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It would make for an interesting simulation using what current knowledge we have of past populations and current populations to see how far one individual's (say family of lehi) genes would carry. Then testing if different locations or conditions would make much a difference.

It would probably take a geneticist, and anthropologist to put a model together. An amateur model would still be interesting to see, especially if it had some cool data visualizations.

 

Geneticist Dr. Donald Yates has been studying Cherokee DNA, particularly genetic markers passed on only from a mother to her children, not passed on along paternal lines.

 

He found what he sees as strong evidence that Cherokee Native Americans have Middle Eastern ancestry—ancestry that cannot be accounted for by modern admixture, but which is rooted in the ancient origins of the people.

Native Americans are conventionally held to fit into a handful of haplogroups. The term haplogroup refers to a genetic population group stemming from a common ancestor. Haplogroup T is not among the haplogroups most geneticists recognize as Native American. Yates, however, said that it is prevalent among the Cherokee and has been for a very long time.

 

He wrote in his report, released earlier this month: “T is the leading haplogroup (23.1 percent), with a frequency on a par with modern-day Egyptians (23.4 percent) and Arabs (24.4 percent). T is thus a defining mark of Cherokee ancestry. … We can safely rule out recent European admixture. As we have discussed again and again, there was no available source for a huge, sudden influx of female-mediated Middle Eastern DNA on the American frontier. Even Sephardic Jews (11 to 14 percent), many of whom were also Indian traders, could hardly have accounted for such admixture.

 

“Moreover, had it occurred in the colonial period or more recently, the diversity, age, and unique characteristics of the T haplotypes would not have yielded the patterns noticed in this paper. Most T’s would have matched people in the Old World and we would simply be looking at an effect of migration. Instead, we have a North American branch of T with peculiar SNPs [single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, a DNA sequence variation] which is evidently a cross-section of a very old population originating in the Old World.”

 

While the level of the T-haplotype found across Yates’s 67 Cherokee test subjects is comparable to those found in Iraqi and Iranian Jews (about 24 percent), it is far higher than that found in nearby regions where one would expect admixture. In neighboring countries in the Middle East, as well as among Jews from other regions, the frequency of T is only 4–14 percent. (read article here)

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It appears that once again there are those here who simply refuse to take Joseph Smith at his word. I can't help but marvel at this.

When a person believes that Joseph shouldn't be taken seriously regarding the aboriginal Indians being the "remnant" of Lehi's seed, why should anything else he ever said be taken seriously? The standard for some seems to be, "Joseph was a prophet only when he was acting as such, and he was acting as such only when he agrees with me."

 

In a letter to John Wentworth, Joseph described the rise of the Church and a proclamation of the basic beliefs that would distinguish it from other religious factions. It is from this letter that the Thirteen Articles of Faith are canonized, as well as parts of the First Vision and the Joseph Smith History. It was written in his own words and signed by him personally.

In it he wrote:

"On the evening of the 21st of September, A.D. 1823, while I was praying unto God, and endeavoring to exercise faith in the precious promises of Scripture, on a sudden a light like that of day, only of a far purer and more glorious appearance and brightness, burst into the roomin a moment a personage stood before me surrounded with a glory yet greater than that with which I was already surrounded. This messenger proclaimed himself to be an angel of God, sent to bring the joyful tidings...

...I was informed that I was chosen to be an instrument in the hands of God to bring about some of His purposes in this glorious dispensation.

I was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this country and shown who they were, and from whence they came; a brief sketch of their origin, progress, civilization, laws, governments, of their righteousness and iniquity, and the blessings of God being finally withdrawn from them as a people, was made known unto me.

I was also told where were deposited some plates on which were engraven an abridgment of the records of the ancient Prophets that had existed on this continent.

We are informed by these records that America in ancient times has been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The first were called Jaredites and came directly from the Tower of Babel. The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem, about six hundred years before Christ. They were principally Israelites, of the descendants of Joseph. The Jaredites were destroyed about the time that the Israelites came from Jerusalem, who succeeded them in the inheritance of the country. The principal nation of the second race fell in battle towards the close of the fourth century. The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country."

 

In 1833 Joseph sent a letter to N.C. Saxton, the editor of a Rochester, New York newspaper, which was written (as Joseph later indicated) "by the commandment of God".

In the letter he wrote: "The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians...By it we lean that our western tribes of Indians are descendants from that Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and that the land of America is a promised land unto them...”

 

In this letter Joseph made it just as clear as he did in the Wentworth letter that the remnant of Lehi were the western tribes of Indians in America.

 

By what measure (aside from being a professor at BYU) can any faithful member of the Church dismiss what he said? 

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Before I say too much - I want everyone to know that I do not have all the answers.  I do not know for sure but I do try to consider revelation and empirical evidence.  I honestly believe that there is much more that has gone on in history of the Americas than what many are considering.  I am impressed that all of what we know or think we know through science and revelation is only a small portion of what has been.  The Book of Mormon is only a small part of vast records - a small portion that was revealed for a specific reason - I do not think that the precious pieces we have in the Book of Mormon and revelation to Joseph Smith was for the specific purpose of establishing the origins of American aborigines from the polar north to the southern tip of South America.  It is my understanding that the purpose of all such revelation is to bear witness of Jesus Christ!

 

It is my personal observation that when religious individuals (I hesitate to say religious zealots though I think the term may have some application) want to prove things of science that were never the purpose of the revelations and somehow think they were more faithful for it.  I have no doubt in my mind that many - perhaps almost all with rare exception or more worthy than I am.  I am not even the favored son of my father or mother - nor do I have any intention of convincing anyone that I have any special spiritual attributes or intuitions that in any way make my ideas any better than yours.  But it has long been my impression that those that try to use sacred revelations intended specifically for a most divine intent and remove from that sacred content and use such sacred things to try to influence understanding of things to which are out of the context of their divine intention - are very likely to indulge in speculations that are likely a misdirection and obstruction to discovery of truth.

 

I have discovered empirical evidence that would indicate that aborigines of the Bahamas, east USA, northwest USA and other places in the USA as well as Mexico central America and South America all know of Jesus Christ and may have been visited by him.  I also believe such evidences extend into Japan, Mongolia, India, other places of Asia and Polynesia.   But I am personally not anywhere near thinking I understand what if any of these evidences actually have any relation the Jaredites, Lehites, or any one else mentioned specifically in the Book of Mormon.  It may surprise many to learn for example that the term "robin hood" was not the name of an individual but a description or title of the president of a council of 12 priests with special spiritual "powers" (including divine salvation) that dates far back into antiquities many hundreds of years before the era of "Dark Ages".  Could have the famed "fountain of youth" have connection to the living waters spoken of by Christ and the legendary "3 Nephits"?  I think it possible - but I cannot testify that such things are witnesses of the Book of Mormon or something else.  But at the same time I cannot say that I have revelation that such things have no actual connection to the Book of Mormon or anything else that has been revealed in these last days.

 

Many time I have posted not to resolve an issue but to try to introduce the possibility that there may more to consider than some would consider.  Not because I think I am "right" but because I honestly believe that many are perhaps more concluded in matters to which they ought to be more open.  Is the purpose of education not to open minds to more possibilities?  To take a next step in the concept of line upon line upon line and concept upon concept upon concept?

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