Jewish Indian theory

Jewish Indian theory (or Hebraic Indian theory, or Jewish Amerindian theory) is the erroneous idea that some or all of the lost tribes of Israel had travelled to the Americas and that all or some of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas are of Israelite descent or were influenced by still-lost Jewish populations. The theory was popular in the late seventeenth century following works by Menasseh Ben Israel, John Dury, and Thomas Thorowgood.

Via the works of James Adair, Ethan Smith, and two Methodist Elders by the names of George Lane and Johnson Dunham, it had a lasting legacy through its influence on Mormon belief.

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