Although she believed the final battle of the Nephites took place in New York, Susa Young Gates, a daughter of Brigham's, clearly was not a "Heartlander," believing that the Book of Mormon also took part in Central and South America:
After the apostasy and extinction
of the Nephites at the Hill Cumorah, New York, just prior to the close of the
fourth century, A.D., there was a general lapse in religious observations and
record-keeping. We are told that the Peruvian Indians preserved in some degree
their royal pedigrees, and no doubt, the Mexican royal family of the
Montezumas also had excellent records of their own descent, but little is known
concerning this at the present day.
We read in the Book of Mormon of
the temples built by the descendants of Lehi and Nephi. Ruins have been scattered
here and there, especially in South and Central America. The Central
American ruins have been described and illustrated by a number of discoverers.
Over eighty years ago a gentleman by the name of Lord Kingsborough published in
a costly set of books, the result of his discoveries in Yucatan and other
parts of Central America. Apostle Orson Pratt paid $500 for this set of
books and these are now stored in the Historian’s Office of this city. One of
the large volumes contains beautiful engravings of the ruins there discovered; among
them is the picture of a building found engraved upon a large box lid, and we reproduce
it here as a most curious illustration of the temple built by the Nephites.
If such a thing were possible one would think that the Prophet Joseph Smith
might have chosen this design upon which to pattern the temples in Kirtland and
Nauvoo, and more particularly does it resemble the outlines of our Salt Lake
Temple. We commend the similarity of temple design and structure to the
skeptically minded who need confirmation, as well as to the sacred and serious contemplation
of those who love the work of the Lord.
The aborigines of America whom
Columbus discovered were but a remnant of the once cultured and classic people
which dwelt upon these two continents. It is improbable that even the
ancient Jaredite or Nephite peoples had any surname customs different from
those known by the Hebrews from whence they sprang. Indeed one of the strongest
testimonies of the truth of the Book of Mormon lies in the remarkable similarity
of personal names and name customs between the Hebrews and the North and South
American Indians. (Susa Young Gates, Surname Book and Racial History: A
Compilation and Arrangement of Genealogical and Historical Data for Use by the
Students and Members of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints [Salt Lake City: General Board of the Relief Society,
1918], 282-83, emphasis added)
On page 284 of this work, Young reproduced a picture of a temple in Central America which, as noted above, she believed was "a most curious illustration of the temple built by the Nephites":
