--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Johnson, Sextus E. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 15 number: 1 published: 1911-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Johnson, Sextus E., "Messenger to the Indians," *Improvement Era* 15, no. 1 (November 1911): 79.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1501unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1501unse start_page: 79 end_page: 79 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1911-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1501unse publication_year: 1911 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1911, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Messenger to the Indians EDITOR'S TABLE 79 bers of the Church, and when they come to visit us in our homes they, in their calling as teachers, visit us as members of the church, and not as officers or members of the Priesthood; consequently it is the duty of all members of the Church, no matter who they are, or what priesthood they hold, nor what office they hold in the Church, — it is their duty to disrobe themselves, if you please, of all authority except the right of membership, or to be members in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for it is the duty and prerogative of the teacher to inquire into the standing of members of the Church. Now, if we will only bear that in mind we will have no difficulty at all with reference to our "high and mighty" position in the Church. When the teachers visit us we will remember that we are simply members of the Church, and it is the duty of the teachers to visit the members and to teach the members and to instruct the members of the Church, and to see that the members of the Church have no hard feelings, one against another; that the members of the Church are united in their family capacities, and that they are in fellowship with the people of God, with their neighbors and with all mankind, and especially that they are in fellowship with God. That is the duty of the teacher; and when we keep that in mind, everything respecting the duties and author- ity of the teachers will be plain and clear to us. I want to say this, too, that if somebody should happen to mount upon the "high horse" of his authority, in the Church, it will be very becoming in the teacher to gently take him off his "high horse," and bring him down to the level of his membership, and let him understand that he (the teacher) is there to teach him as a member of the Church, and not as an officer of it. The teacher has a right to inquire into the performance of the duties of all members, and learn whether they are doing their duty as members in all things, or not. Messenger to the Indians. The following comes addressed to President Joseph F. Smith: "In the summer of 1876, a personage appeared to the Indians out west of St. George at a place called Duck Creek. This person- age told the Indians that he was one of their forefathers and had many things to tell them, as he had lived a long time upon the earth. By this man's request, runners were sent out to all the nearby bands of Indians to bring them together.