The Return of a Nation

The Ben Ishmael Tribe did not emerge in a vacuum, nor did it exist in isolation. Its people moved, married, merged, and maintained relationships across dozens of tribal, ethnic, and religious communities over the course of three centuries. From Ishmaelite-Moorish origins to Caribbean maritime networks, and onward to Native alliances in the American interior, the tribe formed a woven kinship web — expansive, multigenerational, and enduring.

This web is not hypothetical. It is:

• Documented in oral history
• Recorded in early government reports and welfare case files
• Visible in genealogical DNA connections
• Preserved in Native naming patterns, Islamic vestiges, and place names
• Mapped in migratory routes and cultural fusions

- Entry Points:

• New Orleans (French/Moorish arrivals)
• Charleston, SC (Berber and West African Muslims)
• Puerto Rico, Haiti, Cuba (escaped North African and Iberian Muslims post-Inquisition)
• Barbados, St. Kitts, and Jamaica (Moorish indentured men & African wives)

- Patterns:

• Early free men of color from Morocco, Mali, Algeria, and Andalusia carried Islamic literacy, herbalism, and sea navigation skills.
• These men intermarried with Arawak-Taino, Kalinago, and Afro-Indigenous women, forming tri-racial Islamic households.
• Islamic burial customs, Arabic names (Ishmael, Fatima, Hasan), and Quranic healing rituals persisted in rural Caribbean enclaves.

“They came as Moors and left as medicine men. Their tents became wagons. Their compass became blood.”

— Caribbean oral fragment, cited 1924

From the Gulf ports and Low Country, families began migrating inland.

- Tribes of Integration:

• Muscogee (Creek), Choctaw, Chickasaw — shared herbal medicine, matrilineal descent, and ritual fasting with Ishmaelite kin
• Cherokee (especially Keetoowah) — adopted Black/Moorish families into clans
• Seminole & Maroon communities in Florida and Georgia — fought U.S. troops alongside Ishmaelite Muslims and Black fugitives
• Yamasee and Gullah-Geechee — established joint settlements with Moorish-Muslim influence in language, food, and naming

 Intermarriage was not assimilation — it was alliance. Tribal sovereignty was preserved through new kin formations, not erased.

This is the heartland of what McCulloch later misrepresented as the “degenerate Ishmaelites.”

- Migration Trails:

• Mississippi → Illinois → Indiana → Michigan
• Movement followed underground trade paths, river systems, and Native travel routes
• Families migrated seasonally with livestock, sacred books, and midwives, sleeping in tents and wagons, often settling near tribal camps or freed Black towns

- Known Tribes of Contact:

• Shawnee, Peoria, Potawatomi, Miami (intermarriage + adoption of “Ishmael” as surname)
• Illinois Confederation remnants (settlement in Cairo, Evansville, Vincennes)
• Ojibwe and Odawa in Michigan welcomed Ben Ishmael fugitives escaping sterilization orders

These networks gave rise to what locals called the “tribes of wagons” — falsely labeled “gypsies” or “white trash.” In truth, they were multi-tribal caravans of Indigenous, Moorish, and Afro-Arabic lineages preserving sacred structure outside the reach of settler law.

Despite sterilization, child abduction, and forced assimilation, the descendants of Ben Ishmael continued to form kinship hubs:

 - Confirmed and Probable Descendant Areas:

• Indianapolis, IN – original McCulloch target zone (now with confirmed genetic links to Afro-Indigenous families)
• Detroit, MI – strong oral tradition of Ishmaelite migrants from Indiana and Mississippi
• Gary & Chicago, IL – Maroon-Islamic and tribal family links survive in Black Muslim communities
• Evansville & Vincennes, IN – rural families still carry Arabic and Indigenous names
• Cincinnati, OH / Louisville, KY / St. Louis, MO – known convergence zone of Southern, Native, and Moorish kin
• New Orleans & Baton Rouge, LA – oral records of caravan “healers” from Indiana active into the 1930s
• Gulf Coast (Mobile to Tampa) – mixed heritage families preserving tribal Islamic traditions, many unaware of their Ben Ishmael roots
• Caribbean returnees – Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban families in NYC and Florida with oral memory of “wagon ancestors” from Indiana

These clusters mirror the original migration arcs — proving survival not only in blood, but in memory.

