Sephardic Jewish cavalrymen in the Appalachians
by Richard L. Thornton, Architect & City Planner
All illustrations in this article are ARCHITECTURAL graphics, created with BricsCad from Brussells, Belgium and Artlantis from Studio Base2 in Paris, France.
Bohuron is NOT a Native American word. Would you believe that it is a Ladino (Spanish Sephardic) word, derived directly from Arabic and Turkish, via North Africa? It means “nobility” or “nobles.” Essentially, in this situation, it is the equivalent of the English word, knights.
Since the name is Ladino (Sephardic Spanish), we may assume that the original cavalry was composed of Sephardic Jews, since their first mention by the Spanish Colonial Archives of horsemen with lances stated that they spoke Spanish, but killed any Spaniards associated with the royal government or Roman Catholic Church as soon as they passed north of the Fall Line in present-day Georgia.
French Protestants preceded the arrival of Sephardic gold and gem miners in the southern Appalachians by about two decades, so some French Huguenots many have initially served in the troop, or perhaps they formed an infantry company.
English scholar and advisor to Queen Elizabeth, Richard Hakluyt, interrogated colonists, captured at St. Augustine in 1586 by Captain John Hawkins. He determined that the Santa Elena Colony began friendly, but covert trade relations with the Kingdom of Apalache in 1569. The traders soon learned that Spanish steel and chain armors were impractical for Southeastern North America. Spanish soldiers copied the Apalache by creating “arrow-proof” vests composed of multiple layers of deer leather and quilted cotton.
Spanish trading post in the Upper Chattahoochee Valley, north of Helen, GA
In the late 16th century, the Behurans began as a mounted troop of Sephardic Jews and possibly French Protestants, who guarded the southern frontier of the Kingdom of Apalache from incursions by the Spanish Empire. There is evidence that construction had begun on a New Jerusalem and Third Temple atop Brown’s Mount near present day Macon, GA. The location is about the same latitude as Old Jerusalem.
English and Dutch Protestants joined the brotherhood in the early 16 00s. It was an obligation for being granted land and the right to marry a lovely Muskogean or Uchee wife in the kingdom.
After the mid-17th century, relations were friendly with Spain. The new threat was Rickohocken and Iroquois slave raiders from the north. Asturian, Galician, Navarrese and Portuguese miners joined the troop. Different interpretations of religious worship didn’t bother these rugged mountaineers from the northwestern Iberian Peninsula.
In their final form, the Bohurans composed a powerful tribal member of the Creek Confederacy, which protected the northern frontier during the 40-year-long Creek-Cherokee War. They occupied the upper Piedmont in Northeast Georgia . . . roughly matching the Atlanta Metro Area, plus Jackson, Banks, Clark, Hall, southern White and southern Habersham Counties. There were allied Chickasaw, Cusseta Creek, Apalache-Creek and Uchee villages within this territory.
The Bohuran Creek Tribe because the progenitor of the Creek Mounted Rifles, which later was named the Muskogee-Creek Light Horse. This fighting unit eventually evolved into the Muskogee-Creek Nation’s Light Horse Police, which patrols seven counties in Oklahoma today.
Our next article on the Bohurans will provide a detailed account of their history in which references will be cited. All of these references are now posted on-line, so there is no excuse for authors of relevant historical texts omitting their mention.
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