Old World Roots of the Cherokee

Most histories of the Cherokee nation focus on its encounters with Europeans, its conflicts with the U. S. government, and its expulsion from its lands during the Trail of Tears. This work, however, traces the origins of the Cherokee people to the third century B.C.E. and follows their migrations through the Americas to their homeland in the lower Appalachian Mountains. Using a combination of DNA analysis, historical research, and classical philology, it uncovers the Jewish and Eastern Mediterranean ancestry of the Cherokee and reveals that they originally spoke Greek before adopting the Iroquoian language of their Haudenosaunee allies while the two nations dwelt together in the Ohio Valley.

"illuminating"--Appalachian Heritage; "Yates and his colleagues are to be congratulated for their discoveries and for understanding what they mean...it offers food for thought and concrete new data about the people of the Southeast"--Neara Journal; "provides the definitive evidence of relations between Jews, Greeks, Egyptians, and the Cherokee...engaging and useful"--American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

Donald N. Yates is an American genealogist, author, and principal investigator at a DNA testing company in Phoenix, Arizona. He has published popular and scholarly works in cultural and ethnic studies, history and population genetics.