If you want an education in Native Americans and Book of Mormon archaeology you want to talk with Wayne May. For over 45 years he has been studying, documenting, searching, and digging thousands of artifacts all over North America. I recently asked him about his opinion on the most likely Native Americans today who would have been the original Nephites and Lamanites of the Book of Mormon. I sure appreciate what he shared with me.
A Short view on the Native Americans Today by Wayne N. May (just my opinion)
Lamanites (Laman and Lemuel descendants) will mix with Woodland Natives shortly after their arrival. “They went Native” according to the Nephites. [The Woodland period, lasting from about 3,000 BC to 1000 AD, is an archaeological classification of Native American cultures of North America prior to European contact].
The largest manifestation of this group today in my opinion is the Algonquian people which consist of many different tribal names.
Over the centuries the Lamanite group and Nephite group will mix spreading in the DNA of the two. We do not have DNA for this group prior to the final mixing which would come much later when final conflict would begin about 322AD. Two new groups will be added to the Lamanite and Nephite DNA pool, namely; Lenape (Delaware) and the Menge (Iroquois), see “The Lenape and Their Legends of the Walam Olum“. Info Here
For sure [DNA Groups] A,B,C and D will be introduced at this time, however, there are DNA markers that we are unaware of at this time within the Lamanite and Nephite groups. For example, many Cherokee have markers that are not A,B,C or D at all. Markers J and Y show up, very suggestive of non-mediterranean people. The many of the Cherokee have no A,B,C or D. Yet, the Cherokee were at one time members with the Iroquois and lived in present day New York State. But, something happened and the Cherokee were removed from New York and moved to Georgia and Tennessee where they were found historically.
Cherokee
The Cherokee have almost every Jewish custom and festival of the Old Testament. One suggestion, the Zoramites stayed together as a tribal group throughout most of the Book of Mormon timeline, but at the end when the Nephites needed them the most, they switched sides and joined with the Lamanites. Thus the Zoramites stayed intact after [the] Cumorah fight was over for the Nephites. And I believe [Zoramites] stayed with the Menge (Iroquois) in present day New York until they as a group fell out of favor with the Menge and were kicked out of the Cumorah area.
See my blog here: DNA SCIENTISTS CLAIM THAT CHEROKEES ARE FROM THE MIDDLE EAST
Another blog here: CHEROKEE/PHOENICIAN DNA CONNECTION
I believe the Zoramites become the mainstay for the Cherokee Tribes of all five Civilized Nations. And yet each of these five Tribes will have their own stories of who came and from what direction after the Cumorah conflict was over until the first contact with Europeans. (Read about the Cherokee/Hebrew connections: “Out of the Flame: Cherokee beliefs & Practices” by James Adair) Among the Cherokee Elders who practice the old way, you will find they too have sacred markings upon their under garments like we do.
Today many of the Elders in any tribe will tell two stories of their migration. One from the East and one from the West. Round eyes versus slanted eyes. That all natives migrated here from the West is a White-man story which they do not accept. They know their own history, we just don’t accept it.
DNA Relationships
Zoramites=Cherokee & Iroquois & Menge
Mulekites=Algonquian & Jaredites Late Archaiac
Hagoth= Polynesians & Nephites & Lamanites
Algonquian
Ojibwa (Algonquian) have great history saved. You can read all of it as it was preserved by William Warren titled “History of the Ojibway Nation”. When reading this you will recognize that they line up with the Mulekites very well. Also, somewhat confusing at first is their connection to the Late Archaic people which will match in my opinion the Jaredites. Eastern sea crossing, sailing into the St. Lawrence River on 8 turtle boats, settling all around the Great Lakes and they just happen to have the 2nd highest concentration of X2a DNA that is found in Israel today.
With the Mulekite group picking up Coriantumr and having him for 9 months, they would have learned much about their new promised land. I am convinced also that all the Jaredites did not perish at 600 BC Cumorah fight. Small colonies existed all across present day USA and the Mulekite group mixed with them during their 400 year existence before Mosiah and the Nephite group arrive at Zarahemla (eastern Iowa). The archaeological record in the earth will support this. Also, the Ojibway book has an account of the Cumorah battle like no other.
Mi’kmaq
The Mi’kmaq Nation is a member of the Wabanaki Confederacy that controlled northern New England and the Canadian Maritimes and of the algonquian Language group. The Mi’kmaq’s are original natives of the Nova Scotia/New Brunswick region. They also settled in locations in Quebec, Newfoundland, and Maine. They have a written language that has been ignored by academics. It was so good as pictograph symbols that the Jesuits in the late 1600’s wrote a Catholic Seminary book using the Mi’kmaq symbols. The Mi’kmaq symbols are traceable to Egypt and in use their 2000 BC. What are Egyptian symbols doing in Eastern USA and Canada before Columbus? The Mi’kmaq have the highest concentration of X2a DNA in North America that matches Israel.
