Columbus Discovered the Arawak-Taino Culture from Florida

“While the Reformation and the surge for freedom were gaining momentum in Europe and England, events were transpiring that led to the rediscovery of the land of America, for God touched the heart of a mariner by the name of Christopher Columbus, who eventually pioneered a passageway to the promised land in 1492. But neither Columbus, the Nephites, nor the Jaredites were its original discoverers, nor did they establish the purpose of America’s destiny. This had already been established in the infancy of earth’s habitation. In these migrations they were but directed to the land of man’s beginning upon the earth…. (Editors note: That means America [Missouri area] was the original Old World and Israel was the New World when Noah discovered it, at his landing at Mt. Ararat in Turkey).

Dyer continues, “In the course of time from the creation, in the days of Peleg (Gen. 10:16 (JST)), or about the year 2200 B.C., Just prior to the confusion of the languages, the single continent of land that had continued from creation was divided to produce the hemispheres as we now know them. But notwithstanding this, the geographic location of the Garden of Eden was made known to the Prophet Joseph Smith by revelation as here in the land of America, in Jackson County, Missouri, with Independence as the center place.” The Destiny of America by President Alvin R. Dyer October 1968

“From a historical standpoint, it ought to be worth something to people to know about this land of America or when Columbus discovered it. The knowledge that we get through the Book of Mormon is a knowledge that we can’t get any other way in all this world. It not only tells us of the great destiny of this land of America, but it also gives the promises of the Lord through his prophets that it would be a land choice above all other lands and that it would be the land upon which God would build his New Jerusalem in the latter days. It was hidden away from the eyes of the world that it might not be overrun, and the Spirit of the Lord moved upon a man across the great waters to come here. We understand and know that man was Columbus. You see what a marvelous thing it is to have understanding.” LeGrande Richards, “You’re Fringe Benefits” 1975 Devotional

Mesoamerica was not the Land of Promise chosen by the Lord. Sure great people live in Mesoamerica, but that has nothing to do with the Lord choosing the sacred places of North America. As Pres Hinckley said, “I should like to say a few words about America…. No land is without its beauty, no people without their virtues, and I hope that you who come from elsewhere will pardon my saying a few words concerning my own native land, America. I know that she has problems. We have heard so much of them for so long. But surely this is a good land, a choice land, a chosen land. To me it is a miracle, a creation of the Almighty”

About Florida Natives in Guanahani and Columbus

Most likely Columbus discovered Nephites or Lamanite descendants in the Bahamas. “Guanahaní (meaning “small upper waters land”) was the Taíno name of an island in the Bahamas that was the first land in the New World sighted and visited by Christopher Columbus’ first voyage, on 12 October 1492. It is a bean-shaped island that Columbus called San Salvador. Guanahaní has traditionally been identified with Watlings Island, which was officially renamed San Salvador Island in 1925 as a result, but modern scholars are divided on the accuracy of this identification and several alternative candidates in and around the southern Bahamas have been proposed as well… This first island to be visited by Columbus was called Guanahani by the Lucayans, and San Salvador by the Spanish” in the Bahamas.” Source

Jonathan Neville said, “The first people Columbus encountered were from Florida (they had inhabited the Bahamas).”

“Florida offers archaeological evidence of some of the earliest settlements in North America. In particular, spectacular finds from Florida sink holes may date from the end of the Wisconsin glaciation in about 10,000 B.C… much of Florida was occupied by Taino-speaking peoples” Haines Brown (more below)

Timucua Ancestors of Tainos, Discovered by Columbus

A Facebook lady named Ana, said to me (Rian Nelson) after reading this article. Ana Mercedes Fernandez-Pietri “This is what our ancestors taught us: “A white bearded god visited us, and he said he will be back.” When Christopher Columbus arrived in the island of Boriken ( Puerto Rico) my ancestors, the Taínos, believed he was the white bearded god who had returned, and they worshipped him!

Columbus in 1493 was about age 40, had white hair to his shoulders, grey blue eyes, and a warm complexion. And contrary to what his enemies said of him, he was a man of God, not of war. In his letters to the queen and king of Spain, he described the Taínos, and made note about their friendly disposition. Columbus said: “The Taínos would make good “súbditos”/”subjects”. He never wrote “esclavos”/”slaves” in his letters or diaries when referring to the Taínos in Puerto Rico.

