The Kinderhook Plates

A very good explanation is given by Cold Case Christianity.

Several quotes find their original source from LDS history.

Comment of the Prophet on the Kinderhook Plates.

"I insert fac-similes of the six brass plates found near Kinderhook, in Pike county, Illinois, on April 23, by Mr. Robert Wiley and others, while excavating a large mound. They found a skeleton about six feet from the surface of the earth, which must have stood nine feet high. The plates were found on the breast of the skeleton and were covered on both sides with ancient characters. I have translated a portion of them, and find they contain the history of the person with whom they were found. He was a descendant of Ham, through the loins of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the Ruler of heaven and earth" (History of the Church, Volume 5, chapter 19 - online, local copy).

In a letter written to a friend on Sunday, May 7, Parley P. Pratt said: “A large number of Citizens have seen them and compared the characters with those on the Egyptian papyrus which is now in this city.” A few lines previously, he had begun his comment on the plates as follows:

"Six plates having the appearance of Brass have lately been dug out of a mound by a gentleman in Pike Co. Illinois. They are small and filled with engravings in Egyptian language and contain the genealogy of one of the ancient Jaredites back to Ham the son of Noah. His bones were found in the same vase (made of Cement). Part of the bones were 15 ft. underground" (August 1981 Ensign, online, online, local copy).

In the magazine article, the LDS Church would also classify it as a hoax. So, earlier we have a record that Joseph Smith says he translated a portion but at the same time he was tricked into translating bogus plates.

In a humorous attempt to defend the LDS prophet, the article writes, "So it is that in the 100-year battle of straw men and straw arguments, Joseph Smith needs no defense—he simply did not fall for the scheme. And with that understood, it is perhaps time that the Kinderhook plates be retired to the limbo of other famous faked antiquities".

But he did fall for the scheme. The historical record says he translated a portion of them.