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Mormons in the Tuba City Area

by Rex C. Reeve, Jr. and Galen L. Fletcher

"A Foreign Mission": Tuba City

When President Hal Taylor was called to preside over the Southwest Indian mission in 1965, he was told by Elder N. Eldon Tanner that he was going to serve in one of the "most difficult and foreign missions in the Church. President Taylor did not understand what Elder Tanner meant. At that time LDS missionaries were being sent to Japan, Korea, and many other countries outside the United States. How could northern Arizona, a few miles from Utah, be so different? Why would anyone call service to the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni Indians (among others) foreign?

The Church in the early sixties was in the beginning stages of its current international expansion. Although the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ remain the same, the missionaries of the Church twenty-five years ago began to discover as never before that different cultures and backgrounds often presented special challenges when implementing the structures and programs of the Church among the various peoples of the earth. There were particular obstacles in areas and cultures where there were no European-based traditions, as in the Orient.

The new challenges of teaching the principles of the gospel and implementing the programs of the Church in all the earth was made easier by the humble efforts of a few who hard struggled with the same problems in one of the "most difficult and foreign missions in the Church" right here at home. The questions of how to simplify the lessons and programs to fit any situation were being answered by those laboring to set up the Church among the Lamanite people. The experience gained from the Lamanite programs helped form the foundation for establishing the Church in all the earth.

The lessons learned from spreading the gospel to all peoples and cultures may now return and help in the continuing effort to establish the Church among the Native Americans. As a people, we should now be better prepared to accept all people as brothers and sisters in the gospel, and thus come closer to being no more strangers, but fellow citizens in Christ. The early Mormon missionaries and settlers in Tuba City labored valiantly and helped establish a foundation for missionary work in all the world. An understanding of both early Mormon and Indian history in Northern Arizona can lead us to a greater appreciation of our forefathers. It can bring us an increased awareness of the many possibilities that exist for us as we seek to carry out our contemporary responsibilities to teach the gospel to the seed of Lehi.

Introduction to the Early Period

From Jacob Hamblin's initial contacts with the Hopi people in 1865 to the present, 1986, the work of Mormon missionaries in Tuba City and its sister "city," Moenkopi, has been a history of bravery in the face of hardships, love despite cultural misunderstandings, and small threads of hope sometimes barely visible in the face of seemingly overwhelming circumstances. The Mormons called to serve among the Indians in Tuba City had to struggle with many challenges. Often the early missionaries were themselves converts to the Church, seeking to fulfill their callings from the Prophet Brigham Young, sustained only by a testimony of the promises extended to the Lamanites in The Book of Mormon. They had to battle their own prejudices and perceptions of the Indians, they had to survive in the harsh Northern Arizona area, and they had to learn to press on in spite of apparent lack of success. None of these problems were easy to solve, especially when compounded by conflicts between missionaries, and between missionaries and Indians.