This is part 1 on a six part series of information from a man called Maggid ben Yoseif , who posts many articles of Jewish, Native American, and Christian information. The post is called Jerusalem Torah Voice in Exile. I will be adding my opinion of these articles in the next few months as I feel they are a good source of information. Although Maggid is not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his parallels and interpretation of Joseph Smith among the New York Indians is noteworthy. He says the Book of Mormon is fiction, but it is interesting how much value and credence he at times gives it. I feel we need to listen to others opinions to solidify our own feelings of truth.
My notes in orange below:
Bio: Maggid ben Yoseif
ELDERSGATE-BRIGHTSTAR Hebrew Native American Council; Gileadite School of Theological Research; House of Joseph Beit Din. Currently constructing Eldersgate Hebrew-Native American Council promoting restoration of Native American spiritual sovereignty on about 25 acres in rural Brightstar, Arkansas. However, we continue our intercession for the LAND wherever Creator takes us.
We also help ministries and pastors align w/ the “Spirit of Reconciliation” and with the “other flocks” in the Kingdom, especially Native American flocks influenced by the migration of 38 Athap(b)ascan Language Group nations. Traced to ancient pre-Jewish “Gilead” and widely assimilated across Turtle Island (the Americas) this Hebrew priesthood has “evolved” into an End-Times voice of Elijah THE Gileadite to help protect our LIVING Earth Mother, reconcile the factions of the House of Joseph and restore Native American spiritual sovereignty.
Research below links these nations with the migration of DAN, (the “Na Dene”) JOSEPH EAST M’NASHE and priests and Levites of GILEAD. Exiled from their home east of the Jordan River 17-23 years before the 10 Northern Tribes of Israel, unlike the 10 Tribes they were never severed from Covenant. Thus the Sundance and other Native ceremonial chants permute the Divine Name, YHW and H. Restoration of Native spiritual sovereignty is found in Scripture pertaining to purification lodges (sweats) in Hosea 2:18ff, a covenant with the four legged, winged and creatures who crawl to end “sword, bow and violence (FRACKING) in the Earth.” “Goring with the horn of a re’eim” (buffalo) found in Deut 33:15ff describes the buffalo horn used in the lodge by the “n’zir” (East M’nashe). Isaiah 49:6 refers to the RESTORATION — NOT SALVATION — of the “n’zirei Yisrael” as a major part of the assignment of the servant-messiah.
We are eager to share these and many other truths communicated by Elijah over the past 33 years, to lodge with elders and sundancers and perform ceremony that ministers to Mother Earth
A’Ho mitakuye oyasin
“All My Relations” – is a greeting from the Lakota (Sioux) people reflecting their worldview of oneness, interconnectedness, and harmony with all living things: people, animals, plants, even wind, rocks, and rivers. To most people, a “relation” means a family member – a blood relative.
Names: ben Yoseif (son of Joseph) . Although ben Yoseif is a “junior”, who shares the given name of his late father, neither are named “Joseph.” Rather the name ben Yoseif was given by a bat Kol (voice from Heaven) in 1994, confirmed in Torah code of ben Yoseif’s father’s and his given name in 1998 and has been validated by a number of rabbis in Jerusalem since 2000. ben Yose’ (south of the border); Tohokwahu (used primarily between he and a few Hopi friends, this is ben Yoseif’s given name — Griffin or Lioneagle — in Hopi).
ben Yoseif holds a B.A. degree in journalism, an M.B.A. degree in business administration and the equivalent of a Ph.D in theology and advanced Pentateuch (Torah) including three years of study at the ORU Graduate School of Theology, where he pursued Hebrew and Aramaic. More bio information here:
Joseph Smith knew the Iroquois
There is a belief that the Iroquois Nation played an important role in the life of Joseph Smith. He lived in an area with many Iroquois chiefs and may have even met many of these great men. Ganargua Creek (Mud Creek) was a primary stopover point for the Iroquois on their trade routes. Joseph Smith also had an interest in the creek after hearing a speech from Seneca Indian Chief Red Jacket at Palmyra in 1822.
Many historians believe that Iroquoian ideas of federalism, and balance of power directly influenced the US system of government. Benjamin Franklin admired native American government structures. In 1744, Canassatego advocated in Washington the federal union of the American colonies. See Here
The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse) are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy, and to the English as the Five Nations, comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca. After 1722, they accepted the Tuscarora people from the Southeast into their confederacy and became known as the Six Nations.
