Crossing the Gila River

Today I walked 5.06 miles.  On the map, I crossed a piece of history, the Gila River, the main river watershed that flows throughout Arizona.  Here's an on-the-ground view of where I am on my virtual journey.  CLICK HERE 

The map (right) shows how far I have gone on the map, to date.

The sources of the Gila are in western New Mexico and Northern Baja, and it flows West across Arizona to join with the Colorado river. 

It crosses the Gila River Indian Reservation southeast of Phoenix, then bends sharply by the Gila Bend Mountains, bending West at the town of Gila Bend.  Where I am right now, it flows between the Gila Mountains on the South and the Muggins range northward in Yuma County.  Here's a fact sheet on the Gila River.

Native American History

The human history of the river begins with the ancestors of the modern Pima, the “Akimel O’Okham,” the "river people," who lived along the banks of the river before the arrival of the Spanish. 

"Circa 300 B.C., these early inhabitants were joined by peoples from central Mexico, transformed by concepts and technology introduced from the south." (Gila River Indian Community)  The indigenous peoples, such as the Hohokam, created complex city cultures along the river, depending “largely on irrigated agriculture.

They constructed some 500 miles of large canals (on average 10 feet deep and 30 feet wide!) linked to smaller ditches, so watering thousands of acres of farmland. Transforming the desert into gardens, the Huhugam grew cotton for clothing, rugs and other textile products, and crops of corn, melons, beans, fruits, tobacco and other foods. They supplemented these crops with game, mesquite beans, agave, cactus fruit and other foods gathered locally from the wilds or in trade, enabling them to settle into large population centers.  (Gila River Indian Community)

The upper Gila was inhabited by the Mogollon culture over most of the same time period, in settlements like those at Gila Cliff Dwellings NationalMonument in the later period.” (Wikipedia) 

Spanish History

You can read further in Wikipedia of the history of the Spanish explorer, Juan de la Asunción, who likely reached the Gila in 1538 after traveling northwards along one of its tributaries, either the San Pedro or Santa Cruz.^[9] In 1540, Hernando de Alarcón sailed up the Colorado and Gila Rivers; maps drawn by his expedition show the river as the Miraflores or Brazos de la Miraflores.^[10] 

^{American History}

During the Mexican-American War, the famous guide, Kit Carson, led General Stephen Watts Kearny's  100 cavalrymen from the 1st U.S. Dragoons along the Gila River in November 1846.^[11] . The Mormon Battalion  followed Kearny's troops, building a wagon trail roughly following the river from December 1846 to January 1847. (Wikipedia).

In 1846, Lieutenant George Stoneman of the Mormon Battalion (who in 1882 became Governor of California) experimented with transporting military goods on the Gila. The raft, with Stoneman on board, was launched amidst as much a ceremony as one could manage in the wilds of Arizona. A short distance downstream the raft began to sink and Lieutenant Stoneman, a brave sea captain to the very end, went down with his ship, then walked ashore. As far as we know that was the last time there was any government sponsored navigation on the Gila. (The Gila River's Sustaining And Stubborn History)

After the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848, the Gila River served as a part of the border between the United States and Mexico until the 1853 Gadsden Purchase soon extended American territory well south of the Gila.  

"During the California gold rush would-be millionaires on their way to the promised land used to float down the Gila, saving themselves the hazards of crossing the fearsome desert sands." (The Gila River's Sustaining And Stubborn History)

 In 1853, gold was found in the Gila River at about the same time that the Californian Gold Rush was coming to an end. The Territory of Arizona was established from the western portion of the Territory of New Mexico in 1863 just prior to the mining boom that lasted for a decade between 1870 and 1880 when large silver deposits were discovered. The richest silver mines in Arizona were found in Tombstone, (southeast of Tucson) famous for its stories of the Wild West and the badmen, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, who lived there. Mining towns were abandoned after the mines became depleted and these old ghost towns still remind us that Arizona was once known as the last frontier.  (Arizona)

