White and Delightsome: LDS Church Doctrine and Redemptive Hegemony in Hawai'i

Thesis

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the

Graduate School of The Ohio State University

By

Anthony Guy Tenney

Graduate Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

The Ohio State University

2018

Thesis Committee

Dr. Cynthia Burack, Advisor

Dr. Mary Thomas

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Copyrighted by

Anthony Guy Tenney

2018

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Abstract

The Church of Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon Church) in

Hawai'i presents a specific context to studyLDS Church doctrine and Native members. In this thesis, I undertake an interdisciplinary analysis of LDS Church doctrine, practice, and in Hawai'i alongside exploration of Native Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli) belief and participation in the Church. The history of Mormon interaction with and doctrine on

Native people leads to their focus on Hawai'i, with religious ingenuity and missionary work at the forefront of Mormon efforts to convert Native Hawaiians. I examine the histories that lead to and informed Mormon presence and activity in Hawai'i, and the subsequent success in conversion and establishment of a presence through land, institutions, and economic development.

A study of the LDS Church in Hawai'i offers a site of exploration to make connections between theology, body, racialization, and settler colonialism. While scholars such as Hokulani Aikau, Simon Southerton, and W. Paul Reeve reveal the LDS

Church’s racialization and inclusion of Native/Indigenous peoples, I add to their work by focusing on doctrine, practice, and the body. I claim that ritual of serves as an embodied practice with theological implications for Mormon material and spiritual bodies. Using Catherine Bell’s theory of ritual, I analyze Mormon baptismal ritual and doctrine to magnify the centrality of bodies, racialization, and settler colonialism in LDS

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Church doctrine. The focus on baptism also points to the importance of Bell’s concept of redemptive hegemony as an important part of how institutions and individuals interact and negotiate their power. I argue that Native Hawaiians engage with the Church through baptism as a means of claiming power through claims to the Lamanite identity while the

Church also actively racializes them as a settler colonial institution.

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Vita

EDUCATION

The Ohio State University – Columbus, Ohio

Master of Arts: Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Candidate

Expected Graduation Spring 2018

The Ohio State University – Columbus, Ohio

Bachelor of Arts: Double Major: History and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Graduated May 2016

ACADEMIC WORK EXPERIENCE

Graduate Research Associate

The Ohio State University Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

(January 2018-May 2018)

Graduate Teaching Associate - WGSST 1110, WGSST 2230

The Ohio State University Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

(August 2016-December 2017)

Fields of Study

Major Field: Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

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Table of Contents

Abstract ...... ii Vita ...... iv Chapter 1. Introduction ...... 1 Chapter 2: History of Lamanite Doctrine and Missionary Work ...... 5 Chapter 3. LDS Church and the Mission to Hawai'i ...... 17 Chapter 4. Baptism, Ritual, Bodies ...... 23 Chapter 5. Conclusion ...... 34 Bibliography ...... 36

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Chapter 1. Introduction

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or Mormon Church) and Native

Hawaiians have a complex relationship founded upon doctrine and upheld through histories of faith, culture, and negotiation. Since Smith officially founded the LDS

Church in 1830, the Church grew in numbers and influence across the United States and the globe as missionaries traveled near and far to convert new members. In Hawai'i, the

Mormon Church grew substantially and currently operates a , a university, and the

Polynesian Cultural Center on the island of O’ahu. A combination of factors contributed to this phenomena, as Native Hawaiians converted to and remain faithful in the LDS

Church while negotiating their position within the LDS Church as a “Chosen People”.

The negotiation of cultural, ethnic, and religious identity within a faith with clearly defined doctrine demonstrates what Catherine Bell calls “redemptive hegemony” as a motivating factor in religious activity. Native Hawaiian participation in and negotiation with the larger Mormon Church displays how this theory works within the LDS Church on a larger level as it operates to normalize each of its subjects.

In 1830, commissioned the very first mission of the LDS Church which was called the “Mission to the ” as the faithful workers traveled to

Native American tribes within the United States and its territories. The , the seminal text and namesake for members () of the LDS Church, is a story set

1 in the and written by authors descended from the Tribes of Israel. Doctrine in the Church claims that these peoples migrated from Israel to the Americas, and that God cursed the wicked who are the ancestors of contemporary Native people in the Americas with a darkening of skin. The tale of the Lamanites’ curse created a connection between ancestry, righteousness, and Native/Indigenous people that followed commonplace racial ideologies of the 19th century and has continued to inform Mormon practice and canon.

Converting Lamanites to the restored gospel was of importance to Joseph Smith and the Church, and so missionary endeavors emphasized this doctrine and its importance in an effort to convert Native people.

Missionary work serves as a central tenet in the faith and a mechanism for growth for the LDS Church. In the decades following the Church’s move westward, missionaries traveled across the globe as Church leaders sought to spread the faith. As the Church and its missionary efforts expanded, so did their doctrine on Lamanites. Native Hawaiians were not included within the purview of Lamanite doctrine until George Q. Cannon and other missionaries began to proselytize in Hawai'i, arriving on December 12, 1850.

During this mission, Cannon had a vision in which he was instructed to preach to the

Native people as they were Lamanites and needed to be returned to their place in the

Church. An important part of the LDS Church, revelation creates new doctrines and practices and Cannon’s vision changed the direction of the mission in Hawai'i. After this vision, the mission grew substantially as the missionaries had lacked success amongst the

White settlers on the islands. Consequently, Church doctrine on Lamanite identity grew to include Native Hawaiians through religious ingenuity and targeted proselytizing. The

2 ways in which this new doctrine took hold in practice, doctrine, and faith are important to understanding how Native Hawaiians the LDS Church relate and engage with each other.

As the Church grew in numbers in Hawai'i, so did its economic, social, and religious power. Mormons established various institutions, businesses, and schools while converting indigenous people and settlers across the islands. Amidst this growth, Native

Hawaiians navigated their complicated relationship as Lamanites while making claims to culture, land, and economic means through the LDS Church. Hokulani Aikau’s concept of Native Hawaiians as a “Chosen People” gives a name to the ways in which a Lamanite identityempowered them to work within the LDS Church to negotiate their position as faithful members in a land being settled.

