Nephite Connection with the Mounds and the Smith’s
“Mormonism sprang from the mounds,” wrote Roger Kennedy, former director of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Even before the Book of Mormon was published, Mormonism was linked to the Moundbuilder civilizations of North America. One man who claimed to have heard a reading of the lost 116 pages said “It was a description of the mounds about the country and similar to the ‘Book of Mormon.’” In 1843, Joseph Smith apparently alluded to the 116 pages when he said the Book of Mormon spoke about sacred burial places. Several authors have placed the Book of Mormon among other 19th century books about the origins of the Moundbuilders. At one time, there were over a million ancient earth mounds in North America; approximately 100,000 remain today. Many of these mounds are located in the territory from western New York through western Missouri where early Mormon history took place. Three specific mounds figure prominently in LDS history: Zelph’s mound in Illinois, the Kinderhook mound, also in Illinois, from which the six brass plates were taken, and Enon mound in Ohio. Until the early Saints leveled them to build homes and farms, Indian mounds dominated Nauvoo. Joseph Smith purchased one and resorted to it from time to time. Less well known are the mounds located just north of Nauvoo that have recently been discovered and preserved. The connections between Mormonism and the mounds of North America have yet to be fully explored…
The increasing awareness of the numerous Hopewell mounds in the Nauvoo area may give renewed attention to the connection between Mormons and the mounds. When workers dug a utility trench between the Red Brick Store and the Joseph Smith Homestead, the equipment churned up Hopewell bones and artifacts. This area is adjacent to the Smith Family Cemetery, leading to the possibility that Joseph Smith, his wife Emma, his brother Hyrum and his parents are buried in a Hopewell burial site.
If “Mormonism sprang from the mounds” as Roger Kennedy suggested, it seems only fitting that Joseph Smith would be buried among the Moundbuilders…” Jonathan Neville- See his complete presentation called “The Mormons and the Mounds” HERE
In visiting the Alvin Smith burial site in Palmyra New York, it is a unique setting. It is just one block north of the four corner of Churches on Main St. It is possible that this was once a Nephite burial mound. (See picture gallery at the bottom of the page). When on top it is very secluded and surrounded by large trees, is very flat with very straight lines, and it is about 25 feet high. It would make some sense especially knowing that his younger brother Joseph is similarly buried in Nauvoo on a former Nephite burial site.
Alvin Smith, the Prophet Joseph Smith’s oldest brother died unexpectedly while building a nice frame home for his parents and family and was buried in the Jonathan Swift Memorial Cemetery in Palmyra, New York. Alvin had shown great interest in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. In 1836 Joseph saw Alvin in a vision of the Celestial Kingdom and marveled that he had inherited that reward without being baptized in mortality. That vision became a foundation of understanding salvation for millions that die without receiving the gospel in mortality. BYU Virtual Tours
Joseph Smith said to his mother about his deceased brother, “Mother, Alvin is not lost”
“I saw the beautiful streets of that kingdom, which had the appearance of being paved with gold. I saw Father Adam and Abraham; and my father and my mother; my brother Alvin, that has long since slept; And marveled how it was that he had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord had set his hand to gather Israel the second time, and had not been baptized for the remission of sins. Thus came the voice of the Lord unto me, saying: All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God; Also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom; For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.” D&C 137:4-9
“Oldest brother of Joseph Smith Jr., founder and Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
On one occasion, Joseph described his older brother as “a very handsome man, surpassed by none but Adam and Seth, and of great strength” Alvin’s mother said he was “a youth of singular goodness of disposition — kind and amiable.”
In November of 1823, Alvin suddenly became sick with what is called by his mother “bilious colic.” The family doctor was not available, so a substitute was procured, who prescribed “a heavy dose of calomel” – a compound of mercury and chlorine that some thought would encourage the discharge of bile. Alvin at first refused to take the medicine, but was eventually persuaded. According to Lucy’s account, “This dose of calomel lodged in his stomach, and all the medicine afterwards freely administered by four very skillful physicians could not remove it.”
