Origin and Development of the San Juan Mission in Southeastern Utah in Its Work with Indian People (Principally Since 1940)

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Theses and Dissertations

1976

Origin and Development of the San Juan Mission in Southeastern Utah in its Work with Indian People (Principally Since 1940)

Lyle S. Heinz Brigham Young University - Provo

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BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Heinz, Lyle S., "Origin and Development of the San Juan Mission in Southeastern Utah in its Work with Indian People (Principally Since 1940)" (1976). Theses and Dissertations. 4783. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4783

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. OUGINORIGIN AND developmentDEVELOPMENT OF THE SAN JUAN mlsMISMISSIONlonION IN

southeastern UTAH IN ITS worewobWOEKWORKWOE K nithWITH INDIAN

PEOPLEpe01 LE principally SINCESILNGE 1940

A thesis

presented toL0 o the department of church history and doctrine brigham young univeuniversityrsitv

1 ITT t inn partial fulfillmentpuly L lit i e q i of tthelleilelie rcquiremenurequirementss folforfocyolyon theL he Ddesreedegreeiee reer masterlyklsteruster of religious education

lylelyie S reinrain april 19751976 this thesis by lyielyle S heinz is acceptedacceplaccept ed in its present foformfoyutrutyut by the departdepartmentL nl of churchchlurch history and

doctrine of brigham youngCD university as satisfying the thesistheolissisals requirement for the degree of maslermasdermashermaster of religious education

james R harris coixiittee chairman

3 1 11. melvinmelvln petersn corjmitte member L

y77W ZZ73 dat 0 larralarrvL Cgl 0ekterortereyherledeedaexcex actactinging chaichajchairman2 nian

typed by sharon bird

xx acknowledgments

the motivation to complete this thesis was derived from the prompting and encouragement of my good wife helen I1 express an appreciation to her for the hours spent in helping with the typing and research A special thanks to my committee chairman dr james R harris and dr larry C porter acting chairman for their suggestions and help on the thesis

13x13 X TABLE OF CONTENTS

page acknowledgments iii LIST OF TABLES viivilvi1

OF a 0 0 0 10 a a 0 LIST FIGURES 0 0 0 a 0 viii chapter 1 introduction 1

PURPOSE AND significance 1 delimitations 3 researchdestgnRESEARCH DESIGN 4 definition OF TERMS 4 2 introduction TO THE SAN JUANJUANT AND THE CALL OF THE MORMONS TO COLONIZE 6

THE EXPLORING expedition 13 THE holeintherockHOLE IN THE ROCK TREK 17 3 establishing communities AND relationships AMONG THE INDIANS 0 0 a & 0 0 23

WHITE MESA BLANDING 0 0 & 0 & 30

SAM 4 THE SAN JUAN STAKE MISSION 9 0 0 & 36

THE navajozuniNAVAJO zunliZUNI MISSION 36 NAVAJO characteristics 41

iv v chapter page

NURSING THE SICK AND BURYING THE DEAD 43

THE SAN JUAN STAKE INDIAN MISSION 52

A NEW INDIAN DISTRICT PRESIDENT 55

HARRIS SHUMWAY DISTRICT PRESIDENT 59

RECENT TRENDS 0 0 0 0 & 0 0 63

leadership missionaries 71 FULLTIMEFULL TIME missionaries 80

5 ALBERT R LYMANS INDIAN SCHOOL 82

introduction & 0 0 0 0 82

SCHOOL STARTS THE SECOND YEAR 0 0 0 93

THE STATE BECOMES INVOLVED 0 97

6 SAN JUAN STAKE INDIANINID lanIAN BRANCHESBRANCILES 0 0 0 0 0 103

THE BLANDING INDIAN BRANCH 0 0 0 0 103

THE BLUFF BRANCH 0 0 0 a 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 illili111

MEXICAN HAT BRANCH a 0 0 0 0 0 115

WHITE MESA BRANCH 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 125

7 THE SAN JUAN AREA INDIAN seminaries 0 0 0 0 128

AND INDIANS releasedtimeRELEASED TIME SEMINARY 0 a 128

ORIGIN OF THE INDIAN SEMINARY 0 0 0 0 129

eldientaryelementaryELDIENTARY AND JUNIOR HIGH seminaries 0 132

1968691968 69 0 & 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 a 0 0 136

1969701969 70 0 0 0 0 0 0 6.6 0 9 0 0 a 137 viVI chapter page

1970711970 71 0 139

1971721971 72 0 & 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 a 0 140

1972731972 73 0 0 0 0 0 & 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 141

INDIAN SEMINARY integrated WITH

THE PRIMARY 10 0 0 0 a 0 0 0 0 & 0 0 143

SUMMARY AND 8 conclusions 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 147

SACRIFICE 41 0 a 0 10 0 v 10 0 0 147

PROM WALTER C LYMAN THE PROMISEriseiISE OF 0 0 150

accomplishments 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 155

challenges 0 0 0 40 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 155

conclusion 0 0 0 0 0 0- 0 0 156

bibliography 0 0 0 0 do 0 0 & a 0 0 a 0 158 LIST OF TABLES tabletabie page 1 the san juan stake indian mission A comparison of navajo and ute activities 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 61 2 san juan stake mission presidents and their counselors 0 0 & 0 0 0 0 0 72 3 san juan stake indian mission presidents of the blanding indian district 74

vvilVIIiU LIST OF FIGURES figure page 1 map of old spanish trail 9 map 2 of navajo reservation 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 3 map of explorers route and hole in the rock 0 0 0 0 IV 0 0 0 15 4 map of route from escalante to holeiholehoie Iinn therockthe rock 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 ad4d to 18

5 convert baptisms 0 0 0 0 0 65 6 san juan stake mission number of missionaries called to labor in the indian district 0 0 a 0 0 0 0 0 67

7 map of blanding city 0 0 0 0 a 0 & 88

viiivilivillviii chapter I11

introduction

PURPOSE AND significance

the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints is recognized for the colonization of many settlements in the western part of the united states when brigham young died in 1877 the colonization program had nonotL been completed the church gave erastus snow the assignment of setting up and perfectiperfectingncrncy a plan for a colony in southeastern utah this movement was called the san juan mission iliilliii the mission to san juan was to serve three purposes a to colonize the southeastsoutheasternern part of utah to establish a mormon colcomcommunityunity where converts from the southern states could move and find a warmer climate and the third and prlucaryLicaryprimary obje-objectivective was to cultivate better

avldamid3david3 aviddavid E miller holeintherockholehoieho ie in the rock salt lake city university of utah press 1959 p 4

1 2 relations with the indians and lay the foundation for 0 future permanent mormon settlements 2 the purpose of this work is to present the origin of the san juan mission relative to the indian people the san juan area was a challenging country and the saints desired to abandon the mission several times with each request to abandon the mission the church leaders encouraged the settlers to stay and establish better relations with the indian people and teachthemteach them the gospel

walter C lyman who presided over the san juan mission for a time saw the day when a temple would be built in the san juan area he also saw in visvisionionlon the town of blanding becoming an education center for the indian people this progress would be the result of the work among the indian people he also stated that as long as people would come to this part of the country with the purpose in mind to help lift the indian up they 0 would prosper and there would be sufficient water 3

derastus2erastus2 erastus snow a letter written to john taylor and council letters on ffile LDS church historians library ilelie albertulbert R lyman the edleedmeedge of the cedars new york NY carlton press 1966 appp 66 148 3 albert R lyman the firstf white man to build his home in blanding saw this transition from plenty of water to drought take place in the san juan area he saw the streams dry up that once sprung forth after the settling of the area as the rains failed to come and drought left the earth barren with the vision of the san juan mission still burning in his heart albert R lyman repeatedly called the people to repentance and encouraged the saints to catch again the visionvisionlon of the mission promising the Ssaints if they would do this they would prosper and be a blessed people the work is going forth and again the saints are catching the vision of the lamanite work the writer hopes to be able to give encouragement to this great work by writing this history most of the missionary work with the indian people in this area has been developed since 1940

delimitations

this study will be limited to the origin of the san juan mission and the relationship of this mission to the indian people up to 1974 the area involved will be limited to san juan county in southeastern utah 4

RESEARCH DESIGN sources of data the utah historical quarterlyarte has published several articles in relation to the settling of bluff utah and the san juan mission call there are several personal diaries that cover the early history of san juan most of the missionary work with the indian people has taken place since 1940 and the source of this information is from stake historical records and personal interviews

definition OF TERMS

churchchurchy As used in this study the word church refers to the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints which was organized on april 6 1830

branch an administrative unit of ththee church organized in areas limited in church membership

ward an administrative unit of the church average membership ranging between 300 and 750 people

stake an administrative unit of the church composed of several wards 5

v mission an admadministrativenistrative unit of the churcchuocchurch organized in areas limited in church membership the mission is divided into districts which in turn are composed of branches

district an administrative unit of the church composed of several branches

lamanite A term used in the church which is synonymous with indian

LDS an abbreviation for latterlatterdayday saints

saints members of the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints

CCC civilian conservation corps chapter 2

introduction TO THE SAN JUAN AND THE CALL OF THE MORMONS TO COLONIZE

it is evident from the ancient indian ruins which line the canyon walls that the san juan territory has been inhabited for centuries abandoned farms burial grounds dams ditches for conserving water agriculture and household implements all point to a people well adjusted to the country archeologists have determined that two distinct cultures lived in the san juan basin one being super- imposed upon the other the basket makers were the first irdiabitantinhabitantss and then came the cliff dwellers whether the basket maker was replaced by the cliff dweller or merely represented an early state of development remains to be shown I1

lcorneliaocornelialCcorneilaorneliacornelia adams perkins marian gardner nielson and lenora butt jones saga of san juan apnp mercury publishing co 19519577 p 18 hereafter itedcitedc as perkins

6 7

in 1540 the spanish knew of no pueblo inhabitants north of dalipiwalipi and moekopi suggesting that few if any cliff dwellers were living along the san juan at that time where these people are or what caused their dis- appearance no one has yet determined almost five centuries ago a spanish commander garcia lopez de cardinascordinasCordinas and his eleven men entered the country south of the san juan river this group left new mexico in 1540 to search for the fabled seven cities of cibola As the group came up from arizona they encountered the gigantic gorgesc3ca of the tizon colorado river and the san juan canyon river flowing into it the party tried several times to find a means of descending the canyon walls but failed each time history is silent about the san juan country for the next two hundred years the dominquezescalantedominquez escalante expedition passed its borders in 1776 during the next century various geographers and geologic expeditions passed through the country men leading these parties were john C fremont 1842441842 44 captain john W gunnison

1853 captcaptainalnain J N macomb 1855 J S newberry 1859

W H jackson 1878 W H holmes 1875 before this spanish traders were tramping over the old spanish trail 8

see figure 11. kit carson spent a winter trapping on the lasal mountain and in northwestern san juan near the green river but until 1878 no white man called the san juan country home 2 after the prehistoric indian the cavajosnavajosNavajos utes and aiutespiutes inhabited the san juan area no one really knows when their tribes first possessed the land newberry met camps of utes or Paiutespiutes1utes on his trip down the san juan in 1859 see figure 22. jackson states in his geologicC and geographic survey loth annual report 1878 within the remembrance of the older persons the navajos occupied southwestern colorado and southeastern utahandutah and were driven beyond the san juan river by the more aggressaggressiveiyelye utes 3 the navajnagajnavajosos roamed a wide territory in northwestern new mexico northeastern arizona and southeastern utah they stole anything that was useful such aass animals and humans while under spanish rule they carried on a warfare with the whites who tried to enter their territory and continued it for nearly twenty years after old mexico ceded the country to the united states 4

2perkinsperkinsperkansperkxns p 21

31bidbid 2 p 22 41bidbid 9

idaho utah mainmaln trailtrall divergent trailstralis ft bridger boingyoingyo ing

ft robidoux0

figure 1 map of old spanish trail 10

idaho

utah

wyoming

w ra w z0

figure 2 map of navajo reservation 11 in 1863 the US army under the direction of kit carson and one thousand white troops and some friendly utes conducted a campaign thousands of prisoners were captured and held at fort sumner new mexico in the spring of 1868 they were returned to their lands which had been depleted of crops and livestock during the war this proud pastoral people once self supporting and independent had only one way to live and that was to steal raids became so prevalent in southwestern utah that the navajo chief was called to salt lake city by the latterlatterdayday saint church presiding authorities and the territorial governor for a peace talk the navajos left salt lake city convinced that the mormons were their friends shortly after this visit three navajos were killed at the mccarty ranch in grass valley the cavajosnavajosNavajos thinking the mormons had broken their word to the tribe declared a war to the finish it took utmost coucourageJL age and diplomacy on the part of the mormon indian missionaries jacob hamblin ira hatch john smyth and others to go to the navajo country and 12 convince the indians that the mormons were not in any 5 way responsible for the death of their tribesmen to further promote friendly relations with the indians the latterlatterdayday saints church leaders in 1878 called a group to make a pioneer settlement on the san juan river in southeastern utah it was hoped by this means to create a buffer colony between the warning tribes of the cavajosnavajosNavajos south of the san juan river and the utes and aiutespiutes farther north albert R lyman in the fort on the firing line if very effectively described this phase of utah history and showed the relationship between these mormon indian hostilities and the evolution of what was to become the san juan mission lyman said the decision of the church leaders was to plant a little colony of mormons in the very heart of all this incipient danger right on the turbulent border between the navajos and aiutespiutes and squarely on the trail of the fugitive desperado wolf pack from all over the west it was a perilous venture as the years were to prove its objectives to be achieved through great sacrifice hardship and danger with few in numbers and nothing in the way of military defense on which to depend the little colony would be compelled to hang its hopes of survival on the hand of providence and the

51bid ppo 23239 13 faithfulness with which it could wield the agencies of peace 60 the church gave apostle erastus snow the assignment of setting up and perfecting a plan for a colony in the four corners southern utah settlements being nearest the new site would be expected to supply most of the colonists consequently a mission call was made part of the business of the quarterly conference of the carowanparowan stake held in the carowanparowan meeting house december 28 and 29 1878 A group of individuals was called at that time the following march 22 and 23 1879 at the next regular quarterly conference of the carowanparowan stake held at cedar city more people received similar calls 7

THE EXPLORING EXPEDITIexpeditionIN

in december 187821878 john taylor called one hundred young men to a district meeting in Pacarowanparowanrowan utah out of this number twentysixtwenty six were chosen as scouts to blaze a road to san juan silas S smith was chosen as leader of this exploring party most of these men were young

albertulbertalbeetgalbert R lyman the fort on the firing line jaroimprovementvement era LII no 1 january 1949 22220 carowan7parowanparowan no Parowan stake historical record 52125 1 appp 174178174 178 14 and unmarried some were only seventeen years of age smiths party left Paraparagonahgonah april 14 1879 traveling a wellestablishedwell established wagon road through panquitchPanquitch towards lees ferry the group crossed the colorado river at lees ferry on may 1 then they headed south to moenkopiMoenkopi where they rested a week before attempting the roadless 0 wastes between that outpost and the san juan river 8 the people at moenkopiMoenkopi tried to discourage the party from crossing the desert to san juan but they ignored the caution they hired a fellow by the name of seth tanner and an elderly navajo as guides and moved on towards the san juan they arrived on the last day of may they found six men trying to establish farms on the bottom land near montezuma but they were having trouble getting water out of the river the bluff settlers would soon find out for themselves how difficult this challenge 9 really was the party stayed on the river until the middle of august cabins were builtbulitbullt for the harriman and davis

aalbert8albertalbert R lyman history of the san juan stake MS brigham young university 1946 typewritten p 14 91bidbid p 13 15

explorers route 0 cc holehoieie in the price aj4j rock D castle dale 0 green fillmore salina 0 0 bemeryoemery riverr N v riveN S moamoabb 00

beaver 1 0 14 rar4 0 junction hanksvilleoohanksvilleo y 7 xiv CU 0 49U 0 p4pa r41r4ra 5 4 4 0 aj4j m C cd AH cd r0ra J W 44 W fonticellinticei16fonticell4 1 hite C 0 CI f v 1 P 4 blandiablandimblanbianding 0 w 4 4 cd cd dupper canabkanab 0 plapl4 p4pa 0 afuf ajqjajvliliosjljlohnson an canabkanab 0navaio2navaanava 0 weaeuweuU jnjuan river q ue e s ferry house rockrociaroclaRo ciaclaCIR IQ 17avajo I1 spring1 w kayento spring jacjacobsS olnsobibitteratertteroinspsprangn9na marsh pass pool klimestqlimest0 limestone tankaakagk v oaocowj w springpijprj ng O erodorodrod lake ciaci3 wilwillowwi ow8pririgpring a hilhii 0 N

figure 3 map of Exploreexplorerlexplorersrl s route and holeintherockholehoieho leinle in the rock 16 families who were staying at montezuma to start the set- tltlementement the party decided the route they had traveled to montezamontezuma was too difficult for the main camp there was very little water grass was scarce for the animals and the indians said they would not let a large group of settlers travel through their grazing land the return trip took the explorers north through what is presently called monticello on to moab from moab they followed the old spanish trail to green river castle dale emery salina and then down to Pacarowanparowanrowan their starting point it was september 16th when they arrived at Pacarowanparowanrowan having traveled 915 miles and made 275 miles of new road having been gone five months and three days they had found two routes into the san juan country see figure 33. the return route was the preferred road they had not suffered for want of water nor from fear of indians strange to say neither route was chosen by the main company which left for san juan that fall 10 while the smith party had gone to Montezmontezumatunauunaunna andrew P schow and reubon collett located what is called roleholeholehoie in-the rock and made their

