Dr. Roger Kennedy, the former director of the Smithsonian’s American History Museum, addressed a misperception about earth mounds, noting that earth mounds are actually buildings. Build and building are also very old words, often used in this text [his book] as they were when the English language was being invented, to denote earthen structures. About 1150, when the word build was first employed in English, it referred to the construction of an earthen grave. Three hundred and fifty years later, an early use of the term to build up was the description of the process by which King Priam of Troy constructed a “big town of bare earth.” So when we refer to the earthworks of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys as buildings no one should be surprised.” Jonathan Neville Mounds and Mormons
Purchase Now“Hidden Cities: The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilization – by Roger G Kennedy, former director of the Smithsonian’s American History Museum is one of the most profound books on the hidden archaeology of North America. How and why was it hidden away for centuries and why is it important to the future of America? Reprinted by The Free Press, New York after overwhelming demand for its powerful message. 372 page soft cover.
Steven E. Smoot believes so, and he shared his story with for over 10 years with thousands of guests at conventions and with the sale of his book.
In the Book of Mormon Evidence Conferences (Now in its 28th semi-annual event) which is not sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, whether at the Davis Conference Center or the Mountain America Expo Center is it filled to capacity with LDS church members seeking more information on a variety of topics all focused on the Book of Mormon prophet Lehi and his descendants, where and how they lived, and how they vanished into thin air.
Smoot’s hypothesis is based on earthen mounds and archaeological artifacts found throughout Ohio, Mississippi and other heartland states between the Canadian border and the Gulf of Mexico. Most notable are the mound cities and burial grounds like those found in the Mississippi Valley.
“This was a more highly advanced civilization than previously thought,” Smoot said.
In a recent documentary Roger Kennedy, retired director of the Smithsonian Institute, said he had never heard of such civilizations. He had never considered the numerous mounds throughout the area to be more than piles of dirt. But that has changed.
After archaeological digs and significant artifacts and documentation had come forward over the years, Kennedy said the Smithsonian had to take another look.
“We now realize that tens of thousands of archaeological consequences are now hidden in our ground,” Kennedy said.
“One city across the river from St. Louis, the Cahokia Mounds, are bigger than the pyramid of Giza,” Smoot said. “There are 500 mounds in just one county dating back from 1,000 B.C. to 400 A.D.”
The fleeting notion that Columbus was the first to step foot on American soil is more sullied by the findings of modern archaeologists, Smoot said.
“The question is, who wasn’t here,” Smoot said. He noted the evidence of Vikings, Greeks, Polynesians, Welsh, Chinese and others.
So where did all this history go? According to Smoot, at one time there were 500 Native American languages and 50 linguistic families.
“Explorers were amazed at what they were finding in the early 1800s. They were finding symbols with old-world connections,” Smoot said. “We found early Jesuits seeking the lost 10 tribes. They thought the American Indians were of Jewish descent. They believed the Indian people worthy of salvation.”
Smoot said there were notes with opinions of the Jesuits stating that Indians in the Pennsylvania area were similar to the Jews of England.
All that changed when three men — John Wesley Powell, Lewis Henry Morgan, and E.B. Squier — first documented the mounds in the mid-1800s. They formed an association for the advancement of science and promulgated the evolution of societies.
HISTORY OF AAAS
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the betterment of all humanity. The formation of AAAS in 1848 marked the emergence of a national scientific community in the United States. While science was part of the American scene from the nation’s early days, its practitioners remained few in number and scattered geographically and among disciplines. AAAS was the first permanent organization formed to promote the development of science and engineering at the national level and to represent the interests of all its disciplines.
Smoot continues, “The evolution began with savages, then to barbarians and eventually civilized man. They categorized Indians as savages, thus sufficiently taking away their societal influence. Religionists like Joseph Smith and his church were considered barbarians.
Smoot quickly noted that both Powell and Morgan’s fathers were Methodist ministers who preached in Palmyra, N.Y., in 1830 and were instrumental in spreading some of the radical thinking against Smith, founder of the LDS Church.
Smoot believes the Indian history got lost through political debunking and battles over opinions that escalated in the late 1800s. Powell wrote the blueprint for how to handle Indians based on them being deemed savage.
“The most common question that is asked about mounds is, “How many exist?” In the 1800’s the Smithsonian sponsored many expeditions to identify mound sites across America. A map (shown below) was produced by Cyrus Thomas in 1894 in a Bureau of Ethnology book. They found approximately 100,000 mound sites, many with
complexes containing 2 to 100 mounds. The figure of 100,000 mounds once existing— based on Cyrus Thomas map revealing 100,000 sites—is often cited by others, but that estimate is far, far too low. After visiting several thousand mounds and reviewing the literature, I am fairly certain that over 1,000,000 mounds once existed and that perhaps 100,000 still exist. Oddly, some new mound sites are discovered each year by archaeological surveys in remote areas. But in truth, a large majority of America’s mounds have been completely destroyed by farming, construction, looting, and deliberate total excavations” – Gregory L. Little, Ed.D., The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Mounds & Earthworks, Eagle Wing Books, Inc., Memphis, TN [2009].
By 1894 the mound investigation and archaeological digs had ceased. With the Indians now considered savages it was easier to convince people that Native Americans needed to be put away on reservations.
“The ancient inhabitants of this country must be lost,” Powell said.
“They pictured them in loin clothes running around with tomahawks in their hand,” Smoot said. “There are those who would seek to close the history book for a better world.”
With renewed interest in the mound cities and the early Native Americans, Smoot believes it’s time for people to look at all the possibilities.
“There is a larger history with implications for our day,” Smoot said.
For more information about the conference visit www.BookofMormonEvidence.org.
Understanding Lamanites- Nothing but Raw Meat
Enos 1:20 “And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us.”
“One hundred and seventy-nine years after Lehi’s family left Jerusalem, the Lamanites were “feeding upon beasts of prey” and many were eating “nothing save it was raw meat.” This diet, consisting of meat only, would require a very large sustainable population of wild animals, or very large animals, or both. One 1,800 pound bison will feed a large number of people. It has been estimated that between 30-60 million bison once roamed the Great Plains of North America. Living in tents was a necessary part of the Indian culture of moving with bison herds and correlates well with Eno’s description of the Lamanite lifestyle. In an Ancient Archaeology article, Discovery Reveals Ancient Bison Hunting in Illinois, [2006] archaeologist Alan Harn found “bison remains with a spearpoint, indicating that humans hunted the animals as long as 2,300 years ago. Annotated Book of Mormon page 121
Bison Migration
In Alma 22:31, Mormon describes a wild animal that came (migrated) from a northern region for food. In Mosiah 18:4, Mormon describes how the land of Mormon was “infested, by times or at seasons, by wild beasts.” And in Ether 9:34, it says that “the people did follow the course of the beasts, and did devour the carcasses of them which fell by the way” following a great dearth (drought) that forced the beasts to retreat southward. The map on the left shows the ancient migration of bison based on available zoo-archaeological, paleontological, oral and written historical accounts. Herds came from the north to graze on the fertile grasses of the plains of North America. (Stephenson, R. O. et al. Wood bison in late Holocene Alaska and adjacent Canada: Paleontological, archaeological and historical records, [2001],125-159; S. C. Gerlachand M. S. Murrya, eds.)
Seasonal Migrations“Bison migrated up to 310 miles betweensummer and winter ranges…” – Mystery of Migration, Planet Earth Series [1981]. David Hocking and Rod Meldrum Annotated book of Mormon page 246
Ancient Bison in North America
“The greater portion, both of the entire skeletons or extinct animals, and the separate bones, have been taken up from black mud [in Big Bone Lick, Kentucky], about twelve feet below the level of the creek. It is supposed that the bones of mastodons found here could not have belonged to less than one hundred distinct individuals, those of the fossil elephant (E. prim genius), to twenty, besides which, a few bones of a stag, horse, megalonyx, and bison, are stated to have been obtained….In regard to the horse, it may probably have differed from our Equuscaballus as much as the zebra or wild ass, in the same manner as that found at Newberne [sic] in North Carolina appears to have done” – Charles Lyell, Travels in North America in the Years 1841-1842, New York: Charles E. Merrill[1909], 139-144.
The first paleontological site in North America wasprobably at Big Bone Lick, which is now Big Bone Lick StatePark near the Ohio River in Union, Kentucky. A Frenchcommander organized a dig there in 1739. Bones retrievedby him were sent to the Natural History Museum in Paris,France. In the 1960’s, the University of Nebraska conductedanother dig and several mammal fossils were recoveredincluding: possible wolf and black bear, modern bison, ancientbison, two types of musk ox, American moose, wapiti elk,common Virginia deer, extinct stag moose, caribou, flat-headed peccary, extinct North American horse, possibletapir, American mastodon, woolly mammoth, and two typesof giant ground sloth. The most common fossil found at theBig Bone Lick dig was the modern bison.
