Missouri Cherokee Tribes proclaim Jewish Heritage

In explaining this connection Beverly Baker Northup is quoted as saying:

"The story has been kept alive among our Cherokee people that the Sicarii who escaped from Masada, are some of our ancestors who managed to cross the water to this land, and later became known as Cherokees. (Please note the phonetic resemblance of Si'cari'i and, Cherokee or Tsa'ra-gi'.)"

Northup claims that the famous scholar Josephus wrote that there were escapees from Masada in which the spokesperson for the Northern Cherokee states that this is evidence that gives credence to this connection between the Cherokee Indians and the Jews.

In addition to other startling claims, there is also the belief by the Northern Cherokee that a rock that was uncovered in Tennessee in 1889 that is named the Bat Creek Stone, proves a transatlantic connection to Jews.

Northup believes that the scratched writings on the rock indicate that the stone is evidence of a first century Atlantic Crossing to America by these escaped Jews that later became known as the Northern Cherokee Indians.

The Northern Cherokee attempted to gain full legislative recognition in the State of Missouri in 1985 that was eventually vetoed by Governor John Ashcroft. Governor Ashcroft made the following statement concerning his decision to veto the recognition of the Northern Cherokee:

"The Federal Government has traditionally exercised authority with respect to Indian Affairs. I am not persuaded that the state has such a substantial interest in this area that it should become involved in the recognition of Indian tribes."

Sources among some federally recognized Indian Tribes have stated that Mr. Ashcroft's comments were 100% correct and should be referred to from time to time.

Thanks for the ping. I've known of this ever since John Kerry and Hillary anounced they were part Cherokee. It's in the tradition of Jewish Indians.

Solomon Bibo (America's only known Jewish Indian Chief)

(1853-1934)

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From the earliest contact between North American Indians and white European settlers, the Europeans held the upper hand. Almost unremittingly, the Europeans imposed their idea of private ownership of land on the Native Americans, obtaining it from them by purchase, stealth and war. Virtually every Indian tribe in North America found its contacts with white settlers painful, if not fatal, and few Indians trusted or respected, much less loved, the white men and women they knew.

One exception to this generalization was Solomon Bibo, a white trader who won the trust and affection of the Acoma Pueblo Indians of New Mexico. In 1888, "Don Solomono," as he was known to the Acomas, became governor of the Acoma Pueblo, the equivalent of chief of the tribe. Remarkably, the Acomas asked the United States to recognize Bibo as their leader. Even more remarkable is that Bibo was a Jew.

Solomon Bibo was born in Prussia in 1853, the sixth of eleven children. In 1866, two of Solomon’s brothers ventured to America and settled in New Mexico, which in 1848 had become part of the United States after being first a Spanish colony and then part of Mexico. Initially, the older Bibo brothers worked for the Spiegelberg family, pioneer Jewish merchants in New Mexico, but moved on to the tiny village of Ceboletta, where they set up a trading post to exchange goods with the Navajos. In 1869, at the age of sixteen, Solomon Bibo left Germany for America. After spending some months on the East coast learning English, he joined his brothers in Ceboletta.

All three Bibo brothers developed reputations for fairness in their dealings with the local Indian tribes, who used to bring the Bibos the farm produce they grew. In turn, the Bibo’s, under contract to the U. S. government, supplied the army forts in the area with this produce. The Indians were paid a fair price by the Bibo’s, which encouraged the Indians to improve their farming techniques. The Bibos also became deeply involved in mediating the many disputes over land ownership that arose between the Indians and the Mexican residents of the area, who for centuries had coveted the Indians’ lands. They also tried to intercede with local white Americans (Anglos) who tried to purchase Indian lands at below market prices. The Bibos were considered pro-Indian and were not particularly embraced by either the Mexicans or their fellow Anglos.

None of the Bibos became more endeared to the Indians than Solomon was to the Acomas. In 1882, he arrived at the pueblo and set up a trading post. He learned Queresan, the Acoma language, and helped the tribe fight its legal battles to restore its traditional lands. By treaty in 1877, the Acomas had been granted 94,000 acres of land by the U.S. government, far less than the Indians thought they were entitled to according to historical evidence. The Acomas were determined that they should lose no more than had already slipped through their hands.

To accomplish this end, in 1884 the tribe decided to offer Bibo a 30 year lease to all their land, in exchange for which he would pay them $12,000, protect their cattle, keep squatters away and mine the coal under the Acoma lands, for which he would pay the tribe a royalty of ten cents per ton for each ton extracted. Pedro Sanchez, the U.S. Indian agent from Santa Fe, learned of the deal and, jealous of the success of the "rico Israelito" (rich Jew), tried to get the federal government to void the lease..

The Bibo family fought back. Simon Bibo petitioned the Board of Indian Commissioners in Washington to the effect that his brother Solomon’s "intentions with the Indians are of the best nature and beneficial to them – because the men, women and children love him as they would a father and he is in the same manner attached to them." In 1888, convinced finally that Bibo had acted honorably, the Indian agent for New Mexico wrote, "To the people of the pueblo of Acoma, having confidence in the ability, integrity and fidelity of Solomon Bibo... I hereby appoint [him] governor of said pueblo."

