You Can Make Your Own Bright Future, Tom Trails : Evaluating the Impact of the LDS Indian Seminary Program

Transcription

1 You Can Make Your Own Bright Future, Tom Trails : Evaluating the Impact of the LDS Indian Seminary Program Scott C. Esplin The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints maintained an active policy directing Latter-day Saint interactions with Native Americans in the West during the nineteenth century. While these associations have generally been well studied, educational policies in the twentieth century, especially at the region s Indian schools and through the Church s Indian Seminary program, are not as well known. Writing of this void, David J. Whittaker noted in 1985, The twentieth century has hardly been touched.... We do not fully... comprehend the educational programs. 1 In response, this paper analyzes the Church s Native American religious education programs SCOTT C. ESPLIN is an associate professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University. He specializes in late nineteenth- and twentieth-century Church history, including the history of Latter-day Saint education and the development of historic sites. 1 David J. Whittaker, Mormons and Native Americans: A Historical and Bibliographical Introduction, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18, no. 4 (Winter 1985):

2 Scott C. Esplin/Indian Seminary Program 173 during the last half of the twentieth century. In particular, it examines the founding and expanding of the Church s Indian Seminary program, as well as the successes and challenges associated with religious education among the Native American population. 2 The significance of studying the Church s Indian Seminary program is multifaceted because it can act as a case study for the Church s views regarding Native Americans during the twentieth century. Importantly, Indian Seminary illustrates the bond between the faith and a people viewed to be the subject of Book of Mormon prophesies, with the program s decline mirroring what some argue was a southerly shift in the identification of the children of Father Lehi. 3 Additionally, Indian Seminary both influenced and was impacted by larger Church policy and practice. Products of the program, most prominently its curricular endeavors and home study option, paved the way for changes in the larger Church Educational System, while its overlap with other Church institutions led to organizational conflict. Finally, and most importantly, Indian Seminary had an impact on thousands of participants, both as students and as teachers, over its more than thirty years of operation. 2 While the focus of this article is on the Indian Seminary program, the Church s Indian Student Placement program is occasionally referenced because of the common approaches and curricula used in each system to reach Native American students. Additionally, officials openly acknowledged that the Indian seminary program [was] an important recruitment arm of the placement program. Guidelines for the Indian Seminary and Institute Program (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), 29 (hereafter Guidelines). Writing from an Indian Placement experience in San Jose, California, to her friends at the Sherman Indian Seminary in Riverside, California, Darleen Goklish highlights the interconnections between the two programs: I was once a student at Sherman. I ve been attending Indian School for three years before coming on the Placement Program. Here I am now in San Jose. This is my first year on the Placement Program and [I am] a senior. I really enjoy living with the whites and learn more each day about the gospel of Jesus Christ.... Thanks again for the Seminary News and I would like to get one every month, because it feels good to keep up with what s happening out there in Riverside and the students. Darleen Goklish, Letter to LDS Seminary News, Sherman Indian Seminary, October 1971, 4, LDS Church History Library, Salt Lake City (hereafter Church History Library). 3 See Armand L. Mauss, All Abraham s Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2003), 139.

3 174 The Journal of Mormon History Founding Indian Seminary Early in its history, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a complicated relationship with Native Americans, viewing them, at times, as Lamanites, or descendants of Book of Mormon people and, at other times, as Indians, which were often seen as an obstacle to Mormon settlement of the West. 4 Eventually, federal Indian policy, as well as the pull of American culture, shaped Mormon perceptions of Native Americans, causing them to be viewed less as Lamanites and more as Indians. This trend reversed itself near the conclusion of World War II, however, when missionary efforts among Native American tribes reemerged, spurred, in part, by a young apostle, Spencer W. Kimball, and his commitment to their spiritual and temporal needs. During the middle part of the twentieth century, the religious motivation to educate Native American youth, coupled with the blending of federal Indian education policy, led to one of Mormonism s most unique educational endeavors, its Indian Seminary program. 5 4 Whittaker, Mormons and Native Americans, 33. Whittaker emphasizes that this bifurcated view regarding native peoples is not unique to Mormons, noting that the approach was present in colonial times: either Indians were noble red men not far from the Garden of Eden, or they were savages, not capable of even the most fundamental Christian or civil attributes and therefore not worthy of having these characteristics applied to them. Sociologist Armand Mauss tracks the changing view of Native Americans among Mormons during the nineteenth century. He argues that once the native peoples of Utah had been pacificed and moved to reservations, as in the rest of the continent, they were rarely seen by most white Mormons, even in Utah.... Succeeding generations of Mormons in the twentieth century, like other Americans, came to know Indians largely through the distorted and demeaning portrayals in cowboy westerns on film or in print. As Mormons were assimilated into the American way of life more generally, they increasingly embraced the images most Americans had about Indians. Mauss, All Abraham s Children, For an overview of federal involvement in Indian education, see Jon Reyhner and Jeanne Eder, American Indian Education: A History (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004) As a belated expression of the goal to assimilate Native Americans, federal Indian boarding schools were expanded following World War II. Educational needs were perceived to be especially acute among the Navajo people, a group with strong geographical ties to Mormonism. Navajo children were identified as being particularly vulnerable to inadequate educational facilities. Due to its remote location, the Navajo Reservation had generally avoided