Could this be where Hagoth set sail from never to be seen again in Book of Mormon history? Perhaps if this was the place of departure, many chose to stay, thus we have a huge grouping of potential Nephite DNA in the Mi’kmaq.
All the Native Americans have a story that speaks of Jesus Christ. It will be given in a dozen ways but a strand of commonality winds its way through all, so as to connect them with The Christ.
Here is my favortie story from the Book of Mormon concerning Hagoth. It is written by a dear friend of mine, a non-member, who reads the Book of Mormon and treats it as the history it is. Author is ___________?
Hagoth
Whether readers regard it as fact or fiction, The Book of Mormon nevertheless offers more than a few passages relevant to the pre-Columbian history of our continent.
A remarkable case in point appears in its longest chapter, known as “The Book of Alma”, a prophet and chief judge of the Nephites. These were transatlantic visitors from the Near East, who allegedly settled in North America, beginning around the turn of the 7th Century B.C. The Book of Alma jumps six hundred fifty-five years ahead to Zarahemla, a large city located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, in eastern Iowa (where, in fact, trace elements of a large-scale settlement are being found), 175 miles southeast of Des Moines, as described by Edwin G. Goble and Ancient American Publisher, Wayne May, in their 2002 title, This Land: Zarahemla and the Nephite Nation (available from Ancient American Bookstore).
“And it came to pass,” states the Book of Alma, “that Hagoth, he being an exceedingly curious man, therefore he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship, on the borders of the Land Bountiful, by the Land Desolation, and launched it forth into the west sea, by the narrow neck which led into the land northward. And behold, there were many of the Nephites who did enter therein and did sail forth with much provisions, and also many women and children; and they took their course northward.
“And thus ended the thirty and seventh year. And in the thirty and eighth year, this man built other ships. And the first ship did also return, and many more people did enter into it; and they also took much provisions, and set out again to the land northward. And it came to pass that they were never heard of more. And we suppose that they were drowned in the depths of the sea. And it came to pass that one other ship also did sail forth; and whither she did go we know not” (Alma 63:5-8).
While skeptics may dismiss the entire Book of Mormon as nothing more than the fabrication of an uneducated young man, these few lines cannot help but attract the attention of cultural diffusionists, whatever they might think of Joseph Smith. For example, the Book’s hero, Hagoth, finds his ancestral counterpart precisely in that same area of the ancient Old World, where the Nephites were said to have originated. An Ammonite seal, inscribed sometime between the 8th and 6th Centuries B.C., bears the male name Hgt, pronounced “Hagoth” https://clearldsdoctrine.neocities.org/ltltbom/supp/namesinthebookofmormon.html.
Editor’s Reference in Green Box
Hagoth—
Brief Summary: “One Book of Mormon critic argued that Joseph Smith derived the name Hagoth from the name of the biblical prophet Haggai. Indeed, the names may be related, but a closer parallel is the biblical Haggith (see 2 Samuel 3:4; 1 Kings 1:5, etc.), which may have been vocalized Hagoth anciently. All three names derive from a root referring to a pilgrimage to attend religious festivals. The name Hagoth is attested in the form Hgt on an Ammonite seal inscribed sometime in the eighth through the sixth centuries BC36 (The Ammonites, neighbors of the Israelites and descendants of Abraham’s nephew Lot, wrote and spoke the same language as the Israelites.)” [1] Source FairMormon
Wayne’s Friend continues saying, “Residing east of the Jordan River, Israel’s Ammonite neighbors spoke a Semitic language derived from earlier Canaanite, as did Hebrew. They were, however, Gentiles. Since the inscribed seal was discovered during a 1949 archaeological dig between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in present- day Jordan, one hundred five years after Smith died, no one, including him, could have possibly guessed that “Hagoth” was, in fact, the ancient appellation for a Near Eastern man. The odds that Smith could have coincidentally invented such a perfectly appropriate name, unknown as it was to modern scholars at the time he transcribed the Book of Alma, are nothing short of astronomical. We can likely conclude, then, that he was indeed referencing historically authentic source materials describing a Semitic-speaking figure living in the American Middle West, around 55 A.D.
