Chickasaw/Choctaw
Thoughts on the location of Book of Mormon Peoples
by Franklin Keel
“First, I must say that, based upon the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith and my experiences with contemporary American Indians, I believe that the events of Book of Mormon occurred in what is now the United States.
Having said that, I must also say that I also believe that Jesus Christ visited other people in this hemisphere and elsewhere (who, much like the Mulekites, were not descendants of Father Lehi) and taught them his doctrine. He speaks of this in 3 Nephi 16: 1-3:
1 And verily, verily, I say unto you that I have other sheep, which are not of this land, neither of the land of Jerusalem, neither in any parts of that land round about whither I have been to minister.
2 For they of whom I speak are they who have not as yet heard my voice; neither have I at any time manifested myself unto them.
3 But I have received a commandment of the Father that I shall go unto them, and that they shall hear my voice, and shall be numbered among my sheep, that there may be one-fold and one shepherd; therefore I go to show myself unto them.
These people undoubtedly would have preserved a record of His visits–depending on the culture– through stories, legends, or writings. (I also believe that it is reasonable that the other sheep of this hemisphere might have subsequently interacted and/or intermarried with the Nephite and Lamanite descendants.) Now, millennia later, when the posterity of those people learn of the Book of Mormon, it strikes a chord with their preserved ancestral memories, as intended by the Savior. That, with the assistance of the Holy Ghost, helps them know that our Church is true.
However, simply because they have those memories through legends, stories, or even written records of a bearded white god, does not require that they be related to the people who are chronicled in the book of Mormon. Nor does it mean that because their ancestors were also visited by the Savior that the Book of Mormon events had to occur in their particular lands of inheritance.
As I noted above, in addition to legends or other stories passed down orally, the other sheep may also have had written records of His visit to their ancestors. I think that this is borne out in 2 Nephi 29:11, 13, where the Lord says:
11 For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; for out of the books which shall be written I will judge the world, every man according to their works, according to that which is written.
13 And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel; and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews.
To summarize, based upon the words of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, I believe other peoples, not just Lehi’s posterity, were visited and taught by the Savior. But the events of Book of Mormon (Father Lehi’s posterity) happened in only one place—the land now known as the United States—where the Prophet Moroni led the young Joseph Smith to the Hill Cumorah. As these prophecies are fulfilled, other records will come to the fore because the Lord has spoken it.” Franklin Keel
M. Franklin Keel- A Great Example
M. Franklin Keel was born October 20, 1946, in Lawton, Oklahoma, to Douglas Keel, a Chickasaw career army sergeant and Christine Jefferson, who was half Choctaw and half Chickasaw. Reared in humble circumstances, Mr. Keel rose to represent Native Americans at the highest levels of government, and in the cultural and educational arenas, with integrity and distinction.
Mr. Keel graduated from Lawton High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from the Oklahoma College of Liberal Arts in 1968 before serving in the U.S. Air Force. He later worked as an administrative assistant with the U.S. Naval Weapons Laboratory.
In 1971, Mr. Keel became the first Native American commissioned as a Foreign Service Officer by the U.S. Diplomatic Corps. First assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Athens, Greece, he performed with distinction while representing U.S. interests overseas. Since then, he has mentored young Native Americans interested in pursuing a foreign affairs career.
Sparked by a desire to serve Native Americans, Mr. Keel graduated from Oklahoma City University Law School in 1978 and assisted Native Americans through his work with Legal Aid in Lawton. Building on his legal background and expertise in U.S. Indian policy, he was often invited to speak at universities and law schools across the country.
Mr. Keel was appointed to the Federal Senior Executive Service, the highest rank of the career U.S. Civil Service. In 37 years with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he earned the highest ratings for superior performance in his roles promoting Native American interests on Capitol Hill as Congressional Liaison and as Director of the Office of Trust, Superintendent of the Concho Agency and Regional Director. In 1997, Mr. Keel was appointed as Director of the Eastern Region, Bureau of Indian Affairs. He received the Department of the Interior Outstanding Service Award for his leadership in directing aid to affected tribes after Hurricane Katrina. He served the 28 tribes of the largest and most diverse region until his retirement in 2014.
In representing the Chickasaw Nation throughout his career, Mr. Keel’s international influence is unparalleled. He personally carried greetings from the Chickasaw Nation to foreign political leaders, including Prime Minister (now President) Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Gűl of Turkey, Deputy Minister Volgin of Russia, Lord Alderdice of England and Deputy Minister Nazimov of Azerbaijan, among others. He also acted as the sole U.S. representative at international meetings concerning indigenous peoples in Russia, Turkey, Canada and Mexico.
His legal and policy expertise grounded the decisions and actions that define his extraordinarily successful career and legacy.
Franklin Keel, Colorado Springs, Colorado
During his distinguished career, Mr. Franklin Keel has honorably represented Native Americans with integrity and distinction at the highest levels of government.
In 1971, Mr. Keel became the first Native American commissioned as a Foreign Service Officer by the U.S. Diplomatic Corps.
In 1997, Mr. Keel was appointed as Director of the Eastern Region, Bureau of Indian Affairs. He served the 28 tribes of the largest and most diverse region until his retirement in 2014.