1operkinsperkins p 32 17 report that it was possible to make a road through the country east of the colorado 11

THE holeintherockHOLE IN THE ROCK TREK

those receiving mission calls came from iron beaver washington and millard counties all in southwestern utah one group from as far north as rich county the first segment of the expedition left cedar city october 22 1879 under the leadership of jens nielson the different groups passed through escalante see figure 4 and turned southeast towards the cleft in the wall of the colorado gorge at forty mile spring the several contingents of the expedition met this camp- ground became the major headquarters for more than three weeks while the number of participants grew to over two hundred individuals 1219 forty mile spring was the end of theroantheroadthe zoadroad william hutchings georgegeorge hobbs kuman jones and george lewis were chosen to go ahead and select a possible route they crossed the colorado river at the holehoie in

avldaviddavid E miller holehoie in the rock an epic in the colonization of the great american west salt lake CIcityY university of utah press 1959 appp 354035 40 hereafter cited as miller 12perkins12perkins appp 383938 39 18

boulder

Escalanescalantiescalantntn

T e amilnmil 1e

twenty mioieole carfie count kane calxcolx ty oyotecoyote ho I1 e s WIiioilo110 TA

dance halhai 1 rockI fortyforcy milemlle speini

y milemlle A holehoie jn the R ciaclacin 0 a jua 0 0

figure 4 map of routerouce from escalante to holehoieholeintherockin therockthe rock 19 therockthe rock crossing and surveyed the region about ten miles east of the river upon their return they announced the impossibility of a road being built another group was sent out to explore and they also confirmed the first report it was late in the year and heavy snows had fallen in the escalante mountains since they had crossed them the scarce forage was covered with snow so on december 4 they decided to proceed through the hole 131 on the 17th of december work commenced on the hole and the road down to the river another group crossed the river and worked on the road going east climbing up out of the river gorge at this point it was decideddecidedaided to select an exploring party to go to montezuma and map out a road george hobbs george morrell george sevy and lemuel redd sr were selected to make this trip they packed enough food for eighteight days it took the scouting party twelve days to reach montezuma ffourour of those days were without food upon reaching montezuma the four scouts found the james davis and hatharrisonharrlsonhazrison H harriman and harvey dunton families in a destitute condition this was december 29 1879 there was not any

13miller13miller p 101 20 food available for the return trip but it so happened that a trapper by the name of peter schurtz passed by the fort he was persuaded to let them have a fortyeightforty eight pound sack of flour for twenty dollars the group only stayed at the fort for one day and started on their return trip harvey dunton made the return trip with them as he wanted to see his son james dunton who was camped with the main party at the holehoie in therocktheche rock I1itt took the party twentythreetwenty three days to make the round trip they reported that it would be difficult but that a road was possible 14 from december 17 1879 to january 25 1880 the ppioneersloneerslonjers time was spent in widening the hole and building roads charles hall had brought materials from escalante and constructed a ferry on the twentyfifthtwenty fifth everything was ready for the wagons tobeto be lowered through the hole and down to the river by the twentyseventhtwenty seventh all the wagons had made it down and across the river without any s eriousserious damage 15 for the next sixtyfivesixty fivelvefive days these mormon ppion-ionlon eers moved their wagons through some of the roughest

14 14perkinsperkins p 50 151bidibid ppo 54540 21 country in america on february 10 the wagons started up the road at cottonwood hill it took from four to seven span of horses or the same number of oxen to move one wagon we suffered for want of food during this time all the water we had for cooking and stock had to be melted from snow for bread many had to grind their seed wheat in coffee mills 16 the route took them up cottonwood creek into the divide between the colorado and the san juan river northeast through clay hill pass to the foot of elk ridge from this point they moved south to comb ridge this ridgeridge1 derives its name from a perpendicular cliff about thirty miles long its east side scalloped out resembling a comb to some extent the company traveled south until they came to the san juan river in order to climb what has come to be known as san juan hill required several days of road building charles redd has recorded a graphic description of that last great pull aside from the holeintherockholehoieho ie in theche rock itself this was the steepest crossing ofoieoje the journey here again seven span of horses were used so that when some of the horses were on their knees fighting to get up to find a foothold the still erect horses could plunge upward against the sharp grade on the worst slopes the men were forced to beat their jaded

16 ibid p 56 22 animals into giving all they had afafterter several rests and pulls many of the horses took to spasms and near convulsionsco neulsnvulsionslons so exhausted were they by the time most of the outfoutaoutfitsits were across the worst stretches could easily be identified by the dried blood and matted hair from the forelegs of the strugglstruggestrugglinging teams my father ELQL H redd jrjr3jre was a strong man and reluctant to display emotion but whenever in later years the full pathos of san juan hill was recalled either by himself or by someone else the memory of such bitter struggles was too much for him and he wept 17 by april ath6th most of the wagons had pulled onto the flats at the mouth of cottonwood wash and although the intended destination montezuma was only another eighteen miles farther up stream the company simply lost its push all at once all energy seems to have left them completely the traveltravelwornworn expedition was just too tired to go on here were a ffewew acres of what appeared to be good farmland here they would stop at least most of them here they would build their homes at the sug- gestion of william hutchings they called the new location bluff city such important tasks as laying off lots building houses and digging a canal to bring water to the parched soil were begun at once with gods help they would now be able to complete the mission to which they had been called 18110

17miller17miller appp 138139138 139 181bidibid pop 1401400 chapter 3

establishing communities ANDAMD relationships AMONG THE INDIANS

mediatelyimmediatelyLr upon arrival at bluff city a survey of the land north of the river was made and divided into lots the south side of the river belonged to the cavajosnavajosNavajos there was some disappointment concerning the location the valley was narrow and there was not enough farm land for everyone in the company it was suggested that some of the families move up the river tori montezuma but this only created more feelings the property was finally divided equally between all the families 1 due to the late arrival the settlers went to work preparing the land for planting the major project was building an irrigation ditch from the river to the farms the ditch became one impossible nightmare

lbryantryant L jensen an historical study of bluff city utah from 187819061878 1906 unpublished masters thesis brigham young university 1966 p 116 hereafter cited as bryant L jensen

23 24 sand ffilled the head of the ditch so fast it was impossible to keep it flowing the level of the river changed so rapidly with each rain that flooding completely destroyed the ditch several times at other times the water was so low they could not use it the first few years at bluff were a constant struggle many of the men left the community to go into colorado to work at one time there were only twentyfivetwenty five people left in the colony of which only six were men there were also n plenty of indians around them 2 silas S smith had been ofofficiallyficiallyscially set apart as president of the san juan mission on june 6 1880 by erastus snow and brigham young jr on this same day jens nielson was made bishop of the bluff ward with george sevy and kumen jones as counselors the mission included san louis mission bluff burnhamBurriburnnhamham now fruit land in new mexico and mancos in colorado as well as the branch at fort montezuma on april 29 1882 president silas smith was released from the san juan mission and was called to

ilza2eiizaliza marie partridge smith lyman autobiography and diary 182018851820 1885 ir11 MS brigham young university 1945 p 119 typewritten 25 3 preside over the san louis mission platt D lyman served over the mission until september 23 1883 when the mission was organized into a stake there is some dis- crecrepancypancy in writings concerning the exact date of the stake organization but the date listed appears to be correct 4

on september 23 1883 platt D lyman was made president of the san juajuann stake the stake included laplatalaplaca and burnham branches in new mexico and bluff moab and burno in utah president platt D lyman served until september 1884 when francis A hammond was chosen president president hammond was from huntsville utah and due to stormy weather did not reach bluff until the summer of 1885 since the settling of bluff navajos from the south and utes from the north had been visiting the town they seemed friendly enough but they had to be watched constantly to keep them from stealing everything in time the indians became more belligerent and bolder the leaders of the church advised the settlers to build their homes within a fort and not to spread out on their

31bidibid p 62620 ajensen4jensenjensen p 50 26 farms however by 1885 some settlers decided it was safe to move out of the fort and away from the settlement in the early part of 1885 amasa M barton went to bishop nielson and asked his advice on the matter of leaving the fort he was cautioned about the church policy to stay together but he left and established a trading post at rin cone ten miles west of bluff on the san juan river 5 amasa was successful in his enterprise however on june 919 1885 a navajo came into the trading post with his partner he became very quarrelsome killed his friend and mortally wounded amasa with the death of amasa the settlers guarded the colony closely shortly after the tradertradtradertstravertseriserts death one hundred navajos came into bluff painted and displaying warlikewar like actions bishop jens nielson expressed the attitude of the mormons when he explained that they were not a fighting people he added that if the indians insisted on fighting they would call in the soldiers to do it for them the indians accepted this truce as they wanted nothing to do with the soldiers the indians were fed beef and other foods the

5corneliaocorneliacornelia adams perkins marian gardner nielson and lenora butt jones saga of san juan apnp mercury publishing co 1957 appp 656965 69 27 women could findfind and again trouble was averted however 6 stealing from the settlers continued for manymany years the pioneers on the san juan never succeeded in conquering the river by 1885 the bluff people had given up on becoming successful in agriculture they could not develop a way to get the water up on their land they had requested several times to have the mission abandoned As a result of the request apostle erastus snow and joseph F smith with others came to bluff for the purpose of releasing the colonists or locatingrelocatingre them in a more favorable area as close to the indians as pospossiblesiblesibie 77 the church leaders made the issue a matter of prayer and they were inspired to encourage the members to maintain the mission at a meeting held at bluff apo- stles erastus snow and joseph F smith made the following prophecy 1 I promise those who are willing to remain and face this difficult situation that they will be doubly blessed of the lord some left the mission others were obedient to the admonition of their leaders although part of the mission call was to settle parts of Q colorado arizona and other remote areas as well 8 while traveling to san juan president francis hammondHanunond saw the blue mountain for the first time he was impressed with the country and said to hyrum alienallenailen while

61bd61bid appp 68696869068 69069 71bid papp& 76 81bidbid p 69 28 swale near monticello this is a finelnefine place to build a town 119 with the coming of francis hammond there also came a new era for the san juan mission upon reaching alufblufblufff president hammond found the acreage small the river treacherous and the water supply uncertain there was a real need for wheat lumber and dairy products the next year president hammond and his advisors decided to divide the colony the country surrounding blue mountain was explored and several sights selected for establishing colonies recapture canyon the white and mustang mesas the north middle and southern montezuma creeks indian creek elk mountain and butler wash were the sections that were explored 10 president hammond sent the following message to the deseret news we desire to make two new settlements the coming season it will be situated in a climate where all cereals and hardy fruit will grow in abundance water is easily obtained from the mountains and good saw pine timber in abundance is easily obtained in from four to six miles from the

9perkinsperkins p 91 10lifelife of george A adams located in the daughters of utah pioneer files state memorial building saga p 91 1 sacra salt lake city utah I sackac1ca 29 settlement snow will fallherefallfail here a foot to two feet in february here also may be found one of the best places for extensive dry farming I1 have ever seen there being thousands of acres of the choicest soil near enough to the base of the mountains to afford rain enough as I1 believe to produce crops without irrigation iil north montezuma and indian creek were selected for settlements north and south montezuma creeks are known as monticello and verdure at the present time mission calls to settle these new sights were simysimilarlar to the original san juan mission call families were selected and they received the call as part of their religious obligation the pipioneersP ondersoneers celebrated march 12 1887 as their founding day of monticello 12 the monticello saints had many difficultiesdifficulties to overcome but with time they became a thrifthrivthrivinging community renegradeRenegrade indians and unruly cowboys were the major obstacles that had to be overcome and time seemed to take care of them A report by president hammond published in the deseret news gives a good picture of the blue mountain mission at that time

ildeseretIldeseret news saitcsaltcoaltsalt lake cityj december 29 1886 vol 3539835 398 12perkins12perkins p 92 30 the new settlement at monticello is doing well we have some 320 acres fenced with good wire fence and about 100 acres planted with wheat oats barley corn and lucern all looking well when last I1 saw them we have two dairy ranches at this point one on south montezuma owned by william adams and sons and another at dodge point owned and managed by bishop nielson sons and sons in law the product of the two dairies per day is about 120 pounds of cheese of the finest quality A few houses are completed in monticello a great many have logs cut and drying ready for hauling and putting up after harvest some however are living in tents some in their own wagon boxes others in rude shantiesIs 13

WHITE MESA BLANDING

president hammond withhiswith his party of explorers in 1886 climbed one of the knolls southeast of what is presently blanding he waved his hat and with a glad shout declared it was the most beautiful place he had ever seen even though he had been around the world 14 he had a survey made and a ditch began to take water from recapture canyon the brojprojprojectectact was not very popular with some of the settlers there was not enough water to justify the labor it was also drawing man power from the monticello settlement so consequently president hammond abandoned the mission on white mesa

13deseret13deseret news isaic lake citcity august 22 1888 vol 3749937 499 perkins p 134 31 the work on white mesa may have been abandoned but it was never forgotten on september 1-129 1897 walter C lyman visited white mesa and the blue mountains with his brother in law kumen jones of bluff As walter came up on the mesa he said an impression came to his mind that a town would be established there and he saw in vision the exact place on which it should be built 15 with this inspired knowledge some of the settlers moved up on the mesa and started work on the ditch again the work was stopped but this time it was a call to those most interested in white mesa to serve a mission for the church it was the spring of0 E 1902 before the work was again taken up on white mesa the work continued until the spring of 1903 when water ran through the completed ditch and tunnel into the parklandpark land above the townsite A small stream of water ran three weeks this was not bad considering there was very little snow in the mountains that winter corn was planted on about fifteen acres where the water had run it rained a great deal that summer and all the corn matured 16

151bidibid p 1351350 16perkins16perkins appp 137138137 138 32 the few families that settled on the mesa were at the park north of the town site envisioned by walter C lyman walter would have moved there but he was the stake president and his responsibilities kept him from doing so those on the mesa wanted the town site at the park and put little faith in walterwaiterwalterswaiters vision in the fall of 1904 albert R lymalymann told his uncle walter that he would move to the town site if he would give him a call to do so president walter lyman told albert teathethathethat he kknewnew that the town was to be located on the envisioned site and that if he moved there he would do it on his own initiative the same as he would if he could 17 the following spring april 2 1905 albert R lyman and his wife mary ellen perkins moved with their one baby cassie and irene perkins sister of mrs lyman onto the town site by june 11 when the new town officially became graysongrayson there were six families making it their home 18 water on the mesa has always been a problem and still is as far as agriculture is concerned it was

17albert17albert R lamanlvman from wagons to rockets p 103 A limited number of copies was made for the lyman family there is a copy at the blanding library

18perkins p 1631630 33 another visionary project that very few people had faith in that finally solved the water problem for the town of blanding david black in 1920 stood on blue mountain observing the large quantity of water on the north slopes he thoucthoughtfht of ways to get the water on the south side one day he mentioned it to his uncle ben black and he made the comment that this was a ijobob for walter C lyman As soon as walter saw the water he envisioned a tunnel through the mountain the project was presented to the people of blanding and the tunnel was a reality work continued off and on for thirty years before it was finally completed december 27 1951 the tunnel is about 5400 feet through the mountain most of the water used by blanding at the present time comes through the tunnel with the additional water the community also began to grow until today there are about three thousand people living in blanding it is the largest of the san juan mission settlements 19

19utahutah state historical society and california state college fullerton oral history program southeastern utah project blanding tunnel project OH 698a marvin lyman interviewed by sandy mcfadden on july 111 1971 pages from the lives of marvin and margie lyman appp 131413 14 3434t As mentioned in the beginning there were three main reasons for settling southeastern utah one was to develop a friendly relation with the indian people and introduce the restored gospel to them this was one of the main reasons for the translating of the book of mormon 20 unfortunately however during the first fifty years of the san juan history there was little effort made to teach the gospel to the indians the main effort was just trying to keep peace and keep them from stealing from the pioneers A majority of the indians were peaceful and did much business at the trading posts 21 it was the young indians who resented being pushed on a reservation and deprived of their old hunting grounds it was the renegade indians that would not stay on the reservation who were involved in most of the killings jame M walton related an experience that illus- trates the relationship between the indians and the settlers one day jane was hoeing in her garden and

