Joseph Smith and Handsome Lake

[_Always Changing]

Code of Handsome Lake:
p. 16-17, British royalty, and section 92 p. 66 house suspended in midair both paralleled in I Nephi.

p. 22-23 Handsome Lake is as if dead-- parodied in Lamanite kings as if dead in Alma.

p. 62 section 83-85 many people walking-- I Nephi

whole section about conversation between messengers and person having vision --- I Nephi

Just my notes-- nothing written out yet and I have not yet read Grunder's commentary on it.

[_CaliforniaKid]

The biggest similarity I see is from Red Jacket's 1805 speech that was widely circulated that asks directly why God never gave the Native Americans the book (the Bible) and why God never gave the Christian religion to Native Americans.

This was not an uncommon question on the part of either native proselytes or white Christians. The Hebrew-Indian theory was designed in part to answer this question.

Thanks for sharing that newspaper article. Another article Red Jacket put his mark to about Native Americans and that was published in the Palmyra Register in 1818 and in a book called "Sketches of the History, Manners, and Customs, of the North American Indians, with a Plan for Their Melioration. Volume I." in 1824 in New York is quite interesting too.

Excellent. Orsamus Turner remembered that Joseph Smith Jr. used to come into the Palmyra Register's offices once a week to pick up a copy for his father, so someone in the family may well have encountered this article. It took a little hunting, but I finally tracked this down. It appears as "Indian Letter," Palmyra Register 1, no. 18 (March 24, 1818): 3. The text is mostly the same, except that the newspaper includes this text at the end:

Red Jacket, his X mark, Young King, his X mark, Captain Billey, his X mark, Captain Pollard, his X mark, Twenty Canoes, his X mark, James Stephenson, his X mark, Chief Warrior, his X mark, John Snow, his X mark, Stride Town, his X mark, Captain Cole, his X mark, Wheel Barrow, his X mark, Big Kettle, his X mark.

Done at the great council fire, Seneca Village, near Buffalo, 14th February, 1818.

HARRY YORK, Interpreter, his X mark.

P.S. The above Chiefs request your Excelleny to publish, or cause to be published, that article of the treaty between the state of New York and the Indians, that relates to their fishing and hunting privileges, which their white brethren seem to have forgotten.

We know that Joseph Smith was fascinated by Native Americans even before the Book of Mormon came along...

On that point, we are certainly agreed. Joseph had a special interest in Indian antiquities and there is even an account of his meeting an Indian along the Susquehanna River who directed him to the location of some treasure. Joseph may also have been influenced by Iroquois shamanic practices such as the white dog sacrifice and the use of a blanket to cover one's head when receiving revelation.

[_Always Changing]

I just asked a friend to join with us in this discussion. She might bring in someone else who has studied Handsome Lake's revival extensively.

[_Always Changing]

http://books.google.com/books?id=QtiJnr-ZSHIC WOW!! The Korihor of the Seneca asked some hard questions!

[_DonBradley]

Chris,

How are you accessing the Palmyra Register?

Don

[_CaliforniaKid]

Chris,

How are you accessing the Palmyra Register?

Don

fultonhistory.com

[_DonBradley]

Ah, cool.

So much information there. And such sucky search options.

Don

[_CaliforniaKid]

Yeah, I didn't use the search feature. I browsed page by page.

[_RockSlider]

Good to see you Don ... hope all is well

[_moksha]

Didn't William Penn (the guy Pennsylvania is named after) theorize that the Indians were part of the lost tribes of Israel? That would have been some time ago. 1600's or there abouts.


Society of Penguin Friends near Handsome Lake