It is often asserted by defenders of the Limited Geography Theory that the Book of Mormon doesn't exclude the possibility of a large Asian migration into the Western Hemisphere. Their reasoning seems to be that since the Book of Mormon itself doesn't specifically exclude it, then it's safe to concede to the scientific community that Native Americans are primarily Siberian/Mongoloid by descent. Apologists then declare that because of the extreme disproportion of Mongoloid vs. Hebrew populations during Book of Mormon times, virtually all traces of the ancient Hebrew people described in the Book of Mormon has been wiped out.
This view is totally at odds with Joseph Smith's statements, however. It contradicts both modern scripture, as well as very clear, and apparently inspired pronouncements from Church leaders throughout the history of the LDS Church.
According to Joseph Smith, he first learned of the gold plates, from which our Book o Mormon comes, from the angel Moroni, whose visit is documented in Joseph's history (see the Pearl of Great Price). The current version found in the Pearl of Great Price is a little ambiguous regarding the scope of Book of Mormon lands, but a former draft of this history is not so ambiguous, and raises difficulties for the Limited Geography Theory.
According to Joseph's 1835 draft of his history, "He [Moroni] said the Indians were the literal descendants of Abraham." (Joseph's Journal entry of Monday, November 9th, 1835; see Scott H. Faulring, An American Prophet's Records: The Diaries and Journals of Joseph Smith, p. 51)
Providing much more detail on this particular vision, Orson Pratt, a close friend and associate of Joseph Smith, and apostle of the Church, recounted:
In the year 1823, Mr. Smith, being not quite eighteen years old, was meditating in his heart concerning the former vision [i.e. the "First Vision"], and was feeling great anxiety that the promise might be fulfilled to him, that he should, at some future time, have revealed to him the Gospel in all its fulness. He retired to his room one Sunday evening, in September (1823,) and commenced to pray with all the earnestness and faith that he could possibly obtain, that the Lord would fulfill the promise that he had made to him. While thus praying, he discovered that a light seemed to be breaking into his room, growing brighter by degrees, until he saw a personage, apparently an angel, standing before him. This personage wore a white robe, and his countenance had the appearance of lightning, but yet appeared of an innocent expression. This personage did not stand upon the floor of the room, but his feet were a short distance above the floor. He informed this boy that the Lord had sent him as a messenger, in answer to his prayer, in order to impart unto him further information. And then he commenced telling him that this great American continent was once occupied by a numerous people, the descendants of the house of Israel, most of them the descendants of a remnant of the tribe of Joseph; that they came here from Jerusalem by the direct guidance of the Almighty, some six centuries before Christ; that in a vessel, which they built by the command of God, they came round by the Gulf of Arabia, crossed the Great Pacific Ocean, and landed on the western coast of South America;
... that between three and four centuries after Christ these two nations occupied the two great wings of this continent, the Lamanites occupying South America, and the Nephites North America;
... there had been a fifty years war between the inhabitants of North and South America; and finally the Lamanites of South America drove the Nephites from the Isthmus, and continued to burn their towns, cities and villages, and they destroyed hundreds and thousands of the Nephites; and ultimately they were driven into what we now call the State of New York. Three hundred and eighty years after the birth of Christ they entered into terms of peace, or, in other words, an armistice, for the space of four years, during which time the two nations gathered together all their forces into one vicinity, near the hill Cumorah. And when the four years of peace, or armistice, had expired, they came together in battle, in which the Nephites were overpowered, and hundreds of thousands of them killed, including women and children.
I have now given you a brief statement of these things, in substance, as they were taught by the angel of God who administered to Joseph Smith in September, 1823. After giving this instruction the angel disappeared; and as Mr. Smith continued to pray and call upon the name of the Lord, the angel appeared the second time, and made the same narration in relation to the Lamanites and Nephites as he made on his first visit. When conversing with Mr. Smith about these records, the vision of his mind was opened so that he was enabled to see where the records were deposited, and he was told by the angel that, if he would be faithful and do according to the commandments of the Lord his God, he, in due time, should have the privilege of bringing the records forth, and that he should translate them for the benefit of the people.
