The Back Story on a Fabulous Painting inside the Brigham City and the Layton Temples

 

                                                          The Brigham City Temple.

 If you happen to be a Latter-day Saint and go to the Layton Temple, or the Brigham City Temple, there’s a fabulous painting inside of Native Americans being baptized in 1873. Below is the back story on that artwork, that was prompted by the legendary “Three Nephities” --

The U.S. military wiped out more than 300 Native Americans – even women and children -- near Preston, Idaho on January 29, 1863. Now known as the Bear River Massacre, it was the largest loss of life for Native Americans in any military battle.

The survivors, part of the Northwestern Shoshone tribe, faced poverty and poor conditions for years afterward.

Sagwitch, a Shoshone Chief, was one of the few survivors of the that Massacre. In 1873, one of his fellow chiefs had a vision in which three white men visited him. One of the men told him “that the Mormon’s God was the true God … that he must be baptized, with all his Indians … stop Indian life, and learn to cultivate the earth and build houses.”

(The three white men were almost certainly the "Three Nephites.")

All the other chiefs believed the dream was true. They searched for George Washington Hill and found him in Ogden. Hill had been a missionary to the Native Americans, was trusted by them and even spoke their language. As the “Man with Red Hair,” they wanted him to preach to the tribe.

Hill was able to obtain President Brigham Young’s permission to preach to them. So, on May 5, 1873, Hill boarded a train in Ogden for Corinne and then walked 12 miles to their camp. By the day’s end, he had baptized 102 people.

Later, some of the tribal chiefs met with President Young and were soon ordained as elders. By 1875, some received their endowments in the Salt Lake Endowment House.

During the next four years, almost 1,200 members of the tribe had been baptized, buried their weapons and started a new way of life farming and ranching.

 

                                        The Layton Temple's east side.

Prior to the dedication of the Brigham City Temple in 2012, artists Linda Christensen and Mike Malm, with help from Cheryl S. Betenson, painted a mural depicting missionaries and a group of Indians during a baptismal confirmation on the banks of the Bear River in the 1870s.

The colorful mural now hangs in the Brigham City Temple baptistry – and a copy of it is in the Layton Temple baptistry too -- as a fitting tribute to the Native Americans and missionary work. (In the Layton Temple, this painting is directly east of the Baptistry Office.)

“The painting is a beautiful work of art,” Christensen said. “It represents the cooperation of two peoples in the settlement of Box Elder County and the establishment of service in the temple in northern Utah. It’s a wonderful, full-circle moment to see that event from the 1870s acknowledged in that temple, which is located just a few blocks from the Northwestern Shoshone tribal headquarters.”

SOURCE: Based on a January 24, 2013 article in the Deseret News by Trent Toone, titled, “Bear River Massacre's unexpected aftermath includes forgiveness and hope.”

 NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.