Book of Mormon/Lamanites/Relationship to Amerindians/Statements/20th century

Statements made by Church leaders and authors on the relationship between Amerindians and Lamanites (20th century)

1920s

1923

Heber J. Grant at dedication of Cardston, Alberta temple:

We beseech Thee, O Lord, that Thou wilt stay the hand of the destroyer among the descendants of Lehi, who reside in this land….that all the great and glorious promises made concerning the descendants of Lehi…^[1]

Melvin J. Ballard:

For this very purpose, therefore, were these plates preserved, to bring to pass the redemption. of the children of father Lehi, known in North and South America, in Central America, and in Mexico, as the American Indians and some of the natives upon the isles of the sea. . . . I wish to bear witness to you that their redemption shall come, and that the day of their redemption is near at hand, when these thousands, yea these millions of Lamanites on this Western Continent who have the blood of Lehi in their veins, or of his descendants, shall be touched by the power of the Almighty, and the day of their redemption, when it does come, will be one of power.^[2]

1925

Melvin J. Ballard in dedicatory prayer for preaching the gospel in South America, 25 December 1925:

And we also pray that we may see the beginning of the fulfilment of thy promises contained in the Book of Mormon to the Indian of this land, who is a descendant of Lehi, millions of whom reside in this country, who have long been downtrodden, and have borne many afflictions and suffered because of sin and transgression, even as the prophets of the Book of Mormon did foretell. But thou didst inspire these prophets to promise their descendants that thou wouldst bring forth, in the latter days, the records of their fathers; and that when these records were presented to their children, they would begin to believe, and when they would do this, thy favor would return to them; and then thou wouldst remember the promises made to their fathers, that if their descendants would repent and receive the gospel, they would begin to be prospered and blessed on the land and would again become a white and delightsome people. O Father, let thy Spirit work upon them, and manifest the truth of these things unto them, as we, and thy servants who shall follow us, shall bear witness of thy precious promises unto this branch of the house of Israel.^[3]

1926

Melvin J. Ballard on the future of work in South America:

Work will grow slowly for a time just as an oak grows slowly from an acorn–not shoot up in a day as does the sunflower that grows quickly and thus dies. Thousands will join here; it will be divided into more than one mission, and will be one of the strongest in the Church. The work here is the smallest that it will ever be. The day will come when the Lamanites here will get the chance. The South American Mission is to be a power in the Church.^[4]

1927

A 1927 Book of Mormon study guide noted that:

All Indians Are Not the Descendants of Lehi …Students of the Book of Mormon should be cautioned against the error of supposing that all the American Indians are the descendants of Lehi, Mulek, and their companions, and that their languages and dialects, their social organizations, religious conceptions and practices, traditions, etc., are all traceable to those Hebrew sources.

Because the Jaredite record is very brief we are apt to forget that it embraces many centuries—how many, we have no means of ascertaining—and that it gives an epitome principally of the history of Moron, where the Jaredites first established themselves. It stands to reason that the Jaredites gradually settled in favorable localities all over the American continents, and that both Nephites and Lamanites came in contact with them, and that an amalgamation took place everywhere as in the case of the Nephites and Mulekites in Zarahemla. If so, the Jaredite culture must have become a factor in the development of the institutions and languages of the country. But the Jaredites came from some center of population in Asia…^[5]

1928

Taught Elder Levi Edgar Young [First Council of the Seventy] in 1928 general conference:

There must be a clear distinction, it grows every year more evident, between the origins of America's ancient people and the sources of their culture. The human material of the pre-Columbian societies probably came from Asia by way of Alaska, the orthodox route long accepted for the American Indians…Among many social belongings abandoned along the route seem to have been most of the things called intellectual. The men and women who peopled America arrived, intellectually, with the clothes they stood in…Dr. Uhle urges an alternative [theory for how high culture arose in the Americas]…Occasional cultured mariners from India, China, Japan or other lands may have landed, he believes, few in numbers, but full of ideas, to bring to the rude American societies…just the hint that culture was possible. Small numerically as this source of inspiration must have been, it may conceivably have been the seed from which sprouted the great achievements of Peru and Central America…^[6]

1929

In April 1929, President Anthony W. Ivins [Counselor in First Presidency] said in General Conference:

