Others, like Quorum of the Seventies member B.H. Roberts, argued that the Book of Mormon was based on Ethan Smith’s View of the Hebrews. Ethan Smith’s book, first published in Poultney, Vermont, in 1823 and later revised by Smith in 1825, is a romantic history that postulates that America’s First Peoples were the descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. In his posthumously published book on the parallels between the View of the Hebrews and the Book of Mormon, Roberts noted a total of 26 parallels between the Book of Mormon and Ethan Smith’s romance.

The question, of course, is whether these parallels “prove” borrowing or whether they are simply evidence of a shared cultural milieu. Dan Vogel pointed out that the theory of Indian origins that underlies both Ethan Smith’s book and the Book of Mormon has a long genealogy; for instance, it was prevalent in seventeenth- century England. Whitney Cross noted that Smith drew on local Burned-Over District folklore and its romantic tales of a fabulous and wealthy pre–First Peoples culture. D. Michael Quinn pointed out how widespread popular magical practices were in early America. While it is possible that Smith knew of the View of the Hebrews and could have borrowed from it, it is equally possible, if not more likely, that whatever parallels exist between the Book of Mormon and the View of the Hebrews are reflective of the common culture milieu and the common cultural pedigree of the two rather than an instance of direct borrowing.