20the doctrine and covenants of the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints salt lake city the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints 1921 3193190

010 1 21jensen21jensen p 121 35 posey came riding up and demanded some biscuits she said waltwait11wait until I1 finish hoeing this row 11 posey said 11nono wait now 111 jane stubbornly went on with her hoeing posey pointed his gun at her called her a liar and some other embellished epithets she struck him over the head with her hoe posey fell stunned she was afraid she had killed him but she bravely turned her back on the fallenalienailenfallenfailen man posey got up let out a yell and ran for his horse leaving the seat of his pants in her dogsdog I1 s teeth it was years later before posey returned he approached the house cautiously pushed the door open gently stuckhisstuck his headinhead in and said squaw me no mad she answered hello posey me no mad poselsposeys reply came limerimeme heap hungry all right posey as soon as I11 finish this little job illiliitil get your biscuits posey went out and chopped wood before his meal was prepared it was a mormon custom to always have the indians chop 22 wood before feeding them many of these stories are recorded in private journals and some publications the items mentioned will give some idea of the associations between the anglo and indians

22perkins22perkins p 225 chapter 4

THE SAN JUAN STAKE MISSION

THE navajozuniNAVAJO ZUNI MISSION

missionary labor with the indians in the san juan stake was motivated by the missionary couples returning from the navajozuninavajo zuni mission in 1943 frank and hattie barton served in the navajo mission and in the summers of 1944 and 1945 albert R and gladys lyman served three months finally in 1946 the stake mission started teaching the navajos west of blanding the work was directed by joseph C hunt the stake mission president and was assisted by his wife freda albert and gladys were also called on stake missions at this time to work with the navajo and fluteplute indians 1 albert R lyman waited a long time to fulfill his desire to teach the gospel to the indian people in the

lalbertaalbertalbertalbect R lyman from wagons to rockets appp 214221214 221 A limited numberofnumbernumberofof copies was made for the lyman family there is a copy at the blanding library

36 37 san juan stake later in albertaalbertnalbert s liflifeilfee he mentioned this desire to a congregation of indians he told how his mother carried him in her arms through the hole in therockthe rock and ontoon to bluff city and of the struggle the saints had in settling the area they became discourdiscouragedwiscouraged and wanted to be released from their mission call but the church leaders encouraged them to stay they had faith that the settlement would succeed and would eventually culminate in a great work among theLama lamanitesnites albert mentioned that as he increased in age a spiritual awaken- ing came over him and he desired to teach his navajo neighbors about the restoration of the gospel of jesus christ however the indian people were not ready to hear his message and many years passed before that time arrived he was living in salt lake city when news arrived that the message of the restoration was being taught to the indians in the area south of the san juan stake having lived in salt lake city two and a half years due to his wifeswife lingering illness which ended in her death he now had a burning desire to move back to blanding upon his return he was called on a three month mission to the navajozuninavajo zuni mission it was this 38 great spiritual experience that moved him to commit the 20 remainder of his life to teaching the LamanitelamaniteslamanitessLamanitessS in february 1946 the stake missionaries first contacted the navajos on the far side of west water canyon they held weekly meetings in the hogans and as spring opened they had more than the hogans would accommodate so they moved outside around the open fires it was clear that by fallaliailfallfali they would need a building to meet in it was also evident that their success would be with the children

A building was completed by fall and sedusedvi as a school during the week and for church serviservicesces on sunday few latterlatterdayday saints had the spiritsp3spa rit of indian work and it was evident that most wanted nothing to do with them the fact that the community would not allow the school to be built in town or even on the east idesides of west water canyon reveals their attitude toward the indian people 30

0 2minutesminutes of the indian district of the san juan stake mission 1951521951 52 MSS in the possession of esther shumway blanding utah hereafter cited as indian district minutes 0 3lyman p 225 39 during the summer of 1946 the blanding area was made a district of the navajozuninavajo zuni mission with albert R lyman called as the new districtdistrictpresidentpresident joseph C and freda hunt edward and irene lyman and rebecca palmer were called as missionaries to help in the district ralph W evans was the president of the navajo zuni mission it did not take long for him to win the love of the san juan missionaries his love for the indian people and his enthusiasm for the work was a real boost to the blanding district 4 another event that gave the blanding district a boost was the visit of president george albert smith at the san juan stake quarterly conference held october 26- 27227327 1946 the theme of the conference was the indianindianss and the latterlatterdayday saintssaints1 sponsibilityresponsibilityre to them this was the firstarstfirst and last time that a prespresidentident of the church has attended a stake conference in the san juan stake after the conference president smith and two members of the quorum of twelve spencer W kimball and matthew cowley were going to shiprock to attend a meeting of the navajo tribal council and ask for pennispermissionsionslon

41bidbid 2 appp 222225222 225 40 to do missionary work on the reservation albert R lyman was invited to go with them which he elteitelcfeltfeicfelcf was an unusual privilege and a real inspiration to the work to which he had subscribed the rest of his effort they held meetings at window rock fort defiance and other places but did not receive permission to work on the reservation the head man of the agency mr stewart advised president smith to build a schoolschool and a hospital at blanding president smith asked albert to sell the people of blanding on the idea and let him know of their reaction 53 the blanding district missionaries were inspired by the visit of president smith and were more convinced than ever that they were doing the thing that the lord wanted them to do the missionary efforts involved holding meetings teaching school taking care of the sick and burying the dead there were few nights that the missionaries were undisturbed by someone needing help 6

51bidbid p 222 6statementstatement by esther Shumshumwaygayvay personal interview july 9 1975 41

NAVAJO characteristics

the navajos west of blanding were described by the missionaries1pap as being in the depths of poverty the only water they had was carried from a spring some distance from their hogans they literally lived in the dirt their sheepskins were spread on the dirt floorsboorsfloors of their hogans and looked as though they had never been cleaned in describing the conditions west of blanding however does not mean that all navajos were like this on the contrary most on the reservation were very clean mrs phylis norton described her grandmothergrandmotherjgrandmothersgrandmothertstss hogan as dennehotso arizona as being very neat and clean she would shake and hang out the sheep skins everymorningevery morning and fold the blankets and put them on the shelf she also kept the smoke cleaned off the ceiling once a month the top sand from the floor was scraped out and fresh sand spread in its place then the sand was watered down and packed phylis said the hogan always had a fresh smell like sand after it has rained her grandfather raked around the yard and kept it looking neat although phylis was not raised in a hogan she recalls most hogans being kept up like the one of her 42 grandparentsgrandparents11 her grandfather called the navajos west of blanding renerenegadesgades 7 the reservation indian looked on those that moved in next to the white man as traitors to their people the indians living in west water also had head and body lice which many of the missionaries picked up while working around them albert R lyman said he would detect one on him in the nighttime and he would have to 0 get up and findfind it before he could go back to sleep 8 it was for this reason that many of the white people around blanding avoided any personal association with the indian people and insisted that albert build his indian school on the other side of west water canyon harris and esther shumway took their daughter claudia with them many times when they held cottage meetings in3 n the hogans they were as devoted to this work as anybody but after the conclusion of one of the meetings the young indian girl asked if claudia could sleep that night with her esther was willing to give her whole effort to the work but this she was not

7statementstatement by phylis norton personal interview july 18 1975 0 8statementstatement by freda hunt personal interview july 10 1975 43 willing to do even claudia who had spent the evening playing with the girl did not want to spend the night in the hogan 9Q freda hunt one of the first navajo missionaries recalls the firstf time she went out to the hogans the children as well as the adults ran and hid from them the children may have been afraid but the adults were self conscious of their condition and did not want to be seen after the missionaries became acquainted with the indian people most of them came to the meetings and listened to the gospel 10

NURSING THE SICKLSOICK AND BURYING THE DEAD

freda related the missionariesmissionaries11 first experience in taking care of the sick in the fallailfallfail of 1946 scottie and jean jones made a trip to shiprock to visit their little boy who was sick with TB and confined to the hospital by the time they reached shiprock the boy had died and been buried upon their return home they found their children 2 four and two years of age0 very sick with

9statementstatement by esther shumway personal interview july 9 1975 iostatementinstatementIO statement by freda hunt personal interview july 10 1975 44 pneumonia buicquicquicklyklykiy they came to the missionaries for help and the hunts and lymansclymans went to their assistance upon arriving at the hoonanhogan they found the children struggling to breathe gladys and freda went into town to get some medicine and the nurse gave them enough penicillin to last three days the indians did not know how to give the shots so gladys and freda made a trip to the hogan every three hours night and day to give the sick ones a shot this lasted for three days before they finally started to recover freda said it was a miracle that they even got better because the flies were so thick and the sheepskins so dirty 11 at this time the school house was under con- ststructionruction in west water and one room was closed in when cold weather came in november the missionaries started holding their meetings on sunday in the school one sunday it was noticed that the jonesjones1jonesb1 were not in attendance and this was unusual freda and gladys headed down through the cedar trees on the narrow path leading to their hogan there they found the two children sick again the weather was very cold and their condition

llibidbid 45 even worwomworses e than the ffirstir s t time back into town they went for more medicine dr bayles just gave a hopeless sigh when the condition was described he said that very few children recover from a second attack of pneumonia when the reoccurrence was so soon he told them to save their energy and refused themtheratherntheda more penicillin the mis- sionariessionaries were not willing to give up that easily and insisted that he give them some so they could at least try dr bayles conceded and gave them enough for one day and told them if the children were still alive the next day he would give them another days dosage the doctor also gave them a thermometer to take the temperature of the children the shots were given to them and then they were moved into the school house out of the winter weather that evening after returning home and somewhat relaxed from the daysday activities suddenly a startling realization came to freda that putting the children in the schoolhouse was not such a good idea if those children died as dr bayles said they would it would be impossible to get another indian in thathatf building because of their superstitions about the dead the next morning the two missionaries hurried out to see how their 46 patients were doing to their surprise and relief they found the children feeling better and after taking their temperature found them to be normal the good news was related to dr bayles and he said it was a miracle to save kids as malnourished as they were 12i 9 albert R lyman also spoke of this illness in his diary and gave possible reason for their quick recovery january weather was rough and cold and I1 lost two days with the fiufluflu I1 got up from a sick bed to go out across west water and administer to two little navajo children about dead with pneumonia the doctor said there was no use in spending any time on them that they would die I1 eltelcfeltfeitf very much distressed about it and had bro hunt assist me in visiting the hogan and administering to the two little sufferers in the dirt and inconvenience of their rude home the children got well in a little while but I1 suffered from getting up when I1 was i 113 not fit to be out of rheuhet he house don and guen smith recounted one of their experiences with the dead late one night joe and jimyjimmy tree young boys came to the smith home and told them joe begay had died don and guen got in their station wagon and went right out to pick up the body the shack that he was living in was on the other side of a ffenceence and

121bid12 ibid 13llymanman p 2242240 47 there was not a gate this required them to carry the body some distance and put him through the fence many of the indians were standing off at a distance talking about joe and watching the missionaries take the body guen is a small woman and she had to help don carry the body out and get him through the ffenceence and into the pickuppick up while the big indian men stood off in the distance and watched 14 the next morning the smiths went out to visvisitit the familyfamily and see if they could do anything more when they arrived the shack had been burned down and it was evident that not a thing had been removed from the dwelling this was a common practice among the indian people to burn the dwelling or abandon the hogan afteraftertec someone had died in it in spite of the fact that the indians are extremely fearful of the dead and feel that the devil has taken over there are examples where love has caused individuals to forget their fears gladys lyman received news that old forlorneys baby was sick and she was called to help take care of it she did what she could

14statement14statement by don and guen smith personal interview july 15 1975 48 and returned home soon word came into town that they had taken the babyoutbabbabyyoutout As mentioned in the previous home example 3 if a person died in the they burned or abandoned it to avoid doing this the indians would take a person out of the hogan and put them under the trees or hang the smaller children in the trees and let them die upon hearing the news that the baby had been taken out gladys went out to get the baby she looked under the bushes and in the cedars and finally pushing some bushes aside she saw old forlornlyforlorneyForlorney sitting on the ground with the baby in his arms the baby was dead but there he sat sobbing and rocking the baby gladys said this was one of the most touching things she had ever experienced 15 taktakinging care of the sick and burying the dead were very effective in helping the missionaries get close to the indian people albert R lyman spoke of this friend- ship in his journal there were two deaths among the navajos and three with the aiutespiutes not school children and we were asked to take care of the funerals and burial and it proved to be a short way to their hearts the navajos proved to be so filtered with silly

151bidibid 49 superstitions that it was difficult and almost dangerous to try to do anything with them in these circumstances but the aiutespiutes cooperated with us and listened to all that we suggested about the funeral and to all we had to tell them 1610 the missionaries made the caskets out of pine boards and lined the inside with silk glen shumway who served many years among the indian people as a missionary stake missionmiss ionlon president and president of the blanding indian branch expressed that burying the dead gave him a feeling of accomplishment they would clean the bodies and comb their hair and put a nice dress or suit on them and when they were finished the person looked like a million dollars 17i grace Shunshumwayiwaytway developed a closeness with the indian people early in her life she served a stake mission among these people but that was only a small part of her service to them grace as a young woman had learned the important techniques associated with delivering babies the indians soon became aware of her talents and she was called out often to help the indian women

16lyman16lyman p 224 17statement17 statement by glen shumway personal interview july 10 1975 50 she was also knowledgeable in taking care of the sicklcksick and assisted many sick indians grace would always have prayer when she was called to take care of the sick or deliver a baby through this the indian people developed faith in prayer and would insist on mrs shumway having prayer when she attended them on one occasion a young mother was having a difficultdifdlfficultscult time delivering and there was not time to utter a formal prayer but grace was praying in her mind and heart when one of the indians helping said pray for her aretarent you going to pray for her grace responded 1 I am praying for her you pray for her it andshehandsheand she answered 1 I dotdont know how the people had faith in mirsmrs shumway and they would not let her forget to peti- tion the lord for help

many times the sick viewieverewerere beyond any help that the missionaries could administer and it was necessary to take them to the hospital the closest hospital was in monticello but they would not admit an indian the reason being that the tribe would not pay them for the expense and they did the hospitals in cortez and shiprock 51 for example mrs shumway could not make it to cortez with her expectant mother so she stopped at monticello and with some persuasion had her admitted when the nurse went in to check on her her husband had put the mattress on the floor when asked why he had done thithlthisS he explained it was not safe to have the baby so high offoff the floor and besides the mother was not used to it the trips to the hospitals were long and time consuming it was eighty miles to cortez and one hundred and thirty miles to shiprock there were times when mrs shumway and one of her boys would just get back to town and another patient would be ready to go As the shumwaysShumways left town with their patientspaty entsants there was a convenient place well off the road where prayer was said before going on to the hospital each trip this was adhered to without failure but on one occasion they had a new driver and he went down the road past the usual turnoutturn out grace had not noticed but the sick person knew they had passed the spot and insisted they go back they just felt this was an important part of their being made well 18i10P

1 0 18statement18statement by grace shumway personal interview july 14 1975 52 it was in this area that the missionaries gave many hours of service it was this labor of love that brought a close association between the indian people and the missionaries and resulted in many of these navajos and utes being baptized into the church As years have gone by and other agencies have assumed responsibility for taking care of the sick and preparing the dead for burial the missionaries have lost this binding association the majority of indian people are on public welfare and have the means to pay their own medical expense the local clinic in blanding handles most minor cases and the hospital in monticello admits the more serious problems there is a modern mortuary in the community that takes care of the dead

THE SAN JUAN STAKE INDIAN MISSION

in the month of july 1948 the blanding district of the navajozuninavajo zuni mission was dissolved and made part of the san juan stake mission albert R lyman was called as president of the district which was the same as before but responsible to different leaders making the blanding district part of the stake responsibility was discouragidiscouragediscouragingng to the lynlymlymansclymansans they had 53 aundoundffound their mission experience very demanding physically and emotionally the lymansclymans were giving full time to their mission call in the day they taught at the inindianthandiandhan school and in the evenings they held their cottage meetings president ralph W evans and after his release president eugene flake of the navajozuninavajo zuni mission gave them their full support andencourageand encourage them in their work 19 now that the mission was the stakes responsibility the school was not accepted as part of the mission work albert R described the situation as follows the stake had for it anything but enthusiasm little faith in what could be accomplished and nothing in the way of encouragement for what we had undertaken to do this is not to cast any unfavor- able reflection on them they had not been indian missionaries and could not have any of the enthusiasm which we had developed in the very difficult service we had been giving besides that they had many other responsibilities many of them more pressing than this indian mission and simply could not see the importance of the work as it appeared to usseio20 albert R and gladys truly did give their all to the mission effarefforeffort and both spent time in the hospital recovering from over exertion