Surviving Traits of the Ben Ishmael Nation Across Diaspora Communities

Despite systemic erasure, many cultural, spiritual, and social traits of the Ben Ishmael Tribe have persisted across generations — embedded in Native American, African American, Caribbean, and Maroon-descended communities.

Below is a categorized list of these retained identity markers, each traceable to tribal, Moorish-Islamic, and Afro-Indigenous origins:

1. Naming Conventions

• Use of Arabic-Islamic names such as:
  • Ismail, Hasan, Hussein, Fatima, Amina, Mariam
• Seen in:
  • Rural Indiana, Southern Illinois, Mississippi Delta, Louisiana, Detroit, Newark, and Caribbean migrant communities

2. Religious & Ritual Practices

• Fasting, often outside of Christian tradition (linked to Islamic Sawm or seasonal tribal cleansing)
• Ritual purification, including foot washing and full-body bathing before prayer or childbirth
• Alcohol abstention, often enforced across generations
• Prayer using recited verses (oral transmission of Quranic passages, sometimes mixed with Psalms)

3. Matriarchal and Polygynous Structures

• Female-led households, especially in itinerant and rural settings
• Presence of multiple adult women co-parenting within a single caravan or household
• Authority passed down through mothers and grandmothers, not male heads 

4. Herbal Healing and Sacred Knowledge

• Use of:
  • Rue, myrrh, black seed, camphor, frankincense, senna, wormwood, cassia
• Ritualistic application of Quranic healing verses and amulets containing Arabic script
• Healers referred to as:
  • “Wise Women,” “Sabean Mothers,” “Wagon Midwives,” or “Prayer Sisters”
• Documented particularly in:
  • Appalachian Black communities, Louisiana healers, Gullah coastlines, and Midwestern Maroon clusters

5. Symbolism and Protective Objects

• Jewelry or carvings of crescent moons, five-pointed stars, and compass-like arrows
• Use of small books, bags, or bundles containing sacred verses, herbs, or tribal emblems
• Symbols passed down as family relics, often hidden or coded as Christian objects to avoid persecution

6. Mobility & “Caravan Culture”

• Use of covered wagons, nomadic lifestyle, and seasonal migration
• Cultural resistance to home ownership, wage labor, or permanent state registration
• Identified in settler records as “wanderers,” “gypsies,” or “paupers,” but functioned as intertribal diplomats and healers 

7. Language, Storytelling, and Oral Law

• Retention of non-English words or phrases in family stories (e.g., bismillah, walad, jinn, maktab)
• Use of oral genealogies tracing descent through female or prophetic lines
• Stories include references to caravan leaders, desert journeys, disappearing tents, and angelic signs — often matching Islamic tribal cosmologies

 LEGAL POINT:

Each retained cultural marker constitutes forensic evidence of tribal continuity — especially when overlapping across unconnected family lines.

These are not random coincidences; they are survivals from an erased nation.

What happened to the Ben Ishmael people was not neglect.

It was targeted tribal destruction by law, pseudoscience, and public policy.

Between 1870 and 1940, the Ben Ishmael Tribe — already displaced and politically unrecognized — became the test case for America’s first eugenics movement. They were used to justify sterilization, institutionalization, forced child removal, and systemic genealogical erasure.

The architects of this attack did not conceal their intent.

They documented it — in government reports, sterilization laws, charity records, and international propaganda.

What they did not expect was for the tribe to return with those same records as evidence of genocide.

