The following is a chapter from the book, THIS LAND: Zarahemla and the Nephite Nation
You’ve doubtless heard of evidences for Christ in Central and South America. Did you know there are far more evidences for the appearance of Christ in North America?
Traditions of a mysterious, bearded visitor from overseas have been current across our continent since pre-Columbian times. The universal image of this man, depicted as an influential religious leader, has fascinated me for 20 years. During this time I conducted my investigations among every Native American willing to discuss his or her tribal history with me. Through them I learned that the mythic memory of this light-skinned (often referred to as white-skinned), robed man occurs in ancient myth among numerous Indian peoples.
His story is found most frequently in North American legends, which reveal more information about his appearance and the nature of his arrival. In Middle and South America, he was known, respectively, as the “Feathered Serpent” (the Mayas’ Kukulcan and Aztec Quetzalcoatl), and “Sea Foam” Kon-Tiki-Viracocha, to the Incas. North of the Rio Grande River, he is generally referred to as East Star Man, Peace Maker, Pale One, Dawn Star, etc.
Native accounts tell of his arrival from the direction of the rising sun, after which he set up his priesthood among his followers known as the “Wau-pa-nu” (the spelling phonetic). They were said to have healed the sick and instituted new laws. Blood sacrifice was forbidden and replaced by the use of tobacco, today an important element in all traditional Native American ceremonies. Among many eastern tribes, East Star Man is regarded as the son of Great Spirit, the Creator.
I first learned of this Son of the Great Spirit from Ricardo Baeza, an Ojibwa medicine man in Golden Valley, Minnesota. He approached me after my lecture about the Michigan Plates. Collectively, the plates were associated with Daniel Soper and Father Savage, early preservers of a large group of copper artifacts and stone tablets unearthed from numerous mounds throughout the state of Michigan, beginning in the mid to late 1800s.
The objects, today scattered across the United States and Canada in mostly private collections, feature portrayals of familiar scenes from mostly the Old Testament and three or more, undeciphered, written scripts, together with depictions of what appear to be persons from Europe or the North East in hostile interaction with Native Americans. Although condemned out of hand as fraudulent by the archaeologists, the so called “Michigan Plates” or “Soper Savage Collections” continue to intrigue independent antiquarians, who believe the artifacts were made by an Old World religious community in the upper Midwest during the 4th Century AD or earlier. In the 1950s, Henrietta Mertz was the first researcher to identify the “tribal mark or mystic symbol” which commonly appears throughout the collection.
Following my Golden Valley slide presentation of the Michigan plates, Mr. Baeza told me that he could actually read some of the glyphs that appeared on the Soper-Savage tablets, explaining that their symbolic meaning was part of his tribe’s sacred tradition. He added that the so called “mystic symbol” represented the name of our Creator’s Son, pronounced in the Ojibwa tongue (reading the cuneiform characters from right to left) as “Yod-hey-vah.” this name, he said, really has an additional syllable, but the fourth is pronounced only once a year in sacred ceremony, and then only by a tribal holyman in the great lodge. Mr. Baeza’s explanation sparked my memory of an article by Ancient American author, David Deal, in Ancient Americans Stone, Clay, Copper, Archives of the Past, March/April, 1994 issue #5, entitled, “The Mystic Symbol Demystified.”
In His Investigation of the Michigan relics, Deal was able to convincingly translate from the quasi-Hebrew script the name of two sons of a deity-figure featured on the tablets as “Son-of the-Right-Hand” and “Son-of-the-Left-Hand.” The tablets’ internal evidence unquestionably demonstrate two opposing groups of people represented by two individual, one good, the other evil. Both of these individuals carry identification marks which appear on many but not all of the plates’ biblical scenes. These well known moments from the Old Testament clearly identify each sons’ proper role.
For example, on the so-called “creation tablet”, (page 183) where Adam is apparently brought to life, the Son-of-the-Right-Hand’s mark is included as part of this positive event. But on another plate, where he and Eve seem to be ejected from the Garden of Eden, the Son-of-the-Left-Hand’s mark floats above them, suggesting calamity. This simple but lucid marking of “good and bad”, or “righteous and evil,” is recurring throughout much of the Michigan collection.
On page 18 of his article, Deal writes,
“Of course the two sacrifices, one for Yahweh and the other for Azazel (Leviticus 16), are indicative of the two brothers from Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Manasseh and Ephraim, etc., all point to the same allegory. The fact that the Michigan Christians of the Fourth Century AD were aware of this angelic conflict and modern Christians are not, is the major point to ponder.