4 Scott C. Esplin/Indian Seminary Program 175 The Church s foray into Indian Seminary began at the Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City, Utah. The school itself was a byproduct of the dismantling of military installations across the United States following the conclusion of World War II. Opened as a sprawling, sixty-building military hospital in 1942, the Bushnell General Hospital had a short life when it was declared surplus governmental property in 1946 and closed. Residents economically dependent on the facility sought alternative uses for the four-year-old compound. Utah senator Arthur V. Watkins, a member of the Senate subcommittee on Indian Affairs, expressed an interest in transforming the school into a new federal Indian boarding school primarily for Navajo children. 6 Initially, negotiations ensued between officials federal intervention in the allotment of their lands. Tribal leaders estimated that as many as fourteen thousand Navajo children lacked school facilities in Remedying the situation, hundreds were transferred to the Sherman Institute in Riverside, California, in the mid 1940s. Additionally, dormitories were erected in towns bordering the Navajo Reservation, with contracts signed with school districts in Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico for Indian students to attend public schools. Although designed for older students, as many as 40 percent of the more than two thousand students enrolled in border town dormitories were between the ages of six and twelve. Viewed as an overwhelming success, federal officials looked for places to expand both programs. Also see Margaret Connell Szasz, Education and the American Indian: The Road to Self-Determination Since 1928 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1977). 6 Arthur V. Watkins occupies an interesting, though controversial role, in federal Native American policy. A native of Midway, Utah, he served as a senator for Utah from 1946 to In that capacity, he chaired the Senate Interior Committee s Subcommittee on Indian Affairs and championed the termination of Indian tribal identities in the name of integration. Termination included the ending of a special relationship between the federal government and Native American tribes with a goal of greater assimilation within society. During the 1950s, Watkins tested these programs on Utah s Native American tribes. Critics argue that the policies had devastating effects on tribal culture and welfare. Opponents of termination successfully reversed the federal government s course in the 1960s and 1970s, paving the way for tribal self-determination. See R. Warren Metcalf, Arthur V. Watkins and the Indians of Utah: A Study of Federal Termination Policy (doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University, 1995); R. Warren Metcalf, Termination s Legacy: The Discarded Indians of Utah (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002). While federal

5 176 The Journal of Mormon History from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the War Assets Administration, tribal officials concerned about the proposed school s distance from the Navajo reservation, and skeptical Brigham City residents worried about the impact a student body of over two thousand youth would have on their small town. 7 Ultimately, Latter-day Saint Church officials, including Church president George Albert Smith, became involved as well. At a meeting with Senator Watkins, Bureau of Indian Affairs officials, school directors, and Brigham City residents on June 3, 1949, Smith revealed, I was so anxious about this school that I wrote our representative in Congress and I wrote to the President of the United States.... I told the President that he couldn t do anything better than to make good the word of the Government for the past; he could make an Indian School at Brigham City. Reassuring concerned citizens, Smith promised, It may mean that you may have to make some sacrifices and put yourselves out in some particulars in order to make this a success, but every sacrifice that you make for these boys and girls that are coming to live here, will be as a treasure in Heaven where moth and rust doth not corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal. 8 Seated in the audience, Boyd K. Packer, a twenty-four-year-old teacher at the Brigham City Seminary, reported being struck by Smith s words. Here is the prophet of the Lord, and I am just naïve enough to believe that what he says is true. And whatever I can do to help, I will do, Packer declared. 9 Community officials appointed Packer to represent other young people on a committee of sixteen citizens charged with investigating the school s impact on their town. Impressed by what he witnessed on a fact-finding trip to the Navajo Indian reservation in Arizona and New Mexico, Packer strongly supported the school. In November 1949, six hundred Navajo students arrived in Brigham City for the opening of the Intermountain Indian boarding schools may seem counterintuitive to termination policy, they served national interests at the time by removing Native American children from reservations. See Marsha King, Tribes Confront Painful Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools, Seattle Times, February 3, Jon S. Blackman, A History of Intermountain, A Federal Indian Boarding School (master s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1998), Remarks of President George Albert Smith at Brigham City, Utah, on June 3, 1949, Church History Library. 9 Quoted in Lucile C. Tate, Boyd K. Packer: A Watchman on the Tower (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1995), 99.