1. Oscar C. McCulloch (1888)

• Presbyterian pastor and social reformer in Indianapolis
• Published “The Tribe of Ishmael: A Study in Social Degradation”
• Branded the Ben Ishmael people as:
  • “Vagrant,” “degenerate,” “licentious,” “feebleminded,” “genetically defective”
• Called for:
  • Sterilization, child removal, and the end of charitable relief
• His report became the cornerstone document for U.S. eugenics

2. J. Frank Wright & the Indianapolis Sentinel (1883–1887)

• Collected township charity records on the tribe
• Traced marriage, birth, and aid data to produce the earliest eugenic family trees
• Turned state surveillance into a media-driven justification for sterilization

3. Charity Organization Society (COS)

• A national welfare reform network
• Used the Ben Ishmael case to promote “scientific charity”
• Advocated for:
  • Data-based denial of aid, segregation of families, and state custody of children

1. Indiana Sterilization Law (1907)

• First compulsory sterilization statute in the United States
• Targeted people labeled as:
  • “Insane,” “feebleminded,” “degenerate,” or “habitual paupers”
• The Ben Ishmael Tribe was directly cited in state justifications

2. Revisions in 1921 & 1927

• Made sterilization more enforceable after initial legal challenge
• Led to thousands of forced sterilizations across Indiana and the U.S.
• Ben Ishmael descendants were especially vulnerable due to:
  • Poverty
  • Lack of fixed address
  • Mixed racial classification
  • Refusal to identify with Christianity or U.S. census categories

 3. Use in National Policy

• McCulloch’s study was used as evidence in:
  • Immigration restrictions (Chinese Exclusion, National Origins Act)
  • Welfare reform (end of indiscriminate benevolence)
  • Public education policies (removal of “unfit” children)

“The Ishmaelites were the bridge between policy and propaganda.

First labeled, then sterilized, then erased.”

— Forensic Genealogy Archives, IU Indianapolis

1. 1933 Chicago World’s Fair – “Century of Progress”

• Eugenics exhibit featured:
  • Charts and diagrams from McCulloch’s Ishmael study
  • Photos of “pauper families”
  • Racial pseudoscience displays describing hereditary criminality

2. University Archives & Casebook Exhibits

• Indiana University and others preserved “The Tribe of Ishmael” materials as teaching tools
• Used to demonstrate:
  • The “threat of hereditary poverty”
  • The value of institutional sterilization and reform schools

• Method

1. Description

• Genealogical Reclassification

1. Tribe members were renamed as “Mulatto,” “Negro,” “White Trash,” or “Other” in census and court records

• Forced Institutionalization

1. Children and elders sent to mental hospitals, orphanages, or asylums — without due process

• Compulsory Sterilization

1. Carried out under eugenics laws using falsified diagnoses or group-based suspicion

• Charity Blacklisting

1. Families denied public aid and placed under surveillance

• Removal of Children

1. Placed into “better” homes, erased from tribal history, and renamed

• Paper Trail Fragmentation

1. Records of marriage, birth, land, and worship were split across counties, churches, and agencies to prevent genealogical reconstruction

• The Ben Ishmael people were declared biologically unfit, politically non-existent, and culturally criminal.
• They were deleted from:
  • Charity logs
  • Welfare rolls
  • Land registries
  • Educational records
  • Church baptism rolls

But they were not dead — only invisible.

The evidence of survival remained in:

• DNA
• Oral history
• Cultural retention
• Healer lineages
• Islamic practices
• Family naming systems

• Legal Framework

1. Status

• 1907 Indiana Eugenics Law

1. Used against the tribe, now overturned

• UNDRIP Article 8

1. Recognizes and forbids forced assimilation and destruction of culture

• ICCPR & CERD

1. Prohibit racial erasure and uphold group identity

• Tribal Law & House Buhijji Charter

1. Restoration and protection now in force

The erasure of the Ben Ishmael Tribe was:

• Documented
• Systemic
• Sanctioned
• Still unfolding

But it is no longer unopposed.

By filing this record — and proclaiming it under 𒀭House Buhijji and SVSP — the Ben Ishmael Nation now uses the instruments of its suppression as evidence of its sovereign return.

No term has done more damage to the memory of the Ben Ishmael people than the label “White Trash.”

It did not describe a class.

It was not a slur of poverty.

It was a deliberate weapon of reclassification — used to racially misidentify, culturally erase, and politically denationalizea tribal people of Afro-Indigenous and Semitic descent whose existence defied the settler system.

The term “White Trash” was used to overwrite a people who could not be categorized:

• Not enslaved, but not fully free
• Not white, but not Black under the one-drop rule
• Not Native, but speaking Algonquian and living with the tribes
• Not immigrants, but refusing Anglo citizenship

This section exposes how that slur became a tool of government policy, academic pseudoscience, and historical theft.

