[alnorth]

According to the book of Mormon and Joseph Smith (the founder of the LDS church):

Long ago during the time of Christ, some Hebrews sailed the ocean and settled in America, they were the original Native Americans, all white skinned, and began practicing the Mormon religion, erecting temples that have never been found in our day. Some time afterwards, the native Americans who did not believe in the Mormon faith warred with and killed all the believers. God therefore turned their skin red as punishment.

Fast-forward to the 1800's. A man named Joseph Smith was praying to God asking for guidance on which faith he should join. God and Jesus appeared to tell him that all the Christian faiths were twisted abominations and that he should join none of them. Some time later, an angel named Moroni appeared to tell him to seek out the writings of the true religion that were etched on a collection of solid gold plates, written by the original Native American people who believed in the true faith long ago. When he found it, it was written in a language he described as "Reformed Egyptian". The angel then told him that with the use of some kind of special translation stones, he would be able to translate the golden texts into English.

When he did that, he had them printed out as the Book of Mormon and started his church. However, God apparently told Joseph Smith that he was not allowed to show anyone the original golden tablets, and they have never actually been seen by anyone else with their eyes. A group of loyal family members and friends of Joseph Smith later claimed to "see" the existence of the golden ancient text with their "spiritual eyes" but not with their earthly ones.

Thatll do for a Cliff's notes version of how this cult got started, if I got something wrong, someone please correct me.