My brethren and sisters, I pray

My brethren and sisters, I pray for the Spirit of the Lord while I shall speak to you. It was forty-one years ago, on the 17th of last March, when the colonists first went to the Maricopa stake of Zion, sent by the President of the Church to do missionary work among the Indians. I thought this afternoon it might be of interest to you to know what the Church is doing for the Indians in Arizona. ¶

We have living in our stake some three hundred members who are Indians. We have two missions there, with headquarters. The Church is very liberal in helping these good people. Our missionaries go out among these Indians and work with them on the farm, helping them to prepare the ground for the purtting in of their crops, building their homes, and in providing for them the necessary seed, and the materials with which to build their homes. We get splendid results, for they are a good people. I doubt if in all the Church there are any who live their religion more strictly than do the Lamanites of the Maricopa stake of Zion. At one time we had a bishop who did not keep the word of wisdom, who was in charge of these Indians. He reported at one of the conferences that he was the only person in his ward who did not keep the word of wisdom. — Brother Kimball wants to know what we did with him. He was released. ¶

We have in our stake a high councilor who is a Lamanite. We have an Indian who is a superintendent of Sunday schools, and a very faithful brother. We have also a number of Indians who are faithful missionaries, and these faithful Lamanites have done 100 per cent ward teaching, and their average attendance at their sacrament meetings is over 50 per cent. ¶

A good work is also being done among the Indians in our stake, at the Indian school. The government of the United States has permitted us, with the other churches, to have our Indian children twice a week, and preach the gospel to them. The children are all brought into a main building, where the different churches have the privilege of teaching their own children twice a week. This was at the solicitation of our people. We are ¶

doing a great deal of good among them in that way. ¶

Our people have known of these tribes of Indians in Arizona for a great many years. When the boys of the "Mormon" Battalion made their historic march from Santa Fe to the coast they met some of these Indians, and learned something about them. ¶

In our stake, too, we have evidences of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. We have there the ruins of a great city, probably at one time fifteen miles wide and thirty or forty miles long. And that immense Salt River valley was once peopled by the Nephites with a larger population than occupies it today. Just a mile from Mesa are the ruins of great buildings which those people erected. There is a building 450 feet long by 350 feet wide. I estimate that it had at least a thousand rooms when it was being used, and around this building are the signs of a great wall that used to protect it. ¶

When our people went to the Salt River valley forty-one years ago, the people were poor, and unable to get the water out. But they found the signs of a great canal those Nephites had used. They cleaned out that canal for twelve miles, made a dam across the river, and turned the water out on to the thirsty soil, and for a number of years our people had the use of that canal. Then the government came and built the great Roosevelt canal. But after careful, scientific investigation by the best engineers, this old Nephite canal was found to be built just where it should be, and was followed. There are parts even now of the Salt River valley that are not being irrigated which ¶

were used by those Nephite people in times past. ¶

The Indians of the Salt River valley have traditions of the time when there was a great flood. They point you to the great mountain, the Superstition mountain, and they say that is the place where a great boat landed when the flood was over the earth, and a bird was sent out, and brought from that mountain twigs, and the boat was steered that way and landed on that mountain. Then the water receded from both sides of the mountain, and left only two streams, one the Salt River on the north, and the Gila River on the south. They have traditions of a time when the Supreme Being was among them, doing a wonderful work, and they look forward to his coming again. A great many statements of the Book of Mormon in regard to the history of their forefathers are borne out by their traditions. ¶

I take great joy in laboring among these Lamanite brethren and sisters, and there are some ten or twelve thousand of them in Arizona. ¶

The people of Arizona are very friendly to the Latter-day Saints. Not long ago, when we were in the prohibition campaign, they asked us to go and give talks in Phoenix on prohibition. During a talk to a great audience there some one spoke up and asked about one of the apostles. ¶

I thanked him for calling attention to the fact that I was a "Mormon," for I told them that if there was anything I was proud of it was the fact that I am a "Mormon." And I told them that the Latterday Saints have what they call the Word of Wisdom, that they do ¶

not believe in using liquor, tea, coffee or tobacco. What is the result? In Arizona, out of 469 inmates in the insane asylum, we had two, while in proportion to population, we should have twenty. I told them that one of the chief reasons for that was that we are a moral and a temperate people and we keep the Word of Wisdom. Out of 169 in the penitentiary we had but one who claimed a membership in the Church, while in proportion we should have nineteen or twenty. In the industrial school we had none ; at the poor farm none ; in the various hospitals we had none. Hence, I told them that I was proud that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I also told them the fact, that the birth-rate among the Latter-day Saints compared with the death rate was five births to one death, while the statistics of the state the pervious year showed a very much smaller proportion of births. I told them they ought to be thankful that the Latter-day Saints saved the state. There would have been more deaths than births if we had not been there. So I had the privilege of giving my testimony in regard to the vital statistics of the people. ¶

I am proud to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints, and I pray God to bless us all that we may be faithful and true, which I ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. ¶