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 Christ in North
America? ©
by Wayne May
 raditions of a
mysterious, bearded visitor from overseas have been current
across our continent since pre-Columbian times. The universal
image of this man, depicted as an influential religious
leader, has fascinated me for twenty years, during which time
I conducted my investigations among every Native American
willing to discuss his or her tribal history with me. Through
them I learned that the mythic memory of this light-skinned
(often referred to as white-skinned), robed man occurs in
ancient myth among numerous Indian peoples.
Michigan Tablet depicting Christ's crucifixion. Tablet
is made of a clay material, fired or sun dried, in the
archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,
Salt Lake City, Utah. Photograph ©, courtesy of David A.
Deal.
But his story is found most frequently in North
American legends, which reveal more information about his
appearance and the nature of his arrival. In Middle and South
America, he was known respectively, as the "Feathered Serpent"
(the Mayas' Kukulcan and Aztec Quetzalcoatl), and "Sea Foam",
Kon-Tiki- Viracocha, to the Incas. North of the Rio Grande
River, he is generally referred to as East Star Man, Peace
Maker, Pale One, Dawn Star, etc.
Native accounts tell of his arrival from the
direction of the rising sun, after which he set up a priest-
hood among his followers, known as the "Wau-pa-nu" (the
spelling is phonetic). They were said to have healed the sick
and instituted new laws. Blood sacrifice was for- bidden and
replaced by the use of tobacco, today an important element in
all traditional Native American ceremonies. Among many eastern
tribes, East Star Man is regarded as the son of the Great
Spirit, the Creator.
I first learned of this Son of the Great
Spirit from Ricardo Baeza, an Ojibwa medicine man in Golden
Valley, Minnesota. He approached me after my lecture about the
Michigan Plates. Collectively, they were associated with
Daniel Soper and Father Savage, early preservers of a large
group of cop- per artifacts and stone tablets unearthed from
numerous mounds throughout the state of Michigan, beginning in
the late 1800s. The objects, today scattered across the United
States and Canada in mostly private collections, feature
portrayals of familiar scenes from mostly the Old Testament
and three or more, undeciphered, written scripts, together
with depictions of what appear to be persons from Europe or
the Near East in hostile interaction with Native
Americans.
Although condemned out of hand as fraudulent
by the archaeologists, the so-called "Michigan Plates" or
"Soper Savage Collections" continue to intrigue independent
antiquarians, who believe the artifacts were made by an Old
World religious community in the upper Midwest during the 4th
Century A.D or earlier. In the 1950s, Henrietta Mertz was the
first researcher to identify the "tribal mark or mystic
symbol" which commonly appears throughout the collection.
 ollowing my Golden Valley slide
presentation of the Michigan Plates, Mr. Baeza told me that he
could actually read some of the glyphs that appeared on the
Soper-Savage tablets, explaining that their symbolic meaning
was part of his tribe's sacred tradition. He added that the
so-called "mystic symbol" represented the name of the
Creator's son, pronounced in the Ojibwa tongue (reading the
cuneiform characters from right to left) as "Yod-hey-vah".
This name, he said, really has an additional syllable, but the
fourth is pronounced only once a year in a sacred ceremony,
and then only by a tribal holyman in the great lodge.
Above: Obverse side of Burrows
Cave stone: Son of the Right Hand (b) is being carried from
the cross to his tomb (c). Just above his body appears the
mark (b) which identifies the figure as Christ. Below: The
reverse side: Son of the Right Hand (h) is victorious over
death through resurrection. He has spent three days (f) in the
tomb (g). He now is en route to His Father's house (i)
according to the King James Version, St. John, Chapter 20:17,
when He was met by Mary Magdalene. Artifact property of
Ancient American. Photograph ©, courtesy of Triple A
Productions.
  
Burrows Cave stone with both Michigan Marks,
Son-of-the-Right-Hand and the Mystic Symbol, portraying Son of
the Right Hand (Christ?). Artifact is in the possession of
Ancient American. Stone measures approximately 3" diameter and
fits in the palm of the hand. Photograph ©, Triple A
Productions.
Mr. Baeza's explanation sparked my memory of
an article by Ancient American author, David Deal, in Ancient
American's Stone, Clay, Cop per, Archives of the Past,
March/April, 1994 issue #5, entitled, "The Mystic Symbol
Demystified".
Above: A scene
demonstrating the opposing sides these two figures represent.
Above the dragon is the mark associated with Son of the Left
Hand. Above the figure holding a spear is Son of the Right
Hand. The Son of the Right Hand's sign is synonymous with the
Mystic Symbol and is interchangeable as demonstrated below on
the Michigan tablet shown. Below: On the right side of
the tablet,, the Son of the Left Hand mark is at the left hand
of God (as it faces you) signifying that figure's name or
station. On the right hand of God (as you look at the tablet)
is another figure which shares the Mystic Symbol with God,
indicating a shared identification with this sign. The Son of
the Right Hand mark is not present as God and this figure are
united in purpose and are therefore identified by the same
sign., Photos ©, courtesy of David A. Deal.
Interpretations of the glyph found at
both the Burrows Cave and Michigan Tablets
Collections:
 n his investigation of the Michigan
relics, Deal was able to convincingly translate from the
quasi-Hebrew script the name of two sons of a deity-figure
featured on the tablets as "Son-of-the-Right-Hand" and
"Son-of-the-Left Hand." The tablets' internal evidence
unquestionably demonstrate
two opposing groups of people
represented by two individuals, one good, the other evil. Both
of these individuals carry identification marks which appear
on many but not all of the plates' biblical scenes. These
well- known moments from the Old Testament clearly identify
each sons' proper role.
For example, on the so-called "creation
tablet," (see page 7) where Adam is apparently brought to
life, the Son-of-the-Right-Hand's mark is included as part of
this positive event. But on another plate, where he and Eve
seem to be ejected from the Garden of Eden, the
Son-of-the-Left-Hand's mark floats above them, suggesting
calamity. This simple but lucid marking of "good and bad," or
"righteous and evil," is recurring throughout much of the
Michigan collection.
On page 18 of his article, Deal writes, "Of
course the two sacrifices,one for Yahweh and the other for
Azazel (Leviticus 16), are indicative of the two brothers, as
well. The stories throughout the Bible of the two brothers
from Cane and Able, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Essau,
Mannaseh and Ephraim, etc., all point to the same allegory.
The fact that the Michigan Christians of the Fourth Century
A.D. were aware of this angelic conflict and modern Christians
are not, is the major point to ponder.
"The modern doctrines would not allow such an
interpretation. Of course, not many Christians actually use
the name Yahweh in their worship either, but when the New
Testament says that the accuser is before the Father daily,
making accusations, and that the Messiah is seated again at
the right hand of the Father, acting as an advocate, they
should, perhaps, reconsider this concept. The point isn't
about to become embroiled in a theological discussion, but to
realize that the doctrine pictured on these tablets, does not
conform to any Christian religion of this day and age
(including 1874). Therefore, the possibility of fraud is
diminished to nearly zero, by this fact alone."
he Michigan relics came to public
attention in 1879 when they were reported in a state
newspaper. But for thirty one years before, Father Soper had
been collecting them throughout the state. From 1848 to 1920,
the relics continued to be accidentally uncovered by local
people clearing forests and building roads. Over the course of
more than seventy years and across twenty seven counties,
thousands of slate, clay and copper tablets continued to
emerge. Written testimonies and sworn affidavits accompanying
many of the discoveries were officially recorded, mostly by
farmers who plowed them up while working their land, and not
by trained archaeologists, who were neither available nor
open-mindedly disposed enough to even give their authenticity
the benefit of a doubt. They claimed then, as they still do,
that the Michigan tablets must necessarily be fake, because no
one from the Old World could have arrived in America before
Christopher Columbus.
Their fossilized mind-set was
examined in Ancient American Volume 2, Issue Number 9,
May/June 1995, page 31, by Kenneth Moore. He addresses the
claims of hoaxing these artifacts by citing the work of two
brothers named Scotford, who probably faked a few of their own
reproductions of the Michigan tablets. But Moore also points
out that although it is reasonable to expect some forgeries
with any collection of this size, it must be remembered that
when fraudulent duplicates of this kind are made they are
usually copied from original artifacts. More revealingly, the
first Michigan plates to be found, already in the many
hundreds, at least, were already being collected before the
Scotford brothers were even born!
 y 1920, the scholars of the day had
academically crucified several men and women who would not
stand down concerning these artifacts. Some colleges and
private museums actually destroyed their Michigan tablet
collections by casting them into local dumps. In the decades
following that wholesale destruction, the Soper-Savage
discoveries lapsed into almost total obscurity, and might have
been utterly forgotten, save for the independent research of
two American writers, Henrietta Mertz and Milton R.
