In order to further explain the paucity of evidence for the existence of vast and complex Nephite, Lamanite, and Jaredite civilizations, Mormon scholars such as John L. Sorenson have adopted a “limited geography” approach to the Book of Mormon. After examining the geographical clues in the text, they discovered that it was simply impossible to match the descriptions of travel times (walking distance) and population growth to the traditional hemispheric model. Thus, they necessarily shrunk the setting for the Book of Mormon to only a few hundred square miles in Mesoamerica, the New World location featuring the greatest evidence for ancient, highly developed civilizations.

    Again, the problem with this theory is that it nullifies the statements of early authorities, Joseph Smith included, who were in the best position to know the revelatory truth concerning whom the Lamanites were and where they lived. These utterances were so numerous and so frequent throughout church history, that only a few minutes of research will show how unorthodox the modern, limited geography model really is.

I need mention only a few examples below:

• A revelation from the Lord in 1831 sent Newel Knight to “the land of Missouri, unto the borders of the Lamanites.” (D&C 54:7-8)
  
  

• “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.”¹
  
  

• “The great and last battle, in which several hundred thousand Nephites perished was on the hill Cumorah, the same hill from which the plates were taken by Joseph Smith…”²
  
  

• “…the Hill Cumorah, and the Hill Ramah are identical… it was around this hill that the armies of both the Jaredites and Nephites fought their great last battles… it was in this hill that Mormon deposited all of the sacred records… it was from this hill that Joseph Smith obtained possession of them.”³
  
  

• In 1834, while on the march to recover the Saints’ lands in Missouri, Joseph Smith identified the remains of a white Lamanite named “Zelph,” a warrior that fell in the final battles of extinction. According to Smith, he served under the great general-prophet, Onandagus, who was well known across the North American continent.⁴

    Ironically, while proponents of the “limited geography” theory must dismiss statements like those above, they would still argue that the church is, and always has been, led by revelation. But in a church that sustains its leaders as prophets, seers, and revelators, cherry-picking agreeable statements while rejecting the rest is tricky business. If past authorities could have been so wrong about such important matters as Lamanite identity, what else could they have been wrong about?

¹ History of the Church, by Joseph Smith, Deseret Book, 1976, vol. 4, p. 537, quoted in Salt Lake City Messenger, Issue 103, November 2004.

² Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses Vol. 14, pg. 331, quoted in Salt Lake City Messenger, Issue 103, November 2004.

³ Anthony W. Ivins, Conference Report, April 1928 - Morning Session

⁴ History of the Church, Vol. 2, pp. 79-80.