"INDIANS ARE ISRAEL"? Puritans, Mormons & Hebrew Israelites Say "YES"!
The Hebraic Indian Theory Features in the 12 Tribes of Israel Chart of 1Westism. Before That, It Was Embraced in Puritan Publications, the Book of Mormon, & Other Sundry Places.
1West Hebrew Israelites use a distinctive sectarian document called the 12 Tribes Chart. The majority of Hebrew Israelites do not employ the 12 Tribes chart but the groups who display an affinity for 1Westism usually do. Even still, there are variations from camp to camp (GOCC’s variations come to mind). However, almost all versions claim that “Native American Indians” are descendants of Gad and that “Seminole Indians” are descendants of Reuben (see below).
In academic circles, this claim is an example of what scholars call the “Hebraic Indian” theory. The basic idea: indigenous peoples of the Americas are descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. This theory is also called the “Israelite Indian” theory, the “Jewish Indian” theory, or even the “Jewish Amerindian” theory. The Hebraic Indian theory was especially popular in the 1600s. Today, the most prominent religion holding to this notion is Mormonism, although 1West Hebrew Israelism is on the rise and has earned the second-place spot.
Let’s talk a little bit about the development of this idea. Eldad ha-Dani’s claims about the lost tribes are an early entry (circa 851-900 AD) into general lost tribes lore. For more on that, see The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History by Zvi Ben-Dor Benite. But now let’s get specific to the Hebraic Indian theory. A report by Menasseh ben Israel began circulating. It was a story he heard in Amsterdam in 1644 from Antonio de Montezinos, a traveler in South America. Montezinos said he ran into folks in the northern Andes (modern Colombia) who had similar rituals as the ancient Israelites. John Dury included this tale in his introduction to Thomas Thorowgood’s book (discussed below).
As we track the Hebraic Indian theory, now we move into the mid-17th century English-speaking world. Perhaps the earliest substantial treatment in the field is a Puritan pastor from Norfolk, England. In 1650, English Presbyterian writer Thomas Thorowgood published Jews in America or, Probabilities that the Americans are of that Race. This book promoted the notion that the American Indians descend from transplanted Hebrews. Thorowgood’s book was reissued in 1652 as Digitus Dei: New Discoveries.
In 1660, Thorowgood published Jews in America; or, Probabilities, that those Indians are Judaical, made more probable by some Additionals to the former Conjectures. This book advanced Thorowgood’s earlier work on the same subject. I own a copy of this book. The reason I bought it? I saw Hebrew Israelites touting it as evidence online.
Once Europeans understood that Cristofro Colombo did not make it to India, new theories were birthed about the genesis of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The whole “Indians are from the Ten Lost Tribes” idea was probably the “hottest” theory at the time, and has survived into the modern era via the LDS and 1West. Anglo-authors published to prove this in centuries prior, and now, many black and brown Americans have taken up the pen in service of the evergreen yet ever-evolving Hebraic Indian theory.
For example, C. Edward Miller’s (Arron Ben Moshe) 2008 book, The Black Hebrew Israelites of America: We Will Overcome! includes this sentence in the Table of Contents: “seven groups pf curses that are unique for black Americans, Latinos, and Indians in America, but also may indicate who the members of the Remnant are”. When one turns to page 307, the curses are listed as evidence: bad health, bad economy, bad family life, bad community life, oppression, death, and adopting false religion, said to be those “with gods of wood and stone” on page 309.
Interestingly, Ben Moshe does not appear to be a 1Wester but more closely aligned with the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem group (see pages 331-332). Yet Ben Moshe includes “the Indians in America” as a people group who fulfill the curses of Deuteronomy 28, thus demonstrating that they just may be Israelites.
Another book modern Hebrew Israelite touting the Hebraic Indian theory is As Swift as the Eagle Flieth by Eliora Israel (2022). The work is subtitled this way on the cover: “Irrefutable Historical Proof that the Progenies of the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the American Natives are the True Ethnic Biblical Hebrew Israelites”. An alternate subtitle can be found on the first page: “An Historical Overview of the True Ethnic Biblical Hebrew Israelites of the Southern & Northern Kingdoms”.