Realizing that he was dying, Alvin called the family members to him and one by one gave counsel and encouragement. Joseph at this time was almost 18 years old, and had only recently had his first visit with the Angel Moroni. Alvin’s counsel to Joseph was: “I am now going to die…I want you to be a good boy, and do everything that lies in your power to obtain the Record. Be faithful in receiving instruction, and in keeping every commandment that is given you.”
The family mourned greatly at the death of Alvin, and frequently wept in sorrow when they remembered his devotion to Joseph and his divine calling.” Find a Grave
Interesting Facts:
• “Lucy recorded that Alvin was engaged to be married at the time of his death. The young lady never did marry as far as we know, but pined away in Alvin’s memory saying that she would never find another like Alvin. Joseph wrote that he was sure that her youthful heart would break when Alvin died. Larry Porter once appropriately described Alvin as a “quiet giant.”
• Alvin’s body was reportedly exhumed and dissected. Father Smith went to the grave with witnesses in order to ascertain that the rumor was unfounded and then had a notice that such was the case published in the local newspaper. (Wayne Sentinel 2 (29 Sept. 1824): 3; Lucy Mack Smith, (ed. Proctor), 123.)” BYU Virtual Tours
Below are pictures taken at Palmyra New York at the Alvin Smith burial site in July, 2019
The year following the destruction of the second Holy Temple was the first year of a seven-year Sabbatical cycle. In the Jewish calendar, counting from Creation, this was the year 3829, 68–69 CE on the secular calendar. By counting sevens from then, we see that the next Shemittah year will be the year 5782 after Creation, which runs from September 7, 2021 – September 25, 2022.
At the end of seven years you will make a release. And this is the manner of the release: to release the hand of every creditor from what he lent his friend; he shall not exact from his friend or his brother, because the time of the release for the L‑rd has arrived. (Deuteronomy 15:1–2)
Speaking about the earth just after creation, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, “
”We must remember that the whole earth was paradisiacal before the Fall. The Garden of Eden was a center place. After the Fall, there was no Garden of Eden or paradisiacal status on earth. Yet relative to the locale of the site of the Garden of Eden, the Prophet Joseph Smith learned through revelation (D&C 57) that Jackson County was the location of a Zion to be and the New Jerusalem to come. The Prophet first visited Jackson County, Missouri, in the summer of 1831. The Prophet visited Jackson County again in April and May 1832. On one of the occasions, or perhaps both, the Prophet Joseph apparently instructed his close associates, and perhaps even a general Church gathering, that the ancient Garden of Eden was also located in Jackson County.” 
TWO LANDS OF PROMISE
In spite of such grief and despair the Lord of the vineyard determined to “spare it a little longer” (
Elder Holland continues, “Thus in one final moment worthy men and righteous principles came together for the restoration of heavenly things. With his center stake in America, God began stretching the cords of his tabernacle to all the world… 
“While serving as Mission President in Central Florida Brother Murray Rawson had the responsibility to work on the Seminole Indian reservation. While there he had numerous visits with the chief. While attempting to present the Book of Mormon the chief interrupted his message by saying: “We had a war long ago with the light skinned people around the Great Lakes. We conquered them but we had so much respect for 
“I will give you a lesson today that the Lord has taken great pains to bring to us… In the western part of the state of New York near Palmyra is a prominent hill known as the “hill Cumorah.” (Mormon. 6:6.) On July twenty-fifth of this year, as I stood on the crest of that hill admiring with awe the breathtaking panorama which stretched out before me on every hand, my mind reverted to the events which occurred in that vicinity some twenty-five centuries ago—events which brought to an end the great Jaredite nation… Thus perished at the foot of Cumorah the remnant of the once mighty Jaredite nation, of whom the Lord had said, ‘There shall be none greater … upon all the face of the earth’ (Ether 1:43). “As I contemplated this tragic scene from the crest of Cumorah and viewed the beautiful land of the Restoration as it appears today, I cried in my soul, How could it have happened?… This second civilization to which I refer, the Nephites, flourished in America between 600 B.C. and A.D. 400. Their civilization came to an end for the same reason, at the same place, and in the same manner as did the Jaredites. “I bear you my personal witness that I know that the things I have presented to you today are true—both those pertaining to past events and those pertaining to events yet to come.” President Marion G. Romney of the First Presidency, 145th Semiannual Conference, Saturday Morning Session, October 4, 1975.
