and Navajo.¹ In Diné bizaad, the Navajo language, we introduce ourselves by our clans that we inherit. Bilagáanaa nishłí̢. Kinyaa'áanii báshíshchíín. Bilagáanaa dashicheii dóó Tsinaajinii dashinálí. My mother is of white European-American settler descent, and my father is of the Towering House and Black-Streaked Woods clans. I am born for my father's Diné clans, and I was raised as a Latter-day Saint, since my parents both joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as young adults. Because of my. . .

CHAPTER ONE Diné dóó Gáamalii: Navajo Latter-day Saints(pp. 20-48)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.7

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.7

In 1948 the Diné Latter-day Saint family of Howela and Ruth Arviso Polacca hosted Apostle Spencer W. Kimball in a "trailer-tent under some pines" close to their hogan in Crystal, Navajo Nation, when the church leader specifically requested to recuperate in Diné Bikéyah from his incapacitating heart seizures and medical treatments.¹ Ruth Polacca developed an enduring friendship with Kimball during that time and dedicated much of her life to Latter-day Saint missionary work. At a district conference in Toadlena, in 1950, Ruth claimed that "there is something we have told in our Indian traditions, and I've seen this in the. . .

CHAPTER TWO Gáamalii Bina'nitiní: Missionaries(pp. 49-83)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.8

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.8

My father, Phillip L. Smith, corrected me with a stern grimace when I once stated that he came from Gallup, New Mexico. "I do not come from Gallup," he retorted. "Tséyaaniichii'dę́ę́ naashá [I come from Rehoboth, New Mexico]." Tséyaaniichii' or "Termination of Red Streak of Rock" is part of the "checkerboard" of Diné communities that lies at the eastern edge of the border town of Gallup. A part of me wanted to roll my eyes as he said this, especially one day when I stood at the site of the family's homestead and looked down from a hill across the. . .

CHAPTER THREE Ólta' Gáamalii: "Mormon School"(pp. 84-112)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.9

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.9

Ólta' Gáamalii, or "Mormon School," is what Diné people call the Indian Student Placement Program (ISPP), or "Placement," which took place in the late twentieth century. On March 8, 2017, Cal Nez wrote a tribute to his Placement mother: "Thank you for everything you have given me. The true meaning of love. . . . You and dad left an incredible legacy that had impacted many cultures and races throughout the world."¹ Nez, a Diné businessman in the Salt Lake City region, has managed the Former LDS Indian Placement Students Facebook group page.² On November 16, 2016, he shared the. . .

CHAPTER FOUR Sodizin Bá Hooghan: Church(pp. 113-137)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.10

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.10

As I recall some of my earliest memories of going to church, the Window Rock Ward in St. Michaels, Navajo Nation, comes to mind. On Sundays I wore my best dresses and entered the white-painted church with a dark brown panel on the front and a white steeple on top. In Diné bizaad, Diné call the area Ts'ithootso, a place "that extends out in yellow and green" or simply "green meadow," referring to the yellow blossoms and grasses that grow in the summer.¹ I remember greeting friends and smiling faces at church, and even finding a way to escape outside. . .

CHAPTER FIVE Beyond Diné Bikéyah(pp. 138-154)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.11

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.11

Although I have focused primarily on congregations in Diné Bikéyah, Diné, like many other Native Americans, have relocated to cities and different areas for schooling, employment, and various reasons. Many of them have settled in communities near their homelands, and others headed to distant urban centers. Some Diné Latter-day Saints, for example, moved to Utah for wage-earning work opportunities and proximity to other Latter-day Saints. In cities with a strong Native American presence, church leaders have occasionally organized branches and wards specifically for Native Americans. These congregations follow the pattern of other specialized units in the Church, but with a. . .

CHAPTER SIX Red Power at BYU(pp. 155-179)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.12

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.12

This chapter traces Diné experiences of my father and close friends that he met in his young adulthood at Brigham Young University. BYU expanded the horizons and contacts of Diné Latter-day Saints as they grew into adulthood and extended their families with diverse Native and non-Native peoples. A collective of Diné youth unified with other Indigenous Latter-day Saints at BYU, embracing Red Power on their own terms as BYU launched one of the largest Native American university programs in North America during the late twentieth century.

In 1970 the BYU newspaper, the Daily Universe, featured a story on how Gilbert. . .

CHAPTER SEVEN Diné dóó Gáamalii Perspectives(pp. 180-195)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.13

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.13

This chapter reflects on the growth and dynamics of Diné Latter-day Saint communities in the late twentieth century to the present and the challenges that Diné experience as they come to understand their identities as both Diné and Latter-day Saint. Diné dóó Gáamalii have defined their identities on their own terms based on their experiences, perspectives, and understandings of being. Diné people take different approaches to balancing what it means to be Diné and Latter-day Saint in practice and everyday life, both inside and outside church spaces.

In Weaving Women's Lives: Three Generations in a Navajo Family, anthropologist Louise Lamphere. . .

Epilogue(pp. 196-210)

Epilogue(pp.

196-210)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.14

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.14

The Fort Wingate Branch in New Mexico has been another home congregation for me, especially since more of my relatives have been attending church there. One Sunday morning in June 2021, I visited the branch and family simultaneously after more than a year of separation because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We lost many Diné to COVID-19, including my beloved aunt Florence. Several of her children and grandchildren came to church that day when branch president Donald Pine invited me to speak at the pulpit during the sacrament meeting. Although the invitation was unexpected, I knew immediately what I would say. . .

Appendix: Oral History Interviews and Oral History Sources(pp. 211-214)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.15

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.15

Glossary(pp. 215-218)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.16

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.16

Notes(pp. 219-274)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.17

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.17

Select Bibliography(pp. 275-280)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.18

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.18

Index(pp. 281-294)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.19

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.19

Back Matter(pp. 295-295)

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.11589038.20

https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11589038.20.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780700635542

0700635548