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North American Religions Series
Old Canaan in a New World: Native Americans and the Lost Tribes of Israel
Were indigenous Americans descendants of the lost tribes of Israel?
From the moment Europeans realized Columbus had landed in a place unknown to them in 1492, they began speculating about how the Americas and their inhabitants fit into the Bible. For many, the most compelling explanation was the Hebraic Indian theory, which proposed that indigenous Americans were the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel. For its proponents, the theory neatly explained why this giant land and its inhabitants were not mentioned in the Biblical record.
In Old Canaan in a New World, Elizabeth Fenton shows that though the Hebraic Indian theory may seem far-fetched today, it had a great deal of currency and significant influence over a very long period of American history. Indeed, at different times the idea that indigenous Americans were descended from the lost tribes of Israel was taken up to support political and religious positions on diverse issues including Christian millennialism, national expansion, trade policies, Jewish rights, sovereignty in the Americas, and scientific exploration.
Through analysis of a wide collection of writings―from religious texts to novels―Fenton sheds light on a rarely explored but important part of religious discourse in early America. As the Hebraic Indian theory evolved over the course of two centuries, it revealed how religious belief and national interest intersected in early American history.
From the moment Europeans realized Columbus had landed in a place unknown to them in 1492, they began speculating about how the Americas and their inhabitants fit into the Bible. For many, the most compelling explanation was the Hebraic Indian theory, which proposed that indigenous Americans were the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel. For its proponents, the theory neatly explained why this giant land and its inhabitants were not mentioned in the Biblical record.
In Old Canaan in a New World, Elizabeth Fenton shows that though the Hebraic Indian theory may seem far-fetched today, it had a great deal of currency and significant influence over a very long period of American history. Indeed, at different times the idea that indigenous Americans were descended from the lost tribes of Israel was taken up to support political and religious positions on diverse issues including Christian millennialism, national expansion, trade policies, Jewish rights, sovereignty in the Americas, and scientific exploration.
Through analysis of a wide collection of writings―from religious texts to novels―Fenton sheds light on a rarely explored but important part of religious discourse in early America. As the Hebraic Indian theory evolved over the course of two centuries, it revealed how religious belief and national interest intersected in early American history.
272 pages, Hardcover
Published April 21, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 10, 2021
This is top-notch scholarship: a thorough and well-rounded exploration of the Hebraic Indian theory that traces its rise, evolution, and eventual reconfiguration via aesthetics and genetics. Fenton strikes just the right balance here, providing readers with a sense of both the historical trajectory of the theory, as well as analysis regarding its impact. She is a careful reader, and her readings illustrate how understanding our textual past allows us to effectively interrogate and negotiate our potential futures. Highly recommended to those interested in US religious history, depictions of Native Americans in literature, and cultural politics.
June 23, 2020
A fascinating and engaging study! Fenton's examination of the idea that the Native Americans are the Lost Tribes of Israel spans from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, ranges across genres, religious traditions, and absorbs both scientific inquiry and literary creation. It's a feast of carefully contextualized ideas and closely read texts. Fenton absorbs all kinds of fascinating sources in the course pursuing the lost tribes. It's fabulous and fun stuff.
April 4, 2020
An exploration into the world and mindsets behind viewing Native Americans as potential members of the ten "lost tribes" of Israel.
The author thoroughly analyzes the authors and books which advanced the idea from the 1600s until the early 1900s. She begins with Thorowgood and explains the reasoning: he speaks in terms of potentiality and possibility more than certainty, and does so in a well-intentioned way to exhort his fellow Reformed to take the Gospel to the Native Americans. She continues with Adair, Ethan Smith, Boudinot, and Apess, all of whom advance the idea even though many consider it folly. Apess is of special note as a Native himself and a Methodist.
She then takes on the Book of Mormon, showing how it discounts the idea of Native Americans as part of the "ten tribes" while extending hope for the prospect that the "ten tribes" will be found elsewhere as well as explaining how the idea of Natives as the "lost tribes" of Israel lost currency when speculation about the tribes and purported connections between Jesus and the Americas became the hallmarks of Mormonism.
She then explores two fictional narratives, one that featured a preacher convinced Native Americans were Israelites, and another which would suggest Native Americans interacted with the "lost tribes" on their way to the "verge" to reach the interior of the earth. She concludes with a consideration of looking into DNA evidence.
In all of this she is not just interested in the idea of Native Americans representing the "lost tribes" of Israel, but also what it said about those who advanced the ideas: how they viewed Natives, the marginalization of Natives, white supremacy and colonialism and all that it entails.
This is truly a deep dive with a lot of interpretation. It's a bit unnecessarily clunky and overly explicit, and has the voice of a scholar. But it is an interesting picture into a unique strain of thought in American Christendom.
**--galley received as part of an early review program
The author thoroughly analyzes the authors and books which advanced the idea from the 1600s until the early 1900s. She begins with Thorowgood and explains the reasoning: he speaks in terms of potentiality and possibility more than certainty, and does so in a well-intentioned way to exhort his fellow Reformed to take the Gospel to the Native Americans. She continues with Adair, Ethan Smith, Boudinot, and Apess, all of whom advance the idea even though many consider it folly. Apess is of special note as a Native himself and a Methodist.
She then takes on the Book of Mormon, showing how it discounts the idea of Native Americans as part of the "ten tribes" while extending hope for the prospect that the "ten tribes" will be found elsewhere as well as explaining how the idea of Natives as the "lost tribes" of Israel lost currency when speculation about the tribes and purported connections between Jesus and the Americas became the hallmarks of Mormonism.
She then explores two fictional narratives, one that featured a preacher convinced Native Americans were Israelites, and another which would suggest Native Americans interacted with the "lost tribes" on their way to the "verge" to reach the interior of the earth. She concludes with a consideration of looking into DNA evidence.
In all of this she is not just interested in the idea of Native Americans representing the "lost tribes" of Israel, but also what it said about those who advanced the ideas: how they viewed Natives, the marginalization of Natives, white supremacy and colonialism and all that it entails.
This is truly a deep dive with a lot of interpretation. It's a bit unnecessarily clunky and overly explicit, and has the voice of a scholar. But it is an interesting picture into a unique strain of thought in American Christendom.
**--galley received as part of an early review program
November 9, 2023
"Standing in the shadows of the mounds constructed by Native Americans, white settlers confronted proof of the long history of civilization in the Americas and, consequently, the flimsiness of their own claims to the land. The mounds became sites of speculation, as whites struggled to explain not only the structures' origins but also their significance within the context of US expansion."
July 15, 2022
Interesting read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews