by Hodalee Sewell (Author)
Jews and American Indians have today, and have long had, much in common, including modern concerns regarding religious rights, assimilation, and the challenge of maintaining our own national languages and cultures while being a part of American society, and this affinity isn't new. Jews came into close contact with Indians across a wide swath of American history, from the old southeast among the Cherokee, Creek and others in the colonial era 1700's, to the Midwest and on to the Pacific coast in the late 1800's, and even in Indian Territory of the early 1900's. In many cases the two blended, and contunue to. From Abraham Mordecai, a colonial era Indian trader, to Julius Meyer who translated for the great Lakota Sioux Chiefs, to the several hundred "Inca" Indian Jews of Israel today, we explore the intersectionality of the Jewish and Native American communities across the last 500 years.