The Lord in a revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1833 declared that, “The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western Tribes of Indians, … By it we learn that our western tribes of Indians are descendants from that Joseph that was sold into Egypt, and that the land of America is a promised land unto them, …”
Portraits of Uto-Aztecan people.(History of the Church 1:315). Significant numbers of native Americans in western North America are found within what linguists call the Uto-Aztecan extended language family—stretching from the Shoshone of Montana, Wyoming, Oregon and Idaho and the Utes of Utah and Colorado south to the Aztecan (Nahuan) people of Mexico and the Pipil of El Salvador, Guatemala and Panama. In between are numerous Uto-Aztecan language groups such as the Hopi of Arizona, the Comanche of Oklahoma and the Tarahumara of northern Mexico. All these native American groups and subgroups share the same basic language and origin.