6 Scott C. Esplin/Indian Seminary Program 177 School, among whom were six Latter-day Saint students. Packer, a member of the North Box Elder Stake High Council who would eventually become a city councilman in Brigham City, was assigned by Stake President Vernal Willie to care for the spiritual needs of the Latter-day Saint students at the school. 10 J. Edwin Baird, a counselor in the stake presidency of the Box Elder Stake, assisted him. While the number of known Latter-day Saints attending the Intermountain Indian School was initially small, Church officials expected a large increase, primarily due to proselyting and identifying efforts among the Navajo people of the Southwest Indian Mission, the home for most students at the Intermountain Indian School. Beginning in 1953, Packer and others implemented a program to identify every baptized member or child of Latter-day Saint parents attending the school. Once identified, parents were contacted by mail or personally by missionaries in the Southwest Indian Mission and invited to designate their child s religious preference as Latter-day Saint on school records. The efforts proved fruitful, as students registered for Latter-day Saint instruction spiked tenfold from 1949 to In response, ground was broken for a seminary building adjacent to the Intermountain Indian School. In 1955, Packer was assigned to formally open a seminary program at the Intermountain Indian School, the first official Indian seminary in the Church. 11 By the early 1960s, school enrollment burgeoned to more than two thousand each year, including as many as four hundred Latter-day Saint youth. Latter-day Saint students were released to attend seminary one hour a day, once a week at the adjacent seminary building. 12 As the seminary program at the Intermountain Indian School gained traction, Packer was reassigned as a supervisor for the entire Seminaries and Institutes of Religion system. As a Church administrator, he continued to be influential in developing an Indian seminary program. He worked with Spencer W. Kimball and Mark E. Petersen, apostles and members of the Indian subcommittee of the Church 10 Ibid., Boyd K. Packer, Manual of Policies and Procedures for the Administration of Indian Seminaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (doctoral dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1962), (hereafter Manual ). 12 George Durrant, Oral History, interview by Leland H. Gentry, June 14, 1991, Provo, Utah, Church Educational System Archives, 1. Used with permission.

7 178 The Journal of Mormon History Missionary Committee, to locate Latter-day Saint students attending federal Indian schools. In 1957 and 1958, Packer and A. Theodore Tuttle, fellow supervisor of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, visited reservation schools in the western United States and Canada as well as most of the off-reservation Indian schools across the southwestern United States. 13 Their canvassing revealed as many as 632 members attending the large off-reservation regional boarding schools, LDS youth attending six peripheral dormitories (schools where students attended public school but lived in dormitories in communities often surrounding a reservation), youth attending reservation boarding schools (federal boarding schools in key locations on reservations), 16 and 177 students attending reservation day schools (small schools on a reservation where students returned home each night). 17 In total, Church leaders found 1,532 Native American Latter-day Saints attending these schools, 8.4 percent of the 18,296 students surveyed Packer, Manual, Off-reservation boarding schools with identified Latter-day Saint students included the Intermountain Indian School, Brigham City, Utah; Sherman Institute, Riverside, Calif.; Phoenix Indian School, Phoenix, Ariz.; Steward Indian School, Carson City, Nev.; Chemawa Indian School, Salem, Ore.; Riverside Indian School, Anadarko, Okla.; Cheyenne-Arapaho Indian School, Consho, Okla.; Chilocco Indian School, Chilocco, Okla.; Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kans.; Fort Sill Indian School, Fort Sill, Okla.; and the Albuquerque Indian School, Albuquerque, N. Mex. 15 Peripheral dormitories with identified Latter-day Saint students included the Richfield Navajo dormitory in Richfield, Utah, as well as facilities in Snowflake, Ariz.; Holbrook, Ariz.; Gallup, N. Mex.; Ignacio, Colo.; and Aztec, N. Mex. 16 Reservation boarding schools with identified Latter-day Saint students included facilities in Tohatchi, N. Mex.; Kaibito, Ariz.; Kayenta, Ariz.; Thoreau, N. Mex.; Towaoc, Colo.; Twin Lakes, Minn.; Crownpoint, N. Mex.; Crystal, N. Mex.; Chinle, Ariz.; Pinon, Ariz.; Tuba City, Ariz.; Fort Defiance, Ariz.; Fort Wingate, N. Mex.; Keams Canyon, Ariz.; Toadlena (Newcomb), N. Mex.; Shiprock, N. Mex.; and Mariano Lake (Crownpoint), N. Mex. 17 Reservation day schools with identified Latter-day Saint students included Coyote Canyon, Iyanbito, Standing Rock, Barreyo Pass T. School, Pinedale, Mexican Springs, Zuni, Sanester, Cove Community School, Red Rock Community School, Steamboat, White Cone, Greasewood, Naschitti, Theodore Roosevelt, and Fruitland. Packer s list does not identify the location of each school. 18 Packer, Manual,

