Jewish genetic mutation found in Native American tribe

[Indy Coug]

I hope I did sufficient justice to the topic. Thanks for starting it.



Here is a better question: If 20-30 people came to the new world bringing their domestic animal-derived diseases (smallpox, e.coli, salmonella, campylobacter, listeria, shigela, yersinia, which all come from cattle or pigs which were not present until brought her from Europe in the 1600s), how long will it be until a previous unexposed population is decimated by these diseases? There is good evidence that upwards of 75% of the Native Americans on the east coast were wiped out through exposure to these diseases between the arrival of Columbus and the time of the Pilgrims.

Perhaps Lehi and co. were able to spread out and fill the face of the land and within a few hundred years they could afford to have thousands or tens of thousands of men killed in battles because they brought diseases that wiped out the indigenous population and they were able to multiply and replenish the earth?

While a good question, I'm not entirely sure why it's a "better" question. it took a substantially larger group of people than 20-30 to obliterate the native populations during the 16th and 17th centuries. As far as cattle and pig-borne disease goes, there's probably good reason to believe Lehi & Sons weren't hauling pigs on the trip.

Is there any reason to believe the unwitting bioweapons carried by Lehi's group were anywhere near as potent and varied as those brough by European explorers more than 2,000 years later?

One could also speculate that the eight year trip through the wilderness of the Arabia Peninsula also served as a quarantine of sorts prior to setting sail for the Western Hemisphere.