“On-site digs have found evidence of the presence of the Timucua, Native Americans who began to occupy the region spreading from Central Florida to Southwest Georgia around 2400 B.C. As a loosely-knit confederation of tribes that shared common language, the Timucua were not bound politically as a common people. They traded with one another and went to war with one another. Long before the arrival of Pedro Menendez de Aviles in 1565, the Timucua people lived in the St. Augustine area.” The Timucua and the Village of Seloy

“The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The various groups of Timucua spoke several dialects of the Timucua language. At the time of European contact, Timucuan speakers occupied about 19,200 square miles (50,000 km2) in the present-day states of Florida and Georgia, with an estimated population of 200,000. Milanich notes that the population density calculated from those figures, 10.4 per square mile (4.0/km2) is close to the population densities calculated by other authors for the Bahamas and for Hispaniola at the time of first European contact.[1][2][page needed] The territory occupied by Timucua speakers stretched from the Altamaha River and Cumberland Island in present-day Georgia as far south as Lake George in central Florida, and from the Atlantic Ocean west to the Aucilla River in the Florida Panhandle, though it reached the Gulf of Mexico at no more than a couple of points.(See map above)

The name “Timucua” (recorded by the French as Thimogona but this is likely a misprint for Thimogoua) came from the exonym used by the Saturiwa (of what is now Jacksonville) to refer to the Utina, another group to the west of the St. Johns River. The Spanish came to use the term more broadly for other peoples in the area.[3] Eventually it became the common term for all peoples who spoke what is known as Timucuan.” Wikipedia

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Ancient Islanders Visited by Columbus Not ‘Extinct,’ Study Finds

By sequencing DNA in a 1,000-year-old tooth, researchers were able to find genetic matches between ancient and living populations in the Caribbean.

When Christopher Columbus reached the Caribbean in the 15th century, indigenous communities referred to as Taínos were heavily impacted—so much so that the region’s history is often divided by historians as pre- and post-arrival…

To see whether there were any remaining members of Taíno populations, the team had to detect the presence of genetic material predating the arrival of Columbus in living populations.

Extinction of an ethnic group occurs when, “you have every member of this particular group dying out and they’re unable to pass on their genetic material,” he says.

Previous studies suggested continuity, but theirs was the first to use DNA. They obtained it from an ancient tooth found in a 1,000-year-old female skeleton in the Bahamas. Tropical conditions like those in the Caribbean don’t naturally preserve skeletons as well as hot, arid climates, so finding physical remains to sequence is rare. But the remains found on a tiny island called Eleuthera in the Bahamas are thought to be from a woman who lived 500 years before the arrival of Columbus.” Source

Columbus Landed in North American Guanahani and the Atlantic Ocean, not the Caribbean

A facebook follower of mine said, “So Christopher Columbus proves that the land of the Nephites and Lamanites are the lands that he visited?” I said, “You ask the question similar to Korihor in Alma 30. The first stop of Columbus was San Salvador in the Bahamas. At worldatlas.com it says, “The Bahamas are located off the southeastern coast of the United States of America in North America. The Bahamas is an island chain country located in the Lucayan archipelago with over 700 cays, islands, and islets within the Atlantic Ocean. The Bahamas occupies over 3,864.9 square miles of land and approximately 1,492 square miles of water for a total of 5,358.32 square miles. Although the Bahamas is situated in the Caribbean region of North America, it is located in the Atlantic ocean and not the Caribbean Sea.”

You can believe what ever you like about Columbus finding America, I believe the many prophets, such as Marion G. Romney, who said in Conference, “And the Lord has said, “My word shall be verified at this time as it hath hitherto been verified” (Doctrine and Covenants 5:20). Jesus Christ, the God of this land, led Columbus to it. He led the Pilgrims to Plymouth. He sustained and gave victory to the colonists. He established the Constitution of the United States (see Doctrine and Covenants 101:80).”