8 Scott C. Esplin/Indian Seminary Program 179 Expanding Indian Seminary Armed with the data regarding potential students, a Church-wide Indian Seminary Program was formally created in The program s purpose, as stated in the Church s Lamanite Handbook, was to meet the religious and spiritual needs of Lamanite youth... [so they could] enjoy the same blessings of the restored gospel and the same privileges of Church participation as are afforded non-lamanite members. Explaining a reason for this commitment of additional resources for Native Americans, the Lamanite Handbook continued, Because the Lamanites have been deprived and underprivileged for many generations, it now requires an extra effort on the part of the Church school system to provide the same opportunities for Lamanite youth as are available to non-lamanite youth. 19 With strong Church backing and under the formal oversight of the Church Educational System, the program quickly blossomed. In 1960, J. Edwin Baird, the counselor in the Brigham City stake presidency who worked with Boyd K. Packer when the Intermountain Indian School opened, was named the first Church-wide coordinator of Indian Seminaries. By 1961, enrollment had grown to 3,528 students in 204 classes in 85 federal schools and dormitories in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina. 20 In addition to the Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City, formal seminary buildings were hastily constructed adjacent to the Sherman Institute Indian School in Riverside, California, and the Albuquerque Indian School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to meet the needs of the numerous Latter-day Saint students at these schools. 21 By the school year, 14,259 Lamanite 19 Lamanite Handbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1968), Packer, Manual, 4 5, Manual of Instructions (Provo, Utah: Department of Education, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1961), 6. At the beginning of the school year, four full-time employees of the Church Educational System worked directly in Indian Seminaries. Kirt M. Olsen was principal of the Albuquerque, New Mexico, LDS Indian Seminary; James D. Matthews was principal of the Riverside, California, LDS Indian Seminary; George D. Durrant was principal of the Intermountain LDS Indian Seminary in Brigham City, Utah; and Raymond J. Callister taught at the Intermountain LDS Indian Seminary. Ibid.,

9 180 The Journal of Mormon History students were receiving organized seminary instruction across the United States and Canada. 22 Though named, patterned, and administered by the Church s larger seminary system, the Lamanite Seminary Program differed from the traditional released-time or early-morning seminary programs in several significant ways. The most dramatic variation was the younger age of the participants, with age limits lowered to include elementary-age students. Five additional differences included: 1. The curriculum was simplified to better serve students that had not enjoyed other educational advantages. 2. The number of class periods per week ranged from one to five, depending on local circumstances. 3. The program was financed nearly entirely by general Church funds. 4. Full-time missionaries comprised a significant portion of the faculty (as high as 75 percent). 5. Students were all Lamanites. 23 These differences also led to important pedagogical modifications. The seminary teacher-missionary [in the Indian Seminary program] is equipped with tapes and recorders, movie projectors, film strips, flip charts, Growing Books, and crayons, reported the Church News in Regarding these differences, one observer noted, There is much more to an Indian seminary lesson than a manual. The lessons are very different from those taught in Anglo seminaries and institutes. The Indian child must learn through his heart, the missionary [teacher] has been taught. 25 The Lamanite Handbook noted, Lesson materials employ many visual and auditory aids designed with the Lamanite child in mind. 26 Officials emphasized visual aids in the curriculum because of the high percentage of students for whom English was not their native language. A Handbook for Writers of Seminary Lessons for Lamanites explained, A great number of students in the Lamanite Seminary program are taught the gospel in a language other than their native tongue. Verbal teaching alone in this situation is inadequate; however, when effective visual aids are 22 Education Newsletter for Stake Leadership Meetings (Provo, Utah: Church Schools, Seminary and Institutes of Religion, November 1968), Lamanite Handbook, Dorothy O. Rea, School Doors and Hearts Open for Indian Children, Church News, September 9, 1967, Ibid. 26 Lamanite Handbook, 13.

10 Scott C. Esplin/Indian Seminary Program 181 used to complement verbal teaching, the gap between the first and second languages can be lessened appreciably. 27 The filmstrips that emerged from the Indian Seminary program became probably the most well known of its curricular innovations. In the 1960s, writers created the story of Tom Trails, an Indian teenager converted to the faith and confronted with common life challenges. Wayne Lynn orchestrated the casting and filming, with Gary Smith acting the part of Tom Trails. 28 The storyline for the seventeen episodes was written by one of the early teachers at the Intermountain Indian School, George Durrant, who based the plot on his experiences with and his love for Native Americans. Intended for viewing during the New Testament course of study, the series built to the death of Lily, Tom s classmate and friend, and the impact her sudden death had on him. 29 Durrant later described how he wrote these and other curricular materials for the program. I was always thinking about Indians, talking about Indians.... I d just go in my office and imaginary [sic] 27 Richard L. DeLand, Some Techniques for Making Teaching Visual: A Handbook for Writers of Seminary Lessons for Lamanites, (master s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1971), George Durrant, Letter to Stewart Durrant, February 25, 1975, Church Educational System Archives. Arnold J. Stringham, director of seminary curriculum, observed, I have had two phone calls and I know some of the other brethren have had some in addition asking for information about the boy who played Tom Trails so they could invite him to come and speak at special youth seminary gatherings they were going to have. In each case, we refuse to tell them about Gary Smith and explained to them that Gary Smith is only the body in the picture. Someone else is his voice, and someone still different is Tom Trails. Then I explain to them that the man closest to being Tom Trails would have to be George Durrant. Arnold J. Stringham, Letter to George D. Durrant, March 8, 1973, in Church Educational System Archives. Used with permission. 29 In March 1973, Arnold Stringham wrote George Durrant: Most teachers are just into the last week of the life of Christ now and some of them are nearing or have already arrived at the end of it. That means that number 15 will be shown soon. I am expecting calls and letters when Lily dies. Again if you were not on a mission, I would just forward them on to you. You were the one who killed her; but I think you have been through that experience before, so we will handle it for you this time around. Arnold J. Stringham, Letter to George D. Durrant, March 8, 1973, in Church Educational System Archives. Used with permission.