Dr. John C. Lefgren lives in Pennsylvania and owns his own business. He has a PhD in economics, served as a Foreign Service Officer with the US Department of State and was an officer with a major bank in New York. In 1980 his book April Sixth was published by Deseret Book. Since his youth he has had an active interest in Church History. He has developed a property in Vermont near the Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial and has a business producing maple syrup. (It’s called “Land of Joseph” syrup, available in Utah grocery stores)
The harvesting of maple sugar is extremely temperature dependent. Maple sugar comes only from the northeast of North America and is part of our early history. The English settlers learned maple syrup and sugar production from the Native Americans.[9] The harvest of maple sugar occurs in the early spring. For hundreds of years farmers in New England have tapped millions of trees and have observed that the flow of maple sap is governed by a cycle of freezing and thawing temperatures. In recent years scientists have developed a theory to explain a mechanism by which sap runs. Their investigation includes the measurement of negative and positive pressures in the tree’s sapwood. When the temperature is below freezing the cells have a negative pressure relative to the atmosphere. The negative pressure causes water in the ground to move into the roots. The incoming water becomes sap as enzymes in the roots convert starch into sugar. When the temperature rises above freezing the cells develop positive pressure which causes the sap to rise up the tree. Over this cycle the pressures in the sapwood fluctuate from a low of twenty pounds to a high of forty-five pounds per square inch. Thus, negative pressure brings water into the root system and positive pressure pushes sap up the tree.
In an effort to understand the pump effect of a maple tree’s negative and positive pressures, scientists measure the dissolution rate of carbon dioxide. When temperatures are below freezing, carbon dioxide has a high dissolution and causes negative pressure. When temperatures are above freezing the dissolution rate falls releasing gas into the sap which produces positive pressure. Sometimes the release of carbon dioxide is so quick that the sap becomes a carbonated “spring tonic”. (It is pressurized carbon dioxide which is used to carbonate soft drinks.) This cycle of freezing and thawing temperatures is required for the sap to continue its flow. If temperatures stay above freezing for more than thirty hours, positive pressures fall as the sapwood literally runs out of gas. When this happens farmers are happy to take a break.
Sugar makers in 1820 gathered maple sap in wooden buckets. They boiled the sap in a series of iron kettles which hung over an open fire. At one end, where the fire was highest, water boiled off. As the sap thickened into syrup they ladled it into the second kettle, where the fire was lower, and added fresh sap to the first kettle. In this way, they removed the water without burning the sugar. In the last kettle they stirred liquid sugar until it crystallized and then poured it into wooden molds to form blocks.
“In a revelation given through Joseph Smith Jr., the Prophet, to Oliver Cowdery (Second Elder of the
I remember that beautiful land and the wonderful saints of Fiji very well, as I served a mission from 1975 to 1977. I was privileged to meet President Spencer W. Kimball the prophet who called me on my mission to Fiji. There in 1976 he visited Fiji with Elder Russell M Nelson as his personal Doctor along with Elder David B. Haight as a newly called Apostle. The picture on the left is Pres Kimball in Fiji in 1976 with District President Yee on his left and Sister Yee on his right. Over his left shoulder is Mission President Kenneth M. Palmer from New Zealand and over his right shoulder is Elder Rian W. Nelson. What an honor it was to be there that day. At that time in Fiji we only had about 600 members and today (2019) we have over 22,000. As part of the Fiji Suva Mission we also opened the missionary work in the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati today). My companion Richard Evans and I were the first to baptize the Gilbertese people, and today there are over 15,000 members there. The Church growth among Hagoth’s blessed people is growing.
