Wikipedia
The Lamanites are one of the people described in the Book of Mormon, a religious text published in 1830 by Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. The Book of Mormon portrays the Lamanites as usually dark-skinned, wicked rivals to the usually lighter-skinned, righteous Nephites, both of whom are portrayed as descendants of Israelites who traveled to the New World by boat circa 600 BC. (Other groups from the book include the Jaredites, and Mulekites.) Historically, Mormons have identified the Lamanites as the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Polynesians, or some part of their ancestors. However, in the 21st century, Mormon scholars who favor a limited geography model have been disclaiming any significant genetic connection between Lamanites and any modern people. Because only Mormons consider the Book of Mormon to have an ancient historical basis, Lamanites are not considered to be a valid category of people by mainstream scholars.
According to the Book of Mormon, the Lamanites are descendants of Laman and Lemuel, two rebellious brothers of a family of Israelites who crossed the ocean in a ship around 600 BC. Their brother Nephi is portrayed as founding the rival Nephites. The book states that after the two groups separated from each other, the Lamanites received a curse of a "skin of blackness" so that they would "not be enticing" to the Nephites. After the two groups warred over a period of centuries, the book says that Jesus appeared and converted all the united Nephites and Lamanites to Christianity. However, after about two centuries, the book says that many of these Christians fell away and began to identify as Lamanites, leading some of the "true believers in Christ" to identify as Nephites. Ultimately, the book describes a series of great battles in which the Lamanites exterminated all the Nephites.
Mormons beginning with Joseph Smith have historically identified Lamanites with indigenous Americans, and sometimes even Polynesians. Scholars outside Mormonism do not consider the term Lamanite as a category of real people, or accept the Book of Mormon as a valid source of ancient American history. Mormon scholars, representing a small minority view, have identified a few alternative locations in the ancient New World where they hypothesize Lamanites described in the Book of Mormon might have lived, the most popular of which is Mesoamerica. Traditionally, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) taught that Lamanites were "the principal ancestors of the American Indians." In 2007, the church changed this teaching to the belief that Lamanites were "among" the ancestors of American Indians.
Usage examples of "lamanite".
His most significant personal revelations from the Lord had occurred on Lamanite land.
Lord had revealed that the land of the Ute Mountain Utes would be the site where the first hard evidence would be discovered to support the Mormon belief in the emigration of the Lamanites and the Nephites from Egypt to the New World.
Somewhere, Horner believed, in the enchanting canyons that branched out from the Mancos River, he would find evidence of the subsequent migration of the Lamanites to the Land Northward.
Given his position of prominence within the Church, Lester Horner knew that his involvement in any discovery about the Lamanites would add a measure of credibility to what would certainly be contentious findings.
There are a lot of LDS who scour around old Indian sites hoping to find evidence of the Lamanites and the Nephites.
The older Indian sites, they theorized, were more likely to show evidence of the migration of the followers of Lehi--the ancestors of the Lamanites and the Nephites--to the New World hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, as chronicled in the Book of Mormon.
His understanding of what the Book of Mormon predicted about artifacts left by the Lamanites and the Nephites was perfunctory, even elementary.
Price and Horner were looking for evidence of northern migration by the Lamanites sometime after they annihilated the Nephites in battle around the fourth century A.
The Lamanites of the mainland are descending upon the Mormon kingdom as the hosts of Israel upon Canaan!
The culmination of all this was the battle of Cumorah, fought many centuries ago near the present site of Palmyra, between the Lamanites and the Nephites--the former being the heathen and the latter the Christians of this continent.
Frank Skimmerhorn pondered this matter of the Lamanites, and he asked throughout Nauvoo for other recollections the villagers might have as to what exactly the Mormons had said during their unhappy stay there on their way to Salt Lake City, and he came up with a profound body of confirmation.