“The modern doctrines would not allow such an interpretation. Of course, not many Christians actually use the name Yahweh in their worship either, but when the New Testament says that the accuser is before the father daily, making accusations, and that the Messiah is seated again at the right hand of the Father, acting as an advocate, they should, perhaps, reconsider this concept. The point isn’t about to become embroiled in a theological decision, but to realize that the doctrine pictured on these tablets, does not conform to any christian religion of this day and age (including 1874). Therefore, the possibility of fraud is diminished to nearly zero, by this fact alone.”
The Michigan relics came to public attention in 1879 when they reported in a state newspaper. For 21 years prior, Father Soper had been collecting them throughout the state. From 1858 to 1920, the relics continued to be accidentally uncovered by local people clearing forests and building roads. Over the course of more than 70 years and across 27 counties, thousands of slate, clay and copper continued to emerge. Written testimonies and sworn affidavits accompanying many of the discoveries were officially recorded. These were made mostly by farmers who plowed them up while working their land. They were not made by trained archaeologists, who were neither available nor open-mindedly disposed enough to even give their authenticity the benefit of the doubt. They claimed then, as they still do, that the Michigan tablets must necessarily be fake, because no one from the Old World could have arrived in America before Christopher Columbus.
Their fossilized mind-set was examined in Ancient American, Volume 2, Issue # 9, May/June 1995, p.31, by Kenneth Moore. He addresses the claims of hoaxing these artifacts by citing the work of two brothers named Scotford, who probably faked a few of their own reproductions of the Michigan tablets. But Moore also points out that although reasonable to expect some forgeries with any collection of this size, it must be remembered that when fraudulent duplicates of this kind are made they are usually copied from original artifacts. More revealingly, the first Michigan plates to be found, already in the many hundreds, at least, were already being collected before the Scotford brothers were even born!
By 1920, the scholars of the day had academically crucified several men and women who would not stand down concerning these artifacts. Some colleges and private museums actually destroyed their Michigan tablet collections by casting them into local dumps. In the decades following that wholesale destruction, the Soper-Savage discoveries lapsed into almost total obscurity, and might have been utterly forgotten, save for the independent research of two american writers, Henrietta Mertz and Milton R. Hunter.
The books of Henrietta Mertz continue to be prized by readers interested in pre-Columbian arrivals in the New World by overseas visitors. Her Pale Ink, an examination of possible Chinese contacts in British Columbia 2,000 years ago, and The Wine Dark Sea, re-thinking Jason and the Argonauts as transatlantic voyagers in quest of a South American Golden Fleece, are still sought after by diffusionists. But Mertz was a professional trained in forgery identification, and it was in this capacity that she was challenged to either prove or disprove the authenticity of the Michigan tablets.
After 30 years of research, her conclusions were about to go into print but she passed away unexpectedly before publication. A few years later, her nephew released Henrietta’s Mystic Symbol, Mark of the Michigan Mound Builders. The book argues that the Michigan relics are largely authentic, and urges their preservation as genuine relics from a lost American civilization. During her long years of research, Mertz was able to track down a large number of artifacts originally collected by the Catholic priest, Father Soper. After his death, they had been sent to Notre Dame University for storage.
In all, some 4,000 such items were shipped to Notre Dame in poorly packaged cracker barrels. About 2,500 objects, more than half the collection, were badly damaged in transit to the university. Originally made of brittle clay, many fractured and broke, often crumbling to pieces. Henrietta requested permission to examine their surviving collection with an eye to its ownership. She was allowed to research the artifacts in the company of a catholic priest, but university officials were reluctant to give them up for purely academic purposes.
In the midst of her investigation, the Father with whom she had been working on the Michigan tablets was coincidently contacted by missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons. Aware of their second scriptural book (the Book of Mormon) that testified to the presence of Christ in America, the priest invited them to inspect the Soper-Savage collection. Intrigued, the missionaries wasted no time in contacting Milton R. Hunter of Salt Lake City, Utah, a researcher of American antiquities.
After several months of communication and visits to Notre Dame, the school officials to turn the collection over to Hunter rather than Henrietta. She was nonetheless afforded enough with the artifacts to complete her research for The Mystic Symbol. Eliot Soper, son of David Soper, offered his father’s collection to Hunter after having learned of Notre Dame’s transference of it’s artifacts.
Hunters expanded collection of Michigan Plates and related items is today warehoused in the historical archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Museum of Church History, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their Historical department recently allowed Ancient American Staff and Triple A productions to photograph Mr. Hunter’s in its entirety for continued study.
Enter Burrows Cave
In 1982, a discovery apparently unrelated to the Michigan tablets was alleged to have been made by Mr. Russell Burrows of Olney, Illinois. He claims to have found a cave in the southern part of his state loaded with treasures of foreign visitors who crossed the seas from Near East, Europe and Africa about 2,000 years ago.
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE3_edit1.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE3_edit1.png” width=”350″ align=”left” captiontext=”Burrows Cave artifact, southern Illinois. Photo ©, AA staff photo.”]
