Are Native Americans the Lamanites?


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Here are some applicable scriptural sources (emphasis added):

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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.

(D&C 28)

5 Behold, I say unto you, Peter, that you shall take your journey with your brother Oliver; for the time has come that it is expedient in me that you shall open your mouth to declare my gospel; therefore, fear not, but give heed unto the words and advice of your brother, which he shall give you.

6 And be you afflicted in all his afflictions, ever lifting up your heart unto me in prayer and faith, for his and your deliverance; for I have given unto him power to build up my church among the Lamanites;

(D&C 30)

Great interest and desires were felt by the elders respecting the Lamanites, of whose predicted blessings the Church had learned from the Book of Mormon. In consequence, supplication was made that the Lord would indicate His will as to whether elders should be sent at that time to the Indian tribes in the West.

2 And that which I have appointed unto him is that he shall go with my servants, Oliver Cowdery and Peter Whitmer, Jun., into the wilderness among the Lamanites.

(D&C 32)

8 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)

Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, in Zion, Jackson County, Missouri, July 20, 1831.
2 Wherefore, this is the land of promise, and the place for the city of Zion.

(D&C 57)

According to scripture:

1) Zion is to be built on the borders of the Lamanites.
2) Oliver Cowdery and others were sent on missions to teach the Lamanites (all of which missions were located within the now Continental US).
3) The missions to the Lamanites took place among the Indian tribes in the West.
3) The Land of Missouri is the borders of the Lamanites.
4) Jackson County, Missouri, is the place for the city of Zion

Additionally, regardless of what theories may exist, the Hill Cumorah, where Joseph Smith was given the plates was near Palmyra, NY.  Also, interestingly, while not specifying it as the exact correct geographical location, the Lord revealed a location which is to be called Zarahemla:

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3 Let them build up a city unto my name upon the land opposite the city of Nauvoo, and let the name of Zarahemla be named upon it. (D&C 125)

It would appear that regardless of what other evidences currently exist, or will be made known in the future regarding DNA evidence, etc, etc.  The revealed word of God gives no other suggestion to the location of the Lamanites other than within what is now the Continental United States, specifically bordering Missouri.  This would indicate that the Lamanites must be among the Native Americans/American Indians.

Obviously we would all like to have additional information, and scientific corroboration, etc.  However, for the time being the scriptures, and events in Church history make it clear that Lamanite territories exist within the US and that the initial Lamanite tribes to whom the gospel was to be preached were/are also within the US.  While other theories and postulations exist, I believe the scriptural evidence more than any other, and attest that eventually other evidence will match the scriptures as holds true for many other gospel related questions.

Edited by person0
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4 hours ago, DoctorLemon said:

I found something interesting pop up in my facebook feed for anyone interested in the Middle-Eastern origins of Native Americans:  http://nativesnewsonline.com/2017/04/16/dna-scientists-claim-that-cherokees-are-from-the-middle-east/.

Very interesting . . . 

@Carborendum

You may want to take a look at this paper. A lot of the DNA testing that has been done deals with pre-historic ancestry (some as early as 6K years ago, but many are much older), so it's not terribly useful to say one way or the other. Unless you're debating with someone who doesn't understand that and insists that DNA studies prove there are no Hebrew Indians, in which case, sure, show them haplogroup X.

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This is a personal thing, and goes AGAINST the current scientific evidence.  It is not something that is known in general, and as far as I know, the family has gone by other titles and names in public generally.

I would qualify as native American I suppose, though just barely (there are certain requirements of how much blood, or how far down the line you are that qualifies you for Native American).  Now, here's the kicker.  In the individual families and such, mine would have the name of Manasseh.  Yes...Manasseh.  As far as I know, I do not have a lick of Judaic blood in me.  I am NOT Semitic. 

More interesting, my mother was connected through the Patriarchal blessing to the tribe of Manasseh.  I, on the otherhand, was told I was of a different tribe.

So, the thought of mine that comes to my mind is, how is this?  Is it possible that we are literally the descendants (however times removed)?  If this is true, than it is highly possible that the actual DNA that the Hebrews had as a family is NOT the same DNA as is found among most of those in the Middle East.

The tribe of Judah has been there long enough that maybe they have intermingled enough with others in the Middle East (something that the Israelites were told NOT to do, but probably happened, especially among those who returned after the Babylonian captivity) and that is what is linking them to the peoples of the Middle East in general.  Or it could be that the people's of the Middle East have a lot of the blood of Judah in them (which would also be a connection).  However, neither of those state that the Hebrews necessarily had that type of blood line.

This is just a personal thing and has NO scientific backing to it.  It's my pondering about my family background and that related to those found in the Book of Mormon.  I know what the background of my family in that direction is, and with it having Manasseh in the background (It is spelled differently though), I think there is a strong possibility of a connection.  As I said though, I don't think I have any tiny bit of Semitic blood in me.  There are other connectors to European Jews that I have in common with them in my DNA (as in, common nations of origin where I have geneology and so did many European Jews, though as far as I know, theirs and my line did not connect) and many would say that the linkage of the European nationality comes from my European geneology (but does it in truth? I wonder).  Maybe the tribe of Ephraim's blood line was what the Vikings had and those who share that lineage are related to Vikings, I think there are other possibilities.