*The expression that Hagoth was an “exceedingly curious man” meant that his skills and knowledge in ship building were extremely good and was beyond the ability of common men. To those who could not comprehend how he could have constructed the ship, they used the term “curious” to describe his skills, similar to Nephi’s skill referred to in 1 Nephi 18:1.341 Hagoth’s Travels Alma 63:6 (55 B.C.) (Picture right, Phoenician ship Carved on the face of a sarcophagus. 2nd century AD.:
“The Spaniards were amazed by the size of Etzanoa,” Blakeslee said. “They counted 2,000 houses that could hold 10 people each. They said it would take two or three days to walk through it all.” But for four centuries, the story of a big Native American town in Kansas made no sense to historians…. Onate sent armed patrols into the empty town.
Another way to say this:
Meridian Magazine has an agenda of teaching members of the Church that the prophets and apostles are wrong about Cumorah, so they published this article to reinforce that agenda.
As if the reader can hardly imagine a number as great as 30,000.
2. “…This modernistic theory of necessity, in order to be consistent, must place the waters of Ripliancum and the Hill Cumorah some place within the restricted territory of Central America, notwithstanding the teachings of the Church to the contrary for upwards of 100 years. Because of this theory some members of the Church have become confused and greatly disturbed in their faith in the Book of Mormon. It is for this reason that evidence is here presented to show that it is not only possible that these places could be located as the Church has held during the past century, but that in very deed such is the case… It is known that the Hill Cumorah where the Nephites were destroyed is the hill where the Jaredites were also destroyed. This hill was known to the Jaredites as Ramah. It was approximately near to the waters of Ripliancum, which the Book of Ether says, “by interpretation, is large, or to exceed all… It must be conceded that this description fits perfectly the land of Cumorah in New York, as it has been known since the visitation of Moroni to the Prophet Joseph Smith, for the hill is in the proximity of the Great Lakes and also in the land of many rivers and fountains. Moreover, the Prophet Joseph Smith himself is on record, definitely declaring the present hill called Cumorah to be the exact hill spoken of in the Book of Mormon. Further, the fact that all of his associates from the beginning down have spoken of it as the identical hill where Mormon and Moroni hid the records, must carry some weight. It is difficult for a reasonable person to believe that such men as Oliver Cowdery. Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt, Orson Pratt, David Whitmer, and many others, could speak frequently of the Spot where the Prophet Joseph Smith obtained the plates as the Hill Cumorah, and not be corrected by the Prophet, if that were not the fact. That they did speak of this hill in the days of the Prophet in this definite manner is an established record of history.” Doctrines of Salvation Joseph Fielding Smith Chapter 12
4. “Both the Nephite and Jaredite civilizations fought their final great wars of extinction at and near the Hill Cumorah (or Ramah as the Jaredites termed it), which hill is located between Palmyra and Manchester in the western part of the state of New York. It was here that Moroni hid up the gold plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. (Morm. 6; Ether 15.) Joseph Smith, Oliver Cowdery, and many of the early brethren, who were familiar with all the circumstances attending the coming forth of the Book of Mormon in this dispensation, have left us pointed testimony as to the identity and location of Cumorah or Ramah.” (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, pp. 232-241.) (Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine “CUMORAH,” 1966, p. 175)
7. “Millennia ago he declared: “There shall none come into this land [he was speaking of America] save they shall be brought by the hand of the Lord… In the western part of the state of New York near Palmyra is a prominent hill known as the “hill Cumorah.” (Morm. 6:6.) On July twenty-fifth of this year, as I stood on the crest of that hill admiring with awe the breathtaking panorama which stretched out before me on every hand, my mind reverted to the events which occurred in that vicinity some twenty-five centuries ago—events which brought to an end the great Jaredite nation… Thus perished at the foot of Cumorah the remnant of the once mighty Jaredite nation, of whom the Lord had said, “There shall be none greater … upon all the face of the earth.” (Ether 1:43.)… This second civilization to which I refer, the Nephites, flourished in America between 600 B.C. and A.D. 400. Their civilization came to an end for the same reason, at the same place, and in the same manner as did the Jaredites… The tragic fate of the Jaredite and the Nephite civilizations is proof positive that the Lord meant it when he said that this “is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.” (Ether 2:9.) This information, wrote Moroni, addressing himself to us who today occupy this land, “cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles” (now, Gentiles is the term used by the Book of Mormon prophets to refer to the present inhabitants of America and to the peoples of the old world from which they came)… Now my beloved brethren and sisters everywhere, both members of the Church and nonmembers, I bear you my personal witness that I know that the things I have presented to you today are true—both those pertaining to past events and those pertaining to events yet to come. The issue we face is clear and well defined. The choice is ours. The question is: Shall we of this dispensation repent and obey the laws of the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, or shall we continue to defy them until we ripen in iniquity That we will repent and obey and thereby qualify to receive the blessings promised to the righteous in this land, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen.” America’s Destiny Marion G. Romney Oct 1975
10. [Heber C. Kimball] “prophesied that when the final last struggle came to this nation it would be at the Hill Cumorah where both of the former Nations [Jaredite and Nephite] were destroyed” (abt. Heber C. Kimball) Wilford Woodruff’s Journal 6:305, December 17, 1866
14. McGavin and Bean explain their point of view concerning the identity of the Hill Cumorah as an ancient battlefield. The authors conclude that the scholars “need not search for [Cumorah] in Mexico or Yucatan” E. Cecil McGavin and Willard W. Bean “Cumorah-Land, An Ancient Battlefield,” in The Improvement Era 44, September 1941, 526, 571-72.
21. “On the title page I read that it is “written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel; and also to Jew and Gentile.” In the introduction to the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, it says that the Lamanites “are among the ancestors of the American Indians.” As I read the Book of Mormon, it seemed to me that it was about my American Indian ancestors. It tells the story of a people, a part of which were later described as “Lamanites,” who migrated from Jerusalem to a “land of promise” (1 Nephi 2:20) about 600 B.C.” “Come unto Me, O Ye House of Israel” By Elder Larry Echo Hawk of the Seventy Ensign Oct 2012
23. “From the time Father Bosley located near Avon, he found and plowed up axes and irons, and had sufficient to make his mill irons, and had always abundance of iron on hand without purchasing. In the towns of Bloomfield, Victor, Manchester, and in the regions round about, there were hills upon the tops of which were entrenchments and fortifications, and in them were human bones, axes, tomahawks, points of arrows, beads and pipes, which were frequently found; and it was a common occurrence in the country to plow up axes, which I have done many times myself. I have visited the fortifications on the tops of those hills frequently, and the one near Bloomfield I have crossed hundreds of times, which is on the bluff of Honeyoye River, at the outlet of Honeyoye Lake. In that region there are many small deep lakes, and in some of them the bottom has never been found. Fish abound in them. The hill Cumorah is a high hill for that country, and had the appearance of a fortification or entrenchment around it. In the State of New York, probably there are hundreds of these fortifications which are now visible, and I have seen them in many other parts of the United States. Readers of the Book of Mormon will remember that in this very region, according to that sacred record, the final battles were fought between the Nephites and Lamanites. At the hill Cumorah, the Nephites made their last stand prior to their utter extermination, A. D., 385. Thus was Heber preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, above the graves of the ancients of Israel, whose records with the fullness of that Gospel, and the relics of their prowess and civilization, were now whispering from the dust.” Life of Heber C. Kimball by Orson F. Whitney Mounds at Cumorah
The Utah branch of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS), descendants of the Crosby-Lay family, and Amy Tanner Thiriot, a historian of black enslavement in Utah Territory, are working with the cooperation of Daughters of Utah Pioneers, the caretakers of Union Pioneer Memorial Cemetery, to place a gravestone for Hark Lay Wales. We would be delighted and grateful to have your support for this project.
Hark lived in the valley for almost four years before his owners took him to California and separated him from his pregnant wife and young son. By early 1856, Hark learned he was free. Thereafter he was known as Hark Wales. In the early 1870s, he returned to Utah and lived in the small black community in Union Fort and mined in Big Cottonwood Canyon. He has no known descendants, and his grave in Union Pioneer Memorial Cemetery is unmarked.
