Easter is the time we remember the Savior’s resurrection which made it possible for all on earth to be resurrected. That turns our heart to the Lord Jesus Christ which we can read about in The Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Of course it is “Written to the Lamanites, who are a remnant of the house of Israel; and also to Jew and Gentile” Title Page Book of Mormon
Thoughts on the location of Book of Mormon Peoples by Franklin Keel
“First, I must say that, based upon the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith and my experiences with contemporary American Indians, I believe that the events of the Book of Mormon occurred in what is now the United States.
Having said that, I must also say that I also believe that Jesus Christ visited other people in this hemisphere and elsewhere (who, much like the Mulekites, were not descendants of Father Lehi) and taught them his doctrine. He speaks of this in 3 Nephi 16: 1-3:
1 And verily, verily, I say unto you that I have other sheep, which are not of this land, neither of the land of Jerusalem, neither in any parts of that land round about whither I have been to minister.
2 For they of whom I speak are they who have not as yet heard my voice; neither have I at any time manifested myself unto them.
3 But I have received a commandment of the Father that I shall go unto them, and that they shall hear my voice, and shall be numbered among my sheep, that there may be one-fold and one shepherd; therefore I go to show myself unto them.
These people undoubtedly would have preserved a record of His visits–depending on the culture– through stories, legends, or writings. (I also believe that it is reasonable that the other sheep of this hemisphere might have subsequently interacted and/or intermarried with the Nephite and Lamanite descendants.) Now, millennia later, when the posterity of those people learn of the Book of Mormon, it strikes a chord with their preserved ancestral memories, as intended by the Savior. That, with the assistance of the Holy Ghost, helps them know that our Church is true.
However, simply because they have those memories through legends, stories, or even written records of a bearded white god, does not require that they be related to the people who are chronicled in the Book of Mormon. Nor does it mean that because their ancestors were also visited by the Savior that the Book of Mormon events had to occur in their particular lands of inheritance. As I noted above, in addition to legends or other stories passed down orally, the other sheep may also have had written records of His visit to their ancestors. I think that this is borne out in 2 Nephi 29:11, 13, where the Lord says:
11 For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written.
13 And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews.
To summarize, based upon the words of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, I believe other peoples, not just Lehi’s posterity, were visited and taught by the Savior. But the events of Book of Mormon (Father Lehi’s posterity) happened in only one place—the land now known as the United States—where the Prophet Moroni led the young Joseph Smith to the Hill Cumorah. As these prophecies are fulfilled, other records will come to the fore because the Lord has spoken it.” Franklin Keel a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.
Golden R. Buchanan Mission President, Southwest Indian Mission said, “The Hopis say that they came across the ocean. The Navajos believe they came up from the other side of the earth through a tube. The Papago’s believe they were guided to this land by divine means.
Recently I was on the Papago Reservation. One of our new converts to the Church there told me
this story:
“I had never joined any church because the ministers and the priests did not teach the Bible as I read it.
I couldn’t read it and make it say the same things the other churches said it did. I speak the Papago language. I have lived among them all my life. I know their story and their traditions. And as I read the Book of Mormon that was placed in my hands by missionaries, I recognized the stories of the Papagos, and I knew the book was true. Your missionaries read the Bible the same way I did. These are the reasons I joined the Church. The Papago’s believed they crossed the ocean and came to this land, that in the ships and on the trails, they were guided by a ball. In this ball was a needle that pointed the direction they were to go. In the Papago language yet today, the name of this ball is ‘Liahona.’
Navajo tradition tells that a man and his wife and four sons came to this land a long time ago. They have, in their native language, the names of these four sons, but I cannot write them. The oldest two of these sons rebelled against the youngest two who were the appointed leaders. The older sons and their children lived in the forest. They made their living by hunting and by the use of the weapons of warfare.
They warred and preyed upon their two younger brothers. They covered their bodies with mud and thus became a dark people. The two younger sons became builders and built cities and houses of stone. They
planted gardens and fields. They did not place mud upon themselves and thus remained white. For generations there were fighting, wars, and difficulties, the children of the older sons being the aggressors.
