I'm still not good at quoting...but where, SoSick, you refer to the Book of Mormon not likely being a record of the Native Americans...it was a record made and kept by religious leaders - prophets, etc. Originally Lehi brought over from the middle east the records they had of their genealogy as well as scripture so they could teach their descendants. Nephi - Lehi's son - was the one who first started writing on the plates. It became a type of "reformed" egyptian - a bit of a variation of the language due to them being separate from their original culture for so long. On a sidenote there, when you watch The Passion of the Christ...in Hebrew it sounds much like the language of the Native Americans to me.. Of course all the different tribes began varying their own languages as well. I mean they've been here since before Christ. There were also other people's who settled here. One group which came over separate of Lehi's family died out. They had come over at the time of the tower of babel. There was a lot of war and bloodshed. They lived what we call the pride cycle. They would be righteous and prosper, then become prideful, then have wars and destruction which would humble them.. They would repent, become righteous, then prosper, then become prideful...etc. etc. Similar, actually, to us now. I think of our country of being in a pride cycle right now - and being humbled.... There was a period of total peace and prosperity for 300 years after Christ appeared here and taught the Gospel. They did have some great civilizations at one time. The Book of Mormon prophets prophesied of His coming from the beginning of their civilization. (They came over knowing of His coming). Parts of one of the books quotes quite a bit from Isaiah. I need to start reading it again... I'm ashamed I don't know it in detail as much as I should - but I've read it several times. It's actually quite a good read. Anyway - when they were at peace their civilization was amazing. But the book was not widely known among the people. It was a record kept of the goings on concerning the wars, teachings of the prophets, the coming of Christ and the history of the people as witnessed by its writers till it was hid up. The Nephites were destroyed and Moroni was the last known surviving Nephite. The Lamanites are the ones left and they were scattered pretty much from that point. I don't think there was much in the way of a written record with them other than that. The Book of Mormon plates were found long before we even knew about the ruins discovered down south.

I think my great great grandmother was Cherokee. We aren't positive - she married an Englishman : )