“In the autumn of 1848, Abraham Lincoln campaigned for Whig presidential candidate Zachary Taylor in Massachusetts. On the way home to Illinois, he visited Niagara Falls, and found the sight so impressive that he started writing about it. His 
“Continue south (from SR 32) on Wakefield Mound Road past several early nineteenth century houses,
“Niagara-Falls! By what mysterious power is it that millions and millions, are drawn from all parts of the world, to gaze upon Niagara Falls? There is no mystery about the thing itself. Every effect is just such as any intelligent man knowing the causes, would anticipate, without [seeing] it. If the water moving onward in a great river, reaches a point where there is a perpendicular jog, of a hundred feet in descent, in the bottom of the river,—it is plain the water will have a violent and continuous plunge at that point. It is also plain the water, thus plunging, will foam, and roar, and send up a mist, continuously, in which last, during sunshine, there will be perpetual rain-bows. 
The mere physical of Niagara Falls is only this. Yet this is really a very small part of that world’s wonder. It’s power to excite reflection, and emotion, is it’s great charm. The geologist will demonstrate that the plunge, or fall, was once at Lake Ontario, and has worn it’s way back to it’s present position; he will ascertain how 
accuracy, that five hundred thousand [to]ns of water, falls with it’s full weight, a distance of a hundred feet each minute—thus exerting a force equal to the lifting of the same weight, through the same space, in the same time. And then the further reflection comes that this vast amount of water, constantly pouring 
[1] AD, DLC-RTL. The dating of this document by Nicolay and Hay [July 1, 1850?] has been rejected because the editors can find no reason for so dating it. The date, c. September 25-30, 1848, is based on two principal facts: (1) Lincoln visited Niagara Falls en route from Boston to Chicago, September 23-October 5, 1848; (2) the document is in appearance of paper and handwriting contemporary with the documents of speeches written in 1848 in Washington. The content suggests the sort of meditation and recapitulation of observations and reflections which would be psychologically apropos following a visit to the Falls, and one suspects that Lincoln’s boat trip from Buffalo provided the leisure to begin, if not to conclude, the meditation. Nicolay and Hay entitle the piece “Notes for a Lecture,” but the subject itself should suffice. The manuscript stops abruptly with an unfinished sentence. 
The antiquarian author William Pidgeon created fraudulent surveys of mound groups that did not exist, possibly tainting this opinion, which was replaced by others.
The monument (left) reads: The Rockwell Mound Built in about A.D. 150, this massive mound is thought to be the largest prehistoric earthwork in the Illinois River valley. it is the largest known mound built by indians of the Western Hopewell or Havana culture. [Same culture as the Zelph Mound]. Found along major rivers of the midwest, mounds of the Havana culture were usually built over the log-covered tombs of prominent leaders. Ceremonial and everyday items were often placed with the burials. It has been estimated that this two-acre, 14 foot high mound required about 1,700,000 basket loads of earth to construct. Because of its size and strategic location opposite Spoon River, Rockwell Mound was probably the most important of the Havana site’s more than twenty mounds. Havana was a trading and ceremonial center with trade routes that spanned much of the midcontinent.The mound was not scientifically verified until 1986, where a small test trench yielded pottery fragments and a variety of other identifiable material. Individual baskets loads of earth were clearly visible in the walls of the trench. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
This mound was the site of major campaign addresses by Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas during their campaign for U.S. Senate in 1858.
Mound in Bronson Park
The Preservation Commission noted that from the time of Bronson Park’s creation, it has been the site of celebrations and public meetings. 
As early as 3500 years ago, American Indians’ traditional knowledge of differing environments led them to develop a unique North American agricultural complex; fostering prehistoric trade between and within the tribes across the eastern United States. Plants, ceremonial practices, domestic spear points and pottery, and artifacts of unusual form and exotic materials were exchanged; and within more complex societies, earthen mounds were constructed. Some mounds were for burials and some were built over and/or under buildings of different uses, including rituals. Elaborate copper, silver, obsidian and mica artifacts have been found in the “Ohio Hopewell” mounds of Ohio built between 250 BCE and 350 CE, and in related mounds along the Gulf Coast and across the southern midwest.