Names and Tribes of the Iroquois
“The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee. (“People of the Longhouse”) are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy in North America. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy, and to the English as the Five Nations, comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca. After 1722, they accepted the Tuscarora people from the Southeast into their confederacy, as they were also Iroquoian-speaking, and became known as the Six Nations.
The Iroquois have absorbed many other individuals from various peoples into their tribes as a result of warfare, adoption of captives, and by offering shelter to displaced peoples. Culturally, all are considered members of the clans and tribes into which they are adopted by families.
The historic St. Lawrence Iroquoians, Wyandot (Huron), Erie, and Susquehannock, all independent peoples, also spoke Iroquoian languages. In the larger sense of linguistic families, they are often considered Iroquoian peoples because of their similar languages and cultures, all descended from the Proto-Iroquoian people and language; politically, however, they were traditional enemies of the Iroquois League.[2] In addition, Cherokee is an Iroquoian language: the Cherokee people are believed to have migrated south from the Great Lakes in ancient times, settling in the backcountry of the Southeast United States, including what is now Tennessee” Wikipedia
Part III: Haudenosaunee Corn Clan Mother first to propose ‘moneyless society’ Six Nations ties to Smith family examined
by Maggid ben Yoseif / © 2010 Jerusalem Torah Voice
“If the European settlers, including followers of Joseph Smith had listened to the Yagowaneh of the Haudenosaunee, there may not be an economic recession at this writing, no Federal Reserve System even a currency other than money running this nation.
Elements of the Book of Mormon and Smith’s later doctrine of the Law of Consecration agree with the “moneyless society” taught by the Yagowaneh (YAH-GO-WAN’-EH), the Corn Clan Mother. This was also the lifestyle among the Haudenosaunee (HO-D’NO-SAW-NEE) also known as the Iroquois or Six Nations for centuries before the Europeans arrived. The Europeans’ failure to adopt the moneyless society and other tenets of the Great Law has resulted in the present usury-driven capitalism regulated by the suppliers of money. Consequently, we have a system that takes advantage of the impoverished and the wage-earner, which was never the America envisioned by Native Americans or our Peacemaker.
At the time Joseph Smith wrote that he first made contact with the angel, Moroni, he was living in West Central Upstate New York, in the heart of the Seneca, one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). The Canandaigua Treaty of 1794 was interpreted for the Haudenosaunee by four men, including a “Joseph Smith,” who is believed by geneaologists to be Joseph Smith, Sr. (before Joe Jr. was born). The same Smith, interpreted three such treaties for the Haudenosaunee. Such an intimate link to the Haudenosaunee by the Smith family means that Joseph Smith Jr., would surely have been told the story of Daganawida, (the Peacemaker born of a virgin, andhis Jikohnsaseh. The proximity of the Smith home to Ganondagan (GAN-NON’-DAY-GON), the Haudenosaunee House of Peace from which the Jikohnsaseh ruled, assures that the entire Smith family was probably familiar with this story and its tie to a moneyless society. This would apply as well to Oliver Cowdery and the Harrises, Whitmers and Pages who lived nearby and comprised the 11 witnesses who stated they saw and held all of the plates that Smith had translated at that time (presumably the autographs of the 116 pages Smith translated, which was later stolen). *However, none were witness to the plates when the text of the Book of Mormon was received by Smith while gazing inside of a deep hat at his “seer stone.” And no one — not even the 11 witnesses listed in the front of the Book of Mormon whose witness was “in the form of visions” actually saw physical writings on physical plates “for fear of death.” Maggid
*Editors note: Of course we don’t agree with Maggid about the stone in the hat, but know Joseph Smith used the Urim and Thummim to translate the gold plates. Also see The Canandaigua Treaty of 1794 at the bottom of this blog signed by “A” Joseph Smith. We know Joseph Smith Sr. (July 12, 1771 – September 14, 1840) was the father of Joseph Smith Jr.
Maggid continues,
“Do plates validate Kingdom established by Daganawida?
