One of the criteria for someone translating a writing that was written in another language, is that the translator must have an understanding not only of the words, but also of a general meaning of those words. As an example, when Joseph Smith was translating the area that is now Ether 9:18-19, he translated cattle, oxen, cows, sheep, swine and goats from whatever words were used by Moroni who had earlier abridged the writing of Ether.
Those animals among whom Joseph Smith would have known about
When they built the Trans-continental Railroad, people would buy a ticket, be issued a gun and load it with big slugs and shoot bison as they rode across the continent, leaving their carcasses to rot on the wide open prairie. Over time, the Buffalo herds were reduced to a small portion of what they used to be.
These common animals would have been well known to Joseph Smith, a fourth generation farmer where these animals would have been important and well established. Thus when he translated the words Moroni used, an image or a word made understandable by the Spirit, or some other means appeared to Joseph Smith that he recognized—that is, until he came to the animals Moroni called the curelom and cumom. These words were untranslatable to Joseph, since he had no idea what they meant—they were animals of which he had no knowledge other than being an extremely useful animal to those in the Land of Promise. All Joseph could do was use the words Moroni used—curelom and cumom.
North American theorists point to the buffalo as one of those animals; however, the buffalo would have been known to Joseph Smith in western New York where he grew up. In fact, observers of buffalo herds were quite eloquent in their descriptive experiences upon seeing such a herd and describing their sizes, using language like immense numbers, countless numbers, countless thousands, dense masses, one great mass, herds that blackened the plains, bulls roaring like distant thunder or like a river's rapids, bison in such numbers that they drink a river dry or the ground trembles with vibration when they move.
Running Buffalo fishing along the banks of the creek named after him
In fact, the buffalo was so well known in western New York that one of the Seneca there used it as his name: De-gi-yah-goh, who built a basswood bark cabin by the creek and fished there—he not only became known as the chief fisherman for the Seneca, but many began calling the creek Buffalo’s Creek, or in the Seneca language: "Tick-e-ack-gon- ga-ha-un-da." This naming is what gave the creek and eventually the city, the name of Buffalo—of an Indian named after an animal that was well known in Western New York.
The Upper Missouri Fur Trade, utilized buffalo robes as a main product, and employed a labor force of American Indians to gather and process the robes. The robes were then exchanged at one of the numerous trading posts established on the Missouri River and moved to St. Louis by water, where they were shipped downstream to New Orleans, or overland eastward to New York. The trade in hides attracted a cosmopolitan mix of ethnic and cultural groups—French-Canadian, American Indian, African American, Hispanic, British, Irish, German, and Russian trappers and traders all worked side by side with Missourians, Ohioans, Pennsylvanians, and Virginians. It would seem obvious that with the emphasis on proselyting, that Joseph Smith would have heard about the buffalo! In addition, since it was the Indians who traded most of the buffalo skins, not the trappers, and Joseph Smith spent some time among the Sac and Fox Indians, again, it seems quite logical that Joseph Smith would have heard about the buffalo from the Indians who worshipped the animal because it provided almost all of the Indian’s needs.
Another point of knowing about buffalo is the fact that in an area toward Albany from New York city, not far from the Connecticut border between Pawling and Patterson lies an area known in history as “the swamp,” where the business in buffalo robes (dressed buffalo skins) and skins (raw undressed hides) thrived. The principal interest of Frankfort street, in connection with the Swamp, lies in the fact that all the first tanneries were constructed in it and contiguous and curries pursued their avocation and resided over their shops in this thoroughfare.
There were fine dwellings in the street a hundred and more years ago, and rich merchants lived there where it seems that almost everyone was a tanner involved in some way with the buffalo hide trade. One of these prominent buffalo hide and fur merchants was the leading citizen Francis Lewis, a hide and fur merchant, who came from Wales. In gathering furs and hides he was accustomed to travel in the interior of New York State moving up and down the Lake Erie and Lake Ontario coasts and was at Oswego—60 miles from Palmyra—when it surrendered to General Montcalm. It seems obvious that Joseph Smith, or at least his father, would have known about the buffalo hide market from talk circulating around Lewis.
A stack of buffalo hides waiting to be shipped to the “swamp” in New York
Obviously, then, Joseph Smith would have known of the Buffalo and used that name during the translation of the animals instead of curelom or cumom. In addition, these theorists also claim that the Rocky Mountain Goat is one of these two animals.
First of all, the Rocky Mountain goats have never been indigenous in the parts of the Heartland or Great Lakes areas. The natural and native range of these animals is from southeast Alaska to Washington, western Montana, and central Idaho. Mountain goats, Oreamnos americanus, are native to the northern Rocky Mountains. They have also been introduced to parts of South Dakota, Colorado, and Washington.
Neither the Buffalo or Rocky Mountain Goat can be domesticated and attempts to try have only had disastrous results.
Thus, when Moroni writes that “And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms” (Ether 9:19), we need to listen and understand that Moroni is saying that:
1. The Jaredites had two animals that Joseph Smith did not name. Since he named all the other animals, why not these—because, he didn’t know them by any name;
2. All the animals he mentioned were beneficial to man;
3. The cureloms and cumom were more beneficial to man than the horse or donkey, or any other animal except for the elephant.
So how can theorists claim that the Buffalo and Rocky Mountain Goat were the two animals that were so beneficial to man? Of course the buffalo is quite beneficial, but the fact it is not a beast of burden, and cannot be domesticated, limits its value—and since the horse, donkey and elephant are beasts of burden, it stands to reason that the cureloms and cumoms were, which adds considerably to their value.
In addition, how on earth can the Mesoamericanists claim the sloth and the tapir would be such animals so valuable to man?
Left: Alpaca; Right: Llama
In all of the Western Hemisphere, only two animal species fit the bill for an animal more valuable than the horse and donkey, and that is the llama and the alpaca. First of all, there is no question that the buffalo had tremendous value to the American Indian; however, there is no companion animal and the buffalo could not serve as a beast of burden to fill the role of the donkey, horse or elephant.
Consider the llama. According to Ernest P. Walker, in Experimental Physiology,
“It is easy to realize the importance of the llama to the Indian, as he utilizes it almost 100 percent, from its smallest hairs to its most insignificant droppings. Jerked llama meat nourishes the Indian; its woven fleece keeps him warm; its hide is made into the crude sandals with which he is shod; its tallow is used in making candles; braided, the long hairs serve him as rope; and the excrement, dried, constitutes a fuel” (Ernest P. Walker, “Mammals of the World,” 2nd Ed., Experimental Physiology, Johns Hopkins Press and Oxford University Press, Vol.1, 1968, ppxlviii; vol.2 ppviii,647; Johns Hopkins Press, 1968, p1377).
Additionally, the llama makes an excellent beast of burden, and its pelt is used for blankets and outerwear. It has also been shown that llamas are good at guarding flocks. All these factors make the llama an extremely useful animal for humans. It seems to us that this animal could well be either the curelom or cumom mentioned in the book of Ether
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