First recorded as the Nation of Fire in the area from northern Lake Huron to southwestern Lake Superior, by 1680 culturally related Anishinabe tribes were identified as the Ojibwa (Chippewa) who had also occupied eastern lower Michigan, the Adwada (Ottawa), who had also moved to northwestern Michigan, and the Pottawatomi who were expanding around southern and western Lake Michigan. Throughout two centuries of colonial conflict, the villages of these three tribes were pushed to French and British forts and trading posts. After the American Revolution the Federal Government opened their lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains to American settlers. In spite of their united resistance to the new settlements, the Anishinabe and other tribes were defeated, and in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville ceded to the U.S. their lands east of the Wabash and Miami Rivers, giving up millions of acres of forests, lake shores, and river valleys.
“I’m very enthusiastic about the renewed emphasis on Church history. Everyone is reading Saints, which is awesome.
“There is one thing which I am now about to read which has not yet been fulfilled, and which we must fulfill before Zion is redeemed. I will read it—“Behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my Gospel from among them, and then I will remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my Gospel unto them.” 
Jefferson never removed any Native Americans. However in private letters he did suggest various ideas for removing tribes from enclaves in the East to their own new lands in lands west of the Mississippi. Indian Removal was passed by Congress in 1831, long after he died. Before and during his presidency, Jefferson discussed the need for respect, brotherhood, and trade with the Native Americans, and he initially believed that causing them to adopt European-style agriculture and modes of living would allow them to quickly “progress” from “savagery” to “civilization”. Beginning in 1803, Jefferson’s private letters show increasing support for the idea of removal. Jefferson maintained that Indians had land “to spare” and, he thought, would willingly exchange it for guaranteed supplies of food and equipment.
Cyrus Thomas was an ethnologist and entomologist prominent in the late nineteenth century. He was noted for his studies of the natural history of the American West. However, Thomas is best known for his work in archaeology and ethnology — specifically, his contributions to the question of the origins of the mound builders and Mayan hieroglyphics. Thomas was not a field archaeologist. He visited the sites on which he reported, but did little if any field work. He had permanent and temporary field assistants and one clerical assistant. They provided him with their notes, which he organized, formed into a report, and published.
In 1894 Cyrus Thomas (left) was apparently unaware of the original survey made in 1823 and he dismissed the 1847 drawings which Squier and Davis had made with respect to the “Menorah” Earthworks in Clermont County as “largely imaginary.”7 From 1803 to 1897 the history of the existence of the “Menorah” Earthworks goes from found to lost. Here is the sequence of events.
(c) 1823. Major Isaac Roberdeau, head of the Bureau of Topographical Engineers of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made a survey of the “Menorah” Earthworks. This original survey is currently found in the National Archives.
The 1823 survey showed that the ancient “Menorah” Earthworks existed along the waters of the East Fork of the Little Miami River in Ohio, about 20 miles above its mouth near Milford, and about 25-30 miles east of Cincinnati. The works have long since been under the plow zone. Their orientation and exact locations are today unknown.
Jefferson wrote that the mound was “of spheroidal form, of about 40 feet diameter at the base, and had been of about twelve feet altitude …. I first dug superficially in several parts of it, and came to collections of human bones, at different depths, from six inches to three feet below the surface. These were lying in the utmost confusion, some vertical, some oblique, some horizontal, and directed to every point of the compass, entangled, and held together in clusters by the earth. … to give the idea of bones emptied promiscuously from a bag or basket, and covered over with earth, without any attention to their order.”
