"Examines the cooperation and conflict, violence and political maneuvering between the Mormons and Native Americans using the journals, letters, reports, and recollections of the people closest to the experience, and provide basic cultural, historical, and environmental perspectives to comprehend the Native world"--

"Native young people and elders pray in sweat lodges at the Ocťi Sakw̤in camp, the North Dakota landscape outside blanketed in snow. In Oregon, white men and women in army surplus and western gear, some draped in the American flag, gather in the buildings of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge. The world witnessed two standoffs in 2016: the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's protest against an oil pipeline in North Dakota and the armed takeover of Oregon's Malheur...

"Mormons and Utes met here when Manti was settled in 1849. Their subsequent encounters were not always as friendly. For example, the Sanpete settlers fled from the resistance of Indians under Walkara and Black Hawk. Scandinavians, especially Danes, settled Manti in large numbers. The crown jewel of their many achievements, was the temple, rising majestically at the north end of Manti. It came to symbolize the spiritual center of people's lives"--Insert....

"When it comes to American Indian treaties, the American polity too often forgets the realities of history. Prevailing perceptions are often not only inaccurate but also premised on outright falsehoods. Treaty-making was profoundly influenced by tribal conceptions of diplomacy. Colonial and early U.S. treaties especially were clothed in ritual, metaphor, and covenants that emphasized the sacred nature and purpose of diplomacy and represented a time...