As the scripture says, “this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance.” 2 Nephi 1:8. This is why the Vikings and others were not allowed to remain upon the land. After Columbus thousands of explorers came. See here for a huge list of them:
It doesn’t mean no one could come to this land, but no one that the Lord designated would be allowed and come and stay in the Promised land as His people. Because of this we would expect a smaller group that Lehi would greet (See my Blog Here), not a huge contingent of people like in Central and South America. I can’t imagine how Nephi could be a King amongst just a few of Lehi’s people, if there was a large contingency of natives on the land previously. This large group of existing people wouldn’t allow Nephi or any other small group to over-take them.
Lehi’s Landing
“I think the text shows Lehi’s colony landing in the promised land in Florida, planting their own seeds, finding animals and ore in the wilderness, all while completely unimpeded by any existing civilization. (1 Ne. 18:23-5). I think Lehi’s observation that “this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations” was accurate; i.e., that there were no “other nations” in the promised land where they landed, “for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance” (2 Nephi 1:8). I do think think there were some indigenous people who went with Nephi when he fled (2 Nephi 5:6), but I infer they were unorganized hunter/gatherers that did not qualify as any sort of “nation” and were impressed by the Jewish immigrants’ technology, language, etc.
In my view, it is difficult enough to believe that Lehi’s family, a relative handful of immigrants from a distant culture speaking a different language, could have arrived and started planting crops on unclaimed land in Mesoamerica, encountering no resistance, but it is even more difficult to believe Lehi’s descendants could have managed to rule as kings and chief judges over even a part of a Mayan civilization, and that in the midst of this Mayan civilization, King Mosiah could have escaped with the Nephites into the wilderness and found a much larger group of illiterate people (the people of Zarahemla) who possessed exactly one engraven stone.
Now that we are learning from LiDAR that the Mayan civilization was even larger, more densely populated, and more sophisticated than we previously realized, the Book of Mormon seems even less plausible in that setting. IOW, the grander the Mayan civilization, the less likely it is that Lehi landed anywhere near that civilization.
This view is based on the text and has nothing directly to do with the New York Cumorah, but it does confirm my bias in favor of the New York Cumorah.” Jonathan Neville See my Blog Here: https://www.bofm.blog/lehis-first-lan ding-few-or-many-inhabitants/
Mulekites- From St Lawrence Seaway or the Mississippi River? You decide.
Could the Mulekites come from Jerusalem through the St Lawrence Seaway and then settled in Montrose Iowa which we call Zarahemla? Yes! Some of us believe however that they may have come from Jerusalem the same way Lehi got here. Lehi landed near Apalachicola, FL and Mulek arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi River and then continued up river and was stopped at the Des Moines River rapids near Keokuk, Iowa.
The main scripture I like is Omni 1:15-16 to verify the Mississippi route which says, “Behold, it came to pass that Mosiah discovered that the people of Zarahemla came out from Jerusalem at the time that Zedekiah, king of Judah, was carried away captive into Babylon. And they journeyed in the wilderness, and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters, into the land where Mosiah discovered them; and they had dwelt there from that time forth.”
In other words the Mulekites stayed at the same place that they landed when Mosiah discovered them. (Straight route from the Mississippi River to Iowa). Through the St Lawrence seaway and then through the Great Lakes and Lake Erie they would have to land near Detroit, MI and then walk by foot or take a new route of rivers from Detroit to Iowa approximately 500 miles away.
If the Mulekites came by way of the St Lawrence then the Great Lakes through Lake Michigan and landed in Chicago, they still would have to walk about 270 miles to Iowa.
“And they gave an account of one Coriantumr, and the slain of his people. And Coriantumr was discovered by the people of Zarahemla; and he dwelt with them for the space of nine moons.” Omni 1:21
The people of Zarahemla (Mulekites) could have picked up Coriantumr near Hill Cumorah or the Lake Ontario as some believe, or the people of Zarahemla could have picked up Coriantumr where he traveled to. In other words, Coriantumr didn’t die and may have taken a few months to heal up. When he was healed he could have taken the Allegheny River to the connecting Ohio river which runs all the way to the Head of Sidon, (Where the Ohio and Mississippi meet), where anyone from the Land of Zarahemla (Illinois, Missouri, Iowa) could have found him.
You decide. I like the Mississippi route.
I have some great friends from Texas named Frank and Jennifer Brown. They were kind enough to find some great information below and send it to me, which contributed to the purpose for this blog today. Thanks so much.
THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA by Charles Morris
“[The preceding pages have been devoted to the history of the relations between the inhabitants of the Eastern and Western Continents, and to the various statements that indicate a possible knowledge of, and voyages to, America in the era before Columbus. To complete this preliminary survey a brief account of what is known of the American aborigines in this early era is necessary.
