The masada incident occurred in 66 AD and Masada was builty by King Herod. Now the Book of mormon has the Jews coming over in 600 b.c. over 600 years BEFORE Masada was built.
If this story of the Cherokee connection to Masada is true, it does not validate Joseph Smith, it repudiates him.
You'd better go looking for some new golden plates because the ones Joe Smith dug up are not vindicated by this legend.
Keep Trying.
"If this story of the Cherokee connection to Masada is true, it does not validate Joseph Smith, it repudiates him. "
Bad logic. If the Cherokee claim is true, it does show that the migration claimed in the BoM was possible, and as the BoM claim, not unique either.
The BoM is a very brief record of over 1000 years of history, and even so it records that other groups were in the americas before them, and some groups arrived after as well. The Cherokee claim, if true, doesn't give direct proof of anything in the BoM, but it certainly disproves nothing in the BoM either and harmonizes extreemly well with what is in the BoM.
Other evidences that support the BoM can be found at
http://www.fairlds.org/apol/ai024.html