I doubt South Americans were referred to as “Americans” in Joseph’s lifetime. An American is generally considered someone from the USA. Joseph also seemed pretty adamant that the New Jerusalem would be built in Missouri, not South or Central America.

The Book of Mormon seems to refer to Columbus as a gentile, and seems to refer to the Mother of Gentiles as Britain. I’m not really following your line of logic that anyone baptized as a Jew. While the Jews practiced mikvah, this still seems quite different than a Christian baptism.

We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

Many of the “mistakes” are similar.
The Book of Mormon often calls anyone baptized, and thus at least adopted into the house of Israel, “Jews.” Why, then, would it be so odd for the Lord to call the Native Americans Lamanites, even if the majority of their DNA might come from the Jaredites, the Mulekites, etc?

I encourage to you read the book “Rough Stone Rolling”, by Richard Bushman. Bushman is a former stake president, and highly regarded orthodox LDS scholar. He recently took the chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont University in California. (Claremont has a well-regarded religious studies dept.)

Anyway, he goes into great detail, and you will learn that Joseph didn’t really use the Urim & Thummin very much. Once he got the “hang of it”, he translated much as you suggest. His bible translation was done completely without any aid of U-T, or seer stones. Now, Bushman removes much of the mythology of Joseph, so be prepared to learn some stuff the church doesn’t emphasize. Some people have been quite umcomfortable to learn this stuff, but it is true, meticulously researched, and Bushman shows that you don’t have to lose your testimony when you learn this stuff.

I’m not sure what you mean by your DNA question. There is maternal and paternal DNA patterns, so one should be able to trace back to either the fathers father, or mothers mother.

You may want to check out my post on Persians and Arabs, at http://www.mormonheretic.org/2008/09/25/whats-the-difference-between-arabs-persians/

I go into a little bit about race identification there.

Also, the Cohen gene post has more info as well at http://www.mormonheretic.org/2008/05/16/significance-of-cohen-haplotype/

You can also click on my tag “DNA” to see most everything I’ve written on the subject.

Been trying to resolve the whole DNA thing in my head for a while now. Kind of a science freak. Does DNA really prove any thing other than many of our foremothers procreated a bunch or do we look at obvious physical and cultural equity.