Bison Intentional Killing
While studying in England, Lewis Henry Morgan was heavily influenced by British evolutionary theorists of his day, who at that time would tout the intriguing works of Thomas Malthus. His ideas were growing in popularity and, even then, being proposed as a tool to perfect both man and society through population control measures. Malthus affirmed, “my object was to apply it, to try the truth of those speculations on the perfectibility of man and society, which at that time excited a considerable portion of the public attention.”414
One of his most daunting ideas found in Malthus’ 1798 book, Essay on the Principle of Population, in the forth chapter, titled The Check To Population Among the American Indian. In this chapter he would refer to the Indians as savages living in a barbaric country. He depicted the Indians as “tribes of hunters, like beasts of prey whom they resemble in their mode of subsistence, will consequently be thinly scattered over the surface of the earth… Under such circumstances, that America should be very thinly peopled in proportion to its extent of territory, is merely an exemplification of the obvious truth, that population cannot increase without the food to support it…I would wish particularly to draw attention of the reader, [to] the mode by which the population is kept down to the level of this scanty supply.”415
U.S. government pursued a policy to eradicate the buffalo and thereby extinguish the Indians’ very existence, forcing them onto reservations. Writing to his superiors in 1881, General Phil Sheridan made it clear:
If I could learn that every buffalo in the northern herd were killed I would be glad. The destruction of this herd would do more to keep Indians quiet than anything else that could happen. Since the destruction of the southern herd, which formerly roamed from Texas to the Platte, the Indians in that section have given us no trouble. If the Secretary of the Interior will authorize me to protect all other kinds of game [other than buffalo] in the far west I will engage to do so to the best of my ability. Source
More about Bison on my blog here: https://bookofmormonevidence.org/bison-killing/
Powell Family, Palmyra and the Book of Mormon
Lost American Antiquities by Steven E. Smoot Chapter 34
“In the Arlington Cemetery Eulogy of John Wesley Powell’s life, G. K. Gilbert of Rochester, New York remarked:
The qualities, which enabled him so splendidly to perform his many self-imposed tasks, were an inheritance from his parents, who possessed more than ordinary intelligence. Joseph Powell, his father, had a strong will, deep earnestness, and indomitable courage, while his mother, Mary Dean, with similar traits possessed also remarkable tact and practicality. Both were English born, the mother well educated, and were always leaders in the social and educational life of every community where they dwelt. Especially were they prominent in religious circles, the father being a licensed exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Both were intensely American in their love and admiration of the civil institutions of the United States and both were strenuously opposed to slavery, which was flourishing in America when they arrived in 1830. For a time they remained in New York City and then re-moved to the Village of Palmyra whence they went to Mount Morris, Livingston County, New York, where, on March 24, 1834, the fourth of their nine children, John Wesley, was born. Because of the slavery question Joseph Powell left the Methodist Episcopal Church on the organization of the Wesleyan Methodist Church and became a regularly ordained preacher in the latter. It was in this atmosphere of social, educational, political, and religious fervor that the future explorer grew up.283
The Powell’s had found their way to one of the most intensely evangelical districts in America. All during the building of the [Erie] canal and well into the 1830’s western New York was on fire with religion, as Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists vied to save souls; observers called this “the burned-over district” because of the frequent revivals that raged like forest fires through the countryside. Rochester was the persistent center of the fire. In 1830 a New England preacher, Charles Grandison Finney, with bulging blue eyes and tense, gripping voice, came to that city and for six months preached nearly every night and three times on Sunday, converting thousands.284
While Rochester could point to Finney and his stupendous achievements, Palmyra made its own contribution to the religious ferment, one that would eventually reverberate to the far western deserts. Palmyra was the birthplace of Mormonism. Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s founder, was an uneducated farm boy living south of the village center. Smith’s tales and teachings would cause reverberations throughout the region, as the doctrines he espoused would be heard far and wide.
The Book of Mormon rolled off the press in Palmyra, New York in 1830. Its publication created no small stir with much controversy in the area. The book tells of ancient cultures that migrated to America hundreds of years before Christ.
However, the Mormon story had begun years earlier near the Palmyra Township of western New York, with stories of heavenly visitations to its youthful founder, Joseph Smith. His audacious claims were met with either delight or disdain, depending on the listener. For many, he was either a deluded dreamer or a charlatan. For others, he was a prophet, raised up by God, who had personally appeared to him in 1820 and later sent angels to guide Smith to an ancient record inscribed on gold plates and buried in a hill. Of this experience, Smith said:
“I was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this country and shown who they were, and from whence they came; a brief sketch of their origin, progress, civilization, laws, governments, of their righteousness and iniquity, and the blessings of God being finally withdrawn from them as a people, was made known unto me; I was also told where were deposited some plates on which were engraven an abridgment of the records of the ancient prophets that had existed on this continent.” 285
This claimed ancient record was found in an area of the country where many other artifacts were being retrieved from mound explorations. Joseph Smith claimed to have translated the record and to have shown the plates to eleven others, who reportedly witnessed and gave testimony that they did indeed, see and handle the plates. Upon the translation of the record according to Smith, it was returned to a heavenly messenger, as instructed. Smith’s translation of this record would go on to be printed and published in Palmyra in 1830 as the Book of Mormon.
