AMERICAN FORK, Utah — After an enriching day of cultural workshops, traditional music demonstrations and a group temple visit, Latter-day Saints of various Indigenous backgrounds joined as one for a closing hymn.
Members of the congregation — from Hopi to Tongan to Navajo to Ojibwe — were directed to sing “I Am a Child of God”; most didn’t need to open a hymnbook. The lyrics were both rooted in their memories and embroidered upon their hearts.
“Lead me, guide me, walk beside me, help me find the way,” they harmonized with fervor and love for one another. “Teach me all that I must do to live with him someday.”
On Saturday, Sept. 13, in American Fork, Utah, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with Indigenous ancestry joined as one people, who above all their differences have one thing in common: divine lineage to a Father in Heaven.
This family reunion of sorts was hosted by Gathering of Tribes, a nonprofit that aims to “encourage Indigenous Latter-day Saints to nurture their faith in Jesus Christ, unite families through family history and temple work, care for those in need and celebrate their cultural identity as it relates to the gospel,” according to its website.
The name of the event was “Good Medicine.” Shane Manning, Gathering of Tribes’ director of operations, and an enrolled member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, said of the theme: “‘Good medicine’ is a traditional Native American term that means anything that connects you to Creator, anything that is healing or good or positive and turns you in a good direction, brings balance into your life.”
Saturday’s gathering included a sunrise service, temple session, brunch and closing fireside, along with several workshops focusing on embracing culture through art and finding connection to the Savior, Jesus Christ.
Lessons of light at the sunrise service
Addressing a crowd gathered in the shadow of the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple, Elder Michael A. Dunn observed there’s a lack of light when the world focuses on divisions and tearing down one another. He noted the Book of Mormon teaching that “the Lord God worketh not in darkness” (2 Nephi 26:23).
“He is in light and in joy, in all the things that we celebrate here,” said Elder Dunn, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the Church’s United States Southwest Area presidency, at the sunrise service.
“As light comes back into this beautiful day, we express appreciation and acknowledgement of all those beautiful, basic things which God gives us — life and sustenance and water. Most of all, each other.”
For Elder Dunn, joining together at the sunrise was a reminder that the Lord “inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him” (2 Nephi 26:33).
He said: “That’s one of the things that I celebrate on this day of gathering in this beautiful spot with all of you, is not our divisions, not that which will divide us, but our sameness as sons and daughters of the living God.”
The morning fireside included a sunrise song with singing, chanting and rhythmic drum beats. One of the three participants was Curtis Walker Jr. from Eagle Mountain, Utah, whose heritage is half Omaha and half Hopi.
“This song is a warrior song,” Walker told the Church News after the service. He said the three main words in the Omaha-language song translate to “warrior,” “Heavenly Father” and “watch over them.”
“So we’re telling our warriors that fight for our country — as well as us that are fighting for our families and for the gospel — we’re asking Heavenly Father to bless them this morning.”
A youth choir from the Provo 12th Ward (Samoan) sang “Pe a Faigatā Le Ala, Taumafai!” which translates to “If the Way Be Full of Trial, Weary Not.” As he conducted the choir, Sisi Vaea of Tongan heritage turned his thoughts to his family, including Polynesian ancestors who immigrated to Iosepa, Utah, many years ago.
“I felt that they were so proud of us,” said the second counselor in the ward bishopric. And congregating with brothers and sisters of various trials and backgrounds for the sunrise, he said, was a witness that all are God’s children and can look to Him for divine help.
‘God can change hearts and minds’
Elder Craig M. Teuscher, an Area Seventy in the Utah Area, closed the “Good Medicine” event by talking about becoming “of one heart and one mind” (Moses 7:18) in preparation for the Savior’s Second Coming.
This change starts on an individual level, he said. “The beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ is God can change hearts and minds if we invite Him to do so.” As believers invite the Holy Ghost into their lives and act upon His promptings, they allow God to change them for good, said Elder Teuscher.
As for becoming of one heart and mind as a Zion people, “It’s not about persuading or convincing other people to feel the way we do. It’s about all of us inviting God to change our heart and our mind by bringing us to Christ and helping us align with His will.”
The gathering of Israel is an invitation to come unto Christ, Elder Teuscher said. He added a quote from Church President Russell M. Nelson, who said in October 2020, “The Lord is gathering those who will choose to let God be the most important influence in their lives.”
Elder Teuscher bore his witness that “as we participate with the Lord in gathering Israel, God changes our hearts and blesses us to feel what He feels for each of us, which is an overwhelming love.”
Cindy Quinney, executive director of Gathering of Tribes and an enrolled member of the Onion Lake Cree Nation, closed the day’s events with an invitation to put faith in Heavenly Father, who knows everyone’s struggles and is willing to help. “When we have a problem, we do our best, and then we just put it on the altar and we give it to Him,” she said.
Reinforcing the magnificence of the gathering of Israel, Quinney said: “All the testimonies that you’ve heard and the Spirit that you’ve felt here, now it’s your responsibility to go out and share that with others.”
What other speakers and participants were saying
“If I were to only use three words to describe this gathering,” said Crystal Jimson of the event, “I would say: Hurrah for Israel.”
Jimson, a Navajo Latter-day Saint from Gallup, New Mexico, described Saturday’s conference as “a tool of conversion, a divine tool that helps us come unto Him and hear Him.” She added, “This gathering has increased my covenant confidence. This gathering has increased my capacity to love more, pray more, repent more, worship more, forgive more, serve more.”
Of the 12 workshops offered, Areli Garcia taught a class titled “Embracing Your Culture, Embracing Your God.” Garcia, born in Guadalajara, Mexico, highlighted several benefits of embracing one’s culture, like emotional stability, improved cognitive flexibility, stronger social connections and greater adaptability.
“When you love who you are and where you come from, because that is where God placed you,” she said, “you can do so much more in your life.”
In a workshop titled “Women in the Scriptures,” Alondra Uhi, who’s half Peruvian, explained her artistic processes painting female scriptural characters like Miriam, Zipporah and the wife of Nephi. Uhi encouraged women to write their stories and the miracles they see in their lives to strengthen others.
“It is really my hope in the future that my daughter, and my sons, will be able to look back and look at all of the powerful women who came before them and find that strength and be buoyed up by them.”
Evvy Trujillo, a Hopi farmer, artist and weaver, spoke about uses for edible, medicinal and ceremonial plants in a workshop titled “Gifts From Creator.”
Embracing her Native American tradition, she said: “When I gather my material, I never go there and just take from Mother Earth. I always leave something behind,” like food for animals, to keep balance in nature.
Rebecca Rogers, a Salt Lake City resident of Navajo ancestry, said the event was “the most spiritual Church-related gathering I’ve ever been to” and “it was absolutely glorious to be in a temple session with other Native Americans.”
For Rogers, gathering Israel means appreciating the beauty of her family history, learning from the good and the bad, and making new friends along the way. “I grew up not very connected to my Navajo heritage, and now I get to connect with it more, and it’s really built up my testimony a lot.”