11 182 The Journal of Mormon History I d invite into my office a bunch of Indian kids that weren t really there, but then when I d write curriculum I d talk to them and act as if I was teaching them. If I wanted little ones, I d invite little ones in, and if I wanted big ones all in my mind. I just had to have them there, and so I would bring them in and write stuff that I thought they would understand. 30 On another occasion, Durrant further explained, I knew at the time that the Lord guided my pen. Once I had the idea for a chapter come into my head I could write it in less than two hours. But sometimes I had to wait a long time for the idea. The characters grew as the story progressed. Little by little they became real people. For a time I was each of those in the story. 31 Popular among even non-indian seminary programs, similar filmstrips and lesson materials featuring Tom and Elsie, Little Joe, Gary Grower, Davy Doer, Bennie Builder, Freddie Finder, and Johnny Brave followed the Tom Trails series, addressing different needs for the program s younger audiences. Course offerings included Welcome to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (kindergarten), I Am a Child of My Heavenly Father (first grade), Growing in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (second grade), Doers of the Words of Jesus (third grade), Building a Friendship with Jesus (fourth grade), I Am a Member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (fifth grade), Finding the True Church (sixth grade), The Commandments of God (seventh grade), and I Will Be Ready to Serve My Father in Heaven (eighth grade). High school students studied the Book of Mormon, Old Testament, New Testament, and Church History. By 1968, program officials reported having developed 220 lessons and 175 filmstrips especially for Indian elementary school children. Similar lessons for junior high and high school students were also created. 32 Specially tailored curriculum, coupled with a heavy reliance on visual aids, revealed perceptions regarding learning styles and abilities among Native American populations. A document written to acquaint seminary and institute personnel with the Indian Seminary program outlined perceived differences. Debunking misconceptions, 30 Durrant, Oral History, George Durrant, Letter to Stewart Durrant, February 25, Growth of the Indian Seminary Program, Church History Library; Durrant, Oral History, 5. The Church History Library contains many of these filmstrips, lesson outlines, and manuals.

12 Scott C. Esplin/Indian Seminary Program 183 the report stated, It seems that the Indians are no different than we are when it comes to learning. It is not true that their I.Q. is lower than whites on the contrary, it is equally as high. What then is the difference? Why don t they learn as readily? The responding rationale for a visually rich curriculum was based on the backgrounds of Indian students. Many of these Indian students meet English for the first time when they go to schools. It is difficult to speak up and take an active part in something that is completely foreign. 33 Additionally, program officials offered the lack of parental support and mistrust of Anglo motivations as reasons for modified approaches to learning. Motivation is also a problem, the study claimed. Most of the parents are not educated themselves and, therefore, do not realize how important education is. Many of these parents are interested in teaching their children their own culture and traditions. They can t see the importance of the white man s ways. 34 The Church s Guidelines for the Indian Seminary and Institute Program stated more bluntly, The Indian student is basically no different from the Anglo, except that he generally has a very understandable mistrust for Anglo authority, which the teacher represents. It countered, This mistrust is not difficult to dissolve if the teacher, representing the gospel of Jesus Christ, is willing to practice what he teaches by going the second mile. It s not very crowded out there! 35 In addition to the curriculum developments, Church Educational System policies were modified to address perceived Indian Seminary needs. Because in most situations, LDS Indian students [did] not have access to Church recreational and social programs, Indian Seminary policies authorized extracurricular activities to augment instruction, something not normally done in traditional seminary programs during this era. 36 Common activities included basketball tournaments, talent shows, speech contests, singing groups, plays, baseball leagues, and track meets. 37 Ray Jordan, the Indian seminary 33 Raymond J. Callister et al., You, Too, Can Teach Indians, (Provo, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church Schools, Department of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, 1965), Callister et al., You, Too, Can Teach Indians, Guidelines, Ibid., The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Indian Seminary Program (Provo, Utah, ca. 1960), 11.