Then came a night in which the sun didn’t go down, and it was light all night, and the people were much
disturbed and’ distressed. But still there were troubles. Some years after this, came an extended period of darkness…
Indian tribes have their own ceremonies. They have their own religions. This was particularly true
before the advent of the so-called Christian churches among them. Even today the faithful still cling to
their native tradition. Some of them profess Christianity and give token obedience to the so-called Christian churches, but deep in their hearts they still are waiting for the return of the Great White Spirit and the truth.
In many dances, which are largely prayers, significant handclasps are sometimes given. Connected with
some of these kiva ceremonies is the wearing of certain types of clothing, and in these clothing are certain marks sacred to the people. I have been told that only the faithful may wear these marks in their clothing, and that only the very good and true may receive these ordinances.
Certain washings and anointings are common in many tribes. Usually these are done with water and corn pollen or corn meal, all of which are sacred to the Indian. If it were not for violating confidences, I could take you among the Utes and Paiutes, and tell of certain “ordinances for the dead.” Among many of the tribes there is a tradition that some day the people will lose their dark color and become white…
It is interesting to note, in closing, that I know of no Indian language in which one can take the name of
the Lord in vain. Indeed, I do not know of an Indian language in which they can even swear. They have to
learn English or some white man’s language before they can defile the name of Deity.”
Lamanite Tradition By Golden R. Buchanan President, Southwest Indian Mission. Improvement Era April 1955
Read these and other inspiring stories in the new book, Joseph’s Remnant published by the FIRM Foundation in April 2019 HERE
Sharing the Book of Mormon with the Lamanites
Joseph Smith and the church knew the importance of sharing the Book of Mormon with their Native American brothers and sisters. As you read the Joseph Smith Papers and other accounts you will find many instances of the Church reaching out to the Lamanites. As you read D&C 28, 30, and 32, you will see how important it was to the Lord to have Joseph Smith and others share the Book of Mormon message, which was the Lamanites forefathers speaking to them today.
D&C Section 84 was a revelation from the Prophet to the Saints in Ohio. The Lord told the Saints they must testify of those things they have received;
54 “And your minds in times past have been darkened because of unbelief, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received—
55 Which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation.
56 And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion, even all.
57 And they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the new covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them, not only to say, but to do according to that which I have written—
58 That they may bring forth fruit meet for their Father’s kingdom; otherwise there remaineth a scourge and judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion.” D&C 84:54-58
Are we sharing the message of the Book of Mormon with our neighbors and especially with the Native Americans we may know? The purpose of this article is to get us thinking about the importance of sharing the Book of Mormon with all people, but especially with the Lamanites.
SEEKING THE “REMNANT”: THE NATIVE AMERICAN DURING THE JOSEPH SMITH PERIOD
by Ronald W Walker
Important quotes from article above:
These statements, typical of the Mormons of northeastern Ohio, flowed as easily in western Missouri, as members of the new faith began to settle in the area after Joseph Smith’s 1831 tour. Paulina E. Phelps, whose family was among the first recruits, remembered Joseph Smith, Jr., blessing her when visiting the area the following year. Told she would go to the Rocky Mountains in her lifetime, the young girl became alarmed. “I did not know at the time what the term ‘Rocky Mountains’ meant,” she later said, “but I supposed it to be something connected with the Indians.” Her fear of the Native American froze the event in her mind. 45
Some of the Mormon Indian interest in Missouri lay in the public domain, The Church’s periodical, the Evening and the Morning Star, printed numerous pieces about the Native Americans, provided the text of Smith’s several revelations regarding them, and rhapsodized how these pieces fit into the latter-day prophetic mosaic. “What beauty to see prophecies fulfilled so exactly,” wrote editor W. W. Phelps. In his eyes, the government’s Indian resettlement policy was a “marvelous,” now-at-hand reality of the old predictions that the Indians were to be gathered. Phelps believed federal agents were acting as “nursing fathers unto. ..[their Indian) children,” as Book of Mormon prophecy had foretold. From all indication, the times of the gentiles were “short” and the promises to Jacob imminent. Something “great and good” lay in store for the benighted Lamanite, Phelps believed, as the red man’s last days certainly would be his “best.”46
To his steady drum roll about the Indian and his destiny, [WW] Phelps added his view of the land west of the Missouri settlements, which he called the “Far West.” Wasn’t this, the editor wondered, the land of the covenant, where the Book of Mormon Jaredites and Nephites had once roamed before meeting their destruction? While the world would never prize the area because of its want of timber and mill seats, Deity had a different view. This land was Zion, he argued, the land of Joseph, the receptacle of “the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills.” In a few sentences, Phelps wove together some of the images that Joseph Smith had been using when speaking of the western Zion and the soon-to-be redeemed Indian 47
Understandably, none of this talk set well with the Missourians. Already uneasy over the several thousand potentially hostile natives on their frontier, many angry over their forced relocation, old-line Missourians saw Phelps’s articles and the underlying Book of Mormon prophecies on which they were based as provocative and menacing. Weren’t the Mormons anxious to ally themselves with these dangerous red men? The reaction of the Missourians was not without cause. These hardy settlers of the border fully understood themselves to be counted among the imperiled “gentiles” spoken of in the Mormon revelations.