The confluence of the Gila with the Colorado River was also used as a reference point for the southern border of California. Beginning in 1871, mainly Mormon settlers populated the Gila River valley around present-day Phoenix, using the Gila, Salt and San Pedro Rivers for irrigation and establishing at least six major settlements. (Wikipedia). "On April 8, 1879, the first Mormon pioneers under the leadership of Bishop Joseph K. Rogers, arrived at the town site they called Smithville (northeast of Tucson) in the Gila Valley." (AZMormonnews)

In 1885, the Thirteenth Territorial Legislature appropriated $12,000 to build a bridge across the Gila. The citizens of Florence were tired of the river’s fickle behavior.  No sooner had the bridge been built and dedicated when the irrepressible Gila changed its course, swung out into the desert and left that bridge standing all alone. (The Gila River's Sustaining And Stubborn History)

In 1930, the Bureau of Reclamation completed the construction of Coolidge Dam on the upper Gila.

The bureau had researched the river thoroughly before deciding where the dam should be built. Unfortunately, however, the years reviewed in the study were unusually wet and a series of years after the dam was finished were unusually dry. Well, the Gila got stubborn and refused to form the reservoir that was supposed to take shape behind the dam. It took 50 years, in fact, for San Carlos Lake to fill.  Will Rogers, at the dedication ceremony attended by President Coolidge in 1930, looked at the grassy lake bed and said, “If that was my lake, I’d mow it!”
(The Gila River's Sustaining And Stubborn History)

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The Mormon Church on Transgender Issues

As Arizona has a long history of Mormons, I thought I would research what is the Mormon church's stance on transgender issues.

The Human Rights Campaign feels that "a transgender Mormon who has sex reassignment surgery will almost certainly be subject to ecclesiastical discipline."  However, there are groups, like "Affirmation," that are trying to educate and normalize the Mormon Church about transgender issues.

Also, in a 2015 article in "By Common Consent," the writer describes a wedding between a man and a transgender woman, who was baptized in the church, that was approved by the church:

A year earlier, a woman who had undergone transsexual surgery was baptized in our ward. Leaders in the mission and the ward were fully aware of her status—indeed, the baptism recommend (which the bishop later showed me, since the subsequent wedding involved a member of my quorum) bore the words, “She is a transsexual.” Several months later an elder moved into the ward, the two of them fell in love, and they announced their engagement. They expressed to the bishop a desire to be married in the temple, and after he and the stake president interviewed the couple, the stake president wrote a detailed letter to the General Authority who supervised that area of the country, explicitly stating that the bride-to-be had undergone transsexual surgery.  By Common Consent

However, there appears to be some inconsistencies in that policy, as evidenced by an article that talks about the Obama administration's most recent 2016 directive about transgender students:

The Utah-based LDS Church isn't coming out directly in support of — or against — the Obama administration's directive that transgender students be allowed to use facilities that match their gender identity.

Spokesman Eric Hawkins said Tuesday in a statement that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is instead calling on public officials to create rules and laws that balance safety, privacy and dignity for all.

Hawkins says Mormon leaders believe reasonable solutions can be reached when "people of goodwill" work to find answers.

He says LDS leaders teach that gender is part of a person's "eternal God-given identity and purpose." Because of that, Hawkins says, church leaders don't baptize people planning transgender operations. People who choose to have the operation may risk losing their membership in the religion. (The Salt Lake Tribune)

But, it appears that some Mormon leaders may be open to a change in viewpoint about transgender people.  In a 2015 interview, "high-ranking leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints fielded questions on LGBT issues" (Outward).

One question dealt with transgender identity, and the response by Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, one of the highest-ranking church leaders, was the most significant—and underreported—statement from that session. A mother said, “I have a transgender son who came out to us about a year ago. … I hate having to fear what retaliation [from church leaders] I might have for supporting him … I think we as members need that assurance that we can indeed have our own opinions, support our children, and still follow our beliefs.”

This question concerns transgender, and I think we need to acknowledge that while we have been acquainted with lesbians and homosexuals for some time, being acquainted with the unique problems of a transgender situation is something we have not had so much experience with, and we have some unfinished business in teaching on that.