He claims the site is also rich repository of stone records belonging to some unknown people who possessed a high level of culture. I have known Mr. Burrows since 1993, and compiled a photographic library of some of his items, which number over 2,000 such stones. I personally examined about half of them, and have concluded that they are authentic artifacts. Although he refused to divulge the location of his cave, the sheer number and sometimes fine workmanship of the the artifacts he allegedly took from the site tend to support their identification as genuine artifacts.
Even so many of my fellow diffusionists have condemned the Burrows Cave finds as part of a hoax. Admittedly the tangle of frustrating obstacles, legal and otherwise, preventing any any kind of access to the location’s whereabouts have dischanted many investigators. But the full story of Burrows Cave, while yet to be told, is gradually unfolding with the gradual release of objects never before seen, and someday we may learn everything there is to know about this site.
[captionpix imgsrc=”/research/papers/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PAGE3_edit2.png” imglink=”/research/papers/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PAGE3_edit2.png” width=”400″ align=”right” captiontext=”Burrows Cave artifact, southern Illinois. Photo ©, AA staff photo.”]
There may be a parallel here with the Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered in 1948. Even now, a complete accounting of this find has still not been disclosed to the public.
Mr. Burrows telephoned me two years ago to say that he had purposely withheld some inscribed stones because of the imagery they featured; namely, identifiably Christian scenes, mostly from Old Testament stories. He was uncomfortable with these items, because he feared critics would use such obvious themes to further debunk his discovery. Mr. Burrows knew some Indians had knowledge of Old World traditions and Old Testament stories. But what concerned him was, as he put it, “the Jesus stones.”
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE4_edit1.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE4_edit1.png” width=”350″ align=”left” captiontext=”Burrows Cave artifact, southern Illinois. Photo ©, AA staff photo.”]
At my request, he sent me photographs of them, and I was able to compare their images of evidently Old Testament themes with similar representations found on Michigan tablets. I was astonished to notice that both sets not only featured scenes of Jesus Christ, but also the same “Mystic Symbol.” The same symbol appears in southern Illinois 62 years after the last published information concerning the Michigan mound builders using this identical mark. Approximately 20,000 to 30,000 Michigan artifacts were excavated from 1848 to the 1920’s, compared with the 6,000 to 7,000 Burrows Cave stones of southern Illinois removed between 1982 and 1989. These fundamental facts render any possibility for either collection being a hoax extremely remote, if not impossible.
The predominant glyph found on Burrows Cave objects is the so-called “Helios Symbol,” coined by epigrapher, Paul Shaffranke. Even this important character is found in conjunction with the Michigan symbol to suggest some type of interaction between theses two other otherwise distinct groups. Perhaps these glyphs have the same meaning. There appear to have been vital differences between these two groups of ancient Americans: non-christian imagery dominates the Burrows cave stones.
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE4_edit2.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE4_edit2.png” width=”350″ align=”right” captiontext=”Burrows Cave artifact, southern Illinois. Photo ©, AA staff photo.”]
Still, there are legitimate doubts among our own diffusionist supporters concerning these “Christ Stones,” due largely to some relatively minor variations in the placement of the glyphs, together with the anomalous appearance of a particular symbol on the Michigan objects. Clearly, much work still needs to be done in any comparisons of these two diverse collections. The evidence of the Michigan Tablets and Burrows Cave stones suggests that some fundamentally important culture-bearer visited our Western Hemisphere in pre-Columbian times. Was it actually Christ? Or on of his disciples? Whatever his true identity, the arrival of this person left a deep impact on the tribal memories of Native Americans. Their “Yod-hey-vah” is remarkably similar to the biblical Je-ho-vah, who seems to be portrayed throughout the Michigan plates.
Was the East Star Man and Peace-Maker known to so many indigenous North American really Jesus Christ? Perhaps the imminent translation of the Illinois and Michigan artifacts will answer that question.
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE5_edit11.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE5_edit11.png” width=”400″ captiontext=”Burrows Cave artifact, southern Illinois. Photo ©, AA staff photo.”]
The evidence for Jesus Christ as the “Pale Prophet” are to be found in many legends and traditions among the natives races, throughout the western hemisphere.
Why were the apparent teachings of jesus christ already familiar to North American aboriginals before their first contact with modern Europeans in the 16th Century? For Native Americans, their god of Four Winds may have been another name for Jesus Christ. He was also known as The Healer, East Star Man, The Dawn Star, The Pale One, Chee-Zoos, Waicomah, Wakana Tanka, Yowa, Yod Hey Vah, Yahud, Ye-Sos, etc.. Hence, the bearded white visitor could have been no other than Jesus Christ of the Christian books namely the Stick of Judah and the Stick of Joseph (Ezekiel 37:16). Native Americans tell their own story:
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE5_edit2.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE5_edit2.png” width=”400″ align=”right” captiontext=”Burrows Cave artifact, southern Illinois. Photo ©, AA staff photo.”]