This seems clear that America is the Promised Land, why? Because the Lord chose it, not because it is more special that other lands. More Prophetic quotes at the end.

Jonathan Neville said, “The first people Columbus encountered were from Florida (they had inhabited the Bahamas). So if you want to believe Columbus was the man identified by Nephi, then the first people he encountered were not from Mesoamerica or South America; they were from North America, not far from where Lehi originally landed (in Florida)… Nephi does not describe the “man among the Gentiles” making multiple voyages. He refers only to the first voyage that took him to “the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.” For that reason, I focus on the first voyage.” Jonathan Neville

1492 Lucayan–Spanish Encounter

In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain with three ships, seeking a direct route to Asia. On October 12, 1492 Columbus reached an island in the Bahamas, an event long regarded as the ‘discovery’ of America. This first island to be visited by Columbus was called Guanahani by the Lucayans, and San Salvador by the Spanish. The identity of the first American landfall by Columbus remains contested, but many authors accept Samuel E. Morison’s identification of what was later called Watling (or Watling’s) Island as Columbus’ San Salvador. The former Watling Island was officially renamed San Salvador in 1925. Luis Marden’s identification of Samaná Key as Guanahani is the strongest contender with the former Watling Island theory. Columbus visited several other islands in the Bahamas hunting for gold before sailing on to Cuba.[9]

Columbus spent a few days visiting other islands in the vicinity: Santa María de la Concepción, Fernandina, and Saomete. Lucayans on San Salvador had told Columbus that he could find a “king” who had a lot of gold at the village of Samaot, also spelled Samoet, Saomete or Saometo. Taíno chiefs and villages often shared a name. Keegan suggests that the confusion of spellings was due to grammatically differing forms of the name for the chief and for the village or island, or was simply due to Columbus’s difficulty with the Lucayan language.[10]

Columbus spent three days sailing back and forth along the shore of an island seeking Samaot. At one point he sought to reach Samaot by sailing eastward, but the water was too shallow, and he felt that sailing around the island was “a very long way”. Keegan interprets this description to fit the Acklins/Crooked Islands group, with a ship in the west side being able to see the western shore of Acklins Island across the very shallow waters of the Bight of Acklins, where there was a village that stretched about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) along the shore.[10]

Amerigo Vespucci spent almost four months in the Bahamas in 1499 to 1500. His log of that time is vague, perhaps because he was trespassing on Columbus’s discoveries, which at the time remained under Columbus. There may have been other unrecorded Spanish landfalls in the Bahamas, shipwrecks and slaving expeditions. Maps published between 1500 and 1508 appear to show details of the Bahamas, Cuba and the North American mainland that were not officially reported until later. European artifacts of the period have been found on San Salvador, the Caicos Islands, Long Island, Little Exuma, Acklins Island, Conception Island and Samaná Cay. Such finds, however, do not prove that Spaniards visited those islands, as trade among Lucayans could have distributed the artifacts.[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucayan_people

“The Taíno were a historic Indigenous people of the Caribbean, whose culture has been continued today by Taíno descendant communities and Taíno revivalist communities.[2][3] At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The Lucayan branch of the Taíno were the first New World peoples encountered by Christopher Columbus, in the Bahama Archipelago on October 12, 1492. The Taíno spoke a dialect of the Arawakan language group.[4] They lived in agricultural societies ruled by caciques with fixed settlements and a matrilineal system of kinship and inheritance. Taíno religion centered on the worship of zemis.[5]

Some anthropologists and historians have argued that the Taíno were no longer extant centuries ago,[6][7][8] or they gradually merged into a common identity with African and Hispanic cultures.[9] However, many people today identify as Taíno or claim Taíno descent, most notably in subsections of the Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican nationalities.[10] Many Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans have Taíno mitochondrial DNA, showing that they are descendants through the direct female line.[11][12] While some communities claim an unbroken cultural heritage passed down from the old Taíno peoples, others are revivalist communities who seek to incorporate Taíno culture into their lives.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%C3%ADno

Side Note about Arawak Cooper and Gold for Plates

Hopewell Copper Head Plate

Improvement Era continues, “Let us now consider the box in which the plates were stored.

