JOSEPH W. TKACH
May 1987
Dear Friend:
Many have wondered about the origin of the American Indian.
By comparing the table of nations in Genesis 10 with secular
histories and genealogies, we can trace broadly the descendants
of the sons and grandsons of Noah. From his offspring stem all
the nations and peoples on earth today.
We know, for example, that the children of Ham very early
settled in portions of Africa, the Middle East, and in India.
Likewise, the sons of Shem established themselves in the Middle
East and in western Europe. And, we can identify the descendants
of the sons of Japheth with major nations and peoples in Eurasia
-- except for his seventh son, Tiras. There is little historical
mention -- and no biblical mention apart from Genesis 10 and I
Chronicles 1:5 -- of Tiras. His descendants are the only people
whose identity is not clearly verifiable in Middle Eastern
history.
At the same time, the American Indian has long been a puzzle
to many historians and genealogists. We should therefore ask
ourselves, could there be a link between the American Indian and
the biblical Tiras, son of Japheth?
Shortly after the Flood, as the families of mankind spread
out over the known world of that time, most of Tiras' descendants
apparently moved completely beyond the customary boundaries of
early civilization. That would explain why there is no clear
reference to Tiras and his people in the literature of antiquity.
At the same time, ethnologists have established that the American
Indian is closely related to groups of Asiatic peoples in eastern
Asia, who descended from Japheth.
It should also not be surprising that we find the name
"Tiras" or derivations of it preserved among various New World
Indian tribes: Tauri, Taras, Turas, Dures, Dorasques, and Atures
("The American Race," by Daniel G. Brinton). Thus, the conclusion
that the American Indian is descended from Tiras is biblically
reasonable.
The people of Tiras had been separated from the sphere of
most of civilization for so long that when the European explorers
first came upon the American Indian they reported that they had
discovered a "new man." But they simply may have come across the
most isolated branch of Noah's grandsons -- Tiras.
Yet another revealing link is that of language. Certain
American Indian tribes are closely related linguistically to
peoples of northeastern Asia.
We trust that this information is helpful to you.
PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE DEPARTMENT
PASTOR GENERAL