In relation to this period of American history there exists an abundance of literary material, comprising researches into the languages, race- conditions, customs, antiquities, traditions, and manuscript annals of the tribes and nations of the aborigines. None of this material is historical in the full sense of the term, though much of it may be considered as indirectly so.
The editor of this work, however, has been unable to meet with any general statement in a form sufficiently condensed to yield a brief yet comprehensive review of the whole subject. He has, therefore, himself prepared a paper which may serve imperfectly to fill this vacancy, and to complete the examination of the history of America prior to Columbus.]” Charles Morris THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA.
Editor’s Note: This information was written as non Historical by Mr. Morris. However at that time he knew nothing about the Book of Mormon. We are blessed with the Book of Mormon which validates much of the Historical context of Mr. Morris’ information.
We as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints understand the peopling of the earth as shared by books of God and by Prophets and Apostles. Before discussing from the people from Adam to Peleg on the huge one continent we used to live on, we will discuss the Adena (Jaredites) and the (Hopewell) who live in North America after the worldwide flood of Noah, below at the title of Hartman Rector Jr.
Joseph and the Saints Passed through the Adena and Hopewell Land in North America
“Zion’s Camp started in Kirtland, Ohio and ended in Independence, Missouri. The Camp traveled areas occupied by both the Hopewell (see p. 535) and Adena (see p. 452) cultures.” Annotated Book of Mormon ZION’S CAMP AND THE “PLAINS OF THE NEPHITES” Illustration by Rod L Meldrum
Adena
“The Adena culture existed from 1500 BC to 300 AD, in a time known as the Early Woodland period. The Adena culture refers to what were probably a number of related Native American societies sharing a burial complex and ceremonial system. The Adena lived in an area including parts of present-day Ohio, Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Their culture parallels the time frame of the Jaredites.
Hopewell
The Nephite Culture of the Book of Mormon from 600 BC to 400 AD, has so many amazing similarities to the Hopewell Culture in the United States. Many archaeologists, scientists and historians who aren’t members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, know and believe the history of the Hopewell Culture and verify the dating which parallels the Book of Mormon. See my blog here about a fantastic article I referenced of a discussion between Archaeologist of Ohio William Mills in 1917 with James E. Talmadge showing the parallel of the Hopewell and the Nephite Civilizations.
My talk called “Nephite/Hopewell Parallels” is streaming on our new online streaming service for current members here! Currently we have over 700 fantastic videos you can choose from. Visit HERE or the click on the picture below to subscribe to become a member.
This talk by Elder Rector will possibly be the most important thing you read if you had no knowledge that the New World of North America is really the Old World where life began. Did you know that Noah’s Ark was built and sailed from North America? An additional article you need to read is called “A Promised Land” by Elder Jeffrey R Holland Here
Hartman Rector Jr
THIS LAND IS CHOICE
I thrill when I see the flag. I hope you do, too. It stands for the USA. This is a land choice above all other lands. We have revelation on the subject. There’s nothing like the USA anywhere. There never has been, and I presume there never will be. The Lord has made that comment in respect to this earth. There are those who feel that we in the Western Hemisphere are the New World but, of course, we aren’t the New World at all this is where it all began; thus the USA is really the “Old World.”
It was on this continent, near the center of this continent (in fact, very near Missouri, which is the center of this continent), that the Garden of Eden was located. Life didn’t start off over in what they call the “cradle of civilization” or today’s Holy Land. No, it started in the central part of the United States. That’s where Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden. They moved out to earn their bread by the sweat of their brows. Also it was there that Cain slew Abel. It was there that Noah built an ark, in the middle of a continent like the United States. No wonder they thought he was a little bit “strange,” to say the least. It was there that he and his wife and his three sons and their wives embarked on the ark and floated for many, many days. The ark finally came to rest on top of Mount Ararat. They came down out of the ark, and civilization supposedly started from there. But that was the second start. Civilization had already started here.
The Book of Mormon says that, when the waters receded off of this land, it became a land choice above all other lands—a land of promise to those who would obey the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ. If the people would not obey the God of this land, then they would be swept off (see Ether 2:7–12). That has happened at least three times previously as far as we know. It happened in Noah’s time, certainly. It happened again to the Jaredite civilization. It happened again in the Nephite civilization, which included the Mulekites. It may have happened at other times. We’re not sure. We don’t have all the records that deal with this land, but what records we do have are consistent. The warning to us in this day and time is that unless we live these commandments, unless we serve the God of this land, we too can be swept from this land. I don’t believe that will happen again because this people, the Lord’s people, the Latter-day Saints, are going to keep the commandments of God. If they don’t, they will no longer be Latter-day Saints.
