On March 3rd 2007 the Cherokee members of Oklahoma voted to expel all of the Freedmen (Black Indians) from the Cherokee Nation.  Thousands of Black Indians identifications and registertion as Cherokees were revoked by this vote.  According to information that we have obtain, it was largely based upon the current US money that the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma are currently receiving.  On the 13th of that month a dozen black congressmen (known as the Congressional Black Caucus) asked the federal government of the Interior Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs the "validity, legality, as well as the morality" of the March 3 vote.   They responded with the argument that the black Cherokee members were not originally from the Cherokee Nation but black slave who settled with the community before they were relocated from North Carolina and Tennessee. The Israeli and American media asked Chief Howshua Amariel to make a statement concerning the expulsion of the Freedmen from the Cherokee Nation.  This was because he was published in the Feb 16^th 2005 page 5 issue of Jerusalem Post for historically showing the Israelite, Jewish, and Native American connections.  In addition, to later that year on Dec 11^th 2005 those statements were verified with DNA results released by the Cherokees of Lawrence County, TN which proved that a large amount of Cherokee Indians were genetically linked to the Jewish people.  Mr. Amariel prepared a statement and sent a press release on April 2^nd to a number Medias and Indian community concerning what happened at the beginning of the previous month. 

The Statement reads as follows:   

The Amariel Family Response to the world on the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma Decree of what is a pure blood so called “Cherokee”

Our reason for responding to our brothers in Oklahoma on the question as to who are the true Cherokee isn’t in order to force the hand of our brothers to accept us as equals.  Rather, to make it perfectly clear who are the true descendants of the Cherokee Nation? Therefore, it is our intention to call upon the scholars (historians, archaeologists and genetic scientists) to answer the question as to who is a true-blooded Cherokee. 

OUR HISTORICAL EVIDENCE CONCERNING THE BLACK CHEROKEE  (Children of Israel)

In 1492 AD, Christopher Columbus officially set-out to discover a quicker trade route to India & China.  However, his spiritual motivation for the journey was to search for the lost tribes of Israel for the purpose of converting them to Christianity because he felt it would bring in the Messianic Era. 

Very quickly after the discovery of the New World, Europeans began to treat its inhabitants as little more than their possessions. At first, few of their fellow Europeans protested, but in the early sixteenth century, Bartholome de Las Casas (1474-1566) became a champion of the Native American cause. He spent many years trying to improve the conditions under which they lived in the Spanish colonies in the West Indies, Peru and Guatemala.

Las Casas believed that the Native Americans should be converted to Christianity, as he was convinced that they originated in Ancient Israel and felt that the Bible contained the proof that they were members of the Lost Tribes of Israel. He was not alone. A report by the seventeenth-century Portuguese traveler, Antonio Montezinos, reawakened interest in the subject. He claimed that there was a Jewish tribe living beyond the mountain passes of the Andes and that he had heard them recite the She'ma Yisro'el (the expression of the Jewish faith) and saw them observe Jewish rituals.

Edward Johnson (1598-1672), author of The Wonder-Working Providence of Sion's Saviour (published in 1654), argued that a mass conversion of Indians was necessary if America were to be the site of the new heaven and new earth.

Menasseh ben Israel (1604-1657), a respected Dutch Jewish scholar, was heavily influenced by Montezinos's story and wrote his best-selling book, The Hope of Israel, which he dedicated to the English Parliament. Meeting Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, he petitioned for the recall of the Jews (who had been expelled from England in 1290) and expressed his belief that the dispersion of Jews to all corners of the Earth was the beginning of the redemption. Certain Christian traditions claimed that when the Ten Tribes of Israel were found and restored to the Holy Land, the return of Christ to reign supreme was not far off. There was thus a considerable vested interest among some believers to identify the Lost Tribes. Now that Israelite tribes had been discovered in the Americas, Cromwell must readmit the Jews to England to bring about the Messianic era.

Similar sentiments were expressed, albeit in more humanistic terms, in the second half of the eighteenth century during the American and French revolutions. Some abolitionists claimed that the Messianic Age would be ushered in when the slaves were freed and when the Native Americans, as descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes, were converted to Christianity.

Having decided that some of the Native Americans practiced Hebrew rites and were therefore ancient Canaanites or the lost tribes of Israel, this meant that they were in dire need of conversion. Groups like the Corporation for Propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England were founded by English settlers, who believed that the Native Americans were lost Jews who would need to be reconciled with Christ at the end of time. Although the belief that Indians were Hebrews quickly faded, the religious concerns of early settlers eventually gave way to more overtly political speculations, leading to rather outlandish propaganda pieces like the Apocalypse de Chiokoyhikoy. This purported to be an account of the end of the world by an Iroquois prophet, denigrating the British to support the cause for American independence even among the Iroquois.