The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “In the bottom of the box were laid two stones crossways of the box, and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with them.”  Did the artisan who made the box intend merely to hide the plates, or did he intend to preserve them also?  He must have intended to preserve them, since he (Moroni) sealed them up. This could not have referred to the portion that was sealed together so that each plate was inaccessible but rather to the disposition of the entire stack, since what was sealed included the portion to be translated.

“These new plates were given to Moroni to finish the history. And all the ancient plates, Mormon deposited in Cumorah, about three hundred and eighty-four years after Christ. When Moroni, about thirty-six years after, made the deposit of the book entrusted to him, he was, without doubt, inspired to select a department of the hill separate from the great depository of the numerous volumes hid up by his father. The particular place in the hill where Moroni secreted the book, was revealed, by the angel, to the prophet Joseph Smith, to whom the volume was delivered in September, A.D. 1827. But the grand repository of all the numerous records of the ancient nations of the western continent, was located in another department of the hill, and it’s contents under the charge of holy angels, until the day should come for them to be transferred to the sacred temple of Zion.” 1866 Orson Pratt Millennial Star (28 (27): 417)

A brief history of the Timucua people of Northern Florida

By Haines Brown

Florida offers archaeological evidence of some of the earliest settlements in North America. In particular, spectacular finds from Florida sink holes may date from the end of the Wisconsin glaciation in about 10,000 B.C. However, by historical times, much of Florida was occupied by Taino-speaking peoples from the Caribbean, who, like all Arawak speakers, came originally from Amazonia. Among the better known of these Taino peoples of Florida are the Tekesta, associated with the Maimi Circle, the state-level Calusa society based on a fishing economy in Southern Florida, and the Timucua tribe of Northern Florida.

Apparently the Timucuan language is a Caribbean kreol that derives from the Arawak language group of Amazonia as spoken by the Warao, but it was influenced by North American languages through trade and cultural exchanges. In this respect the Timucuan language resembles other Taino languages, but it seems to have emerged at a somewhat earlier point in Caribbean Arawak linguistic history. The separation of Taino and Carib languages had occurred even earlier.

The Timucua from northern Florida participated in a broad Southeastern American culture sphere, but preserved distinctive traits reflecting their Caribbean origin. By the 17th century, their population was greatly reduced, and with the influx of new peoples from the North such as the Creek and the impact of European colonizers, not much of that original culture survives among the Timucuan people today. For example, we know of only a small number of Timucuan words. Peoples of Taino descent, such as the Timucua, are trying to recover as much of their cultural heritage as they can and gain the tribal recognition necessary to win some control over their circumstances. Solidarity among Taino-speaking people everywhere, from South America to the Caribbean and North America, is a means to achive official recognition for Taino tribes.

The amount of surviving evidence and the extent to which survivers are able to perpetuate their traditions vary considerably from one Taino tribe to another. In the case of the Timucua, that evidence to a large extent derives from records of conquest by European whites, but from it we at least gain some idea of Timucuan society. In it there was the marked sexual distinction typical of Southeastern American culture. It gave rise to a sexual division of labor and affected many aspects of daily life. For example, in their dress, men wore a woven fiber breechcloth, sashes, and deerskin moccasins for travel. Timucuan women instead wore skirts of Spanish moss. In cold weather, both women and men put on feather or skin matchcoats, although worn differently. In warm weather, young boys and girls generally wore nothing…

It is thought that a settlement usually consisted of a small number of round timber houses with palm thatched roofs arranged in a semi-circle around a central plaza equiped with a large post for the traditional Timucua games. (Similar to Cahokia). In larger settlements there would be an artificial mound for a temple and another for the chief’s residence. Timucua settlements seem to have been generally quite small.