13 184 The Journal of Mormon History coordinator in Minnesota, summarized his program s activities in the school year: We have had many activities in the past year. We have held eight dances. We had a large Halloween party. There was a big Christmas party in which the gifts were supplied by the Rochester Ward.... In October a youth conference was held.... We have had a basketball team in the C.A.P. league. We have held roller skating parties, volleyball games and general activity nights. We held a talent show in each area and then had a district talent show. We have used many of our students in the last district conferences. The emphasis in all of the activities has been upon LDS standards. Each individual has been encouraged to contribute his talents in various activities and many have given much of themselves. 38 In Kayenta, Arizona, Marlen Georgia reported that it was the activities that turned around his struggling Indian Seminary classes with the Navajo children. We decided to plan for a big Thanksgiving dance, Georgia said. The kids were told that if they would attend Seminary just before Thanksgiving they would be able to come to the dance free. Much to our surprise, we had 10 kids show up at Seminary on Tuesday the 23rd and 15 kids on Wednesday the 24th, the most that we have ever had out before these two days was six. Georgia concluded, My wife and I feel that if we continue to organize fun activities and make attendance at these activities contingent on attendance at Seminary, we can continue to have good attendance in Seminary. 39 In other places, the activity side of the Indian Seminary program was so prominent that it became a distraction. In 1967, the seminary coordinator at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota complained, I feel that sometimes we have too many activities. It was to the point in Pine Ridge that onlookers thought we were not a religion but an activity house. 40 Teachers who could succeed with the unique Indian student population and its activity program were actively recruited and 38 Quoted in J. Edwin Baird and James D. Mathews, An Evaluation of the Indian Seminary Program for the School Year (Provo, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church Schools, Department of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion, 1967), L.D.S. Indian Seminary Program Newsletter, December 15, 1965, Church History Library. 40 Baird and Mathews, An Evaluation, 15.

14 Scott C. Esplin/Indian Seminary Program 185 generously supported within the larger Church education system. One teacher reported, They gave us the budget that was necessary and let us say how many men we needed, and we usually got them, how many busses we needed, and we got them. How many trailers we needed, and we usually got them. [We could develop] any curriculum items we wanted to produce.... When we would have [the system-wide] summer school the Indian [seminary teachers] were always kind of prominently displayed. It was kind of the favored son of the seminary program, and received tremendous recognition. 41 Church officials went so far as to operate a special teacher training class for Indian Seminary teachers at Brigham Young University, hoping to provide qualified indigenous personnel to Indian areas, a goal that coincided with Brigham Young University s outreach to Native American students during the era. 42 In particular, system administrators sought teachers with a love for Native Americans. The success of any seminary or institute class depends upon the ability of the teacher, program guidelines emphasized, stressing that teachers in the program should have a love for the Indian people and for the gospel of Jesus Christ. 43 The desire to attract teachers to Indian education extended beyond recruiting teachers specifically for the Indian Seminary program. Church education administrators also encouraged faithful Latter-day Saints to seek employment as teachers at Indian schools themselves. Speaking to district coordinators in 1967, Supervisor of Indian Seminaries J. Edwin Baird announced, I speak of the task of recruiting LDS teachers into Indian educational channels. This means federal schools, public schools, as well as seminary education. In other words, we need good LDS families in areas where we are now building Indians seminaries and branches. To increase the numbers of Latter-day Saints working with Native Americans, Baird proposed actively recruiting potential teachers to the various federal and state Indian schools from returned missionary groups at Ricks College, Utah State, Weber, University of Utah and the Brigham Young University.... There are perhaps two dozen [Indian school] locations where this project might be started for this coming school year. Schools in these locations suffer a rather fast turnover, possibly 40% of its teaching staff, thus making it easy to work our project. We 41 Durrant, Oral History, Guidelines, Ibid., 10.

15 186 The Journal of Mormon History could possibly use 50 to 75 teachers this next school year if they were available in such an enterprise. Baird and his fellow administrators hoped that an increase in the numbers of Latter-day Saint Indian school teachers would strengthen struggling Indian branches and, by association, the Indian Seminary program. 44 While the focus of the Indian Seminary program was on Native American students at federal and state schools designed for them, special guidelines were also given to teachers working with Indian students in predominantly Anglo seminary classes. This was, in part, because of the large numbers of Native American students who left their homes to participate in the Church s Indian Placement Program, finding themselves in traditional seminary classrooms. Often, these placement participants were recruited from among the Indian Seminary classes. Like the entirely Indian student classrooms, officials believed that success or failure in the involvement of the Indian student in a predominately Anglo classroom situation depends almost entirely upon the teacher. 45 Teachers in these settings were counseled to accentuate the positive in the history of the Indian people. Examples included highlighting Lamanite faithfulness in the Book of Mormon, acknowledging that their ancestors built a once great civilization, sharing examples of great Indian leadership from the lives of Sitting Bull, Cochise, and Manuelito, and telling stories of Indian and Anglo people helping each other during the pioneer era. When negative aspects of Indian history were studied in the curriculum, teachers were encouraged to parallel our history to theirs, showing that a negative side of Anglo history is also a fact. 46 While beneficial for Native American students in traditional seminary classrooms, the approach reflects possible historical discomfort and a sense of cultural tension within the faith at the time. Because of the vast distances covered by personnel serving Indian students in nonboarding schools, busing of students was also authorized within the Indian Seminary system. 47 We would go out and get the children and bring them in, one teacher recalled, describing 44 J. Edwin Baird, The Indian Seminary Program: A Talk Given to District Coordinators (Provo, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Department of Seminaries and Institutes, January 11, 1967), Church History Library. 45 Guidelines, Ibid. 47 Ibid.