45 Affidavit, 31 July 1902, LOS Church Archives For this source and several others dealing with the
Mormon fixation with the West, I am indebted to Lewis Clark Christian, “A Study of Mormon Knowledge
of the American Far West Prior to the Exodus,” (MA. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1972), 65; and
Ronald K Esplin, “‘A Place Prepared’ Joseph, Brigham and the Quest for Promised Refuge,”Journal of
Mormon History 9 (1982) 85-111
46 Evening and the Morning Star 1 (December 1832): (54), (January 1833): 162]; 2 (June 1833)101; W.
Phelps to Oliver Cowdery, 13 November 1834, Letter III, Latter Day Saint Messenger and Advocate 1
(1 December 1834): 33-34
47 Evening and the Morning Star 1 (October 1832): 137] Phelps was citing Deuteronomy 3313-17 The
editor later would help select Mormon settlement sites in Daviess County and may have had a role in
choosing the name of the region’s most prominent town, Far West, thus giving another expression to his fascination with the western region
More than a dozen of his followers later said that Smith spoke similar things to them during the Church’s stay in Nauvoo, Illinois. But the Mormon leader did more than predict future events. Perhaps for the first time since his 1831 trip to Missouri, Smith had the chance to meet Native Americans first hand. One of the most important of these encounters involved an Oneida Indian, who traveled several hundred miles to Illinois with his wife and daughter to visit the Mormons. The native styled himself as “an Interpreter of six tribes,” whom he confidently predicted would “receive the work.” He himself did, being “joyfully” baptized in May 1840. The unnamed Indian may have been Lewis Dana and his wife Mary Gont. During the next decade, the two were at the heart of the Mormons’ Lamanite effort.83
83 Wilford Woodruff, Diary, 13 July 1840, Woodruff Papers, LDS Archives; Millennial Star 1(August
1840): 89; Women’s Exponent 15 (May 1883), 1883; and William G. Hartley, John Lowe Butler: History
and Autobiography of a Mormon Frontiersman (Provo: John Lowe Butler Family Organization, 1992), pp.
156–62. Mormon records usually use the spelling “Dana,” but there are other variations such as “Denna,” “Denny,” and “Dany.” He was born 1 January 1800, in Oneida County, New York, the son of Jonathan Dana. Missionary File, Historical
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1988/07/a-place-prepared-in-the-rockies?lang=eng
Quote from link above
Less than a year after founding Nauvoo, the Prophet sent missionaries among the Indians west of the Missouri River. Immediately after the Prophet’s death, the Council of the Twelve confirmed that this action involved settlement as well as missionary work. They dispatched missionaries, including Jonathan Dunham (who had been sent previously by the Prophet among the western tribes in 1839–40), to “fill Joseph’s original measures” by “proceeding from tribe to tribe, to unite the Lamanites and find a home for the Saints.” Even in 1840, Dunham understood; he spoke of great things “in the west, in fulfillment of prophecy,” including “a place of safety preparing … away towards the Rocky Mountains.”7
7. William Clayton Diary, 1 Mar. 1845, as reproduced in Andrew F. Ehat, “‘It Seems Like Heaven Began on Earth’: Joseph Smith and the Constitution of the Kingdom of God,” BYU Studies, 20 (Spring 1980): 253–80; and Thomas Burdick to Joseph Smith, 28 Aug. 1840, Joseph Smith Collection, Church Archives.