An important aspect of the LDS Church is its universal message of inclusion that is especially relevant to Native people as the Mormon Church expanded in Hawai'i.

Within this inclusive doctrine resides an emphasis on Lamanite identity that includes a racializing curse that can be removed through rejoining the Church and living a righteous life. In order to become a member, Native Hawaiians must be baptized as the first ordinance of the LDS Church. Through religious theory, particularly ritual theory, baptism into the Church serves a specific function to signify membership in the Church and inclusion into the fold. By applying Catherine Bell’s work on ritual theory and redemptive hegemony, Native Hawaiians and the LDS Church’s doctrine reveals how doctrine, practice, and ritual come together to (re)produce hegemony. Specifically, baptism of Lamanites serves as a way of imbuing Whiteness upon Native people in a

3 metaphorical/spiritual way while also allowing indigenous people to enter into the

Church and negotiate their status within the faith.

This thesis is an interdisciplinary analysis of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints that focuses in on the connection between the ritual of baptism and the doctrine on Lamanites in Hawai'i as a means to interrogate the complex relationship between the LDS Church and Native Hawaiians. Through investigation of historical documents, Mormon scripture, LDS leaders’ statements, and ritual theory, I argue that

Native Hawaiian Mormons illustrate that the LDS Church implements doctrines and policies in strategic ways to gain members while communities negotiate their positions within the Church through scripture and doctrine. While specifically about Native

Hawaiians, this work opens up possibilities for future work on the LDS Church and marginalized communities across many contexts. Furthermore, the emphasis on settler colonialism and racialization advances work in both religious studies and settler colonial studies by integrating both fields to interrogate their connections in the Mormon Church.

I present relevant history of the LDS Church’s doctrine and relationship with Native

Hawaiians and then analyze its significance, impact, and usefulness for understanding the

Mormon Church in Hawai'i. I then apply Catherine Bell’s ritual theory to the interrelated doctrines of baptismal practice and Lamanite identity to argue that Native Hawaiians and the LDS Church are entangled in a power relation, with both the Kanaka community and the Church using their power for their perceived and actual benefit.

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Chapter 2: History of Lamanite Doctrine and Missionary Work

In the spring of 1830, Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon and established the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church migrated west and created its own brand of American nationalism and racial ideology in the following decades. Historical contextualization of racial ideology in the United States at this time assists in analyzing Mormon doctrinal formation. Joseph Smith created amidst widely accepted 19th century views of Native Americans. The Mound Builder myth postulated that a civilization moved to the Americas and built thousands of mounds filled with artifacts, jewels, and other goods. This idea originated in 1820 from Caleb

Atwater, who surveyed the mounds and concluded a more civilized race built them

(Southerton 24). Since Native groups near the mounds did not have an explanation for them (or white men did not seek one), this myth upheld widely held beliefs that Native

Americans were responsible for destroying a previous civilized race. Smith combined these ideas with British Israelism, a theory grounded in Anglo-Saxon supremacy. This concept suggested many of the Lost Tribes of Israel migrated to Europe (Tribe of

Ephraim i.e. White), while some migrated to the Americas and became the forefathers of

Native Americans (Aikau 37-38). While there is no proof of connection or inspiration for the Book of Mormon from these sociological theories of the time, the clear proximity in thought at least shows that the LDS Church’s doctrine operated in similar ways to U.S.

5 thought on Native people and land accumulation. These theories formed the foundation for the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith’s racialized doctrine. Interwoven with

American ideologies, Mormon theology incorporated American settler colonialism and racialized inclusion.

Settler colonialism studies has a rich history, with many scholars and activists conversing with each other about the term, structures, and enactment. I draw on Patrick

Wolfe, Scott Lauria Morgensen, Maile Arvin, Eve Tuck, and Angie Morrill to present my own definition of settler colonialism. For this paper, I define settler colonialism as a collection of historical and ongoing structures that act as a biopolitical project to eliminate Native/Indigenous people and replace them with settlers. Morgensen highlights the essentiality of settler colonialism in both Agamben’s and Foucault’s articulations of biopower, as the make live / let die mechanics of Western law position Native bodies to be removed and replaced. As Arvin, Tuck, and Morrill reveal, heteropatriarchy, or the privileging of men’s dominance within a heterosexual nuclear family structure, is embedded in settler colonialism as they co-constitute and buttress each other. In this paper, I focus on the body as a site of settler colonialism as intricately tied to Patrick

Wolfe’s theory on the logic of elimination. Furthermore, I connect bodies to Mormon ideologies of racialization which are deeply connected to settler colonialism and act to place Native/Indigenous peoples as racialized subjects to be transformed through the ritual of baptism. The specificity of settler colonialism ensures consideration of the elimination of Native people and replacement with settlers, distinct from definitions of colonialism as extracting resources and labor. In this thesis, I focus on the LDS Church in

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Hawai'i, and draw on theoretical work by J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, who writes on decolonization in Hawai'i. She claims that the context of colonialism and settler colonialism is distinct from Native Americans in the contiguous United States because of

Hawai'i’s histories of occupation and illegal annexation (Kauanui). I use this definition to claim that baptismal doctrine and practice within the LDS Church enact settler colonialism on Native and Indigenous people in the Americas and Pacific through claims to bodies and space.

According to LDS doctrine, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from golden plates given to him by the angel Moroni. Members claim the book to be another testament of Christ which restored lost scripture and re-established God’s true Church on

Earth. The Book of Mormon is set in the Americas from 600 BC to 400 AD and records the existence of people descended from Israelites (Aikau 36). The story tracks two distinct tribes, both descended from Lehi. According to the Book of Mormon, Lehi led his family away from Israel prior to its destruction in 586 BC (Reeve, Religion 55). Two tribes developed once the party arrived in the Americas, the and the Lamanites.

Lehi’s son Nephi exemplified righteousness, while Lehi’s sons were wicked. The lineage split and God marked the Lamanites in 2 Nephi 5:21:

“And he caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because

of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they

had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair

and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did

cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.”