16 Scott C. Esplin/Indian Seminary Program 187 the busing policy. That was where there wasn t a government school, and where we just had to go out into the area and get them from their hogans and bring them in. 48 In North Carolina, James Blake reported, We pick up the children at school with our bus and take them to Seminary and then return them to their homes. Because of this we have had a lot of opposition from teachers and friends of our Seminary students who try to discourage them from going to Seminary. 49 The wife of a longtime Indian seminary teacher near Crownpoint, New Mexico, recalled the logistics. When they had Indian seminary... they went to kindergarten through [twelfth grade]. In the early morning, we would go around and pick up all the town kids who went to the public schools and bring them to the chapel, and we would have the different classes and we would teach them seminary, and then we would drive them and drop them off at the various schools. Outlining the after-school protocol, she continued, Then in the afternoon, we would go to the boarding schools because we had permission from the boarding schools to come in and have a religion class in the boarding school.... My husband would drive the bus to the different places because if we went to a boarding school, it was usually the last period of the day or after boarding school so he would be responsible for getting the children on the bus, if they lived out, if they didn t board, which some of them did and some of them didn t. Then he would be responsible for talking those children home and traveled many miles doing that. 50 In more remote locations, an Indian Home Seminary program was piloted. The Indian Home Seminary program was created for situations where the regular Seminary facilities [were] lacking or where the Indian homes [were] widely scattered and transportation [was] a chief problem. In this system, full-time missionaries were often given the curriculum materials and enlisted as teachers. Classes were designed to assemble for an hour, once a week, with approximately ten students gathered from nearby homes. While seminary-age children were the students in the Indian Home Seminary program, the strengthening of their parents and entire families were primary 48 Durrant, Oral History, L.D.S. Indian Seminary Program Newsletter, January 24, 1966, 2, Church History Library. 50 Winna B. Kalauli, interviewed by Matthew K. Heiss, May 4, 1991, 6, Church History Library.

17 188 The Journal of Mormon History aims of the program. In fact, among the twenty objectives for the program, the first two goals were to reach parents (particularly the father) in a non-directive manner and to stabilize, unite, and uplift the home and family. 51 Eventually, the Indian Home Seminary program served as a model for expanding a home-study version for traditional seminary students who faced similar challenges in areas with small numbers of Latter-day Saint youth. 52 Successes of Indian Seminary Special curriculum adapted to the interests of Indian students, teachers carefully selected for their ability to reach native student populations, a system to transport students before and after school, and a home seminary model for students in remote areas led to the dramatic growth of the Indian Seminary program. Enrollment steadily climbed from 2,384 students during the school year to 15,175 a decade later. 53 By 1969, there were as many as 1,587 classes operating across the United States and in Canada. Spanning more twenty states and provinces from North and South Carolina in the East to Alaska in the West, the program involved 49 full-time 51 J. Edwin Baird, Indian Home Seminary Program (Provo, Utah: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Department of Seminaries and Institutes, 1967). 52 Don Jessee, a curriculum writer for the Church Educational System, reported the visits he and others made to observe the Indian Seminary program. I often thought that the only reason [Ernest Eberhard, the head of Seminary curriculum] took us on these trips to the reservation was to drive home the point that, Hey, you have some isolated Indians out here. What can we do for them? I don t think he felt like we could relate to that, if we were just sitting in the curriculum office... it really did drive the point home. Don Jessee, Oral History, interviewed by E. Dale LeBaron, July 5, 1991, cited by Casey P. Griffiths, The Globalization of Latter-day Saint Education (doctoral dissertation, Brigham Young University, 2012), 173. For a discussion of the development of the home study seminary program, see ibid., Enrollment in Released-time Seminaries and Non-released-time Seminaries to , in Seminaries and Institutes, Education Newsletter (Provo, Utah, January, 1969); Summary of Institute, Seminary and Indian Seminary Enrollments for and , in Seminaries and Institutes, Education Newsletter (Provo, Utah, October, 1969).

18 Scott C. Esplin/Indian Seminary Program 189 teacher/coordinators, 127 part-time teacher/coordinators, and 606 volunteer teachers. 54 From a program perspective, the statistical success of Indian Seminary was also reflected in the number of convert baptisms, an important aspect of the system s existence. While formal proselytizing was strictly forbidden at federal Indian schools, baptisms occurred as non-latter-day Saints who attended classes with friends and family were exposed to the Church and its teachings through the Indian Seminary program. In fact, by the mid-1960s, officials acknowledged that over 50 percent of the students participating in Indian Seminary were not members of the Church. 55 A report for the school year noted that 498 youth had been baptized system-wide that year, led by 36 new members in the Vancouver, British Columbia, area and 34 converts in Kayenta, Arizona. 56 Additionally, full-time missionaries were directed to use the Indian Home Seminary program as a means to reach parents and other family members. The proselyting program could follow right along on the heels of the Seminary program and take advantage of this situation, missionaries were instructed. The parents could be taught whenever they reach that point of readiness. 57 In Oklahoma, Raymond Callister described how his Indian Seminary program sparked Church growth in the mid-1960s. From these and other similar social contacts there developed a spark of interest in the Church by a few individuals, then a family or two and eventually a group in a community. One such community is Carnegie, Oklahoma, Callister reported. In 1964 there were three members of record (we couldn t find any of them). Today there are three Seminary classes involving 25 students and their parents. Two of these classes are being taught by local Indian members. We feel that the Carnegie group is the beginning of an updated approach to our Oklahoma Indian people; that is, it is of a quality to influence the Toppahs, the Kaudlekaules, and other leading Kiowa families in the area Seminary and Institute Program , in Seminaries and Institutes, Education Newsletter (Provo, Utah, October, 1969); Seminary Program Teaches About Home and Gospel, Church News, September 9, 1967, Seminary Program Teaches About Home and Gospel, Baird and Mathews, An Evaluation, Baird, Indian Home Seminary Program, L.D.S. Indian Seminary Program Newsletter, January 24, 1966, 3.

