Origin of the American Indian
by: Tommy Morris Angell
The discovery of the New World and its native inhabitants challenged literalistic beliefs in the Bible and promoted a lively debate over Indian origins. In the early 1600s a famous early American preacher by the name of Roger Williams , led this debate. Historical evidence suggests Williams had a companion, a younger man by the name of Thomas Angell, who was something between a servant and adopted son. Angell shared William's unpopular beliefs and stayed beside him throughout his life on the American Continent. Because of the Williams/Angell relationship, at this point in this document, I will give a little background on Williams. He was born in London, circa 1603. While a young man, he was aware of the numerous burnings at the stake that had taken place at nearby Smithfield of so-called Puritans or heretics. This probably influenced his later strong beliefs in civic and religious liberty.
Williams next entered Pembroke College at Cambridge University from which he graduated in 1627. All of the literature currently available mentions Roger Williams, his part in the Reformation, and his founding of the Colony of Rhode Island. At Pembroke, he was one of eight granted scholarships based on excellence in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He became a controversial figure because of his ideas on freedom of worship. And so, in 1630, ten years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, Roger thought it expedient to leave England. He arrived, on 5 February 1631 at Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
After his arrival in America, Williams began preaching first at Salem, then at Plymouth, then back to Salem, always at odds with the structured Puritans. Williams was intelligent in his perceptions and devoted to God. He was inflexible in his belief that government must never control the soul of its subjects nor claim native lands as their own. The Puritans and Pilgrims of the "New World" were not receptive to the ideas of separation of church and state and the rights of the Indians to keep their land. He was banished from the "New World"! When he was about to be deported back to England, Williams, Angell, and possibly six others (see footnotes, historical evidence suggests Williams and Angell were alone) fled south to Narragansett Indian country South of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They survived the wilderness surrounding what is now Narragansett Bay, starving until the gentle Narragansett Indians befriended them. Williams wrote, "I was sorely tossed for fourteen weeks in a bitter winter season, not knowing what bed or bread did mean."
Eventually, Williams and Angell purchased land from the Indians and spent years studying the Indian culture. In 1643 Williams wrote A Key into the Languages of America , "A little Key may open a Box, where lies a bunch of Keyes." This document was a help to the Language of the Natives in that part of America, called New-England. Together, with brief Observations of the Customs, Manners and Worships, etc. of the aforesaid Natives, in Peace and War, in Life and Death. On all which are added Spiritual Observations, General and Particular by the Author, of chief and special use (upon all occasions) to all the English Inhabiting those parts; yet pleasant and profitable to the view of all men.
Williams discovered many similarities between the Hebrew culture and that of the Indians. They anointed their heads, gave dowries for their wives, and practice health customs of the Jews. He also found language similarities with "Greeks and other Nations." The natives talked of "miracles amongst them, and (a man who walked) upon the waters." Their traditions, however, they gained from the Southwest ("Sowaniu"), which gave them their "Corn, and Beans" and where they would go when they die. Interspersed among the KEY are poems written by Williams, "The Indians find the Sun so sweet/He is a God they say/Giving them Light, and Heat, and Fruit,/And Guidance all the day." Williams discovered that Indians called upon "Yo-He-Wah" (the Hebrew Yahweh) William Penn also compared the Indian's "narrow" and "lofty" language to Hebrew, as did Jonathan Edwards in his Observations on the Language of the Mahhekaneew Indians published in 1788. Other scholars of the time noted a similarity between Indian languages and Hebrew as proof that the Indians were of Hebraic origin.
Eventually, Roger Williams and his close associate Thomas Angell became more and more successful in convincing many people that the Indians were of Hebrew origin. It's interesting that Indian writing observed in North American pictographic rock paintings, Mexican codices, and Mayan glyphs, is often compared to Egyptian rather than Hebrew.
For the most part, in early American history, Indians were not feared. However, when the Indians resisted colonial expansion and war broke out, the Indians, in the Puritan eyes, became "savage warriors." It was no longer a matter of saving the Indian for civilization but rather of saving civilization from the Indian. The Indians were seen as inherently savage and entirely incapable of civilization. Mistreatment of the Indians became easy to justify.
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Thursday, September 23rd 2010 at 12:13AM
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