The congress, in addition to directing the war, also prepared the Articles of Confederation, which after ratification in 1781 became the first constitution of the United States.  When the United States declared its independence in July 1776, the only institution acting as a central government was the Continental Congress. By mid-1776 the conflict was so far along that the congress gave up on a peaceful settlement and adopted the Declaration of Independence.   Elias Boudinot, the president of the Continental Congress (1782) and was also the first (official not elected) president of the United States.  Only when the states with western land claims agreed to turn over these lands to Congress for the use of all the states would Maryland ratify the Articles of Confederation. It finally signed them on March 1, 1781.  In fact, Boudinot seems to have felt that the popular identification of the Indians as the lost Israelites would bring with it a widespread realization that the Bible and its prophecies were true. When both the American Indians and the Jews of the world realized the great truth of their destiny.  This Israelite claim for Indian origins was not unique to Mr. Boudinot, of course. It was a widely-held belief which had been previously promoted in the popular press by such religious writers as James Adair.  And also by later writers as Josiah Priest, and the Rev. Ethan Smith of Poultney, Rutland Co.,Vermont. 

Major Noah's similar 1825 plan to restore the ancient society of the Jewish people in North America -- a project which, as Noah detailed it, was actually a plan to gather and restore the entire presumed nation of Israel (including the American Indians).

Mordecai M. Noah published in the Wayne Sentinel on October 11, 1825 (five years before the publication of the Book of Mormon), this address puts forth Noah's theory on the Hebrew origin of the American Indian, "Those who are conversant with the public and private economy of the Indians, are strongly of (the) opinion that they are the lineal descendants of the Israelites, and my own researches go far to confirm me in the same belief." Of course, the central theme of the BOM is that of tracing migrations of Israelites to ancient America, and one of the families becoming evil, being cursed with a Black skin, and degenerating into the progenitors of the American Indian.”

For those that are challenging the Book of Mormon we understand their hesitations to believe based upon the changes that were made from time to time in the translation of the book.  For example the translation of the 1830 version has a few differences from that of the revised interpretation of the 1837 version.  These words, “the Son of” were also added in 1837, in LDS 1 Nephi 11:18, 21 & 32 which in RLDS editions is 1 Nephi 3:58, 62 & 86. 

Nevertheless, it also must be consider that according to the Book of Alma 3:5-6. “the heads of the Lamanites were shorn; and they were naked save it were skin which was girded about their loins, and also their armor, which was girded about them, and their bows, and their arrows, and their stones, and their slings, and so forth.  And the skins of the Lamanites were dark…”  And  the proof of these statements lay in the archaeology of the site in Cacaxtla, Mexico and elsewhere that has supported the black skin-ness and African-like figures of the ancient Americans.   

In 1831 Nat Turner led a revolt in Virginia that killed approximately 60 whites.  In accordance with his Black Indian origins Turner placed feathers in his cap and a red sash around his waist to signify himself to be of the red clan of the Cherokee.

However, in the area of religion, we are asking our Jewish brothers and the Mormon Church to substantiate our heritage in the Cherokee Nation and as the ancient children of Israel (which is truly who we are).  We call upon these two areas of our society (that is science and religion) to answer these questions of who are the original people, because these two areas of our society have been the keepers of the history of mankind:  The religious community by their maintaining of the historical documents in the Bible, and the Book of Mormon (the ancient scholars of the past).  And these modern universities of today and their scholars are the present keepers of our ancient and current history.  Therefore, we are calling upon these two aspects of our society to be our two witnesses that the world may know us not just as the fathers of the so called “Cherokee Nation”, but as the ancient ones.

ARCHAEOLOGY

In 1889 scientist John W. Emmert began to investigate the old home lands of the Creek and Cherokee.  The Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of American Ethnology, in the course of its Mound Survey Project, discovered a small Paleo-Hebrew inscribed stone in an undisturbed burial mound on the Little Tennessee River.  Located at the mouth of Bat Creek, some 40 miles south of Knoxville, Tennessee, the mound was the smallest in a group of three; it measured 28 feet in diameter and 5 feet high.  Emmert also found nine skeletons lay in two parallel rows, with two in one row and seven in the other.  Eight of the skeletons lay with their heads to the north, but one skeleton, in the group of two, lay with its head to the south.  It was under the skull of this particular skeleton that Emmert found the inscribed stone.  This was some of the first archaeological evidence found at the time to prove the link of our people to that of the tribes of Israel. Afterward they sought to investigate the amount of Black Indians from these locations that were there, that they moved to Oklahoma. 

As we continue to follow the archaeology of the ancient Cherokee Indians through time, it was found our fathers and the remnant the Washitaw (Ether’s people) celebrated together the feast of Tabernacle in 107BC at the site in Los Lumos New Mexico. 

Not far from New Mexico’s Rio Puerco River, there exists a small, flat-topped mountain.  The site is replete with the remains of more than a hundred small middle-eastern dwelling structures.  There is an equinox observation site on the eastern slopes of the mountain, and numerous other inscriptions in ancient Hebrew.  These ruins many scholars and archaeologist have traced to those called the Pueblo (meaning people in spanish) which came from the area of the Puebla valley near Mexico City. 

There also were discovered Black Indian warriors paintings from the site of Cacaxtla in the Puebla vally in Mexico that dates from 650 to 900 A.D found in 1975 and excavated by the National Autonomous University of Mexico.  Yet this find wasn’t the only discovery that showed researchers the trail of our people.

