From 1947 to 2000, some 50,000 Native American children left reservations to live with Mormon foster families. While some dropped out of the Indian Student Placement Program (ISPP), for others the monthsspent living with LDS families proved more influential than expected.

The ISPP emerged in the mid-twentieth century, championed by Apostle Spencer W. Kimball, and aligned with the then national preference to terminate tribal entities and assimilate indigenous peoples. But as the national paradigm shifted to self-determination, critics labeled the program as crudely assimilationist and colonialist. Some ISPP students like Navajo George P. Lee fiercely defended the LDS Church before native peers and Congress, contending that it empowered Native people and instilled a true Indian identity. Meanwhile, Red Power activists organized protests in Salt Lake City, denouncing LDS colonialism. Later, a new generation of church leaders quietly undercut Indian programs, leaving many of its former participants with a sense of confusion and abandonment.

Making Lamanites traces student experiences within contested cultural landscapes to reveal how and why many of these Native youth adopted a new notion of Indianness.