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Mormons centered their racializing ideology on this passage, establishing their own understanding of the formation of Native American tribes in the Americas. The Book of

Mormon confirmed several popular principles surrounding Native people. The existence of the Nephites validated British Israelism and the existence and destruction of a civilized group prior to contemporary Native Americans. Furthermore, God’s curse on the

Lamanites created a correlation between skin color and morality, supporting longstanding settler colonial white supremacy. Additionally, 3 Nephi 2:15-16 states that Lamanites who joined the Nephites and returned to righteousness “became white like unto the

Nephites.” Thus, conversion of Lamanites operates as a tool to bring Whiteness to indigenous people. Mormons created their own version of settler colonialism through framing their religion as an “improvement” to Native culture (Veracini 623). This passage bears particular significance to racialized ideas of superiority, identity, and responsibility for Mormon members. Furthermore, the story of Lehi’s family and their travels to the Americas are the foundation of the Book of Mormon and consequently the entirety of Mormon doctrine. Therefore, Lamanite doctrine must be true or else all of

Joseph Smith’s revelation would not exist. While the LDS Church values all of its doctrine, Lamanite identity holds particular significance, which in turn influences other beliefs about race, indigeneity, righteousness, and membership in the Church.

Scripture and historical discrimination operated in powerful ways to mold

Mormon relations with Native people in the 19th century. Early members of the LDS

Church faced persecution for years, often based on beliefs that Mormons were inferior and un-American (Reeve, Religion 55). Many Americans considered Mormons to be

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‘white Indians,’ placing Mormons and Native Americans together. As a result, the

Mormons and Native Americans became closely affiliated. Both groups existed outside of the American mainstream and endured persecution. People feared the apparent intermarriage and closeness of Native people and Mormons. While grounded in some truth, Mormons experienced varying degrees of friendliness as they settled in lands of the

Shoshone, Ute, Goshute, Southern Paiute, and people (Reeve, Religion 76). The

Book of Mormon connected the LDS Church and Native people as well, and Church leaders attempted to form friendships with Native communities while moving west.

These connections became important for both outside and insider perceptions of

Native/Mormon relations as their affiliation grew through Church efforts alongside popular conceptions of Mormons as “white Natives” and the fear of their polygamous and interracial marriages. As a result, the LDS Church’s Lamanite doctrine and their missionary efforts changed according to their goals to expand membership and establish the Church as a White institution.

Perceptions of Native and Mormon relations shaped LDS approaches to articulating identity of Native people, Americans, and Mormons. Within the Church, officials continued to frame Native people as members of the Lost Tribes who could be redeemed, but American backlash forced the Mormons to adapt their racial doctrine according to the audience. LDS members emphasized their “their role as agents of civilization and progress and as people who expanded the frontiers of American democracy” when speaking with government officials and outside Americans.

Meanwhile, Mormons tried to distinguish themselves from other Americans while

9 dealing with Native communities (Reeve, Religion 77). In this way, the LDS Church committed to complex affiliations with Native people and the United States government.

This reveals the tension between LDS settler colonialism and its proclaimed racial inclusion.

Elder Marlin K. Jensen proclaimed that was an ally of Native people in Utah (Reeve, Religion 20). However, early Church history aligned more closely to general American interactions with Native Americans. Brigham Young believed the time for Lamanite redemption had not come and used a faux alliance with tribes in Utah to propel Church goals in acquiring land (Reeve, Religion 77). In Making Space, Paul

Reeve documents the Mormon takeover of land (especially Paiute land) in Utah. Young first invaded Paiute land in 1851, sending missionaries to mine iron and grow cotton in an effort towards economic independence. Mormons sought to take land for economic gain and believed God had ordained the Great Basin in Utah as the new ‘promised land’.

Young’s declared it was “the right place” and ancient prophecy from Isaiah claimed the

“Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains” (Reeve, Making 15-16).

Furthermore, LDS naming of space held deep connections to the and the Book of

Mormon. Specifically, Hebron, Utah was founded based on a story of Abraham and Lot, reconstructing a narrative that made the LDS members a part of Israel (Reeve, Making

20). Economics and capital were an important aspect of Mormon takeover of Native land.

Paiute land held value for white Americans because it housed silver reservations (Reeve,

Making 49). As a result, LDS and government officials collaborated to remove the

Paiutes to a reservation in Uintah Valley. However, the Paiutes refused because they

10 feared the Utes who lived in Uintah Valley. Mormons and the government petitioned for

Orsemus H. Irish, the Utah Indian superintendent, who persuaded the Paiutes to give up their lands (Reeve, Making 49-52). The Church actively collaborated with the federal government and other Americans to oppress Native people but maintained their policy and doctrine of racial inclusion of Native people.

Early Church history established the practical ways in which Church racial doctrine affected Native communities. As Brigham Young led the Church west,

Mormons acquired lands from Native people to achieve economic success and establish a new . Church doctrine fueled these goals as Mormons saw Native Americans as fallen members of Israel, and believed the land was intended for God’s chosen people to inhabit. Through collaboration with the United States government, Mormons enacted settler colonialism while maintaining a connection to Native people through doctrine.

Brigham Young instilled settler colonial ideals into the LDS Church through his racialized policy and cooperation with the government. Once the policy was created, the

Church began to perpetuate settler colonial values through its doctrines.

Mormons perpetrated Native removal from indigenous lands and cultural erasure.

The Mormon Church supported spreading their faith to Native people, especially through boarding schools. The late 19th century saw dozens of Indian Boarding Schools affiliated to the government, churches, or individual stakeholders. These schools sought to assimilate Native Americans into white America. Many of these boarding schools required students to choose a religious affiliation and attend services each week. Mormon missionaries and officials targeted these young people as their attendance was mandatory.

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Many students signed up to attend Mormon functions because of the benefits, at times being baptized without full knowledge or consent of the ritual (King). As boarding schools disbanded in the 20th century, the LDS Church created the Indian Placement

Program. This program allowed Native American children to live in the homes of white foster parents and attend public schools (primarily in Utah) if the children were members of the Church. This program was specifically designed for Navajo youth, and was investigated by the United States government in 1977 for allegations of influencing children to join the program (Dehlin). LDS officials joined hands with the government to imbue a Mormon and White identity on Native American youth, upholding settler colonial actions to increase Church membership. This specific example combined with the numerous ‘Missions to the Lamanites’ crafted a Mormon practice of seeking to convert Native Americans and bring them into the Church. This tradition helped the

Church to expand as missionaries targeted Native people for conversion.