Early every morning the council in a settlement would meet to discuss the affairs of the chiefdom, smoke, and sometimes carry out the games. Important council meetings opened with a “White Drink” ceremony (the drink was actually black in color) that helped purify the men (and women posing as men) so that they would find it easier to interact…

Archaeological evidence suggests a quite mature agricultural economy among the Apalachee and Timucua of northern Florida based on Indian corn, beans, pumpkins and vegetables. In fact, de Soto’s four-year expedition through “La Florida” could not have taken place without the appropriation of enormous amounts of food from local populations. The American farmers first cleared the land by burning the brush, prepared the soil with hoes, and then women planted seeds with dibble sticks (coa). Apparently, two crops were planted annually, and there was field rotation. Guards stood in wooden watchtowers (barbacoa) to protect the crops from birds and foraging animals…

Hunted were alligators (by thrusting a long pole down their throats), sea cows and occasional nearby whales. Meat was cooked on a wooden rack over a fire, also called a barbacoa, from which derives the English word “barbecue. Continued below.

Editors note: The alligator is a sacred animal of the Mohawk of the Iroquois culture. I’m sure the Ancients used it for food, weapons (teeth) and armament, or other use (skin). Wayne May shares a discussion with a Mohawk in Palmyra in 2017 below:

Continued, “Although the Taino generally relied on a marine economy, unlike the Calusa, who managed to support a state-level society on a fishing industry, it seems that Timucuan culture constrained fishing and hunting so that Florida’s west coast economic potentials were never fully exploited by the Timucua. Later on, due to a dependency on British trade, much of Florida’s deer population was destroyed for the deerskin needed to exchange for tools, cloth, and ammunition.

Spanish pillagers penetrated Florida early in the sixteenth century in search of precious metal and slaves. One of them, the sinister Pánfilo de Narváez, landed in 1528 in order to conquer the Timucua, but he did not find the precious metal he expected and also apparently food supplies were inadequate. So, from Tampa Bay, he marched north along the coast to enter Apalachee territory. Although they, too, lacked gold, he appropriated sufficient grain from them to keep his band alive. However, facing the stiff resistance of the Apalachee, he had to abandon any idea of a permanent settlement, and his band continued on into what is now Texas and eventually reached New Spain (Mexico). Of the 260 who started out, only three survived. Unfortunately their account is sketchy, but they spoke of an arid and poor land (perhaps the result of the ravages of the disease brought by the Europeans spreading through Eastern Woodland trade routes. This abandonment of traditional settlements continued well into the next century and opened the way for immigration from the North by other Native Americans who eventualy prevailed in Florida and came to be known as the Seminoles. (Taino’s become the Seminoles of Florida)

Nevertheless, the Timucua economy must have remained highly productive for some time. In 1539, Hernando de Soto, who had been appointed Governor of Cuba and La Florida, landed with 622 men in Tampa Bay in a search for wealth and opportunities for colonization. He found the Americans living in a small town of timber houses with thatched roofs. The chief’s house was near the beach on a high defensive mound, and opposite to it was a temple surmounted by a wooden bird with gilded eyes. Not finding any significant wealth in the area of Tampa Bay, de Soto attacked the surrounding region in order to rob, kill and enslave. People often abandoned their settlements at his approach. Like de Narváez before him, de Soto eventually marched north in the search for greater amounts of food and wealth.

De Soto eventually reached the large settlement of Cofachiqui (in modern Georgia), led by a female chieftain who greeted him in a shaded canoe. To avoid disastor, she ordered that all available white and yellow metal be given to de Soto. This meant copper and the mica sheets which artisans fashioned into ornaments. However, her efforts were in vain. Because there were no local pearls, de Soto’s men looted the burial ground to seize 158 kg of the freshwater pearls that were buried there and proceeded to scalp and kill everyone they could (scalping was practiced in early Europe by the Alemani and Franks as a way to destroy a person’s charisma).

The Timucua were not as warlike as the Apalachee to the North or the Calusa state of Arawak speakers to the South, although they were certainly capable warriors. They preferred to find ways to avoid overt conflict. For example, they would place the head of an enemy on a post outside public buildings or hang his limbs from trees to warn off possible enemies. Older male captives tended to fare poorly, but women and children were adopted and came to lead normal lives. Sacrificial killing was apparently also practiced.

Several kilometers from Cofachiqui lay Talomeco, an even larger settlement. Here too, the chief’s house and the temple were placed on artificial mounds. The temple was 12 meters wide and 30 meters long, and had a steep roof of reeds and split cane with sea-shell decoration. The Spaniards looted the temple and found wooden statues decorated with pearls, and there were great stores of deerskin, dyed cloth and copper ceremonial weapons of superb workmanship.

