Posted on 11/24/2005 8:08:35 PM PST by SmithL
Israelis are known to be found in every corner of the world, but an American historian has claimed they were thought to be in America 400 years ago. Mark Miller, a history professor at the Roanoke College in Virginia, said that the first European settlers in America believed native Indians were Israelites who had lost their faith.
The Indians were mistaken for a "lost Israeli tribe that had been blown off course and landed in America" and became savages, according to the historian.
It's not ALL war and terror.
I hope you're having a nice Thanksgiving.
Nonsense. All we need to do is think back to "Blazing Saddles", and the yiddish speaking American Indians.
Bellesiles revisited.
Pity the schlemiel who traded away Manhattan to the Goyim for a bunch of glass beads.
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I'm not 100% sure there's not some element of truth here.
It has to be a Mormon influence. The Mormon Cult has a historical belief that after Jesus was resurrected from the grave, Jesus (a jew) came to America to preach to the American Indian.
The Mormons believe American Indians are wayward Israelites.
It's straight from their Crack-pot Founder Joseph Smith and in his/their "Book of Mormon".
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DNA tests show "native" Americans are not related to ancient Judeans.
Probably the other way around. Mormonism wasn't founded until the early 1800s, long after the first settlers had arrived in America and "discovered" the Native Americans. The idea that the N.A.'s might be lost Israelites predates Joseph Smith, though he very well may have been influenced by it. It would have made Mormonism a little more convincing to some people if they already had a prior belief in Israelites living in North America.
The idea that the Indians might be a lost tribe of Israel long predates Joseph Smith. It was one of the most common theories pretty much from the time Europeans landed.
Joe just expanded on and elaborated the concept.
>>There's a Mel Brooks movie plot somewhere in there.<<
Its already been done. See Joseph Smith's Book of Mormon. Not a bit of humor in it, but loosely based on the same flawed theories.
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