ZELPH A MAN OF GOD
Zelph was a warrior, a chieftain, an officer, a man of God, a thick set man, and a white Lamanite who had the curse removed from him. He fought for the Nephites in one of the last battles between the Nephites and Lamanites, and served under the Prophet Onandagus, who was known from Hill Cumorah to the Rocky Mountains. (See History of the Church 2:79-80)
We will consider a possible scenario of where Zelph may fit into the history of the Book of Mormon, by using information from journals, scriptures and other quotes. (This is plausible possibilities based on our belief of Heartland Geography)
1. Zelph fought for the Nephites and died in one of the last battles with the Lamanites. This battle would have had to be in the Land of Zarahemla, near present day Valley City, Illinois as this is where Zelph was buried.
2. The beginning battle of the last battles between the Nephites and Lamanites began in Zarahemla near the Sidon River in 322 AD (Mormon 1:10). The last battle in the Land of Zarahemla was probably in 328 AD near the borders of the west sea. (Possibly Lake Michigan or Lake Erie. Mormon 2:6)
3. According to Joseph Fielding Smith, “In the Book of Mormon story the Lamanites were constantly crowding the Nephites back towards the north and east. If the battles in which Zelph took part were fought in the country traversed by the Zion’s Camp, then we have every reason to believe from what is written in the Book of Mormon, that the Nephites were forced farther and farther to the north and east until they found themselves in the land of Ripliancum, which both Ether and Mormon declare to us was the land of Ramah or Cumorah, a land of “many waters,” which “by interpretation, is large, or to exceed all.” This being true, what would be more natural then that Moroni, like his father Mormon, would deposit the plates in the land where the battles came to an end and the Nephites were destroyed? This Moroni says he did, and from all the evidence in the Book of Mormon, augmented by the testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith, these final battles took place in the territory known as the United States and in the neighborhood of the Great Lakes and hills of Western New York. And here Moroni found the resting place for the sacred instruments which had been committed to his care.”
4. In 327 AD, Mormon was 16 years old and chosen to be the Nephite leader. (Mormon 2:1) In Mormon’s first battle, his army was afraid and headed toward the north countries to the city of Angola, which was probably still in the land of Zarahemla. Zelph may have been a contemporary of Mormon while together in the Land of Zarahemla.
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.
In the painting above by Ken Corbett, Zelph is shown sometime between 322-327 AD, on the same mound above the Illinois River where the Prophet Joseph Smith received a vision of this great warrior in 1834. Prophet Onandagus is seen praying for the freedom of his people. Nearby is, “the appearance of three altars having been erected one above the other, according to the ancient order”, as Joseph’s vision had indicated. In the distance you see some Lamanites in canoes on the Illinois River.
Joseph Smith’s account of the history of Zelph was recorded by Wilford Woodruff in the Documentary History of the Church. The following is President Woodruff’s testimony regarding the truthfulness of that history, particularly the events that transpired during Zion’s Camp: “I am now called to preside over the only Temple there is on the earth, built for the salvation of the living and the dead. There are but a few of us living who were in Zion’s Camp. I will here say that God has inspired me to keep a journal and write the history of this Church, and I warn the future historians to give credence to my history; for my testimony is true, and the truth of its record will be manifest in the world to come. All the words of the Lord will be fulfilled upon the nations, which are written in this book. Wilford Woodruff, His Life and Labors, Matthias F. Cowley.
Notice how careful Woodruff was to preserve every detail about Zion’s Camp. As late as 1879 (while hiding from federal authorities and speaking at Kanab, Utah Territory) he was still relating the story: “Joseph had a vision which showed him this man’s name was Zelph who lived in the days of Onandagus (he was a Lamanite and was white), he was a great Warrior.” The Journal of L. John Nuttall, entry for March 9, 1879; Mormon Parallels: A Bibliographic Source © 2014 Rick Grunder.
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)
Author L. Taylor Hansen wrote intriguingly of a site in New York State: “On the authority of some older inhabitants of Onondaga, it is stated that on a ledge of rocks, about a mile south of Jamesville, (Near Syracuse and Oneida Castle) is a place which used to be pointed out by the Indians as a spot where the Great Spirit once came down and sat and gave good advice to the chiefs of Onondagas. That there are the prints of his hands and his feet, left in the rocks, still to be seen. In the former years the Onondagas used annually to offer, at this place, tobacco and pipes, and to burn tobacco and herbs as a sacrifice to the Great Spirit, to conciliate his favor and which was a means of preventing diseases.”
“Blood sacrifice was forbidden and replaced by the use of tobacco, today an important element in all traditional Native American ceremonies. Among many eastern tribes, East Star Man is regarded as the son of the Great Spirit, the Creator.” Wayne May, Christ in North America.