Colonial Usage

• The term “white trash” emerged in the British colonies to refer to landless whites, often Scots-Irish, indentured Moors, or free persons of color who lived among Native and Black communities.
• By the 1830s, the label was attached to people outside the slave–plantation–church system.

Legal Function

• It categorized untracked, noncompliant, intermarried populations who:
  • Didn’t register land
  • Didn’t attend church
  • Didn’t accept settler kinship norms
  • Lived in tribal-style bands, often with Islamic or Afro-Asiatic customs

By the time Oscar McCulloch published “The Tribe of Ishmael” (1888), the slur “white trash” was:

• Legally useful: It removed tribal and racial protections
• Socially useful: It distanced the tribe from white elites and from Black civil rights activists
• Politically useful: It justified sterilization, institutionalization, and forced child removal

Direct Impacts:

• Members of the Ben Ishmael Tribe were labeled “white trash degenerates” in census notes, court files, and charity records.
• They were reclassified as non-tribal, denied Indigenous status, and grouped with:
  • “Piney Woods People”
  • “Sandhillers”
  • “Clay Eaters”
  • “Crackers”
  • “Poor Whites”
  • All of which were used to erase cultural distinctiveness

This was not casual bigotry. It was policy language.

"Mechanism"

Function

“White”

Denied Black, Native, and Moorish heritage

“Trash”

Removed class solidarity and dehumanized survival cultures

“Degenerate”

Created scientific justification for sterilization

“Vagrant”

Criminalized mobility and tribal caravan traditions

“Feebleminded”

Enabled eugenic sterilization without consent

“Gypsy” / “Tinker”

Exoticized while denying domestic tribal identity

By forcing the Ben Ishmael people into this linguistic corner, the state prevented them from:

• Reclaiming land
• Accessing tribal sovereignty
• Defending religious identity
• Passing down their real names and affiliations

Much of the Ben Ishmael heritage was stolen, renamed, or rebranded by state agencies and academic literature:

- Stolen Trait

"Renamed As"

Original Function

- Crescent moon charm

“Backwoods amulet”

Islamic talisman / protective tribal symbol

- Sacred wagon migration

“Hobo drifting”

Tribal seasonal path from Gulf to Midwest

- Herbal healing

“Granny superstition”

Quranic and African medical knowledge

- Arabic names (Ismail, Fatima)

“Made-up Negro names”

Semitic lineage markers

- Women-led clans

“Broken homes”

Matrilineal governance and midwife leadership

- Non-Christian rituals

“Demonic cultism”

Sufi or Moorish prayer traditions

- Refusal of wage labor

“Laziness”

Tribal self-sufficiency and autonomy

The consequence of this campaign was generational:

• Children grew up ashamed of the name “Ishmael”
• Descendants believed themselves to be “white trash” with no heritage
• Intertribal marriages were lost to history
• Family trees were severed by forced removals and name changes
• Tribal literacy was replaced by state dependency and silence

Even now, many descendants:

• Carry no written proof
• Are unaware of their tribal roots
• Believe false stories created to replace their true origin

With the issuance of:

• The Ben Ishmael Charter (𒀭House Buhijji, June 23, 2025)
• The Great Seal Proclamation
• This public filing and forensic restoration

…the slur White Trash is hereby nullified as a lawful classification of the Ben Ishmael people.

Its use to erase a tribal identity is formally declared void ab initio.

We are not white. We are not trash. We are not gone.

We are tribal, Semitic, Afro-Indigenous, Moorish, and sovereign by birthright.

The Ben Ishmael Nation was never extinguished — it was administratively deleted.

What eugenicists, census clerks, and policy architects attempted to erase has now been legally restored by the issuing of two foundational instruments under dynastic and tribal law:

1. 𒀭 The Ben Ishmael Charter and Restoration Order
2. 𒀭 The Proclamation of the Great Seal of the Ben Ishmael Nation

Both were issued on June 23, 2025, by the Grand Chancellery of House Buhijji, under full sovereign, ecclesiastical, and tribal authority, and filed with the Sun Village Sovereign Press (SVSP) as permanent and irrevocable instruments.

