The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Pioneer era=== [[File:BrighamYoung1.jpg|thumb|upright|right|[[Brigham Young]] led the LDS Church from 1844 until his death in 1877.]] For two years after Smith's death, conflicts escalated between Mormons and other Illinois residents. Brigham Young led his followers, later called the [[Mormon pioneers]], westward to [[Nebraska]] and then in 1847 on to what later became the [[Utah Territory]],<ref name="emigration-religious-freedom">{{cite web|title=Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail: History & Culture|url=https://home.nps.gov/mopi/learn/historyculture/ |access-date=June 23, 2023 |publisher=[[U.S. National Park Service]]|quote=The great Mormon migration of 1846β1847 was but one step in the LDS' quest for religious freedom and growth.}}</ref> which at the time had been part of the indigenous lands of the Ute, Goshute, and Shoshone nations, and claimed by [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo|Mexico until 1848]].<ref name=ZionsMount>{{cite book|last=Farmer|first=Jared|title=On Zion's Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eoMI5YWu1gsC |year=2008|publication-place=Cambridge, MA|publisher=[[Belknap Press of Harvard University Press]]|isbn=978-0-674-03671-0 |author-link=Jared Farmer |via=[[Google Books]] |url-access=limited}}</ref>{{rp|28, 249β250, 365}}<ref name=":0">{{Citation | last = Defa | first = Dennis R. | title = Utah History Encyclopedia | publisher = University of Utah Press | year = 1994 | chapter = Goshute Indians | chapter-url = https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/g/GOSHUTE_INDIANS.shtml | url = https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240222140154/https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/g/GOSHUTE_INDIANS.shtml | archive-date = February 22, 2024 | isbn =9780874804256 | access-date = April 9, 2024}}</ref> Around 80,000 settlers arrived between 1847 and 1869,<ref name=Britannica/> who then branched out and colonized a large region now known as the [[Mormon Corridor]]. Meanwhile, efforts to globalize the church began in earnest around this time, with missionaries being sent off to the Sandwich Islands (present-day [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Hawaii|Hawaii]]), [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in India|India]], [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chile|Chile]], [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Australia|Australia]], [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in China|China]], [[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Africa|South Africa]], and all over Europe.<ref>{{cite book |last= |first= |author-link= |date= November 12, 2020|title= The Palgrave Handbook of Global Mormonism|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=YbwIEAAAQBAJ |location= |publisher=[[Springer International Publishing]]|editor= A. Gary Shepherd |editor2=R. Gordon Shepherd |editor3=Ryan T. Cragun |pages= 5β6|isbn= 9783030526160}}</ref> Young incorporated the LDS Church as a legal entity, and initially governed both the church and the state as a [[theocracy|theocratic]] leader. He also publicized the practice of [[Mormonism and polygamy|plural marriage]] in 1852. Modern research suggests that around 20 percent of Mormon families may have participated in the practice.<ref name =Encyclopedia.com/> [[File:Pioneers Crossing the Plains of Nebraska by C.C.A. Christensen.png|thumb|left|19th century painting of [[Mormon pioneers]] crossing the plains of Nebraska]] By 1857, tensions had again escalated between Mormons and other Americans, largely as a result of accusations involving polygamy and the theocratic rule of the Utah Territory by Young.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tullidge |first=Edward W. |title=History of Salt Lake City| pages=132β135|date=1886 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fNkBAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Star Printing Company |location=Salt Lake City, Utah}}</ref> The [[Utah War|Utah Mormon War]] ensued from 1857 to 1858, which resulted in the relatively peaceful invasion of Utah by the [[United States Army]]. The most notable instance of violence during this conflict was the [[Mountain Meadows massacre]], in which leaders of a local Mormon militia ordered the massacre of a civilian emigrant party who was traveling through Utah during the escalating military tensions.<ref name=Making>{{Cite book|last=Bowman|first=Matthew|url=https://archive.org/details/mormonpeoplemaki00bowm_0/|title=The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith | publisher=[[Random House]]|year=2012|isbn=978-0-679-64490-3|location=New York|url-access=registration|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>{{rp|120β123}} After the massacre was discovered, the church became the target of [[Mountain Meadows massacre and the media|significant media criticism]] for it.