One researcher said, “Megalithic heads were discovered from Pre-hispanic Mexico, all with African facial features.” Another said, “Free Africans reached the shores of the American continent as traders and settlers long before Europeans arrived. In 1975, 2 Negroid skeletons were found in the U.S. Virgin Islands. One wore a pre-Columbian Indian wrist band. They were found in layers dated to about A.D. 1250. In 1974, Polish craniologists revealed that no fewer than 13.5% of the skeletons from the pre-Columbian Olmec cemetery of Tlatilco were Negroid.”

The final line of our heritage ends in South America in Brazil and along its East coast.   Webster’s Third New International Dictionary states that the Aztec and Toltec (pg. 155, pg. 2405) consisted of a people known as the Nahuatl (Nahuan or Nahua pg. 1499) people.  The Nahuan originally came from Nahana son of Canaan, who was the first of our people to discover the land of Substitute as is referred to the inscription of his journey to South America found in Parahaiba, which is modern day Joao Pessoa, Brazil not far from the Atlantic coast.  The stone became public in 1874, when the director of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, Ladislau Neto, published the copy of the Phoenician inscription said to have been unearthed near Parahaiba.

During the days of Nahana (believed brother of Zedekiah 1ki 22:11) son Canaan ship was taken off course and brought to the land we called substitute (today called South America).  There he placed a stone that recorded his journey as follows (a formal equivalency translation of the Ancient Hebrew into English):

 ‘’Nahana son Canaan from-Zidon from-the-ward the-king trade the-hurl I-elm as-proud law-you land mountain Manasse’th-you choose of-mosthigh and-slumber and-mosthigh and-liquid in-year-you nine-you and-ten-you of-Hiram king has-I perish and-flow are-from-time and-has-strong in-sea join and-has-go people whither-whom ten-you and-has-be’s in-sea as-new’ing complete whole surround of-land of-Ham and-has-separate from-knew in-on and-of-whither’ed ye connect repetition’ing in-tent-from whole juicy-is from-complete has-three you-blow came alike room secure and-man-you ten-you perish country substitute haul-as shall from-travel-as and liquid encamp has-I“

He then returned to the land of Israel and reported the newly discovered place to Solomon.  King Solomon heard of the new world and started a campaign to settle the land.  So he gathered people, women in general (1ki 11:1), by using Tarshish (England) (1Ki 10:22) to gather them from all of the Northern lands (the Vikings, the Carians, Etruscans, and the Ashkenazi or Anasazi) in Africa (the Egyptians) and India as far as China near Xi’an, home of the Terra-cotta Warriors (called themselves Xi of the tribes of Shabazz and Shabti) and from all races of people to build country of one people united from all people (A Jewish nation).  And they were called the sea people (1ki 9: 27-28), because they were last seen sailing into the sea.  However to the world were known as the Nahuatl people.  In this people the culture of the children of Israel has been preserved until this day. We were called by the peoples of the lands that we gathered them from the Phoenicians.

One researcher, after his studies of finds in Brazil, stated,  “The earlier-mentioned Phoenician inscription on the nearby rock of Havea allows us to understand that the Phoenician did transport people to this region.  ”Diodorus, recording the rescue of the Trojan refugees by their ancient allies the Phoenicians, adds that these refugees often gave the name of their mother-city Troy to their new settlements.  In the light of this it is most significant that Brazil possesses a locality named Tutoya.  This village is situated in the mouth of the river Parnahyba and the traditions of the natives affirm that it is the oldest settlement in Brazil.” “The Brazilian scientists trace in their country two more cities that were probably founded by Phoenicians and emigrants from other countries in the Carian Union: they are the present Turos in the state of Rio Grande do Norte and Torre in the state of Bahia.  We can still hear the prefix ‘toor’ in both names and many Phoenician inscriptions have been found in the surroundings of Torre.” 

GENETIC SCIENCE (DNA)

A molecular biology professor named Rick Kittles, as head of African Ancestry, a company he had recently founded to sell DNA testing services to amateur genealogists, promised to reveal any customer's preslavery roots, whether they stretch to the Tikar of Cameroon or the Mende of Sierra Leone.  Mr. Kittles works at Howard University on the subject of DNA testing.

Kittles heard about the Freedmen's plight from a friend at the University of Oklahoma and wondered how the black Indians' genetic makeup would compare to other subsets of the African-American population, such as the isolated residents of South Carolina's Gullah Islands. He visited the 2004 conference of the Descendants of the Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes, an organization dedicated to ending "discrimination against people of mixed Indian African descent," and offered free DNA tests. There are many light-skinned tribal citizens with less than 1 percent Indian genetic material; most Freedmen claim to have at least that much. So they began taking Kittles' test in hopes that science would succeed where rhetoric, litigation, and historical documents have failed.

People with these levels of Indian blood may simply have genetic roots in places like Greece or Turkey, whose natives can convey Indian-ness in their DNA. Pakistanis, meanwhile, typically show 30 percent Native American heritage, for reasons that are not yet totally clear to scientists.  [

We revealed the answer to this question earlier in our Historical Section.