In other words, in looking to connect the Native Americans to the Jews (of which they are NOT part of that tribe) via the DNA common to those found in the Middle East may actually be a flawed logic, or flawed reasoning if looking for the traits of those who were Hebrews generally, and not specifically from the tribe of Judah.

As I said, NO scientific backing.  I think, in relation to my own background, there is a LOT we do not know.

Edited by JohnsonJones
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On 9.12.2016 at 5:43 PM, omegaseamaster75 said:

 

Are Native Americans the Lamanites?

 

No.

If you mean all the Native Americans, I agree with you. Only I believe that the Lamanites and Nephites have mixed with other peoples, as has so often been shown in other peoples' history. So you could if you look hard enough, find traces of the Lamanites in the Indian peoples of North- Central and South America.

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I don't necessarily look at the genetics since it is so muddied, but the terms Jew and Gentile can be seen as a parallel to Lamanite and Nephite.   The believer and the unbeliever.  The chosen people and the others.  In that sense, genetics is less important.  So, I can see how we extend the Lamanite blessings to the pacific islanders., even though the chance of them being a descendant of Lehi is unlikely.  I certainly don't believe the great wars of the Book of Mormon was half of Lehi's descendants vs the other half of Lehi's descendants.  No, they intermixed with natives who were in American from who knows where. But they wre all Nephites or Lamanites, Jews or Gentiles.

 

 

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If you had asked Joseph Smith and the early apostles they would have told you that the Native Americans were the descendants of Lehi, Lamanites and Nephites. So in short, yes they are. But I do believe they could and probably did mix with others who lived on the continent as well. 

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I believe at least those Native Americans native to the US portion (or at least the Eastern and Midwestern portions) are the descendents of Lehi, but when doing DNA markers, they are looking at the wrong haplogroups and identifiers of what is Hebrew and what is something else.

Despite how far the advances have come, it is still a relatively new science, and I think many things that we do not yet know will be discovered.

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On December 8, 2016 at 9:05 PM, Zarahemla said:

I don't know what is currently believed now and taught by the church but I've heard that modern Native Americans were Lamanites back in the Book of Mormon days, so is that true? I love Native Americans and the love they have for the planet, but it would be sad if they were the ones who were so violent in the BOM and the ones who killed off all the Nephites. So what is the DNA lineage connection?

Some are. Most probable candidates are the ones found in the eastern and north eastern americas. Look up haplotype x and x2.

Adena and hopewell cultures are very promising in that regard.

 

Dna evidence is pretty difficult to use.... However the x and x2 types are indicative of some sort of middle eastern ancestry.

Edited by Blackmarch
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On 4/21/2017 at 8:20 PM, DoctorLemon said:

I found something interesting pop up in my facebook feed for anyone interested in the Middle-Eastern origins of Native Americans:  http://nativesnewsonline.com/2017/04/16/dna-scientists-claim-that-cherokees-are-from-the-middle-east/.

Very interesting . . . 

@Carborendum

Yes, very interesting indeed.

Now I'm going to throw another wrench into the works.  How is my DNA going to tell me how I'm related to the Jews?  I'm about as 100% Korean as they come.  But Koreans have been occupied by China or Japan for much of our history.  Korean blood, then, is undoubtedly intermingled with other Asian races as well.

In addition, my patriarchal blessing says that some of those scattered at the time of the Babylonian captivity were scattered among my ancestors.  So, I'm not adopted into the House of Israel.  I am a literal descendant of Israel.

So, when DNA tests say that Native Americans are more closely related to Far Eastern than Middle Eastern genetics, I don't really know if that means much.

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1 hour ago, Carborendum said:

Yes, very interesting indeed.

Now I'm going to throw another wrench into the works.  How is my DNA going to tell me how I'm related to the Jews?  I'm about as 100% Korean as they come.  But Koreans have been occupied by China or Japan for much of our history.  Korean blood, then, is undoubtedly intermingled with other Asian races as well.

In addition, my patriarchal blessing says that some of those scattered at the time of the Babylonian captivity were scattered among my ancestors.  So, I'm not adopted into the House of Israel.  I am a literal descendant of Israel.

So, when DNA tests say that Native Americans are more closely related to Far Eastern than Middle Eastern genetics, I don't really know if that means much.

There are so many factors that none of us really know where we come from and yet we are asking to know the whereabouts of the native American Indian and their lineage when so much intermingling took place for hundreds abd hundreds of years. My wife has a great great great grandmother that was full blood Cherokee (wife was stolen or traded for!) and in some generations you can definitely see the fine lines by the eyes and darker skin and yet my wife looks nothing like a Cherokee and is the bloodline of Ephraim.

Not sure also why it matters, especially in the face of too many unknowns to make heads or tails out of anything.

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On April 23, 2017 at 8:29 PM, Rob Osborn said:

There are so many factors that none of us really know where we come from and yet we are asking to know the whereabouts of the native American Indian and their lineage when so much intermingling took place for hundreds abd hundreds of years. My wife has a great great great grandmother that was full blood Cherokee (wife was stolen or traded for!) and in some generations you can definitely see the fine lines by the eyes and darker skin and yet my wife looks nothing like a Cherokee and is the bloodline of Ephraim.

Not sure also why it matters, especially in the face of too many unknowns to make heads or tails out of anything.

Its more of a worldly matter, seemingly important to some critics. In regards to tribal descent there are a few promises/covenants that seem to be unique to them. 

Also another wrench; through certain situations, it is possible to lose genetic info of various ancestral branches.

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