These are not symbolic declarations.

They are legally enforceable charters under:

• Tribal law
• Dynastic law
• Indigenous international law
• Ecclesiastical jurisdiction
• And the principles of jus sanguinis (right of blood) and jus terrae (right of land)

Issued by:

His Imperial and Royal Highness Sheikh Mohamed-Hasan :Buhijji

Sovereign of the Ben Ishmael Nation

Grand Chancellor of House Buhijji

Postmaster General under International Treaty

Purpose:

• To formally reconstitute the Ben Ishmael Tribe as a sovereign nation
• To reverse 150+ years of denationalization, forced sterilization, and racial erasure
• To restore tribal dignity, international legal standing, and genealogical continuity
• To place the tribe under the sovereign protection of House Buhijji and its legal arms

Key Clauses of the Charter:

• Article I – Tribal Sovereignty
  The Ben Ishmael people are recognized as a tribal nation with self-governance rights under international and tribal law.
• Article II – Reversal of Denationalization
  All acts of erasure (legal, racial, genealogical, institutional) are declared null and void.
• Article III – Cultural and Genealogical Continuity
  The tribe’s lineage is reestablished through DNA, oral tradition, historical record, and cultural retention.
• Article IV – Protections and Recognition
  Tribe members are entitled to:
  • Diplomatic protection
  • Ancestral naming rights
  • Land reclamation claims
  • Recognition through SVSP and allied sovereign registries
• Article V – Institutional Orders
  Establishes:
  • The Ben Ishmael Restoration Committee
  • The Tribal Historical Archive and Genealogy Office
  • QR-coded credentialing system under House Buhijji and SVSP

This proclamation formally creates, describes, and protects the Great Seal — the binding national insignia of the Ben Ishmael Tribe.

Description of the Seal:

• Five-pointed star within a crescent — Semitic-Islamic identity
• Eight arrows — representing directions of exile and return
• Crossed swords — ancestral defense and tribal honor
• Open book — restoration of the erased record
• Gold ribbon inscription:
  “1785–1905 Migration • Restored 2025”
• Latin motto:
  “Per Divinum Jus Sanguinis” (By Divine Right of Blood)

Legal Authority of the Seal:

• Marks all future:
  • Tribal ID documents
  • Diplomatic filings
  • Legal instruments
  • Tribal proclamations
• Protected under House Buhijji jurisdiction and international treaty protections
• May only be used or reproduced by order of the Custodian of the Seal

1. Instrument: Ben Ishmael Charter and Restoration Order

• Type: Royal Charter, Tribal Decree, Restoration Mandate
• Issued By: 𒀭 House Buhijji, under SVSP
• Date of Issue: June 23, 2025
• Legal Authority:
  • Tribal Law (customary and hereditary)
  • Ecclesiastical Law (house-issued)
  • Dynastic Law (bloodline sovereign)
  • International Law (UNDRIP, ICCPR, CERD)
• Scope of Jurisdiction:
  • Global recognition of the Ben Ishmael Tribe as a sovereign nation
  • Internal governance, land claim, naming rights, and diplomatic status
• Status:
  • Permanent and Irrevocable
  • Cannot be repealed, overruled, or expired under foreign law

2. Instrument: Proclamation of the Great Seal of the Ben Ishmael Nation

• Type: National Seal Proclamation and Symbolic Enactment
• Issued By: 𒀭 House Buhijji, under SVSP
• Date of Issue: June 23, 2025
• Symbolic Authority:
  • Establishes the official seal of the nation
  • Describes its visual elements and spiritual meanings
  • Declares its protected status under tribal and international law
• Scope of Jurisdiction:
  • All official instruments, documents, declarations, and credentials
  • All tribal identifications, passports, and legal proclamations
• Status:
  • Binding and Enforceable
  • Reproductions restricted to tribal authority only
  • Enforced through seal custodianship and QR-code verification systems

