White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1930-11-21
HISTORY'S 7
MYST Fri IS
UnsoIyed Riddles That Still Puzzle
authorities Here and Abroad Rva
The Lost Tribes of Israel


THE mystery of the "Ten Lost
i Tribes" has been subject Of abb
sorbing interest for many centuries,
but, despite the Investigations of
countless historians and the excava-
lions of psychologists in all parts of
the globe, the question of what became
of this great mass of people is still
unsolved.
Hundreds of volumes have been
written on the subject and many ex-
plantations have been advanced as to
the probable fate Of the people
who severed their alliance with the
tribes of Benjamin and Judah, the
latter remaining in southern Palestine
and establishing Jerusalem as their
capital. The Israelites who seeded
went northward. Some into Samaria
and others into the country which lay
outside the narrow stretch of land
which then made up the known world.
AS to the fate Of those who populated
Samaria some little is known, for,
about eight centuries before Christ,
Sargon, king Of Assyria, swept down
upon Samaria and carried many thou
sands of its population into captivity,
replacing them with Babylonian and
Syrian colonists and scattering the
former residents throughout the king
dom so that their identity as nation
was completely lost.
With their captivity, the remaining
members Of the ten tribes disappeared
as completely as if they had been
swallowed up by the earth and no
definite trace of them has ever been
discovered. The descendants of the
two remaining tribes were also con-
quered at a later period and while
they, too, were finally driven away,
they possessed so strong a person
atty and a racial cohesion that they
nave endured, despite the bitter OPP
preston to which they have been sub
Iected, throughout the centuries
keeping intact their religion, their his
tory and their customs.
This being the case, it is doubly
remarkable that the other ten tribes,
numerically greater than the tribes
Of Juda and Benjamin, should have
vanished so completely. They could
aot all have been slain or persisted in
captivity, leaving no descendants and
1t is to be presumed that they mi
grated somewhere-bu where? This
Is the question which has puzzled
psychologists and historians for CEN
lures. Some writer's are Of the
opinion that the "lost tribes" long
afterwards appeared as the lawless,
gallant Anglo-Saxons, a race whose
origin is still more or less obscure.
Other European nations have also
been traced" to the missing Israel
| ties, while few commentators believe
that they became merged into the ma
tionalities Of other conquerors and
those of the peoples among whom they
, settled.
OF special interest to Americans is
the opinion of a number Of writer's
that the lost tribes in some way
4 probably by means Of the vast over
land bridge" which later sunk below
the surface Of the Pacidc-found their
way to this country and became what
were later known as Indians" and
"Aztecs." Among those who most
firmly believed this were the early
Spanish priests who settled in Amer
lea. as also did Roger Williams, Cot
ton Mather and many later theologians
and scientists who found Indian Ola
lects which had words and phrases
singularly suggestive Of Hebraic origin
In 176S Charles Beatty, mission
ary, wrote that he was certain that HI
had found traces of the "lost tribes
among the Delaware Indians, declar
ing that he had seen an ancien
scroll that contained portions Of thu
original Hebrew law.
But, despite all the theorizing ant
guessing as to the "ten lost tribes,
no really authentic discoveries hav'
been made with respect to their fate
There are many sections of the glob'
where they could have settled ant
fourished as an Independent nation
vet the archives of no known people
describe such a settlement and-bar
ring the as yet unexplained origin o
such races as the Indians, the Fla
waiians and the Aztecs-nO trace is t.
be found anywhere Of the MISSING
IsraeliteS