The following is a partial listing of the oral traditions of the Dawn God, Peacemaker, East Star Man, the Pale One, etc., from He Walked the Americas, by L. Taylor Hansen, Legend press, Amherst, Wisconsin twentieth printing 1994,© with permission and The Gospel of the Great Spirit, by Joshua Moses Bennett, Morning Star Publishing Company, Inc., first printing 1990:
“Grey Owl made many friends among the various tribes, and they often sat for long comparing legends and traditions as well as their present day problems.
He noticed that although nature legends often differed, and historical tradition told of different experiences, all the tribes shared one common memory- that of a wonderful prophet and teacher, a holy man who walked among the people in ages long gone by. Though he was called by various names and the stories differed from tribe to tribe, all agreed upon this point: the divine visitor was pale of skin, had sea-green eyes, and a beard and hair of copper color
Always he taught the lessons of love and peace, of man’s obligation to his fellowmen, and of the love of the Father-of-all for his children. It was he who had instituted all of our finer impulses of concern for one another.”
“It is said that once very long ago before the coming of the white man, long before the time of our grandfather’s grandfathers, a stranger came to our people.
He appeared suddenly, as they were gathered around together about the council fire; and at first the people were much afraid, thinking him to be a spirit. It is said that he was of strange appearance, that his skin was pale as a ghost, and there was hair upon his face.
But soon they saw that they had nothing to fear, for he said that he had come from the Great Spirit to teach them to live in love together.
Food was brought to him, and as he ate he told many stories of a land far away across the water where people had become very wicked. He said he had many enemies but the worst of these was the Spirit of Evil who led men astray and caused them to hate each other. It is said he taught many things about medicine and healing and repeated to them many rituals.
At last one of the people asked him by what name he might be called and he answered that wherever he traveled, men gave him a name according to their language. At this, the people told him, ‘It is our custom to use the names given to us in our childhood. They would prefer to use the name by which he was known in his own country. And the name that he left with them was Ye-Sos- Ye-Sos Gah-lis-tos.”
Author Larry Names recounts the illustrative Legend of Eagle Claw:
“The Healer went about our village making the blind to see, the lame walk, and the scarred without blemish. He spoke to the people of our village when they gathered around as he stood at the entrance of the wiggota. He spoke in our tongue, but none thought it strange that this stranger knew our words.
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE6_edit2.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE6_edit2.png” widith=”width:500px;” align=”center” captiontext=”Burrows Cave artifact, southern Illinois. Photo ©, AA staff photo.”]
People of the Forest, I have come among you to bring you good tidings. These small deeds that have been performed do not come from any power that I possess. I am merely the tool of my father. The strength of these deeds comes from the one you call Manitota, the Greatest of All Spirits. He is our father who lives in heaven. Blessed may his name be. It is his will that his kingdom should be established upon this land. Before his will come his laws. Before he can walk upon the people of this land, the people of this land must live by his laws. For that reason have I come to you this day.
I bring you good tidings that his laws shall be brought unto you. They are greater than all living things. They are simple and easy to learn, but they cannot be learned in a day. It is for this reason that i give you only two of his laws now. The remainder shall be delivered by the followers of the one who shall follow me. Our father says to you, his children, ‘Love Manitota above all else, and love each other as you wish to be loved. ‘Obey these two laws, and his kingdom shall reign in your hearts until he walks among you.
His words rang of farewell. The Oshaywaymee prepared to leave. The council fathers begged the Healer to remain with us, but the Healer said he could not because there were other children of his father he must visit. We asked him how we should speak to our children of him in the days and years to come. He said to name him as we wished. We agreed that from that day to forever our people would call him Wakana Tanka, the Mysterious Healer. And as he came, so he went,”
While exploring the Mississippi River, Father Pierre Marquette visited a native village consisting of three Indian “nations,” the Mismis, Maskoutens and Kilabous. He wrote in his journal, “when I visited them, I was greatly consoled at seeing a handsome cross erected in the middle of the village, and adorned with many white skins, red belt, and bow and arrows, which they give to God. They did this to thank him for having had pity on them during the winter, by giving them an abundance of game when they most dreaded famine.”
In Wisconsin, “Marquette found a large cross set up in an Indian village on Green Bay, a symbol of the Mide society.” Compare the Native American “Great Commandment” with Mark 12:30-31, in this scene described by Beauchamp:
“When all the people had gathered together the Chief listened and heard them talking and answered their questions. One asked, ‘Yowa has given us many laws, but which is the first to be obeyed?
And the Chief replied, ‘Hear me, O, my people! Yowa has given us one law that comes first. Yowa is the Great Spirit, and you shall love him with sincerity in your heart, as a mother loves her child. You shall love Yowa with all reasoning of your mind, with your spirit and strength, for this is the first commandment of Yowa.
