From 1947 to 2000, some 50,000 Native American children left reservations to live with Mormon foster families. While some dropped out of the Indian Student Placement Program (ISPP), for others the monthsspent living with LDS families proved more influential than expected. The ISPP emerged in the mid-twentieth century, championed by Apostle Spencer W. Kimball, and aligned with the then national preference to terminate tribal entities and assimilate indigenous peoples. But as the national paradigm shifted to self-determination, critics labeled the program as crudely assimilationist and colonialist. Some ISPP students like Navajo George P. Lee fiercely defended the LDS Church before native peers and Congress, contending that it empowered Native people and instilled a true Indian identity. Meanwhile, Red Power activists organized protests in Salt Lake City, denouncing LDS colonialism. Later, a new generation of church leaders quietly undercut Indian programs, leaving many of its former participants with a sense of confusion and abandonment. Making Lamanites traces student experiences within contested cultural landscapes to reveal how and why many of these Native youth adopted a new notion of Indianness.
Matthew Garrett is professor of history at Bakersfield College, where he also works in the college archives. He recently joined the editorial board of the Journal of Mormon History.
"Using historical themes of colonization, assimilation, and identity, Matthew Garrett presents an extraordinary revelation of indigenous resilience among 50,000 native students during the second half of the twentieth century. He argues convincingly for the survival of Indian identity as youth, becoming Lamanites, spent the formative years of their lives in the Indian Student Placement Program. This brilliant expose? advances our understanding of Indian-white relations, and it is truly an award-winning book!" --Donald L. Fixico (Shawnee, Sac & Fox, Mvskoke Creek and Seminole), Distinguished Foundation Professor of History, Arizona State University "An outstanding contribution." --Laurie Maffly-Kipp, Archer Alexander Distinguished Professor of Religion and Politics, Washington University "An impressive volume with extensive footnotes, a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography, and a valuable index. It contains an in-depth discussion, analysis, and detailed history of a program that included fifty thousand students and became something of a household topic for several earlier decades." --The Journal of Arizona History