Looking beyond the Six Nations across the Americas, many stories emerge of the *Great White Brother and his message of Peace, including the Hopi prophecy of the return of Pahana in the American Southwest. Christian missionaries have told us this is “the God, Jesus.” But Native Americans know the one who has walked across the Americas by many names, as others have documented. And he has appeared to many Native American prophets and seers and grandmothers — many, not as Grandfather our Creator but as our “Big Brother.” Within the circles of the Sundance lodge of the Membreno Apache is such a prophet, who has had several conversations with his “Bro.” Daganawida is believed to be only one of the many names of this Great White Brother whose message is always Peace.” Maggida
*Editors note: As you read in the Book of Mormon from Alma Chapter 18 that King Lamoni supposes that Ammon is the Great Spirit. As we read in verse 24 to 29 the King does not know the name “God”, but when Ammon said that is the same as the Great Spirit, the King now believed. We each may know the name of God differently in various cultures. Also in Alma Chapter 22, Aaron teaches Lamoni’s father about the Creation, the Fall of Adam, and the plan of redemption through Christ, and in verse 9-12, Aaron calls the Great Spirit by the name “God” which is strange to King Lamoni’s father. Again when he ties the name God as the same as the Great Spirit, he is converted. This is very similar to what the Six Nations Tribes may call the Great White Brother or Big Brother or the God, Jesus. We know Jesus has hundreds of names just in the Book of Mormon. See page 115 in Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum.
Maggida continues, “Confident that Smith knew the story of Daganawida and his Jikohnsaseh, these questions follow:
1) Do the plates record a history leading up to the “second coming” of Daganawida? (Assuming the Book of Mormon accurately reflects the writing on the plates — even though as explained above, it cannot technically be called a translation* — the book already refers to Jesus‘ earlier appearance in Jerusalem. Anything but Peace resulted in the interim, according to the outcome of the book). This means the plates could validate — as a glimpse of Kingdom Rule — the precedent established at his later appearance as Daganawida. That precedent gave the Native Americans the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee, the propriety of matriarchal rule and the command to leave the decision of going to war only in the hands of clan mothers and grandmothers as instruments of making and protecting the peace. The Great Law would naturally flow out of the dismal failure of the partriarchal rule of the sons of Lehi. Mary Jemison, for instance, was a captive of the Haudenosaunee, but refused to leave as she had more rights as an adopted Iroquois under matriarchal rule, than she had as a free American white woman.
*Editors note: See how others in the Church and non-members will get a mixed message if the intellectuals say Joseph didn’t use the plates and he didn’t translate, where I say Joseph did use the plates and DID translate with the Urim and Thummim by the gift and power of God. Mixed messages don’t teach correctly.
Story of ‘messiah figure’ living among Native Americans 15 miles from Smith’s front door
2) Is the Book of Mormon an attempt to retell the story of Daganawida? A story that possibly told of Jesus living among the Native Americans and setting up his kingdom less than 15 miles from Smith’s front door would certainly have impressed any young, impressionable and inquiring mind. Young Smith was all of that when the plates were first revealed to him. All a Peacemaker would need would be wars to resolve and people to reunite. This presupposes that the plates were never correctly translated and were used as a “backdrop” or “platform” for Smith’s *imagination and/or his inspired writings and doctrine.” Maggid
*Editor’s note. Why do people have to say the Book of Mormon is fiction? As I was a missionary in 1975 in Fiji, one of our flip chart pages said “Ask yourself this question, could any man have written this book?” As our investigators would sit and ponder that question for a few minutes, and then answer, no!
Maggid continues,
3) Whether or not the translation is genuine, is Grandfather using this book in the Latter Days among the Saints to point to the story of Daganawida at a time when war drums are again beating on a global scale?
Any of these three possibilities mandate that the plates be brought forth so they may be translated by skilled Native American translators. Joseph Smith Jr. was initially told to bring the Book of Mormon (some say the plates themselves) to the Native population. It is hard to imagine that the Iroquois in the area, when presented with the Book, would not demand to have the plates since they were on Iroquois land. If the Great Law is a miniature of Kingdom Rule, presented by the Anointed One, any writings found in proximity of the Haudenosaunee where he appeared may be of global importance. Show me the plates!” Maggid
Maggid reverts to ask the question that Laman and Lemuel would ask. “Prove it to me.” I say, “oh ye of little faith?” This information about similarities between the Book of Mormon teachings and the Law of Peace are intriguing. I believe the ancient Native Americans were the Lamanites of the Book of Mormon and they did have the true gospel at some point in the Book of Mormon. We know the Lamanites kept no records so this oral tradition of the Great Peacemaker Daganawida seems a good fit as an oral tradition haned down.