And another asked, ‘what is the second law? And the Chief said, ‘to love your neighbor as you love yourself. These are the two great commandments.
And the people cried, ‘you have spoken the truth, for there is only one Great Spirit and none is greater than Yowa. These are the great commandments Yowa has given to us and the commandments tsi sa has taught us. You shall love Yowa most of all and next, you must love your brother and your neighbors who walk the trail of life with you as you would love yourself .”
In his Cherokee religion, Langdon writes of the Pale Prophet, When he came to the Yakima people, they called him Tacoma, and so greatly did they pay him reverence that they renamed their highest mountain in honor of his coming.
“My friend said that when Tacoma left them, He promised the sorrowing people that one day through the light of the dawning. He, Tacoma, would return to them. Through the long vistas of the moon, the sun and the dawn star, the people still remember this promise and always faithfully watched for Tacoma, and dying have told their children to keep on watching .”
Author L. Taylor Hansen wrote intriguingly of a site in New York State:
“On the authority of some older inhabitants of Onondaga, it is stated that on a ledge of rocks, about a mile south of Jamesville, is a place which used to be pointed out by the Indians as a spot where the Great Spirit once came down and sat and gave good advice to the chiefs of Onondagas. That there are the prints of his hands and his feet, left in the rocks, still to be seen. In the former years the Onondagas used annually to offer, at this place, tobacco and pipes, and to burn tobacco and herbs as a sacrifice to the Great Spirit, to conciliate his favor and which was a means of preventing diseases.”
The Pale Prophet’s Christ-like ascension into heaven and foremost place there are evident in the supreme god of Upper California. Chinighchinigh was believed to be an immortal spirit, who yet underwent the penalty of death. When asked where he desired to be buried, his answer was that he would go up into heaven to make an account of the actions of all men, and reward or punish them accordingly.
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“When I die I shall ascend above the stars,” he said,”where I shall always behold you. And to those who have kept my commandments I shall give all they ask of me. But those who obey not my teachings nor believe them I shall punish severely. I will send unto them bears to bite and serpents to sting. They shall be without food, and have diseases that they may die.” When the religious teacher and reformer, Wixipecocha. left the Mixtecs, he first went off to the mountains, on the summit of which he appeared to them for a few moments, and then vanished on his way to lands unknown.”
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE7_edit2.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE7_edit2.png” width=”350″ align=”right” captiontext=”Burrows Cave artifact, southern Illinois. Photo ©, AA staff photo.”]
Perhaps Alaska’s Tsimshean Indians preserve the clearest tribal memory of the Pale Prophet. Many of their legends tell of earthly missions undertaken by the “Heavenly Chief.” His described characteristics correspond so nearly with the attributes attributed to Jesus by the New Testament it seems highly unlikely that the Tsimsheans would have been able to concoct so close a resemblance.
In 1909, investigator John Arctander wrote of his first-hand experiences among the Alaskan indigenes: “Mrs. Booth, a full-blooded Tsimshean at Metlakahtla, told me that her mother had related to her, when a little girl, the following:
“At first, it was entirely dark. There was no light in the world. The people could see nothing, but were groping around in a continual night. Then, the son of the the heavenly Chief came down to Earth, and the people complained then him that it was so dark. He said he would help them, and then light came. He travelled around for a long time, and helped the people in their trouble. He was so kind and good, and the people loved him very much.”
L. Taylor Hansen also spent many years among Native American elders, listening to their oral histories and myths. She wrote of a particularly memorable encounter:
“From his seat cross-legged upon his blanket arose the old Warrior, Marksman. For a moment he awaited the tribute of silence. A mighty specimen of manhood was Marksman. Although in years he was almost eighty, his figure had the lynx grace of the young man. His long hair, neatly braided, still had the sheen of the blackbird, his teeth were as strong and white as his grandson’s and his eyes were still keen for the signs of the game trail.
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE8_edit1.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE8_edit1.png” widith=”350″ align=”right” captiontext=”Burrows Cave artifact, southern Illinois. Photo ©, AA staff photo.”]
