A new essay at Wheat and Tares explores whether the narrative roots of the Book of Mormon trace to Native American traditions Joseph Smith's brother Hyrum encountered at Dartmouth's Moor's Indian Charity School, where he studied alongside Haudenosaunee students. The school was founded specifically to educate Native American students alongside colonial settlers.

The analysis examines the historical use of seer stones among Indigenous peoples and asks how much exposure the Smith family had to Native American religious practices and narratives. Hyrum's time at Moor's Charity School places him in direct contact with Haudenosaunee culture during the period when his brother Joseph would later claim to translate the Book of Mormon using a seer stone.

The essay also discusses the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake, whose religious movement emerged during the same Revolutionary War era and geographical region as early Mormonism. The argument does not claim direct causation but asks what cultural cross-pollination may have occurred.