Where did the Native Americans come from was a question on the mind of many during the Colonial Era. Writing in The Glorious Progress of the Gospel Amongst the Indians in New England (1649). Former Mayflower passenger Edward Winslow (1595-1655) asked:
What became of the ten tribes of Israel, when their own country and cities were planted and filled with strangers? … What family, tribe, kindred, or people was it that first planted, and afterwards filled that vast and long unknown country of America?
Winslow answered these questions with this answer: “It is not less probable that these Indians should come from the stock of Abraham, than any other nation this day known in the world.”
Historians of the era believe that Puritan expectations of the soon approaching millennium drove this discussion. After the Reformation, perhaps Christ’s millennial reign was soon? If so, perhaps this meant a large-scale Jewish conversion to the Christian faith was forthcoming? Besides the impulse of the Great Commission, not there was an additional urgency for Protestants to support missions work among Native Americans.
Many historians believe the most influential work during the colonial era and beyond was James Adair’s The History of the American Indians (1775). On a personal level, I was first introduced to this work by a member of GOCC (Gathering of Christ Church), a 1West Hebrew Israelite camp. His name was Elder Gabar. He sent me a link to a book he said would help support the claims of the 12 Tribes chart. When I opened it, I saw it was hosted on an LDS website named “Oliver Crowdy’s Bookshelf”.
On that note: an important book regarding the LDS version of the Hebraic Indian theory and its destruction, see Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church. The author, Simon G. Southerton, is a former LDS bishop and molecular scientist. His work shows there is a 98.6% chance that Native Americans have a DNA connection to Asia and a 0% chance for a Middle East connection.
Back to Adair. Adair was a trader who traveled the southeastern US. He lived for four decades among various indigenous peoples. As a result, Adair was able to produce an early and relatively comprehensive account of indigenous American cultural practices. Scholars today would categorize his work as a rudimentary version of “participant observation ethnography.” The book contains a number of stories from the Cherokee and Chickasaw people, to name two groups he described.
I mentioned the Book of Mormon earlier in this post. A portion of The Book of Mormon tells of the settlement of the western hemisphere by Hebrews who fled Jerusalem during the Babylonian captivity. While it sounds bizarre to us in 2023, The Book of Mormon reflects a prominent strand of Colonial discourse at the time, namely, the Hebraic Indian theory. For example, Ethan Smith’s 1823 book View of the Hebrews (link is to the 1825 second edition).
One reason the Hebraic Indian theory gained popularity is because it solved two problems with one answer.
QUESTION: Where are the lost tribes of Israel? and
What is the origin of the native peoples of the Americas?
ANSWER: The Native Americans are the lost tribes of Israel, albeit, on a different continent and lacking the knowledge of who they truly are.
Elizabeth Fenton is a fascinating scholar who wrote a fascinating book on the subject of the Hebriac Indian theory: Old Canaan in a New World: Native Americans and the Lost Tribes of Israel (NYU Press, 2020). Here’s a summary from her work:
The Hebraic Indian theory structured discussions of American origins from the earliest moments of European arrival in the western hemisphere through the establishment of the United States. For three centuries, the theory emerged periodically as a central concern for those interested in deciphering the continents’ human history; and for three centuries it also diminished in the face of competing ideas. By the middle of the nineteenth century, though, this boom-and-bust cycle had ceased. Following the publication of The Book of Mormon in 1830, the theory’s popularity declined among other Christian sects.
The last line is true. But now, with the ascension of Hebrew Israelism within the New Religious Movement sphere, the Hebraic Indian theory has returned, and with a megaphone. Or at least a sandwich board poster on your local street corner.
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WATCH FOR A VIDEO BY NATIVE AMERICANS WHO ENDORSE THE THEORY (↓)