An LDS site visitor writes:
I read "View of the Hebrews". I thought that E. Smith did a rather good job in relating the then current view of the American Indians. Hugh Nibley talks about the coincidence of this book, in relation to the Book of Mormon. To me this is no coincidence. After I read this book I researched some of E. Smith's sources. Sure enough this was an idea that was preached and expounded for many years previous to Joseph Smith's existence. Unless Joseph Smith was a hermit, and he was not, there is no way he could not have discovered this American Indian theory on a set of Gold Plates he found.