The Role of the Lost Tribes Theory in Promoting Missions

Right: the Pilgrims make a treaty with Massasoit of the Wampanoags.



As you may recall, many whites and at least some Indians once believed that Algonkian Indians were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Something that James De Jong's As the Waters Cover the Sea does well is to explain what that "lost tribes theory" did for missions to those Indians. One might say that it motivated whites to support mission work. Many believed that the conversion of Native Americans would lead to the Chilead, or Millennium (a one-thousand-year period in which Christ would reign over a peaceful earth).

"...many leading Puritans in England and America wrote and endorsed missionary propaganda in the 1640's and 1650's. Their support was predicated on the belief that through missions, the glorious gospel day would dawn. It should be noted that this faith was based on many Old and New Testament passages of hope and not on a few select verses" De Jong, page 55.

Those verses included Psalm 72:8, Isaiah 49:6, Matthew 24:14, Mark 16:15, and Revelations 21:21.

However, as you may recall, things went downhill with King Philip's War in 1676. By that time, the lost tribes theory was not as widely believed. De Jong says (page 64) that scholars had a variety of ideas about the origin of the American Indians at that time.

I know of at least one person who believes in the Lost Tribes Theory to this very day.

People of the Wild Rice

To your right is part of a drawing that was digitized for the Wisconsin State Historical Society's
"Turning Points in Wisconsin History" collection. It had appeared in the American Anthropologist many years before that.



Unlike some topics covered in this blog, there is no shortage of media coverage on wild rice (and in most cases, one of the first things mentioned is that it is not technically rice). Wild rice is such a healthy food that it is recommended by people like Dr. Andrew Weil. Although the Indians that lived in the Great Lakes region before white contact didn't have nutritionists, or dieticians, they knew the value of their special food.

As a matter of fact, they fought wars over it.

In the August, 1974 National Geographic article about the Menominees, a caption on page 239 explains that the Indian word for wild rice is "manomen," and the Menominees got their name from it. And so I came to think of the Menominees as the people of the wild rice.

However, a couple years ago when I was driving through the Bad River Chippewa reservation on my way to Ashland (WI), I saw a hand-painted sign that said "Manomen." I turned my vehicle around and went back to the house that had that sign along the side of the highway. The man selling the authentic wild rice was taking a nap, so I wound up talking to his college-age nephews for a little while. When I said something about how the Menominees were the "people of the wild rice," the two men became animated. They were emphatic, no they said, "we are the people of the wild rice! They were here but we kicked their [---]! Yeah we kicked their [---], that was before you guys [white people] were here." So I guess I didn't need to read about the wild rice wars, I learned it orally.




This photo, taken by a National Park Service employee, illustrates Wikipedia's entry on the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians.





The Lost tribes theory is one aspect of Algonkian Church History that I've been somewhat neglectful of. In future posts, I will present evidence that at least some of the Stockbridge Mohicans believed that they were the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel (white people actually advanced that theory first and that is documented in some of my earlier posts). Anyway, when I first heard of the lost tribes theory it seemed ridiculous to me. But there are a few pieces of evidence that have made me seriously wonder about it lately. One is just the Algonkian word "Manomen." It is awfully close to the word "Manna." The special food that the Great Spirit gave to the Menominees sounds an awful lot like the special food that the Old Testament's God sent to the ancient Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness.

American Creation

American Creation is a history blog that I occasionally look at. It is about the role of religion in the founding of our country (the United States of America). I wouldn't call the authors anti-Christian, but they sometimes take a few rips at people like televangelism pioneer Pat Robertson. Only a few of their posts are about Native Americans. Here are three that I consider to have some relevance to Algonkian Church History:


1. Should We Celebrate Columbus Day? Answer: whether we do or not, you should remember this: He was a Really Bad Person. He used the Bible to justify violence and enslaving the Taino people for his own economic gain.



2. American Indians and Property If you think American Indians had no concept of property, you're guilty of looking upon them as "noble savages." To me, the post would have been better if historic/anthropological details were discussed, rather than just a discussion about European philosophers and what they said or wrote. Nevertheless, I agree that the Algonkians did have notions of property. But they weren't quite the same as those of the whites, were they? The Indians (of course) had an economy, but it was more of a communal one than that of the whites.