“And, even here, Adair might have kept up his parallel, with ennobling his Conjurers. For the ancient Patriarchs, the Noahs, the Abrahams, Isaacs and Jacobs, and, even after the consecration of Aaron, the Samuels and Elijahs, and we may say further every one for himself, offered sacrifices on the altars. The true line of distinction seems to be, that solemn ceremonies, whether public or private, addressed to the Great Spirit, are conducted by the worthies of the nation, Men, or Matrons, while Conjurers are resorted to only for the invocation of evil spirits…”
In one of his books, America B.C.: Ancient Settlers in the New World, Dr. Fell offers many examples of Old World civilizations left behind symbols and messages all over America.
Recently we studied as a church in the Come Follow Me manual, the Sermon on the Mount, wherein the Savior declared to his disciples, “Ye are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). Salt is so common nowadays, that it’s easy to not think much of the Savior’s statement. But it wasn’t always so. In Mark Kurlansky’s NY times bestseller titled, “Salt – a World History” he stated, “Salt is now so common, so easy to obtain, and so inexpensive that we have forgotten that from the beginning of civilization until about 100 years ago, salt was one of the most sought-after commodities in human history.” A greater understanding of salts role in the economies of ancient civilizations can bring deeper insights.
Many of us probably have some Celtic blood. The Celts date to around 1200 BC and lived in what is now Hungary, Austria and Bavaria. The romans called them Gaul’s, which originated from the Greek word hal, meaning salt. They were the salt people. They were expert in salt mining and their economy was based on salt and iron. The German and Austrian towns of Halle, Hallein, Swabisch Hall, and Hallstatt were all named for Celtic saltworks. The Celts used rivers for trade and conquest as they moved into France, northern Spain, Belgium, the British Isles and the Mediterranean. By 51 BC, the Celts had largely been defeated by Julius Caesar and the Romans, except of course for some isolated groups in England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man and the Brittany peninsula.
Salt was important to these early economies, because salt is required to live. When sodium, an unstable metal that can suddenly burst into flame, reacts with a deadly poisonous gas known as chlorine, it becomes the staple food sodium chloride, NaCl, or table salt. Chloride is essential for digestion and in respiration. And without sodium, which the body cannot manufacture, the body would be unable to transport nutrients or oxygen, transmit nerve impulses, or move muscles, including the heart.
When our baptismal and temple covenants become the defining focus of our life, rather than just one of the many influences, we create a hostile environment where the influences of the adversary cannot thrive, thereby preventing moral decay and the inherent unhappiness (our or somebody else’s) that always accompanies it. Does this mean that we’re perfect or won’t have temptations? Of course not, but the serious transgressions will be so far back in the rearview mirror that they won’t have any impact on us.
The possible conclusion of where Zelph may fit into the historicity of the Book of Mormon is either, Zelph may have died in 322 AD before Mormon became the Nephite leader or, Zelph may have died in 327 AD in Mormon’s first battle against the Lamanites in the City of Angola before the Nephites went even farther north and east toward Cumorah.
The name of Onandagus mentioned by Joseph, sounds very similar to Onondaga, one of the five Indian nations that comprised the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy. Haudenosaunee means “the people of the long house”. This confederacy assisted the United States in forming a similar government as the Iroquois. The tribe of Onandaga are native peoples of New York and are known to have built houses of timber. (Alma 19:17-18; 26:28-29). The Onandaga are also the leading tribe, or “fire keepers” of this current confederacy. Another people of the Haudenosaunee are the Oneida, which is strikingly similar to the Book of Mormon place name “Onidah”. (Alma 32:4; 47:5) It is also likely no coincidence that the Lamanite title of deity, “Great Spirit” is a native North American appellation. (Alma 18:4-5)
Of the First Presidency Conference Report, October 1968, pp. 106-110
Rod Meldrum
You can do a google search for many indications of Phoenician artifacts here: Davenport Tablets , Iowan Stele, Bat Creek Stone, Los Lunas Decalogue Stone, Pontotoc Stele, Newark Holy Stones, Oklahoma Hymn to Aten, Narragansett Rune Stone, Tyngsboro Map Stone, Tuscon Lead Artifacts, America’s Stonehenge Baal Stone (Mystery Hill NH), Westford Boat Stone, Spirit Pond Inscription Stone, Paraíba inscription, Pedra de Gavea Inscription.