Purporting to be a historical record of migrations of ancient near Eastern cultures to the Americas, the book tells of their rise to glory and their tragic fall. The thrust of this religious narrative is an abridgment of records comprising the writings of a number of different religious leaders and includes the record of a visit to these people of the resurrected Christ. The historical account also foretells modern day events and a latter-day rise of the descendants of those ancient populations.
The Book of Mormon, along with the claims of its translator and the missionary-minded church he established—a restoration, he insisted, of Christ’s ancient church—created no small stir in Palmyra and indeed throughout the young nation. As it turns out, two of the preachers vying for converts in the immediate area of Palmyra had sons who would go on to play a significant role in how the knowledge of ancient American cultures would be handed down. The two preachers’ sons were E. G. Squier and John Wesley Powell.
Upon arriving in America, the Powell family, steeped in their Methodist beliefs, would be confronted continually with a myriad of religious views, as many religions in the area were vying for converts. This battle for converts “was another American strangeness to absorb along with Jacksonian politics, Manhattan street life, wild forest scenes, and Yankee twang. They had brought with them the true Christian faith, based on the traditional Bible, and they needed no other, certainly not one from an upstart bumpkin who said he had seen angels.”286
In Powell of the Colorado, William Culp Darrah writes:
The Powell family moved on to Palmyra, New York, as another station on the road to (the western) wilderness. The town was still excited over the new sect, which called themselves Mormons. The first printing of the Book of Mormon of five thousand copies had but recently been finished. A few years earlier, Joseph Smith, a young farmer, had received a vision revealing to him the existence of that record of the fullness of Christ’s Gospel, and on September 22, 1827, … gold tablets bearing cryptic characters were delivered into (Joseph) Smith’s hands… Joseph Powell [John Wesley’s Father] did not find the opportunity he sought in Utica. Tailoring was not satisfying; it was but a means to an end. A licensed exhorter of the Methodist Church was expected to follow his regular trade or profession, but there had been little chance for him to carry on religious work. There were six churches in the town and all who desired to attend services had an opportunity to do so. Joseph Powell wanted to bring religion to those who were beyond his reach.287
Despite the comfortable life they were enjoying in western New York, John Wesley Powell’s father, Joseph became restless “and informed the family that he now had his eye on Ohio. God was summoning to move once more. Joseph longed not merely to build churches but to preach the gospel and save souls. He had come to the New World with a mission to evangelize as well as prosper. Western New York State had plenty of preachers; Ohio did not. So, with many tearful good-byes, the family packed their clothes and portable goods and headed deeper into the nations interior.”288
Powell’s family life from birth, moving ever westward, would shadow the westward migration of the early Mormon pioneers from New York to Ohio then on to Illinois. His interests and business would also drive his steps to follow the trails blazed by these early pioneers across the open plains, over the Rocky Mountains and into the valleys of the Great Salt Lake on numerous occasions.289
The Powell’s moved westward to Ohio…“taking a steamer across Lake Erie, then making a long canal trip south from Cleveland through Akron, Massillon, Coshocton, Newark, Columbus getting off at the former capital of Chillicothe. Inspired by the Erie Canal’s success, developers dug the Ohio Canal over three hundred miles long (going all the way to the Ohio River), with 152 locks and 16 aqueducts. When linked to the Erie Canal, it put much of the state within cheap, easy reach of New York City.”290
“Over the next three decades hundreds more followed them, clustering together in what became southern Jackson County, Ohio, trying to keep their language and culture intact.”291
In Ohio the Powell family was looking to buy a small parcel to build a home when they met Big George Crookham, a large robust man who invited them to setup camp at his farm, as he would help them find a small property near Jackson, Ohio. Big George would become a real influence in Wesley’s life as later he became Big George’s pupil.
“Big George” Crookham was a strict but inspiring school master who had himself read as a lad such works as; David Hume’s History of England and Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and other substantial books; but the intimate instruction which had the greatest influence on him was the field trips and walks through the countryside…They dug in the prehistoric mounds of Jackson and Ross Counties…during which he was introduced to the elements of geology, archeology and natural history.292
With the extended construction of the Erie Canal, the corridor to the west was established and the Powell family was there to see this mass migration of tens of thousands of pioneers moving ever westward in pursuit of their dreams. Many would settle in America’s heartland, amidst some of the largest concentration of the ancient mounds and earthworks of the Hopewell and Adena cultures.
