Lamanite Youth Meet

Hundreds of Lamanite youth met recently in divisional conferences held in Salt Lake City; Riverside, California; and Spokane, Washington. The conferences involved seminary and Indian Placement Program students of high school age, and featured workshops, speakers, talent contests, and testimony meetings.

Keynote speaker for the Spokane conference, which was organized and managed entirely by Lamanite leaders and youth from the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada, was Lee Neaman, a Shoshone Indian who is a member of the Yakima Washington Stake high council.

Brother Neaman, who is executive director of the Yakima Tribal Community Action Program, stressed Lamanite heritage and responsibility to the 100 participants.

“You belong to a family unit. Let your light so shine that you may lead your parents if they are not leading yet. We are here to lead,” Brother Neaman said.

Also present was Jeff Simons, former president of the Lamanite student organization at Brigham Young University. Brother Simons told the youth that “where there is an opportunity to study and become educated and we do not take advantage of that opportunity, we are selling our birthright. One of our biggest problems is overcoming ignorance of gospel principles.”

Similar programs took place in Salt Lake City and Riverside. Participants in the Salt Lake conference received a surprise visit from President Spencer W. Kimball, who discussed their Lamanite heritage and its relationship to the gospel.