Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church/Chapter 2

FAIR Answers—back to home page

Response to claims made in "Chapter 2: Race Relations in Colonial America"

Chapter 1

A FAIR Analysis of: Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon ChurchLosing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church A work by author: Simon G. Southerton

Chapter 3

17

Claim

• A similarity exists between the degraded Lamanites and the Native Americans of the 19th Century.

Author's source(s)

• Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), no pages given. ( Index of claims )

Response

• Note again only a dated anti-Mormon work is cited for this claim. No engagement with the large body of work done in response to Brodie is cited or engaged.
• Book of Mormon/Lamanites/Relationship to Amerindians

22

Claim

• The Book of Mormon portrays the Lamanites as naked, head shaven, tent dwelling, arrow wielding and idle, similar to stereotypical perceptions of the Native Americans at the time.

Author's source(s)

• No source given.

Response

• Book of Mormon/Lamanites/Relationship to Amerindians

22

Claim

• Joseph Smith may have woven "frontier prejudices" into the Book of Mormon.

Author's source(s)

• No source given.

Response

•  Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
• The author needs to present actual evidence. In fact, the Book of Mormon sees the Lamanites as the equals of others, descendants of Israel, and blessed by God. This is a far cry from the frontier prejudice, where often "the only good Indian was a dead Indian."

27

Claim

• Joseph Smith "fell under the spell of the mounds and could not resist the lure of buried riches."

Author's source(s)

• Silverberg, The Mound Builders, 1968.
• Dan Vogel, Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon: Religious Solutions from Columbus to Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Book, 1986), no pages cited.
• Brodie, No Man Knows My History, 1971.

Response

•  Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
• Book of Mormon/Geography/New World/Great Lakes geography/Mound Builders

27

Claim

• Joseph Smith used a "seer stone" or "peep stone" to search for buried treasure.

Author's source(s)

• No source given.

Response

• Joseph Smith/Seer stones

27

Claim

• Joseph Smith was charged with being "disorderly" for his money digging activities in 1826.

Author's source(s)

• No source given.

Response

• Joseph Smith/Legal trials/1826 glasslooking trial

28 - Scholars have "concluded" that Joseph Smith was inspired by View of the Hebrews

The author(s) of Losing a Lost Tribe make(s) the following claim:

Scholars have "concluded" that Joseph Smith was inspired by View of the Hebrews.

Author's sources: Persuitte, 2000.

FAIR's Response

28

Claim

• The New World history in View of the Hebrews "shares close parallels with the plot of the Book of Mormon."

Author's source(s)

• Ethan Smith, View of the Hebrews, 1825.

Response

•  Quotes another author's opinion as if it were fact: the author cites only Ethan Smith's book, who says nothing about whether his book matches the Book of Mormon.
• "Unparallels" with View of the Hebrews
• Book of Mormon and View of the Hebrews

29

Claim

• Joseph Smith was inspired by the myths surrounding the Moundbuilders in writing the Book of Mormon.

Author's source(s)

• Brodie, No Man Knows My History, 1971.

Response

•  Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
• Book of Mormon/Geography/New World/Great Lakes geography/Mound Builders

30

Claim

• The author claims that Joseph "likely" added the story of the Jaredites to account for the speculation about the diversity of Indian cultures and languages.

Author's source(s)

• Ether 2꞉1-3

Response

•  Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
• We are told earlier that Joseph mirrored frontier prejudices. Yet, Vogel's book demonstrates that early settlers had little appreciation of the diversity of Amerindian culture. They regarded Amerindians as a monolithic group. These two claims do not mesh.
• Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Story of Jaredites added to explain presence of animals in New World  ^{[needs work]}

30

Claim

• Joseph "likely" added the story of the Jaredites to account for how animals arrived in the New World after the Flood.

Author's source(s)

• Ether 2꞉1-3
• No additional source is given by the author for this claim.
• The same exact claim is made by Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 70–72. ( Index of claims )

Response

•  Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
• Book of Mormon/Anachronisms/Story of Jaredites added to explain presence of animals in New World

Logical Fallacy: Composition—The author assumes that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole.

The Church has no official position on the extent of Noah's Flood. Just because some members and leaders believe that the Flood was global in scope does not mean that everyone believes it.