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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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To Know the Truth of God
