Beyond the Geography Debate: What the Nemenhah Records Invite Us to Consider

Peoples, rivers, migrations—and an invitation to keep learning

Where did the Book of Mormon happen?

For many readers, that question opens a fascinating discussion about rivers, mountains, coastlines, ancient settlements, and the movements of peoples. Heartland, Mesoamerican, Baja, and South American proposals offer different ways of connecting the text with the land.

I appreciated a recent discussion on The Stick of Joseph in which Neil and Jasmine Rappleye explained why they favor a Mesoamerican setting. Their willingness to discuss interpretations and acknowledge difficulties provides room for further inquiry.

It also brought a question to my mind:

What might the Nemenhah Records contribute to a conversation about migrations and the wider story of the Americas?

I offer that question as a reader who has found these records spiritually meaningful and wants others to have an opportunity to examine them.

An invitation to examine the actual passages

The source for this article is Ayahtkuhyaht Nemenhah: Complete Text—Second Edition, Volume 2. All page references below refer to the printed page numbers inside that PDF.

Two distinctions matter throughout this study.

First, the narrative uses names such as Aykihts, Mayntinah, and Mihsihnsihp. Footnotes sometimes identify those places with modern rivers, valleys, or archaeological sites. Those identifications belong to the commentary accompanying the text. They should be examined separately from the narrative.

Second, the location of an earlier event and the destination of a later migration are different questions. An account of descendants traveling into North America would not, by itself, establish where Zarahemla originally stood.

This article compares what the records describe. It does not independently authenticate their claimed ancient origin or establish their proposed archaeological connections. Questions about provenance, translation, chronology, and physical evidence remain part of an honest investigation.

1. The northward journeys continue

The Book of Mormon describes Hagoth building ships near the borders of Bountiful and Desolation and people departing northward. It also describes substantial movement into the land northward.

Book of Mormon references: Alma 63:4–9; Helaman 3:3–14.

The Book of Hahgohtl develops a related migration narrative. Hahgohtl describes building ships, sending groups north, and supplying settlements. People travel by land and by both eastern and western sea routes. Copies of their scriptures accompany them.

Nemenhah reference: Book of Hahgohtl, Main Record 5–16, pp. 1–2.

The similarity is worth examining: shipbuilding, northward settlement, provisioning, and the preservation of sacred records all appear together.

Yet a narrative correspondence is a starting point for inquiry. It still leaves us to ask when the journeys occurred, how the routes would work, and what evidence might support the account.

2. A great gulf, a muddy river, and immense canyons

Hahgohtl’s western journey contains a particularly detailed sequence.

The travelers sail with land visible on both sides of a long body of water. At its head they reach a great river whose muddy discharge discolors the sea. They change to smaller boats and travel upstream through a hot, barren country.

Then they encounter towering canyon walls.

Their journey is difficult. They struggle with provisions and water, continue through the canyons, and eventually reach a more hospitable country. The river is called Aykihts, which the narrative interprets as “red earth.”

Reference: Book of Hahgohtl, Main Record 17–50, pp. 2–4.

The footnotes identify the gulf as the Gulf of California, the river as the Colorado, and the immense canyon as the Grand Canyon. Another note proposes a settlement in the Four Corners region.

That is a connected geographic proposal, rather than a resemblance between isolated names.

It also raises a serious practical question: how would families have traveled upstream through that canyon system? Footnote 20 itself recognizes the exceptional difficulty and proposes travel on foot in places.

An examination should include the challenges as well as the apparent matches.

3. Mayntinah: a mountain refuge

Later, Hahgohtl describes separating from another group and moving north and west into a mountain refuge.

The valley has game, water, timber, salt in its southern portion, and restricted approaches through canyons and a narrow defile. Barren country separates it from an earlier settlement, helping protect the inhabitants from hostile groups.

The valley is called Maynihntah. The city is called Mayntinah.

References: Book of Hahgohtl, Main Record 90–99, pp. 6–7; Book of Hahgmehni, Main Record 12–15 and footnote 48, p. 8.

Footnote 44 identifies the region with present-day Sanpete and Sevier Counties in central Utah.

Here we must be careful with similar names. Mahnti is a person—the son of Ohuhgohuh and a keeper of records. Mayntinah is a city. These passages do not establish that Mayntinah is the Book of Mormon city of Manti.

Additional reference: Book of Mahnti 1:1–10, p. 160.

The stronger question concerns the whole description: does the proposed valley fit its approaches, resources, surrounding terrain, and connections with other places?

4. Where did the people of Ammon go?

This is one of the most interesting connections for readers of the Book of Mormon.

The Nemenhah account describes the Ahmohnayhah, or people of Ahmohn, welcoming former enemies into their community. Tsi-Tuhgohhah presents himself as one of those welcomed people.

Reference: First Book of Tsi-Tuhgohhah 1:1–12, p. 82.

But the records do not give a simple account in which everyone leaves together.

One passage describes the people of Ahmohn as content to remain in the southern lands, while some who had joined them after the wars looked northward. Other passages describe some people of Ahmohn traveling with Hahgohtl and ships provisioning both Nayfihah and Ahmohnayhah migrants.

References: First Tsi-Tuhgohhah 16:26–29, p. 106; Book of Hahgohtl, Main Record 16, p. 2; Second Tsi-Tuhgohhah 1:11–18, p. 107.

This is a story of different families making different decisions.

