Old World Roots of the Cherokee: How DNA, Ancient Alphabets and Religion Explain the Origins of America's Largest Indian Nation

So you thought you knew everything about your ancestry with the conventional ancestry research.You have a lot of dead ends on your tree with man or woman unknown who might be an Indian.Stumped! What to do? We are all our own story which we carry around in our genome; not just ourFather’s or Mother’s separate story. We carry the story of the Ancient Family. Traces left in our DNA.This book tied all the thoughts and questions I had about Amerindian DNA and Origins.Details in the book takes you into the Ancestry of Cherokee Tribal chieftains and their daughters as well as Elvis Presley.I had oral traditions about Native American Ancestry mostly Cherokee. I started working on this aspect of my family tree with my Dad’s and Maternal Grandmother’s Ancestry. This proved to be an interesting and frustrating journey. I couldn't find much online about Native American Research in early 2000. Many Cherokee researchers that were online were very helpful. The most insightful site I found though, was Panthers Lodge owned by Dr. Donald Panther-Yates.Shortly thereafter, he began a DNA Project with Southeast Indian Ancestry. He was looking forStraight Matrilineal descent and/or Patrilineal. The emphasis on Native American Women who had married Indian Traders. This was a very unique approach. Since my Trader Lineage comes through my Maternal Grandmother with her Father’s Family, I could not participate at that time with the limitations of the DNA tests and projects at that time being strictly to Y or X. This only compares 2 lineages of your entire DNA. Autosomal DNA tells the bigger story but at the time the emerging science was limited. So, I answered the call for volunteers and helped by constructing and researching with the participants on their digital family tree, beginning with Gayl Wilson’s unique Cherokee History. This led me to work on Nancy Ward Beloved woman of the Cherokee. On a visit to Cleveland TN. I stumbled on the Nancy Ward burial site after seeing a roadside historical marker. Don said there are no accidents. This one surely was not. Finding this was an honor and icing for the research I had done getting to know her. I also helped with digitizing the Bowles and Rogers genealogy. I enjoyed meeting the descendants and sharing their Story. Thus began a journey through the Southeast Indian Tribal Stories and History using what I learned to find my own Indian Ancestry: making it more personal. I have met many interesting friends who were actually a tangled mass of family! When the DNA Fingerprint test became available, I took that to give me more insight. My Amerindian DNA could now be explored. As aforementioned, it came from both parents through various grandparents, male to female to male: tangled! As I researched I found fellowship with more hidden groups like Melungeons. The obvious next step was Melungeondnastudies and research. I was very surprised about how complex this research is. It is evolving and shaking up the Established DNA Indian Theories and the pre-Columbian History of the Americas. An interesting Paradigm shift is brewing. I am looking forward to the next chapter of this story and exploring more.One Cherokee Indian Story that is familiar to a lot of us is Sequoyah and his Syllabary. While in college I did a short presentation about his “invention of a system of writing” single-handedly. This was for a communication class and was to include a visual aid. I only had a hand out of it because this was pre-power point and windows days. I received an A- because of that since it wasn’t visual enough. After reading this chapter in the book, I realized that there was more to this tale that was unseen. With a vision of clarity, Don writes an intriguing story about where this syllabary originated. It turns out it is very Ancient indeed and not invented 1808 thereabouts.Donald Yates has an extensive list of resources, tables, and appendix at the end of the book. I like end note format because you can see all the research to refer to and explore further compiled easily in one place. Reading them you can learn a bit more. I appreciate all the time, research and stats that went into bringing this book to fruition.Read the book to discover how genetics and artifacts along with Religious and Cultural Traditions are shaping how we see the Indians and ourselves.

This book brings together a lot of material in one book that a student of Cherokee or American Indian origins would have difficulty collecting on their own. It is an excellent introduction to the subject and provides a good jumping off points for readers who want to explore the subject more deeply. It references both historical material and modern genetics.The basic assertion is that the Cherokee are probably not simply an offshoot of Asiatic people migrating over the Bering Sea land bridge in the Ice Age as is traditionally maintained. Instead they came from the eastern Mediterranean in historical times, either by way of the Atlantic (as seems more feasible to me) and/or through Polyneisia. My one qualm with the books is that it presents perhaps too many possibilities, and it seems unlikely they are all true. (It may not be possible to be more definite.)At least the author seems to have an open mind on the subject, unlike nearly all mainstream enthnologists who stick to the "party line" whlile ignoring the evidence that doesn't fit. And there is a lot of evidence! as this book details.The book most notably suggests that the Cherokee are essentially a Semetic people; largely Hebrew to be specific. Furthermore it asserts that some early European settlers from the 1600 to 1700s were themselves of Jewish or "crypto-Jewish" descent, and these traders and explorers intermarried with Cherokee women to produce a hybridized Hebrew population in the Southeastern US.Elvis Presley is shown to be an example of this, as are the mysterious Sizemore clan from eastern Kentucky and Tennessee. Other families names are traced in some detail to show their old world roots.The Hebrew-Cherokee connection isn't new, but this books provides strong evidence that it cannot be easily dismissed.As such, my guess is that you probably won't find this book in the Smithsonian Museum giftshop. Fortunately you can get it here. I recommened it.

Dr. Yates's book presents a fascinating and compelling explanation of the origins of the Cherokee nation. He presents well-researched examples of the genetic and cultural origins of the Cherokee people before their first encounter with Europeans on this continent.I have been a student of the Cherokee nation for over thirty years, and found this to be an interesting and believable explanation of the early origins of the Cherokee. I appreciate the thoroughness of the proofs presented for his claims. This book serves to expand the established history of the Cherokee nation. I recommend it.

Donald Yates' array of hints, clues, and evidence for Mediterranean and Middle Eastern settlement in the Americas many centuries before Columbus is quite engrossing. Some scenarios he proposes appear more than possible to me. In keeping with the saying that the victors write the history, the version of American history we're taught as children -- of an empty wilderness awaiting discovery and settlement by the British -- seems yet another example of the British erasure of any populations that might have registered a prior claim to that territory. Yates writes with eloquence and erudition, and his well-researched speculations about the origins of the "civilized tribes" of the southeastern United States will intrigue readers who love ancient history or Native American lore.

It was interesting but a little tedious, It lost me in some places. A worthwhile read if you are into the DNA thing.