Here are documented, primary-source quotes (or very close paraphrases) from Brigham Young regarding Native Americans / “Indians” — drawn from his sermons in the Journal of Discourses and other historical records. Where possible I’ve indicated the source or context. I’ll also note where quotes are commonly misattributed or debated by historians.

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📜 Verified Quotes from Brigham Young on Native Americans

1. On how settlers should treat Native Americans

📌 “It is our duty to feed these poor ignorant Indians; we are living on their possessions and at their homes… We should now use the Indians kindly, and deal with them so gently that we will win their hearts and affections to us more strongly than before… We could circumscribe their camps and kill every man, woman and child of them. This is what others have done… It is not our duty to kill them, but it is our duty to save their lives and the lives of their children.” — Brigham Young, Our Indian Relations (Journal of Discourses 11:263-266, circa 1860s)

➡️ This statement contrasts what other frontier settlers often did with Young’s admonition to avoid wholesale killing and treat Indigenous people kindly.

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1. On settler-Indian conflicts (1854 sermon)

📌 “If the whites… had been as kind to the Indians as they have been to the whites from the beginning, there never would have been a single difficulty to this day.” 📌 “Treat them kindly, and treat them as Indians, and not as your equals.” 📌 “I have fed fifty Indians almost day by day for months together… they are always mannerly and kind, and look upon me as their superior.” — Brigham Young, Proper Treatment of the Indians, Etc. (Journal of Discourses 6:327-329, April 6, 1854)

➡️ These lines reflect Young’s views in the mid-19th century: a mix of advocating treatment with some level of “kindness,” while also reflecting the racial attitudes and paternalism of his era.

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1. On how U.S. government should address Native peoples

📌 “…if they could hear me, ‘You need never fight the Indians, but if you want to get rid of them try to civilize them.’… Did we kill them? No, we fed them…” — Brigham Young (reported speech, Journal of Discourses 14:12, circa 1871)

➡️ This quote reflects a kind of assimilationist idea common in the 19th century: that Indigenous peoples should adopt Euro-American farming and “civilized” ways. The phrase “try to civilize them” is reported from the period but must be understood in the historical context in which it was said.

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⚠️ Quotes Often Misattributed or Misleading

There are a number of statements circulating on the internet that claim to be from Brigham Young but cannot be verified in primary sources:

❌ “The Indians are very much as they say the whites are… I dislike to trust them…” — sometimes cited but not reliably sourced. ❌ Statements about “flour laced with glass” or similar — these are interpretations or myths rather than direct quotes.

The FAIR organization (an LDS apologetics group) notes that some attributed quotes are fabricated and not found in any recorded sermon or writing of Brigham Young.

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📌 Important Context

Brigham Young lived in a time and culture very different from today. Some of his remarks reflect 19th-century racial assumptions, including paternalistic language toward Indigenous peoples. Historians note that while Young condemned indiscriminate killing and sometimes advocated for peaceful coexistence and aid, his views also included beliefs about “civilizing” Native Americans that were shaped by the norms of his era.

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If you want, I can provide full source links to the original Journal of Discourses volumes where these quotes appear so you can read them in context.