In 1927, Janne M. Sjödahl a Swedish immigrant and convert to the LDS church, wrote a book on one of the founding works in the area of Book of Mormon studies. In his book he said; “The Onondagas: These have special interest… It appears from this, that this warrior, Zelph, was an Onondaga, as well as a “white” Lamanite, and that the Onondagas (of New York), consequently must be of Lamanite lineage. It also appears that at least some of the mounds in the Ohio Valley were erected by the descendants of Lehi” J.M. Sjodahl, An Introduction to the Study of the Book of Mormon.
“Perhaps the name Zelph is a masculine version of the Hebrew “zalaphah”, meaning “Raging Heat” – a fitting name for a zealous warrior.” (Brown – Driver – Briggs – Gesenius Hebrew – Aramaic Lexicon, 2152, pg 273)
Lamanitish Arrows and Eagles with Lead Eyes: Tales of the First Recorded Explorations in an Illinois Valley Hopewell Mound by Kenneth B. Farnsworth
“Two of the first historically recorded pioneer mound excavations in the lower Illinois Valley area were undertaken in 1834 and 1840 at Naples-Russell Mound #8, an imposing bluff-top mortuary structure situated on the Illinois River bluffs in Pike County. Historical documents that discuss the early explorations there are evaluated below in light of recent professional excavations at the site to help interpret the structure and function of this imposing Middle Woodland mortuary feature.
Introduction
Archaeological test excavations and mound-restoration work conducted by the Center for American Archeology between 1986 and 1990 at several Middle Woodland mound groups in the Pike County Conservation Area, in advance of proposed highway construction there, included restoration and evaluation of Naples-Russell Mound #8 (also called Naples 8), the largest bluff-top mound in the lower Illinois Valley. Our 1990 transit-generated topographic map of this imposing structure indicated that it measured some 54 m (E–W) x 26 m (N–S), excluding its central ramp-like southern extension, and that its east and west lobes rose 7.5 m and 5.3 m, respectively, above the surrounding bluff-crest terrain.”
Mormon Excavations at Naples 8 on June 3, 1834
“The earliest recorded excavations in Naples 8 were associated with the well-documented Zion’s Camp Trail crossing of the Illinois River at Philips Ferry (at the present-day site of Valley City) on June 2, 1834, by a group of about 200 members (and 20 baggage wagons) of the Church of the Latter-day Saints, led by their prophet, Joseph Smith. Their expedition, from Kirtland, Ohio, was traveling to Jackson County, Missouri, in an effort to recover property from which members of their faith had been forcefully ejected in 1833. According to Lachlan Mackay (personal communication, 2010), most of the members of the Zion’s Camp expedition had not lived in Missouri. The church had two main communities in the early 1830s, one at Kirtland, Ohio, and one in Missouri. When members in Jackson County were driven out, men from the sister community in Ohio attempted to come to their aid.
As documented by Jelks (1983, 1986) and Riley (1993:27), the Mormon party crossed the Illinois River at Philips Ferry, just a kilometer north of the Naples-Russell mound group. Smith and his group were so impressed by the dramatic size and towering location of the Naples-Russell Mound #8 earthwork that several of them spent part of the next morning (Tuesday, June 3) visiting the mound and digging there. A fanciful artist’s interpretation of that morning’s dig 176 years ago was published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in 1853 (Vol. 6 #35:610) (see Figure 8) as part of an unsympathetic short history of the rise of Mormonism printed by the magazine. Smith’s journal description of the condition of the mound as they found it and of the burial they uncovered atop Mound #8 that morning in 1834 was fairly straightforward and is historically useful.” Kenneth B. Godfrey
Early Mormon Historical Interpretation of Ancient Illinois
“The repeated Mormon journal entries and references (discussed below) to the “Zelph” burial from Mound #8 as a battle fatality from a great Lamanite/Nephite conflict reflect early Mormon religious beliefs regarding two sons of a Jewish patriarch, who in 600 B.C. sailed to the Americas after it was prophesied Jerusalem would be destroyed. The sons, Laman and Nephi, grew to be the heads of two great warring tribes: the Lamanites and Nephites. In this Mormon view, the two groups were characterized as dark-skinned (“black”) vs. light-skinned (“white”) clans who became mortal enemies in the Illinois area, where they fought one another in a series of regional conflicts. Their last great battles were said to have been fought in the area of present-day Pike County, in the late fourth century A.D. Thus the Lamanite leader Zelph could be “revealed” to Joseph Smith to have been buried in Naples-Russell Mound #8 (see Bradley and 34 Illinois Archaeology Vol. 22 (1), 2010 Willard 1985; Godfrey 1989 and 1999; and Riley 1993:25–26 for Mormon historical overview discussions).
