Canaanite–Mormon War
| Canaanite–Mormon War | ||||||||
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| Part of the Sierran Civil War | ||||||||
.jpg) Battle of Puebla Park, 1877 | ||||||||
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
 Mormons List
Supported by:  Second California Republic |
 Canaanites List
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 Kingdom of Sierra | ||||||
The Canaanite–Mormon War was a religious war fought between the Canaanites, followers of a new-age religious movement of the same name, and Mormons in the Deseret. The Canaanite-Mormon War, although somewhat loosely connected, is considered a conflict apart of the Sierran Civil War. The conflict, which saw a total of TBD causalities, has been referred to as a religious genocide, as the governments of the Deseret actively sought to purge the Canaanite population from the territory. Such a claim has been thoroughly denied by the modern Deseretian government.
Tensions between the Mormon majority and the Canaanite minority in the Deseret existed long before the Sierran Civil War. Both religious groups had previously clashed over territorial possessions and religious differences, and following the annexation of the Deseret as a territory of the Kingdom of Sierra, tensions were further exacerbated as the largely pro-Sierran Canaanites were given preferential treatment over the largely anti-Sierra and secessionist Mormons. With the start of the Sierran Civil War, federal troops in the Deseret were recalled in order to assist in defeating Isaiah Landon's Second California Republic, effectively withdrawing from the Deseretian territory. In 1876, as the war progressed into its final stages, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints James Strang called for a crusade against the Canaanite minority to "reclaim" the Mormon holy land from "heathens". Heeding the call of the prophet, over a thousand Mormons gathered under the Nauvoo Legion and marched into West Colorado, attacking Canaanite settlements.
Hundreds of Canaanites gathered to form a number of militias, most notably the Canaanite Army and the Army for Religious Freedom, in response to Mormon aggression, and engaged Mormon forces in gruesome combat. While intially Canaanite forces were able to pushback against Mormon incursions, the numerical superiority of the Mormons eventually overwhelmed Canaanite militias. Effective Canaanite resistance was crushed at the Battle of Pueblo Park, and from November 1877 to January 1878, the Nauvoo Legion and other Mormon militias enacted a campaign of terror in West Colorado, sacking Canaanite cities and wiping out a number of settlements both in West Colorado and other parts in the Deseret. The Mormon terror campaign was halted by returning Sierran forces, who quickly neutralized Mormon forces and ended the war. However, the war has been viewed in contemporary times as a Mormon victory, as the devastation inflicted onto the Canaanite population led to a sharp decline in growth.
In contemporary times, the Canaanite-Mormon War, specifically the end stages of the conflict, have been categorized as a genocide inflicted onto the Canaanites by the Mormon majority. According to statistics gathered after the war, a total of 15% of Canaanites in the Deseret at the time, approximately TBD people, were killed by Mormon militias following the Battle of Pueblo Rock. In addition to that, around 54% of Canaanites were displaced and a number of Canaanite holy sites, such as the Sanctuary of Isachul, were destroyed. The claim that the war was a genocide has been contested by the modern government of the Deseret and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, both of whom promote the baseless theory that causalities were overreported by Sierran authorities in order to demonize Mormon settlers. The Canaanite-Mormon War was a precursor to the Deseret War, which established home rule in the territory.