The angel again departed, and Mr. Smith, being unable to go to sleep, continued to pray, and the vision was renewed again; the angel, on his third visit, not only reiterating his previous statement, but also declaring many things that were then in the future in relation to the marvelous work and wonder which the Lord was about to perform upon the earth. (Journal of Discourses Vol. 17, pp. 280-282 - sermon given in Tabernacle, September 20, 1874)
These seem to be very clear and precise statements from an angel of God. While I may be inclined to excuse Joseph Smith for a human error that results in a misreading of the Book of Mormon, I cannot grant a human error to an angel. It appears that Joseph's assumptions had nothing to do with a reading of the Book of Mormon, since he came by these assumptions directly from an angel of God four years before receiving the gold plates!
How much did Joseph Smith learn about the Book of Mormon people from the Angel Moroni? Apparently quite a lot. According to his mother, Lucy Mack Smith, "Joseph would occasionally give us some of the most amusing recitals that could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and the animals upon which they rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; their mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life with them." (Vogel, Early Mormon Documents, 1:296)
It is crucial to note that Lucy places this description of Joseph's knowledge of the "ancient inhabitants of this continent" before Joseph's procurement of the Gold Plates. This means that there are only two practical conclusions we can draw from this: Either the Angel Moroni (or some other divine visitor) gave a lot of information directly to Joseph regarding the Book of Mormon people (enough for him to make very definitive statements about them), or Joseph had a propensity for making up fictitious stories — specifically, fictitious stories about ancient American people. The first conclusion is problematic for the proponents of the Limited Geography Theory who wish to relegate Joseph's statements about Nephite and Lamanite lands to mere "opinion", while the second conclusion is problematic to the notion that an "ignorant farmboy" could never have made up the Book of Mormon on his own.
In addition to the angelic statements of the Angel Moroni, God himself was apparently quite interested in the identity of the literal descendants of Lehi. Early on in the history of the Church, the Lord states:
16 Nevertheless, my work shall go forth, for inasmuch as the knowledge of a Savior has come unto the world, through the testimony of the Jews, even so shall the knowledge of a Savior come unto my people --
17 And to the Nephites, and the Jacobites, and the Josephites, and the Zoramites, through the testimony of their fathers --
18 And this testimony shall come to the knowledge of the Lamanites, and the Lemuelites, and the Ishmaelites, who dwindled in unbelief because of the iniquity of their fathers, whom the Lord has suffered to destroy their brethren the Nephites, because of their iniquities and their abominations.
19 And for this very purpose are these plates preserved, which contain these records -- that the promises of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he made to his people;
20 And that the Lamanites might come to the knowledge of their fathers, and that they might know the promises of the Lord, and that they may believe the gospel and rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ, and be glorified through faith in his name, and that through their repentance they might be saved, Amen. (D&C 3: 16-20)
There are two things that stand out to me in this passage. First, it seems clear that the Lord is speaking of a genetic relationship here. In the Book of Mormon, the genetic descendants of the various people in Lehi's original party called themselves "Lemuelites", "Zoramites", etc. depending on which one of the original party their ancestor was. True, later on in the Book of Mormon, they were grouped for convenience into two political groups called "Nephites" or "Lamanites", but they always seemed to maintain knowledge of their specific lineage.
In the above passage, the Lord himself articulates the genetic relationship by stating clearly that he is opening up his work to the "Nephites, and the Jacobites, and the Josephites, and the Zoramites, through the testimony of their fathers" and to the "Lamanites, and the Lemuelites, and the Ishmaelites, who dwindled in unbelief because of the iniquity of their fathers".
Secondly, the Lord is emphasizing the importance of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. He states that one of the express purposes of the golden plates' preservation was that "the Lamanite might come to the knowledge of their fathers." This implies that 1) the Lamanites are known, and 2) that the Church must give the Book of Mormon specifically to these Lehite descendants.
The Lord reinforced the idea of a genetic link between modern-day Lamanites and ancient Hebrews in his revelation to Martin Harris regarding the money he was to spend to get the Book of Mormon printed (see D&C 19: 26-27):
26 And again, I command thee that thou shalt not covet thine own property, but impart it freely to the printing of the Book of Mormon, which contains the truth and the word of God -
27 Which is my word to the Gentile, that soon it may go to the Jew, of whom the Lamanites are a remnant, that they may believe the gospel, and look not for a Messiah to come who has already come.