One of the Powell’s’ residence was located near the edge of the plateau, and below they could see the tangled riverine forest of Little Salt Creek, which flows west to the Little Scioto, which enters the Ohio River about fifty miles away. An anonymous historian wrote, “Along most of these creeks, and especially along the [Salt], is some of the most beautiful, romantic, and picturesque scenery the eye of man ever beheld.”293 “Wildlife and humans had long come here looking for that very practical necessity after which the stream was called—salt. The valley offered several salt licks where bison and elk, and before them mastodons and giant bears, had congregated, sometimes leaving their bones. In 1836, geologists, while excavating salt deposits in Jackson County, unearthed the skeleton of a hairy mammoth whose tusks measured eleven feet and weighed 180 pounds each.”294 Also found in Jackson County and some of the neighboring counties of Ohio—Scioto, Butler, Montgomery and Ross County—are some of the largest and most impressive concentrations of ancient works and mound structures as surveyed by Squier and Davis in their 1848 report.
Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, near Marietta, Ohio
As one walks along the path leading past the many burial mounds at the Mound City Hopewell Culture Center in Ross County, Ohio, one can only guess about what additional knowledge is still buried in those mounds, decaying away with time. At what point does society stop and ask whether the silence and social engineering surrounding these ancient cultures has really led to a greater good for mankind?
The remaining mound sites which are found in National and State parks are but a vestige of a once large number of historical sites that Squier and Davis estimated would be in the thousands. Mounds, along with earthworks and enclosures, were estimated at over fifteen hundred in the state of Ohio alone. As of 2005, the Ohio Historic Preservation office had identified and compiled over 35,000 prehistoric sites in the state, with an estimate that over 60% of those, are located on private lands and with approximately 90% of those sites being referenced to be pre-Columbian.
As the late Roger G. Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service and former director of the American History Museum at the Smithsonian Institution, said:
“The search for harmony is not a new phenomenon in Ohio. Propitiatory sacrifice was not invented in the Middle East. Perhaps, as we move forward toward an attempt to restore our own harmonious relationship to our mound-building predecessors, we may find, in the Old or New Testament texts, analogies to the physical testaments they have left to us. Analogies do not explain things away. Instead, they may be opening to understanding, declaring that we are all baffled by the enigmas of the universe, and that it is possible that the American Indians, we, and ancient peoples of the Old World, including the Jews, may have sought ways of seeking harmony with mysterious systems we cannot understand and cannot control. In this spirit, let us return to the mounds, and risk some guesses about why and how they were built.295“
Metal Ornaments, Highly Valued by the Mound Builders
Squier and Davis, Ancient Monuments, Fig. 88
Ancient Works, Marietta, GA
_______________________
283 See: Arlington Cemetery Eulogy / J.W. Powell.Net
284 Johnson, P.E., Shopkeeper’s Millennium, 137.
285 Joseph Smith, Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by Alma P. Burton, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City, 1977, 275-6.
286 Worster, 16.
287 William Culp Darrah: Powell of the Colorado, Princeton, University Press, 4
288 Worster, 20.
289 See: Ibid.
290 Ibid., 22.
291 Ibid., 21.
292 Darrah, William Culp: Powell of the Colorado, (Princeton University Press) 12: George L Crookham, History of the Hanging Rock Iron Region; 369-370: History of the Scioto Valley of Ohio, 471: see also Jackson Standard, March 5,1857.
293 See: Worster, 24-History of Lower Scioto Valley, 458
294 Worster, 23-24.
295 Kennedy, Hidden Cities; 242
Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, 1848 by Smithsonian (Entire Book)
$29.95 This is an actual reprint of the very first publication of the Smithsonian Institution and comprises the results of extensive original surveys and explorations in 1848. It contains the earliest study of the remains of the Moundbuilders whose civilization thrived in the Heartland of North America from 500 B.C. to 400 AD – Book of Mormon time frames! A ‘must read’ for anyone desiring to learn more about the Nephites from one of the earliest sources. 306 page softbound. Purchase Here
Ancient Monuments of The Mississippi Valley, Set of 48 original plates in 1848 (Black and White Mounds)
$9.95 This spiral bound oversized book contains a complete set of 48 of the plates from the book, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley by the Smithsonian’s E.G. Squier and E.H. Davis from their original surveys. These reproductions have been enlarged 120% from the original size for greater detail. They include such works as those of Newark, Chillicothe and Marietta, Ohio, the Great Circle & Octagon, Fort Ancient, Fort Hill, Serpent Mound, and “the Cross.” Purchase Here
In the early 1900’s the Church and many others believed the entire South America was the land South and where the Lamanites lived, and the entire North America was North and where the Nephites lived, and the narrow Isthmus of Tehuantepec or Panama, between the two Continents was the narrow neck of land. This was called the “Hemispheric Theory” [HM] of the Book of Mormon, which the Mesoamerican Theory people, and the Heartland Theory people, don’t believe any more. Both groups believe in the Hinterland Model of LM. [As shown in the map left. Most all under stand the events of the Book of Mormon could not be held in that large of an area as the entire Western Continent. Both sides agree that Lehi traveled from Jerusalem paralleling the Red Sea and then heading east at Nahom to Oman near Khar Kharfoot, where the first Land Bountiful was. The M2Cer, believes that Lehi traveled east by boat toward India and around the Pacific Ocean to land near Guatemala and spreading out in a Limited area surrounding Mexico near Guatemala. Heartlanders believe Lehi traveled SW from Oman sailing around Africa and landed in the Gulf of Mexico near Tallahassee Florida [Both called Limited Models LM, or Hinterland Hypothesis].