The Canandaigua Treaty of 1794
November 11, 1794
The President of the United States having determined to hold a conference with the Six Nations of Indians, for the purpose of removing from their minds all causes of complaint, and establishing a firm and permanent friendship with them; and Timothy Pickering being appointed sole agent for that purpose; and the agent having met and conferred with the Sachems, Chiefs and Warriors of the Six Nations, in a general council: Now in order to accomplish the good design of this conference, the parties have agreed on the following articles, which, when ratified by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, shall be binding on them and the Six Nations.
Article I. Peace and friendship are hereby firmly established, and shall be perpetual, between the United States and the Six Nations.
Article II. The United States acknowledge the lands reserved to the Oneida, Onondaga and Cayuga Nations, in their respective treaties with the state of New York, and called their reservations, to be their property; and the United States will never claim the same, nor disturb them or either of the Six Nations, nor their Indian friends residing thereon and united with them, in the free use and enjoyment thereof: but the said reservations shall remain theirs, until they choose to sell the same to the people of the United States who have right to purchase.
Article III. The land of the Seneca nation is bounded as follows: Beginning on Lake Ontario, at the north-west corner of the land they sold to Oliver Phelps, the line run westerly along the lake, as far as O-yong-wong-yeh Creek at Johnson’s Landing-place, about four miles eastward from the fort of Niagara; then southerly up that creek to its main fork, then straight to the main fork of Stedman’s Creek, which empties into the river Niagara, above Fort Schlosser, and then onward, from that fork, continuing the same straight course, to that river; (this line, from the mouth of O-yong-wong-yeh Creek to the river Niagara, above Fort Schlosser, being the eastern boundary of a strip of land, extending from the same line to Niagara River, which the Seneca Nation ceded to the King of Great Britain, at a treaty held about thirty years ago, with Sir William Johnson;) then the line runs along the river Niagara to Lake Erie; then along Lake Erie to the north-east corner of a triangular piece of land which the United States conveyed to the state of Pennsylvania, as by the President’s patent, dated the third day of March, 1792; then due south to the northern boundary of that state; then due east to the south-west corner of the land sold by the Seneca nation to Oliver Phelps; and then north and northerly, along Phelps’ line, to the place beginning on Lake Ontario. Now, the United States acknowledge all the land within the aforementioned boundaries, to be the property of the Seneca nation; and the United States will never claim the same, nor disturb that Seneca nation, nor any of the Six Nations, or their Indian friends residing thereon and united with them, in the free use and enjoyment thereof: but it shall remain theirs, until they choose to sell the same to the people of the United States, who have the right to purchase.
Article IV. The United States having thus described and acknowledged what lands belong to the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, and engaged never to claim the same, nor to disturb them, or any of the Six Nations, or their Indian friends residing thereon and united with them, in the free use and enjoyment thereof: Now the Six Nations, and each of them, hereby engage that they will never claim any other lands within the boundaries of the United States; nor ever disturb the people of the United States in the free use and enjoyment thereof.
Article V. The Seneca Nation, all others of the Six Nations concurring, cede to the United States the right of making a wagon road from Fort Schlosser to Lake Erie, as far south as Buffalo Creek; and the people of the United States shall have the free and undisturbed use of this road, for the purposes of traveling and transportation. And the Six Nations, and each of them, will forever allow to the people of the United States, a free passage through their lands, and the free use of their harbors and rivers adjoining and within their respective tracts of land, for the passing and securing of vessels and boats, and liberty to land their cargoes when necessary for their safety.
Article VI. In consideration of the peace and friendship hereby established, and of the engagements entered into by the Six Nations; and because the United States desire, with humanity and kindness, to contribute to their comfortable support; and to render the peace and friendship hereby established strong and perpetual; the United States now deliver to the Six Nations, and the Indians of the other nations residing among and united with them, a quantity of goods of the value of ten thousand dollars. And for the same considerations, and with a view to promote the future welfare of the Six Nations, and of their Indian friends aforesaid, the United States will add the sum of three thousand dollars to the one thousand five hundred dollars, heretofore allowed them by an article ratified by the President, on the twenty-third day of April 1792; making in the whole, four thousand five hundred dollars; which shall be expended yearly forever, in purchasing clothing, domestic animals, implements of husbandry and other utensils suited to their circumstances, and in compensating useful artificers, who shall reside with them or near them, and be employed for their benefit. The immediate application of the whole annual allowance now stipulated, to be made by the superintendent appointed by the President for the affairs of the Six Nations, and their Indian friends aforesaid.