This last revelation was given in March of 1830 and, as far as the Doctrine and Covenants is concerned, the Lord had apparently not specified exactly who the modern Lamanites were yet. He was, presumably, relying on his angelic servant Moroni's testimony to suffice. However, now that the Book of Mormon had been printed, it was time for it to go out to the Lamanites, since the Lord was adamant that this was one of the express purposes of having the book written. (D&C 28: 8-9):
8 And now, behold, I say unto you that you shall go unto the Lamanites and preach my gospel unto them; and inasmuch as they receive thy teachings thou shalt cause my church to be established among them; and thou shalt have revelations, but write them not by way of commandment.
9 And now, behold, I say unto you that it is not revealed, and no man knoweth where the city Zion shall be built, but it shall be given hereafter. Behold I say unto you that it shall be on the borders by the Lamanites.
The Lord, in addition to commanding the Saints to preach to the Lamanites, indicates that the Lamanites are a known body of people with definable "borders". It is interesting that immediately following this revelation, Oliver Cowdery, Ziba Peterson, Parley P. Pratt, and Peter Whitmer, Jr. are set apart as missionaries to the Lamanites (see D&C 30 and 32), and subsequently depart for Ohio with the specific purpose of converting the Lamanites. It would appear, then, that the Lamanites, or at least some of the Lamanites, who were meant to receive the Book of Mormon were located in Ohio.
In addition to Ohio, Missouri was confirmed as Lamanite territory by the Lord himself in 1831 when he directed the Church to purchase land in Independence, Missouri saying, "And thus you shall take your journey into the regions westward, unto the land of Missouri, unto the borders of the Lamanites." (D&C 54: 8)
Later, the Lord again reiterated the genetic relationship between the Native Americans of Missouri and their apparent cousins in Jerusalem when he specified which tracts of land to purchase in Missouri, "Wherefore, it is wisdom that the land should be purchased by the saints, and also every tract lying westward, even unto the line running directly between Jew and Gentile..." (D&C 57:4). Even though the point should be quite obvious, footnote 4b reiterates, "i.e. by metonymy 'Jew' here refers to the Lamanites, and 'Gentile' to the white settlers."
Speaking of Missouri, it's quite common in the Church to take Joseph Smith's word at face value that Adam-ondi-ahman (the place of the Garden of Eden, and the place where Adam purportedly built the alter for the first animal sacrifice) was located in Missouri. Why, then, would apologists like us to discount his claims regarding Nephite lands made at the very same time? Joseph's journal records, "We next kept [traveling] up the river mostly in the timber for ten miles, untill we came to Col[onel] Lyman Wight's who lives at the foot of Tower Hill. A name appropriated by Pres[iden]t Smith in consequence of the remains of an old Nephitish Alter an[d] Tower where we camped for the Sab[b]ath. (Saturday May 19, 1838; Scott H. Faulring, An American Prophet's Record, p.184)
Indeed, Joseph apparently had other divine revelations about Nephite lands and people being located in North America. Several people have reported one particular vision he had in Pike County, Illinois:
this being in the Co of Pike hear we discovered a larg quantity of large mounds being filed with curiosity we excavated the top of one Sone 2 feete when we came to the Sbones of an extraordinary large person or humane being the thigh bones being 2 inches longer from one Scket to the other than of th Prophet \whi\ who is upwards of 6 feete high which would have constuted Some 8 or 9 feete high in the trunk of the Skeleton near the vitals we found a large stone arrow which I suppose brought him to his end Soon after this Joseph had a vision and the Lord shewed him that this man was once a mighty Prophet and many other things conserning his dead which had falen no doubt in some great batles in addition to this we found many larg fortifications which also denotes sivilseation and an in numberable population which has falen by wares and comotion and the banks of this Beautiful River became the deposit of many hundred thousands whos graves and fortifications \have\ are overgrown with the sturday oak 4 feete in dianeter. -- Moses Martin Journal, 1834
While on our travels we visited many of the mounds which were flung up by the ancient inhabitants of this continent probably by the Nephites & Lamanites we visited one of those Mounds and several of the brethren dug into it and took from it the bones of a man Brother Joseph had a vission respecting the person he said he was a white Lamanite the curs was taken from him or at least in part he was killed in battle with an arrow the arrow was found among his ribs, one of his thigh bones was broken this was done by a stone flung from a sling in battle years before his death his name was Zelph Some of his bones were brought into the camp and the thigh bone which was broken was put into my waggon and I carried it to Missouri Zelph was a large thick set man and a man of God he was a warrior under the great prophet that was known from the hill cumorah to the Rocky mountains. The above knowledge Joseph received in a vision. (Wilford Woodruff's Journal 1934)