DNA- We (Heartlanders) believe there is Hebrew DNA in many Native American Indians near the Great Lakes of the Algonquian and Iroquois tribes. Only Asian DNA has been found amongst the people of South, Central and Western America, such as amongst other Western Native Americans of the United States and Alaska. We believe most of those living in the South Pacific Islands are of Israelite blood, (Hagoth or Mixture of Joseph and Judah) We haven’t found Hebrew DNA markers for those in South and Central America. We have found DNA evidence of Natiive Americans in the Great Lakes area with Hebrew Haplogroup X, that is also found in the Jerusalem area. M2C believe the Asian DNA found in Central America is because the Asian population over took any Hebrew DNA that may have existed during the time of Lehi.
“So 
We can become “perfect” in one thing, or in one action, or in prayers, or in scripture reading, etc. I feel we can become as perfect as we have knowledge, to become perfect in many things. We shouldn’t feel overwhelmed as it is a day to day process. Just because we don’t understand the workings of God in relationship to other worlds, or in the idea of perfection, we should not just ignore them.
Many of us believe that earthly visitations and other forms of communications today are not the extraterrestrial encounters some might think about., President Spencer W. Kimball affirmed they do happen in his book 
“God does not live in the dimension of time as do we. Moreover, since ‘all things are present with’ God [
The Savior will reside here when earth is celestialized, and His Father will visit it from time to time. It then will be the eternal home of those who achieve celestial glory in the kingdom of God.
The Prophet Joseph Smith explained that translation is a power that belongs to the Melchizedek Priesthood, a dimension of the holy order of God.
“He commandeth that there shall be no priestcrafts; for, behold, priestcrafts are that men preach and set themselves up for a light unto the world, that they may get gain and praise of the world; but they seek not the welfare of Zion. 2 Nephi 26:29
A quote from Joseph in Nauvoo on July 19th, and a revelation about baptisms for the dead a few weeks later on Aug 15 of 1840, a coincidence? I think not. Great wars and battles bring a great need to baptize for those who didn’t have the opportunity because of death by war and other means. This is the reason for the urgency I feel about getting the message out about this great pioneer and saint, Seymour Brunson. Inspired because of Brother Brunson’s death, our dear Prophet Joseph Smith was to reveal the critical need of baptisms for the dead. What a blessing. Thank you Seymour Brunson for your diligence and service which greatly contributed to the Salvation of those who have passed without the saving ordinance of baptism.
O remember, these words and keep my commandments. Remember this is your gift. Now this is not all, for you have another gift, which is 
Oliver Cowdery lived in a culture steeped in biblical ideas, language and practices. The revelation’s reference to Moses likely resonated with him. The Old Testament account of Moses and his brother Aaron recounted 
As Joseph and Oliver continued their work, 
The Lord recognized Oliver’s ability to use a rod: “thou hast another 
Though we know very few details about Oliver Cowdery’s attempt to translate, it apparently did not go well. His efforts quickly came to naught. In the wake of Oliver’s failure, Joseph Smith received another revelation, counseling Oliver, “Be patient my son, for it is wisdom in me, and 
If we presume, for the sake of argument, that the Book of Commandments revelation of 1829 did refer to a physical rod, it is useful to consider just what Oliver was told:
Now this is not all, 
Ivins continued. “According to the Book of Mormon, 
This information filled our hearts with unspeakable joy, for we knew that the Book of Mormon and this gospel had been brought to light more for the remnants of Jacob upon this continent than for the Gentiles.
What does Rahab (OT), Abish (BofM) and Woman Caught in Adultery (NT), have in common? They were all Heroines of the scriptures and sinners like ourselves.
“Joshua sends spies to Jericho—They are received and concealed by Rahab—They promise to preserve Rahab and her household.” Chapter Introduction
Rahab’s story is found in 
Safely escaping the city, the two spies returned to Joshua and reported that the “whole land was melting with fear.” 
