On the Trail of the Plates of Mormon

In this post, I will talk about a few outside references that may support the idea that Hagoth and Nephites settled in the Colorado River area and north.

From the Book of Hagoth:

12) Now, the journey through this part of the land became exceedingly strait, for we had thought to find a rich land with game and provision. But we could not ascertain the nature of the land because of the exceedingly steepness and the height of the precipice. Here and there we found places to land but they were sparing and we found no game and little provision. Yea, and the water was plentiful but, being muddy, it was of questionable worth to drink. Yea, our suffering was great, for we were unprepared and hasty. And it came to pass that our suffering became so great because of the heat that some of our people drank heavily of the water of the river and became exceedingly ill with fevers and with flux. For, the water was only sound for cooking and was unsafe to drink. Wherefore, when the women and children, when the food was gone and the water being at hand, did put forth their hands from the boats and drank of it freely from the river, then verily did they begin to suffer exceedingly, for the water was heavy and unfit to drink.
20) And it was ninety and three days from the time we left our brethren at the mouth of the great river and that was in the thirty and eighth year of the reign of the judges over the Nephites. Yea, we traveled up the great river ninety and three days and we came to a place where the river became wide and there were great fields of grass on both sides of the river. In this place the river made a great turning, whereas it had run somewhat into the east parts, it now turned again northward. At this great bending in the river we disembarked and built our settlement. And I, Hagoth, sent four of our young men back down the river to give our brethren word of our success and instructions for safely traveling through the canyons. For there was also much wood in the mountains and we were desirous to set up trade by shipping with those who settled at the mouth of the river, for there the land was barren and they had no wood.
21) Now, the river was heavy with red earth, and the walls of the canyons through which we had traveled were red, wherefore, we called the river Akish, which being interpreted means “red earth”. And the city which the Nephites built was called Akish-hah, after the name of the river. The city which we built the people called Hagohah after the manner of the Nephites, but to most it has been known as the city of Hagoth. This my people did to honor me, for I built the ships and the boats upon which we traveled to the Land Northward.

I believe the great bend of the river is the junction of the Muddy, Virgin, and Colorado Rivers on the North end of Lake Meade. One of the best evidence of early settlements that I have found is the Lost City, just east of Las Vegas, Nevada.

From the website:

Nevada’s “Lost City”, officially known as Pueblo Grande de Nevada is a series of Anasazi Indian ruins situated along the Muddy and Virgin River Valleys in southern Nevada. The site area is located at the northern end of man-made Lake Mead and continues up both valleys for a distance of approximately 30 miles. There are more than a 100 recorded sites along the Muddy River and over 50 recorded sites along the Virgin River. The Lost City was occupied by the Virgin branch of the Anasazi, originally by the Basketmaker people sometime after the first century A.D. and later by the Puebloans from A.D. 700 to 1150. Some of the sites were reoccupied by the Paiute Indians who moved into the area after A.D. 1000. The Basketmakers lived in sub-terrain pit houses that were 10 to 15 feet in diameter and approximately 6 feet deep. They used spears for hunting and their name is derived from their use of baskets as storage vessels. The later Puebloans lived in above ground pueblos (houses made of sticks and adobe). They had the additional knowledge of the bow and arrow and manufactured ceramic vessels for storage and cooking.

Could this be part of the cities of Hagoth? We may never know for sure but this archaeological site is very close to the time when Hagoth traveled up the river. I have read elsewhere that there were other settlements that were found along the bottom of the Grand Canyon that were flooded by Lake Meade and Lake Powell. The people of the Book of Hagoth and other books of the Archives could be the Anasazi and the Fremont peoples of the areas north of the Colorado River. One of the things I was thinking about when I read that the Nephites settled in the same areas as Hagoth’s cities was that these Nephites are the Anasazi, “the enemy” of the Nemenhah and the Nemenhah are the Fremont people of Utah.

3) The Nephites in the Land Southward rejected the prophets of God and for this cause they became lifted up in pride. Yea, I saw them become wicked and those Nephites our neighbors who had come up into the Land Northward were also eventually overcome by pride and by greed. Yea, they did use up the land in their lust to obtain riches and they brought all people into bondage for the sake of their secret oaths and combinations. Yea, even the trees they did destroy in their greed, for the land in which Hagoth and his people first settled was rich with timber. Nevertheless, the country was dry so that the Nemenhah did carefully select the trees they cut, lest they destroy the forests. But when the Nemenhah departed out of the land, the Nephites came into the land and took it unto themselves, yea, both the land and the cities the
Nemenhah had built. And they cut all the trees for trade with the Land Southward. Yea, they destroyed the forests and denuded the mountains for gain, and the streams and smaller rivers gave out and the whole
land became barren. And all this was done to satisfy their lust for riches. In the end, this imprudence caused the flow of the river Akish to so diminish that it could no longer be used to transport the logs to the Land Southward. Wherefore the Nephites were deprived of further gain and the more part of them left the land where Hagoth, my father, first settled. Now this was pleasing unto the Nemenhah, for we desired no commerce with them.
38) But behold, the Nemenhah who followed me were not as numerous, for we were builders and loved the
mountains. Yea, we liked not continually to move but preferred to establish ourselves in one place. Wherefore, we found a valley that abounded in game and had much water and timber, and we built us a city there. And it was amidst the mountains west and north of the river Akish and between our mountain fastness and the fair land which we had left was a wasteland of exceedingly barrenness. Now this was wisdom in us, for the bands of robbers did nothing but for gain and to traverse the barrens would have been too costly for them. Therefore, we did use them as a natural frontier and a bulwark against them.
39) And the valley in which we established ourselves we called Menintah, for there was much salt in the southern part of the valley. And the land of Menintah was indeed a fastness for the Nemenhah, for it could only be approached from the south by way of a narrow canyon, and from the west by a narrow canyon, and from the north through an exceedingly narrow defile. Wherefore, we established ourselves in a place that was easily defended and we built a beautiful city.

40) Now the Gadiantonhem ceased to take notice of us for we traded not into the south but maintained commerce only to the north with our brethren. For we opened and maintained roads and trails into the Land Northward following the mountains that extended exceedingly far into the north. Wherefore, we had good trade routes to the north that led out onto the plains and we maintained good concourse with our brethren in the north. But we closed all roads to the Land Southward, for we desired no contact with the Gadiantonhem.

The languages of the tribes of the Colorado Plateau and the southwest is very similar to Aztec which researchers call Uto-Azetcan. If you notice on the map on this page it is the same areas as is described in the Book of Hagoth and Hagmeni.

From the article:

Uto-Aztecan (also Uto-Aztekan) is a Native American language family. It is one of the largest (both in geographical extension and number of languages) and most well-established linguistic families of the Americas. The Uto-Aztecan languages are found from the Great Basin of the Western United States (Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona), through Mexico. Utah is named after the indigenous Uto-Aztecan Ute people. Classical Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and its modern relatives are part of the Uto-Aztecan family.

And finally, there is the Cocopa tribe of the Colorado Delta who have lived in this area for hundreds of years. They describe a lifestyle and an area very similar to that found in the Book of Hagoth.

While all this is not proof of authenticity of these archives it gives us some things to think about while reading the texts. Just like the Book of Mormon and all the research that supports it the archives have shown that there is another history we should be considering when we research Native American history. If these archives were to be taken seriously like the Book of Mormon we could have almost all of our questions answered regarding our ancient American past. These texts have opened a whole new world to me and has answered a lot of questions that I had concerning the Book of Mormon. Although I still don’t understand some of the spiritual lessons taught, the physical history described is too close to real world discoveries for me to ignore.