A highly visible and popular proponent of this theory was a Vermont pastor named Ethan Smith (no known relation to Joseph Smith, Jr.). In 1823, four years before Joseph’s discovery of the golden plates, Pastor Smith wrote a well received and broadly distributed book called View of the Hebrews, which purported to document and prove the ancestry of the Native Americans as a lost tribe of Israel. View of the Hebrews was successful enough that it went into several printings between 1823 and 1825, and would have been easily available in Palmyra, New York. In fact, in 1826 Pastor Smith was in Palmyra while traveling and promoting his book. Back in Vermont, Pastor Smith was also the family minister for Joseph’s primary scribe, Oliver Cowdery.

Given Joseph’s lifelong infatuation with American Indian lore, it seems quite likely that Joseph heard of Pastor Smith’s theories, and probably even read the book. Oliver Cowdery would have certainly seen a similarity and mentioned Pastor Smith to Joseph. In View of the Hebrews, Pastor Smith said:

Israel brought into this new continent a considerable degree of civilization; and the better part of them long laboured to maintain it. But others fell into the hunting and consequently savage state; whose barbarous hordes invaded their more civilized brethren, and eventually annihilated most of them, and all in the northern regions!

Pastor Smith and Joseph were among a small host of writers who speculated on the origin of the Native Americans, but no two others had so many similarities. Both Smiths mention the destruction of Jerusalem as an impetus to emigration. Both books are deeply infused with prophecies of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah. Both books projected the mission of gathering the Native Americans into the Christian flock in the latter days before the millennium. Pastor Smith saw and described copper breast plates with white horn buttons taken from Native American mounds that he specifically said resembled the “Urim and Thumim” of the ancient Hebrews. Almost as if he too were making prophecies, Pastor Smith seemed to predict the discovery of the golden plates when he wrote, “If the Indians are of the tribes of Israel, some decisive evidence of the fact will ere long be exhibited.”