De Soto gave up on Florida because of its lack of gold, because the local population had been decimated by disease, but most importantly because the Apalachee were quite effective in their own military defense (they were excellent fort builders and constantly harassed his troop). His negative reports discouraged further depredations against the chiefdoms in Florida until the mid-17th century…

The Huguenots tried to convert the Timucuans to Christianity, but only got back for their trouble the habit of tobacco smoking. Perhaps this threat to Timucuan culture helped persuaded the Timucuans to join in the Spanish attack the Huguenots at Fort Caroline. The Spanish killed everyone there who did not swear they were Catholic.

Whether the Spanish Franciscan missions had any significant impact is debated, but clearly the penetration of British trade was important. Northern Indians were given guns by the British traders in Charleston in order to launch slave raids, particularly against the Florida missions because mission Indians had lost any ability to defend theselves.

With the collapse of the French mission system, the British were eventually able to take over in 1763. Because they were more successful in establishing a permanent presence than either the Spanish or French, there began a period of greater outside cultural influences upon the Timucua. One reason for the British success was their commercial aggressiveness. They brought in cheap manufactured goods such as utensils and tools, rum and guns; they backed up their trade advantage with Indian mercenaries; and they also had greater self-sufficiency by reason of their larger numbers. In exchange for manufactures, the British took back the deer skins, which Americans had long accumulated as prestige goods, and slaves. This trade made the Timucua dependent on the British for tools, cloth and ammunition, and complete subjection became only a matter of time.

By the eighteenth century, the Americans of Florida were entirely dependent on the white European colonizers, and often this was because they lost their land to an encroaching slave economy.

Today there survive people in Florida of Timucuan (Taino) heritage who would like to unite on that basis, even though they have lost much of their language and culture. However, it should be noted that this loss does not actually prevent tribal reconstitution, but only makes it more challenging. The historical fact is that the social construction of tribes is only constrained by considerations of common origin, shared genes, and cultural survival. Without at least some objective constraints, a tribe will never emerge, but on the other hand a tribe does not reduce to them.” https://www.amazians.com/forum/amerindian/history-of-the-timucua-people-of-northern-florida/

So, with much information about the Taino people, in my opinion Columbus discovered American Natives who had moved from Florida to San Salvador Island. In the long view of things, the important witness is, the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It most likely began with Lehi’s voyage landing near Tallahassee, Florida in about 589 BC. See my blog here:

I love the secondary evidences of the Book of Mormon and the witnesses about this Promised Land of America by many great leaders.

America is the Promised Land

Monson

“Our Heavenly Father inspired Christopher Columbus in his discovery of America. Our Heavenly Father inspired the leaders of the renaissance period. Our Heavenly Father inspired men and caused that they would dream dreams and see visions and discover marvelous instruments and inventions which would enable them to set forth upon the oceans and to be led to the place where our Father in Heaven would have them led. Our Heavenly Father inspired the man who invented movable type, that His holy word, as found in the Bible, could be printed and disseminated widely to the people. Our Heavenly Father inspired the leaders of . . . the United States of America, that they might together, under His direction, having been raised up by God for the purpose, establish the Constitution of this country and . . . Bill of Rights, that . . . by the year of our Lord 1805 [there would be] a climate where our Heavenly Father could send into this period of mortality a choice spirit who would be known as Joseph Smith, Jr. His life’s mission would alter the course of all future events. Thus, came Joseph into the world.” Teachings of Thomas S Monson 2011 (Twenty-First Annual Joseph Smith Memorial Sermon, December 11, 1963)

Taylor

“ANCIENT RECORDS. Circumstances are daily transpiring which give additional testimony to the authenticity of the Book of Mormon. . . . it was [once considered] improbable, nay, almost impossible—notwithstanding the testimony of history to the contrary, that anything like plates could have been used anciently; particularly among this people. The following letter and certificate, will, perhaps have a tendency to convince the skeptical, that such things have been used, and that even the obnoxious Book of Mormon, may be true; and as the people in Columbus’ day were obliged to believe that there was such a place as America; so will the people in this day be obliged to believe, however reluctantly, that there may have been such plates as those from which the Book of Mormon was translated.” John Taylor [Times and Seasons 4 (May 1, 1843), pp. 185-6]