Mormon doctrine and policy developed over time and combined American imperialism and removal of Native people to further economic and membership development while claiming to include Lamanites as a “Chosen People”. Missionary work is an important tenet in the faith, as all are expected to serve a mission.

In a faith based on proselytization, Native people emerged as prime targets for conversion due to the redemption of the Lamanite people. In the same year Joseph Smith established the LDS Church, he sent three men on a ‘Mission to the Lamanites’. They first travelled to Kirtland, Ohio, and members would soon follow to establish headquarters and a temple. Eventually, these missionaries would travel to to establish the new Zion

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(Parkin). Early missions started a settler colonial tradition for the Mormon Church, as men traveled to convert white and Native people in potential settlements. Using the appeal of Lamanite identity, the Church used its rhetoric to expand land holdings and increase economic stability. The ‘Mission to the Lamanites’ began in 1830, and the LDS

Church still floods Native American and Polynesian communities with missionaries.

Mission work tailors doctrine to attract potential Native converts, most notably through the ‘special’ place held by Lamanites in Mormon history. This strategy masquerades motivation to either remove or absorb Native communities to serve Church goals through its convoluted racial ideology. Mormons historically and contemporarily target Native people, mimicking American projects of cultural assimilation and economic disenchantment of indigenous communities. Removal of Native people began early in

Mormon history, and the Church appropriated native land and capital into Mormon coffers through settler colonial replacement. Historically and currently, the LDS Church carries out settler colonialism through missionary work, bringing religious inclusion to indigenous people while absorbing Native land and economic power.

Contemporary missionary work operates in a less direct fashion, instead harnessing the power of cultural assimilation. As the United States government continues to restrict Native people to reservations and refuse Native Hawaiian sovereignty, the LDS

Church still seeks converts among Lamanite groups. Previous arguments demonstrate the sense of obligation for Mormon people to convert Lamanites and remove the curse. The connection between Lamanite lineage and Whiteness shaped programs such as the Indian

Placement Program that aim to assimilate Native people into general American culture

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(Southerton 40). Furthermore, Church leaders continue to erase Native history through their language and beliefs. Officials placed Lamanite identity (or White) upon members during five separate temple dedications across Central and South America (Southerton

38-39). Mormon commitment to Lamanite doctrine stems from its importance as the foundation of the Book of Mormon itself, but also comes from devotion to early Church leaders and the sense of responsibility to preach and return Lamanites to righteousness as a part of the Tribes of Israel. However, personal experiences expose the slippage between

Native and Mormon identities as historical framework and strain between identities demonstrates the innately White that displaces Native culture while simultaneously providing space for it through religious inclusion.

Chronicles of the Mormon Church’s doctrinal and physical relationship with

Native/Indigenous peoples are essential to thinking about the ways in which the LDS

Church and Native Hawaiians developed their bond. Primarily, the story of God’s cursing of Lamanites in 2 Nephi 5:21 leaves little room for interpretation of the doctrine as anything other than a racialized curse that connects righteousness to skin tone. In Hawai'i, there are specific reasons and ways in which this came about that inform a more nuanced analysis of the role and power of Lamanite doctrine and the forces and motivation that lead Kanaka Maoli to embrace the faith. Importantly, the historical perceived connection between Mormons and Native Americans created a seemingly logical marriage between the Church and indigenous communities that reified their linkage. Since Mormons were

“white Indians” they then held a similar place to Native people as an ostracized group from the main population base of the United States. Thus, Lamanite doctrine became a

14 tangible relation supported by public perception as well as practice in the faith. In later sections I connect the emphasis on missionary work to Native communities as well as this perceived bond that presented a specific opportunity in Hawai'i for the Church to embrace Native Hawaiians within Lamanite doctrine and to establish itself through land, culture, and faith.

Native Hawaiians and the LDS Church’s relationship stems from a legacy of racializing doctrine within the church, social theories about indigenous people in the 19th century, and the importance of missionary work within the Church. Although the LDS

Church did not initially include Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) as Lamanites, the development of that belief informs ongoing connections between the two. The story of the Lamanites creates a strong relationship between ancestry/lineage, skin color, righteousness, and Mormon identity. From the founding of the LDS Church in 1830 to contemporary beliefs, the LDS Church has used this racializing ideology as a central part of missionary work that lead to the inclusion of Native Hawaiians in this belief. The history and development of this moment and subsequent events are critical for analyzing the link between Kanaka Maoli and the LDS Church as it illuminates the context and forces that lead to their complex relationship. A glance at the LDS Church’s history of relations with Native American people shows the Church’s active participation in removal of Native people, White-centered ideology, and commitment to spreading the faith through missionary work. To critically analyze the LDS Church in Hawai'i, I turn to looking at the co-constitutive nature of LDS Church growth in Hawai'i and the participation and faith of Kanaka Maoli. The history clearly traces itself from the

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“Mission to the Lamanites” to endeavors in Hawai'i and the mission in Hawai'i presents a nuanced situation regarding the connection between the institution of the Church and

Native Hawaiian people.

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Chapter 3. LDS Church and the Mission to Hawai'i

In the middle of the 19th century, George Q. Cannon set out on a mission to the

‘Sandwich Islands’ as the LDS Church sent him and other men to preach the gospel.

While there, he felt that the missionaries should teach the Native people and set to converting Kanaka Maoli to the Church. Within this, Native Hawaiians were brought into the Lamanite identity, which led to great success as the Church gained new converts and established itself as a prominent part of Hawai'i through churches, schools, cultural center, a university, and a temple. This phenomenon occurred amidst a variety of factors, as the LDS Church welcomed Native Hawaiians into the Church while simultaneously creating economic ventures on the islands. Mormon success in Hawai'i, particularly amongst Kanaka Maoli, stems from Cannon’s revolutionary vision that inspired the LDS

Church to invest while elevating Native Hawaiians’ status within the Church as a part of

Lamanite lineage.

While on a mission to Hawai'i, George Q. Cannon had a vision which reshaped racial doctrine within the LDS Church and shaped the future of Mormons in Hawai'i

(Aikau 1). In this vision, he learned that the Native Hawaiian people were actually a part of the Lamanite tribe and that therefore he and the other missionaries with him should teach them. The change in understanding of doctrine brought Kanaka Maoli under the umbrella of a Lamanite identity, and constructed the Mormon presence in Hawai'i.

