NOTE: 12/22/2022, all posts for the year 2022 hve been moved to our News Archive. You are welcome to browse our archive by clicking on the News Archive link above.
01/18/2023
Did You Know?
When the Civil War ended in 1865, attention turned toward western expansion and the U.S. military to Indian fighting. The United States government called for the extermination of tribes who resisted giving up their land. Highly publicized massacres of Indians brought the attention of philanthropic groups. American humanitarians proposed a new solution to the "Indian problem" by eliminating Indianness through acculturation. Christian reformers argued that if Indians were assimilated, the Indian problem would vanish. In the 1860s, the U.S. adopted a Peace Policy, gradually shifting toward a more peaceful approach, and genocide of Native Americans was officially discouraged. The Peace Policy meant forcing Native tribes to reservations and boarding house schools to assimilate them into white culture, thus eliminating Native peoples bloodlessly. The intended effect of the Peace Policy was to prevent the rampant slaughter of Native Americans.
Christianization, education, and cultural development became the means to
assimilate tribal peoples so that they could be integrated and absorbed by mainstream society. Example, the LDS church converted many of Utah's Native Americans to Mormonism, according to church doctrine, and in so doing, the so-called "loathsome" Indians would become a "white and delightsome people." They would be forgiven of the sins of their forefathers. (Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 5:21-23) According to church doctrine, the nature of the dark skin was a curse, and the cause was the Lord; the reason that the Lamanites (Indians) "had hardened their hearts against him, (God)," and the punishment was to make them "loathsome" unto God's people who had white skins.
12/15/2022
Gratitude from Phillip B Gottfredson
A few days ago, I received an e-mail from Marcus, a young man who explained he had just finished reading my book Black Hawk's Mission of Peace. "It was life-changing," he wrote. He liked it so much that he went out and bought four more books to give his friends as Christmas gifts. If that weren't enough, he made a sizable donation to BlackHawkProductions.com to thank us for all our hard work.
I wanted to share this with all of our supporters because I appreciate people like Marcus for his thoughtfulness and incredible generosity. To all who have helped us through the years, a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone. We love you!
12/10/2022
COLONIALISM VS. SETTLER COLONIALISM
"Settler Colonialism" is a fairly new term we have recently added to the narrative of the Black Hawk War. What is the difference between Settler Colonialism and colonialism? The Oxford dictionary defines colonialism as "the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically."
Settler colonialism is more specific. "Settler colonialism is an ongoing system of power that perpetuates the genocide and repression of indigenous peoples and cultures." According to Global Social Theory, "Settler colonialism is a distinct type of colonialism that functions through the replacement of indigenous populations with an invasive settler society that, over time, develops a distinctive identity and sovereignty." It is the elimination of Native Americans, and the seizure of land and resources in perpetuity.
Over the past month, Phillip B Gottfredson has updated much of the website injecting the term Settler Colonialism to the narrative so people better understand that it is the primary cause of Utah's Black Hawk War. For example, in the opening paragraph of the website he wrote, "Settler colonialism is the primary cause of Utah's Black Hawk War. The war spanned 24 years from when Mormons' arrived in the upper Great Basin in 1847 to the extermination and forced removal of the Timpanogos Nation of the Wasatch to the Uintah Valley Reservation in 1871."
Another example, "Religion had a significant role in the Black Hawk War in Utah, cultural conflict, political motivation, and legal justification for settler colonization of North America. "Papal authority is the basis for United States power over indigenous peoples," wrote Peter d'Errico, Legal Studies Department, University of Massachusetts/Amherst."
Follow Us on FACEBOOK