The origin and destiny of the Red Man were among the chief topics for speculation and discussion on the early nineteenth century American frontier. The presence of many Indian burial mounds in the Great Lakes region was a constant source of curiosity to the settlers in that region. In 1823 Ethan Smith, a Vermont pastor, published a book entitled View of the Hebrews: or the Ten Tribes of Israel in America. This popular work of fiction traced the origin of the American Indian to ancient Israel, a notion acceptable to a general public that believed that the depository of all wisdom and the source of all civilization was to be found in the Bible. The reception given to Ethan Smith's treatise suggests the presence of a cultural mindset and "will to believe" that would be hospitable to any elaboration of the thesis of the Hebraic origin of the Indian. Thus it is not surprising that the appearance of the Book of Mormon generated much excitement among many communities in upper New York State and the Ohio region in the early 1830's.