Somebody shared a statue called Appeal to the Great Spirit from Woodward Park in Tulsa (
via my OU Twitter list), and he mentioned that the artist's name was Cyrus Dallin, and I was curious to learn more about him (and see the plaque below at the bottom of this post):
Cyrus Dallin (1861-1944). He was a Mormon who converted to Unitarianism. After his conversion, he hesitated about doing a sculpture of the angel Moroni for the Temple in Salt Lake, but he went ahead and later said, "My angel Moroni brought me nearer to God than anything I ever did." That's the link I followed:
Angel Moroni. This is the angel supposed to have visited Joseph Smith in 1823, which is how Semith acquired the golden plates that are translated as the Book of Mormon. In his mortal life, Moroni was the son of the prophet Mormon. This mortal Moroni completed the golden plates that his father had compiled, and then he buried them. Later, resurrected after death, he became an angel who showed Smith where to find the plates.
Mormon. According to the Book of Mormon, Mormon was a member of the Nephite tribe which had supposedly settled in the Americas in ancient times. (Dallin's background as a Mormon thus gives a particular context to his artwork featuring Native Americans!) Mormon was the author/editor of a history of his people, as inscribed on the golden plates that Smith received via Moroni (Mormon's son who became an angel). By Mormon's own account, he was born in the year 311 C.E. He is supposed to have lived in the land of Zarahemla, so that is what I clicked on next.
Zarahemla. This is supposedly a Nephite city of ancient times dating back to around 600 BCE; there is no archaeological evidence for this city (there is a huge Wikipedia article on
archaeology and Mormonism), but Mormon scholars speculate that it would have been in what is today Chiapas, Mexico. There is even a board game for Mormons based on Settlers of Catann which is called
Settlers of Zarahemla!
Update. Trait kindly sent me this picture of the plaque that goes with the statue in Woodward Park (
larger view):
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