The Dark Skin of the LDS Church

The Book of Mormon is written in the 19th century, so you had access to what common folk knew about the world at the time. I think that there were assumptions made that a lot of the things that they saw and encountered on a daily basis didn't exist in ancient America. Just like horses are a big one throughout the Book of Mormon,. One of them doesn't exist in South U.S., right? So all these different kinds of animals would have been called "mammals" or "shepherds" The book also talks about how Native Americans' dark skin was traced back to a curse by the lamenites - who were aggressive towards the Nephite people.