3. Shared Legal Foundations of Both Instruments

• Anchored In:
  • UNDRIP (Articles 8, 9, 33: Indigenous identity, naming, and continuity)
  • Montevideo Convention (1933: Statehood criteria — population, territory, government, capacity)
  • ICCPR & CERD (Rights of peoples to preserve language, culture, and religion)
  • Ecclesiastical and Dynastic Law of House Buhijji
  • Treaty of Peace and Friendship (1787)
• Filing and Archiving:
  • Officially registered and timestamped by the Sun Village Sovereign Press (SVSP)
  • Digitally authenticated with seal, metadata, and QR-code for public access
  • Held in permanent custody by the Grand Chancellery of House Buhijji

• UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)
• Montevideo Convention (1933)
• ICCPR (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights)
• CERD (Convention on Elimination of Racial Discrimination)
• Tribal and Ecclesiastical Law under House Buhijji
• Customary Indigenous and Treaty-Based Law (1787 Treaty of Peace and Friendship)

Both instruments are:

• Filed and timestamped under SVSP
• Digitally archived and QR-verified
• Registered with sovereign metadata and tracking seals
• Protected against suppression by House Buhijji’s Chancellery and Court

“These charters are not an invitation.

They are a declaration.

We did not return to ask.

We returned to file — with seal, law, and record.”

— 𒀭 House Buhijji, 2025

The Great Seal of the Ben Ishmael Nation is more than a symbol — it is a sovereign instrument of law.

It marks the tribe’s reentry into public and legal visibility, and serves as:

• A tribal insignia of continuity and survival
• A legal signature for all official documents
• A visual record of history, migration, and return
• A protective device guarding against unauthorized use, erasure, or false representation

The Seal was formally proclaimed on June 23, 2025, under the authority of 𒀭 House Buhijji and filed with the Sun Village Sovereign Press (SVSP).

Each element of the seal reflects a piece of the tribe’s history, memory, and divine covenant:

1. Element

• Symbolic Meaning

1. Five-pointed star

• Semitic ancestry, prophetic legacy, Ishmaelite bloodline

1. Crescent moon

• Islamic/Moorish heritage, resistance to Christian erasure

1. Crossed swords (scimitars)

• Tamimi, Kaabi, and Sulaymi tribal defense traditions

1. Eight arrows radiating outward

• Forced diaspora in all directions; exile and return

1. Open book at the center

• Reconstitution of erased genealogies and tribal record

1. African continent backdrop

• Recognition of ancestral point of origin in the Maghreb and Sahel

1. Crimson and gold border

• Royal sovereignty, dynastic legitimacy, and sacred bloodlines

1. Inscription ribbon

• “GREAT SEAL OF THE BEN ISHMAEL NATION – FOUNDED IN EXILE, RESTORED BY LAW”
• “1785–1905 Migration • Restored 2025”
• Latin Motto: “Per Divinum Jus Sanguinis” (By Divine Right of Blood)

The seal carries binding legal authority under:

• Tribal Law – recognized as the exclusive symbol of the Ben Ishmael Nation
• Dynastic Law – under hereditary custodianship of 𒀭 House Buhijji
• International Law – enforceable under:
  • UNDRIP Article 33 (self-identification and legal use of Indigenous insignia)
  • Montevideo Convention (legal symbols of statehood)
  • Customary law regarding insignia of sovereign nations

The Seal must appear on:

• Tribal ID cards and national registries
• Passports, affidavits, and sovereign certificates
• All charters, declarations, legal complaints, and tribal laws
• Publications by SVSP bearing historical or governmental record
• Official communications, court filings, and diplomatic instruments

No tribal instrument is valid unless it bears the authentic seal.

Protection Mechanisms:

• Digitally embedded QR code (links to registry of origin)
• Timestamped archival hash via SVSP blockchain archive
• Visual watermarking for PDF and printed use
• Rights reserved under:
  • Tribal statute
  • House Buhijji’s Royal Law
  • Ecclesiastical copyright (non-commercial duplication prohibited)

Custodian of the Seal:

𒀭 His Imperial and Royal Highness Prince Sheikh Mohamed-Hasan :Buhijji

Grand Chancellor • Keeper of the Seal • Tribal Executor

Postmaster General of the Ben Ishmael Nation

Any reproduction, misuse, or forgery of the seal:

• Violates tribal sovereignty
• Triggers legal remedy under international and dynastic law
• Constitutes a claim of identity theft or sovereign fraud

Only documents verified through House Buhijji or SVSP are considered authentic.