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Cannon and fellow missionaries had failed to convert white people in Hawai’i and the vision came just as many of the missionaries expressed doubts about their endeavor. The shift in doctrine manifested the LDS Church’s commitment to global religious supremacy and the use of nationalist ideas for the growth of the Church (Aikau 8-9). Cannon and the

Church’s response to failed missionary work highlighted their use of religious ingenuity to increase membership by way of religious inclusion. Specifically, Native Hawaiian inclusion as Lamanite meant they have an “ancestral connection” to the Tribes of Israel

(Aikau 46). This assertion served a dual purpose, to both bring the Church’s focus to bear on Native Hawaiians as well as entice Native Hawaiians to see the Church as inclusive of their lineage and beneficial in cultural, economic, and spiritual aspects.

While the work of Cannon in Hawai'i quickly changed, the acceptance of his vision and of Native Hawaiian inclusion into Lamanite identity occurred over time in the administration of the Church. It wasn’t until 1937 that the Church officially confirmed the vision as doctrine, although it had been referenced and in practice from the time of

Cannon’s decision to teach Native Hawaiians (Aikau 48). While the revelation technically brought Kanaka Maoli into the broader category of Lamanite, realistically they were put into their own distinct position as the missionaries focused on Hawaiians and other Polynesians as a result. While not addressed in this paper, the LDS Church did not succeed in its initial push to proselytize to Native American communities and so

Hawaiians became a new focus as the Church looked to convert and expand its holdings.

In this way, the LDS Church shifted its doctrine strategically to foster growth on the islands of Hawai'i through the religious ingenuity of Cannon’s vision and turned its focus

18 towards Native Hawaiians as a new ‘Chosen People’ that offered promise in its commitment to redeeming Lamanites.

Soon after Cannon’s revelation that the Native people of Hawai'i were descendants of Lamanites, the mission in Hawai'i drastically changed to concentrate on

Kanaka Maoli communities. As Cannon wrote in his journals, the missionaries worked hard to learn the language, spend time with and preach to Native Hawaiians, and make connections in the community (Cannon). Since a primary motivation to shift attention came from the lack of success with White residents on the islands, the new emphasis on language distinguished the LDS Church from other Christian groups as they worked to translate scripture, preach, and converse with Native Hawaiians in Ōlelo Hawaiʻi, their

Native tongue. Beyond the simple language acquisition, Mormon missionaries often lived in conditions similar to Native Hawaiians, unlike other religious leaders on the islands

(Maffly-Kipp 128-129). Both of these factors distinguished Mormon missionaries from other groups, and marked them as closer to Native Hawaiians. As Cannon and others gained converts, their recognition magnified as the LDS Church spent time, money, and talent on community development. As their relationship developed, the LDS church reaped the rewards of their doctrinal change, language learning, and living situation as

Native Hawaiians embraced the Church.

While missionaries in Hawai'i proselytized directly to potential new members, leaders and scholars in the LDS Church bolstered their success and continued investment in Native Hawaiian communities. As Aikau outlines in A Chosen People, A Promised

Land, many historians, anthropologists, and Church leaders confirmed and extended

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Cannon’s vision that established a link between Native Hawaiians and the Tribes of

Israel. In Hawai'i and across Polynesia, an important part of this link came through connecting fundamental Mormon beliefs to creation/origin stories across cultures. Aikau claims that as Church leaders such as Louise Pratt, Elder Duncan McAllister, and

Norman Douglas developed correlations between Mormon doctrine and Native beliefs to confirm and strengthen missionary work (Aikau 46-50). A major part of this strategy came through the story of Hagoth, told in the Book of Mormon. Alma 63:5-8 reads:

“And it came to pass that Hagoth, he being an exceeding curious man,

therefore he went forth and built him an exceeding large ship on the borders of the

land Bountiful by the land Desolation and launched it forth into the west sea by

the narrow neck which led into the land northward. And behold, there were many

of the Nephites which did enter therein and did sail forth with much provisions

and also many women and children; and they took their course northward. And

thus ended the thirty and seventh year. And in the thirty and eighth year this man

built other ships. And the first ship did also return; and many more people did

enter into it, and they also took much provisions and set out again to the land

northward. And it came to pass that they never were heard of more. And we

suppose that they are drowned up in the depths of the sea. And it came to pass that

one other ship also did sail forth, and whither she did go we know not.”

These short scriptures are the basis for Mormon leaders and scholars to claim that Hagoth traveled to the Pacific, and founded communities across Polynesia. Here, the LDS

Church utilized scripture to validate Cannon’s vision to serve as a basis for continued

20 missionary work across the Pacific and especially in Hawai'i. As a result, the LDS

Church legitimated its own claims and made a clear connection with Native connection in scripture. The addition of doctrinal evidence for Cannon’s claim is vital for missionary work and the LDS Church’s justification for its actions to buy land and establish economic ventures in Hawai'i.

The LDS Church pressured indigenous communities in Hawai’i to relinquish traditional tribal lands for economic development and Church objectives. Specifically, the

LDS Church purchased Hawaiian land and eventually built the Lā‘ie Temple, Brigham

Young University-Hawaii, and the Polynesian Cultural Center (Aikau 80). This is deeply connected to previously mentioned goals of economic self-sustenance through establishing control of land, resources, and institutions. The Church established religion, ideas, and commerce through the construction of these projects which increase Mormon presence on land and feeds into the economic gains of the Church. Ingenuity and adaptation opened the door for Mormon global expansion in Hawai’i where religion and cultural tourism converge. The Church’s embrace of Polynesian culture serves Mormon goals of increased membership and investment in capital while also creating a space for indigenous members to practice and share their cultures. Modern Native Hawaiian members carefully navigate both religious and cultural identities in complicated ways.