Article VII. Lest the firm peace and friendship now established should be interrupted by the misconduct of individuals, the United States and Six Nations agree, that for injuries done by individuals on either side, no private revenge or retaliation shall take place; but, instead thereof, complaint shall be made by the party injured, to the other: By the Six Nations or any of them, to the President of the United States, or the Superintendent by him appointed: and by the Superintendent, or other person appointed by the President, to the principal chiefs of the Six Nations, or of the nation to which the offender belongs: and such prudent measures shall then be pursued as shall be necessary to preserve our peace and friendship unbroken; until the legislature (or great council) of the United States shall make the equitable provision for the purpose.
Note: It is clearly understood by the parties to this treaty, that the annuity stipulated in the sixth article, is to be applied to the benefit of such of the Six Nations and of their Indian friends united with them as aforesaid, as do or shall reside within the boundaries of the United States: for the United States do not interfere with nations, tribes or families, of Indians elsewhere resident.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the said Timothy Pickering, and the sachems and war chiefs of the said Six Nations, have hereunto set their hands and seals.
Done at Canandaigua, in the State of New York, in the eleventh day of November, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four.
Timothy Pickering
Witnesses:
Israel Chapin
William Shepard, Jr.
James Smedley
John Wickham
Augustus Porter
James H. Garnsey
William Ewing
Israel Chapin, Jr.
Interpreters:
Horatio Jones
Joseph Smith (Joseph Smith Sr that we know, lived 1771- 1840. Could this be him?)
Jasper Parrish
Henry Abeele
Signed by fifty-nine Sachems and War Chiefs of the Six Nations
Canandaigua, New York — November 11, 1794
O-no-ye-ah-nee
Kon-ne-at-or-tee-ooh (Handsome Lake)
To-kenh-you-hau (Capt. Key)
O-nes-hau-ee
Hendrich Aupaumut
David Neessoonhuk
Kanatsoyh (Nicholas Kusik)
Soh-hon-te-o-quent
Oo-duht-sa-it
Ko-nooh-qung
Tos-song-gau-lo-luss
John Sken-en-do-a
O-ne-at-or-lee-ooh (Handsome Lake)
Kus-sau-wa-tau
E-yoo-ten-yoo-tau-ook
Kohn-ye-au-gong (Jake Stroud)
Sha~qui-ea-sa
Teer-oos (Capt. Printup)
Soos-ha-oo-wau
Henry Young Brant
Sonh-yoo-wau-na (Big Sky)
O-na-ah-hah
Hot-osh-a-henh
Kau-kon-da-nai-ya
Non-di-yau-ka
Kos-sish-to-wau
To-he-ong-go
Oo-jau-gent-a (Fish Carrier)
Oot-a-guas-so
Joo-non-dau-wa-onch
Ki-yau-ha-onh
Oo-tau-je-au-genh (Broken Axe)
Tau-ho-on-dos (Open the Way)
Twau-ke-wash-a
Se-quid-ong-guee (Little Beard)
Ko-djeoto (Half Town)
Ken-jau-au-gus (Stinking Fish)
Soo-noh-qua-kau
Twen-ni-ya-na
Jish-kaa-ga (Green Grasshopper, Little Billy)
Tug-geh-shot-ta
Teh-ong-ya-gau-na
Teh-ong-yoo-wush
Kon-ne-yoo-we-sot
Ti-oo-quot-ta-kau-na (Woods on Fire)
Ta-oun-dau-deesh
Ho-na-ya-wus (Farmer’s Brother)
Sog-goo-ya-waut-hau (Red Jacket)
Kon-yoo-tai-yoo
Sauh-ta-ka-ong-yees (Two Skies of Length)
Oun-na-shatta-kau
Ka-ung-ya-neh-quee
Soo-a-yoo-wau
Kau-je-a-ga-onh (Heap of Dogs)
Soo~nooh-shoo-wau
Tha-og-wau-ni-as
Soo-nong-joo-wau
Ki-ant-whau-ka (Corn Planter)
Kau-neh-shong-goo
See my blog about the large contribution of the Iroquois Confederacy toward becoming a big part of our Constitution and more about Joseph Smith and the Onondaga Indians here.
Also a blog about the 85 Native Americans who were baptized for the dead in 1877 at the St George Temple here. IT IS AWESOME!