“The Seal is not art. It is evidence.

It is not decoration. It is declaration.

It does not signify allegiance to a past —

It affirms our power in the present.”

For over a century, the Ben Ishmael Tribe was written out of official history. But the truth was never erased — only scattered across ledgers, locked in asylum files, disguised in surnames, and carried in blood.

This section documents how the Ben Ishmael Nation is now rebuilding itself — not from scratch, but from a continuum of survival.

The restoration of the tribe is grounded in four interlocking archives:

A. The National Registry

• Hosted under the authority of 𒀭 House Buhijji
• Managed through the Sun Village Sovereign Press (SVSP)
• Includes:
  • Verified tribal descendants
  • Kinship ties (maternal and paternal)
  • Historical surnames
  • Known regions of migration and settlement
  • QR-coded tribal identity entries

[Registration Form Available Upon Approval]

Sealed entries are timestamped, legally protected, and used to issue tribal credentials

 B. The Oral Archive

• Recorded oral histories from descendant families in:
  • Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, the Carolinas, and the Caribbean
• Includes:
  • Ritual practices
  • Lineage testimonies
  • Healing traditions
  • Caravan migration stories
  • Native tribal affiliations
• Oral testimonies are accepted as primary evidence under tribal law

 “We weren’t poor — we were not white, not Black, not Indian, not Christian. That’s why they couldn’t name us.”

— Testimony from a Detroit elder, 2004

 C. The Genealogical and Genetic Archive

• DNA matches recorded through:
  • Autosomal and Y-DNA testing
  • Matches to Afro-Asiatic, Maghrebi, and Native American lineages
• Data includes:
  • FamilyTreeDNA, AncestryDNA, and 23andMe records
  • Genetic confirmation of Semitic ancestry
  • Shared ancestry with families classified as “White Trash,” “Negro,” “Gypsy,” or “unknown”

Genomic reconstruction confirms tribal continuity even when state systems obscured identity

D. The Cultural Retention Archive

• Catalog of surviving tribal traits, including:
  • Herbal medicine practices
  • Islamic and Moorish religious traditions
  • Matriarchal family systems
  • Naming patterns
  • Migration rituals
• Sourced from:
  • Academic field studies
  • Family oral accounts
  • Church, prison, and medical records
  • Cultural artifacts (charms, amulets, sacred books)

Currently stored under protected file series with SVSP; future digitization in progress

Ben Ishmael descent is open to individuals who can demonstrate:

Form of Evidence Accepted:

• Oral history from immediate family
• Lineage through known Ishmael surnames
• Genetic link to tribes known to have merged with Ben Ishmael
• Cultural retention matching the forensic record
• Connection to known Ishmael migration hubs (Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, etc.)
• Documentary gaps created by known state sterilization or removal campaigns

If formal proof is missing due to government destruction or falsification, affidavits and witness accounts are permitted under tribal law.

Approved tribal descendants may receive:

•  Ben Ishmael Tribal ID
• Certificate of Ancestral Reinstatement
• QR-coded seal credentials
• Access to Postmaster communications and digital notices

All instruments will bear the Great Seal, registered number, and tribal metadata.

[Credentials available upon tribal confirmation]

A tribal body — The Ben Ishmael Restoration Committee — is tasked with:

• Verifying lineage applications
• Preserving oral records
• Reviewing archival material for erasure patterns
• Coordinating outreach to descendant communities

This committee operates under the Charter and reports directly to the House Buhijji Chancellery.

Known modern-day descendant clusters have emerged or been traced to:

• Indianapolis, IN (core location of original erasure)
• Evansville & Vincennes, IN
• Chicago, IL / Gary, IN / Detroit, MI
• Cincinnati & Louisville
• Mobile, AL / Baton Rouge, LA
• Lexington & Bowling Green, KY
• Coastal Georgia & the Carolinas
• Maroon communities in Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Haiti
• Seminole and Gullah-Geechee corridors in Florida and South Carolina
• Urban centers with Moorish Science Temple or Islamic reformist history

Many of these communities do not yet know they are part of the Ben Ishmael Nation. This record is their first invitation to remember.

