http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUJVQSu2kFY


I don't think it's originally an LDS thing, but written by Arlene Nofchissey Littlehummingbird Williams. I think that it was just hijacked by the church and then sucked dry as advertising for the Lamanite Placement Program.

Just crossed my mind today. I remember white kids singing it in church.

That video is sooooo offensive in so many ways.

It conflates all indigenous people (from Polynesians to Navajos) into one group, superimposes a coded Mormon "Great Spirit" story on all of them and depicts a kind of transmission of cultural knowledge that Mormonism interfered with during the placement program and that wouldn't happen at all if the missionary program were as successful as they want it to be in converting everyone to TSCC.

So offensive.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2013 10:02AM by Inverso.

I was terribly offended by the sleeveless dress one of the women was wearing toward the end!

I have to confess that I always loved this song back in the day. But I am also happy that they church has dumped that Indian Placement Program, etc.

Oh, that was pretty nostalgic. Is Living Legends the successor of Lamanite Generation? I used to enjoy seeing them perform, but you're right, the whole idea is pretty offensive.

The Mormons certainly weren't the only ones exploiting Native Americans in the name of religion back in the 60s and 70s. But they took it to a higher level. Instead of going to the reservations and building schools and trying to turn them into Christians, TSCC wanted to completely take the Native American out of them. We had an OK experience taking in a Lamanite Placement student but I know several families for whom it was a disaster. Both for them and the student. It is one of the black spots on mormonism.

Haven’t posted for years, but yes, Living Legends was the direct descendent and replacement for the Lamanite Generation. Someone at YBU got the bad news about the Lamanites not being a sure thing, so they changed their name. They also felt freer to include kids who the church hadn’t said they were positive were Lamanites. There were many Pacific Islanders along the Native Americans, and I’m probably forgetting others who were part of the LL.

I’m not sure when the change was, but they were still the LG in 1980 when I left the YAYAs.

For a lot of Mormons it was a terrible burden to add an Indian kid to their already burgeoning families.

Many had good intentions but unless the host family was wealthy and very accepting of cultural differences, it usually did not work out very well.

Even our stake president ( a dentist) did it for only one year and never again lol.
He was an anal-retentive prick and it must have been a hellish year for that poor Indian kid to come into such an uptight family.

I remember singing this song in Elementary school. We learned all the arm movements, too. It was like that scene from Napoleon Dynamite. lmao!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/04/2013 01:21PM by queenb.

our lamanite placement child was with us for several years. In the end, she returned to the reservation, married an alcoholic who beat her, and in short completely rejected the white man's ways she observed in our family.

I would say that was a bi lateral failure. The church failed in raising a generation of loyal Mormons on the res. She failed in not seeing that there was more to life than the res. Really a sad situation.

I remember Lamanite Generation & the song from BYU days (1968-71)

"Go My Son" was good advice.

The Son in the video actually looks Asian. I wonder if he had the purple Mongolian butt.

Damn you Cludgie. That song has been stuck in my head all morning now. Thanks a lot. ;)

Well, Onendagus was, after all, a famous Lamanite. Maybe he is channeling through you. You took his name. You took his damn name!

Where to find music sheet notes for Go My Son for a Clarinet?

My sister was married in 1960. She was barely 18 and of course pregnant. She has 6 kids, decided that they should have a Placement kid at one point. This was in the late 60's. I think the idea must have come from the bishop and believe it was before her last 2 kids were born. They lived just one step above the poverty level and honest to god had no business bringing him to live with him, let alone 6 kids. Oh, the stories.

Her kids didn't like this boy much and my mother would go visit them in Lehi, UT (we lived in Sandy) and come home, just so disgusted with how he behaved and how mean he was to her kids (and vice versa). He didn't like the food she served (which I can understand).

He was there a couple of years and I don't remember the details of what happened, but turns out he was stealing from neighbors houses--somehow knew how to pick their locks, which in those days were not very strong. He was selling at school some of things he had stolen and regularly wouldn't come home from school until very late. Some of the people in the area wanted him to be arrested, but that didn’t happen.

He left after the 2nd school year and they never saw or heard from him again. It was a terrible plan for him and them both.

You can find the whole Tom Trails saga on Youtube too.