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< Book of Mormon | Geography | New World | Great Lakes geography
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Critics claim that Joseph Smith wrote the Book of Mormon to explain local legends associated with the "Moundbuilders" of the Eastern United States.
The presence of numerous burial mounds in the eastern United States was the source of great speculation to those that settled there. The construction of such mounds was not considered to be within the ability of the Native Americans, who were considered to be savages. It was assumed that such sophisticated constructions constituted evidence of a long lost, highly civilized society which had long since vanished. Some even postulated the existence of separate civilized and a savage societies, with the highly civilized group eventually being destroyed by the savage one. After years of research, however, it was concluded that the mounds had indeed been constructed by the ancestors of the Indians that continued to live in the area.
When the Book of Mormon appeared, it was a natural assumption by many that the book was the story of the mysterious "Mound Builders." Joseph Smith himself initially believed that the presence of the mounds supported the story related in the Book of Mormon. In fact, as Zion's Camp passed through southern Illinois, Heber C. Kimball and several other participants claimed that Joseph identified a set of bones discovered in one of these mounds as "Zelph", a "white Lamanite." In a letter that Joseph wrote to Emma the day after this discovery, he stated:
At this point in time, Joseph clearly believed the region of the mounds to be part of Book of Mormon lands. The Book of Mormon itself, however, makes no mention of mounds.
In 1841, the Times and Seasons, of which Joseph was the editor at the time, commented on a popular book by John Lloyd Stephens called Incidents of travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan. This book described amazing ruined cities that had been found in Central America. The Times and Seasons article stated:
Joseph Smith himself, as editor of the Times and Seasons wrote and signed the following on July 15, 1842. Notice that he mentions both the mounds and his statement that the ruins in Guatemala support the Book of Mormon:
One thing that critics do not consider is that if someone of that era were to attempt to write a book about a history of the North American Indians, he or she would not have written about advanced civilizations with advanced technology. The mysterious "Mound Builders" were not considered to be the ancestors of the current "savage" race that were inhabiting the land at that time.
Witnesses of the Book of Mormon though that there were going to be problems after the publication of the Book of Mormon.In a interview, David Whitmer said:
This claim actually strengthens the theories and evidences of the Book of Mormon set in Mesoamerica because critics that make this argument would in no way be able to say that Joseph Smith somehow research about Mesoamerica.
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