It’s important that we know where our salvation is. We know that if we want to remain free we have to remain firm—firm in living obedient to these commandments. This nation has been established primarily to preach the gospel. That’s really the only purpose in it. Nations such as this are not established just to enjoy prosperity and ease in living, though we have that; but if we let this be our object and design, the nation will not remain free. A call to be God’s nation is a call to service, a call to give of ourselves, to reach out as we have been doing since the day the USA really became a nation.
Early in our history there were those who were friendly to us because we were struggling. It seems that tyranny has always been more organized than freedom. Freedom is more precious than any of the gifts for which you may be tempted to give it up. Sometimes we’re tempted to give it up for ease or for personal convenience, but we dare not. Someone has said that anyone can sympathize with a friend’s suffering, but it requires a really fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success. The USA has been very successful, and some who were our friends while we were struggling are no longer such fast friends. They find things to criticize about us. I presume that we deserve it, but there’s still no nation like this one, which has been set up to reach out to people and to lift people. That’s what we’ve done.
SPREADING THE GOSPEL FROM THE USA
I’m proud of the USA because it has provided the means to establish and carry forth the gospel. It took a Constitution that was put together by men whom the Lord raised up for that very purpose. He says that he did:
Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.
And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood. [D&C 101:79–80]
It seems always to be part of the Lord’s economy that choice lands must be redeemed by the shedding of blood. This is a pattern the Lord has always followed.” Hartman Rector Jr.r., was a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this fireside address was given at Brigham Young University on 30 June 1974.
Important Note
Most of the aborigines spoken about in Mr. Morris’ “Aborigines of America” probably consisted of the two later cultures in North America; the Fort Ancient Culture which was a mix of the Hopewell and Mayans, and the Mississippian Culture a mixture of Hopewellian only cultures. The Historic culture are those Natives discovered after Columbus.
In about 900-1000 AD the Mayan Culture suddenly collapsed in Central America and most of them came into North America by way of California and Texas or through the Gulf of Mexico where they had a straight river run up the Mississippi river to St Louis MO. Many of you have heard of Cahokia Mounds in St. Louis. It is the largest Native American site found in North America. Cahokia is not a Hopewell era site but a Mississippian era site so it has nothing to do with the Nephites or Lamanites since their era ended in 421 AD.
Historians say that between about 500 AD and 800 AD there was almost no Native activity or pottery found in eastern USA. Cultures ended very suddenly as we know from the final battle at Cumorah. Historians have no clue what happened.
The Mayans subdued the Hopewellian cultures and forced them to make huge ceremonial mounds for the Mayans for almost 300 years. Many Indian chiefs have told Wayne May that these “Snake People”, Mayans from the south forced the “Lamanites in slave labor. In about 1100 AD or so the Mayans went back to Central America with many Hopewellian and mixed race people. Thuse the blood of the Nephites was spread all around the western USA and South and Central America. See Blog Here and also Here
Fort Ancient Culture 900 AD to 1300 AD
Mississippian Culture 1000 AD to 1600 AD
Historic Native American Culture 1500 AD to 1800 AD
The Great Republic by the Master Historians Continued.
Charles Morris THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA continues saying, “On the discovery and exploration of America it was found to be everywhere inhabited, from the north polar region to the extreme south, by peoples differing in degree of culture from abject savagery to a low stage of civilization. Though at first all these peoples were looked upon as members of a single race, later research has rendered this questionable, marked diversities in ethnological character having been perceived. In language a greater unity appears, philologists generally holding that the American languages all belong to one family of human speech, though the dialects differ widely in character and in degree of development. The American languages approach in type those of northern Asia, though not very closely. The same may be said of the American features. Yet if the Americans and Mongolians were originally of the same race, as seems not improbable, their separation must have taken place at a remote period, to judge from the diversities which now exist between them.
The aboriginal inhabitants of the United States, when first discovered, differed very considerably in political and social condition. Those of the north were in a state of savagery or low barbarism. The southern Indians were much more advanced politically, while the Natchez people of the lower Mississippi possessed a well-organized despotic monarchy, widely different in character from the institutions of the free tribes of the north. In Mexico existed a powerful civilized empire, despotic in character, possessed of many historical traditions, and having an extensive literature, which was nearly all destroyed by the Spanish conquerors.
In this region were two distinct linguistic races, the Nahuas of Mexico and the Mayas of the more southern region. To the latter are due the re- markable architectural remains of Yucatan and Guatemala. In South America was also discovered an extensive civilized empire, of a highly-marked despotic type, — the Inca empire of Peru. This rather low form of civilization extended far to the north and south in the district west of the Andes, while the remainder of South America was occupied by savage tribes, some of them exceedingly debased in condition.