Cultural tourism and faith combine to create an interesting situation of maintaining culture and performing a racialized notion of the “happy native” (124-125). Additionally,

Aikau records how the Church both displaced Native Hawaiians and provided land for

Hawaiian industry (13). While Mormon and Lamanite identity are inherently White,

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Native Hawaiian members maintain faith and ethnicity. Through establishing a Mormon community and buying land from converted members, the LDS Church expanded and gained economic capital in Hawai’i. While the LDS Church claimed land in Hawai'i to further Church development, Native Hawaiians and other Polynesians joined the faith and supported these ventures for a variety of reasons. Laurie Maffly-Kipp argues that Saints across the Pacific experienced and joined the Church in distinct ways from Latter-day

Saints in the contiguous States and that an affective connection through shared persecution, as well as a historical story of lineage and connection attracted Indigenous converts (Maffly-Kipp and Neilson). The specific context of the LDS Church in Hawai'i brings together religious ingenuity, scripture, and personal connection as major factors for the success of missionary work.

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Chapter 4. Baptism, Ritual, Bodies

Catherine Bell’s four features of practice guide my exploration of baptismal ritual in the

Mormon Church. In Ritual Practice, Ritual Theory, she outlines the four features as:

“(1) situational; (2) strategic; (3) embedded in a misrecognition of what it is in fact doing; and (4) able to reproduce or reconfigure a vision of the order of power in the world, or what I will call ‘redemptive hegemony’” (Bell). These four features provide important insight for my approach to Mormon Bodies. In the following section, I detail how

Mormon baptism follows each feature, and how we can theorize through and with Bell on the implications of these features. Her work establishes a framework for the study of ritual, as well as the ultimate importance of baptism in the Mormon Church as a tool for religious inclusion and settler colonialism.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has many important ordinances and principles that exist and operate in distinct ways. The ordinance of baptism traces its roots to early Christianity, with John the Baptist and Jesus Christ as the prime examples of the practice as necessary for salvation. Baptismal doctrine in the LDS Church connects to and impacts a multitude of other doctrines, including the racializing doctrine regarding

Native Hawaiians. I employ doctrinal alongside theoretical analysis in conversation with

Catherine Bell’s work to examine baptism in the LDS Church as a ritual. I will describe the doctrine of baptism, its connection to racializing doctrine, and claims of

23 lineage/racialization. Mormon baptism clearly falls beneath Bell’s definitions of practice/ritual, therefore an analysis of baptism’s embodiment of the four features of practice reveals its mechanisms, logics, and capacities. I contend that the LDS Church’s racializing of Native people and baptismal doctrine operate in tandem to create and reify hierarchies, differentiation, and sameness to provide a unified body of the LDS Church by way of redemptive hegemony.

In Gospel Principles, a book written to be a personal guidebook and lesson manual for LDS Church members, it reads that “Baptism is the first ordinance of the gospel” (Gospel Principles). This chapter turns its focus to the reasons for being baptized, the correctness of LDS Baptismal practice, who should be baptized, covenants of baptism, and the “new life” given through baptism. Each member of the LDS Church must be baptized, following in the example of Jesus Christ. For most members, this is a day of celebration that is attended by extended family, members of their local congregation, and family friends and even non-members. As the first ordinance, it takes on the role of initial acceptance and recognition of membership in the Church both literally as a part of the records of the Church and figuratively as a part of the congregation. Children born in the faith are typically baptized at the age of eight, which is recognized as the age of accountability. For converts, baptism acts as the moment of full acceptance and commitment to the gospel, and is often seen as the beginning of a new life as a righteous member (Gospel Principles). While every member undergoes baptism, the significance of the ritual in Hawai'i and other Native/Indigenous communities comes from its importance to inclusion in the congregation. Through ritual

24 theory, I argue that baptism acts as a key doctrine and practice that sustains Lamanite doctrine and sameness within the LDS Church and that Mormons enact religious inclusion through baptism’s power to rectify difference.

Catherine Bell claims that practice has four main features that make up ritual activity for humans. She proposes that practice is situational, strategic, rooted in misrecognition, and engaged in what she calls “redemptive hegemony” by reproducing a concept of power relations. Baptism in the LDS Church clearly embodies these four features. First, baptism is situational and used for specific people and contexts. Members are baptized at the time of their conversion, at the age of eight, or deceased through baptism for the dead. Baptism is strategic since it serves as a remission of sins, and is necessary for salvation as the first ordinance of the LDS Church. There is a misrecognition of what is happening, as baptism is seen as serving the purpose of cleansing of skin but actually functions as a marker of coming of age or responsibility, the moment at which a person joins the LDS Church, or the inclusion of the person into

Mormon lineage. Finally, the feature that Bell calls redemptive hegemony acts to construct baptism as a perceived benefit, sense of place, inclusion in the church power structures, and personal empowerment through the Mormon faith. Clearly, baptism is a ritual that can be analyzed through Bell’s four features, which therefore reveals through ritual theory the various obscured aspects of baptism in the LDS Church.

The actual ritual of baptism takes place in a variety of ways because of its situational application. However, all take place with the same prayer and action

25 as described by this quote from the Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood: Basic Manual for Priesthood Holders, Part B:

“The ordinance of baptism is performed only by a worthy priest or

Melchizedek Priesthood holder under the direction of the presiding authority. The

holder: Stands in the water with the person to be baptized. (For

convenience and safety) holds the person’s right wrist with his left hand; the

person being baptized holds the priesthood holder’s left wrist with his or her left

hand. Raises his right arm to the square. States the person’s full name and says,

“Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen” (D&C 20:73). Has the

person hold his or her nose with the right hand (for convenience); then the

priesthood holder places his right hand high on the person’s back and immerses

the person completely, including the person’s clothing. Helps the person come up

out of the water. Each baptism must be witnessed by two priests or Melchizedek

Priesthood holders, who make sure it is performed properly. The baptism must be

repeated if the prayer was not stated accurately or if part of the body or clothing

of the person being baptized was not immersed completely.”

Once the subject has come up out of the water they have been cleansed of sin and are recognized as a part of the LDS Church. For Lamanites, this also means a literal and figurative return to their righteous ancestry from the Book of Mormon. As told in the second book of Nephi, Lamanites could only return through righteousness and acceptance of the true Gospel (i.e. LDS Church). For Native people, the first step to this is baptism,

26 and in Hawai'i these beliefs were and are crucial to the engagement of Kanaka Maoli in the Church. The story of Lehi and his family gains traction as a possibility within Native

Hawaiian communities because of the story of Hagoth. Furthermore, inclusion into the

LDS Church offered many social, economic, and religious benefits to Native Hawaiians amidst the colonizing of the Hawaiian Islands. These combining forces contributed to the

LDS Church’s success in conversions and attainment of land in Hawai'i, as the situational aspect of baptism encouraged Native Hawaiians to join the Church.

