1.1 Acknowledgments, xxii
Lori Taylor, Telling Stories about Mormons and Indians
I thank those friends who have questioned the legitimacy and appropriateness of my work. I am glad to have those conversations with people I can trust to trust me. Conversations with many of my college friends from Brigham Young University started me thinking about these issues. They are here by first name only because I tell stories about them: Bernice, Kate, Loni, Saul, I-Chien, Thad, Jesse, and Brian. Some of my friends in Washington, D.C., helped shape those earlier thoughts into arguments and stances: Mike McDonald, Susan Levitas, Andrew Connors, Yusef Jones, Amy Bentley, Brett Gary, and especially Nicholas C. P. Vrooman.
It was rare to find any who could look at this content within its cultural context. Russell A. Judkins helped me with this early on. Particularly helpful here was Kelley Rowley, whom I thank for his critical, multipositioned perspective. For their exceptional generosity with sources, I would like to thank Danny Jorgensen and Bill Russell. Ronald W. Walker was also helpful both in his published work and in discussion with me. Ronald Watt and Bill Slaughter of the LDS Historical Department Archives took time to help me find sources and ideas that seemed reluctant to be found. The University at Buffalo Lockwood Library Interlibrary Loan Staff made the world much more accessible, as did the staff of Talking Leaves Bookstore.
Supportive women at the University of Buffalo pushed me to articulate my arguments and get out: Yvonne Dion-Buffalo, Candace Broughton, and Louise Sinesio. Kathy Kosinski helped me wade through administration. I found as I finally wrote out my arguments, that one of my professors, Larry Chisolm, had influenced my thinking more than I could realize in time to tell him. Members of my exam and dissertation committees were a pleasure to work with—really: John C. Mohawk, Michael Frisch, Diane Christian, and Tamara P. Thornton. Several outside readers generously gave of their time to read every page and give me suggestions: Anthony F. C. Wallace, Richard L. Bushman, and Paul M. Edwards.
For helping to create the right kind of thought environment for me as I wrote, Me’Shell Ndegéocello, Chumbawamba, and OMC deserve praise. Finally, but really first of all, the people who put up with the most while I gathered myself together are Helen Wilson Taylor, Marc Taylor Pehkonen, Eliza Bliss, and Clare Water. They matter most.
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Lori Elaine Taylor, Telling Stories about Mormons and Indians. Ph.D. dissertation, American Studies. State University of New York at Buffalo, 2000.