Gov. Anoatubby said that Mr. Keel had a profound impact on Native Americans.
“For much of his career, Mr. Keel mentored young Native Americans interested in foreign affairs and spoke at universities around the nation about U.S. Indian policy.”
“Mr. Keel, for your many years serving Native American communities and for being an inspiration to the next generation of Native Americans involved in law and foreign affairs, we thank you.”
Mr. Keel said he was honored and humbled for the honor, and proud to inducted into the Chickasaw Nation Hall of Fame.
“Today is a day of gratitude for me. I am grateful to the Chickasaw Nation for this high honor.”
Brother Keel has been an HP Group Leader, EQ President, Stake Sunday School President, and Counselor in a Branch Presidency, and is a convert to the Church.
Finding My Choctaw Ancestors By Linda S. Stokes
Their trail of tears led to the temple.
The blizzard of 1831 was one of the worst ever. The people huddled by the campfires, their hands and feet blue from the zero-degree cold. They had little food, and tents and blankets were scarce. Most of the children were barefoot; three-fourths of them were naked.
Men, women, and children died in great numbers that winter. These people were the first of the Choctaw Nation to travel the “Trail of Tears,” as it became known among the native Americans who were forced to leave their lands and relocate in Oklahoma.
Throughout that winter, the Choctaw continued to battle hunger and disease, hoping that spring would bring relief. It didn’t. Torrential rains added to their misery, swelling the rivers and turning the roads into muddy quagmires. It took them nearly five months to walk the 550 miles from the Mississippi-Arkansas area to their destination in Oklahoma.
A second group of Choctaw left for Oklahoma the following year. This time the U.S. government provided more food and supplies, eliminating the threat of starvation that had plagued the first group. But an epidemic of cholera swept down the Mississippi and spread throughout the region. Heavy rains added to the suffering, and many of the Choctaw were forced through miles of swampland, swollen rivers, and dense forest.
They buried their dead along the way.
I had no knowledge of the pain and suffering of the Choctaw Nation until I developed an interest in family history. I learned that my Choctaw great-great-great-grandmother, Betsy Perkins, had left Mississippi with the tribe and had walked the “Trail of Tears” to Oklahoma. I placed her name in my family records, but I thought that I could do nothing further on that line. As far as I knew, no further information was available.
But on Sunday, 11 September 1983, at about three o’clock in the morning, I had a dream. I dreamed that I saw a native American woman with long braids streaked with gray. She was stirring something in a cooking pot. In my dream, I was in her home. Stretched animal skins formed the walls and roof, and peeled poles of clean natural wood supported the walls, which were lashed together with rawhide. The home was small in circumference, but the roof was high enough for me to stand comfortably.
The woman spoke with me, and we conversed for some time. I was at ease in her presence and felt her warm hospitality. I don’t remember what was said, but she told me her name over and over again—Nanah-ku-chi. Another woman was with her, holding a child about two or three years old. They were all dressed in what appeared to be buckskin—it was chamois-colored and simple in design.
Three times the Spirit prompted me to get up and write, until I finally climbed out of bed and found paper and a pencil. I then sat at the dining-room table and wrote the words that came into my mind.
The Spirit made known to me that, if I were faithful, I would be led to find my ancestors’ names, and that Nanah-ku-chi, one of the women I had seen in the dream, was my ancestor. I seemed to hear in my mind, “Now is the time to labor for thy dead.”
I felt prompted to go to Philadelphia, Mississippi, where I would be given the names of those whose temple work needed to be done. “Be faithful, and it shall come unto thee line upon line,” the Spirit seemed to say. I have always believed in personal revelation, but this experience carried with it a force far beyond what I had expected.
After completing what I was prompted to write, I returned to bed. I had been asleep only a short while when Bradley, my three-year-old son, suddenly awakened me. “Indians, Indians. I dreamed about Indians,” he said. I was astonished; I felt that his words were an affirmation of my own dream. I was even more astonished when I later asked him about his dream.
“An Indian came to our house,” said Bradley. “He was an Indian chief.”
“How did you know he was a chief?” I asked.
“He said he was a chief,” Bradley replied. “He asked me for some bread. I took him to the kitchen to get some. He said, ‘No, not that kind of bread.’”
“Were there other people with him?” I asked.
“Yes,” came the answer. “They were waiting for him.”
Later, as I sat in sacrament meeting thinking about the dreams, I silently prayed for guidance that I might be able to find the information necessary to do my Choctaw ancestors’ temple work. I felt impressed to acquire a copy of a record I had seen some twenty years earlier at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. It was the Choctaw-Armstrong Roll of 1831, and it contained records of the Choctaw before their trek over the “Trail of Tears” to Oklahoma. This census had on record some three thousand heads of families and represented about seventeen thousand people. I had photocopied the pages from it that dealt with my ancestor named Betsy.
I wrote to the National Archives, requesting a microfilm copy of the entire record. I also contacted the Church Genealogy (now Family History) Department in Salt Lake City and asked whether temple work could be done for people listed on the record. I then asked for and obtained permission to help do name extraction work on the Choctaw-Armstrong Roll.