We must be careful in the conclusions that we reach. The Book of Mormon teaches the history of three distinct peoples, or two peoples and three different colonies of people, who came from the old world to this continent. It does not tell us that there was no one here before them. It does not tell us that people did not come after. And so if discoveries are made which suggest differences in race origins, it can very easily be accounted for, and reasonably, for we do believe that other people came to this continent.^[7]

1930s

1938

A Church study guide of 1938 was even more definitive:

Indian ancestry, at least in part, is attributed by the Nephite record to the Lamanites. However, the Book of Mormon deals only with the history and expansion of three small colonies which came to America and it does not deny or disprove the possibility of other immigrations, which probably would be unknown to its writers. Jewish origin may represent only a part of the total ancestry of the American Indian today.^[8]

1940s

1940

And, in 1940, members with the critics' attitudes were cautioned:

There is a tendency to use the Book of Mormon as a complete history of all pre-Columbian peoples. The book does not claim to be such an history, and we distort its spiritual message when we use it for such a purpose. The book does not give an history of all peoples who came to America before Columbus. There may have been other people who came here, by other routes and means, of which we have no written record. If historians wish to discuss information which the Book of Mormon does not contain but which is related to it, then we should grant them that freedom. We should avoid the claim that we are familiar with all the peoples who have lived on American soil when we discuss the Book of Mormon. . . There is safety in using the book in the spirit in which it was written. Our use of poorly constructed inferences may draw us far away from the truth. In our approach to the study of the Book of Mormon let us guard against drawing historical conclusions which the book does not warrant.^[9]

1950s

Elder Dallin H. Oaks [Apostle] noted that he had been taught this idea in the 1950s at BYU:

Here [at BYU] I was introduced to the idea that the Book of Mormon is not a history of all of the people who have lived on the continents of North and South America in all ages of the earth. Up to that time, I had assumed that it was. If that were the claim of the Book of Mormon, any piece of historical, archaeological, or linguistic evidence to the contrary would weigh in against the Book of Mormon, and those who rely exclusively on scholarship would have a promising position to argue.

In contrast, if the Book of Mormon only purports to be an account of a few peoples who inhabited a portion of the Americas during a few millennia in the past, the burden of argument changes drastically. It is no longer a question of all versus none; it is a question of some versus none. In other words, in the circumstance I describe, the opponents of historicity must prove that the Book of Mormon has no historical validity for any peoples who lived in the Americas in a particular time frame, a notoriously difficult exercise.^[10]

1954

LeGrand Richards [Apostle] 1954: The dark-skinned people who occupied this land of America from that time on were called "Lamanites," who are the people known generally as the American Indians, all of whom are of the house of Israel.^[11]

1957

In 1957, Elder Richard L. Evans [Apostle] prepared material for a secular audience, and described the Book of Mormon as

part of a record, both sacred and secular, of prophets and peoples who (with supplementary groups) were among the ancestors of the American 'Indians'^[12]

This article was republished twice (in 1963 and 1975) and the latter publication was reapproved for publication by the First Presidency.^[13]

1970s

1975

Spencer W. Kimball at dedication of Mesa, Arizona temple:

Thou didst acknowledge the role of the Lamanite, especially in this temple, and numerous of the sons and daughters of Lehi have found in these sacred precincts peace, knowledge and solace to their souls.^[14]

1977

Spencer W. Kimball in Mexico:

One of the first efforts of the Prophet Joseph Smith was to take the gospel to the Lamanites. Continuing until now, we have preached the gospel to the Lamanites. There are probably sixty million Lamanites in America. They are happy for the gospel as it come to them. . . . In many natural resources, the land of America is rich and will produce abundantly. This is for you, for us, and for all the good people who live upon the land of America. Protection against enemies has been promised. In all the Americas, neither kings nor emperors will combine to take the land. Great promises are given us, if we live the commandments God has given us.^[15]

1980s

1983

Gordon B. Hinckley at the dedication of the Mexico City temple:

Bless thy Saints in this great land and those from other lands who will use this temple….Most have in their veins the blood of Father Lehi. Thou hast kept Thine ancient promise.^[16]

1984

Gordon B. Hickley at the dedication of the Guatemala City temple:

Thou kind and gracious Father, our hearts swell with gratitude for Thy remembrance of the sons and daughters of Lehi, the many generations of our fathers and mothers who suffered so greatly and who walked for so long in darkness. Thou hast heard their cries and seen their tears. Now there will be opened to them the gates of salvation and eternal life…. We thank Thee for the restored record of our ancestors, the record of Lehi, Nephi and Jacob, of Alma and Mosiah, of Benjamin and Mormon and Moroni.^[17]

