And don’t forget that stories like this most certainly influenced Joseph Smith when he made up the Mormon religion. With him it was the lost tribes of Israel who migrated to North America, because no “Native Heathens” could possibly have built anything of importance.
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It helps to remember that the idea of building Stonehenge like monuments originated in northern Scotland and spread south, also that the genetic evidence shows that the builders of Stonehenge were replaced by later immigrants to the British Isles.
And biologists, “for attracting mates”.
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Unfortunately, it is for people who think the ONLY civilization that ever really existed is this one (the modern, capitalist system).
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All that’s true, but there is no reason for people to still believe this, given the great work done by historians and anthropologists on this very topic.
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My recollection is that the Book of Mormon says that Native Americans are themselves descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel. That certainly was a common belief among in Americans in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
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It’s not exactly a small cadre. There are multiple TV networks with multiple shows focused on the subject. The entire ancient aliens theory is based on exactly this thinking. The alt right who are preeeety big and influential right now, assorted other fascist and white supremacists movements use this shit to “prove” their claims with “logic” and “facts”.
So yeah scientists and people who pay attention/accept science as a thing know better. But these claims are endemic right now.
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What I hear you saying is that aliens landed in Scotland first.
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Of course, but gullibility and ignorance are a very powerful combo. Why pick up a well-researched book when you can watch garbage like Ancient Aliens or read the fanciful ravings of some crackpot who peddles conspiracies about the Smithsonian systematically destroying ample evidence that North America was once populated by a race of super-intelligent giants? It’s all part of the ongoing devaluing of science and expertise in favour of “doing your research” by wallowing in pseudoscience and seeing everything coming out of any respected institution as a conspiracy.
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Do we know why they were built? if you live on a flood plain it seems a pretty smart idea to have somewhere to escape to when the river comes up
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… how did you get in to take a picture of my bathroom? 
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I hear the first stone they stepped upon is a sacred object of some sort.
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I’m so glad we’ve stopped having so much difficulty, as a society and as individuals, accepting new factual information which might challenge our established belief systems and power structures. It was awful when we sucked at that, back then in those dark ages. 
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But the vast majority believes the Bible is actual history despite of lack of corroborating archaeological evidence, and some contradicting. Questioning this will get you censored or banned on mainstream media discussion forums. Even BB, I bet.
Came here for this pic.
Raising you an EvD:
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Yes, and some people are still forlornly defending the Book of Mormon in the teeth of modern genetics. Mmm, by claiming that modern Jews don’t have Ancient Israelite DNA, so Indigenous people really could be the Lost Tribes . Right. Sure. That makes sense. /s
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1491 and 1493 were so damned interesting it was ridiculous. If all I’d learned from either book was the scope of the changes brought about by the earthworms in ships’ ballast, it would have been well worth the read, and that comes in the first 20 pages of the first book if I remember correctly!
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I had no idea these mounds even existed. Pretty cool.
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