The Book of Mormon notes them as initially righteous people who eventually "had fallen into a state of unbelief and awful wickedness"[2] and were destroyed by the Lamanites in about AD 385.
[4] However, non-Mormon scholars and, notably, the Smithsonian Institution, have stated that they have seen no evidence to support the Book of Mormon as a historical account.
The bare facts of the matter are that nothing, absolutely nothing, has even shown up in any New World excavation which would suggest to a dispassionate observer that the Book of Mormon, as claimed by Joseph Smith, is a historical document relating to the history of early migrants to our hemisphere.
The statement said that there was no credible evidence of contact between Ancient Egyptian or Hebrew peoples and the New World, as indicated by the text of the Book of Mormon.
The statement was issued in response to reports that the name of the Smithsonian Institution was being improperly used to lend credibility to the claims of those looking to support the events of the Book of Mormon.
Mosiah II set the rate at one senine of gold (or the equivalent senum of silver) for one day's work (Alma 11:1, 3).
It was replaced by a loose system of tribes and kinships, which lasted until Jesus appeared in America and established a society that approached the ideals of Zion.