“Navajo Latter-day Saints are Dineì doìoì Gaìamalii,” writes Farina King, in this deeply personal collective biography. “We are Diné who decided to walk a Latter-day Saint pathway, although not always consistently or without reappraising that decision.”
Dineì doìoì Gaìamalii is a history of twentieth-century Navajos, including author Farina King and her family, who have converted and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), becoming Dineì doìoì Gaìamalii—both Dineì and LDS. Drawing on Dineì stories from the LDS Native American Oral History Project, King illuminates the mutual entanglement of Indigenous identity and religious affiliation, showing how their Dineì identity made them outsiders to the LDS Church and, conversely, how belonging to the LDS community made them outsiders to their Native community. The story that King tells shows the complex ways that Dineì people engaged with church institutions in the context of settler colonial power structures. The lived experiences of Dineì in church programs sometimes diverged from the intentions and expectations of those who designed them.
In this empathetic and richly researched study, King explores the impacts of Navajo Latter-day Saints who seek to bridge different traditions, peoples, and communities. She sheds light on the challenges and joys they face in following both the Dineì teachings of Si’ąh Naagháì Bik’eh Hózhǫì—“live to old age in beauty”—and the teachings of the church.