It is well tonight that we speak of the Pale God, and fitting as well that we council with others, greeting our enemies as brothers, for such would have been the wish of the Prophet. I have heard some talk among the lodges that the Lord of Wind and Water was but a myth brought down by the old ones from times beyond our present reckoning. That is true, but what a strange legend if the youth among our people doubt the wide-flung strength of this ancient story, look about at his symbols from tribe to tribe across the broad land. Have you ever wondered about the cedar? Why does every tribe revere it? Why do the high priests mix its shavings with the leaves of our tobacco? To enhance its power, they will tell you. And why do we blow its smoke across our bodies, when we are returning from the war trail? Is it not to ask his forgiveness, as was once taught by the Pale God? Why do we plant these trees upon the Great Mounds– those ancient histories of our cities? Was it not to warn all men that once he walked here; the Sacred One, the Miracle Worker? And the color of snow: among all the nations it stands for peace. Why is this so? Because He wore it. From nation to nation, he taught the people to live in peace and to speak in Council, thus settling all their problems. This was his way and the way of his Father. Why do we raise our hands up in greeting? Because that was his peace sign, a tradition which we still follow. Why do we use the cross as a sacred symbol? Was it not because he wore it about the hem of his full white garments and carried the sign on his two hands, those hands so gifted in healing?
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE8_edit2.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE8_edit2.png” width=”500″ align=”” captiontext=”Michigan Tablet possibly representing the Ten Commandments. God the Father with two principle sons, Son-of-Right-Hand and Son-of-Left-Hand each present before Him. Son-of-Right-Hand is on Father’s right side. They share the same symbol because they are one In purpose. Son-of-Left-Hand’s mark shows up on unrighteous scenes on the Michigan Plates when depicting good and evil deeds. See the Creation Tablet on page 183 for clarification of symbols. Photo ©, David A. Deal. “]
How many here have ever seen the Sun Dance? I know that our brothers, the Cheyenne and Dakotah, probably bear its scars on their bodies. Let us consider for a moment, this strange dance: a self-torturing agony of suffering, as danced by the young men. The ancient ones have told us that once this was a flying dance about a high pole, and that it came from the Old Red Land now forlornly sunken for many ages below the green waves of the ocean. Perhaps it once belonged to the wind-god which the serpents made a dance of sacrifice in the times long vanished, many cycles before the Prophet’s coming.
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE9_edit1.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE9_edit1.png” width=”500″ align=”center” captiontext=”Michigan Tablet, one of 10 to 30,000 artifacts recovered from the State of Michigan from 1858 to 1919. Photo , David A. Deal.”]
This seems very probable, because the Prophet must have changed it and made it a dance of ice. Today, as a sacrifice for their people, the young men allow the thongs from the tall pole to be tied under a two-finger-wide strip by opening the skin of each breast, then dancing night and day for four days until they drop and are again freed from the suffering, of the Sun Dance. Is it not strange that we hang our young men thus in pain upon a dead tree? I know not why, but we feel that a blessing or a righting of wrong is certain to follow. Our tribe no longer dances the Sun Dance, but we still remember the Prophet. In the Wisacoo Lodge and many others there are some who still know His secret language, but those things are being fast forgotten. Yet to him who walked away through the silver moonfrost, across the winter’s snowy blanket, toward the North where now is Canada and many other tribes of our people. I bid you see him as we saw this man. From the pines dripped ice like unlit candles, as he walked away. His snowy garments made him seem wraith-like, while his long hair was silvered by his frost-breath. Two wolves followed behind him: one of dark fur and one of silver. We knew that they would not harm him, for he had a strange power over the animals, the fiercest seeking the touch of his fingers. Thus he left us, and to him I raise the Peace Pipe, the tobacco mixed with cedar shavings, and blow the smoke to the four directions, thus making the sign of his cross. For tonight, I have spoken.”
Tribes of Oklahoma territory
Today the name of Oklahoma. translated from the native language, means the Land of the Red Man. Here was a large and powerful city, whose crests showed an interesting history, and to this metropolis came the Healer. Here He once more changed the temples. chose from the priesthood His twelve disciples, and lectured to all the people…He told them that He was born across the ocean, in a land where all men were bearded. In this land He was born of a virgin on a night when a bright star came out of the heavens and stood over His city. Here, too. the heavens opened and down came winged beings singing chants of exquisite beauty… To them he was known as Chee-Zoos. the Dawn God…for well they know He watches over them. and that when their journey here is over He will meet them in the land of Shadows. for such was His sacred promise.
From the Mississippi Tribes
For the region of the Mississippi during the golden days of the Healer. Decoodah paints us a fairly clear picture. Those we now call the Great Mound Builders, were tribes speaking the Word-family and bi,iii, lies of the Algonkin language. These were the Ancients of the country. In the days of the Great Mound Builders. these mounds marked the sites of the cities. The were a sort of writing, a manner of recording passing history, a royal marriage, a dynasty ended. They were to be read from the inside outward, and about them swirled the cities. One had an even longer history than the modern town of London.