Quote from link above
Early Mormon expectations for the West were clearly related to Book of Mormon prophecies about the redemption and future power of the Lamanites, or American Indians. This connection is explicit in the 1832 The Evening and the Morning Star article. And in 1834 E. D. Howe characterized the belief that the Native Americans “in a very few years, will be converted to Mormonism” and take possession of their ancient inheritance as a leading article of Mormon faith. [10] Brigham Young believed that from the first time Joseph Smith stood on the banks of the Missouri River looking westward across Indian country, he desired to go further west among the American Indians but “there was a watch placed upon him continually to see that he had no communication” with them. [11] Government regulations enforced by Indian agents forbade dwelling among the American Indians and attempted to regulate all intercourse with them, and Missourians were suspicious very early on of supposed Mormon meddling with the Native Americans. Whatever Joseph Smith’s hopes and plans for the American Indians and the West in the 1830s, he could not implement them from Missouri. Only when he had access to the American Indians through Iowa in 1839–40 could he and did he begin implementation.
https://drloritaylor.com/elder-nigeajasha-other-mormon-indians/
The rumor was that Mormons had “ten hundred thousand” Indian allies ready to avenge Joseph’s death,2 but these were not Mormon Indians.3 There were not many more than 10 Indians who had joined the early church. Penina Cotton (Cherokee)4, William McCary (Choctaw)5, Anthony Navarre (Potawatomi)6, William Clute (Seneca)7, Solomon Zundel (Delaware)8, Moses Otis, Edward Whiteseye, Peter Cooper9, and, by some accounts, William McLellin (Cherokee).10 Among the Mormon Indians, a few served as guides for the westward movement. They were: Lewis Dana (Oneida)11, George Herring (Mohawk), and his brother Joseph Herring, called Nigeajasha. These three men were baptized, ordained, and intimately involved with Mormon insiders.
SEEKING THE “REMNANT”: THE NATIVE AMERICAN DURING THE JOSEPH SMITH PERIOD Ronald W Walker
Quote from above
“Six weeks later, Smith’s interest in the Native Americans had not cooled. He and his Council of Fifty met with eleven Native Americans. “We had a very pleasant and impressive interview,” secretary William Clayton wrote without providing detail. In another session the Council of Fifty discussed Wight’s southwest proposal. A Mormon colony led by Wight should be placed near the “Cordilleras,” or Rocky Mountains, at the headwaters of the Red and Colorado Rivers, Smith concluded, perhaps somewhere in the expansive American Southwest. After the meeting, Smith met privately with Wight and again confirmed the mission. His instructions on these two occasions, Wight recalled, were designed to bring the Lamanites the “knowledge of the truth, [thus] paving the way for the redemption of Zion and building the Temple in Jackson County.” After Smith’s final charge, given with “great zeal,” the two men shook hands and said good-bye. The event carried a special poignancy and power. It was Wight’s last meeting with his Prophet.
This last Council of Fifty meeting may have been the event that another apostle, Amasa Lyman, later referred to. Joseph had given the leading elders a “frank relation” about their Lamanite mission and said “don’t stop” till it was accomplished. Such advice was difficult for even Smith to follow. With events in Nauvoo pressing hard upon him and his campaign for the American presidency requiring the labor of the Church’s elders, Smith postponed the western expedition until fall.
The halt did not end Smith’s Native American activity. There were a few last events that gave his career a symmetry. He had begun preoccupied by the Lamanite and interested in the West, and his final days had similar themes. Five days before his death, Smith and his closest associates passed over the Mississippi River. They thought they might find refuge from their troubles in the Rocky Mountains, they explained. Then they returned to Nauvoo, where Smith, dressed in his Nauvoo Legion uniform and standing on a “small house frame,” spoke to his followers before going to fateful Carthage. Only reminiscent accounts remain, but their reports appear faithful to themes that had compelled Smith during his life. You will yet be called upon to go the “strongholds of the Rocky Mountains,” Smith predicted. “You will gather the Red Man.. . from their scattered and dispersed situation to become the strong arm of Jehovah.” At that time, he continued, the Lamanite would become “a strong bulwark of protection from your foes.”