I also went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, as I had been prompted. There, on the Choctaw reservation, I learned the story of the Nanah-weya. Archaeologists think that the Choctaw are probably of Mayan descent, because their language, customs, and culture are similar to those of the Mayans. Choctaw legends tell of their migration from their old lands, where they had been persecuted. A prophet had told them of a land waiting for them, where they would be safe. Two brothers, Chataw and Chickasaw, led the people out of the old land.
The people followed the “leaning pole,” a sacred pole placed in front of the leaders’ camp each night. Some legends say that a medicine bag was tied to the pole. Each morning, the people traveled in the direction the pole leaned. They carried their ancestors’ bones with them.
When they reached northern Mississippi, a tremendous rainstorm took place. The people thought that in the morning they would find the sacred pole flat on the ground because of the rain. Instead, the pole stood straight, buried deep in the mud.
That is where the people stayed. In the new land they held a great council to decide what to do with their ancestors’ bones. The decision they made was to build a large mound and inter them there. This mound, called the Nanah-weya, means “leaning mountain,” or “mother mound.”
I asked a Choctaw from Oklahoma if he knew the meaning of the word Nanah-ku-chi. He told me that it means “to bring out of the mountain.”
“You have said it just the way the Choctaw would say it,” he told me. “Nanah means mountain; Ku-chi means ‘to bring forth.’” I concluded that the words I had heard must have meant that the names of the Choctaw dead should be brought out of obscurity so that the Choctaws’ temple work should be completed.
My trip to Mississippi bore great fruit. There, in a courthouse, a woman gave my aunt and me a copy of some family records. Later, when I read through it, I was amazed. Before, I had had only three names on that particular family. Now I had more than sixty pages of information! There, at the beginning of the line, was the name of Ikenaby, an Indian chief who had lived during the early 1800s and who had married a white woman by the name of Kearney.
I continued to help with the work on the Choctaw-Armstrong Roll. Lorraine Nievar of Ardmore, Oklahoma, whose ancestors are Choctaw and French, also helped with name extraction work on the record. When our work was complete, 1,500 names from the record were sent to the temple in Dallas, Texas, so that Sister Nievar and her family could help perform their ancestors’ temple work. Another 1,500 names were sent to the Logan Temple, where many of my friends and neighbors have helped us with the work.
I believe that many members of the Choctaw nation who lived during the early 1800s have accepted the temple work completed in their behalf. As I participated in baptisms for the dead one Saturday morning, I felt their gratitude. During one particular temple session, I was asked to speak to the members of a Logan ward. While we sat together in the temple’s chapel, I told them the story behind the names they carried that night. I remember that temple session as one of the most sacred I have ever attended.
I recall feeling a vivid sense of light and joy at one particular point in the session. I thought of my son’s dream. My friends and neighbors were now giving the “bread of life” to those who had asked for it. I again felt that those whose work we were performing, though unseen, were grateful for the opportunity to accept the gospel. Though they had once walked the “Trail of Tears,” now they could walk the straight and narrow path of joy that leads to eternal life.
Many native American records have been compiled by various organizations. More than seven hundred Indian census records are available through the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Films of such records can also be obtained through the Church’s Family History Library in Salt Lake City, or through local branch family history libraries located in stake centers in many parts of the world. It is now possible to do more temple work for native American ancestors than ever before; many of them are eager to receive the saving ordinances of the gospel.
I learned just how eager they were one spring day while driving to Salt Lake City to talk with a woman there. Suddenly, I felt that I could hear the sound of drums beating. I seemed to see an Indian woman, dressed in an oversize plaid shirt, a Navajo skirt, and a silver medallion belt. The seat beside me was empty, but I could sense her presence.
When I arrived in Salt Lake City, I felt prompted to ask the woman with whom I had the appointment whether she had any Indian ancestors. “But Carolyn is blonde and blue-eyed. She’ll think I’m crazy,” I thought to myself.
When I met Carolyn in her office, the prompting for me to ask was just as strong as it had been in the car. So I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “My grandmother was Cherokee and was adopted by the Navajo.” She told me about how her “Granny” had worked as a nurse for many years with the Navajo in Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Later, I asked Carolyn about the clothing her grandmother had worn, and she described the clothing I had seen the woman wearing.
I told Carolyn about the temple work we had done for the Choctaw. She was thrilled about the possibility of doing the same work for the Cherokee. The Cherokee were the second nation to walk the “Trail of Tears”; there is a record of the tribe in its entirety from 1835—before they had settled in Oklahoma. Carolyn is now doing extraction work on that record, preparing names for the temple.
I know that my Choctaw ancestors desired the blessings of the gospel. My love for my ancestors has grown as I have learned about them. Though they suffered great hardship in mortality, they are now receiving the great blessings of the temple.
Show References
Linda S. Stokes, a fashion designer, is a Primary teacher in the Logan Thirty-third Ward, Logan Utah East Stake. The Choctaw is one of the few native American tribes in North America for which temple work is being done through the Church’s name extraction program. Individuals with Indian lineage who are interested in having temple work done for their ancestors should contact their local priesthood leaders.