The Way Theorists Think Regarding Their Predetermined Models – Part II

Continuing with his theme about the Lamanites being originally in the Great Lakes Area, and showing that they were the first to be preached to, Rod L. Meldrum writes on his website:

“6. Where did Joseph Smith himself go to “preach unto the Lamanites”? From History of the Church, Vol. 4 p 401-402 on Thursday, August 12th, 1841, Joseph wrote “I accordingly went down, and met Keokuk, Kis-ku-kosh, Appenoose, and about one hundred chiefs and braves of those tribes (Sac and Fox tribes), with their families.” He went on to say “I conducted them to the meeting grounds in the grove, and instructed them in many things which the Lord had revealed unto me concerning their fathers, and the promises that were made concerning them in the Book of Mormon.”
7. D&C 54:8 states “And thus you [Newel Knight] shall take your journey into the regions westward, unto the land of Missouri, unto the borders of the Lamanites.” Even if Joseph was confused (which he wasn’t) do you think that GOD is confused about where the remnants of the Lamanites are located?”
It should be kept in mind that the division of people in the United States between white Europeans and original American Indians was specific. By an Act of Congress in 1825, there was a division line designating an area of land identified as “Indian Territory.” White settlers in this colonization zone were required to vacate. It was located west of Missouri and Arkansas extending to the 100th Meridian, and was bounded on the north by the Platte River and on the south by the Red River. The first Lamanite missions were into this “Indian Territory,” and is why Newel Knight was told to “take your journey into the regions westward, unto the land of Missouri, unto the borders of the Lamanites.”

As evidenced by the presence of mounds and trade-good manufacture, the Hopewell Indians dispersal reached Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, New York, the Northeast and eastern Rocky Mountain states and into the deep south. The US removal in the 1830s of most American Indians from the mound builder regions, by means of the forced Trail of Tears—a phrase originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831—by the 1830’s nearly all Hopewell Indian tribes living along the southern areas of the Great Lakes, from Ohio to the Missouri, had been fragmented or dispersed.

It seems unlikely that any claim, that questionable DNA or otherwise, could isolate a very small portion of these closely related Indians to a single location when such an original dispersal of them is recorded as stated above, and later Congressional-ordered dispersal that took place in the 1830s. To say that missionaries were sent specifically to where a DNA group was located under these circumstances is suspect at best.

Besides, the culture and history of these Indians along the southern regions of the Great Lakes do not suggest a Nephite caliber culture. The most important large-scale works of the early Hopewell Indians were the 23 earthen mounds claimed to have been built between 200 BC and AD 500. Some were walls, other small areas of raised earth, some were serpentine designs, and some were pyramidal. But in the end, they were nothing more than earthen mounds, not unlike earthen mounds found elsewhere in the world.
That the Hopewell built such earthen edifices is interesting, but by no means equals the work of the Nephites of whom Nephi said: “And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance. And I did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious thing…but the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon; and the workmanship thereof was exceeding fine” (2 Nephi 5:15-16). In addition, the Land of Promise had many miles of highways and roads “that led from city to city, and from land to land, and from place to place” (3 Nephi 6:8), which highways were “broken up” and “the level roads spoiled” (3 Nephi 8:13), which were later built up again when the cities were rebuilt (4 Nephi 1:7-8).

According to one archaeologist, after more than 30 years of archeological work in this area, “The few small domestic Ohio Hopewell sites that have been excavated have not produced any evidence for prolonged occupation.”

This hardly sounds like the 1,000 year history of the Nephites, and the continuing occupation of the Lamanites for another thousand years before Columbus came to the Western Hemisphere.