Hagoth is next described in the Book of Alma as “an exceedingly curious man”. In his “Questions and Answers, Hagoth’s Lost Ships”, LDS researcher, W. Vincent Coon, notes that the scriptural use of the term “curious” may mean “accomplished with skill and ingenuity”, and does not necessarily imply an inclination for adventure.
Hagoth, the Book of Alma continues, constructed “an exceedingly large ship”, then “launched it forth into the West Sea”, credibly identified by May with Lake Michigan. Hagoth’s ship passed “by the narrow neck, which led into the land northward,” an apt description of the three-and-one-half-mile-wide Straits of Mackinac connecting Lake Huron at the northernmost point of Lake Michigan.
We further read that “there were many of the Nephites who did enter therein [Hagoth’s “exceedingly large ship”] and did sail forth with much provisions, and also many women and children; and they took their course northward … this man built other ships. And the first ship did also return, and many more people did enter into it; and they also took much provisions, and set out again to the land northward.”
Here is revealed the cause for Hagoth’s appearance in the Book of Mormon, largely concerned, as it is, with prolonged, major engagements fought between Nephites and Native Americans, together with population dislocation generated by these severe, far-ranging conflicts: His capacious vessels were constructed to facilitate mass-migrations of civilians from the Lower Mississippi Valley, which was rapidly becoming a very dangerous war zone. They were relocated to a safe haven far away in the northeast, from which they would never return, because the military situation, as The Book of Mormon affirms, went from bad to worse for the Nephites.
Fifty-four hundred men sailed on each cruise, along with their wives and children (Alma 63.7). Thus, the total complement of refugee passengers aboard, speculatively averaging three children per family, amounted to around 27,000 persons. Today’s largest ocean liner, the 226,963-ton, 1,188-foot-long Harmony of the Seas, has a maximum carrying capacity of 8,880 individuals. The figure cited in the Book of Alma is, therefore, self-evidently incorrect, in so far as it is impossibly associated with the voyage of single ship. We may only surmise that something has been lost in translation from the transcribed source materials, as suggested by The Book of Mormon author himself. After complaining that the plates upon which the account was inscribed were unsuitable for his people’s own language, he states, “if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have no imperfections in our record” (Book of Mormon 9:33), such as Hagoth’s unmanageable, 27,000 passengers.
As such, they may have originally traveled not aboard a single ship, but in a fleet of large vessels sailing together as component units of a single exodus operation toward a common destination. In any case, his last transports “were never heard of more. And we suppose that they were drowned in the depths of the sea. And it came to pass that one other ship also did sail forth; and whither she did go, we know not” — at least as far as the writer of the Book of Alma could have known. Hagoth’s other vessels never returned to Zarahemla, or at least to the southern shores of Lake Michigan’s Western Sea south, not because they were sunk; rather, they successfully delivered their human cargo out of harm’s way, north of the Upper Great Lakes and beyond, where they were re-settled. (Mi’kmaq country).
This conclusion is not baseles supposition. In his 2015 lecture (“Hagoth, Builder of Ships, Master Seaman”, DVD available. May pointed out that several genetic surveys of indigenous tribes across the Middle Western and Western states discovered the presence of mitochondrial (matrilinear) DNA X2a markers signifying an ancient Near Eastern genetic legacy of one to four percent in various Amer-Indian population groups. That ratio suddenly mushrooms to as high as fifty or sixty percent among the Miꞌkmaq, natives inhabiting Canada’s Atlantic Provinces and the northeastern region of Maine. Interestingly, their written language, dating back to pre-contact times, bears a striking resemblance to the Anthon Transcript. Named after Charles Anthon, a well-known classical scholar at Missouri’s Columbia College, during the first half of the 19th Century, the original “Transcript” he examined was allegedly the sole, surviving specimen of Nephite writing.
Wayne May concludes from the high and unique concentration of ancient Near Eastern genetic evidence among the Miꞌkmaq, their traditional use of an Anthon Transcript form of written language, and residency along the Atlantic approaches of the St. Lawrence River, plus their prodigious boat-building and seafaring skills, that this indigenous people are the descendants of Hagoth’s Nephite refugees. His ships carried them northward across the West Sea of Lake Michigan, through the Straits of Mackinac, into Lake Huron and the St. James River, which was far larger and more navigable some two thousand years ago than it has since become, according to hydrological studies. Traveling the St. James into the St. Lawrence, the tens of thousands of originally displaced persons finally settled in the Atlantic regions of Canada and Maine, becoming, over subsequent centuries among today’s 170,000 Miꞌkmaq.
If his interpretive melding of their very existence with The Book of Alma and modern genetics is correct, it preserves the account of an internal, mass-migration that shaped the pre-Columbian history of our continent.