Another aspect of ritual, and therefore Mormon baptism, is its strategic quality to serve a larger purpose. Since salvation rests on the need to be baptized in the Mormon

Church, Joseph Smith established the practice of baptisms by proxy (Doctrine and

Covenants Section 124). This practice allows living people to perform rites for the dead in order to provide them with the possibility of salvation and ensure a genealogical line of righteous members. Through baptisms for the dead, Lamanites can be restored to being white and delightsome postmortem, eternal marriages can be conducted by proxy, and generative qualities of righteousness can be bestowed upon the dead. In baptisms for the dead, done in an LDS temple, members act as proxies for the ritual. The prayer, the complete immersion, and the priesthood authority are vital to have a proper baptism and are rooted in doctrine regarding Jesus Christ and John the Baptist. Baptism by immersion acts as a literal and figurative cleansing, with the body and clothing being completely immersed and therefore signifying the cleansing of the soul as well.

For the living, but especially with baptisms for the dead, the blurring of material and spiritual existence comes together in this moment. Baptism, and other doctrine,

27 demonstrate that the LDS Church believes that the material/spiritual are deeply connected, which is important to thinking about how the LDS Church approaches bodies/spirits and what this means for Native people. By thinking through the ritual of baptism (for the living and the dead), one can see that its significance comes primarily in its power to cleanse sin from the participant. For most members, baptism acts to make one pure and/or bring someone who died into the Church in the afterlife. For people given the label of Lamanite, this purification is the mechanism to be brought back to an ancestral righteousness and remove the curse of darkness brought on by their forefathers’ actions. Since baptism can operate for the living and the dead, purification occurs on a spiritual plane and therefore the return to Whiteness must occur on that plane as well.

Through this theory on baptism, Bell’s ritual theory can move analysis deeper on the reasoning and power of baptism for the LDS Church in Hawai'i.

Catherine Bell outlines key attributes of ritual beyond the four features that move an analysis of LDS baptismal ritual towards an understanding of the purpose and implications of baptism. She claims that ritual primarily exists as a form that communicates, whether for differentiation or intra-group solidification (Bell 73). While baptism operates as the first ordinance meant for cleansing of skin and entrance into the

Church, it misrecognizes itself as baptism actually marks a person as Mormon and reifies hierarchies. These hierarchies include but are not limited to: Mormon/Gentile,

Righteous/Wicked, Pure/Impure, White/Non-White. In these binaries, which Bell calls

“ritual oppositions”, the first is always privileged (Bell 101). I focus on the combination of Mormon/Gentile and White/Non-White in regard to Native/Indigenous people to show

28 that baptism includes Native people in the LDS Church through conferring Whiteness onto their bodies. In joining the Church, Native people enter into a Church that believes

Native/Indigenous people in the Americas are descendants of Israel. This ancestry gives them access to Mormon faith but also acts to claim their bodies and souls. Therefore, as

Bell argues, ritual (or baptism) is about an assertion of difference (Native) and sameness

(Israelite) – joining the Mormon-Righteous-Pure-White body of the Church (Bell 102).

Native Hawaiians are different from the majority of LDS members because of their indigeneity, but Lamanite identity combined with baptism acts to return them to their original status as descendants of the Tribes of Israel. To explore this more, we must turn to LDS Church doctrine on lineage to understand its racialization of Native/Indigenous people as well as the significance of this doctrine in relation to baptism and the body.

Genealogy serves the Mormon Church in various ways through its power to trace lineages back to the Tribes of Israel, place Native and indigenous people as previously

White, and access to salvation for dead ancestors. In 1894, President called all members “to trace their as far as they can, and to be sealed to their fathers and mothers” (Pratt). Early in Church history the Mormons began to record their family histories in order to perform baptisms and other for the deceased. Eternal families are central to Mormon beliefs, and so lineage plays a vital part in Mormon identity especially in their descent from the Tribes of Israel. The LDS Church produces racialized doctrine through the Tribes of Israel, as different racialized groups are a part of different tribes. Lehi traced his lineage back to the Tribe of Manasseh, while European

Mormons claimed lineage through the Tribe of Ephraim. Patriarchal blessings are an

29 important mechanism the Church uses to identify lineage and race. This practice reveals the member’s tribal affiliation and imparts a personal message about the individual.

Traditionally, people of European descent are told they are members of the Tribe of

Ephraim while Native members are a part of the Tribe of Manasseh. Early Mormon officials depicted descendants of Ephraim as a privileged class, and those of Manasseh or other tribes as secondary members (Cannell 584-586). This tradition perpetuates racialized notions of worthiness, placing Whiteness above all other racial identities.

Furthermore, the connection of Native people in Americas to the tribe of Manasseh connects to the Book of Mormon story of how Lamanites were cursed with dark skin, but could return to be “white and delightsome” by rejoining the Church (Book of Mormon).

Racializing doctrine in the LDS Church focuses on lineage through the Tribes of Israel and connects itself to baptism as the mechanism to return to the fold, thus returning to

Whiteness.

Notably, the chapter on baptism in Gospel Principles begins with a quote from

Matthew 28:19-20 which emphasizes the call to proselytize amongst all nations. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

There is a clear tie between baptism and racializing doctrine since the call to convert all nations expresses itself in long histories of settler colonial logics and racializing doctrine.

Not only does it place Whiteness on the members, but it places former Mormon status on all Native people in the Americas. Therefore, the Mormon Church believes that God and

30 the LDS Church have claim to Native bodies, both material and celestial. Furthermore, this claim extends beyond death through baptisms for the dead.