1986

Gordon B. Hickley at the dedication of the Lima, Peru temple:

We are particularly mindful this day of the sons and daughters of Lehi.…Surely Father Lehi has wept with sorrow over his posterity. Surely he weeps today with gladness….^[18]

1990s

1992

The Ensign published an article from John Sorenson, one of the most prominent advocates of the presence of other non-Israelite peoples in the Americas:

Archaeological evidence from all New World areas where the early Nephites and Lamanites could have lived makes clear that peoples who descended from the Jaredite era also lived during the time of Lehi’s descendants. Given Laman and Lemuel’s ambition to rule, perhaps they or their descendants ruled over and absorbed such “natives.” Nephite record keepers perhaps did not know the details of that process, but that is the best explanation that I know of for the remarkable growth in the number of Lamanites.

The case of the numerous Amulonites [in Alma 43:13] can be explained on similar grounds—taking control over a resident population.^[19]

1997

Gordon B. Hinckley at dedication of Vernal, Utah temple:

May there come about a reconciliation of feelings between the descendants of Lehi and those who have come to reside in these valleys. May old animosities be dispelled, and may there come a renewed spirit of brotherhood and love and respect.^[20]

== Notes ==

1. [note]  Heber J. Grant, Dedicatory Prayer for the Cardston Alberta Temple (26–29 August 1923).
2. [note]  Melvin J. Ballard, Conference Report (October 1923), 29.
3. [note]  "Prayer Dedicating the Lands of South America to the preaching of the Gospel," Improvement Era 29 no. 6 (April 1926), 575-76.
4. [note]  J. Vernon Sharp Diary, 4 July 1926; cited in A. Theodore Tuttle, "South America: land of Prophecy and Promise," Improvement Era (May 1963), 358.
5. [note]  Melvin J. Ballard, Conference Report (April 1930), 156.
6. [note] Janne M. Sjodahl, "Suggested Key To Book of Mormon Geography," Improvement Era 30 no. 11 (September 1927), ?.
7. [note]  Levi Edgar Young, Conference Report (October 1928), 103–106, italics added.
8. [note]  Anthony W. Ivins, Conference Report (April 1929), 15, italics added.
9. [note]  William E. Berrett, Milton R. Hunter, Roy A. Welker, and H. Alvah Fitzgerald, A Guide to the Study of the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: LDS Department of Education, 1938), 47–48, italics added.
10. [note]  Roy A. West, An Introduction to the Book of Mormon: A Religious-Literary Study (Salt Lake City: LDS Department of Education, 1940), 11, italics added.
11. [note]  Dallin H. Oaks, "The Historicity of the Book of Mormon," (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1994): 2–3; republished in Dallin H. Oaks, "The Historicity of the Book of Mormon," in Historicity and the Latter-day Saint Scriptures, edited by Paul Y. Hoskisson (Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center, 2001), 238–239.
12. [note]  LeGrand Richards, Israel! Do You Know? (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1954), 37.
13. [note]  Richard L. Evans, "What Is a 'Mormon'?" in Religions of America, edited by Leo Rosten (London: Heinemann, 1957), 94, italics added; reprinted as Religions of America: Ferment and Faith in an Age of Crisis: A New Guide and Almanac (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975).  (needs URL / links)
14. [note] The quote and this observation are from Matthew Roper, "Nephi's Neighbors: Book of Mormon Peoples and Pre-Columbian Populations," FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): 91–128. off-site
15. [note]  Spencer W. Kimball, Rededicatory Prayer for the Mesa Arizona Temple (15–16 April 1975).
16. [note]  Spencer W. Kimball, Official Reports of the Monterrey Mexico Area Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held in Monterrey, Mexico February 19 and 20, 1977, (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1978), 3.
17. [note]  Gordon B. Hinckley, Dedicatory Prayer for the Mexico City Temple (2-4 December 1983).
18. [note]  Gordon B. Hinckley, Dedicatory Prayer for the Guatemala City Guatemala Temple (14–16 January 1984).
19. [note] Gordon B. Hinckley, Dedicatory Prayer for the Lima Peru Temple (10-12 January 1986).
20. [note]  John L. Sorenson, "I Have a Question," Ensign (September 1992): 27, italics added. (needs URL / links)
21. [note]  Gordon B. Hinckley, Dedication Prayer for the Vernal Utah Temple (2–4 November 1997).