Oaks’ tone was conciliatory and optimistic. A leader of a church that is famously conservative on gender and sexuality issues expressed some reservations about current teachings on transgender issues, anticipating that more experience might lead to changes. Here and elsewhere, rather than retrenching, the church is showing subtle signs of evolving some of its paradigms on gender and sexual identity. (Outward)

So, it appears that the current "official" stance of the Mormon church is that gender is part of a person's "eternal God-given identity and purpose." Because of that, Hawkins says, church leaders don't baptize people planning transgender operations. People who choose to have the operation may risk losing their membership in the religion. (The Salt Lake Tribune)  However, some exceptions have already occurred involving baptism and marriage, both sacraments in the Mormon religion, and there are some Mormons who are transgender who also stubbornly cling to their faith, such as Emmett Claren, a trans-man, and who, as yet, have not been disciplined or ex-communicated from the church.

At age 13, Emmett Claren used to lie in the middle of a football field behind his house, look up at the sky and beg God to strike him with lightning and change his body. “I would tell him, ‘I have a lot of faith. I believe in you. I know you can do anything,’” Claren, now 22, recalled. The Utah resident and member of the Mormon church is a transgender man, which means he was assigned female at birth, but knew since he was a young child that he identified as male – even though he didn’t learn the term “transgender” until many years later.  (The Guardian)

Here is a moderate summary statement on this issue in "Journeys of Faith,".  "Kyle,"a graduate student at Brigham Young University, studying Classical Languages and Literature, who also said he suffers from gender dysphoria, offers a Mormon perspective on gender dysphoria:

 

I affirm the statement found in the Proclamation on the Family that, “Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.” I know that there are divinely appointed differences between men and women and each gender is given its own specific roles and duties. The Proclamation states that: “By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.” Yet, I can also acknowledge that we live in a fallen world and that individual circumstances might necessitate some degree of flexibility in the family dynamic, allowing for individual circumstance. The Proclamation states, “Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation.” Gender dysphoria, in what can at times result in crippling dissonance for some, may well be one of these other circumstances. (Journeys of Faith)

 

He states further what Mormons who experience gender dysphoria ought to do:

Those members struggling with gender dysphoria must patiently wait until the Lord sees fit to provide further revelation regarding how to live with gender dysphoria. This further revelation will be a cause for rejoicing, and those members with gender dysphoria will faithfully accept the counsel of the prophets. Until then, I know many individuals that are striving to deal with this issue in a faithful manner, and in each case it is up to the individual, in concert with local church leaders (who often consult area authorities), to seek revelation and specific guidelines on an individual basis. These revelations and guidelines can vary widely. Each member dealing with gender dysphoria must walk forward with faith, and strive to be obedient to their individual revelation from the Lord.
(Journeys of Faith)

 

However, there are other strong voices in the Mormon church who consider gender dysphoria as "gender confusion," and they strongly advocate for their view of Mormon doctrine:

 

Doctrinal Truth: The doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints clearly teaches that gender is an essential characteristic who we were before we were born. Each of us is a beloved son or daughter of God who has a gender which was determined in the premortal life, and it will continue in this life and the eternities.[8] Gender is part of both our eternal and physical DNA and is unalterable and unchangeable. Why? Because our doctrine is such that “the spirit and the body are the soul of man” (What Every Mormon Needs to Know About Gender)

 

They make strong statements, such as:

 

“Erasing gender distinctions would serve to legally un-define what it means to be human.  

The terms “designated sex at birth” or “birth assigned sex” change the language of everyone’s identity because the laws that are being imposed are all based on the premise that no one’s sex is real.

 

These gender identity laws that have already been passed are based on the premise that everyone’s sex is not “real”  (What Every Mormon Needs to Know About Gender)

 

It appears to me that there are varying opinions about transgenderism in the Mormon church, from a zero-tolerance, doctrinaire stance, to a position where there may be some exceptions to the rules of the church.  It appears that if someone is experiencing gender dysphoria, and they are Mormon, that it is up to the Bishops and Apostles of the church whether they will be allowed to transition and also maintain their status in the church, and it appears that the leaders of the Mormon faith have not fully decided for or against gender transition as the proper treatment for gender dysphoria, as of yet.  But, even if the leadership allow someone in the church to transition, or allow someone who has transitioned to come into the church and be baptized, that person may still experience strong cultural opposition from hardliner members and leaders who consider gender transition to be a result of gender "confusion," and contrary to doctrine and the ways of God, as Mormon's see it.