Question
Gramps,
In October 2010, Elder Larry J. Echo Hawk asked everyone (especially those of Lamanite descent) to read the Book of Mormon and to learn of its promises. What blessings are promised specifically to the Lamanites and their descendants? I know that we “will flourish like the rose”, as told to us in D&C, but I can’t find many more blessings that are for this group. Will those blessings apply to all Lamanite descendants, or only to those who are tribal citizens?
Sam
Answer
Sam,
From the beginning, The Book of Mormon positions the Lamanites—a group believed by early Church members to represent Native Americans—as central players in sacred history. According to The Book of Mormon’s title page, its message is “written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel … to show unto the remnant of the House of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever.”
Scriptural language introduces both blessings and curses tied to covenantal obedience. Grant Underwood (an LDS historian) observes, promises to the Lamanites involved survival, affliction, and eventual restoration: the “penalty of their backsliding is that they shall be scattered and smitten and driven by the Gentiles; the reward of their faith is that they are to survive all their afflictions and in time become the Lord’s own people again.” The Nephites, by contrast, are promised liberty and prosperity if righteous, but extinction if they fall, whereas the Lamanites are granted “an unconditional promise of survival” even through hardship.
Central to these promises is the expectation that, in the latter days, the Lamanites would embrace the gospel and experience a dramatic transformation. Key passages, notably 2 Nephi 30:6, prophesy that the “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 delightsome people.” This phrase would gain particular importance in both spiritual and racialized interpretations by Church members over time.
The Book of Mormon frequently employs physical descriptors, associating skin color and “blackness” with righteousness or unrighteousness. In Jacob 3, for example, the prophet rebukes the Nephites for reviling against the Lamanites “because of the darkness of their skins,” explicitly linking pigmentation with their group’s spiritual history. Yet Jacob also insists that if the Nephites do not repent, “their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God”—suggesting a more nuanced or spiritualized reading that goes beyond mere pigment.
However, in early Church practice and teaching, these terms were often taken quite literally. As B.H. Roberts summarized, the “very blackness of their skin is the result of God’s curse upon them for their unrighteousness; yet it is promised that the gospel… shall be declared among them … and 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 delightsome people.” This anticipated transformation was not limited to spiritual renewal but was understood by many as literal, physical whitening.
Such views found further support in missionary strategies and the settler colonial context. Joseph Smith and some early leaders taught that intermarriage between Church members and Native Americans would help fulfill the prophecy. In 1861, William W. Phelps recalled what he claimed to be an 1831 revelation attributed to Joseph Smith: “It is my will, in time, ye should take unto you wives of the Lamanites and Nephites, that their posterity may become white, delightsome, and just; for even now their females are more virtuous than the Gentiles.” Excommunicated Latter-day Saint Ezra T. Booth, writing in the same era, likewise reported that missionaries viewed such intermarriage as not only permissible but divinely sanctioned.
This perspective persisted, in various forms, for decades. Even in the twentieth century, Apostle (and later Church President) Spencer W. Kimball publicly joked about indigenous Church members “lightening” in complexion through righteousness. Similarly, Apostle Bruce R. McConkie wrote that indigenous Americans (“Lamanites”) would in due course “become again a white and delightsome people as were their ancestors many generations ago.”
Over time, the Church’s understanding of these terms and their applications evolved, reflecting both theological development and heightened sensitivity to issues of race and identity. Perhaps the most telling evidence is in the text of The Book of Mormon itself. When Joseph Smith prepared the 1840 edition, he edited 2 Nephi 30:6, replacing “white and delightsome” with “pure and delightsome”—a move suggesting a symbolic or spiritual interpretation was possible and perhaps preferable.
Still, “Lamanite” identity remained centrally important in Church outreach. From the nineteenth century onward, American Indians, indigenous people from Latin America, and even Polynesians have been identified within the tradition as “Lamanites,” with a special destiny prophesied for them. The Encyclopedia of Latter-Day Saint History observes, “Today Latter-day Saints typically identify American Indians, the indigenous peoples of Latin America, and Polynesians of the Pacific as ‘Lamanites’.”
Yet, the real lives and histories of these groups did not always align with the narratives predicted by early missionary optimism and scriptural prophecy. The decades-long mission to indigenous peoples was marked as much by cultural misunderstanding and marginalization as by success or transformation. Notably, the promise that indigenous peoples would “be a white and delightsome people” became increasingly difficult to maintain in a literal sense amid growing awareness of racism and its harms, leading to the greater emphasis on spiritual, not physical, interpretations of scriptural prophecy.
The prophetic tradition of the Church, while originally interpreted through the lens of settler colonial society, holds seeds of reversal to racial hierarchy. As Grant Underwood points out, the Book of Mormon envisions a future where “Gentiles—white Americans—could repent, ‘come in unto the covenant and be numbered among this the remnant of Jacob’ … Gentiles are portrayed as servants, not masters, as nursemaids to royal heirs, and as adopted rather than natural children.” Rather than confirming racial supremacy, the text actually inverts it, offering hope of full inclusion for indigenous peoples as the primary heirs of promised blessings.
And yet, the vocabulary of skin color remains a contentious issue. As recent scholarship notes, while some passages appear to refer directly to skin pigment, others—especially the later edits—open space for a less literal, more symbolic understanding. The 1840 change to “pure and delightsome” signaled, at the very least, unease with the racial connotations of “white and delightsome.”
This tension is emblematic of the broader history of the Church’s engagement with questions of race, inclusion, and belonging. Early leaders and members often combined scriptural promises with the racial attitudes prevalent in their time. As Church membership and leadership have become increasingly global and diverse, a fuller reckoning with these past teachings continues.
Gramps