Hunter.
Above: A Burrows Cave stone with
an unknown style of cuneiform writing identically found on
many of the Michigan Tablets. Photograph ©, Triple A
Productions.
Below: Examples of cuneiform writing
illustrated from a black Assyrian obelisk (10th Century, B.C.)
Although they compare favorably with specimens found in
Michigan and Illinois, they are not identical. Drawing ©,
courtesy of The Story of Mankind, Olive Beaupre Miller,
Tangley Oaks Educational Center, Lake Bluff, Illinois.
The books of Henrietta Mertz continue to be
prized by readers interested in pre-Columbian arrivals in the
New World by overseas visitors. Her Pale Ink, an examination
of possible Chinese contacts in British Columbia 2,000 years
ago, and The Wine Dark Sea, re-thinking Jason and the
Argonauts as transatlantic voyagers in quest of a South
American Golden Fleece, are still sought after by
diffusionists. But Mertz was a professional trained in forgery
identification, and it was in this capacity that she was
challenged to either prove or disprove the authenticity of the
Michigan tablets.
After 30 years of research, her conclusions
were about to go into print, but she passed away unexpectedly
before publication. A few years later, her nephew released
Henrietta's Mystic Symbol, Mark of the Michigan Mound
Builders. The book argues that the Michigan relics are largely
authentic, and urges their preservation as genuine relics from
a lost American civilization. During her long years of
research, Mertz was able to track down a large number of
artifacts originally collected by the Catholic priest, Father
Soper. After his death, they had been sent to Notre Dame
University for storage.
In all, some 4,000 such items were shipped to
Notre Dame in poorly packaged cracker barrels. About 2,500
objects, more than half the collection, were badly damaged in
transit to the university. Originally made of brittle clay,
many fractured and broke, often crumbling to pieces. Henrietta
requested permission to examine their surviving collection
with an eye to its ownership. She was allowed to research the
artifacts in the company of a Catholic priest, but university
officials were reluctant to give them up for purely academic
purposes.
In the midst of her investigation, the Father
with whom she had been working on the Michigan tablets was
coincidentally contacted by missionaries from the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, commonly known as Mormons.
Aware of their second scriptural book (the Book of Mormon)
that testified to the presence of Christ in America, the
priest invited them to inspect the Soper-Savage collection.
Intrigued, the missionaries wasted no time in contacting
Milton R. Hunter of Salt Lake City, Utah, a researcher of
American antiquities.
After several months of communication and
visits to Notre Dame, the school officials chose to turn over
the collection to Hunter rather than Henrietta. She was
nonetheless afforded enough time with the artifacts to
complete her research for The Mystic Symbol. Elliot Soper, son
of Daniel Soper, offered his father's collection to Hunter
after having learned of Notre Dame's transference of its
artifacts.
Hunter's expanded collection of Michigan
plates and related items is today warehoused in the historical
archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,
in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their historical department recently
allowed Ancient American staff and Triple A Productions to
photograph Mr. Hunter's collection in its entirety for
continued study.
n 1982, a discovery apparently unrelated
to the Michigan tablets was alleged to have been made by Mr.
Russell Burrows of Olney, Illinois. He claims to have found a
cave in the southern part of his state loaded with the
treasures of foreign visitors who crossed the seas from the
Near East, Europe and Africa about 2,000 years ago.
Hunter's expanded collection of Michigan
plates and related items is today warehoused in the historical
archives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,
in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their historical department recently
allowed Ancient American staff and Triple A Productions to
photograph Mr. Hunter's collection in its entirety for
continued study.
n 1982, a discovery apparently unrelated
to the Michigan tablets was alleged to have been made by Mr.
Russell Burrows of Olney, Illinois. He claims to have found a
cave in the southern part of his state loaded with the
treasures of foreign visitors who crossed the seas from the
Near East, Europe and Africa about 2,000 years ago.
