Book of Mormon modifies Indian origins

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- A slight editing of the Book of Mormon has religious observers in Utah seeing some serious implications for church doctrine on American Indians.

The changing of a sentence in the introduction reflects modern scientific evidence that the original inhabitants of North American migrated from Siberia thousands of years ago, The Salt Lake Tribune said Thursday.

The change, ordered by the Latter Day Saints church leadership, has to do with the Lamanites, one of the two Israelite civilizations that wound up in North America and were considered principal ancestors of American Indians.

The change in the wording changes “principal ancestors” to “among the ancestors,” the Tribune said.

Some Mormon scholars called the DNA-based conclusion about the ancient Lamanites “a stretch,” but others told the newspaper Mormon doctrine was always flexible enough to accommodate new developments in scholarship and science.