In 1885, Solomon married an Acoma woman, Juana Valle, granddaughter of his predecessor as governor of the Acoma Pueblo. Juana was originally a Catholic, but observed the Jewish faith and raised her children as Jews. In 1898, wanting their children to receive a Jewish education, Solomon and Juana relocated to San Francisco, where he invested in real estate and opened a fancy food shop. Their oldest son was bar mitzvah at San Francisco’s Ohabei Shalome, and the younger attended religious school at Temple Emanuel. Solomon Bibo died in 1934, Juana in 1941. Solomon Bibo, governor of the Acomas, America’s only known Jewish Indian chief, is buried with his Indian princess in the Jewish cemetery in Colma, California.

Tom McClelland of Richland shows the skull casting of Kennewick Man. He and anthropologist Jim Chatters used to re-create the facial features of the 9,200-year-old discovery.
Herald/André Ranieri
June 3, 2001
Richland scientist explores ancient Americans' origins

This story was published June 3, 2001
Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans, by James C. Chatters, Simon & Schuster, 2001, 303 pages, $26. By Andy Perdue Herald staff writer Quite simply, Kennewick Man is the biggest story of our time.

The discovery of 9,500-year-old bones along the Columbia River is bigger than any sports event, any terrorist attack and any presidential election. It's about the early inhabitants of this continent and our understanding of who they were and how they got here.

Kennewick Man is a journalist's dream, a story with legs. Next month is the fifth anniversary of the skeleton's discovery, yet interest globally remains high, in part because of the interest in the science and history of Kennewick Man, but mostly because the issue is so politically charged.

James Chatters, the Richland archaeologist and forensic scientist who handled the skull after it was discovered and found most of the rest of the skeleton, is the only expert to study Kennewick Man in any depth - and he had just a short time to do that before the ancient bones were taken by the Army Corps of Engineers. Chatters has written a book about the experience and his studies of other ancient bones that can help us understand the origins of ancient North Americans.

Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans, which will be released Thursday, is the fourth book on Kennewick Man and the most authoritative and scientific in its approach because of Chatters' expertise and firsthand knowledge of the bones.

Chatters opens with his proposed version of Kennewick Man's last hours alive, a touching approach that grabs the reader's attention. He then dives into the story of the discovery and his involvement.

Much to his dismay, Chatters ended up in the middle of a firestorm over the bones because American Indians, particularly the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, claimed the bones as their own under federal repatriation law.

Upon examination, Chatters said the bones were Caucasoid in nature, which many mistook to mean "white." From his experience and viewpoint, Chatters and other scientists didn't see how Kennewick Man could be associated with any modern American Indian tribes because the bones seemed to tell another story.

But that story quickly was quashed when the Corps got involved, seized the bones from Chatters and planned to give them to the Umatillas for reburial. What followed was a legal battle between eight prominent scientists (a group that didn't include Chatters) and the government that continues today. A federal judge is scheduled to rule on the lawsuit June 19 in Portland.

Chatters would prefer to keep his book on Kennewick Man straightforward and scientific in nature, but Ancient Encounters can't help but be political by the story's very nature.

He discusses his past work with American Indians, particularly the Colville tribe, in analyzing and repatriating bones. He's obviously sympathetic to the tribes and their points of view on ancient remains. He points out his wife and daughter are part American Indian, so he, too, has a stake in the tribal side of the story.

In the first half of Ancient Encounters, Chatters describes the discovery and early research, then the hapless bungling by the Corps that led to the endless legal arguments and proceedings.

It's obvious Chatters just wants to be a scientist, to learn about what the bones can tell us, then do the right thing with them, whether that means reburying them or keeping them for study. He's been hurt by the accusations and the severed ties with tribal members, and he's horrified by the bones' treatment in the possession of the government.

Once the Kennewick Man story runs dry, Chatters looks at other ancient skeletons and uses seemingly disparate clues to find some answers to the epic story of the earliest Americans. Chatters' investigation starts when he still has Kennewick Man and is getting an additional opinion from a colleague at Central Washington University in Ellensburg. While there, he notices part of another skull on a shelf that seems similar to Kennewick Man. After much study, he is able to pinpoint "Stick Man" as likely being from the same era and area as Kennewick Man.

This exciting discovery propels Chatters to look at bones from Idaho, Nevada, Texas, Washington and elsewhere. He leads the reader through his research and into a discussion on early migration patterns and why the long-regarded Clovis First model of ancient immigrants coming from Siberia across a land bridge through Alberta probably is wrong, and offers alternative theories.

Throughout Ancient Encounters, Chatters uses science, not rhetoric, to make his claim that Kennewick Man was from an ancient and probably extinct people who in no way could be mistaken for being ancestors to modern American Indians. He isn't some knee-jerk redneck who wants to reduce tribal claims but a scientist who believes that is what Kennewick Man tells him.

Ancient Encounters is an exciting, approachable and important book that should be read by anyone fascinated by the Kennewick Man story and interested in our origins.

For More Reading on Kennewick Man

The Indians are really fighting to keep any scientific information from being learned. They don't want us to discover that they are not the "First Americans"

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