He claims the site is also a rich repository
of stone records belonging to some unknown people who
possessed a high level of culture. I have known Mr. Burrows
since 1993, and compiled a photographic library of some of his
items, which number over 2,000 such stones. I personally
examined about half of them, and have concluded they are
authentic artifacts. Although he refuses to divulge the
location of his cave, the sheer number and sometimes fine
workmanship of the artifacts he allegedly took from the site
tend to support their identification as genuine artifacts.
Even so, many of my fellow diffusionists have
condemned the Burrows Cave finds as part of a hoax.
Admittedly, the tangle of frustrating obstacles, legal and
otherwise, preventing any kind of access to the location's
whereabouts have disenchanted very many investigators. But the
full story of Burrows Cave, while yet to be told, is gradually
unfolding with the gradual release of objects never before
seen, and someday we may learn everything there is to know
about this site. There may be a parallel here with the Dead
Sea scrolls, discovered in 1948. Even now, a complete
accounting of this find has still not been disclosed to the
public.
Mr. Burrows telephoned me two years ago to say
that he had purposely withheld some inscribed stones from sale
because of the imagery they featured; namely, identifiably
Christian scenes, mostly Old Testament. He was uncomfortable
with these items, because he feared critics would use such
obvious themes to further debunk his discovery. Mr. Burrows
knew some Indians had knowledge of Old World traditions and
Old Testament stories. But what concerned him was, as he put
it, "the Jesus stones."
At my request, he sent me photographs of them,
and I was able to compare their images of evidently Old
Testament themes with similar representations found on the
Michigan tablets. I was astonished to notice that both sets
not only featured scenes of Jesus Christ, but also the same
"Mystic Symbol ." The same symbol
appears in southern Illinois 62 years after the last
published information concerning the Michigan mound builders
using this identical mark. Approximately 20,000 to
30,000 Michigan artifacts were excavated from 1848 to the
1920's, compared with the 6,000 to 7,000 Burrows Cave stones
of southern Illinois removed between 1982 and 1986. These
fundamental facts render any possibility for either collection
being a hoax extremely remote, if not impossible.
The predominant glyph found on the Burrows
Cave objects is the so-called "Helios symbol," coined by
epigrapher, Paul Shaffranke. Even this important character is
found in conjunction with the Michigan symbol to suggest some
type of inter-action between these two otherwise distinct
groups. Maybe these glyphs have the same meaning. There appear
to have been vital differences between these two groups of
ancient Americans: non-Christian imagery dominates the Burrows
Cave stones.
two years ago to say that he had purposely
withheld some inscribed stones from sale because of the
imagery they featured; namely, identifiably Christian scenes,
mostly Old Testament. He was uncomfortable with these items,
because he feared critics would use such obvious themes to
further debunk his discovery. Mr. Burrows knew some Indians
had knowledge of Old World traditions and Old Testament
stories. But what concerned him was, as he put it, "the Jesus
stones."
At my request, he sent me photographs of them,
and I was able to compare their images of evidently Old
Testament themes with similar representations found on the
Michigan tablets. I was astonished to notice that both sets
not only featured scenes of Jesus Christ, but also the same
"Mystic Symbol  ." The same symbol
appears in southern Illinois 62 years after the last
published information concerning the Michigan mound builders
using this identical mark. Approximately 20,000 to
30,000 Michigan artifacts were excavated from 1848 to the
1920's, compared with the 6,000 to 7,000 Burrows Cave stones
of southern Illinois removed between 1982 and 1986. These
fundamental facts render any possibility for either collection
being a hoax extremely remote, if not impossible.
The
predominant glyph found on the Burrows Cave objects is the
so-called "Helios symbol," coined by epigrapher, Paul
Shaffranke. Even this important character is found in
conjunction with the Michigan symbol to suggest some type of
inter-action between these two otherwise distinct groups.
Maybe these glyphs have the same meaning. There appear to have
been vital differences between these two groups of ancient
Americans: non-Christian imagery dominates the Burrows Cave
stones.
 till, there are legitimate doubts among
our own diffusionist supporters concerning these "Christ
stones," due largely to some relatively minor variations in
the placement of glyphs, together with the anomalous
appearance of a particular symbol on the Michigan objects (see
page 39). Clearly, much work still needs to be done in any
comparisons of these two diverse collections. But the evidence
of the Michigan Tablets and Burrows Cave stones suggests that
some fundamentally important culture-bearer visited our
Western Hemisphere in pre-Columbian times.
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