Joseph Smith, Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement and an important religious and political figure in the western United States. Beginning in 1827, Smith gathered a religious following after announcing that an angel had given him a set of golden plates describing the history of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. In 1830, Smith published what he said was a translation of these plates as the Book of Mormon and organized a restorationist denomination called the Church of Christ, its members known as Latter Day Saints.