While some LDS Church officials and documents have stated that Native people in the Americas and Polynesia are becoming literally White again, the official stance of the Church has moved to a more figurative interpretation. However, Bell’s work and understanding baptisms for the dead as a ritual for celestial bodies muddies the distinction between material and spiritual bodies. Missionaries and Church leaders focused on the return of the Lamanites to becoming “white and delightsome” like unto the scriptures. In 1960, Elder Spencer W. Kimball declared:

“The day of the Lamanites is nigh. For year they have been growing

delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were

promised. In this picture of the twenty Lamanite missionaries, fifteen of the

twenty were as white as Anglos; five were darker but equally delightsome”

(Southerton, 40).

Kimball demonstrated a clear commitment by Church officials to bring Whiteness

(literally and figuratively) to the Lamanites. As addressed earlier, the July of 1971 special edition of The Ensign reiterated the Mormon belief of Lehi’s migration, discussed the special place held by Lamanites in the faith, and lauded programs created by the Church to aid Native people (The Ensign). In this magazine and in various statements by authorities in the Church, the current doctrine has moved to a figurative interpretation, one that thinks of the “white” in “white and delightsome” as meaning pure. While this new interpretation distances the Church from a clearly White supremacist and settler

31 colonial ideology, there remains a clear association between White/Pure and

Dark/Wicked. With the curse on the Lamanites as being a darkening of skin, there is no escaping the racialized nature of the doctrine. However, I argue that this move to a figurative interpretation is one that focuses more on ‘spiritual’ bodies as the Church seeks to reclaim souls and return them to righteousness. Baptism is transforming not the material bodies but the celestial/spiritual bodies that are so key to Mormon theology.

Through baptism, the LDS Church subsumes Nativeness and replaces it with Whiteness by way of lineage. A combined claim on spirit and body demonstrates the nuanced context of religious inclusion within an institution that enacts doctrine couched in settler colonialism. Native Hawaiians believe and participate in baptism and the LDS Church precisely because the Church believes that they are returning to this pre-cursed state. Bell argues that ritual necessarily includes redemptive hegemony, and Native Hawaiians are baptized to quite literally ‘redeem’ them and return them to their previous righteous state, one which is predicated on Whiteness through ancestry that extends to the spiritual world.

Baptism acts as a redemptive ritual, both in the LDS Church doctrine and through

Bell’s theory on ‘redemptive hegemony’ in ritual. Redemptive hegemony is a combination of Kenelm Burridge’s “redemptive process, and Antonio Gramsci’s

“hegemony” that Bell created to think through ritual’s purpose. She argues that as the fourth feature of practice, redemptive hegemony is intricately tied to each of the other features and most importantly has to do with the motivation and agency within the act.

For baptism in the LDS Church, particularly for Native Hawaiians, the question of motivation presents an interesting situation for consideration. By utilizing Bell’s theory

32 on redemptive hegemony, we can think thorugh the possible motivating factors for

Native Hawaiians to participate in baptism and join the LDS Church without access to oral histories, personal accounts, or archival research.

For Bell’s interpretation, Burridge’s redemptive process claims that people reproduce power relations indirectly while having the sense of agency and ability to change the context in which they do so. She reads Gramsci’s hegemony as an ideology that enforces the desires of the powerful to control the subordinate classes. In her combination, power relations are not stagnant but rather dynamic and shifting as people make choices according to their perceptions of agency and ability to act within their capacities. Bell claims that “reality is experienced as a natural weave of constraint and possibility, the fabric of day-to-day dispositions and decisions experienced as a field for strategic action” (Bell, 84). For Kanaka Maoli Mormons, they are always “other” as

Native people in a primarily White religion that enacts settler colonialism in a multitude of ways. However, the “weave of constraint and possibility” that exists in the redemptive hegemony of the Church. Bell argues that “to analyze practice in terms of its vision of redemptive hegemony is, therefore, to formulate the unexpressed assumptions that constitute the actor’s strategic understanding of the place, purpose, and trajectory of the act” (Bell 85). Interrogating baptism and Lamanite doctrine in the LDS Church reveals the constraint/possibility of participating in the faith with economic, social, and religious power.

33

Chapter 5. Conclusion

Tracing the history of the LDS Church’s doctrine and relationship with

Native/Indigenous people from the faith’s founding up to present day beliefs serves as the foundation of a close analysis of the Mormon Church and Native Hawaiian relations.

Lamanite doctrine primed the LDS Church to seek out Native Hawaiians as a part of a legacy of missionary work and sense of responsibility tied to American ideologies on

Native people deeply rooted in settler colonialism. This connection between early

Mormon theology before Elder Cannon’s mission and the subsequent shift through religious ingenuity shows how the LDS Church adjusted to achieve success in Hawai'i.

The Church embraced Native Hawaiians through both theological and cultural changes as they learned the language, served communities, and invested in Kanaka Maoli culture.

All of these factors contributed to the success of the LDS Church in Hawai'i in gaining converts as well as establishing institutions such as -Hawai'i and the Polynesian Cultural Center. While the LDS Church enacts settler colonialism through its land claims, Native participation and faith point to a more nuanced understanding of the Church.

Looking at Native Hawaiian participation in the LDS Church and its seemingly settler colonial projects offers an opportunity to interrogate the motivations and factors that lead Kanaka Maoli to engage in the Mormon Church. While at first glance, the

34

Church seems to operate solely as a settler colonial institution inflicting harm on Native communities, the success in converting Native Hawaiians disrupts this assumption and reveals a complex relation of power between the Church and its members. The economic, social, and spiritual benefits of joining motivate Native people to join the Church, as they hold a special place in the faith through Lamanite identity. This position offers the ability to negotiate with the Church, taking advantage of opportunities from the institution while holding onto aspects of history and culture through Lamanite identity. Furthermore,

Bell’s work on ritual theory unveils how baptism and racializing theology are connected and represent possibility amidst limitation.

As an interdisciplinary project approaching the LDS Church in Hawai'i from a historical and theoretical framework, this paper is limited by a lack of field research and archival access. However, this constraint presents itself as an opportunity for future research with archival research and ethnographic work to further study how the LDS

Church and Native Hawaiians are connected. The work in this paper serves as a historical overview and theoretical framework for thinking through Native Hawaiian Mormons’ place in the Church, and can be developed with more research to uncover the salience of

Lamanite identity, baptism, and redemptive hegemony for individuals and the community. Through that research, a comprehensive analysis can be made to understand the nuance and importance of the relationship between Kanaka Maoli and the LDS

Church.

35

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