Rahab was a young Canaanite prostitute and as such not a very likely candidate for a heroine of the faith. Jericho was one of the principal seats of idol worship, being especially devoted to Ashtaroth, the goddess of the moon. Here was centered all that was the vilest and most degrading in the religion of the Canaanites. Many Bible commentators, eager to remove the stigma of the designation “harlot” from one included in the genealogy of Christ (
He was the son of Nahshon, married “Rachab” of Matthew 1:5 (possibly 
The son of Salmon and his wife Rahab
“Elimelech is a biblical figure mentioned in the Book of Ruth.
Mahlon (Hebrew: מַחְלוֹן Maḥlōn) and Chilion or Kilion (כִּלְיוֹן Ḵilyōn) were two brothers mentioned in the Book of Ruth. They were 
Ruth (/ruːθ/; Hebrew: רוּת, Modern: Rūt, Tiberian: Rūṯ) is the person after whom the Book of Ruth is named. She was a Moabite woman who married an Israelite, Mahlon. After the death of all the male members of her family (her husband, her father-in-law, and her brother-in-law), she stays with her mother-in-law, Naomi, and moves to Judah with her, where Ruth wins the love and protection of a wealthy relative, Boaz, through her kindness. 
1- There were possibly two separate sets of plates that Joseph translated.
THE PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 1950
“
Notice what the Commentary from these inspired Prophets says:
1923 First Presidency
“Almost every town or city is named for something—a person, an event, or a nearby geographical wonder. Beit Lehi is no different. “Beit” in Hebrew means “house or dwelling of,” while “lehi” means “jawbone.” The name “Lehi” seems to have originated in biblical times, apparently referring to the traditional resting place of Samson after he slew one thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. “But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof En Hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day” (Judges 15:19). Thus, Beit Lehi means “dwelling place of Lehi.”
I believe the Hopewell culture matches up with the Nephite culture extraordinarily well. The Hopewell originated about 550 BC at the panhandle of Florida from Crystal River to Tallahassee, Florida. History documents this. The Hopewell then traveled north into Georgia and Tennessee. There is evidence of a huge society of the Hopewell from Missouri to Illinois to Indiana and then to Ohio which was the dominant historical area of this people. History shows the end of the Hopewell civilization around the year 400 AD. Historians say the Hopewell just disappeared and historians have no idea what happened. I feel I have a good idea. The final battle at Hill Cumorah was 385 AD. This is some great evidence of a possible link to the Hopewell and the Nephites.
“I believe we may confidently pronounce that all the hypotheses which attribute those works to Europeans are incorrect and fanciful—first, on account of the present number of the works; secondly, on account of their antiquity; having from every appearance, been erected a long time before the discovery of America; and finally, their form and manner are totally variant from European fortifications, either in ancient or modern times.
The period when this second burial took place occurred at different intervals amongst the different tribes, but was universally denominated the “Festival of the Dead.” Bartram, speaking of the burial customs of the Floridian Indians, says: “After the bone-house is full, a general solemn funeral takes place. The nearest kindred and friends of the deceased, on a day appointed, repair to the bone-house, take up the respective coffins, and, following one another in the order of seniority, the nearest relations and connections attending their respective corpses, and the multitude succeeding them, singing and lamenting alternately, slowly proceed to the place of general interment, when they place the coffins in order forming a pyramid. Lastly, they cover all over with earth, which raises a conical hill or mount. They then return to town in order of solemn procession, concluding the day with a festival which is called the ‘Feast of the Dead?’ The author here quoted adds in a note, that it was the opinion of some ingenious men with whom he had conversed, “that all those artificial pyramidal hills, usually called 
The large cemeteries which have been discovered in Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Ohio, seem to have resulted from a similar practice. In these the skeletons were generally packed in rude coffins composed of flat stones, placed in ranges of great extent. The circumstance that many of these coffins were not more than two or three feet in length, gave rise to the notion of the former existence here of a pigmy race. The discovery of iron and some articles of European origin in one of these cemeteries in the vicinity of Augusta, Kentucky, shows that this mode of burial existed at a late period among the Indians in that direction. 
We are excited to announce the New “Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon.” They continue to be popular as gifts and for individuals. Rod Meldrum’s previously best selling book titled, “Exploring the Book of Mormon in America’s Heartland”, had 5 Editions and sold over 50,000 copies from 2009 to 2023.(Currently out of Print). The Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon already has its 3rd Edition and over 35,000 printed copies in less than 5 years. We appreciate your valued support.
