P. Jane Hafen

American Indians have long played a central role in Mormon history and its narratives. Their roles, however, have often been cast in support of traditional Mormon beliefs and as a reaffirmation of colonial discourses. This collection of essays, many the result of a seminar hosted by the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University, explores the historical and cultural complexities of this narrative from a decolonizing perspective. Essays cover the historical construction of the “Lamanite,” settler colonialism and the Book of Mormon, and connections between the Seneca leader Handsome Lake and Joseph Smith. Authors also address American Indian Mormon tribal identities, Navajo and Mormon participation at the dedication of Glen Canyon Dam, the impact of Mormon Polynesian missionaries in Dine´ Bike´yah, the ISPP, and other topics. Prominent American Indian Mormon voices lend their creative work and personal experiences to the book. With the aim of avoiding familiar narrative patterns of settler colonialism, contributors seek to make American Indians the subjects rather than the objects of discussion in relation to Mormons, presenting new ways to explore and reframe these relationships.

Zitkala-Ša, also known as Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, was born on the Yankton Sioux reservation in 1876 and went on to become one of the most influential American Indian writer/activists of the twentieth century. "Help Indians Help Themselves": The Later Writings of Gertrude Simmons Bonnin (Zitkala-Ša) is a critical collection of primary documents written by Bonnin who was principally known for the memoir of her boarding school experience, "Help Indians Help Themselves" expands the published work of Zitkala-Ša, adding insight to a life of writing and political activism on behalf of American Indians in the early twentieth century. Edited by P. Jane Hafen, "Help Indians Help Themselves" documents Bonnin's passion for justice in Indian America and outlines the broad scope of her life's work. In the American Indian Magazine, the publication of the Society of American Indians, and through her work for the National Council of American Indians, Bonnin developed her emphasis, as Hafen writes, on "resistance, tribal nationalism, land rights and call for civil rights." "Help Indians Help Themselves" also brings to light Bonnin's letters, speeches, and congressional testimony, which coincide with important developments of the relationship between American Indians and the U. S. federal government. Legislation such as the Citizenship Act of 1924, the Meriam Report of 1928, and the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 is reflected through the work collected in "Help Indians Help Themselves". In these writings, in newsletters, and in voluminous correspondence—most of which have never before been published—Bonnin advocates tirelessly for "the Indian Cause.

American Indians have long played a central role in Mormon history and its narratives. Their roles, however, have often been cast in support of traditional Mormon beliefs and as a reaffirmation of colonial discourses. This collection of essays, many the result of a seminar hosted by the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies at Brigham Young University, explores the historical and cultural complexities of this narrative from a decolonizing perspective. Essays cover the historical construction of the ""Lamanite,"" settler colonialism and the Book of Mormon, and connections between the Seneca leader Handsome Lake and Joseph Smith. Authors also address American Indian Mormon tribal identities, Navajo and Mormon participation at the dedication of Glen Canyon Dam, the impact of Mormon Polynesian missionaries in Dine´ Bike´yah, the ISPP, and other topics. Prominent American Indian Mormon voices lend their creative work and personal experiences to the book. With the aim of avoiding familiar narrative patterns of settler colonialism, contributors seek to make American Indians the subjects rather than the objects of discussion in relation to Mormons, presenting new ways to explore and reframe these relationships.

Some 30,000 American Indians call Albuquerque, New Mexico, home, and twelve Indigenous nations, mostly Pueblo, live within a fifty-mile radius of it. Yet no study until now has focused on the complexities of urban American Indian experience in the state’s largest city. Indigenous Albuquerque examines the dilemmas confronting urban Indians as a result of a colonized past—and present—and the relationship between the City of Albuquerque and its Native residents. Treating not only issues of identity but also education, welfare, health care, community organizations, and community efforts to counter colonization, Myla Vicenti Carpio explores every aspect of Indigenous life in the city. “Urban” as a lived experience, she suggests, does not occur in isolation from either Indigenous communities’ survival or the legacies of Euroamerican colonization. This experience is integrally connected not only through cultural, religious, political, and economic spheres, but also through the legacy of federal reservation police, and thus cannot be understood as distinct from reservation life. By specifically considering the intersection of city and citizen, Vicenti Carpio expresses the dilemmas confronting urban Indians as a result of their colonized past. While Indigenous Albuquerque reflects the discipline of American Indian Studies, it is also relevant to American Indian history, ethnic studies, public policy, and urban history.