| Description |
overtones of love and excitement, that family members would soon be reunited after students' summer visits to their natural parents on reservations. Brigham Young's counsel to feed the Indians rather than fight them and to learn to love them like brothers was immediately heeded, but within a hundred years the counsel had a very literal application Many families were feeding Indians, and they were loving them like brothers the brothers and sisters they actually were They were family members The willingness of Sanpete County settlers to love one another, to share, to work together and to help others who had needs is a legacy that has been conveyed from parents and grandparent to children, from neighbor to neighbor It is one of the foundations of love for Sanpete people For this reason, it was so natural for families in Sanpete to listen to the request of our Prophet and to open our homes, hearts and schools to the Indian children During the years sugar beets were raised in the Sanpete and Sevier County area, many farmers employed Navajo Indians to assist with this chore, which was mostly done by hand at that time From the early summer day when the beets were big enough to block and thin, there was plenty of back-breaking work to be done in the beets weeding and weeding again, finally ending with lopping and loading into trucks bound for the sugar Many full families came to the area for the summer, with children working alongside parents and grandparents or playing along fences or in shady spots while parent: worked Most people were good to these workers, providing them with good food and friendship Many Indian families returned to the same farms year after year Miles and Celia Jensen Miles Jensen with Indian Placement Student in Ephraim, about 1970 90 |
