I enjoyed reading this post and felt inspired to give my input on the LDS records; especially if your possible native ancestor was baptized and joined the Latter Day Saints becoming a member of the church.
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First, we must understand the history of the Mormon Church and the Native peoples. The Mormons were the first of the newcomers to claim the native people as Laminates; a cursed group whose skin was made dark. A cursed group from the Children of Israel making them brethren if they returned to the path of G-D. In fact, with belief that by intermarrying with them they would become," white and delightsome people."
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(1840), 2 Nephi 30:6 has read:
“…their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome people.”
2 Nephi 5:21 still says:
“And he had 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, and 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.”
Third Nephi 2:12-15 continues to teach that dark-skinned Lamanites who converted unto the Lord had their curse “taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites.”
At the October 1960 LDS Church Conference, Spencer Kimball utilized 2 Nephi 30:6 when he stated how the Indians “are fast becoming a white and delightsome people.” He said, “The [Indian] children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation” (Improvement Era, December 1960, pp. 922-3).
During the same message Kimball referred to a 16-year-old Indian girl who was both LDS and “several shades lighter than her parents…” He went on to say, “These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness. One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated.”
http://www.mrm.org/white-and-delightsome
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This meaning, at one point, many Mormons were marrying natives. Especially, during the time when having multiple wives was permitted in the church. The United States new government feared this unity between the two groups and the Natives and Mormons were equally persecuted. Thus, causing early migration of both Mormons and Natives as they searched for a new region with less hostility and place to claim as their own.
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QUESTIONS:
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How might this effect the Mormon records?
Where are all the records of these Native and Mormon marriages?
Have you heard of paper genocide?
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Paper Genocide: The Historical Suppression of Native American Indian Heritage on Gov. Record
https://youtu.be/vU0_1q25nxM
The U.S. government was guilty of this, and unfortunately, so is the LDS Mormon church.
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Once US census records started labeling people according to their “so called” color, the Mormon church, also participated in paper genocide; due to their religious beliefs and doctrine, as well as, the fear already instilled in them by the hostility of past experiences with The United States Government because of the alliance with the natives.
Because of the above reasons the LDS Church, most definitely, would have listed “MOST” if not “ALL” of their members as “White”.
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I find this problem with several of my trees and lines as my family joined the church from the beginning and migrated very early with the Mormons.
Example: My Brown Family line.
Most Mormons know the name James Stephens Brown.
He was a great man with dedication to the church. He was a friend to the Natives knowing many languages as a interpreter. The church never mentions the notion that he may descend from a mixed colonial line. Even my own family oral tradition only mentions him to be a Portigee-Scott. Mormon records most likely list him as, “White”.
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But, a court record found by a Brown family relative (James Brown Klein) paints a completely different story about my Brown family line.
In fact, in a Stillwell court case against my family witnesses claimed:
https://media.geni.com/p13/00/4b/6b/d8/534448475914bafc/stillwellco...
“it appears that William BROWN, / father of James, / and the wife of William were colored people, that they had the following children Wm. BROWN, James BROWN, Charity BROWN, Betty BROWN, Hannah BROWN, Pepper(?) [Patsy or Margaret] BROWN, Susanna BROWN, & Constant BROWN; the latter of whom is said to dead, but which of the others are dead it is not known, but all of them, or most of them are believed still to be living, or to have had children who are living, but who live as they are informed in distant parts of the United States, but where is unknown to any persons from whom information has been obtained; but all of whom are colored persons, & from their appearance & complexion, afforded evidence to everybody, that they were of mixed blood; and that Pepper(?) ROBERTS, the mother of their intestate, was known to be a woman of fair complexion & never suspected by her neighbors in Johnson County to be mixed blood.
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Small History:
My Brown family were very early North Carolina Natives with land plots in old Rowan County before many settlers arrived.
One reason my Brown family relatives left North Carolina with the Mormons was that their homes had been burnt down on two separate occasions. We know this was a tactic used many times to remove natives from their property and areas of inhabitation.
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In Conclusion, when we research our ancestors records, we must understand that the census records and description of color was full of: confusion, change, alteration, and paper genocide. For many natives assimilation into the new “White America” was a way of safety, a way of being considered a equal, and being accepted by the new majority group reshaping what they thought ethnicity was. A true paper genocide did take place erasing the past of many of our colonial / native roots. The Mormon LDS church as mentioned above is a part of this “Paper Genocide” literally making people white again on paper records, due to religious beliefs, and who the native people were and would become joining the church. There must have been many mixed marriages to fulfill this prophecy idea. But, where has the records of all these mixed marriages gone? The Mormon Church also, was pressing hard to become a state reporting to the government census. Because of the hostility between the US government and the Mormons becoming united with the Native peoples, it becomes common sense they would report their members as “WHITE” civilized brethren. The unfortunate problems to these motives are we lose who we are as modern day Americans. You are veiled to your native roots which vibrate within your DNA and make you who you really are. The fact that many of us are mixed blood with colonial roots is strong and valid. Just because a census record reports your ancestor a particular way on census records, it should not be considered solid fact. As shown with one example of my Brown Family line, other records might show differently. When it comes to the records of the Mormon Church, if they were baptized members of the church, please believe they were indeed made white again. Paper Genocide is real and effects many of us today.
With care, Dr. Anwar M. Ibrahim
I do not believe the percentages to be precisely accurate some Native DNA may not show based on database, distance of time from native ancestor, and method of testing. I do believe in the future DNA tests and overlapping segments will be used to help verify tribal claims.
for a detailed copy of this in PDF format, maps, and pictures can be found here.
https://media.geni.com/p13/16/06/a5/e3/5344484938398a13/paper_genoc...
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