Of late years it has been made evident, through diversified archaeological discoveries, that at some epoch, perhaps not very remote, the whole region of the Mississippi Valley was the seat of a semi-civilized population, probably somewhat closely approaching in customs and condition the inhabitants of the Gulf States when first seen by the Spanish and French explorers. This people had utterly vanished from the region of the northern United States at the earliest date of the advent of the whites, and perhaps many centuries before that era ; yet the whole region of their former residence is so abundantly covered with their weapons, utensils, ornaments, and architectural remains, that we are not only positively assured of their former existence, but are enabled also to form many conjectures as to their probable history. (Jaredites?)
What are here spoken of as architectural remains consist principally of earth mounds, of considerable diversity in character and appearance, and some of them of enormous dimensions. There is in this fact alone nothing of peculiar interest. Earth mounds, generally sepulchral in purpose, exist widely throughout the older continents. But the American mounds are remarkable for their excessive numbers, their peculiarities of construction, their occasional great size, and the diversity of their probable purpose. They are found abundantly over the whole region from the Rocky Mountains to the Alleghenies, and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf, and to some small extent beyond these limits. In the State of Ohio alone there are said to be more than ten thousand mounds, with perhaps fifteen hundred defensive works and enclosures. About five thousand of them are said to exist within a radius of fifty miles from the mouth of the Illinois River, in the State of Illinois.
In the South they are equally abundant. The Gulf States are full of them. From Florida to Texas they everywhere exist, of the greatest diversity in size and shape. Smaller examples occur beyond the limits of the region above outlined, though in much less abundance. These mounds are usually from six to thirty feet high and forty to one hundred in diameter, though some are much larger. To the vanished race to whose labors they are due has been given the name of the “ Mound-Builders.”
Many of these structures were evidently erected for defensive purposes, and they constitute an extensive system of earthworks on the hills and river-bluffs, indicating a considerable population in the valleys below. Other works are remarkably regular earthworks on the valley levels, forming enclosures in various geometrical patterns, which comprise circles, squares, and other figures. The purpose of these peculiar enclosures is unknown, though it was probably connected with religious observances. Of the smaller mounds, some are supposed to have been used as altars ; but the most numerous class are the burial- mounds, in which skeletons have often been found. In Wisconsin, and to some extent elsewhere, are found mounds rudely imitating the shape of animals. But the most extraordinary of these erections, from their great size and the enormous degree of labor which they indicate, are the so-called “ temple mounds,” of which the one at Cahokia, Illinois, measures seven hundred by five hundred feet at base and ninety feet in perpendicular height. It was probably the seat of a temple. Many similar mounds, though none so large as this, exist in the Gulf States.
The mounds contain very numerous relics of the arts of their builders, these consisting of various articles of pottery, stone pipes of highly-skillful construction, in imitation of animal forms, stone implements in great variety, ornaments of beaten copper, pearls, plates of mica, fragments of woven fabrics, and other articles, indicative of much industry and a considerable advance in the simpler arts.
Whether the semi-civilization of this people developed in the region in which their remains are found, or is due to the northward movement of a civilized people from the south, cannot be decided. That they were a numerous agricultural people, under the control of a despotic government, and of strong religious superstitions, seems evident from the vast labors which they performed and the religious purpose of the greatest of these works. There is abundant reason to believe that they were in hostile relations with tribes of savages, perhaps the original inhabitants of the country, to the northward and eastward. Against the assaults of these the earthworks were built. These assaults were finally successful. The “ Mound-Builders ” were conquered, and either annihilated or, more probably, driven south. It is highly improbable that they constituted a single empire, or a series of extensive governments. We may more safely consider them as a congeries of strong tribal organizations, probably to some extent mutually hostile, who were weakened by intestine wars and conquered piecemeal by their numerous and persistent savage foes.
Before considering the political and other relations of the northern Indians, some reference may be made to the architectural remains of the other aborigines of America. Remarkable ruins exist in the mountain-region of the west, in parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and northern Mexico. Principal among these are the Pueblo buildings, huge communistic structures, of several stories in height, and some of them capable of shelter.” The Great Republic by the Master Historians .. by Morris, Charles, 1833-1922 Page 29-33 Thanks again to Frank and Jennifer Brown for sharing this article with me. Below is the link to find this book.
https://archive.org/details/greatrepublicbym01morr/page/30/mode/2up
Adena and Hopewell of North America
Find More Information
You can discover more information about the connection between the Hopewell, Nephites, and Jews in Ohio in the my book, Moroni’s America-Land Bountiful Edition seen below. This 60 Map Bountiful Edition is available in a great package below.
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