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Justice wrote: It does not mean he was alive and took place in the final battle of Cumorah. They may very well have ended up in New York before that last day when 320,000 of the Nephites were slain in a single day.
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Except that Ainsworth, and most LDS scholars do not believe the Cumorah battle happened in New York state, but in Mesoamerica! Ainsworth's concept is that Mormon was wounded at the battle of Cumorah in Mesoamerica, and went with Moroni elsewhere for almost 15 years. We find Moroni and Mormon giving several farewells, because they really don't know when they are done with the record and their lives. In one farewell, dated about 400 AD, Moroni states:
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Moroni 8:1 Behold I, Moroni, do finish the record of my father, Mormon. Behold, I have but few things to write, which things I have been commanded by my father.
2 And now it came to pass that after the great and tremendous battle at Cumorah, behold, the Nephites who had escaped into the country southward were hunted by the Lamanites, until they were all destroyed.
3 And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. But behold, they are gone, and I fulfil the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not.
4 Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the earth; and whither I go it mattereth not.
5 Behold, my father hath made this record, and he hath written the intent thereof. And behold, I would write it also if I had room upon the plates, but I have not; and ore I have none, for I am alone. My father hath been slain in battle, and all my kinsfolk, and I have not friends nor whither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not.
6 Behold, *four hundred years have passed away since the coming of our Lord and Savior.
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His father has finally been killed by the Lamanites - sometime AFTER the Cumorah battle.
Tradition states that Moroni wandered more, for 21 more years after this. Brigham Young claimed that Moroni had dedicated the spot upon which the Manti Temple is situated for a future temple. So we can figure he went through the American southwest. We also know that Moroni buried the plates in the New York Hill Cumorah - named by Oliver Cowdery as an assumption, never so named by the angel. It would have been easy for him to pass by other groups, as he noted that the Lamanites were battling amongst themselves for years.
It is possible that the destruction of the Nephites at the Mesoamerican Cumorah was not the "final" battle. In fact, the evidence shows the battles continuing in the north. As Jerry Ainsworth notes, many people had moved into the northern lands. Over 400 years, they could have expanded further and further, integrating with many tribes already present. Onandagus most likely was an Ammonite, as was Zelph; as we do not have evidence of any other white Lamanites going north.
Whether Moroni ran into Onandagus or another with extra plates is, of course, speculation. Somehow, Moroni did obtain the ability to make more plates. If he didn't have the skill to mine and create the plates, he would have had to find someone with that skill. It is as likely to have been the Ammonites in the north, as anyone else.
How famous Onandagus really was is also conjecture. Remember, the vast majority of people were wicked Lamanites and Nephites. They may have heard of Onandagus, but would have only sought to kill him, as they sought to slay Mormon.
Interestingly, the name Onandagus is more of a tribes North American Indian name, than a BoM name. This shows evidence of inter-mingling with the locals over the 400 years of moving northward.