19lyman19lyman p 241 2020. ibid 54 afaftertetter teaching two years at the indian school albert was called back to resume his teaching at the seminary which was in dire need of hishi s help this was a big load for a man sixtyninesixty nine years old he felt that he could not give the necessary attention to both responsibilities and the seminary was in real need of his help so he requested the indian district be given to a younger man 21 previous to AlalbertalbertralbererbertRR s release from the indian district he and his wife took an extended trip to president flakes indian mission they wanted to see how the work was progressing and gather new ideas to use in their own san juan stake indian district they were very dis- couragedcouraged with the success of their own mission and were looking for help the stake and districts in president flakesflaked mission that were following the program outlined by the church leaders were having success thehe lymansclymans were more convinced than ever that the way to go was to follow the prprogramocamoram recommended by the church that program was to have the auxiliaries of the stake help direct their programs amonamongg the indian people

21lyman21lyman p 250 55

presidentpresident albert R lyman had previously requested that the stake leaders follow the program outlined by the church but they refused to do so upon the lymansclymans return home president lyman again asked the stake leaders to give them the assistanceassistance of the auxiliaries once more he was refused and this became very discouraging to himahim2him and led to his decision to give up the indian dis trictbrict leadership to a younger man 22

A NEW INDIAN DISTRICT PRESIDENT

the indian district leadership reigns were given to alma U jones missionary work was not new to alma he had served as one of the seven presidents of the 125th quorum of seventy since 19219288 and at this time was the senior president during the may conference 1949 alma 00 was officially called as the mission president 23 within six weeks the new district prespresidentident went to the stake leaders and asked for the help albert had been denied alma jones was given what he asked for

22lyman appp 249250249 250 23manuscript history of the church of jesus day june 30 1949 christ of latterlatterday saints 1 located in church historians office hereafter this collection will be referred to as manuscript history 56 he carried on the mission carried on and before the end of the year six navajos were baptized these six were the first of their people to join the church in the san 240 juan stake as far as albert R could find out he was touched as were all the others working with the indians as indicated in his remarks that baptismal ceremony and the testimonies borne by the indians in the confirmation meeting that followed was sweet reward for our toil and hope deferred I1 viewed our toil as small in comparison to this reward my heart swelled with blessings for alma in this strenuous labor anand95 I1 prayed for him and all who should assist him 3 before becoming president and while serving under albert R lyman in the indian district alma was given the assigmentassignment to go to west water to check on some sick indian children it was a cold winter night and the temperature was below zero after checking on the children and finding them all right he headed back to town As he mounted his horse a dog nipped the heels of his horse causing the horse to buck alma was coming down as the horse was going up and the saddle horn caught his left hip pulling his leg out of the socket finallyfilially the horse threw him off into the snow the pain was

24lyman24lyman p 250 25 ibid appp 250251250 251 57 adonizagonizingagonizing and instantly he was chilled throughout his body he could not move so he yelled for help susie billsie a daughter of the family he was visiting was afraid to help him at firstf but inallyfanallyfinally came and helped him stand on his one leg haskie begay was there by then and he let alma ride on his back into the hogan haskie built a irelrefiref and put a wash tub over it and in a very short time the tub was red hot As a result of shock alma could not get warm so he snuggled up as close as possible to the fire even this did not ease the chill word was sent in to albert R and shortly he and almas son ted harry laws parly laws and edward lyman were at the hogan ted had brought the tractor pulling a bob sled right up to the hogan they failed to bring some bedding so ted made a trip back into town alma and albert were left in the hogan by themselves and alma asked albert if he would give him a blessing As alma related this experience twentysixtwenty six years later his emotions swelled within his heart and he was unable to speak As he continued his story he said bro lyman said 1 I never wanted to bless anyone so much in my life after the blessing the warmest and most comfortable feeling came over him and instantly the pain left 58 the bedding finally arrived and alma slid himself on to a large plank he could lifliftt his leg with his own hands but he could not stand to have anyone help him by the time the bob sled reached the road a car was waiting and alma was laid on a bed improvised in the back of a frazer car by this means he was conveyed to salt lake city three hundred and fifty miles to the north alma still walks with a bad limp as the result of this accident while filling his obligations as an indian n missionary 26 when the call came to alma to lead the indian district he was still recovering from his accident one 9 year to the day january 1950 1 he had to return to salt lake for additional surgery it was with this kind of dedication that alma served and was willing to give all the number of baptisms during alma U jones term is not available but he said quite a few joined the church following the original six in the fall of 1949 the success was mainly with the younger people those

260 statement by alma U jones personal interview june 24 1975 59 that were attending the indian school organized by albert R lyman alma was released from his mission on february 27 18 1.1 1851

HARRIS SHUMWAY DISTRICT PRESIDENT

on 18 shumway was february 1951 1 harris called as the president of the san juan stake indian mission harris is the first president of the indian district that served as a counselor to the stake mission president the san juan stake indian mission was listed separately on the sustaining list read at stake quarterly conference until may 11 1952 it appears that the indian district originally acted as a separate unit from the rest of the stake mission districts although they were responsible to the stake missimissionon president after 1952 there was no more distinction made the missionaries serving at that time merely referred to it as the indian district the stake sustaining list no longer listed a san juan stake indian mission harris shumway was released september 1953 28

27271bidibid 00 28manuscript history september 1953 60 many of the former missionaries have been approached for dates and events concerning their experiences but few have kept a record esther shumway was one that kept minutes of all the meetings and important events during 1951 and 1952 she kept them for additional years but they were loaned to someone and are lost the indian district missionaries took charge of the sunday services from the time the lymansclymans and hunts first started meeting with the indians in february 1946 it has been explained that thenavajosthe navajos and utes did not get along with each other and theywouldthey would not meet together in the same meeting consequently the mission-

0 aariesr 3 es held a meeting sunday morning with the navajos anandd in the afternoon they would go to white mesa or alans OQ canyon and hold a meeting for the utes 29 the minute book reveals that the missionaries did most of the speaking singing praying and blessing of the children and anything else that had to be done the only members of the church attending the meetings were the missionaries so the sacrament was not prepared

291ndianindian district minutes r 0 4

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9oubpxjaa0u0puaq adiovdio surrdjotred aouppuallp p 0 umamma passa six11 pasato sdtotred pasatq assatoposs9qassatq umof a2vilooosririoo 9111 cjavd ozl pu umop Vg & maopuemcw q ST e 8& abom 0501 sa aa aqom 92vzca a suistcfsg STUHJezcaunj suistltegsmsiidug qu oftzmav 0 sainti sorqg aaqumm xeqinnti saiqpgsatqvg aaquirin tuala 9.9 olm u913tam tualj rqvg quiriN moc AV lomroc ew

VTTVA L n C aq 0 j g IOU e alli 63 the sunday meetings were irstarstfirstf held in the hoganshogans then as the members in attendance increased they moved outside by the fall of 1946 one room of the schoolhouse was completed and the meetings were held in the schoolhouse the schoolhouse was located across west water canyon about one and onehalfone half miles from blanding in the fall of 1948 the schoolhouse was moved into the north end of town sunday meetings were held in this structure and a CCC barracks until a block building was constructed in 1954 the church news section of the deseret news published an editorial concerning the dedication of the building elder el ray christiansen assistant to the council of the twelve dedicated the blanding indian chapel september 12 1954 the building held one hundred fifty people and there was a loud speaking system set up to accommodate the nearly six hundred people outside the building

recenttrendsRECENT TRENDS

from 1953 to 1960 glen A shumway and kay P johnson each served as the district president of the indian district this call was in addition to their call as a counselor in the stake mission presidency many of 64 the experiences already mentioned inn this chapter took place during this period of time in 1957 when glen A shumway was sustained as stake mission president he called a missionary other than a member of the stake missionm ssionassion presidency to head the indian district president shumway was the first full time southwest indian missionary to stay home and work among the local indians figure 5 on baptisms reveals three prominent high points during the last nineteen years the first high point came during president shumwayshumways term as mission president 1957601957 60 the experience obtained on the fulltimefullfuli time indian mission and also the love for these people contributes to the success during this period there were also more stake indian missionaries0 0 0 called during these years than any other period so far the increase in the number of baptisms from 1968 through 1972 completely over-overshadowsshadows the work during any other period of time the reason for this increase is quite apparent it was during these years that the indian seminary program was organized in the stake chapter 7 will deal primarily with the seminary program but the effecteffectfact that it had on missionary work will be mentioned here 65

100 95 90 85 80 75 7cac7 65 6600 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 I1 15 I1 1 10 5 0 ULH QOD r 0000OO CTON O r 4 clcl44 CO 113111.11 LOU 010 r LO 0 O r 4 2 cnCO 00v to101 I1 00 t ULO lnij lnir lnU lnir 10 0kloo 101.00 0O 10 0110 0lao110o 0oD 0o klo0o r 111 1 r 01 ONy ON ON ONy 001 a 0ON 0ON 01 001 0GN 0ON ONJ 0ON CON 0ON 0a 0a 0cr r 4 rfr f r 4 r 4 r 4 r 4 r 4 r 4 r 4 r 4 r 4 r 4 t r 4 r 4 r 4 r 4 r 4 r 4 angioanglo indian figure 5 convert baptisms 66

ronald L knighton area coordcoordinatornator for indian seminaries recognized a need for fulltimefull time missionaries to help with the seminary program and also teach the many nonmembernon member students enrolled in the program out of the ninetynineninety nine baptisms in 1969 the fulltimefull time mission on aries baptized ninety of them 30 from 1968 through 1971 there were two hundred thirtythreethirty three baptisms of which one hundred fortyoneforty one were associated with the indian 01 seminary program 31L missionary work was confined to the blanding area until the late fiftiesfifties then kay and ila johnson traveled to alufblufblufff and held meetings near st christopherchristophers mission in the early sixties kenneth and chloe ann shumway and others started to teach in the vicinity of aneth from this period to the present missionaries have been assigned to these areas the stake indian missionaries arededicatedare dedicated people many miles have been driven the past decade just traveling to and from the teaching area the work is

on 30monticello30monticello utah stake baptism book in possession of richard watkins stake mission president blanding utah 31sansan juan indian seminary annual reports located at the blanding seminary 196719711967 1971 j

labor

to 0

called 4 0 IO- a

missionaries

lnLO 010 4 district

6 of 10 CD 0 r4ra indian figure

number

the

ln lr allCJ in

mission

0 LOU 0oenOIN r4ra

stake

q v0 N r4ra va j 0 r juan 15 10 i5 0 san 68 limited to sundays due to the long distance those driving to mexican hat average 200 to 250 miles montezuma creek 130 to 150 miles bluff 100 to 150 miles each sunday sunday morning is usually spent bringing the members and contacts into church there are established branches at mexican hat bluff and montezuma creek after the services they call on the families throughout the reservation within the boundaries of the san juan stake ordinarily the success comes with the younger people but occasionally an elderly person comes into the church for example a ninetythreeyearoldninety three yearoldyear oldoid navajo woman from montezuma creek was baptized in the spring of 1975 missionary work with the indians is a difficult challenge and at times the work moves very slow it requires a lot of patience and devotion to keep going bob hostler who is presently serving in the Montemontezumamoncezurazuma creek area describes some of the difficult problems they have to deal with bob is probably one of the better qualifqualifiedqualialed stake missionaries I1 he speaks navajo ffluentlyluentlluenaly he has worked as a social worker among these people for eight years and knows most of the families personally bob mentioned that tradition and superstition is the 69 greatest deterrent in teaching indians the gospel it is very difficult for them to understand basic religious concepts these ideas are new and it takes time to digest them the navajos are the largest tribe and number around 1500001501000 they are the last of the tribes to accept the culture of the white man another obstacle hindering these people from joining the church is that others look at them as reject- ing the navajo way of life and accepting the white mans way which is frowned on bob feels that the greatest success will come with the young indian people who live in blanding many of these people are educated and hold responsible jobs in the corconmunitycommunity they have demo- nstrated that they would rather live in a home and have the comforts and security that comes from city residence the barrier has already been broken that bind them to the on traditional indian ways 32 bobs companion dennis gutke does not speak navajo but is still able to make a real contribution the children speak english and he is able to develop a good rapport with them the nonspeakingnon speaking navajo

32statement3209 statement by bob hostler personal interview july 27 1975 70 missionaries point out that the language is a real handi-hand cap to them kenneth shumway and pete bergshoffBergbergshoeff laborshoff in the mexican hat district and neither speak navajo in this case they depend on the children to interpret for them under these circumstances audiovisualaudio visual aides are used that have been developed in the navajo language kenneth said that after showing the film they have a difficult time discerning if the contact has understood the message or if they have questions there seems to be one language that both parties understand and that is prayer many times the missionaries merely visit and pray for the family the people depend on them to do this and they appreciate the missionaries visit each week 33 the missionaries have developed an empathy for each other in relation to indian missionary work they identify the same problems challenges and successes regardless of the area they serve in one major area of success mentioned by bob and kenneth is the indian placement program in the church all the san juan stake indian missionaries that have been contacted are in

33statement33statement by kenneth shumway personal interview august 11 1975 71 harmony with this feeling when the young indian students come back from placement during the summer their maturity in the gospel 5 and in their personal lives is easily recognized the writer anticipated making a report on the number of students that have been placed from within the boundaries of the san juan stake but after conversing with the placement program found that the information was not available the names of the placement students are on a computer system and are listed by name alphabeti- cally and natnot by geographical area there is some information available for a few years and it will be presented in the chapter dealing with the indian seminary program

leadership missionaries

another great effort made by the members of the san juan stake in behalf of the indian people was the calling of leadership missionaries in january 1969 president dale T tingey president of the southwest indian mission visited with ronald Lla knighton at the blanding seminary mr knighton was the area coordinator over the seminary program which included the san juan J 10

seventy

senior

& of president

pres quorum

president president president president president president president president

mission note mission 125th

counselors assignment

the stake mission mission mission mission mission mission mission mission stake historical of

their special second first stake stake stake stake stake stake stake stake pres or and

date released 22760 22860 22860 42962 42962 42962 42962 2 presidents 6958 1044 1246 736 641 143 649 953 557 955 557 557

table

set

mission 102944 112860 apart 52136 62141 12443 12146 61949 21851 51257 51257 51957 92858 286022860 22860 22860 7939 9653 9653 9653 9455 date

stake

juan

redd black nielson lyman

randall san shumway shumway

shumway johnson johnson

randall

redd N palmer alger lyman whitney hurst clarence hunt S shumway shirley s A harris P P hurst clisbee burdett bayles harrlharris smith harry wyman glen glen N alma s C W kay kay jay A R william francifrancis clisbee L joseph ashton howard harry 1 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 glen name guy de J to of quorum

president 125th

the the

president president president of is note pres

who mission assignment

president

mission mission mission mission

historical

seventy stake

special senior stake stake stake stake or of the

continued date released 42266 61565 41968 61668 41268 42069

175 1974 175 1975

221 set abletable apart 42062 42762 22663 42266 42266 42266 81968 62068 51571 51571 51571 T date 1974 175

bailey

shumway perkins

frost page black watkins bradey

tim black P hansen hansen L zundell K brown redd

lawrence ivan merrill lyman lamar harold george arvid arvid juan juan M ray H P richard bryant robert wyman 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 2 name kay from

mission first juan their president teaching the

district first district san indian 1946 and in separated in

mission hunt indian for the a the

navajos the stake responsibility district counselor C february made was zuni became president stake was

responsible note joseph juan the was navajozuni mission in president assignment navajo district juan indian presidency lyman lyman first the san district with area

mission under began assumed zuni san historical of the as indian R R

navajozuni individual

president president president meetings blanding blanding the special district mission mission worked hogans albert navajo albert served stake under stake the presidents or of

district

date released

3 mission 1258 251 853 855 557 indian table

indian set

blanding 102944 apart

date 1946 1948 849 251 953 855 557

stake

juan

san

stevens

smozmmonyman meonyman ocluntoao lyman lyman johnson hunt

jones shumway shumway orville

C R R U P glen joseph kay albert albert harris lonnie mahemahoname alma J ln

this

the

during of

with

president

note directly

missionaries president president president president president president president president assignment

to district

met historical

assistant district district district district indian they district district district district special indian of

only

d called continued the date releasereleased 102459 112465 124012460 42962 6660 1166 868

were 3 president set mae table 102359 112465 apart 22564 6770 1258 1166 date 160 960 ida 670

district

wife a

and not

shumway

was perkins

palmer watkins

mcdonald harvey there president lyman

palmer burdett young smith avelllavell laws so rogers J L J F M E mission stephen ronald walter period wilbur harold ronald edson namemegemego alma ivan don 76 indian seminary president tingey was anxious to have members of the stake go down into the mission and train the indian people in their leadership roles he was cognizant of the fact that the stake president was not as enthusiastic for indian work as many thought he ought to be and was asking rosrons council in the matter ron recognized that there were many in the stake who had worked with the indian people and he encouraged president tingey to present his ideas to leland redd president of the san juan stake president redd was in favor of the proposal and agreed to support them if the members of the stake would accept the calls after prayerful consideration of various individuals the following were chosen and approved by president redd bruce shumway chairman of the group and priesthood advisor judith finlinson MIA advisor rosemary tibbitts relief society advisor betty henderson 0 primary advisor wilbur laws sunday school advisor 34 bruce judith and rosemary had all filled fulltimefull time missions with the indian people betty was the only

