Joseph Snell (MSJ20)

Our Assyrian Story tells the real-life saga of an ancient community fighting to preserve its language and culture in the face of land encroachment, religious persecution, and assimilation.

Assyrians, including Chaldeans and Syriacs, are an ethnic group that is primarily Christian and indigenous to parts of modern-day Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria – an area referred to as Mesopotamia or the cradle of civilization. In recent decades, Assyrians have faced increased pressure to leave their ancestral homeland. In Iraq alone, prior to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the number of Assyrians was estimated at 1.5 million. Today, it’s fewer than 130,000.

This book is an archive of Assyrian stories and photos by Joe Snell and published between 2017 and 2025. This is not the Assyrian story, but simply a collection of a few stories.