3. Native Americans and the Lost Tribes of Israel This is American Creation's take on the Lost Tribes theory.

Calvin Colton Reports on the Stockbridge Bible

An artist's conception of the ancient Israelites' ark of the covenant ---->



Not everything ever written about the Stockbridge Bible made it into the paper that I submitted to The Book Collector. My paper did mention, however, that the oak chest which was used to transport the two volumes was compared to the Ark of the Covenant which was used by the ancient Israelites to carry two stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written. The person who made that comparison was Calvin Colton. Here is what he observed:

"I saw a Bible yesterday, safely kept in a sort of ark, at their place of worship, a remarkable relic of Hebrew custom), printed at Oxford, England, in 1717, of the largest and finest type I have ever seen; except one shown me two years ago in the English Church at Montreal, the last of which was said to be the largest and fairest type of a Bible ever done in English. From the resemblance of the two, I have reason to believe they are both of the same impression."

Colton then describes the physical characteristics and quotes the inscriptions of Ayscough and Coram. Then he continues:

It was transported with the tribe to the State of New York; -and for aught I know, with all the sacerdotal solemnities of their Hebrew fathers, in ancient days. And it was again transported by the same religious care to this vast wilderness [Coram had referred to New England as a vast wilderness], of the North-West. And here it is, a perpetual monument of their fear of God, and of their love of his word and ordinances. their reverence for this volume and for the ark [the chest of oak] which contains it, is almost superstitious" (pages 187-190).

Did you notice that Colton's words don't make a lot of sense until you realize that he was a believer in the lost tribes theory?

The Stockbridge Bible and the Lost Tribes Theory

Have you seen the earlier posts in this series?:
Introduction to the Stockbridge Bible
From Generation to Generation
A Summary of 50 Years at the Massachusetts Mission Town

I've had the opportunity to deal with some things in detail here in Algonkian Church History that I just summarized in my article about the Stockbridge Bible ["From Generation to Generation," in The Book Collector, Spring, 2007, pages 49-66]. That, of course, includes U.S. Indian Policy, removals, tribal in-fighting and even the lost tribes theory.

The story of the Stockbridge Bible as it relates to the lost tribes theory is both unique and remarkable. This episode begins in the 1780's as the Stockbridge Mohicans are preparing to leave the mission town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. "They built a chest of oak to transport the two-volume Bible that they cherished"(p.53).

Beginning in the late 1600's, many Europeans believed the American Indians were the ten lost tribes of Israel. The Stockbridges themselves appear to have accepted this 'lost tribes theory' for many years. The oak chest that carried the two-volume Stockbridge Bible was compared to the ark of the covenant which the Israelites carried in the book of Exodus [Calvin Colton made the comparison in 1830] (pages 53-54).

J.N. Davidson and church historians that came after him believed that that Deacon John Metoxen, read aloud from the Stockbridge Bible as he led his band from New York State to Indiana's White River and on to what is now Wisconsin. Since a minister that met Metoxen's band in what is now Ohio mentioned Scott's Family Bible and not the Stockbridge Bible, I agree with Lion Miles that the Stockbridge Bible left New York with a different band.

But the similarities remain. Instead of wandering in the wilderness for forty years with an ark that protected two stone tablets (containing the Ten Commandments), the Stockbridge Indians trekked the American frontier carrying an oak chest that protected their two-volume Stockbridge Bible.

The Lost Tribes and the Louisiana Purchase

I have already explained what the lost tribes theory is, and the role it played as a motivator to missionaries as part of their millenialist worldview. But would you have ever thought that Thomas Jefferson gave the lost tribes theory some thought before going ahead with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803?

As you may have learned in school, Jefferson was known for his intelligence, being not only the 3rd president of the US, but also an inventor, a scientist and more. In regards to religion, he was a Deist, and didn't think of God as being active in the course of human history. But he gave the lost tribes theory some consideration.

After trading with Indians in the southern colonies for forty years and observing their speech and practices, James Adair returned to London where his book, History of the American Indians, was published in 1775. Adair devoted hundreds of pages to specific evidence which he believed proved that American Indians were lineal descendants of the Israelites. Many whites living in the thirteen colonies believed Adair and felt that finding the lost tribes and rebelling against Britain were part of a divine conspiracy that would bring on the millenium.

So Thomas Jefferson had to decide if the American Indians really were as central to salvation history as many believed, or were they, as Richard Popkin writes, "just people," who would have to "find their place or role in a secular world, not in a fanciful voyage to the Holy Land"?