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=American Eras|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/mormons|title=The Mormons|access-date=June 15, 2021|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624195425/https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/mormons|url-status=live|via=[[Encyclopedia.com]]}}</ref> After the Army withdrew, Young agreed to step down from power and be replaced by a non-Mormon territorial governor, [[Alfred Cumming (governor)|Alfred Cumming]]. Nevertheless, the LDS Church still wielded significant political power in the Utah Territory.<ref>{{Cite book| last1=Firmage| first1=Edwin Brown| last2=Mangrum| first2=Richard Collin| title=Zion in the Courts: A Legal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1830β1900| page=140| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9AimifP2a-4C&pg=PR7| isbn=0-252-06980-3| publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]| year=2002| access-date=September 27, 2020| archive-date=October 24, 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211024045953/https://books.google.com/books?id=9AimifP2a-4C&pg=PR7| url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> Coterminously, tensions between Mormon settlers and indigenous tribes continued to escalate as settlers began colonizing a growing area of tribal lands. While Mormons and indigenous peoples made attempts at peaceful coexistence, skirmishes ensued from about 1849 to 1873 culminating in the armed conflicts of [[Walkara|Walkara's War]], the [[Bear River Massacre]], and the [[Black Hawk War (1865β1872)|Black Hawk War]]. After Young's death in 1877, he was followed in the church presidency by [[John Taylor (Mormon)|John Taylor]] and [[Wilford Woodruff]] successively, who resisted efforts by the [[United States Congress]] to outlaw Mormon polygamous marriages. In 1878, the United States Supreme Court, in ''[[Reynolds v. United States]]'', decreed that "religious duty" to engage in plural marriage was not a valid defense to prosecutions for violating state laws against polygamy. Conflict between Mormons and the [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. government]] escalated to the point that, in 1890, Congress disincorporated the LDS Church and seized most of its assets. Soon thereafter, [[1890 Manifesto|Woodruff issued a manifesto]] that officially suspended the performance of new polygamous marriages in the United States.<ref name=OD1>{{lds|Official Declaration β|od|1}}</ref> Relations with the United States markedly improved after 1890, such that [[Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895|Utah was admitted as a U.S. state]] in 1896. Relations further improved after 1904, when church president [[Joseph F. Smith]] again [[Reed Smoot hearings|disavowed polygamy]] before the United States Congress and issued a "[[Second Manifesto]]", calling for all plural marriages in the church to cease. Eventually, the church adopted a policy of [[excommunication#The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|excommunicating its members]] found practicing polygamy.<ref name="Embry19942"/> Some [[Mormon fundamentalism|fundamentalist]] groups with relatively small memberships have broken off and continue to practice polygamy, but the Church distances itself from them.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |contribution =Fundamentalists |last=Anderson|first=J. Max|date=1992|access-date=June 3, 2021|contribution-url=https://eom.byu.edu/index.php/%22Fundamentalists%22|archive-date=June 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604053452/https://eom.byu.edu/index.php/%22Fundamentalists%22|url-status=live |editor1-last= Ludlow |editor1-first= Daniel H |editor1-link= Daniel H. Ludlow |encyclopedia= Encyclopedia of Mormonism |location= New York |publisher= [[Macmillan Publishers]] |isbn= 0-02-879602-0 |oclc= 24502140 |title-link= Encyclopedia of Mormonism }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Polygamy-Practicing|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of American Religions|Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions]]|publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]]|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/polygamy-practicing-0|access-date=June 3, 2021|archive-date=June 4, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210604053442/https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/polygamy-practicing-0|url-status=live|via=[[Encyclopedia.com]]}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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