Ethan Smith

“ Doctor Williams in his history of Vermont, on this trait of Indian character, says: "no sooner had the Indians tasted of the spiritous liquors brought by the Europeans, than they contracted a new appetite, which they were wholly unable to govern. The old and the young, the sachem, the warrior, and the women, whenever they can obtain liquors, indulge themselves without moderation and without decency, till universal drunkenness takes place. All the tribes appear to be under the dominion of this appetite, and unable to govern it." ”

“ Doctor Williams upon the Indians' belief of the being of God, observes; "They denominate the deity the Great Spirit; the Great Man above; and seem to have some general ideas of his government and providence, universal power and dominion. The immortality of the soul was every where admitted among the Indian tribes." ”

“ Might not the Indians copy from them this sacred invocation, Yo-he-wah? Their method of invoking God in a solemn hymn with that reverend deportment, and spending a full breath on each of the two first syllables of the awful divine name, hath a surprising analogy to the Jewish custom, and such as no other nation or people, even with the advantage of written records, have retained. It may be worthy of notice that they never prostrate themselves, nor bow their bodies to each other by way of salute or homage, though usual with the eastern nations ”

“ But if these tribes took counsel to go to a land where no man dwelt, as they naturally would do, they certainly could not have taken counsel to go into Hindostan, or any of the old and long crowded nations of Asia. Such a place they would naturally have avoided. And to such a place the God of Israel would not have led them, to keep them in an outcast state, distinct from all other nations, as his lamb in a large wilderness. ”

“ In every part of the continent, the Indians are marked with a similarity of colour, features, and every circumstance of external appearance. Pedro de Cicca de Leon, one of the conquerors of Peru, and who had travelled through many provinces of America, says of the Indians; "The people, men and women, although there are such a multitude of tribes or nations, in such diversities of climates, appear nevertheless like the children of one father and mother." ”

“ The Indians have had much of an apprehension that their one Great Spirit had a great affinity to fire. And the Peruvians, it seems, went so far as to embody him in the sun. Here seems a shred of mixture of the Persian idolatry, with the theocracy of Israel. As the more ancient Israelites caught a degree of the idolatrous distemper of Egypt, as appears in their golden calf; so the ten tribes, the time they resided in Media, and before they set off for America, may have blended some idea of fire with their one God. ”

“ These various Indian traditions from distant regions of the continent, and different ages, appear to form some striking evidence that the Indians had indeed brought down traditionary impressions of their one Great Spirit's consisting of a trinity in unity! Could so great an argument be found in favour of the Indians having descended from the Tartars, the advocates for such a descent would not fail on making much of this argument. ”

“ They are the aborigines of our own continent! Their place, their language, their traditions, amount
to all that has been hinted. These evidences are not all found among any one tribe of Indians. Nor may all the Indians in any tribe, where various of these evidences are found, be able to exhibit them. It is enough, if what they call their beloved aged men, in one tribe, have clearly exhibited some of them; and others exhibited others of them; and if among their various tribes, the whole have been, by various of their beloved or wise men, exhibited. ”

“ Especially when we consider the immense extent of country which they cover; the great labour which they cost their authors; the acquaintance with the useful arts which that people had, when compared with our present race of Indians; the grandeur of many of the works themselves; and the total absence of all historical records, or even traditionary accounts, respecting them. They were once forts, cemeteries, temples, altars, camps, towns, villages, race grounds, and other places of amusement, habitations of chieftains, videttes, watch towers, and monuments. ”

“ If the Indians be not Hebrews, but of the wild Asiatics, their traditions are utterly unaccountable. The heathen nations, and the corrupt feelings of men, were not so fond of the laws
and knowledge of God, as that the ancient, far distant, and savage Scythians of the north-east should learn and retain so much of the religion of the Israel of God, and transmit it for thousands of years to the distant ramifications of their descendants over the vast continent of North and South America. ”

“ You find them counting their time as did ancient Israel, and in a manner different
from all other nations. They keep a variety of religious feasts, which much resemble those kept in ancient Israel. You find an evening feast among them, in which a bone of the animal must not be broken; if the provision be more than one family can eat, a neighbour must be called in to help eat it, and if any of it be still left, it must be burned before the next rising sun. You find them eating bitter vegetables, to cleanse themselves from sin. You find they never eat the hollow of the thigh of any animal. ”

“ This has more the appearance of descending from Hebrew tradition, than from any other nation on earth; teaching their children to fast in clay, as "in dust and ashes;" and to cry to Jah for pity and protection.—Such are the shreds of evidence furnished, one here and another there, through the wilds of America, suggesting what is the most probable, if not evident origin, of the natives of this continent. ”