According to Godfrey (1989:47–49, 1999:75–77), Joseph Smith later changed some of his ideas of Mormon historical geography, leaving the significance of the Zelph burial unclear. In 1834 Smith believed the Plains of Nephi were located in Illinois, but after reading J. L. Stephens’ Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan in 1841, he revised his interpretation southward and placed them in Mesoamerica and Central America. In any event, these early Mormon beliefs stand in strong contrast with modern archaeological interpretations and with 1990 C.A.A. excavation data (see Farnsworth and Atwell 2001 fieldwork report—expanded published version in preparation) that interpret Naples 8 as a ceremonial mortuary center for regional Hopewellian populations during early portions of the Middle Woodland period (ca. 50 B.C.–A.D. 100, uncalibrated).
The Zion’s Camp Journals
The written record of the day’s events at Naples 8 on June 3, 1834, include Joseph Smith’s journal, as published in his church history (Smith 1957), and the journal entries of at least six of his followers, a small group of whom visited the mound with him and participated in the dig near the top of the earthwork. The event is mentioned in more or less detail in the journals of Levi Hancock, Heber Kimball, Ruben McBrady, Moses Martin, George Smith, and Wilford Woodruff (manuscripts curated at Brigham Young University and the LDS Church historian’s office, Salt Lake City). In large part, the entries closely follow Smith’s primary account. But some include independent information, and are excerpted below with highlighted passages. It is important to note that the accounts of Smith’s followers may actually be the primary references (Lachlan Mackay, personal communication 2010). On occasions when Joseph Smith’s journals were silent, the accounts of his followers were sometimes rewritten and inserted into
Smith’s journals for the purposes of fleshing out LDS Church history—thus the close similarity in wording of some of the Zelph Mound entries quoted below. Between April and August, Joseph Smith’s original 1834 journal contains no entries at all.
Joseph Smith’s account is as follows:
This morning I went up on a high mound, near the river, accompanied by the brethren. On top of the mound were stones, which presented the appearance of three altars having been erected one above the other, according to the ancient order; and the remains of bones were strewn over the surface of the ground. The brethren procured a shovel and a hoe and removing the earth to a depth of about one foot, discovered the skeleton of a man, almost entire, and between his ribs the stone point of a Lamanitish arrow, which evidently produced his death. Elder Burr Riggs retained the arrow. . Subsequently the visions of the past being opened to my understanding by the Almighty, I discovered that the person whose skeleton was before me was a white Lamanite, a large thick-set man, and a man of God. His name was Zelph. He was a warrior and a chieftain under the great prophet Onandagus. . . . He was killed in battle during the last great struggle of the Lamanites and Nephites. [Smith 1957:79–80, emphasis added]
Other relevant journal passages include the following:
Many went to see the big mound about a mile below the crossing. I did not go on it, but saw some bones that were brought with a broken arrow. [Levi Hancock journal, 1803–1882:51, emphasis added] We discovered a large quantity of mounds. Being filled with curiosity we excavated the top of one some two feet when we came on the bones of an extraordinarily large person. . . . It was felt that this man would have been 8 or 9 feet high. In the trunk of his skeleton near the vitals we found a large stone arrow, which I suppose brought him to his end. . . . Thus we found those mounds to be deposits for the dead which had fallen, no doubt in some great battle. In addition to this, we found many large fortifications, which denotes a civilization . . . which had fallen by wars and commotion. [Moses Martin journal, 1834:7, emphasis added] On Tuesday, the 3d, several of us went up with the Prophet to the top of a Mound on the bank of the Illinois River, which was several hundred feet above the river. . . . On top of this mound there was the appearance of three altars, which had been built of stone, one above the other, according to the ancient order; and the ground was strewn with human bones. . . . At about one foot in depth we discovered the skeleton of a man, almost entire; and between two of his ribs we found an Indian arrow, which had evidently been the cause of his death. We took the leg and thigh bones and carried them to Clay County. . . . Brother Brigham Young has yet the arrow in his possession. The same day we pursued our journey. While on our way we felt anxious to know who the person was who had been killed by that arrow. It was made known to Joseph that he had been an officer who fell in battle in the last destruction among the Lamanites, and his name was Zelph. [Heber Kimball journal, Whitney 1888:60–61, emphasis added] This morning [Tuesday, June 3] I went up on a high mountain near the river accompanied by many of the [brethren]. On the tops of the mounds were stones which personated the appearance of three altars, one above the other, according to the ancient order, and the remains of bones [strewn] over the surface of the ground . . . we had a shovel and a hoe with us, and while we were [descending] the mound, the Prophet Joseph stopped suddenly and pointed to the ground and said “[Brethren dig in [there].” And when we had dug one foot we uncovered the skeleton of a man, and between his ribs in the backbone was found the stone point of a Lamanitish arrow, which produced his death. Milton [Holmes] took the arrow out of the back bone, also one of the thigh bones which had been broken, and took it to camp, and put it into my wagon . . . and I Wilfor[d] Woodruff carried the thigh bone to Clay County and buried it. [Wilford Woodruff journal 1807–1898:19, emphasis added] Riley (1993:29) indicates that “the arrowhead was kept by Woodruff’s wife, Emma.” But in a later revised and edited published version of Woodruff’s journal (1881:41), he himself mentions that “the arrowhead . . . is now in the possession of President Joseph F. Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah.”
The “Lamanitish” Arrow
A good first test of cultural affiliation for the Zelph burial exhumed by the Mormons from Naples 8 in 1834 would be to locate and identify the “stone arrow” found with the burial. While the analysis project for the 1990 excavation study was underway, the artifact was located in the Mormon archive in Salt Lake City by James Bradley, who kindly provided C.A.A. researchers with a photograph (Figure 10a). Although the photo is not in full focus, it clearly shows a 3¾- inch-long obsidian barbed and corner-notched “spear” point
(i.e., much larger and heavier than lightweight arrow points attached to wooden shafts during the Late Woodland bow-and-arrow era). The combined size, shape, and raw material of manufacture of the Zelph point are regionally unique. It does not appear to have been broken or resharpened. Large flakes were removed to create a heavy, expanding straight-sided blade with prominent tangs and broad V-shaped corner notches above Figure 9. 1990 C.A.A. topographic map of the Naples- Russell mound group, associated activity areas, and probable burial knolls. 38 Illinois Archaeology Vol. 22 (1), 2010 a straight expanding stem with a flared base. Obsidian was imported into the region during Hopewellian times, but 50 years of extensive archaeological surveys and excavations at Middle Woodland habitation and mortuary sites in the lower Illinois Valley area have produced only about 400 small pieces of obsidian, mostly in the form of small sharpening flakes or blade fragments (Michael Wiant, personal communication 2010). From Wiant’s ongoing studies, a few obsidian drill fragments are known, along with a half dozen or so bifacial cutting and scraping tools (all but one from village-midden contexts) and eight notched projectile points. The projectiles are mostly casually made, crude, small “dart” points, often unifacially chipped and made from obsidian flakes or lamellar blades and only three of them are documented from mortuary contexts. One, from a mound in Fulton County, is a “3 inch square based obsidian knife” (Wray 1938:81–82). Another, casually produced by notching and unifacially flaking a 4-x-1.5- inch lamellar blade, was found in Bedford Mound 12, about 10 miles downstream from Naples 8 (Perino 2006:267, Figure 2.23). The third, a small bifacial corner-notched point less than 2 inches long, was recovered by Henderson from Naples Mound 3, about 4 miles upstream from the Naples-Russell group (Henderson 1884:696, Figure 13d). All three of these points were recovered as grave goods accompanying burials, not thrust or projected into them. As shown in Figure 10, the only regional prehistoric projectile point styles that in any way resemble the\ Zelph specimen are the Late Archaic (ca. 2000–1000 B.C.) Kampsville Barbed and Labras Lake types (Figure 10b and 10c) and an Apple Creek point style (Figure 10d), at first tentatively dated by Perino to ca. A.D. 350–550 (Perino 1975) because of similar points of this age from Missouri. But in the lower Illinois Valley, Apple Creek points are usually found in Terminal Archaic contexts and are likely a Kampsville Barbed variant. All three types have straight-sided blades and tangs, but only one, Labras Lake (see McElrath et al. 2009:351–352), occasionally has a slightly excurvate base (as shown in Figure 10). This style is characteristically found in the American Bottom area further south and is much smaller than the Zelph point. No obsidian was regionally used or available in Late Archaic times, and all of these
Figure 10. Mormon-curated obsidian projectile point (a) said to have been excavated with a Naples 8 burial by Joseph Smith and some of his Zion’s Camp followers on June 3, 1834. Comparative examples of similar local projectile point types (b–d) are illustrated for comparison (Point-type drawings from Perino 1985, 1991). Farnsworth 39 tanged point types are made from local white Burlington chert (see Farnsworth and Asch 1986; Perino 1985). From the Zelph point’s size, odd style attributes, and unique obsidian raw material (a noteworthy attribute curiously not mentioned in any of the early Mormon journal accounts), the photographed specimen from the Mormon archives is likely either a modern reproduction or a western Great Basin aboriginal point from the Salt Lake City area (perhaps an Elko Corner-Notched variety: see Perino 1985:123), mis-cataloged or acquired at some point to fill a void in the Joseph Smith collection at Salt Lake City.”
To see the complete article titled “Lamanitish Arrows and Eagles with Lead Eyes: Tales of the First Recorded Explorations in an Illinois Valley Hopewell Mound” by Kenneth B. Farnsworth click here.
Zelph wood art by Val Chadwick Bagley
