Two expeditions sent out by the Smithsonian institution are to conduct explorations in the hope of obtaining data in support of the theory that the American Indians are the descendants of orientals who came to the continent by way of the Bering strait.

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One of these theories was expounded in a forgotten little book entitled, "View of the Hebrews; or the Tribes of Israel in America," written by Rev Ethan Smith and published in Poultney, Vt., in 1825. Mr Smith was a native of Belchertown, a graduate of Dartmouth and at the time of his death had been for a number of years a city missionary of the Congregational church in Boston. He had also held pastorates in Massachusetts, New York and Vermont. At the time of the publication of his book he was pastor of the church in Poultney. Mr Smith's theory—which was not, however, entirely original with him—was that the Indians are the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. His book speedily went into a second edition, containing additional "proof" of his theory.

The period of this publication was a time of peculiar religious unrest in the United States. New religious theories and movements found ready acceptance among the less sophisticated inhabitants. It is of interest to note that Joseph Smith, a native of Vermont, embodied in his "Book of Mormon," first published in 1830, the theory that the Indians were an outcast branch of a tribe of Jews who were placed on the American continent by divine fiat as an act of dispersal at the tower of Babel. These outcasts, having incurred the divine disfavor, were condemned to have dark skins and to be an idle, mischievous race—the "Lamanites."

Ethan Smith's theory was based on ingenious interpretation of Bible passages and on supposed evidence of similarity in Indian and ancient Hebrew social and religious customs and traditions. Joseph Smith's theory seems to have been based on an original or borrowed imagination. The Smithsonian institution's theory has a more scientific basis, but the origin of Poor Lo, as well as what is best done about him, remains a puzzle.