There's just one problem with a historical marker in Almo, Idaho, that memorializes 300 pioneers who were massacred by Indians in 1861, said sociologist James W. Loewen.

"It never happened at all," he said. It's a product of a period in America's history that Loewen calls the "nadir," or low point, in race relations.

Of the Idaho marker, Loewen said, "It tells us that in 1938, a bunch of white folks were so convinced that Indians were savages ... they put this up."

Loewen, author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong," spoke Thursday to attendees of the 55th Annual Utah State History Conference at the Salt Lake City Library.

The free public conference explored a broad range of groups that make up Utah's culture and history, from immigrants to women to children, says Philip Notarianni, director of the Division of State History.

"It's just a nice way for getting a dose of Utah history in a very broad sense," he said, including a discussion of religion.

Religion is important because in Utah it has been the "No. 1 key factor," Notarianni said.

"When early ethnic communities came in, one of the first things they did is establish churches," he said. "For many immigrants it was a carrier of culture."

On a national level, today's race relations can be tracked back to the nadir, Loewen said, which started in 1890 and continued nationwide until as late as 1940. During the period blacks and other minorities were systematically dehumanized, and in some cases driven from their homes, he said.

The period, he said, was sparked by three major historical events: The Massacre at Wounded Knee, a lack of federal response to a new Mississippi constitution that removed blacks from citizenship, and a narrow failure of the Federal Elections Bill in the Senate.

Among other things, it was the high point of lynchings, saw the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, and the emergence of "sundown towns" in which only whites were allowed after sundown.

Loewen said he was shocked at the number of towns he found. He thought there would maybe be 50 nationwide. He found 500 in his home state of Illinois alone.

"African-Americans were driven out of town by town in tiny little race riots that have been lost to history," he said. "It became the thing to do."

Utah isn't immune. In 1890 there were five counties in the state without a single black person. By 1930, that number had grown to 16 counties, even as the black population grew.

It's important to understand such events, Loewen said, because, "telling the truth about the past helps us bring about justice in the present."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com