E106: The Vanguard Comes West

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:16)
I know this might come as a shock to some people, but the plot of the Book of Mormon wasn't all that original.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:23)
Uh, which plot? Cause it seems like there are many stories in the Book of Mormon that my teacher tells to me.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:29)
I mean, the general thesis, that God was calling believers to convert indigenous people to Christ.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:37)
Okay, yeah, yeah.
See, that's been the running thing of Christianity for quite some time. Even the eunuch that Philip ran into in the New Testament. Remember kids, even if you've given your Linus and Charlie Browns to the Lord, we still want you on our team.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:52)
Speaking of Christianity, I'm reminded of Father Pierre Jean de Smet.
He was a Jesuit priest who was way ahead of the Mormons in trying to turn Native Americans into Christians. He did it faster, quicker and more efficiently than any Latter-day Saint.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:10)
That's a weird brag.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:12)
Colonization is a bitch.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:14)
He was one of the first priests to occupy Council Bluffs before the Mormons in 1838 Then he takes over the abandoned military fort among the Potawatomi. But he comes into our story today because by the time the Mormons copycatted him and were settled in Council Bluffs, Pierre Jean de Smet had already traveled all over the North American continent. After he set up in Council Bluffs, he went to Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, Utah and all over Canada.
Don't know about that part. This podcast frowns on priests in Canada as a general rule. You know who you are.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:46)
Hey now, when the Mormons were ready to head west, the Jesuit priest was coming back through Council Bluffs and the Mormons met with him and according to de Smet, he is the reason that the Mormons settled in Utah.
He claims it was probably him that convinced them to settle there. He said, quote, they, the Mormons, asked me a thousand questions about the region I explored in the spot which I had just described to you, the Basin of Great Salt Lake, pleased them greatly from the account I gave them of it. Was that what determined them? I would not dare to assert it. They are there.
I love how he low grade humble brags about that. Like, was it, was it me? Could it have been me? I would not dare to assume. Yet there they are.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:33)
So you're telling me it was a Catholic priest, not a Mormon prophet, who actually chose the location of Zion?
What would Bruce McConkie say? The great and abominable tour guide, indeed.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:50)
Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:52)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:53)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion. This isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:20)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:25)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts and pay your tithing because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:34)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:55)
If you're a real Mormon, like a real good one, I'm sure you have April 19th marked down on your calendar.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:04)
Trans-Missouri Migration Day. Oh, it's on my calendar. Every year on April 19th, I wake my kids up at 5.30, play Pioneer Children at Full Blast, and shout, we're moving to Utah.
Then they remind me we already live in Utah and start crying until I leave the room. It's my favorite day of the year.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:22)
My dad always used to come in and shout something he learned at Scout Camp as a kid, which was wake up and pee, the world's on fire. But yours is far more annoying and I never thought that that would happen.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:34)
Rude. April 19th, 1847 The day Brigham Young and Company decided to leave for the Valley. They headed out of their staging area in winter quarters that morning, ready to set off on their adventure to the Rocky Mountains.
Not all the Mormons left once, no. If you've been paying attention, you'll know the first company was called the Vanguard Company.
And if that gives you Keith Ranieri vibes, calm down. We've read all the journals and nobody played volleyball on the trail.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (5:02)
See for me, I cannot not hear Vanguard Academy now, the fundamentalist charter school surrounded in controversy.