19 190 The Journal of Mormon History Other qualitative reports from individual teachers add color to this narrative. Douglas Baird reported on his success at the Indian seminaries in Window Rock, Arizona: The parents of some have stated that they have noticed a change for the better in the attitudes of their children and their willingness to help at home.... In the Lee Branch Seminary the students are literally the backbone of the Primary, the MIA, and the Sunday School. The boys who attend priesthood meetings are all active Seminary students. Several of the girls are teachers in the various auxiliaries of the branch. Almost all of the older students have responsible positions within the branches. Within the early morning Seminary program this year we have had ten students who have been converted to the Church. In every case these young people are still active and supporting the branches. 59 In Crownpoint, New Mexico, A. J. Pease noted his work with the Navajo nation, There is a difference in the attitudes and actions of the majority of the Seminary students since the first of the school year. The change has been for the good and can be seen in many ways. There is much more respect for the Church. There is better discipline. Attendance is stable. Baptisms come regularly. Church attendance is increasing. Students (most) are praying without assistance. More responsibility is being accepted. 60 The Indian Seminary program s positive impact was also felt among teachers, who regularly described in their reports its influence on their own families. For many, seminary participation was a family affair. It would be mighty hard to work this program here effectively without the help of my wife, James Blake reported of his experience in North Carolina. We are in this together all the way. 61 In Kayenta, Arizona, Marlen Georgia related, My wife has heard of the reservation and the Navajo people and now she has, by being among these people, started to really catch the spirit of the work. She seems to get more enthusiastic about it every day. Gerald Ray Hall noted that his wife [was] teaching one Indian Seminary class and loves the work. Because of overlapping ages, Indian Seminary teachers often involved their children in the work as well. In Farmington, New Mexico, John Neil Birch reported, We have three children and they all attend an 59 Baird and Mathews, An Evaluation, Quoted in ibid., L.D.S. Indian Seminary Program Newsletter, January 24, 1966, 2.

20 Scott C. Esplin/Indian Seminary Program 191 elementary Indian Seminary that my wife and I teach together once a week. Although there are four white wards in Farmington my family chooses to attend the Totah Indian Branch. 62 Though not as readily available as the official teacher reports, student reflections support the instructor assessments of the program s success. Writing to her teachers at the Intermountain Indian Seminary in Brigham City, one student noted, Thinking back to those times when we felt so lost out there on our first trip to get our education some years back I recalled a great deal about the teaching of the Gospel. We, my husband, my children, and myself, all thank you all for a lot of things. 63 John C. Begay, a student from the Navajo reservation in Boyd K. Packer s seminary class at the Intermountain Indian Seminary later explained: That s where I was converted to the LDS Church. My mother had secretly signed me up for Seminary which became my favorite class along with P.E. What do I remember about their teaching? It was mainly from the Book of Mormon. I recollect a lot of stuff about Lehi and Nephi and the bad wars. Our teachers showed us a lot of filmstrips with dead bodies lying around. We had color slides about the prophets too. And I got involved with the beginning of the Tom Trails film series. My favorite seminary lesson was about Jesus appearing at the Temple in Bountiful. Begay also recalled the personal relationship the he developed with his teachers: After the Sunday meeting we would go the [the Packer s] home and they would feed us real good. [They] treated us like their kids and we would spend the whole afternoon with all their family. 64 Challenges to Indian Seminary In spite of these successes, the Indian Seminary program was not without its challenges. For example, one early report listed problems you find in teaching the Indian people. As might be expected, the report included challenges with communication,... some language 62 L.D.S. Indian Seminary Program Newsletter, December 15, 1965, Lloyd and Laurel Tsinnijinnie, Letter to Intermountain Indian Seminary personnel, in Gaa-Malii bizaad (newsletter of the Intermountain Indian Seminary), February 1962, Church History Library. 64 John C. Begay, quoted in Dale L. Shumway and Margene Shumway, eds., The Blossoming II: Dramatic Accounts in the Lives of Native Americans (n.p.: Dale L. and Margene Shumway, 2007), 15 16, 18.