34ronald34ronald K knighton histohistory off the san juan stake indian leadership missionaries in possessipossessionpos sessiP on of lyielyle heinz blanding utah 1970 77 navajo out of the first five to be called wilbur laws had worked with the stake indian mission for several years these five individuals traveled into the mission for about one year and then the following changes were made bruce shumway william R hurst paul mantz mission priesthood board kline black richard garrett betty henderson mission primary president lewis singer counselor in the mission presidency early in 1970 president tingey met with president L robert anderson president of the san juan stake to consider calling additional missionaries eight couples were called to ashton harris the high councilman in charge of the stake mission and set apart as stake mi- sionssionariesaries to serve in the kayettakayenta district the couples were called to serve in the various branches of the district reed bayles was one of those called and he 78 was made a member of the district presidency his wife dora was called as the district primary president 35 wilbur laws one of the original five was responslresponsibleresponsebieble to train those working in the branch sundasundayy school upon commencing his work he found that there were not any teaching manuals available in the seven branches he was responsible for the fulltimefull time missionaries were teateachingchinachino the sunday school classes and each new missionary would relate the joseph smith story the members had heard it so many times they could relate it as well as the missionaries the first thing that was done was to order lesson manuals for each age group in the seven branches 36 after one year wilbur was assigned to work with the dinnehotso branch and eventually was made branch president he chose this area to work with because it was the most challenging branch in the district he followed the counsel of the church leaders in directing the branch and it was not long before the dinnehotso branch led the rest they were on top in attendance

351bid35 ibid

Q 36statement36statement by wilbur laws personal interview august 12 1975 79 fast offerings and tithing whwhichch reveals what good leadership can do by midsummermid summer 1970 there were about thirtyfivethirty five members of the san juan stake serving in the southwest indian missimissionon president anderson feels it has been most helpful in getting members of the stake interested in the original san juan mission of carrying the gospel to the lamanitesLamanites 37 the missionaries left the stake early sunday morning and traveled to their various assignments ivan watkins and his wife traveled to inscription house arizona which amounted to 400miles400 milesby the time they returned home ivan was told that the less he did the better job he would be doing so that is what the mi- sionssionariesaries did they trained the indian people in their 00 assignments and let theadothemdothem do the work 38 bruce shumway feels that much good came from the leadership mission it was literally the means of getting the branches on a sure footing many were trained in the techniques of good leadership he mentioned that

37knighton377knighton op cit 00 38statement38 statement by ivan watkins personal interview july 20 1975 80

there were many disappointing experiences alonralongalmonr with the good ones there were times thatth it they would travel 150 to 200 miles and not have anyone show up or the meeting had been cancelled and the missionaries were not notified 39 mr and mrs lee shumway are the last of the leadership missionaries to be released from their assignment as of july 1975 it is not possible to recognizerecoginize all of those that have devoted many hours in this service but without question they have earned an eternal blessing

fuliFULLTIMEFULL TIME missionaries

the first fulltimefull time missionary came- to blandinabiandinoblanding in 1947 from the navajozuninavajo zuni mission len shumway was 40 assigned to work at albert R lymaslymans indian school in 1961 elders gardner and pocock labored in blandinobiandinoblanding under the direction of the southwest indian mission then in 1964 elders mitchell kalauli and wilford numkena came to blanding and left an impressiimpressioimpressionimpressipresslon that will likely

OQ 39statement39 statement by bruce shumway personal interview july 18 1975 40lyman40lyman p 241 81 never be erased both missionaries were talented enter- tatainersiners mitch came back afafterter his mission to work before going back to the university in 1970 he returned and taught seminary and coordinated the indian seminary program fullfulltimetime missionaries have been laboring within the stake boundaries off and on since the early sixties they have mainly served in the mexican hat bluff and montezuma 1968 1971 creek areas from to 1 a district of the southwest indian mission was organized in the san juan stake district number nine elder tavita leselose from samoa was the first district leader there were up to ten elders working in the district at one time ronald L knighton served as an assistant to president tingey and directed the work in this district during this period district number nine was the top baptizing district in the southwest indian mission 41

41knighton op cit chapter 5

ALBERT R LYMASLYMAINS INDIAN SCHOOL

introduction

it was the associationassoclation the missionaries had with the indians that motivated them to help the unfortunates to rise above their poverty stricken condition the poor condition that existed with the indian people had been there for a long time but it took members of the church time to condition themselves to the fact something had to be done no one really wanted to take on such a large undertaking the first group to establish a school and mission in the heart of navajo country was the episcopaliansEpiscopalians under the leadership of father harold baxter liebler who came to bluff in 1942 he founfoundatfoundfoundasdatat that time no religious education or medical mission among the navajo indians As a consequence the st christophers mission

82 83 was established in 1943 1 the mission continues its service in religious education a grade school and medical care they have a staffL aff of perhaps a dozen people who live at the mission and even dress in the native costume they control by far more of the indian students in the reservation schools than does anyone else as far as religious instruction is concerned it is rather ironic that they are so firmly entrenched at bluff where the mormon pioneers suffered so much to start a colony to make friends with the indians and teach them the gospel 29 early in the 1930s1930 a dorm was established in blanding for the ute children it was supported by the BIA bureau of indian affairs approximately fifteen to twenty students stayed at the dorm and attended the blanding schools while the utes were living at the dorm the supervisors could keep them clean and dressed appr- priaopriatelytely and the school did not object to their

lcorneliaocornelialCorneliaornellacorneliacornellacorneila adams perkins marian gardner nielson and lenora butt jones sarasasaga of san juan apnp mercury publishing co 1957 p 85 r akay2kaykay P johnson lamanite mission san juan stake term paper brigham young university 1966 84 enrollment the dorm closed in 1941 and then the students were responsible to enroll and keep their attendance up 3 As mentioned in the previous chapter albert R lyman accompanied president george albert smith on a trip to arizona at which time they were encouraged to build a school and hospital at blanding after returning to blandiblandingng albert talked to the community and church

3 III1111 leadersletlec3etetldersaders a but found little support he coicolcommentedcommencedienienteddentedlen tedced tiitilI found to my surprise and disgust that there were people

11ael111in1 blanding who ffigured that the navajos were a nuisance and already trespassing on us unduly A albert was in his sixtyseventhsixty seventh year when he rolled up his sleeves and decided to be a pioneer in a school for those poor people he was teaching seminary up to this point and was enjoying it very much the seminary leaders were eager to have him teach another year and he was at liberty to do so but he had made up hhiss mind to give his stake mission call all that he could

0 3statementstatement by grace shumway personal intervitintermitininterviewtervitiewbew july 14 1975 aalbert4albertalbert R lyman from wagons to rockets p 226 A limitedlimitediced number of copies was made for the lyman family there is a copy at the blanding library 85 he knew that it would be a difficult work with many unpleasant features and in that he was not at all disappointed not knowing quite where to start a trip was made to salt lake city to converse with president george albert smith to see if the church would help finance the school the church leaders sent him to new mexico to observe the indian boarding schools when it was finally decided to build a school the church leaders had albert go through a lot of delay and ceremony to get an appr- priaopriationtion of 7500075000750.00 the money was to cover the expense of the building materials once the money was secured it took considerable more scheming and contriving to get the material from the frozen markets 5 it was not anticipated that it would be difficult finding property to build on once the cost of the building was obtained but it turned out to be one of the most difficult obstacles with which they had to deal the better part of a week and a trip to monticello to see the land maps was spent in locating the survey corners then the people who owned the land refused to sell or

5lymanblymanyman p 222 86 set it at a prohibitive price another lot that was desired was on public domain and after some investigation found out that it was tied up in a double bowknotbow knot by the taylor grazing land act another trip was made to salt lake city to the division of grazing and from there to the federal land office and then to the state land office all he ran into was red tape which would require years of prepara- tion and qualifying to plow through without any assurance of getting what was wanted the best albert could do was to get permission from clarence perkins to build on a little corner of his land the property was one and a half miles from town I1 salkinowalkinowalkingC west of town through west water canyon or two miles following the road the delay over land materials and other things saw the building project just getting underway when pu- iiblicc school started A road was picked throuthroughgligil the thick cedars to the building site and construction began members of the stake volunteered their services both in labor and money finally one room was closedinclosed injust in time to shelter some very sick navajo children after returning home from window rock it became clear that the indian children would have to be fed at 87 least one meal a day shoes and clothing were also furnished for the students with the additional expense and involvement the second room was not completed immed- iately the school finally odenelodenedopened with one room on the fourteenth of november 1946 the enrollment increased until there were twentyonetwenty one navajos and six plute chichil-1 l dren this teaching experience was quite different from any other albert had previously had the children could not speak english so the very basic rudiments of teaching were used the students enjoyed learning and singing songs which developed a common foundation upon which to build the hours werewere long and difficult 5 especially the task of nursing the children to keep them well enough to attend school discipline was a constant struggle and took a lot of patience and courage gladys lyman proved herself to be very capable of taking care of the younger students and the older ones

aialsoaisoSO she was a real mother to them sewing their clothes and nursing their ills on one occasion she asked one of the older boys to perform a certain task and he refused to obey the boy stood up and he was larger than gladys was she knew if the boy got his own way she 88

1original1 original indian school nov 1946 2ccc2 CCC barracks dec 1947 3original3 original building and CCC barracksbarrabarroalcksacks

2 NI1 3 1r

alxl10 a 0

4 u

u aj4j ctfcaf L aj4j C U &

figure 7 map of blanding city 89 would lose control of him and many of the others boldly she slapped his face and let him know she was not afraid and that she was the teacher she admitted later that she was frightened to death but she knew that he must not know of her fright 6 albert observed his wife as an excellent teacher and far better than himself with smaller children the first winter there was considerable sickness both with the teachers and students it was difficult to keep the indians clean and the sanitary conditions were not what they should have been the flu germs were in the air and if it was not the germs it was the head and body lice that one had to be careful of there were not only sick children but fighting children and worse still fighting parents who upheld their children in all the evil which they had helped develop in them ordinarily the plute boys were the strongest and roughest of the two tribes but the navajos outnumbered them and would persecute and gang up on them the matter of keeping peace in the school and on the grounds became

6statementstatement by bernice burtenshaw personal interview july 5 1975 90 a difficult problem the bigC navajo boys would hide in ambush among the trees and attack the plute children as they went home in spite of all the love that the lymansclymans had for both tribes they had to recognize that indians were born of savagery from dark generations however they were quick to learn and they regarded them as people in bondage greatly in need of some helping hand to rescue them from degradation superstition and ignorance into which they had been born the following navajos and utes were enrolled the first day of the school james crank jimmy goodman jimmie crank leroy goodman martha goodman harry discherdischee martha crank raymond key joan oshley junior manheimer jean oshley jimmy manheimer may goodman jack hutchins lillie goodman jim hutchins betty june karl hutchins little jim harry hutchins anna jim jack cantsee 91 the following day four flutes enrolled their names are not available 7 school became more strenuous as the year progressed finally in march the wallboard cainecamecarne and school was discontinued for a week while it was put on the walls the building was not very comfortable nor attractive but it served as a beginning for their school when the second room was completed it served as thekitchenthe kitchen when school was ready to start again alberts health broke from the strain and he suffered from a sud- den attack of bronchial pneumonia and a bad heart he was taken to the hospital at moab during the night and spent a week in bed gladys carried on at the school with what help she could find until the appointed date of 18 1947 was closing april 3 albert able to attend the closing exercises and enjoy the climax of their first year their great hope for the following year was to establish a boarding school where they could have super- vision over the studentstudencstudents for twentyfourtwenty four hours a day

aalbert7albertalbert R lyman private journal november 19 1946 92 one of the most difficult challenges was to keep the students clean from one day to the next it was also hoped that separating them from their parents would break some of their superstitions that bound them down attendance was also a difficult problem to control and it was felt that a dorm would correct this situation in july 1947 elder pencerspencer W kimball sent a letter encouraging the lymansclymans intheirin theircheir work withthewithwichwlch the indian people and also inquiring about the dorm the proposal for a dorm had been presented to the authorities of the church and they had requested more information albert made a careful study of their inquiries but the corres- pondencepondence was very slow the authorities were off on visits most of the time and it would be two weeks to a month before answers would be received by the time school started in the fall it was still uncertain what could be done as far as a boarding school was concerned to make the struggle for a school even more difficult a local church leader visited albert and told him neithernelther he nor other leading men in the community thought this was the rightplaceright place to build the indian school this situation became very perplexing church leaders were encouraging the building of a dorm while the local 93 comminicommunicommunityty and stake leaders were trying to discourage it albert was uncompromising in his plea for the school he got into some rather hot controversies over it and as a result some men modified their views and others kept condemning the thingthatthing thatchat theleadersthe leaders wanted them to do1 8

SCHOOL STARTS THE SECOND YEAR

school did not start until september 29 1947 due to the fact that many of the navajos were away to some kind of celebration in the reservation and the aiutespiutes had not yet come in from cottonwood albert and gladys began teaching but after two weeks albert came down with the flu and missed another week of teaching it looked as though he would not be able to teach any longer while in this dilemma doris childs a young girl twenty years of age came to teach there were twentyseventwenty seven enrolled at this time and more were still coming after a short period of time albert regained his strength and returned to the school doris continued to

bibid8ibidbid I1 september 9 1947 94 help which relieved the strain on the lymansclymans alberts fight for the cause of the indindianianlan children was about the most desperate and determined fight that he had ever put up with he felt because of the lack of tact and dis- cretion he brought himself trouble which could have been avoided he experienced humiliation disappointment and sleepless nights the distance from town to the school was too far for the lymansclymans to walk the roads were not graveled so when the weather was bad they had to walk As a consequence a CCC barrack was obtained and moved to the north side of blanding see figure 77. gladys and others interested in the work readied this building for their school on december 18518218 1947 they moved into the CCC barracks in town elder len ShushulshuiawaysharawayshurawayShuilawayawayraway was sent from the navajo mission to help teach and nornianonna shumway volunteered her services the school continued until march 26 1948 when the cooks and helpers were about to sink under their burdens and some of the children with the coming of a few bright spring days were going away to some other camps or staying home at the close of the year they 95 were hoping and praying for something more suitablesu tabletabie for 9 the school when it would be time to open in the fall in july 1948 as mentioned in the previous chapter the blanding district was separated from the navajozuninavajo zuni mission president eugene flake gave the school considerable help and expressed notable interest he sent elder len shumway to help and he also supported albertinalbert in his fight for a boarding school in blanding the stake assumed the responsibility of the missionary work but did not assume any responsibility for the school to make matters still worse they had held out hope for a boarding school but now it looked like it was out of the question for the church to undertake such a project president george albert smith and elder spencer

W kimball of the quorum of the twelve had charged the lymansclymans personally to carry on with the work and not let down on the school they had expressedexpressexpreso ed themselves in favor of a boarding school and had albert make investigation and reports two or more times he had visited indian schools for that purpose in new mexico and had

9 glymanlyman p 241 96 given estimates on operating costs he was led to believe that a dorm would be built at blanding he was also told that there was money available in this line and that they were looking for the best way and place to use it 10 while the investigation was going on here for a boarding school arthur V watkins VSUS senator from utah introduced a bill foraforeora a big indian school at brigham city the church was holding off to see what would come of the bill and at the same time asking the lymanslymclymansans to carry on with the school until something definite came about while all this was going on the presiding bishopric in response to a personal visit albert made to president george albert smith and his counselor J reuben clark sent a man to blanding to look over a CCC barracks which they had permission to have and make of it a beginning for a school with the separation of the san juan indian mission from the navajo zuni and the loss of hope for a boarding school the work became very frustrating and

10 ibid p 242 97 discouraging to the lymanslyrrlansclymans they would have quit if they had not felt it would be unfaithful and it looked about as bad to go on 11