on the way to Illinois Rvier where we camped on the west side in the morning many went to see th big mound about a mile below the crossing I did not go on it but saw some bones that was brough with a broaken arrow they was layed down by our camp Joseph addressed himself to sylvester smith this is what I told you and now I want to tell you that you may know what I ment this land was called the land of desolation and Onendagus was the king and a good man was he there in that mound did he bury his dead and did not dig holes as the people do now but they brought there dirt and vovered them untill you see they have raised it to be about one hundread feet high the last man buried was Zelf he was a white Lamanite who fought with the people of Onendagus for freedom when he was young he was a great warior and has his thy broaken and never was sat it knited together as you see on the side he fougt after it got strength untill he lost evry tooth in his head save one when the Lord said he had done enough and suffered him to be cild by that arrow you took from his brest these words he said as the camp was moving off the ground as nere as I could lern he had told them something about the mount and got them to go and see for themselves. I then remembered what he had said a few days before while passing many mounds on our way that was left of us said he there are the bodies of wicked men who have died and are angry at us if they can take the advantage of us they will for if we live they will have no hope I could not comprehend it but supposed it was all right. (Diary of Levi Hancock, 1834)
It was made known to Joseph that he had been an officer who fell in battle, in the last destruction among the Lamanites, and his name was Zelph. This caused us to rejoice much, to think that god was so mindful of us as to show thsese things to his servant. Brother Joseph had enquired of the Lord and it was made known in a vision. ("Extracts from H.C. Kimball's Journal," Times and Seasons, v.6 (February 1, 1845), p. 788)
Later in Joseph Smith's journals, he identified other, living, Lamanites, "4 Lamanites [Indians] and interpreter came in and took a seat on the stand." Joseph added this bracket insertion in which Lamanites are equated with Indians. (see Saturday, April 6, 1844; Scott H. Faulring, An American Prophet's Record, p.463)
On Thursday, May 23, 1844 Joseph addressed Indians who were visiting:
I replied "We know you have been wronged, but we bought this land and paid our money for it. Advise you not to sell any more land. Cultivate peace with all men with the different tribes. Great spirit wants you to b united and live in peace. Found a book (presenting the Book of Mormon) which told me about your fathers and Great spirit told me. You must send to all the tribes you can and tell them to live in peace and when any of our people come to see you treat them as we treat you." (see Scott H. Faulring, An American Prophet's Record, May 23, 1844)
Other statements from Joseph Smith that relate to the American Indians and Lamanites are as follows:
"The Book of Mormon is a reccord of the forefathers of our western Tribes of Indians, having been found through the ministration of an holy Angel translated into our own Language by the gift and power of God, after having been hid in the earth for the last fourteen hundred years containing the word of God, which was delivered unto them, By it we learn that our western tribes of Indians are desendants from that Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and that the land of America is a promised land unto them, and unto it all the tribes of Israel will come." (An excerpt of a letter from Joseph Smith, Ohio, to N.C. Saxton, Rochester, New York, 4 January 1833; see Jesse, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, p. 297)
"The whole of our journey, in the midst of so large a company of social honest and sincere men, wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls and their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity..." (An excerpt of a letter from Joseph Smith, on the banks of the Mississippi River, near Pike County Illinois to Emma Smith, Kirtland, Ohio, 4 June 1834; see Jesse, Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, p. 345-346)
Thus far, we have not had just Joseph Smith's pronouncements "as a man" on the subject (although how can apologists tell the difference between Joseph speaking "as a man" and him speaking "as a prophet"?). Rather, in addition to Joseph Smith, we have a record of divine pronouncements on the subject by the Lord himself, and by his angel Moroni. It seems, then, that apologetic claims that Joseph Smith simply assumed on his own that Lamanites were hemispheric in scope (rather than the limited Meso-American scope that apologists propose) are very weak. According to Joseph's own statements and the statements of his close associates, it would seem that the sole source of his assumptions rested on direct divine revelation.
Part Three: The LDS Church's Stance on Lamanites After Joseph Smith