“ Doctor Boudinot informs of the southern Indians of North America, that they had a name for God, which signifies, "the great, the beloved, holy cause." And one of their names of God, is Mingo- Ishto-Abba;—Great Chief Father. He speaks of a preacher's being among the Indians at the south, before the American revolution, and beginning to inform them that there is a God who created all things. Upon which they indignantly replied, "Go about your business, you fool! do not we know there is a God, as well as you?" ”

“ Afterwards more came.—They brought spirituous and intoxicating liquors with them, of which the Indians became very fond. They persuaded us to sell them some land. Finally, they drove us back, from time to time, into the wilderness far from the water, the fish and the oysters. They have destroyed our game. Our people are wasted away. And we live miserable and wretched; while you are enjoying our fine and beautiful country. ”

“ Here then is evidence to our purpose, that those Indians should call their order of priests, and the high priest's waiter, by those ancient Hebrew names of a man of God, and a deputy of the high priest. How could these events have occurred, had not those natives been Hebrew, and brought down these names by Hebrew tradition?
Under the 8th argument Mr. Adair says; "The ceremonies of the Indians in their religious worship are more after the Mosaic institutions, than of pagan imitation; which could not be, if the majority of the old nation were of heathenish descent. ”

“ By information received of father Hoyt respecting the former traditions, rites and ceremonies of the Indians of this region, I think there is much reason to believe they are the descendants of Abraham.— They have had cities of refuge, feasts of first fruits, sacrifices of the firstlings of the flocks, which had to be perfect without blemish or deformity, a bone of which must not be broken. They were never known to worship images, nor to offer sacrifice to any god made with hands. They all have some idea and belief of the Great Spirit. ”

“ The lapse of ages among illiterate savages scattered in unknown distant tribes, would naturally produce as great a variation among different tribes, in relation to this ancient venerable symbol—the ark of the covenant—as is this difference between these western more savage tribes, and tribes less savage farther to the south. ”

“ They are much better prepared to receive a mission than those nations who have more intercourse with the white people. Their circumstances call on you to send the gospel among them, before the wretched hordes who are ever flying from the abodes of civilization reach their vicinity, and prejudice them against our holy religion. ”

“ Boudinot says, "It is fresh in the memory of the old traders, (among the Indians) as we are assured by those who have long lived among them, that formerly none of the numerous nations of Indians would eat, or even handle any part of the new harvest, till some of it had been offered up at the yearly festival by the beloved man (high priest) or those of his appointment at the plantation; even though the light harvest of the past year should almost have forced them to give their women and children of the ripening fruits to sustain life." ”

“ These I shall preface with a remark, that the Indian cruelties to our people have been manifestly occasioned by the injuries they have received from various of our people, and by their own traditionary notions, which they think accord with these injuries, that the white people are out of the covenant of the Great Spirit once made with their fathers, are the accursed people, and may well be exterminated. ”

“ Among the Indians on the north west of the Ohio, the conduct of the women (continues the Doctor) seems perfectly agreeable (as far as circumstances will permit) to the law of Moses. A young woman, at the first change in her circumstances, immediately separates herself from the rest in a hut made at some distance from the dwelling houses, and remains there seven days. The female that brings her food, is careful not to touch her; and so cautious is she herself of touching her own food, that she makes use of a sharpened stick to take up her meat, and of a spoon for her other food. ”

“ Another tradition from a Hebrew rite the Doctor states. He says; "The women of these nations are very particular to remove from their lodges to one erected for that particular purpose, at such seasons as were customarily observed by Jewish women, according to the law of Moses. No article of furniture ever used in this lodge, is ever used in any other; not even the steel and flint with which they strike fire. No man approaches this lodge, while a woman occupies it." The existence of this extensive Indian rite is fully ascertained. And of its origin there appears but very little room to doubt. ”

“ Here is a traditional peculiarity of Israel;—the origin in the same person of civil and ecclesiastical government. The struggles of the good and bad principle seems very congenial to ancient revelation. The mother of all men—Eve in paradise, is most striking in their tradition. This must have been learned from the history of Moses, and has a signal weight in favour of the Israelitish extraction of those Nootkians; as has their notion of the innocence and harmlessness of the primitive state of men and beasts. ”

“ One more argument I shall adduce from facts furnished in the Archaeology, to show that the American natives are from the tribes of Israel. The argument is a tradition of a trinity in their Great Spirit. Evidence of different kinds, and from different regions, relative to such a sentiment, is exhibited; not that the writer of the Archaeology makes this application of it. An Indian article, called by this writer a "triune vessel," and noted as a religious article, and an emblem of their gods was found on the forks of the Cumberland river, in alluvial earth, four feet below the surface. ”