THE STATE BECOMES INVOLVED

the state of utah now became involved they took over the responsibility of hiring teachers and showed some interest in maintaining a school for the indian children the state did not have a building and they were not about to let them into the regular school until they were cleaned up even then a meal would have to be provided and a place for them to live if senator watkinsWatkinwatkinsjwatkinsjrsj bill were passed it would not do any good for ththee local students for at least another year the way things looked there still would not be any school in the fall for the indian students if the mission did not provide something albert pleaded with the stake for some help and they turned over to the seventies quorum the responsibility of getting in the house from west water and uniting it with the house that had been used the previous

llibidibid p 242 98 winter the engineering of that job was given to merrill stevens ashton harris and other members of the 125th quorum of seventy the house was moved about a mile and a half through cedars over rocks and over a narrow bridge with little damage the building that was used the winter before was still a block away getting this building moved called for considerable persuasion and insistence it was finally moved under the direction of george A hurst jr even with a house provided the state could not find a teacher gladys lyman with her sister beatrice nielson finally aareedagreed to teach the children another year gladys had spent a few days in the hospital following the close of school in march and albert tried to persuade her not to try it again nevertheless she would either do it or there would be no school it was even more difficultdifdlfficultscult to receive a salary for that which they had done out of love the salary however did not lighten the back- breaking burden they had to carry the salary paid the teachers was the limit of the states participation the one meal per day and the shoes and clothing were still provided by the missionaries shortly after the school was started in 1948 albert sent an article and some pictures in to the salt 99 lake tribune which created some sympathy throughout the state used shoes and a varivacivarietyety of clothing was sent to the school the missionaries made the clothes over to fit the students and albert remade shoes to fit 12 the parttimepart time missionaries were doing all they could be expected to do and some like esther and norma shumway and kay and ila johnson did much more than was expected in spite of their dedication the load became too much for them and it appeared as thoughthethough the school might not open after the holidays once more albert wrote letters to all concerned and explained the situation and the possibility of the school not continuing another surge of effort on the stakesstakedstaken behalf kept things going the cook house was pulled up to the school house which was a block away the church authorities appropri- ated a thousand dollars for ththe cook and other expenses connected with the meals elder spencer W kimball and president buchanan of the church indian coordinating department wrote letters to albert commending him for carrying on and hoping he would see that the school continued

121bidibid p 243 100 beatrice nielson toiled with her school work on into the new year as long as she could drag then she went to the hospital in price and died there on february 22t22 1949 after beatrice passed away gladysgiadysgladysi health was such that she was unable to continue teaching the school was turned over to william child and deaun johnson and they finished out the year 131 0 the following school year 1949501949 50 the school at brigham city was opened to the cavajosnavajosNavajos the indian agent responsible for this area contacted grace shumway and requested that she sign up the students from the blanding area and help them get ready to go to brigham city grace had worked withwichwlchw th the indian people for years and had a real love for them she contacted the parents and most of them wanted their children to receive an education when the day arrived for the young people to leave they gathered on graces front lawn and waited for the bus when it came to actually putting their children on the bus twothirdstwo thirds of the parents backed out 14

131bidibid p 248 14 statement by grace shumway personal interview july 14 1975 101 in the following years the indian students were gradually accepted into the public school but not without significant resistance from the community george A hurst jr the president of the san juan school district board was confronted with a summons to court for allow- ing the indians to enroll in the public schools mr hurst reacted to the summons with considerable indig- nation and told the officer the indian children had just as much right to an education as his own children the summons never was pursued and the indians have continued to enroll 15 currently the number of indians enrolled in the

schools at blandingCDO and south are as follows albert R lyman elementary 46 blanding elementary 48 bluff elementary 88 montezuma creek elementary 91 mexican hat elementary 99 san juan high school 52 total 706670.66

15statement15 statement by george A hurst jr personal interview july 11 1975 102 in the blanding schools alone the percentage of indianindians

ac7c 16 enrolled is 552700

16sansan juan school district enrollment records monticello utah june 1975 chapter 6

SAN JUAN STAKE INDIAN BRANCHES

THE BLANDING INDIAN BRANCH

the blanding indian branch was the outgrowth of the early stake missionary work with the navajos west of blanding and the paiutes from alans canyon the mi- sionssionariesaries had been holding sunday meetings for the indians since 1946 in thelittlethe little schoolhouse built by albert R lyman later in 1954 a cinder block building was constructed and it was in this building that the new branch was organized on april 26 1959 the blanding indian branch was organized as a dependent branch to the blanding third ward bishop merwin Shunshumshumwayiway was the presiding authority ervin guymon was called as the first branch president he chose sylvan johnson and dale price shumway as his counselors 1

imanuscriptmanuscript history of the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints june 30 1959 located at church Historianhistorianshistoriantsts office hereafter referred to as manuscript history 103 104 the stake missionaries held separate meetings for the navajos and paiutes until the branch was organized then they combined the two groups the two tribes even though members of the churchchurchy had little love for each other the paiutes became inactive at this point and 29 the branch was dominated by the cavajosnavajosNavajos the following auxiliaries were organized relief society young mens and young womenwomens s mutual improvement association and the primary the blanding indian branch had better participation from their indian members than the other indian branches in the san juan stake rose keith navajo was a counselor to esther shumway anxnin the relief society presidency the aaronic priesthood presidency were three navajo boys donald keith billie nakai and dan nakai calvin holiday served in two different branch presidenciespresidencies however it was the white people who really held the branch together and added stalstAistabilitylity to the program the leadership of the branch was composed of the following branch presidents counselors and clerks the list only records major changes

2statement by don smith personal interview july 15 1975 105 april 26 1959 ervin guymon president sylvan johnson dale price shumway june 11 1961 gordon redd president

kenneth D shumway neldon E holt hanson L bayles clerk october 21 1962

alma U jones president bruce L shumway calvin holiday navajo jerry holliday clerk gene orr finance clerk november 1 196419 64

glen A shumway president calvin holiday navajo fred halliday

carl W hadfield clerk august 11 1968

fred E halliday president 106 james morris elmer hurst ronald L knighton clerk

december 7 1969 charles saintzspintz harrison navajo george lameman navajo paul lawrence fred halliday clerk january 23 1972 macarthur norton navajo president july 27 1972 ronald fielding macdonald president ronald enos george low clerk the branch functioned as a dependent branch for three years then on october 21 1962 the branch was made an independent branch alma jones former president of the indian district was set apart as the branch president calvin holiday was the first lamanite to become a member of the presidency the call of elder clarence kay on september 13 1964 to serve in the southwest indian mission was deemed as an achievement of success for the branch and the 107 indian people clarence was the ffirst of his people to leave san juan stake and complete an honorable mission in december 1967 dan nakai lefleftleyt for the northern indian mission the southwest indian mission called ten youth from the branch in the summer of 1969 to fill youth missions under the direction of branch president glen A shumway former stake mission president and indian mis- siosionarynary a building project was commenced donations came from all over the stake and with the assistance of the church an addition was added to the existing block building costing eightyfoureighty four thousand dollars this addition included a chapel recreation hall bishopbishops office relief society room and classrooms the building was dedicated by bishop robert L simpson march 5 1967 3 through the years the membership has been approximately one hundred members with an attendance between 30 and 40 percent margaret redd wife of branch president gordon redd worked in the branch for several years and she had many success experiences she especially recalls

0 3manuscriptmanuscript history march 1967 108 anna marie ketchum and barbara morris receiving thetheircheirir individual awards and having 100 percent in everyeverythieverythingthithlI1 ng 4

4 the branch had its problems also it was diffi-difdlff 1 cult to staff the branch adequately most of the workers had familiesfamiliesles which attended their own wards and it had a tendency to hinder ffamilyamialy unity in church activity in the summer months when the youth came back from the placement program the programs were not equal to their needs lynn palmer was given a special assignment to coordinate the missionary activities at the branch level from september 1970 to august 1971 during the spring of 1970 eleven families were called to help the branch especially families with indian children placed in them even with the help of the missionaries and the families the branch presidency became concerned about providing adequate service in the total branch program 5 the branch presidency recommended in december 1970 to the stake that they integrate the indians into the blandingC wards the proposal was presented to the church leaders and the request was denied in referring

4statement4statement by margaret redd personal interview august 15 1975 5manuscriptmanuscript history blanding indian branch 1970 109 to the list of leaders it can be seen that it was the lamanite branch leaders that were anxious to integrate with the wards these men were educated and well integrated into the white society and they wanted the benefits of an organized ward for their children and themselves finally on december 24 1972 it was announced that the blanding indian branch would be officially closed 6 branch members were given the option at the time macarthur was president to attend the blanding wards or attend the branch the individuals that macarthur chose as counselors made the choice to attend the wards conse- quentlyquent ly he served his six months without counselors after macarthur was released he also attended the local ward ronald mcdonald was serving as a stake missionary when he was called to be branch president thetiietlle branch for five months was a missionary effort mainly working with the inactive members these five months were dis-di S couragingcouraging times for those directing the programs donald jack high councilman working with the branch

6manuscriptmanuscript history blanding indian branch december 1972 110 said that during the activities it was a struggle trying to keep the young people in the building they were outside around the building smoking and drinking which almost resulted in a fight with the leaders it was at this point that the decision was made to close the branch 7 the question arises in the minds of those that worked closely with theindianthe indian people has the integration been beneficialbeneficial1111 those who are attending the wards are the educated young people who have accepted the white manmants way it is unusual to see the older indian people attending the following example may express the general feeling of the indian people jim dandy a former counselor in the indian branch presidency and now a inemanemmemberber of the blanding third ward was scheduled to present a minilessonmini lesson to complete his training in the basic teacher development course he requested a navajo class so that he could teach it in his native tongue bishop donald jack arranged for inactive indian members of his ward to be the students the prescribed five minute lesson was extended to twenty minutes some of the comments of

7statementstatement by donald jack personal interview august 13 1975 illiliiii those attending were do we get to meet in this building now the class was held in the blanding seminary Is this our building now bishop jack tried to explain to them that the blanding chapel was their building and that the new building being built was their building the thing that they were saying was we want to meet by ourselves from that sunday to the present time a sunday school class has been held in the blanding seminary each sunday the class members are picked up and brought to class they will not accept the responsibility of coming on their own this is the biggest problem the ward and branches are experiencexperiencinging in serving the indian peoplpeohlpeople was the intintegrationegratdegrationlon of the branch in the interest of the majority the answer to this interrogatory remains to be answered

THE BLUFF BRANCH

the early historical background of alufblufblufff has already been recorded in the first two chapters the bluff people were originally organized into a ward however in june of 19283192821928 daniel perkins was released as bishop and the ward was made a dependent branch of 112 the blanding ward with uriah A nielson as presiding elder 8 the stake missionaries first started to teach in the area of bluff in the late fifties the bluff branch membership fluctuates but is usually around one hundred members there are between thirty to forty lamanite members in the branch and their average attendance is Q 50 percent 9 the branch became independent on january 24 1971 henry wayne hurst living at bluff was called as branch president wayne moved from bluff and on september 5 1971 daryle M redd from monticello utah was made the branch president he chose clyde M barton also from monticello as first counselor and warren D reck living in bluff as second counselor the round trip from monticello to bluff is approximately ninety miles scott A hurst is the current 1975 branch president from blanding both of his counselors are bluff men the stake missionaries are working diligently with the indian people south of bluff across the san

manuscript history bluff branch june 30 1928 q 9statementstatement by kenion harvey bluff branch clerk august 16 1975 113 juan river they have been very successful in enrolling the children in primary also the relief society a womeniswomen1sgomenis auxiliary in the church has been doing different things to help the lamanite women in the branch in order to reach these women who are not attending relief society the lessons are tapedintaped in navajo and taken into the homes of members by the relief society presidency ordinarily it was the men who would stop whatever they were doing and sit down and listen to the message while the women went on with their chores presently the only lesson taped and taken into the homes is the visiting teaching message this has proven to be very successful in keeping in touch with the older traditional navajo the young indian women attend the regular meetings 10 following is a list of branch presidents and their counselors the list does not include every release and change that was made just the major changes november 1111 1956

leon B black president melvin hurst

10 statement by helen heinz counselor in stake reliefRellef society august 5 1975 ilg114 november 9 1958 leroy burnett president joseph stanley houston

keith C jones march 12 1961 charles ray brown president december 16 1962

dean W bitter president june 28 1964

B bertum palmer president

james K slavens january 31 1965 richard connie nielson president eldon kay jones january 23 1971 henry wayne hurst president richard cole howell warren dart reck september 5 1971

daryle M redd president

clydeclydebclydem M barton warren dart reck 115

june 1974 scott A hurst president john theodore nielson dan wolfe

MEXICAN HAT BRANCH

mexican hat utah is located fifty miles south of blanding utah and situated along the san juan river the original site of mexican hat is several miles north of the present town the original site was directly west of what is called the mexican hat rock the rock has the appearance of a mexican with a broadrimedbroadrimmedbroad rimedrimmed sombrero on his head from which the town derived its name the impetus for the building of the originalor3ora ginal site was oil wells which were drilled nearby there is nothing left of the original townsite A lodge and trading post made up the present site of mexican hat until 1965 at that time there was not a bridge crossing the san juan river at mexican hat As the result of a uranium boom a mill was built at mexican hat work commenced on the mill in 1955 and was completed in 1967 the mill attracted workers from 116 the surrounding communities which resulted in the 11 organization of a new branch of the church bruce earl stevens moved from blanding to mexican hat to work at the mill he became the first president of the mexican hat branch the branch was dependent on the blanding second ward and bishop kline black set hhim apart as president december 1957 12 ray brown monty burnside and wayne brenen each served as counselors to bruce but they served one at a time the branch became very active for a ffewew years a primary and relief society were organized the average attendance for the first six months was only six but soon reached thirty the membership of the branch ranged between seventy and ninety mrembersmembers the branch had their 13 own home teachers and also collected their own budget the building used for their meetings was furnished by the uranium company until the mill closed in 1965 after the mill closed the members of the branch

iistatementinstatementIistatement by anna pehrson personal interview june 24 1975 12statement12 statement by bruce stevens personal interview august 1970 131bidibid 117 met in the jack pehrson home or a home that was rented for the missionaries they met in farren hollinger garage then back to the recreareccearecreationlionclondion hall at the mill with the approval of the UNDC they moved several times before a new chapel was built in 1972 at a cost of 921620092162.0092116200921162.00 the indian people living outside of mexican hat did not have much to do with the town or its people the branch did have a few indian members but they were living at the complex built by the mill when the mill closed only the Pehrpehrsonspearsonssons and martle davis remained mr pehrson took care of the mill property and mrs davis was the postal mistress the stake missionaries had been working at mexican hat at the time the mill was operating but they worked mainly with the people living at the complex and who were working at the mill it was after the closing of the mill that the fulltimefull time missionaries moved into the area fulltimefull time missionaries served as branch presidents also eugene pehrson acted as branch president and he was only sixteen years old at the time when there was not 118 anyone else in the branch to help the pehrson family held it together and kept it going 14 rosemary tibbitts and judy finlinson were laboring at mexican hat during this period as fulltimefull time missionaries they were two local blanding girls called to the southwest indian mission the elders laboring in the area started hauling the indian people in so they could attend meetings later the church had the missionaries stop hauling the indians and the members took over and have continued to the present day 15 the membership of the branch is 160 and approximately 130 of these are lamanitesLamanites president collincollcoli3nan macleod estimates that about thirtyfivethirty five of the lamanitesLamanites are active six indian people are holding positions in the branch As in other areas of the stake the real success is with the youth the primary has eightyfiveeighty five

1 enrolled with forty to sixty attending each time 16 following is a list of branch presidents and counselors only the major changes are recorded

14pehrson14pehrson op cit 151bidibid 16statement16statement by joan wells primaryprynarymary president august 14 1975 0 119

december 1957 bruce earl stevens president ray brown monty burnside

wayne M brenen february 2 1964

wayne Nno brenen president grant winder wayne robinson march 28 1965 wayne robinson president dean shumway charles harrison the records are incomplete through this period the fullfulltimetime missionaries and eugene pehrson acted as the priesthood authority t

march 9 1969 charles cummings president laurie L butler calvin benally navajo john D Billsllisbills secretary july 27 1969 charles harrison president 120 calvin benally april 12 97019701 calvin benally president robert bruce turner january 17 197119 7 1 marvin lynn worthington president robert bruce turner august 29 1971

fred E halliday robert turner larry cly spring 1975 collin macleod president ned aikau

ANETH MONTEZMONTEZUMAulmaUiMA CREEK BRANCH

aneth was the original site picked out for the san juan mission settlement but as mentioned in the firstf chapter the company was so exhausted they could not go any further and settled at bluff A branch existed at aneth for a short time but finally everyone moved away and the branch was dissolved 121 the blanding third ward had the responsibresponsibilitylity of directing the newly proposed branch in aneth utah bishop merwin shumway of the third ward called and set apart hyrum black as the branch president with sam shore as a counselor they were set apart in december 1965 but they did not start holding meetings until the second of january 1966 bishop shumway took the new leaders down and introduced them to the members and held a sunday school meeting there were twentyonetwenty one present besides the six who came from blanding 17 the first meetings were held in the aneth boarding school they were not allowed to use it more than one hour so they only held sunday school after a short time they were denied the facilities of the boarding school and had to meet in the homes of the people with freedom to hold longer meetings they held sunday school and sacrament meeting right after the attendance increased until they outgrew the homes they then rented the indian chapter house but after a few sundays ofcleaniof cleaningng out the beer cans and

f cigarettes prior to services they moved their nexnext I1

17mrsmrs hyrum black personal records kept while serving in the aneth branch blanding utah 122

building was an old church building by the montezuma trading post they rented this building for six weeks when the lease expired being discouraged with not having a reliable place to meet in they decided to build their 1 0 own building 18 there was a cement slab on the trading post property which was the remains of an old church the property was owned by a partpartmembermember family and they volunteered the use of the cement slab to build on they even raised the money to buy the building with but it was repaid later it was announced in the wards of the san juan stake that the materials would be available on november 4 1967 on the building site and people were urged to come and help put it up forty men arrived saturday morning and started building at the end of the day the building was completed the electricity painting carpeting benches and everything was finished however the building was never accepted by the church becaubebaubecausese it was on leased property this did not dampen the enthusiasm of the members though they had a chapel and two classrooms and their morale was high 19

181bidibid 191bidibid 123 hyrum black and his wife served three and one half years and then hyrum died mrs black said this was one of herher greatest experiences in the church following hyrum kay howell was branch president for a short time with cleon shumway acting as a counselor they traveled from blanding each week to their meetings which amounted to one hundred miles a round trip peter john henderson principal of the aneth elementary school became the next branch president at the time peter assumed leadership the branch was holding sunday school and relief society shortly after the new leadership was called they organized the MIA mutual improvement association for the young people and started holding priesthood meeting for the priesthood bearers A summer program was also carried on for the placement students returning home the membership of the aneth branch is approximately 145 ninety of which are lamanite members the average attendance of the lamanite members was 30 percent during the time president henderson served there were six lamanitesLamanites holding positions in the branch A new chapel was built at montezuma creek in 1972 and the branch moved from aneth to montezuma creek a 124 distance of ten miles in the month of august the name of the branch was changed to the montezuma creek branch 20 in the summer of 1975 the membership remains at 145 but the activity has decreased there is one lamanite holding a position as a sunday school teacher there are between three and ten indians attending meetings and there are sundays when none of the indians attend 21 following is a list of branch presidents and their counselors the list does not include every release and change that was made just the major changes december 1965 hyrum black president sam shore june 29 1969 kay howell presidentpre s ident cleon shumway march 14 1971 peter john henderson president

20statement2090statement by peter henderson personal interview august 17 1975 21statement21 statement by stake missionary august 17 1975 125

anthon H lewis haroharoldharoidid kennikermitt butbuttt may 28 1972

dwight L mcgee president james daniel marshall charles merlin mcculloch

WHITE MESA BRANCH

A branch was organized at white mesa in may 1970 it was dependent on the blanding second ward lorenzo hawkins was called as the branch president and anthon black served as a counselor with the assistance of their wives they carried on a program for two years working with the paiute indians A priesthood meeting was held but it was for the aaronic priesthood boys home from the placement program other than that there were no priesthood bearers the relief society was the most successful part of the branch clessa black and samuella hawkins would start their meeting at 100 pm and would finish at 600 or 700 pm lessons were presented on gospel subjects homemaking and sewing skills the meetings were concluded with an activity in the summer months they organized a 4 H group and taught cooking and 126 sewing skills there was an average of ten women out to relief society each meeting A sunday school primary and sacrament meeting were also held the fulltimefull time missionaries directed a MIA program for the young people the basketball team one year did very well in their co- mpetition and went to vernal utah for the final play- off 22 after the hawkins and blacks were released white mesa became the responsibility of the blanding first ward james F kindred a former southwest indian missionary and his wife linda were given the assignment to take care of the branch jim never did have any counselors and after three months he left and went back to school during this time they only held a sunday school 23 after jim leftleftaleft5 the first ward bishopric had a difficultdifficultscult time finding anyone to take the responsibility of the white mesa branch after fasting and praying for inspiration the solution came to them the white mesa indians were made a regular part of the ward program

22statement by clessa black personal interview august 18 1975

23statement23statement by james F kindred personal interview august 18 1975 127 the blanding wards have been divided since this originally took place but bishop bruce shumway the bishop of the new fourth ward and responsible for white mesa has continued on in this program until the present time 24

24statement24statement by francis lyman personal interview august 18 1975 chapter 7

THE SAN JUAN AREA INDIAN seminaries

INDIANS AND RELEASED TIME KKINARYSEMINARYS

the first attempt to organize a seminary class for the indian students was in 1961 ferrell C lazenby was teaching at the blanding seminary and he took a group of indians not enrolled in seminary to moab to attend sdayS day seminary day on the return home ferrell received a commitment from each of the young people to attend a seminary class the following school year he made a list of eligible students and cleared the program with the stake president and also the district seminary coordinator ferrell enrolled at BYU the next year to work on a masters program but the list of students was given to robert hales the new seminary teacher1 the class was titled the indian book of mormon class and

lletteraletterletter from ferrell lazenby to lyielyle heinz june 20 1975 blanding utah

128 129 enrolled eleven students five of the students received full credit for the course 2 there is no record of another indian class being held until the indian seminary program was established in the 1967681967 68 school year the number of indians attending releasedtimereleased time seminary has increased from three or four in the early 1960s to eightyeighteighty eight in the 1971721971 72 school year

ORIGIN OF THE INDIAN SEMINARY

A meeting was held in may 1967 at the blanding seminary blanding utah for the purpose of organizing seminary classes in san juan county for indian students

in attendance were leland W redd president of the san juan stake stanley E best southeastern utah district seminary coordinator don C hunsaker northern arizona and new mexico district seminary coordinator dale king blanding seminary principal ronald L knighton principal of price west and wellington seminaries to be the new blanding seminary principal for the 1967681967 68 school year and wilbert willie at this time the department of

2bianding9 blanding seminary enrollment records blanding utah 130 seminaries and institutes of religion anticipated hiring wilbert on a halfhalfdayday basis for the 1967681967 68 school year 30 he and his wife tianatinna are fullfullbloodblood navajnagajnavajo0 it was decided at the meeting that ronald and wilbert would enroll all the indian students of high school age in separate classes from the white students and wilbert would teach these classes they also wanted to set up a program for the junior high and elementary students the originalplansoriginal plans did not materialize as they had hoped the high school was to hire wilbert for a half day and the seminary the other half but the high school did not follow through on their agreement the willies took a job at aneth and later became involved in the indian seminary in that area also the registration at the high school was not conducive to separating the indian students into classes by themselves ronald and wilbert however were successful in registering twenty students in the releasedtimereleased time seminary

aronald3ronaldronald L knighton history of the san juan indian seminaries san juan seminary blanding utah 1967681967 68 131 during september 1967 at the USuso BIA school in aneth utah ronald knighton met with stake ward and seminary leaders to organize a sunday school and seminary wilbert and tina williewillie were hired by the seminary department to teach seminary at ananetheth seminary started january 1 1968 and was taught on each tuesday evening and sunday school was taught on sunday morning by ronald knighton in februarfebruaryy the stake callecailecalledd merrill and efeffieefflefiefle stevens to take charge of the sunday school by the end of the 1967681967 68 school year twentyonetwenty one students had been enrolled in the aneth seminary class the previous year the stake mission held services at the school and three students attended 4 in december 1967 seminary administrators met at provo utah and assigned ronald knighton as a parttimepart time area coordinator 1in0 n charge of setting up indian seminary programs for elementary and junior high students also a new indian seminary area was set up to be known as the san juan area indian seminariesSeminavlesnavies 53

41bidbid 51bbidid 132

elementary AND JUNIOR HIGH seminaries

it has already been made known that there were people in blanding dedicated to the lamanite cause in the organization of the seminary this proved to be a motivating force also judy judith finlinson a former southwest indian missionary was aware that J edwin baird seminary department coordinator for indian semi- ariearlenariess had given approval for the seminary she approached ronald on october 2 1967 wondering when he was going to start the indian seminary she was so enthused about the indians she failed to realize ronald had his hands full with the releasedtimereleased time seminary in judelsjudyjudyls diary under the date january 6 1968 we read brother knighton has called a meeting for saturday to

organize seminary GREAT I1 judy found out that after ronald knighton once got going on a program the rest would run to keep up 6 december 1967 ronald knighton was notified of his assignment to get started on the elementary program after several planning meetings ronald betty henderson

6judithJUdithadith fifinlinsonnlinson personapersonalI1 diary 1967 blanding utah 133 and rosemary tibbits on january 6 1968 started signing up potential students 7 by the sixteenth forty students had been enrolled and five classes were started by the end of the year sixty students were enrolled and six classes organized the first year in blanding the classes met twice a week the following years they only met once a week As soon as the blanding program became somewhat stable the seminary was introduced to thewhiteththe whiteeWhite mesa indians these students were paiute usually referred to as ututee or ute mountain indians white mesa is a small community ten to fiffifteenafifteen miles south of blanding by february 14 1968 thirtyfivethirtythircy fivelvefive students were enrolled and 80 classes started by the end of the year forty students were enrolled in four classes 9 the white mesa students gave the teachers a real challenge various commentscouconments from the teachers are that they were very undisciplined it was a real struggle gettigettingncrncenoe them into the building and settled down long enough to give a lesson albert R lyman spoke of the fighting indians in his school twentytwotwenty two years later they are still fighting judy

7knighton7knighton op cit 8finlinsonRfinlinson op cit 9knightonknighton op cit 134 related one experience of the ute boys ganging up on two nonmembernon member anglo boys and she thought they were going to kill them the seminary was being held in the anglo boysboy home ordinarily there were not many anglo students involved judy gave some insight to the encounters they experienced on white mesa brother knighton really got his eyes opened he got cornered by one of the drunks at white mesa I1 guess that was about his first runinrun in with the drunks tilo111010 at the close of the school year the total indian seminary involvement for aneth BIA school blanding white mesa and the blanding releasedtimereleased time was 160 students in considering the obstacles involved this was a very successful year ronald started out teaching an early morning class plus six periods during the day with three preparations As the year progressed two other teachers were hired to teach one class each the releasedtimereleased time program was a full load without anything else the success with the indian program came as a result of going the extra mile on ronalds and the teachersteachers11 part the first year ronald spent little time

0 lofinlinsonlfinlinson op citC lt 135 with his familyfamily his involvement consumed his days and evenieveningsngs shirlee rons wife supported him faithfully even though it created hardship for herself 11 the attitude of the community in regard to the indian seminary was varied those who have moved into the community seenseemsemn more interested than the native town people nine of the ten parttimepart time teachers used in the indian program during the year were nonnativesnon natives of san juan county stake president leland redd was in favor of the program and even more so once the classes had commenced it was a real boost to the program when he spent fifteen minutes during stake conference discussing the program with members of the stake the local bishoprics of the white wards have been neither supportive nor antagonistic about the program they seemed to have an attitude of do what you can and it is all right with us the indian branch presidencies expressed a real appreciation for the program the community leaders at white mesa were anxious for anything that would be for the good of their young people 12

ililknightonknighton op cit 121bidibid 136

1968691968 69

the 1968691968 69 school year brought some relief to the constant pressure of the previoupreviouss year lyielyle S heinz came from richfield to teach in the blanding releasedtimereleasedreleas ed time program ronald knighton continued as principal of the releasedtimereleased time program and area coordinator over the san juan indian seminaries and the white releasedtimereleased time seminaries in grand and san juan counties he also taught for onehalfone half day this schedule left him free in the afternoons to work with the indian seminaries the achievement program held at each of the areas to climax the years work revealed the growth that had been made the blanding area was especiallespeciallyy good 51 they handed out 130 achievement certificates to students who had attended 75 percent or better during the year many of the students participated in the achievement exercises which is a real indication of the growth 131

1969701969 70

james A carver came from mt pleasant utah to teach a halfhalfdayday at the blanding seminary and work with

131bidibid 137 the indian seminaries in the afternoon lyielyle heinz was assigned principalpripcipalof of the blandingseminaryblanding seminary and with jamestjaimes help it lefleftleyt ronald knighton free to spend his time coordinating the indian program the indian seminaries involved fifteenf parttimepart time teachers and six missionaries teaching twentytwotwenty two classes bluff was added to the list of communities being served by the seminaries the total enrollment for the yyearear was 310 ffiftyifty six more than the past year there were also seventyfourseventy four students from the previous year sent on LDS placement another factor indicating the success of the program was the number of baptisms that came from the indian seminary classes the bulk of the baptisms during the years 1968 through 1972 came as a result of the combined efforts of the fulltimefull time missionaries and the indian seminaries As the seminaries grew the problem of transpor- tation became a major problem eighty percent of availableavalvailablelabie students were enrolled in the program it was determined that another 400 to 500 students were attending school in san juan county that were living outside the area of the present semiseminariesnarles up to this time the coordinators and teachers were using their own vehicles to transport the students they could no longer 138 bear this expense nor would the program continue to grow without help A requisition was sent to the department of seminaries and institutes for a fortyeightforty eight passenger bus hoping it would be available for the new school year three more activities were added during the year to add interest to the growing program basketball teams were organized in the differentareasdifferent areas and competed against each other throughout the year many of the students participated and through this program they were able to get much closer to some of the students the year was concluded with a tournament the white mesa ute team took first place and the blanding navajo team took second 14 the indian seminary students also participated in the lamanite youth conference on a local level and then went to the BYU for the allallchurchchurch lamanite youth conference most of the students taking an active part were students in the releasedtimereleased time program but many of the younger students attended A lamanite summer youth program was organized for the many students returning from the placement program many activities were planned

141bidibid 139 but there is no record revealing the actual success of the proprogramgramO

1970711970 71

the seminary program was the fastest growing institution in san juan county james carver left blanding and went to calgary alberta canada to teach in the institute program he was replaced by mitchell D K kalauli who had been the indian area supervisor at crownpointCrownpoint new mexico ronald K enos a student at BYU and a former southwest indian missionary came down in january to help supervise the indian program the bus that was requested also arrived in january 1971 mitchell taught a halfhalfdayday at the seminary and supervised the indian seminaries in blanding and white mesa ronald enos supervissupervisesupervisedsupervis ed the mexican hat alufblufblufff montezuma creek and aneth areas ronald enos spoke navajo fluentlyfluentlylucentlyluently which was a real help to him in this work he was able to open the montezuma creek area during the latter part of the year the total enrollment during the year was 419 in the indian seminaries and eightyoneeighty one enrolled in the

151bid15 ibid 140 releasedtimereleased time program making a total involvement of 500 students every aspect of the program increased throughout the year baptisms indian christmas gift exchange i lamanite youth conference and achievement certificates 16

1971721971 72

ronald L knighton was sent to holbrook arizona as the northern arizona district coordinator ronald was the key figure in developing the indian program in the san juan stake he made some bold predictions for the growth of the indian program it was assumed that within three or four years 1000 indian students would be involved in seminary and institute classes this presented quite a challenge for those left to direct the programs mitchell kalauli was given the responsibility as area coordinator over the indian seminaries and ronald enos supervised the same area as the previous year the program continued muchasmuch as it did th previous year the montezuma creek area had the greatest increase the bus was used in blanding white mesa mexican hat alufblufblufff and montezuma creek the programs

161bjdibid 141 were set up on difdlfdifferentferent days so that the bus could be used most adequately in order to handle the growing program a requisition wawass sent to the department of seminaries and institutes for a sixtyfootsixty foot trailer and another forty eight passenger bus the office space was needed for the indian seminaries and the extra class room would be used to teach the junior high indian program the classr- oom in the trailer would also allow more flexibility in scheduling for high school indian students into the releasedtimereleased time program

1972731972 73

this school year brought a change of direction for the indian program it was felt that the indian students were relating to the indian seminaries but were not becoming involved in other church meetings many of the indians did not even associate the seminary with the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints As a result the church leaders and seminary leaders decided to integrate the indian seminary programs with the primary an auxiliary program in the church for children up to 142 twelve years of age mitchell kalauli explained the change in a letter to his indian seminary teachers this year our main point of emphasis is on correlation of our seminary and primary program so that it will strengthen the lamanitesLamanites in the wards branches and in building their testimonies of the church you will play a vital part in the successful ventures of this program we will be working closer with the stake presidency and the ecclesiastical leaders of each unit and both the stake and branchwardbranchward primary presidencies to build the primary programs among the lamanitesLamanites this is a pioneering effort fully supported by the general authorities the stake presidencydencbency branch presidents bishops and the presipresl 17 primary officers 0 10 0 after the christmas social in january the indian seminary students met in the opening exercises of the primaries the students had been organized as much as possible into classes within the ward boundaries in which they lived after the opening exercises they separated into their own classes with the parttimepart time teachers of the indian seminarysem3sema narynacy the program continued in this manner 1 until the end of the year 18 in realltyreality this was the end of the san juaniijanbijan area indian seminaries mitchell D K kalauli was called to