The text also describes people leaving because of uncertainty, growing corruption, hostility, and the desire for a peaceful home. Geography becomes a human story: parents seeking safety, former enemies becoming relatives, and communities attempting to preserve their faith.

5. Plains, great herds, and freshwater lakes

Another journey leads into enormous grasslands, where travelers encounter vast herds of large cattle. People live in portable dwellings made from their hides.

Farther along, the travelers reach a freshwater lake so extensive that they cannot see its opposite shore. They travel upon it in boats light enough for two men to carry.

Reference: First Book of Tsi Muhayl 6:3–21, p. 123.

A footnote identifies the animals as American bison. The combination of plains, great herds, hide dwellings, and immense freshwater lakes invites comparison with North American landscapes.

It does not identify a particular Great Lake by itself. Distances, directions, climate, and chronology would need to be investigated together.

6. Mihsihnsihp: a river system and a route of migration

One of the clearest name-and-description correspondences is Mihsihnsihp.

Ohuhihneht Mehmnieht Ahkehkt describes leaving Mayntinah, crossing barrens and plains, and finding refuge in forests near a mighty river. Other rivers flow into it. Its waters reach a great gulf, and it provides a route for trade and travel.

Reference: Book of Ohuhihneht Mehmnieht Ahkehkt, Main Record 1–4, p. 494.

Later passages describe Mihsihnsihp flowing southward toward the gulf, with settlements and routes extending along it.

Reference: Book of Mehniohsahrihk 5:2–7, p. 621.

Taken together, the name, tributaries, direction of flow, gulf outlet, and travel network strongly suggest an intended correspondence with the Mississippi.

That observation describes how this text relates to a recognizable landscape. It does not establish when the account was composed.

7. Mounds, the Missouri, and the Ohio

The eastern accounts include raised earthworks, settlements beside rivers, large population centers, and later dispersal.

Ohuhihneht Mehmnieht Ahkehkt describes building important places on raised earth, with homes around their bases. A footnote proposes a connection with Cahokia.

Reference: Main Record 16–18, pp. 494–495, footnote 995.

Another passage describes a river called Mihnihsahohrit flowing from mountains, crossing plains, and joining Mihsihnsihp. Its footnote identifies it as the Missouri River.

Still another refers to Ohhayits and its tributaries, identified in a footnote as the Ohio River.

References: First Book of Ahyahpahlehksihluhm II 1:16–18, p. 724, footnote 1452; 4:8–10, p. 729, footnote 1476.

The resemblance between a mound-building narrative and an archaeological site deserves examination, but a footnote proposing Cahokia is not archaeological confirmation. Dating, settlement patterns, material culture, and the histories of the relevant Indigenous communities must also be considered.

8. Northwestern rivers and communities

The Second Book of Pah Nahtahn describes families traveling north, finding a river that enters a deep canyon, and establishing a settlement called Nehspehlhem.

That settlement becomes connected by trade with communities along a great river flowing westward to the coast.

Reference: Second Book of Pah Nahtahn 3:15–41, pp. 274–276.

Footnotes identify the rivers as the Snake and Columbia.

Later accounts describe people leaving eastern forest communities, crossing the plains, and finding a new home among northwestern mountains, lakes, and river canyons.

Reference: Second Book of Ahyahpahlehksihluhm II 1:1–14, p. 732.

These passages invite comparison with Northwest landscapes and peoples. That comparison should respect living Indigenous nations and their own histories, languages, and understanding of their ancestry.

9. A chapter that brings the wider geography together

For someone wishing to begin with an overview, I would recommend Tsihohnayah Ahkehkthihm, chapter 9, pp. 400–401.

It describes mountain, coastal, plains, lake, and island peoples. It discusses boundaries, travel, maritime navigation, and languages that have diverged. Sign language helps related communities communicate.

Its geographic account is extensive, and its peoples are differentiated. They have different environments, livelihoods, and relationships with their neighbors.

This chapter provides a useful framework for comparing the individual journeys elsewhere in the volume.

What these accounts can—and cannot—answer

The Nemenhah Records offer detailed claims about journeys, settlements, migrations, and relationships across a wide area.

Those claims can be studied. Routes can be mapped. Names can be compared. Descriptions can be checked against terrain, distances, resources, and chronology.

However, later northern migrations would not by themselves settle the location of earlier Book of Mormon events. Similar names do not establish a linguistic relationship. A footnote identifying a modern place does not establish the antiquity of the narrative.

These distinctions help us ask better questions and make a clearer case for why the accounts deserve attention.

Why I find the study meaningful

My interest reaches beyond locating an ancient city.

I am moved by accounts of people seeking peace, welcoming former enemies, preserving sacred teachings, caring for the land, and trying to build communities where no one is abandoned in need.

Second Nephi 29 encourages me to remain open to the possibility that God has spoken to other peoples and that their words matter. It does not automatically authenticate any particular proposed record. It does encourage me to listen, examine, and seek understanding.

I welcome careful questions about the Nemenhah Records, including questions that challenge my own assumptions.

For me, the study has deepened a desire to follow Jesus Christ and become more useful to my neighbors. I hope that whatever conclusions we reach about geography, our conversations will help us become more truthful, more humble, and more loving.

Let us keep learning—and let what we learn move us to walk in His Way.

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Prepared for The True Remnant Library.

Study note: This article presents geographic descriptions and proposed connections from the specified Nemenhah edition. It does not claim independent verification of the records’ ancient origin, translation history, or archaeological identifications.