The conjecture that Smith alone wrote the Book of Mormon, and hat its purpose was to explain the origin of Native Americans, has gained recent attention. The Book of Mormon seems to distill what authors as early as the sixteenth century had been saying about American Indians, that they were of the House of Israel. Numerous books and articles were published on the topic prior to the Book of Mormon. A listing of the most significant works includes James Adair's History of the American Indians (1775), Elias Boudinot's A Star in the West; or, a Humble Attempt to Discover the Long Lost Ten Tribes of Israel (1816), Caleb Atwater's "Description of the Antiquities Discovered in the State of Ohio and Other Western States," in Archaeologia Americana (1820), Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews (1823; 1825), and Josiah Priest's The Wonders of Nature and Providence, Displayed (1825).

Some theorists are satisfied that the Palmyra Register and Wayne Sentinel, local newspapers available to Smith, published sufficient information about American antiquities to provide a foundation in understanding the controversy. B. H. Roberts postulated that even non-readers were privy through hearing such subjects discussed at gathering places of common people: "the village store, the wheel wright's shop, the town meeting, and post office, the social meetings of the community, the gathering and dispersing throngs in attendance upon church services—in all such places the people hear and absorb knowledge of such subjects as are of general interest, until there is formed what I have referred to as 'common knowledge' of things."

The prevailing theory among current secular historians, however, is that Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews, first published seven years before he Book of Mormon, was probably a principal source—perhaps second only to the Bible—from which Smith and Cowdery, not Rigdon, formulated the Book of Mormon narrative. The similarities between the two works seem to be too substantial to be mere coincidence. The major thesis of each is to explain the origin of the American Indian. Chapters in each relate the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of Israel, then predict a regathering in the promised land. Vast portions of the Book of lsaiah are quoted extensively in each work (the Book of Mormon incorporates eighteen chapters nearly verbatim). Both discuss polygamy, seers and prophets, and the use of breastplates and Urim and Thummim. In each account, sacred records, handed down from generation to generation, are buried in a hill, then discovered years later. The characters inscribed on the gold plates of the Book of Mormon were reportedly "Reformed Egyptian" whereas View of the Hebrews discusses evidence of "Egyptian Hieroglyphics."

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Several theories suggest how the Smith family may have come in contact with the View of the Hebrews. Josiah Priest's The Wonders of Nature and Providence, Displayed (1825) contained extensive quotations from Ethan Smith's work. This book was available in the local Manchester Rental Library when Joseph Smith lived in the village. Furthermore, Ethan Smith, possibly on a promotional tour for his book, was known to have visited Palmyra in late 1826 or early 1827. The Wane Sentinel on 31 December 1826 and 5 January 1827 posted his name for letters remaining in the Palmyra Post Office.

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At the time Ethan Smith was writing his volume, he was minister of Poultney's Congregational church where he served from 21 November 1821 until December 1826. Cowdery's stepmother and three of his sisters were members of the congregation, according to Poultney church records. Presumably Oliver Cowdery, a school teacher and highly literate for his day, would have been familiar with his family minister's book. The first edition, which was advertised in the Northern Spectator, the local newspaper, quickly sold out.

Although it is speculative, young Cowdery may have been even employed by Smith & Shute, the Poultney firm that printed View of the Hebrews. The editor of the Ashtabula (Ohio) Journal, on 4 December 1830, commented that he knew Cowdery seven or eight years earlier, "when he was a dabbler in the art of Printing, and principally occupied in writing and printing pamphlets, with which as a pedestrian peddler, he visited the towns and villages of eastern New York, and Canada." Although the newspaper editor does not name any of the works Cowdery sold, it is possible he was a traveling agent for Smith & Shute and had copies of the 1823 edition of View of the Hebrews nestled in his knapsack when he visited his relatives the Smiths. This may explain why Joseph Smith's mother Lucy reported that in the fall of 1823, four years before her son began his work on he Book of Mormon, Joseph Jr. provided his family with

some of the most amusing recitals hat could be imagined. He would describe the ancient inhabitants of his continent, their dress, mode of traveling, and the animals upon which hey rode; their cities, their buildings, with every particular; heir mode of warfare; and also their religious worship. This he would do with as much ease, seemingly, as if he had spent his whole life among them.

That Cowdery was unfamiliar with Ethan Smith or View of the Hebrews seems improbable. Preciseły how this presumed acquaintance with Native American ethnological and theological speculation of the day impacted the Book of Mormon text is, of course, the subject of continuing examination.