The prophet Joseph Smith’s claim that the Book of Mormon is a translation of the recovered writings of ancient American prophets has attracted intense scrutiny from the day it was published. As a consequence, the Book’s historicity needed to be defended from detractors and promoted to the faithful. Recent whole-genome studies on thousands of Indigenous Americans and Polynesians has failed to find a trace of ancient Book of Mormon Israelites in the pre-Columbian Americas or in the Pacific. There is now an enormous body of scientific evidence that raises serious questions about the history it presents, the racist ideas it contains, its use to erase indigenous culture and the value of persisting with vanishing Lamanite apologetics.