Title: Welcome to Council Bluffs
Abstract: The city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, encompasses a wide range of significant, albeit random, markers in U.S. history. The area was first inhabited and divided by the Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Ottawa nations until 1824, when white settlers named and renamed the area Traders Point and later Kanesville. It was given its third name, Council Bluffs, in 1852 by the Otoe Tribe and the Lewis and Clark expedition travelers. It is known as a destination for travelers to cross the Missouri River, including Lewis and Clark, pioneers, and settlers moving out West. It played a key role in developing the transcontinental railroad, enabling faster travel from the Midwest to the Pacific, and served as a religious refuge, home, and safe passage for travelers, including members of the Latter-day Saint Church and the Reorganized Latter-Day Saint Church, now known as the Community of Christ. Both communities still thrive in the town. These characteristics earned Council Bluffs its name today: “The Gateway of the American West,” as it connects and binds the United States together. Today, locals embrace the name “Counciltucky” with its slow pace, everyone’s welcome, country lifestyle in the cornfields and bluffs.
Biographical Sketch: Kayla Becknuss is a History PhD student at Baylor University. She received her Master’s in Religious Studies at Yale University, specializing in women, gender, and sexuality. Kayla studies the intersection of Religion, Gender, and U.S. Empire in the American West and Pacific in the nineteenth century. Her most recent work explores how Mormon polygamy and marriages were a form of empire-building, colonizing, and converting Indigenous people in Utah and Hawaii. Kayla was born and raised in Council Bluffs, IA, with her parents and extended family still residing here.
Keynote 101 Richard P. Howard Lecture (7:00 p.m., Thursday, September 24)
Title: “Nuclear Colonialism and the Ambivalent Church: Responses to French Pacific Nuclear Weapons Testing by International Leaders of Community of Christ/the RLDS Church” by Matthew Breay Bolton
Abstract: Community of Christ, a denomination formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), is a significant presence in Māòhi Nui/French Polynesia, where members are locally known as Te Mau Sanito (The Saints). International leaders of Community of Christ advocate for nuclear disarmament and call on members to be dedicated to the pursuit of peace. However, the RLDS/Community of Christ’s global leadership has rarely been outspoken advocates for the rights of Māòhi people harmed by French colonial policy, including radioactive fallout from the 193 nuclear detonations at Moruora and Fangataufa atolls between 1966 and 1996. During the preparations for the nuclear test program, white RLDS missionaries were preoccupied with the perceived cultural flaws of Māòhi people, seeing French authorities as partners in a mission of civilizational uplift. Once the test program began, white missionaries acknowledged responsibility to mitigate resulting social disruptions but did not offer political resistance. As the movement for a nuclear free and independent Pacific became a major influence in Oceania’s politics, the RLDS church did take steps to encourage the empowerment of Māòhi ministers. Quiet, indirect expressions of concern about the French nuclear program then began to emerge in global church policymaking forums. Māòhi leaders are now increasingly influential in the denomination. However, even today, international leaders of Community of Christ have been slow to reckon publicly with the impact of the humanitarian, environmental, and spiritual impacts of nuclear legacies in Māòhi Nui/French Polynesia.
Biographical Sketch: Dr. Matthew Breay Bolton is professor of political science at Pace University, New York City, where he teaches international relations and environmental politics; he directs the coastal and ocean studies program. Bolton was part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) team awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. He has worked for more than twenty years with UN and NGO efforts addressing the environmental impacts of weapons. His field research has highlighted the concerns of communities affected by nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Māòhi Nui/French Polynesia, Fiji, and the Cook Islands. Bolton has authored or co-edited six books, including From Militarized Mission to Global Solidarity: The Life and Work of Missionary and Humanitarian Charles D. Neff (John Whitmer Books), as well as Political Minefields and Imagining Disarmament.