Why I Love the Nemenhah Records
Why I Love the Nemenhah Records
Through the Eyes of One Old Man Who Found Something Precious
Long before I ever heard the word Nemenhah, the Lord had already planted something in my heart.
When I was in high school, our family had a young Native American student live with our community through the Indian Placement Program. He played basketball with me, and we became good friends. I loved that young man. He was an unbelievable athlete, and I later learned that he was a great-grandson of Sitting Bull.
That friendship helped begin my love for the Native peoples of this land.
As I grew older, I studied men such as Chief Joseph. I read of a people chased from their homeland and driven for hundreds of miles while they tried to avoid war. I thought about Native children separated from their mothers and fathers. Whatever good intentions some people may have had, a terrible price was paid by the families whose language, traditions, land, and way of life were taken from them.
That has always bothered my heart.
Then there was the Book of Mormon.
I have loved that book since I was a young man. I believe it is a true witness of Jesus Christ. But I also came to see that it is not merely a story telling us how righteous the Nephites were. It is a warning—especially to the Gentiles who would someday receive the record.
And, my friends, I believe that warning includes us.
I love the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are my people. But the Book of Mormon keeps asking all of us the same hard question: Have we become the humble followers of Christ, or have we repeated the pride, division, riches, and religious certainty that helped destroy the Nephites?
I prayed for more light. Then, years ago, the Nemenhah Records came into my life.
I do not ask anybody to believe them merely because I do. The records themselves must be read, pondered, and taken to the Lord. We do not have their source plates available for public examination any more than we have the golden plates of the Book of Mormon. In the end, this is a matter of discernment and the Holy Ghost.
But I can tell you what these records have done for me.
They made the Book of Mormon world feel alive.
The Book of Mormon tells us that Hagoth built ships and that some of his people disappeared from the Nephite record. The Nemenhah account follows Hagoth—Hahgohtl in the record—and tells of people traveling northward, settling in the land of Mayntinah, and preserving their history through generations. It also tells of island peoples, coastal settlements, trade, travel, and descendants scattered across a vast land.
When I recently visited the Ainu people in Japan, and when I think of my own family living in Hawaii, I wondered about the ancient movement of peoples across the seas. I am not claiming that the Ainu or Hawaiians are Nemenhah. I simply no longer dismiss the possibility that ancient people traveled much farther—and had far more contact with one another—than we sometimes suppose.
The records also give what I call the rest of the story.
We know Corianton from Alma’s painful rebuke in the Book of Mormon. We remember Isabel mainly through one verse and one terrible label. But the Nemenhah tradition tells a story of repentance, healing, marriage, family, and service among the people of Ammon. Instead of leaving two wounded people frozen forever at the lowest moment of their lives, it lets us see what the Savior can do with a truly changed heart.
Then comes the family story connected with Samuel the Lamanite—the courageous prophet who stood on the wall and warned the Nephites. To me, Samuel is no longer just a lone figure who suddenly enters the Book of Mormon and then disappears. He belongs to a family, a people, and a history. His story joins the descendants of Nephi with the faithful Lamanites and the people of Ammon. Whether every family detail is understood perfectly or not, the message moves me: God can bring a prophet out of a family history that human beings might have written off.
Another story I love begins with Lamanite soldiers captured in war. In the Book of Mormon, Captain Moroni allows defeated soldiers to covenant that they will never again take up weapons against the Nephites. The Nemenhah story helps us imagine what came afterward: a former enemy entering the community of the Ammonites and being received not as a beast or an outcast, but as a brother.
That is the gospel to me.
It is not merely winning a war. It is turning an enemy into family.
The records speak of missionaries carrying warnings, teachings, and sacred records between distant communities. They tell of the ministry of the Three Nephites and of Timothy—called Tsi-Mohdahl in the Nemenhah record—helping direct the work and strengthening the people across the land.
Most precious of all, they testify that Jesus Christ—the Peacemaker, Ayahtsuhway Sahnhehmpeht—did not forget the other sheep.
The Book of Mormon records His appearance at Bountiful. The Nemenhah Records tell of His ministry among peoples at Mayntinah and among communities farther north and east. He teaches them how to become a people of peace—not merely by belonging to the right organization, but by hearing His voice, receiving the Haymehnay, caring for one another, and walking the sacred path.
These are not stories about perfect people. The Nemenhah suffered famine, upheaval, pride, false teachers, violence, division, and terrible loss. Sometimes they fled rather than fight. Sometimes they hid their small communities from larger nations bent on war. They made mistakes, repented, started over, and tried again.
Maybe that is another reason I love them: they sound like real people trying to follow Christ in a fallen world.
The Nemenhah Records have also changed how I think about Zion.
Zion is not built by a powerful institution announcing that it owns the project. Zion begins when ordinary people let Jesus Christ change their hearts. It appears when we quit trying to control one another, when women and men counsel together, when the strong protect the weak, when nobody is abandoned to poverty, and when stewardship replaces ownership and pride.
The Book of Mormon teaches that the remnant of Jacob has an important latter-day work among the Gentiles. We Gentiles should be careful not to assume that we ride in as the heroes and build Zion for everybody else. We may discover that the Native remnant has something to teach us—and that we are the ones who need to repent, become humble, and be numbered with them in covenant.
I do not claim to understand everything in these records. I am still reading, praying, learning, and sometimes scratching my old gray head.
But every day I find another story, another connection, or another teaching that draws me closer to the Savior.
That is why I love the Nemenhah Records.
They help me see the Book of Mormon as a living history. They restore names and families to people we barely glimpse in our familiar scriptures. They honor a remnant the world has often mistreated and forgotten. They warn the Gentiles. They teach a practical way of peace. And above all, they keep pointing me to Ayahtsuhway Sahnhehmpeht—Jesus Christ, the Peacemaker.
I am not asking you to follow me.
I am simply asking you to read, pray, and listen.
Perhaps the Lord still has more light and knowledge to give us.
And perhaps, if we will humble ourselves enough to receive it, these old stories can help us become the people of Zion we have talked about for so long.
A Note About the Sources
This is a personal testimony, not an attempt to prove the Nemenhah Records through archaeology or shared names. The Book of Mormon references behind this reflection include Hagoth (Alma 63:5–8), Corianton and Isabel (Alma 39:2–5), Captain Moroni’s covenant with captured Lamanites (Alma 44:15–20), the people of Ammon (Alma 24; 27), Samuel the Lamanite (Helaman 13–16), Christ’s other sheep (3 Nephi 15:16–24; 16:1–3), and the latter-day remnant and Gentiles (3 Nephi 20–21).
The Nemenhah themes and accounts discussed here are drawn from Ayahtkuhyaht Nemenhah: The Sacred Records of the Ancient Nemenhah—Complete Text, Second Edition, including the books recounting Hahgohtl’s migration, the peoples descended from his voyages, the northern communities, the ministry of Tsi-Mohdahl, the teachings of the Peacemaker, and the latter-day responsibilities of the remnant and Foreign Strangers. Spellings and some family traditions differ between editions and translations; readers should consult the complete record and seek their own spiritual confirmation.
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