The infamous ‘Keystone’ or ‘Holy Stone’ of Newark, Ohio was identified at fir the time of discovery and read by Hebrew scholars of the day. It reads: ‘Laws of Yahweh-Holy-of-Holies-Word of Yahweh-King of the Earth’ its exact purpose is unknown, however, its sides create an angle of 23.5 degrees, the exact inclination of the earth’s spin axis, an important angle used to find the equinox each spring for Passover and other feast days which followed throughout the year. It is a readable Hebrew example, and it was excavated from an ancient mound in North America. Ancient American Vol. 2, Issue #11, p. 13, David A. Deal. AA Staff Photo.The mounds were probably faced with lumber and then painted in brilliant color, perhaps to resemble those of the Mayans with whom they seemed to have some commerce. In fact that commerce may have been extensive since there was much mining in Michigan.
To this happy and peaceful land came the Great White Robed Master with His sea-grey eyes and His golden sandals. Here too, we find the only relics probably touched by his hands or possibly fashioned under his personal direction. In the Spiro Mound in Oklahoma, opened carefully in the practiced manner of all university excavations, was found the symbol of the hand with the great T -Cross through its center. There has also been recovered much pottery with winged beings not unlike the angels singing.
In the Indian mound of Pittsfield was found three pages of parchment now held in old Harvard, upon which were quotations from the Old Testament, written in Archaic Hebrew.
The Newark Decalogue stone was found during an excavation in 1860 of an ancient burial mound ten miles south of Newark Ohio. The inscription on the stone has been translated by McCarty, Naveh, Bloom, Polansky, and others, as containing an abridgment of the Exodus 20 version of the Ten Commandments. The text begins at the top of the arch over the head of the robed and bearded fig-ure identified as Moses, runs down the left side of the front, winds around every available space on the back and sides, and then comes back up the right side of the front to finish exactly where it began. Wyrick, who found the stone, is accused by many of having personally forged the inscription, copying it from a Hebrew Bible in his posses-Mon, However, a careful comparison of translators’ transcriptions to Wyrick’s wood-cut shows that Wyrick made no less than 38 significant errors, in which he either made a legible letter illegible, or turned a legible letter into a different letter. This is a 14.8% error rate. He routinely confuses D with H, T with It and V with Y, and inverts several letters. In only one of these 38 cases does his wood-cut give the expected letter where the stone gives an unexpected letter. Yet, the pamphlet in which this gar-bled text appeared was Wyrick’s best attempt at convincing the world that the stone was a genuine Hebrew artifact. Wyrick clearly did not even understand the inscription’s peculiar, yet consistently applied, alphabet, and therefore could not have been its author. These two stones can be seen today at: Johnson-Hurnrickhouse Museum at 300 N. Whitewoman Street in Roscoe VillEtge, Coshocton, Ohio 43812. Ancient American, Vol. 6, Issue #41, p. 22 & 23.”About eight miles southeast of Newark, the father of Bancroft, Indian recorder of untold legends, speaks of finding the only engraved stone pictograph of the white-robed teacher. About His head, in Ancient Hebrew were the words of the Ten commandments. His hair and beard are well pictured as well as His flowing robe…
How many other mounds have been plowed and leveled, and their contents scattered? True the invasion of the Serpents from perhaps 700 AD onward, coming up the Mississippi in their long snake-painted dugouts, carrying their sacred fire, brought an end to peaceful living, and brought with them war and pillage and the priesthood of the Sacrificers. Yet they turned away from the hills of cedar, seeing the symbols of the Healer.
Eastern Tribes speak
The Algonkin of the Eastern Seaboard, when asked how they got their name for the Dawn Light, say that it was the name of the Pale One. They would not give Him their own name, as He had asked them, for to Him names meant nothing and He allowed each tribe to name Him. They asked instead His name in child-hood when He lived across the ocean. The name He gave them was a strange one, hard to say in their liquid language, so today they try hard to say it: Chee-Zoos, God of the Dawn Light. The Algonkin of the Great Lakes remember well the pale Great Master. The Chippewa say He gave them many medicine lodges whose signs and symbols are secret, fashioned from those across the ocean, and even today they hold this secret knowledge. Even the proud Dacootah, they of the Turtle Totem, leading north the line of Serpents, often their age-old migration, recall in long-lost adoration the sacred name of the pale faced Healer. “It was long ago that we knew Him. He gave to us our rite of baptism, many of our lodges, and our rites of purification. When He came to us the days were warmer; the sun cast down shorter shadows. Well do we remember how He foretold the coming of white man, and other predictions. We have backslid from His teachings, but to Him we dance the Sun Dance. We remember Great Wakona
well.
Tribes of the Great Lakes
Besides the shores of Mishee-gahme-gahme (Lake Superior) is the forest still called Sacred, in the state called Michigan… let us speak of the Prophet. He was bearded, and pale of feature-without doubt a White Man. His eyes were as grey-green as still green water, and just as changeable in their color. He came to us one day at dawning and the light touched His hair with the sheen of red-gold until it shone like newly-mined copper. Yet He was not as the men of your people. This one was a god, with high soul-stature. If He touched a man who was wounded, that one became healed. His robe was long and white down to the hemline which almost hid His golden sandals. Everyone wished to make Him white robes, for then He would leave behind the old ones, and all that He touched was enchanted with His god-like power of healing.”
