The Aborigines of America

THE ABORIGINES OF AMERICA.

BY ELDER HENRY W. BARNETT.

When Christopher Columbus discovered the land of America in the year 1492, he found it thickly inhabited by a remarkable race of people. Their complexion was of a rusty copper colour; their faces were fantastically painted with glaring colours; their hair, black and long, floated upon their shoulders; their heads were decked with gaudy feathers; and in their noses were plates of gold.

Such were the red American Indians.

Who they are, and how and when they migrated to America, historians are unable to determine. But here, nevertheless, is a vast country numerously inhabited by a wild, uncultivated race of the human family, bearing evident marks of a once-enlightened and a powerful people, but whose origin and history has been for -many centuries entirely unknown. Then who are those red strangers of the West?

They are a branch of the house of Israel. They are the lineal descendants of Joseph, who was banished into Egypt.

This principle is beautifully illustrated in the prophecies.

The continent of America was a blessing conferred upon Joseph and his posterity for a perpetual inheritance; for, while the patriarch Jacob resided in the land of Egypt, he blessed Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and predicted that they should become a great people, and that they should “grow into a' multitude of nations in the midst of the earth.” (Gen. xlviii.)

Prior to Jacob’s decease, he called together his twelve sons, and predicted over their heads what would befall them in the latter days. In blessing Joseph, he said:—

“Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him: but his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel,)—even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb: the blessings of thy father (Jacob) have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors (Abraham and Isaac) unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separated from his brethren." (Gen. xlix. 22—26.)

This passage is fraught with beauty and principle. It should be remembered that the blessings which Jehovah confirmed upon Jacob's “progenitors,” Abraham and Isaac, and their numerous seed, was the land of Canaan for an everlasting inheritance. But Jacob’s blessings “prevailed above” theirs. He obtained another blessing—a choice inheritance—a land abounding with the precious blessings of the heavens and the earth—a land distinguished for its vast wealth, and noted for its “everlasting hills.” This excellent blessing Jacob sealed “on the head of Joseph and his great family or posterity. In order to obtain possession of this promise, the “branches” of the “fruitful bough,” or descendants of Joseph, were to “run over the wall,” stretching far beyond the boundaries of the East—literally passing over the ocean that divides the two hemispheres.

The various Prophets contemplated this important subject with intense interest and admiration. The Prophet Isaiah utters this splendid passage:—

“They wandered through the wilderness r their branches are stretched out; they ARE GONE OVER THE SEA." (Chap. xvi. 8.)

He gives a graphical description of the form and location of the land of Joseph— the continent of America. Standing in Asia, he exclaims thus:—

“Woe (Ho) to the land shadowing with WINGS, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” (Chap, xviii. 1.)

Zephaniah’s expressions on the subject are very similar to Isaiah's. He speaks thus:—

“From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering." (Chap, ii. 10.)

The Prophet Hosea is equally forcible on the subject. He expressly mentions Ephraim’s children as inhabiting the land of the West, and says:—

“I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God, and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee; and I will not enter into the city. They shall walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion. When he shall roar, then the children (of Ephraim) shall tremble FROM THE WEST.” (Chap. xi. 9, 10.)

A branch of the house of Joseph was taken and planted in America in the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah. A Prophet named Lehi, and his family, left Jerusalem, by the commandment of God, and emigrated to the land of America, about six hundred years before Christ. On this land they greatly multiplied and prospered. They were not without a knowledge of God, neither were they without the holy Priesthood. They had among them a sacred oracle, containing the law of the Lord, which they had brought from Jerusalem. They were favoured with ecstatic dreams and heavenly visions, through which they were exceedingly enlightened on the coming of the Messiah and the opening of the Christian dispensation—the dispensation of the Gospel and power of God. Finally, the Son of God appeared and commenced his glorious work among the Jews. He organised his Church, founded upon Apostles, Prophets, and Evangelists, with gifts and powers of the Holy Spirit. And after this, (which was after his resurrection,) he manifested himself to the people in South America, where he unfolded the principles of the Gospel, called twelve Apostles, and organised a Church after the order and character of the one in the East; for Jesus himself expressly declared—

“Other sheep I have which are not of this (Jewish) fold: them also I must bring, and they shall Hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” (John x. 16.)

Here Jesus directly refers to Joseph’s seed in the west, who would literally hear his own voice.

The Saviour’s great command was to “preach the Gospel” to “all the world,” to “every creature;” and therefore the descendants of Joseph in America could not be excepted.

Christianity continued on the American continent till about the fourth century, by which time the Church had almost wasted away and become extinct through wars and apostacy. And, in order to preserve a history of the people and likewise the revelations and dealings of God among them the Prophet Moroni the last Prophet living there, deposited records (which were skilfully engraved an fine plates of gold) in the hill Cumorah, in south America. These records, in the form of the Book of Mormon were revealed by an angel unto the Prophet Joseph smith in the year 1827. This sacred volume contains a clear account of the aborigines of America it explains why the Almighty “caused a skin of blackness” to come upon the people of that land—namely, because of the wickedness of one named Laman, from whom the North American Indians have descended, called Lamanites.

The two sacred oracles, the Book of Mormon and the Bible, are the two sticks mentioned by the Prophet Ezekiel in chapter xxxvii., verses 16, 17:—

“Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, FOR JOSEPH, the STICK OF EPHRAIM, and for all the house of Israel, his companions: and join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.”

In this great day of restitution God will also restore the original complexion of the Lamanites. They shall become a “white and enlightened people.” Then Ephraim will no more “envy Judah, and Judah envy Ephraim;” for they will be one, even as their records are one; and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will reign over them for ever.