Native Americans: “Lost Tribes” mystery
For me, the new year ignites curiosity about the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel. We in the Ashkenazi community pray during Rosh Hashanah Mussaf for that day when “a Great Shofar will blast and the lost in the land of Ashur . . . will come and bow to G-d on the Holy Mountain in Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 18:3). Hassam Sofer in his Derashot (6b) explains. The sound of that shofar will awaken the Jewish souls of the Lost 10 Tribes (whom Sanheriv — Sennacherib -– of Assyria assimilated into his paganism and drove to parts unknown) and bring them home again, spiritually and physically.
In the meantime, thanks to the work of dedicated organizations, we have found some of these brethren. The Rabbinate has recognized the Ethiopian Jews. In addition, the Bene Menashe of India have emerged. Others we dismissed, such as the Japanese. They lack Jewish roots, let alone belong to the Lost Tribes, research has uncovered.
Then we have Native Americans. For centuries, even as I grew up in the United States in the 1960s, a belief persisted that they (known in those days as American Indians) belonged to the 10 Lost tribes of the Kingdom of Israel. Genetic testing, namely, DNA, shows no Middle Eastern ancestry. Case closed. Move on.
Not so fast. Listening to an audio book a few weeks ago, I heard the narrator say tangentially that at least one Native American tribe, the Ojibwa, the Chippewa, an important tribe in Canada and the Midwestern US, share a fundamental, but esoteric, belief with us: one that I have not heard of in any other religion.
That led me to further research. Some Native Americans and Jews have other, distinctive religious tenets in common – beliefs otherwise unheard of or rarely found in ancient times. Where did the Native Americans get them? I am no expert and I invite readers to inform me. I will explore the evidence.
In the 17th Century, when the idea of the Indigenous tribes in North and South America (descendants of the same populations in Asia) as the Lost Hebrews appeared, theology undergirded the movement. Christians, who in those days (and even the likes of Benedict XVI in the 21st Century and traditional Evangelicals today) believed that their messiah could “return” only upon the Jews converting. Seeing unknown souls in strange lands to proselytize, conveniently, they called them Jews.
On the other end of the spectrum, the famous Jewish scholar, Menashe ben Israel (to whom Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik devoted a chapter in his book on prominent Jews in history) held that Jews must inhabit every place in the world. He took literally the prayer we recited in blessing the month of Elul yesterday that “”He who performed miracles for our ancestors . . . will redeem us soon and will gather our castaways from the four corners of the Earth. . . .” Menashe ben Israel found the Indigenous of South America and pronounced them Jews from the Lost Tribes. That must include the Native Americans in the north.
In the mid-and-late 20th Century, an affinity grew out of common experiences of cultural and physical oppression. In my work involving Native water rights and attempts to establish viable economic development on reservations, I dealt with Jewish lawyers. We tried to help fellow downtrodden people rise out of poverty.
DNA testing ruled otherwise. Native Americans originated in a different part of Asia. In Jewish law, facts carry the day. (See Tractate Ediyot).
Here, other questions persist.
Native Americans share important doctrines with Jews. Mary Anne Pember’s book Medicine River, details the cultural genocide the US engaged in against Native Americans in government-run tribal schools. Not only did the authorities remove children from their families, the teachers forbade students from speaking their native language, erased their history and cut their hair. The worst occurred when the school robbed Native Americans of their names.
Ojibwa religion teaches that members cannot enter Heaven without knowing their names. Judaism holds that, when the soul reaches the Heavenly Court, the departed must state their name. As a mnemonic device, in the Amidah, we say biblical passages containing the first and last letters of our Hebrew names. To my knowledge, no other religion believes that way. Further research uncovered monotheism, unique to ancient Jews. This monotheism meant a sole G-d, with no partners or intermediaries. I found also a pre-Christian belief in revival of the dead and, fitting for Elul, special prayers to G-d for forgiveness.
How to explain this mystery?
