Do Mormons teach that the American Indians are descendants of the Jews?
Yes, they do. Joseph Smith taught that in ancient times, America was inhabited by two races of people. One race was the Jaredites who came from the Tower of Babel. The second race came from the area around Jerusalem about 600 years before Christ. Harold B. Lee, Mormonism’s Eleventh President, stated, “The Indians on the American continent are descendants of the tribes of Ephraim, Judah, and Manasseh. . .their dark skin was a curse put upon them because of their transgressions, which in a day to come in their descendants will be lifted and they will become white and delightsome as they accept the Gospel and turn to the Lord.” The introduction to the Book of Mormon states that the Lamanites were migrating Jews from Israel and that they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians. In the July 1971 issue of Ensign, Mormon President Spencer W. Kimball claimed that the term “Lamanite” embraces all Indians, such as the Polynesians, the Guatemalans, the Peruvians, as well as the Sioux,
