Trading Paths, parsimony, the journey

First, thank you Linda for all your hard work on THE GREAT TRADING PATH. I see the Virginia colonial records are up and I have a lot of reading to catch up on. You are wonderful!

http://www.greattradingpath.com/native-american-indian-history/

Vance said previously when speaking of Donald Panther Yates:

“Having said that, he has some wild ideas — it appars to me that he believes a great many mixed-blood Indians and Melungeons are really Jewish. I think the dissertation “Who’s Your People?” by Richard Allen Carlson pretty much answers the question of who the Melungeons are — it very much appears that they are Saponi and associated tribes, for the most part.

I believe as someone recently said here, that the simplest explanation is usually the most plausable, and that wild ideas require more definite proof to back them up than do simpler exlanations. I really think that while he’s barking up one tree, the coon’s already vacated it and is now gettin’ away by a route he probably considered, but dismissed.”

Like Vance, I also believe in the rule of parsimony and I believe it is most reasonable to suppose that a lot of the mixed raced communities east of the Mississipi are predominately Indian and that the Melungeons are probably Saponi.

Along time ago 6 or 7 years?- I think Donald was primarily working on his Cherokee ancestors and not very interested in my fascination with the traders and the importance of the early trade culturally and economically on all participants, not always pretty, and on its importance in forming a unique America on the frontier and in the backwoods. The Colonial frontier was so dynamic, though! Kind of like the late Middle Ages in Europe. A person has to have a stong stomach for ambiguity and mystery to enjoy the chase or study…. Certainly not all mixed groups were Jewish, but we do have to be sensitive to the dynamic variety and what we don’t know. There is so much to learn….. And, there most definetly was a Jewish element.

For example, on Indian trader Joseph Simon from

The Jewish Encyclopedia at

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=38&letter=L

“Joseph Simon.

Town founded in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1730; one of the six or seven cities in the United States containing pre-Revolutionary Jewish settlements. The earliest record of this interesting Jewish settlement seems to be that of a deed, dated Feb. 3, 1747, from Thomas Cookson to Isaac Nunus Ricus and Joseph Simon(s), conveying a half-acre of land in the township of Lancaster “in trust for the society of Jews settled in and about Lancaster, to have and use the same as a burying-ground.” At this time there were about ten Jewish families at Lancaster, including Joseph Simon, Joseph Solomon, and Isaac Cohen, a physician. In 1780 the list of Jews included also Bernard Jacob, Sampson Lazarus, Andrew Levy, Aaron Levy, Meyer Solomon, Levy Marks, and Simon Solomon, all shopkeepers, and Joshua Isaacs, later of New York, father-in-law of Harmon Hendricks. The leading figure in the settlement was Joseph Simon, one of the most prominent Indian traders and merchants and one of the largest landholders in America, his enterprises extending not only over Pennsylvania, but to Ohio and Illinois and to the Mississippi river. In his Lancaster store Levy Andrew Levy was a partner, and Simon’s sons-in-law, Levi Phillips, Solomon M. Cohen, Michael Gratz, and Solomon Etting (1784), were also associated with him at various periods. In partnership with William Henry, Simon supplied the Continental army with rifles, ammunition, drums, blankets, and provisions. He died Jan. 24, 1804, at the age of ninety-two; and his grave is still preserved in the above-mentioned cemetery.

A list of twenty-two residents of Lancaster to whom various Indian tribes in Illinois conveyed a tract of land comprising the southern half of the present state of Illinois, includes the following names of Jews: Moses, Jacob, and David Franks, Barnard and Michael Gratz, Moses Franks, Jr., Joseph Simon, and Levy Andrew Levy…..”

Was the famous Lowry family of Indian traders Jewish, Lazarus & his sons? I don’t know at present. Lazarus came from northern Ireland. Could have been Jewish, I guess….. Are the Melungeons really Jewish? Probably not. Could there have been some mixed-blood Indian & Jewish families on the early frontier? Looks like there probably could have been some.

For Jewish influence in Colonial and Revolutionary America, see also the great exhibit at:

http://www.borisamericanjews.org/index.htm

I would never have guessed. My school age history classes were so bland. I hope this makes sense.

I think there is a host of info at this site. Thanks again, Linda.

Brenda