The Great Lakes Myth and the Scriptural Record – Part III

Construction achievement around the last century B.C. Top: Hopewell Indians in Great Lakes; Center: Early Peruvians in Andean Area of South America; Bottom: Maya Temple in Guatemala

According to Anthropologists, the Hopewell Indians may have been in the Great Lakes region as early as 200 B.C., but this cannot be confirmed. By 1 A.D., the Hopewells mastered agriculture and grew crops of sunflowers and squash. By 200 A.D., the Hopewells began to construct mounds. By 500 A.D. they were completely gone from Indiana. The Ho-Chunk moved northward around 200 A.D., and built large shell-mounts, where they buried their dead. By 500 A.D. they were building the effigy mounds in Great Lakes area in what is called the Woodland Cultural period, building thousands of mounds throughout Illinois and southern Wisconsin

• Compare this to the facts, as stated in the last post, that the Nephites were building large cities and highways, and spreading across the land as a cultured, technologically developed society with more than 600 years history building and tending crops, from constructing temples that would rival Solomon’s to cities the Lord called “great” (3 Nephi 8:24; 9:4-5))

Again, according to archaeologists and anthropologists, the Mississippians moved into the Ohio River Valley around 1100 A.D., where they built mounds much larger and far more grand than the Hopewells before them. Some of these mounds remain visible at locations near the Ohio River today.

• Compare that to Nephi’s statement in 588 B.C. “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.” (2 Nephi 5:15)

Anthropologists claim the agrarian Mississippians were the first to grow maize in the region of the Great Lakes after their arrival in 1100 A.D.. The people developed the bow and arrow and copper working during this time period. (1 Nephi 16:23)

• Compare that to “And it came to pass that as I, Nephi, went forth to slay food, behold, I did break my bow, which was made of fine steel” (1 Nepbi 16:18,23), which would have been around 595 B.C. And, again, “I, Nephi, did make out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow; wherefore, I did arm myself with a bow and an arrow” (1 Nephi 18:23). And again, “Therefore the people of the Nephites were aware of the intent of the Amlicites, and therefore they did prepare to meet them; yea, they did arm themselves with swords, and with cimeters, and with bows, and with arrows, and with stones, and with slings, and with all manner of weapons of war, of every kind.” (Alma 2:12) which was in the last century B.C. 1200 years before the Mississippians

According to archaeological finds, the city of Cahokia, built by ”the most sophisticated prehistoric native civilization north of Mexico,” was inhabited from about 700 to 1400 A.D.. At its peak, from 1050 to 1200 A.D., the city covered nearly six square miles and 10,000 to 20,000 people lived here. Over 120 mounds were built over time, and most of the mounds were enlarged several times. Houses were arranged in rows and around open plazas, and vast agricultural fields lay outside the city. Within the 2,200-acre tract, located a few miles west of Collinsville, Illinois, lies the archaeological remnants of the central section of this ancient settlement that is today known as Cahokia.

• Compare that to Moroni writing about 400 A.D. “And now it came to pass that after the great and tremendous battle at Cumorah, behold, the Nephites who had escaped into the country southward were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed” (Mormon 8:2) and “Behold, four hundred years have passed away since the coming of our Lord and Savior. And behold, the Lamanites have hunted my people, the Nephites, down from city to city and from place to place, even until they are no more; and great has been their fall; yea, great and marvelous is the destruction of my people, the Nephites. And behold, it is the hand of the Lord which hath done it. And behold also, the Lamanites are at war one with another; and the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed; and no one knoweth the end of the war” (Mormon 8:6-8).

That is, the Nephites were long gone before the mounds that are seen today were constructed. Mounds, as impressive as they are, cannot compare with the description of cities and buildings that are written about from Nephi through Mormon. The Great Lakes, as has been more than adequately proven here, cannot be the Land of Promise since it does not match any of the scriptural record relating to these many points shown.