“We were scattered by policy, not by choice.

But what was scattered is returning — through blood, through names, through story, and through seal.”

— House Buhijji, 2025

The return of the Ben Ishmael Nation is not a request.

It is a legally executed act supported by a multilayered framework of tribal law, dynastic authority, international conventions, and natural rights doctrine.

This restoration is not subject to the permission of any state, court, or colonial government. It is secured in law, protected by record, and binding through standing.

The Ben Ishmael Nation is governed under its own tribal legal system, recognized by international instruments and based on historical continuity, bloodline sovereignty, and the laws of kinship.

Foundational Tribal Laws:

• Right to self-identify as a tribal nation
• Right to govern internal affairs, membership, land, and law
• Right to maintain cultural, linguistic, and religious systems without interference

Codified under:

• The Ben Ishmael Charter and Restoration Order (2025)
• Tribal Constitution (in progress)
• Authority of 𒀭 House Buhijji as hereditary chancellery

As a sovereign dynastic house with ancestral authority over Semitic and tribal lineages, House Buhijji operates under:

• Ecclesiastical jurisdiction: lineage tied to prophetic and priestly houses
• Dynastic succession: hereditary governance based on jus sanguinis (right of blood)
• Sovereign executorship: power to restore or protect tribal nations historically absorbed or erased

The Ben Ishmael Nation is now:

• Under dynastic guardianship
• Protected by chancellery-level enforcement
• Issued credentials through diplomatic, tribal, and ecclesiastical channels

A. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)

Article 8

• Right to not be subjected to forced assimilation or cultural destruction

Article 9

• Right to belong to an Indigenous community or nation

Article 26

• Right to land, territories, and resources historically occupied

Article 33

• Right to determine membership and govern identity systems

Article 40

• Right to access justice and reparation through own legal systems

B. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

Protects the right of peoples to self-determination, including cultural preservation, religious freedom, and community governance.

C. Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

Prohibits racial misclassification, denationalization, and systemic erasure. The U.S. is a signatory.

D. Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States (1933)

The Ben Ishmael Nation qualifies as a state-like tribal body by meeting the four legal criteria:

Requirement:

• Ben Ishmael Status

Permanent population:

• Documented descendant base + verified kinship web

Defined territory:

• Historical settlements, migratory corridors, and land claims under review

Government:

• Internal structure via Charter, Chancellery, and SVSP

Capacity to enter relations:

• Operates via tribal filings, sovereign registries, and diplomatic declarations

Although not seeking recognition under the U.S. government, historical records show that:

• McCulloch’s 1888 report identifies the tribe as a distinct “nation-like” social body
• Charity Organization Society archives treated the tribe as a racial-tribal group
• State sterilization programs targeted them as a genetically distinct family structure
• Judicial records often list tribal customs (polygamy, naming patterns, itinerancy) as grounds for child removal

This state behavior proves acknowledgment of their tribal difference — even when framed negatively.

Thus, the legal argument is reversed:

“What was targeted was first acknowledged.

What was acknowledged as a problem must now be restored as a people.”

Customary law protects the inherent right of:

• Families to carry on identity and memory
• Nations to emerge from exile
• Communities to reject false classification

These rights are:

• Unwritten but enforceable
• Older than colonial statutes
• Recognized in tribal courts, ecclesiastical tribunals, and international bodies

Instrument & Legal Power:

Ben Ishmael Charter:

• Declares reconstitution of tribe under sovereign authority

Great Seal Proclamation:

• Establishes visual legal emblem; protects tribal documents

SVSP Filing:

• Registers and timestamps tribal acts under sovereign press

Tribal Registry:

• Governs identity, issuance of credentials, and descendant status

Restoration Committee Mandate:

• Gives formal authority to verify lineage, issue ID, and correct historical record

The Ben Ishmael Nation has standing under every axis of law:

• By blood
• By record
• By historical persecution
• By the laws of nations
• And by the right of a people to rise from strategic erasure with sovereign seal in hand