“…He came alone. He organized the churches, changed the temples, taught the priesthood. Some say He taught them a secret language with certain signs of greeting. I know not.”
“…He came to us when we had cities more than a thousand winters before the days of the Black Robes and the Long Knives.” “…The ruins have been scattered by White Men.”
“…The city which we call sacred is not far from here. Its history is longer than that of England’s London.”
“…Once we had books and priests to read them, but those were times long distant in the past. Books are of stuff which can be swept to oblivion. Since then we have placed our stories in the chants of our people, but now even these are being forgotten…”
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE11_edit1.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE11_edit1.png” width=”500″ align=”center” captiontext=”Burrows Cave artifact, southern Illinois. Photo ©, AA staff photo.”]
“Coming North from our Capitol City, where the Mississippi meets the Missouri, in the long-boats of the traders, the Prophet made His Journey toward the City we called Sacred. This was an ancient metropolis. Before we built its Mound of Extinction, after the Great Civil War of the Turtles, ninety-six dynasties of rulers had lived their long and eventful history. Like the Capitol, it too…had buildings built upon great crests… This city was called Sacred because it was in the center of the Cross of Waters from whence ran the rivers to the Four Oceans. East to the Sunrise ran the waters, and Northward to the Sea of Dancing Lights; to the West beyond the Great Divide the waters ran to the Sea of the Sunset, while the Missouri and Mississippi ran to the Southern Sea, the Sea of the Karibs… to this, the City of the Great Cross of Waters, up the river called Father of Waters, one golden morning came the Healer… The streets were covered with flowers strewn in homage on the path before Him as He walked toward the Temple. Greatly beloved now was the Pale God, known as the Lord of Wind and Water. His every move bespoke His kindness: His very touch revealed His divinity; and before Him all the people bowed down. Through the rows of worshippers He moved to the Temple, in quiet solemnity. holding up His hand in blessing-that hand with the strange palm-marking, for through it was engraved the True Cross which He had taken as His Symbol. There at the Temple He abode among us, though He often rode away with the merchants. or more often walked to distant villages. holding in His hand His great staff, and stopping to speak with all the people. from the aged to the children.”
Even non-religious scholars recognize Jesus of Nazareth as an historical figure. But did he actually arrive in the Americas? The evidence for at least his followers establishing an important, even populous outpost in the North American Midwest, however, is rich with artifacts from both Michigan and Illinois. Moreover, the same recurring theme may be traced to the pre-Columbian peoples of North, Central and South America, implying that the culture bearer they memorialized was a real person. In rejecting such evidence, arbitrarily dismissing Michigan Tablets and Burrows Cave stones as “fakes,” Persistent questions about the Christ-like visitor grow even more difficult to understand.
[captionpix imgsrc=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE11_edit2.png” imglink=”https://josephsmithfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/PAGE11_edit2.png” width=”500″ align=”center” captiontext=”Burrows Cave artifact, southern Illinois. Photo ©, AA staff photo.”]
In the New Testament, Christ refers to other people and places he must go when He says: “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” King James Version, St. John 10:16.
When did He go and visit these other people? If one concludes that there is something to the legends and stories of the inhabitants of Native Americans, then their visitor begins to bear a strong resemblance to Jesus as He is depicted in the New Testament.
In Fair Gods and Feathered Serpents, author T. J. O’Brien writes. “One might argue, if Christ did not come here, how does one explain the religious use by New World natives of vestments, the cross, chants, rituals, incense, ceremonial objects, infant baptism and great works of religious art: statues and paintings, also identified with Christianity?” The native peoples of this land have been ignored and held without respect long enough. It’s time to listen! There is much to be shared and to learn from North America’s original people. Legend has it that the Western Hemisphere is the place of origin, not the Eastern. With diffusion on the rise of credibility no one really knows ancient man’s true capability for migrations and travel. Vine Deloria Jr. says in the January issue of Atlantic Monthly Magazine, “There’s no effort to ask the tribes what they remember… and numerous tribes do say that strange people Came through our land. Or, they remember that we came across the Atlantic as refugees.”
Testimony from the Book of Mormon (34 AD)
3 Nephi 11:6-14
(somewhere within the borders of the land Bountiful)
And behold, the third time they did understand the voice which they heard; and it said unto them: Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name– hear ye him.
And it came to pass, as they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they saw a man descending out of heaven: and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them.
And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying: Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.
And behold. I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.
And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude fell to the earth: for they remembered among them that it had been prophesied among them that Christ should show himself unto them after his ascension into heaven.
And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto them saying:
Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet. that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth. and have been slain for the sins of the world.
