"The brass plates obtained from Laban contained the five books of Moses (apparently similar to the first five books of the Bible -- the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), a record of the Jews from the beginning down to Zedekiah, and the prophecies of the prophets from the beginning down to Jeremiah. (1 Nephi 3:3-20, 5:11-13.) This would explain how the biblical stories were known by the American Indian groups even before the arrival of the Catholic fathers and their Bibles after the time of Columbus. Historians have concluded the American Indians knew of the story of the creation, the flood, etc., before the time of Columbus, although they have not been able to explain how the Indians came into possession of this knowledge.
"In volume 4 of his Antiquities of Mexico, Lord Kingsborough found so many evidences of biblical stories among the Indians that he concluded:
'It is unnecessary to attempt in this place to trace out any further scriptural analogies in the traditions and mythology of the New World, since the coincidences which have already been mentioned are sufficiently strong to warrant the conclusion that the Indians, at a period long antecedent to the arrival of the Spaniards in America, were acquainted with a portion at least of the Old Testament.' (London: Robert Havell, 1831 1848, p. 409.)" (Daniel Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon, pp.98-99)