Native Americans and the Jews

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Whether or not Native Americans are one of the lost tribes of Israel, the strange parallels between them and the Jews are intriguing.

In his book, Mikveh Israel, written in 1650, the scholar Menashe Ben Israel suggested that a brand of South and Central American Indians were a remnant of Jews sent to exile by King Assyria and from the ten lost tribes. His theory did not gain popularity among the rabbis of his time.

The notion was revived when James Adair, an Irish trader who lived among the Indians for over 40 years, wrote in his book, The History of the American Indians, published in 1775, “From the most accurate observations I could make, in the long time I traded among the Indians of America, I was forced to believe them lineally descended from the tribes of Israel.”

Adair recorded a number of parallels in cultural practices between the Jews and the Indians. Some examples include: their division into tribes, their appointment of holy priests, their manner of counting the months through the lunar year, their festivals – some which he claimed corresponded with the Jewish calendar, their fasts and religious rites which they believed helped cleanse them of their sins, their laws of uncleanliness and marital separation during a women’s menstrual period, their ritual purification after touching the dead, their cities of refuge, their manner of burial of and mourning for the dead, and their perpetuating the name of a deceased brother through remarriage of his wife.

Adair claimed that the Jews and Indians had similar languages and dialects, with both languages lacking prepositions and formed with prefixes and suffixes. Adair also provided examples of Native American words that are supposedly similar to Hebrew words. In one example, he referred to the word for man in the Indian language as ish or ishie.

Some influential individuals such as William Penn embraced his idea, but others, including Thomas Jefferson, were more than skeptical. In a letter penned to John Adams about Adair’s belief, he wrote, “He adopts all the falsehoods which favor his theory.”

The “Holy Stones”

Another notable incident in the 1800’s that refueled a dying debate was the discovery of the Newark Holy Stones, found in a cluster of Indian mines in Newark, Ohio. Some of the stones were written with the modern Hebrew alphabet, while others were in archaic or Paleo-Hebrew, a language that dates back to pre-Colombian times. The stones contained the name of God spelled out in yud-key-vav-key, an abridged version of the Ten Commandments, and an engraving of what historians believe to be Moses surrounded by ancient Hebrew lettering.

Some years Later, the Los Lunas Dacalogue stone, an 80-ton boulder with an abridged version of Ten Commandments in Paleo-Hebrew, was also found in New Mexico. These discoveries sparked a reaction from both supporters and skeptics alike. While Reform leader Isaac Mayer Wise chose to undermine the stone’s authenticity, Orthodox leader Isaac Leeser sided in favor of the theory. He penned in his paper, The Occident, “The sons of Jacob were walking on the soil of Ohio many centuries before the birth of Columbus.”

Likewise, as many historians and archeologists as there are who see the stones as authentic proofs, an equal number rejects them as hoaxes. None of these stones were tested for authenticity in a lab environment.

Chief Riverwind

Chief Joseph Riverwind, the present tribe leader of the Northern Arawak Tribal Nation of South American and the Caribbean, dismisses the skepticism as ethnocentrism. A descendant of the bnei anusim or crypto-Jews, Riverwind is among the few who believe that Native Americans share ties with the Jews. Chief Riverwind shared his atypical sentiments in an interview with Breaking Israel News. In the interview, he shared and translated a prayer which he believes is reminiscent of the shema prayer: “Shema, shema, nayena, popaska hoya yah” was translated to, “listen, listen, people, as you gather together, we will dance before the creator.”

Chief Joseph Riverwind

Riverwind explained that while among his people, the ancient name for God is Yah Yah, among his wife’s ancestors, the Cherokee, they called God YoHeWaH, a title with striking similarities to yud-ke-vav-keh. “They also carried an ark into battle, kept a seventh day of rest, had cities of refuge, and don’t eat pork," maintains Riverwind.

Chief Riverwind also told Breaking Israel News of the stories that are passed down by trained storytellers that he claims existed from Pre-Colombian times. One story relates how the Creator came to a man called Nuah and told him the world would be covered with water, after which he built a raft to save the future of mankind. A second story he related is how mankind tried to build a tower to the sky and was dispersed by God, reminiscent of the account of the Tower of Babel.

Theory Debunked?

The theory had been relegated to myth once geneticist Simon G. Southerton’s publicized his findings in his book, Losing a Lost Tribe. Southerton recounts his study of the origin of Native Americans based on DNA genetic markers to reveal that the Indians are of Siberian and Polynesian origin. If, as people claim, they are descended from Jews, genetic markers should point in the direction of the Middle East.

Despite the fact that many see this theory as a bygone notion of the past, some scientists, geneticists, and historians continue to quietly study and hypothesize. According to The Jewish Chronicle, Geneticist and Cherokee descendant Donald Yates, genetically tested a group of 67 Cherokee Indians and have found a new gene among one-quarter of them – a gene largely found in the Middle East. In a surprising study recorded in a 2013 National Geographic article, nearly one-third of the Native American genes tested come from the Middle East and Europe, rather than East Asia, as originally assumed.

We may never be able to scientifically prove the true origins of most Native Americans or whether any were influenced firsthand by the Jewish people. Some speculate that King Solomon may have reached America in his three-year trading voyages to bring back exotic animals and gold, possibly influencing the Indians – but it remains a conjecture only. One indisputable fact, however, is the far-reaching impact the Jews continue to have on the world.

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Jody Back
Jody Back
2 months ago

This is True there is a link between Native people and the Jews.

Redpointpirate
Redpointpirate
1 month ago
Reply to  Jody Back

It is . They found a stone that was dismissed intill they found another one just like it in Isreal . My Grandmother was half Cherokee. Some went on the trail of tears and the others went to Baltimore. My grandfather was European decent but with the last name Benjamin. Interesting. Cherokee use to have beards. They breaded with whites and the slaves they traded for.

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