Connecting the Dots in South America – Part III

Continued from the previous post about the connection with South America and the islands of the Pacific.
    In the last post we outlined several connective factors between Easter Island and Polynesia with that of Andean Peru. In addition, a further argument for a strong South American influence is the complete absence of the South American style pressure-flaking technique on stone tools throughout Polynesia (involving ‘pushing’ flakes off a core as opposed to striking them), and the total absence of South American metalwork on Easter Island.

The Statues of Easter Island present a riddle of engineering that has not stopped archaeologists from debating how the giant carved stones were carved without metal tools and transported around the island

It should also be pointed out that no one has yet demonstrated how nearly 1,000 monolithic statues, averaging 13 feet tall and weighing 14 tons of tough basalt blocks could have been cut without metal tools. After all, basalt forms when lava reaches the Earth's surface at a volcano, with the lava between 2012º and 2282º F. when it gets to the surface. It then cools quickly, within a few days or a couple weeks, forming solid rock called basalt, a rock much harder than granite. Rano Raraku is a volcanic crater formed located on the lower slopes of Terevaka on Easter Island and was a quarry for about 500 years until the early eighteenth century, and supplied the stone from which about 95% of the island's known monolithic sculptures (moai) were carved, of which 397 statues still remain.

Top: Rano Raraku, the mount where 95% of the Easter Island statues were carved from the interior wall of the crater; Bottom: An incomplete statue in the Easter Island quarry of basalt rock

The incomplete statues in the quarry are remarkable both for their number, for the inaccessibility of some that were high on the outside crater wall and for the size of the largest, at 71 feet in height, almost twice that of any moai ever completed and weighing an estimated 270 tonnes, many times the weight of any transported. Some of these incomplete statues seem to have been abandoned after the carvers encountered inclusions of very hard rock in the material.
    In addition, it should be noted that there are two very important factors:
1. During the last century B.C., during the time of Hagoth’s shipbuilding (Alma 63:5), it was noted by Mormon that besides several ships sailing north from the Narrow Neck area, at least one sailed to an unknown destination. As he stated: “And it came to pass that one other ship also did sail forth; and whither she did go we know not” (Alma 63:8);
2. In addition, since ships sailed northward “the land which was northward” (Alma 63:4), and that at least one other ship sailed northward and: “they were never heard of more” (Alma 63:8). Assuming some of these ships found their way northward beyond the Land of Promise, and reached Central and Mesoamerica, it is entirely possible that later some brave, adventurous Nephites and Lamanites sailed down to Polynesia, since archaeological evidence suggests that these settled in northern and eastern Polynesia (North gene pool), while those who sailed from Peru westward and into the southern and western Polynesia (South gene pool).
    It should also be noted that
• In speaking to the Hawaiians at Laie, Elder Matthew Cowley said to them: “Brothers and sisters, you are God’s children—you are Israel. You have in your veins the blood of Nephi” (Cowley, Matthew. Matthew Cowley—Speaks. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1954).
• “The Polynesian Saints are characterized by a tremendous faith. Why do they have this great faith? It is because these people are of the blood of Israel. They are heirs to the promises of the Book of Mormon. God is now awakening them to their great destiny. As Latter-day Saints we have always believed that the Polynesians are descendants of Lehi and blood relatives of the American Indians, despite the contrary theories of other men” (Mark E. Petersen, “New Evidence for the Book of Mormon,” Improvement Era, June 1962, Vol.65, pp456–59; also in Conference Report,April 1962, pp111–115).
• Elder Hugh B. Brown, in dedicating the laying of the New Zealand Temple cornerstone, said, “We thank Thee, O God, for revealing to us the Book of Mormon, the story of the ancient inhabitants of America. We thank Thee that from among those inhabitants, the ancestors of these whose heads are bowed before Thee here, came from the western shores of America into the South Seas pursuant to Thy plan and now their descendants humbly raise their voices in grateful acknowledgement of Thy kindness…[these] faithful Maoris who came here in early days, descendants of Father Lehi, may be remembered by their descendants and saved through the ordinances that will, in this House, be performed in their behalf” (Paul R. Cheesman and Millie Foster Cheesman, Early America and the Polynesians, Promised Lands Publication, Inc., Provo, Utah, 1975).
• In dedicating the New Zealand Temple, President David O. McKay said in his open sentence: “We express gratitude that to these fertile islands thou didst guide descendants of Father Lehi and hast enabled them to prosper” (David O. McKay, “Dedicatory Prayer Delivered by Pres. McKay at New Zealand Temple,” Church News, 10 May 1958, pp2,6.
• In a talk to the Samoans in 1976, President Spencer W. Kimball said: “In the sixty-third chapter of Alma [He then read the account of Hagoth.] And so it seems to me rather clear that your ancestors moved northward and crossed a part of the South Pacific. You did not bring your records with you, but you brought much food and provisions. And so we have a great congregation of people in the South seas who came from the Nephites, and who came from the land southward and went to the land northward, which could have been Hawaii. And then the further settlement could have been a move southward again to all of these islands and even to New Zealand. The Lord knows what he is doing when he sends his people from one place to another” (Spencer W. Kimball, “Official Report of the Samoa Area Conference Held in Pago Pago and Apia, Samoa, February 15-18, 1976).
• Joseph Fielding Smith said, and was quoted by Spencer W. Kimball, “I would like to say to you brethren and sisters from New Zealand, you are some of Hagoth’s people, and there is No Perhaps about it!” He didn’t want any arguments about it. That was definite. So you are of Israel. You have been scattered. Now you are being gathered” (Ibid).

And while numerous other examples could be given, we will use just one more: “Dr. Paul Cheesman notes in Early America and the Polynesians that Bruce G. Pitt, a graduate student, “viewed a portion of microfilm #34 in the BYU library” which contained the patriarchal blessings given to these people in regard to the lineage declared in the blessings. The following information was found: “Of 321 total Polynesian lineages viewed, 155 were declared to be of Manasseh, 2 of Manasseh and Ephraim, 68 of Joseph, 62 of Israel, 4 of Jacob, 28 of Ephraim, 1 of Lehi and 1 of Japeth…Another [graduate] researcher, Max Hirschi, recorded that out of 35 patriarchal blessings given to Polynesians, thirteen were from the tribe of Ephraim, fourteen were told they were from Manasseh, and the other eight were of the tribe of Joseph” (Paul R. Cheesman and Millie Foster Cheesman, Early America and the Polynesians, Promised Lands Publication, Inc., Provo, Utah, 1975).
    Now, since Lehi was a descendant of Manasseh (Alma 10:3) and Ishmael was a descendant of Ephraim (Journal of Discourses 23:184), the common lineage of these two descendants of Joseph who was sold into Egypt and the Polynesian Saints gives support to the theory that the Polynesians came from the American Nephites.
    These quotes were taken from a BYU Religious Education, Religious Studies Center article “Hagoth and the Polynesians,” by Robert E. Parsons in 1992. It also might be noted that Parsons’ closing comment on this issue: “It might be of interest to you to know that when Elder Spencer W. Kimball set me apart for my mission to New Zealand in 1946, he said: “We bless you with power and the ‘gift of tongues’ to learn the language of the Maoris…We set you apart among the Children of Lehi to do good.”
(See the next post, “Connecting the Dots in South America – Part IV,” for a better understanding of how the early cultures of Andean Peru relate to the various islands of the South Pacific)