Richards

“From a historical standpoint, it ought to be worth something to people to know about this land of America or when Columbus discovered it. The knowledge that we get through the Book of Mormon is a knowledge that we can’t get any other way in all this world. It not only tells us of the great destiny of this land of America, but it also gives the promises of the Lord through his prophets that it would be a land choice above all other lands and that it would be the land upon which God would build his New Jerusalem in the latter days. It was hidden away from the eyes of the world that it might not be overrun, and the Spirit of the Lord moved upon a man across the great waters to come here. We understand and know that man was Columbus. You see what a marvelous thing it is to have understanding.” LeGrande Richards, “You’re Fringe Benefits” 1975 Devotional

Lincoln

“When Columbus first sought this continent—when Christ suffered on the cross—when Moses led Israel through the Red-Sea—nay, even, when Adam first came from the hand of his Maker—then as now, Niagara was roaring here. The eyes of that species of extinct giants, whose bones fill the mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara, as ours do now. Co[n]temporary with the whole race of men, and older than the first man, Niagara is strong, and fresh to-day as ten thousand years ago. The Mammoth and Mastadon—now so long dead, that fragments of their monstrous bones, alone testify, that they ever lived, have gazed on Niagara. In that long—long time, never still for a single moment. Never dried, never froze, never slept, never rested” Abraham Lincoln

Petersen

“We know that various explorers discovered America anciently, well before Christopher Columbus. The Norsemen came over to what they called Vinland, as you remember, and there were others. It is interesting to read about them, but, mark you, not one of them established permanent colonies. God would not allow them here. Colonization was reserved for the people whom the Lord himself would bring to this country. Even though there were earlier discoveries of America, none of them counted so far as God was concerned because he had his eye upon Columbus.

I hope that when you read the Book of Mormon you will read carefully the last chapter of first Nephi, which refers to the day in which we are living. In this chapter Nephi talked about this land and the gentiles who in latter days would be brought here. Then he said:

And it meaneth that the time cometh that after all the house of Israel have been scattered and confounded [the scattering of the ten tribes and the Jews to all parts of the world], that the Lord God will raise up a mighty nation among the Gentiles, yea, even upon the face of this land [the United States]; and by them shall our seed be scattered. [Through the Indian wars the Indians were scattered by the early Americans.]” The Great Prologue by Mark E. Petersen.

How can anyone doubt that Columbus indeed discovered North America and this is the Promised Land of the Book of Mormon as two more prophets witness below.

Perry

“The United States is the promised land foretold in the Book of Mormon—a place where divine guidance directed inspired men to create the conditions necessary for the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Elder L. Tom Perry Ensign Dec. 2012

Hinckley

“I should like to say a few words about America…. No land is without its beauty, no people without their virtues, and I hope that you who come from elsewhere will pardon my saying a few words concerning my own native land, America. I know that she has problems. We have heard so much of them for so long. But surely this is a good land, a choice land, a chosen land. To me it is a miracle, a creation of the Almighty….

I was stirred in my heart by the words of our late, great President Harold B. Lee, who, speaking to a group such as this, said:

‘This nation, founded on principles laid down by men whom God raised up, will never fail…. I have faith in America. You and I must have faith in America if we understand the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.’ (Deseret News, 27 October 1973.)

I doubt not that we shall have days of trial…. But I am certain that if we will emphasize the greater good and turn our time and talents from vituperative criticism, from constantly looking for evil, and lift our sights to what may be done to build strength and goodness in our nation, America will continue to go forward with the blessing of the Almighty and stand as an ensign of strength and peace and generosity to all the world.” ( Source: “Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled”, BYU Speeches of the Year, October 29, 1974, pp. 267-68 )

Many today are calling Columbus names and saying evil of him just as they have said about Washington, and Joseph Smith, so Columbus is in good company. Thanks for reading.

 Taiguey!(Good Day)