The ‘Phoenicia’ ship owned by Heartland Research with John Lefgren and Mike and Betty LaFontaine, is a 600 BC replica ship that was sailed by British Navy Captain Philip Beale over 30,000 nautical miles, proving a plausible route for Nephi and Mulek to sail from the Old World to North America. Brother Hocking has updated route information on a map that may have brought Mulek to America. He added insight pages about Phoenician names showing up in the books of Mosiah and Alma after King Mosiah meets the people of Zarahemla, suggesting that it was a Phoenician ship that brought Zedekiah’s family with Mulek to the Land of Zarahemla near Montrose, Iowa. Also see an article from a BYU professor in 1973 that affirms a Heartland theory about the route and landing of Mulek and or Nephi, here: 
Did you know that the words, Urim and Thummim, do not appear in the translated text of the Book of Mormon? Instead these instruments are called “Interpreters” or Nephite interpreters. The term Urim and Thummim is found in the Bible but it is speaking of different tools, and are not the same tools Joseph found in the stone box with the gold plates. Brother Hocking has included additional insight pages relating the use of the Interpreters (“these stones fastened to a breastplate” JSH 1:35), as the 
A statement from Lucy Mack Smith who said Joseph marveled at the Interpreters, calling them as she quotes Joseph saying, “I have got the Key”, and how Lucy also said that Joseph “had these things (Spectacles & Breastplate), constantly upon his person.” This suggests Joseph may have worn the breastplate under his shirt, for constant usage during the translation period and to keep it out of sight. Joseph could have possibly hid the Interpreters (Spectacles) from Emma’s view and other scribes by using his farmers hat to block their view. (See picture above). Blog here: 
Another insight page highlights a Michigan artifact that suggests it was made in a Book of Mormon time period. Brother Hocking says, “Measurement on the face of the stone shows the sun’s altitude from the earth’s horizon at an angle of 67 degrees (Fig. 1). This is precisely the angle that the NASA program connected to the Fourth Century solar eclipse.”
Spotted Bee Balm
Another artifact, is shown (left) that was found in Alabama. It is a “Hopewell dated etched shell of an All Searching Eye symbol in a Hamsa five-fingered hand pattern. Moundsville was a village built using ‘Wall-Trench’ architecture.” Department of Research and Collections, University of Alabama Museums.
“The Book of Mormon reveals the inheritance of Joseph, son of Israel, who was not forgotten when land was distributed to the tribes of Israel. This was promised in the Abrahamic covenant. Because… Joseph’s inheritance was to be a land choice above all others. It was choice not because of beauty or wealth of natural resources, but because it was chosen to be the repository of sacred writings on golden plates from which the Book of Mormon would one day come. Choice because it would eventually host the world headquarters of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ in the latter days. And it was choice because it was a land of liberty for those who worship the Lord and keep His commandments” – President Russell M. Nelson, President of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, Yes, Mormons are Christians, Legends Library [2017], 60; emphasis added. 
The following information that contains outside quotes, does not represent the position or belief of Firm Foundation or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is information for you to read, study and pray about. The most important information comes through the Spirit of the Holy Ghost.
Therefore, the Bible states that early peoples of Egypt actually came from the Near East (Mesopotamia region) and that Ham was their ancestor. The Bible also says these same early Egyptian people were the first Egyptian dynasty – the first pharaohs.
Many Jewish legends actually say that Asenath was the offspring of Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, and resulted from Shechem’s seduction as told in Genesis chapter 34. 
I had the opportunity to serve my Mission in the Fiji, Suva Mission from 1975 to 1977. This included service in Fiji, Kiribati, formerly known as the Gilbert Islands, and Tuvalu, formerly known as the Ellice Islands. During this incredible time amongst the Children of Israel my testimony was strengthened. I also had the privledge of meeting Elder Groberg in 1976, as he visited our small mission. I then at the end of my mission in Nov 1977 left from Kiribati. and flew to Honolulu to receive my mission release from Elder Groberg who was a Regional Representative serving in Hawaii. I love this great man, Elder Groberg.
The missionaries asked the family if they had ever heard of the president of the United States. “
In these two quotes, I feel it very likely the hill Shim was very close to the Hill Cumorah as that would make it feasible to move the plates from one location to the other. Below is my proposed location for Shim.
This area locating Shim is speculation, based on a few personal friends that have discovered some interesting artifacts in that location in the past few years. A very large flat rock in that area seems to be a possible location of a grave or an entrance etc. Again I speculate but is seems like a possibility according to the location and how Oliver described the 1-mile valley below:
In the DVD titled “
“Rods, Staffs & Sticks”
Those who have not the gift of revelation and gift prophecy, and do not understand the “language of the fathers,” in translating scriptures, have a much different understanding and interpretation of the wording reviewed here, than those who do. So these things can only be fully understood by the Spirit, and naturally much of what is stated here is not to be taken as fully valid, but too much of the philosophies of man. Because of my extensive background and experience in translating the Hebrew Old Testament into English, I would give a much different approach. But the conclusion of Oliver’s gift of Aaron and the rod, would be more related to the Lord saying (in another context) that he would smite with the rod of his mouth (D&C 19:15), his word, revelation. In addition, there are too many assumptions made about Oliver having a diving rod, etc., which assumptions have contradictions.