17 mitchell D K kalauli letter to indian seminary teachers september 9 1972 on file at the blanding seminary blanding utah

1 R 18statement by margaret redd personal interview august 15 1975 143 direct the religious educataducateducationionlon progprogramsexamsoxams of the church in the pacific islands ronald enos stayed in blanding through the school year 1973741973 74 but the responsibility of the indian students had been integrated with the primaries in the spring of 1973 the trailer house that was requested in november 1971 finally arrived but almost too late to be of much value the company had promised the trailer by the beginning of the year but there was one delay after another mitchell and ronald moved their office equipment into the trailer but mitchell only spent a few days in it he was in salt lake city receiving training for his new assignment the second bus was never delivered due to the integration of the indian seminaries with the primary

INDIAN SEMINARY integrated WITH THE PRIMARY

in 1973741973 74 the san juan stake units had assumed responsibilities of the indian seminary ronald enos assisted where he could but his time was spent mainly in driving the bus picking the students up at school and taking them to the church he also took the students 144 home after primary however before the year was over the wards and branches had their own people driving the bus ron had worked himself out of a job at blanding and was transferred to ogden utah 5 to teach releasedtimereleased time seminary the following year the peak enrollment for the san juan area indian seminaries was in 1971721971 72 with a total involvement of 521 students this figure includes the indian students i 0 enrolled in the releasedtimereleased time seminary 19 there were two major areas of success in the indian seminaryotherseminarseminaryyotherother than the large number of indians involved one area was the number of baptisms that came from the students associated with the indian seminaries from 1968 to 1971 while ronald knighton was directing the program there were 141 baptisms many of the students volvedevolvedinvolved 2inn the program were nonmembersnon members of the church the recruitment of these individuals was one of the strengths of the seminaries the second area of success was the number of indian students going on the LDS placement program the number involved from 1968 to 1974 follows

191ndianindian and releasedtimereleased time seminary rollroliroiirollsroliss 1971- 1972 located at the blanding seminary blanding utah 145

1968691968 69 43 1971721971 72 72 1969701969 70 67 1972731972 73 53 1967681967 68 126 1974751974 75 105 the leaders in the varvariousiouslous indian branches and the stake missionaries have felt the greatest growth evidenced among the indian people is found in the young people who 20 have been on LDS placement the enrollment of the indian seminaries started to decline as the correlation with the primary commenced in 1972 in 1973741973 74 when the stake primaries assumed total responsibility the enrollment dropped again the white teachers were not used to the indian students and had a difficult time relating to them also the indian and white students had a hard time getting along toge her 21 it is difficult to locate exact figures to determine total involvement under the primary the primaries do not put nonmembersnon members on their rolls and the blanding wards do not make a distinction between white and indian on their statistical reports an effort was made to accumulate primary roll books but they have been

20statement20statement by bob hosierhosler personal interview july 27 1975 21reddredd op cit 146 destroyed with the exception of the current year A total ffigureigureegure for indian involvement in the primaries released time seminary and a junior high indian seminary class would be 330 students 2299 the real strength that has continued since the integration is the number of students sent on LDS placement one weakness in the integration was the lackofbackoflack of interest in recruiting the non members the ward leaders did not feel responsible there was a definite spirit of excitement created by the indian seminaries twentyfivetwenty five to thirty teachers were involved in recruiting and teaching those involved loved the indian people and put forth an extra effort to make the program succeed As ronald knighton mentioned in his history the teachers and supervisors talked up 00 the program wherever they went 23 since the seminaries have been integrated with the primary and the blanding indian branch has been closed there appears to be a definite lull as far as indian activity is concerned

0 0 22wardbranchwardbranchWard branch records seminary records blanding utah 23knighton2390knighton op cit chapterrilpatalap ter 8

SUMMARY sndAMAND conclusions

SACRIFICE

the story of the san juan missionmiss on has been one of sacrifice and dedication from the very beginning the trek from the holeintherockholehoie in therockthe rock to bluff is a monument to the courage and devotion of the san juan pioneers knowing that the mission was a call from the lord to settle southeastern utah was the only thing that kept the pioneers in the rough unsettled country A major factor for settling the san juan was to teach the indian people their origin and destiny this assignment also required great courage and sacrifice on the part of those determined to fulfill this aspect of the mission call albert R lyman at the age of sixty seven pioneered a school for the indian children A man possessing little of the riches of the world but rich in the spirit of god made the sacrifice which paved the way for the indian children to receive their rights to an education there are few men willing to spend the hours travel the distance associate with a lowly people and

147 148 face disappointment as the missionaries to the lamanitesLamanites

ae have done the indian peoplepeopeole k 1e have progressed imenselimmenselyy in regard to education and living standards but as a people there has not been much success in living the gospel of jesus christ A few individuals have done well in social progression and spiritual growth nevertheless the greater work still remains in the future with the majority of indian people individuals in the stake are knowledgeable of the manyhoursmany hours spent miles traveled sacrifices and disap- pointpointmentsments in the missionary work yet some still ask the question to those who are encouraging increased activity what has been accomplished after making this observation they feel justified in excusing themselves of further effort nephi a great book of mormon prophet saw our day in vision and expresses the will of the lord to latterlatterdayday saints in relation to their responsibility to the lamanitesLamanites and after our seed is scattered the lord god will proceed to do a marvelous work among the gentiles which shall be of great worth unto our seed wherefore it is likened unto their being nourished by the gentiles and being carried in their arms and upon their shoulders and it shall also be of worth unto the gentiles and not only unto the gentilesgentileslleslies but unto all the house of israel unto the making known of the 149 covenants of the father of heaven unto abraham sayisayingng in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed and I1 would my brethren that ye should know that all the kindreds of the earth cannot be blessed unless he shall make bare his arm in the eyes of the nations wherefore the lord god will proceed to make bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations in bringing about his covenants and his gospel unto those who are of the house of israel wherefore he will bring them again out of captivity and they shall be gathered together to the lands of their inheritance and they shall be brought out of obscurity and out of darkness and they shall know that the lord is their savior and their redeemer the mighty one of israel 1 indeed the lord does expect latterlatterdayday saints to sacrifice both time talent and money to bring about the fulfillment of the promises made to the fathers of the lamanite people and for this very purpose are these plates preserved which contain these records that the promises of the lord might be fulfilled which he made to his people and that the lamanitesLamanites might come to the knowledge of their fathers and that they might know the promisesprom3proma ses of the lord and that they may believe the gospel and rely upon the merits of jesus christ and be glorified through faith in his name and that through their repentance they might be saved amen 2

lbookbook of mormon salt lake city the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints 1963 I1 nephi 22812228 12 2doctridoctrinene and covenants salt lake city the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints 1952 3 192019 20 150

THE PROMISE OF WALTER C LYMAN

walter C lyman promised those living in san juan that if they would lift the indians up they would pros 0 per and that there would be sufficient water 3 liflifee in san juan has been a struggle for most people recently the writer was walking out of the church house with kay P johnson a name mentioned often in this writing and the question was asked how are you doindolndoing9 9 the response was much better than in the forties kay went on to compare the current prosperous conditions in blanding with those earlier days the writer sees the prosperity coming about the same time the missionary work increased with the indian people this is a subjective evaluation but is based on conditions existing in the community sufficient water for the munitycoicommunitycor has been a proproblemblent since the settlingC of blanding as brought out in the study in the early fifties the population of blanding waa about 1800 and the water supply was insufficient

albertulbert R lyman the edge of the cedars new york NY carlton press 1966 appp 66 and 148 151 now the population is near three thousand and there has not been any water rationing the past several years A vast amount of money coniescoulescomes into san juan county as a result of the indian people although the programs have been initially for the indians the white people have benefited financially about as much listed below prams is a ffewew of the proprogramsCorams and the amount of revenue coming into this area annually A public education programs 1 johnson 0 galleymaileymalleyomalley act 11300000113000.00 funds for educational programs to supplement programs for indian children 2 title I1 30000000300000.00 used for educationally handicapped children 3 title IV loo10010000000100000.0000000000.00 supplemental educataducateducationionlon programs for indian children 4 title VII 13000000130000.00 elementaryelementarysecondarysecondary education act provides supplement for bilingual education 5 career opportunities programs 53530000053000.00000ooo 00 a twentyfivetwenty five indians have received bachelor degrees and are employed in the school district 152 b the funds are used to train local people to work with indian children the funds are used for both white and indian 4 B UNDC utah navajo development council this is a private nonprofitnon profit organization developed at blanding utah for the development of indian people 1 source of revenue a state funds 37 of all oil and mineral royalties comicoming0 ng from reservation land is paid to the state of utah and is reserved for health education and general welfare of the indian people b tribal funds c title IV grants education 2 expenditure of monies a 1500000001500000.00125000000012500000.00 is used for education business and economics health division agriculture and construction b 12500000125000.00 contribution to the construction of the mexican hat elementary school

4statementstatement by lynn lee personal interview august 19 1975 mr lee is administrative assistant in charge of compensatory education 153

ooo c 500000050000.0050 2 000 00 contribution to the career center at san juan high school ooo d 300000030000.0030 1.1 000 00 used for the royal future development project to train local people in the decisiondecisionmakingmaking process 3 the UNDC expends approximately two million dollars a year As a result of these funds being made available another three million is brought into the county from different sources that match these funds 5 6 cedcesCIDC BIA burbureaueau of indian affairs 28200000628200000282000.00282000oo6 1 assist indian students in vocational training 2 san juan county is declared an economic depressed area different businesses are supplemented for hiring indian people one business receiving such funds is southern utah industries other businesses have received help

D state of utah department of education 1 division of rehabilitation services 650000065000.00 threefourthsthree fourths of the case load are indian people

6statementstatement by don roberts director of BIA august 19 1975 7statementstatement by joel tate director of rehabilitation august 19 1975 154 2 department of employment security 12500000125000.00125 000ooo 00 this is an estimate an accurate figure was not availableavaivaanablenabie when they were contacted 3 division of family services a this division employesemployedemp loyes twentyonetwenty one aandnd has as expenditure of 27000000270000.00 most of which is service to indian people b assistance payments this department expended 64500000645000.00 in three months they expend approximately two and Q onehalfone half million dollars a year 8 it would be difficult to determine the exact amount of money but from the figures listed there would be over eight million dollars coming into this county directly related to the indian people walter lyman also said that san juan would become a center of education for the indian people and from the programs listed it appears that it is fast approaching that level

statement by gene porter august 19 1975 155 accomplishments

the success of the san juan mission can be measured by the number of active lamanite members involved in the wards and branches the number that have died in the faith the youth going on LDS placement the number of children that were involved in the indian seminary program and now involved in the primary the many lives that have been touched even though not active church attenders and the leadership that has been developed in those that have served those not involved with the indian work make an occasional observation and then hastily appraise the work as a failure but those who have labored with these people over the years assert that there has beengreatbeen great progress they candidly admit that it will yet take years to succeed in converting the lamanitesLamanites

challenges

the real challenge is learning how to more effectively change the culture tradition and superstitions of the indians so that they can relate to the gospel of jesus christ the programs of the church are structured 156 to the american caucasian culture and when an indian joins the church he changes his lifestyle this waymay account for the large numbers of baptisms compared to the number of conversions lamanitesLamanites who are actively involved in leadership posipositionstionseions in the wards branches and stake are those that have received college training the sooner the indian people become educated and prepare themselves to function on an equal level with the whites the more readily they will accept the gospel and live its principles

conclusion

latterlatterdayday saints have been given a command to teach the lamanitesLamanites the gospel the book of mormon speaks very clearly of our responsibility to do all we can to restore the lamanitesLamanites to a knowledge oiof the gospel that their ancestors once understood the book of mormon prophets sacrifsaarifsacrificediced that we might have a knowledge of the gospel as presented to them now it is our obligation to do all we can to help the indian people members of the church today who enjoy the fruits of others labors ought to be willing to sacrifice for this cause even as 157 as the pioneers who received the original call to the san juan mission bibliography adams george A life history located in the daughters of utah pioneer ilesliesfilesfliesf state memorial building salt lake city utah black mrs hyrum personal records blanding utah deserdeseretet news salt lake citcityajyj december 29 1886 vol 3539835 398 jensen bryant L an historical study of bluff city utah from 187819061878 1906 unpublished masters thesis b1Bbighambrigham1 igham young university 1966 johnson kay P lamanite mission san juan stalstaistakeire term paper brigham young university 1966

D K seminary kalauli 1 mitchell letter to indian teachers september 9 1972 on file at blanding seminary blanding utah knighton ronald K history of the san juan stake indian leadership missionaries letter sent to ththe writer in 1970 lazenby ferrell letter to writer june 20 1975 lyman albert R the edaedaeedge of the cedars new york NY carlton press 1966 the fort on the firing line improvement era january 1945

1 from wagons to rockets A limited number of copies were made for theche lyman familyfamily there is a copy at the blanding library history of the san juan stake MS brigham young university 1946 typewritten

158 159 lyman albert R private journal november 19 1946 lyman eliza marie parpartridgericige smith autobiography and MS young diary 182018851820 1885 brighamCD university 1945 typewritten lymanlyman marvin utah state historical society and california state college fullerton oral history program southeastern utah project blanding tunnel project OH 698a interviewed by sandy mcfadden manuscript history of the church of jesus christ of day june 30 1949 latterlatterday saints 1 located in church historians office 1928 1953195351195311 19592 1959 1967 197021970 1972 miller david E holehoieho ie in the rock salt lake city university of utah press 1959 monticello utah stake baptism book in possession of richard watkins stake mission president blanding utah carowanparowan stake historical record no 52125 perkins cornelia adams marian gardner nielson and lenora butt jones saga of san juan npNap P mercury publishing co 1957 san juan stake seminary annual reports 1967711967 71 blanding utah san juan school district enrollment records june 1975 monticello utah shumway esther minutes of the indian district of the san juan stake mission 1951521951 52 snow erastuseram tus A letter written to john taylor and council letters on file at LDS church historians libraryL ib rcaryacary 160

LATTERDAYLATTER DAY SAINT scriptures the doctrine and covenants of the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints salt lake city utah the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints 1921 the book of mormon translated by joseph smith salt lake city utah the church of jesus christ of latterlatterdayday saints

interviews black clessa august 18 1975 brandford dealdeaiclealcleai august 19 1975 burtenshaw bernice july 5 1975 harvey kenion august 16 1975 heinz helen august 5 1975 hostler bob july 27 1975 hunt freda july 10 1975

A hurst 1 georgeC I1 july 11 1975 jack donald august 13 1975 jones alnaahnaalmaaima U june 24 1975 kindred james F august 18 1975 laws wilbur august 12 1975 lee lynn august 19 1975 lyman francis auchstaucustaugust 18 1975 norton phylis july 18 1975 igiigl161

pehrson anna 7.7 june 24 1975 porter gene augustau0auaust 19 1975 redd margaret augustt 15 1975 roberts donald C august 19 1975 shumway bruce july 18 1975 shumway esther july 9 1975 shumway glen july 10 1975 shumway grace july 14 1975 shumway kenneth august 11 1975 smith guen july 15 1975 smith don july 15 1975 stake missionary name withheld august 17 1975 stevens bruce august 1970 tate joel august 19 1975 watkins ivan july 202 0 1919757 5 wells joan august 14 1975 ORIGIN AND development OF THE SAN JUAN MISSION IN

southeastern UTAH IN ITS WORK WITH INDIAN PEOPLE principally SINCE 1940

lyielyle S heinz department of church history and doctrine MRE degree april1976april 1976

ABSTRACT the purpose of this study is to present the origin and development of the san juan mission in southeastern utah in its work with indian people principally since 1940 one of the responsibilities of the san juan mission was to teach the indian people the restored gospegospelA of jesus christ it is also the purpose of this studytostudy to show what has been accomplished in regard to the original call and also determine what remains to be completed the history of the san juan mission has been indexed under the following chapter headings introduction to san juan and the call of thethem mormons to colonize establishing communities and relationships among the indians san juan stake mission albert R lymaslymans school san juan stake indian branches san juan area indian seminaries it was found that an enormous amount of time money and effort was contributed to teaching and assist- ing the indian people it was also discovered that much more needs to be done before the san juan mission call ffills the demands of the 0oyaoyo giginalnalnai iinnunctioninninoinjunction by apostle erastusillsllisliis snow unction COMMITTEE APPROVAL avul7ywi YLes R har3n655stsltteehar jy2e67jftttee chairman SIsigirsigaradladkgir eljaelp e 7 jfemmitteeommittee member elj7C agieovygi eljrrvc porter acting chairman