Native American couple Chief Joseph and Amb. Dr. Laralyn RiverWind spoke to Arutz Sheva-Israel National News during the Israeli-American Council (IAC) Summit which took place in Washington, DC.
“We are here because our tribes are Zionist tribes. We are pro-Israel, we love Israel, we support you as the indigenous people, the Jewish people, as the indigenous people of Israel,” said Laralyn RiverWind.
The two spoke of the connection between the rights that the Jews have to their land and the rights that Native Americans claim to their lands. Chief Joseph said, “We share a very common history. While things have been really bad for native people for over 500 years, it has been worse for the Jewish people for thousands, and we are all indigenous to somewhere and there's only one place that the indigenous people of Judea are indigenous to the Jewish people and that's Judea - Israel.”
“As First Nations people, we see your story as a story of hope and a story of healing. You have, through the resilience of your people, been an inspiration. You love life, you have recovered from generations of trauma, and you're an example to our people that we can still embrace and love life and grasp for healing through the trauma and through the problems and the difficulties that life brings,” the two added.
Asked how others who do not have Jewish ancestors but are part of their community relate to Jews and Judaism, Chief Joseph replied, “The very first contact between my tribe and the Jewish people were the Sephardim that were fleeing Spain in 1492, and they landed on my Island in 1493, and many of the Sephardim actually fought with us in the first Indian cars against colonization and against the Spanish, and so as a result, many of us carry the DNA of the Sephardim that came to our lands.”
“How does that affect us today? One of the things that we are trying to do is to remind people of that legacy, of our indigenous ancestors and that connection with the Sephardim who fought with us.”
Added Laralyn, “I think it's important to note that Joseph did not know, until just a few years ago, that he even had Sephardic blood. He's been very pro-Israel for a long time but it was only when his father passed away that he inherited books from the family, and then ended up finding out that they were Bnei Anusim (the contemporary Christian descendants of 15th-century Sephardic Jews who were coerced or forced to convert to Catholicism in Spain and Portugal). But your question about others who don't have Jewish blood - I don't have Jewish blood that I know of, but it has the community split. There are many people who are pro Israel, many who don't understand or know a lot about the history of the Middle East, and then there are some who have been duped by the pro-Palestinian narratives of comparing native people here in the US to the Arabs and the Palestinians in Israel.”
“So unfortunately there's a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of lack of education, because we have a lot of problems at home ourselves. But we can learn from you, and that's why I want our people to know the beauty of your indigeneity and your resilience through everything,” she added.