In an article in Eighteenth Century Studies, Harold Hellenbrand determined that Jefferson asked John Adams his opinion about the lost tribes theory and they ultimately agreed that "Adair's evidence was superficial and inconclusive"(Popkin, page 79). As a result, Popkin concludes: "The Louisiana Purchase was for Jefferson a commitment that the United States would develop as a secular redeemer nation, solving the problems of mankind by reason and science, and not as part of scriptural history."

For Further Reading:

• Popkin, Richard "The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Indian Theory," a chapter in Hebrew and the Bible in America, Shalom Goldman, Editor. University Press of New England, 1993.
• Hellenbrand, Harold. "Not 'to Destroy But to Fulfil': Jefferson, Indians, and Republican Dispensation," in Eighteenth Century Studies, 18 (1985).

The Bat Creek Stone and the Lost Tribes

I haven't spent much time telling you about what first turned me on to Algonkian church history. To make it simple, I have some connections to Shawano County, Wisconsin, and, while going about my business, I heard about the Stockbridge Bible, which I'll venture to say is the most historic relic of Native Christianity in the Great Lakes states, if not in the entire midwest.

Just as the Stockbridge Bible was, for some time, the focus of my research, the Bat Creek Stone was the focus of Lowell Kirk's research. The Bat Creek Stone was found inside an ancient burial mound in Tennesee and the controversy surrounding it has been mostly about whether it was inscribed with Cherokee writing or Hebrew writing (the Cherokee alphabet was invented by Sequoiah in 1821). Another possibility, says Lowell Kirk, is that the Bat Creek Stone was a forgery.

I still have other relics to tell you about. My own position on the Lost Tribes Theory changes as I study it; I never believed that we will find any of these ancient tribes intact today, but did some Semitic people come to this continent before Columbus and incorporate themselves into the Algonkian nations? What do you think?

Nova: Where Are the Ten Lost Tribes?

My last two posts were about the lost tribes theory.
The NOVA people at PBS produced a program on that topic:
Where Are the Ten Lost Tribes?

Tour of the American Lakes

Calvin Colton was an ordinary minister during the 1820's and then two things happened which changed his career path. First his voice failed, making preaching no longer possible, the other was that his wife died, making adventurous wilderness travel an option. So Colton headed out to what was called the Northwest Territory, now Wisconsin, to make observations which he recorded in Tour of the American Lakes, and Among the Indians of the North-west Territory, in 1830: Disclosing the Character and Prospects of the Indian Race (Re-printed by Kennikat Press in 1972).

Colton's report of the Stockbridge Mohicans and his description of their tribal Bible made it clear that he believed in the lost tribes theory

I saw a Bible yesterday, safely kept in a sort of ark, at their place of worship, (a remarkable relic of Hebrew custom), printed at Oxford, England, in 1717, of the largest and finest type I have ever seen.... It was transported with the tribe [from MA] to the state of New York; - and for aught I know, with all the sacerdotal solemnities of their Hebrew fathers, in ancient days..... Their reverence for this volume and for the ark which contains it is almost superstitious (pages 187-190).

The Hope of Israel

In my post on November 20th, I explained the significance of millenial thinking (or "millenialism") to the mission enterprise in "the New World." I ended that post by saying that part of the motivation for converting Indians to Christianity was based on a belief that it would bring on the second coming of Christ.

What was the basis for such a belief? That, of course is too huge a question to answer fully here, but, for some, it had something to do with the Lost Tribes Theory, or the belief that the American Indians were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

The Encyclopaedia Judaica, a highly respected reference work, asserts that "the legend of the Ten Lost Tribes is one of the most fascinating and persistent in Judaism and beyond it"(page 639). The article's author, Louis Isaac Rabinowitz later adds:

Special interest is attached to the fantastic traveler's tale told by Aaron (Antonio) Levi de Montezinos who, on his return to Amsterdam [Netherlands] from South America in 1644, told a remarkable story of having found Indians beyond the mountain passes of the Cordilleras who greeted him by reciting the Shema [prayers taken from Deuteronomy and Numbers]. Among those to whom Montezinos gave his affidavit was Manasseh Ben Israel, then rabbi of Amsterdam, who fully accepted the story, and to it devoted his [book] Hope of Israel (1650, 1652), (page 640).

In future posts, I will present to you quotes from various documents showing that Christian missionaries and American Indians themselves subscribed to the lost tribes theory well into the 1800's. In fact, I have corresponded with one Native American who still subscribes to it.