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Whence Come the Cree?by Ethel G Stewart, DFMES |
This article first appeared in the MES Journal Vol 9, 1995
The habitat of the Algonquin Cree stretches from central Quebec across northern Ontario and the three prairie provinces of Canada. As with all North American "Indian" names, Europeans have transcribed Cree from sound. Cree has the sound of the old northeast Tibetan name for the Koko-nor, which was Khri Lake. In the Central Asian kingdoms people habitually prefaced their titles, clan, and given names with those of the towns or districts from which they came. FW Thomas,1 in his translations of Tibetan documents brought back to England at the beginning of the 20th century by the Stein expedition, lists about fifty northeast Tibetan names that are prefaced by Khri. The linguist, Buff Parry,2 and his associates have concluded that the Cree language has three distinct levels. The first and oldest level is not identified, but we are told that it has no relation to Levels Two and Three. Level Two is said to have a predonderance of Arabic roots. Level Three shows European influence. This all seems to point to the possibility that the original home of the Cree was in the vicinity of the Koko-nor, that is Khri Lake, in northeastern Tibet. On the basis of their three language levels, it would appear that they entered this continent early in the first millennium A.D. If this is so, then the first level of the Cree language may be related to one of the northeast Tibetan dialects of the Ch'iang Tibetan tribes of the Khri Lake area.
The second level of the Cree language, with its preponderance of Arabic roots, would appear to be related to the traders of the Silk Road. Following the return of their envoy to the Western Regions, the Chinese opened the Silk Road in 125 BC to promote trade with the West. The Southern Route passed through Khotan, the Lop-nor area, Sa-cu, and Koko-nor to its terminus at Liang-Chou, which the Tibetans called Kha-ba. The Arabs were the most active of all the traders on the silk Road, establishing compounds at stategic centres along the routes.3,4 Not only did their caravans traverse the northern and southern branches of the Silk Road, but they were also heavily involved in the coastal trade of Asia which extended from the Persian Gulf to the Amur River fur trade depots. For obvious reasons, Koko-nor (Khri Lake) would have been a convenient stopping place for Arab caravans approaching Liang-Chou (Kha-ba). Unfortunately, there is very little information on the location of foreign compounds in the kingdoms of Central and East Asia. However, there is no reason to doubt that Arab leaders were present in all the trade centres of the oasis kingdoms and the northeast Tibetan area of Khri Lake. The third level of the Cree language may be due to what happened in 176 BC when the Hiung-nu ancestors of the Turks drove the Yueh-che out of Kan-su and far to the West.5 The Yueh-che had two groups - the Great Yueh-che who were Iranian Saca and the Little Yueh-che who spoke an Italo-Celtic dialect.5 As they were leaving Kan-su, some of the Little Yueh-che truned into the Nan-shan and joined the Ch'iang Tibetans of the Khri Lake (Koko-nor) region. Naturally, those Little Yueh-che with their Italo-Celtic language, qualify for the third level of the Cree language. It is from this linguistic element in the language of the northern Tarim Oases that the so-called Athapaskan inherited the name, Dene, which is the genitive of the Celtic Den, which means people.6 Interestingly, the early French fur traders spoke of the Cree as the Kristenaux. Diamond Jenness7 transcribes the name as Kristeno. The name combines two words - Kris and tenaux. Kris, of course, is Crees; thenaux is the plural of Ten, or Den, the Athapaskan and Central Asian Little Yueh-che word for people. In the oasis kingdoms of Central Asia, prior to the ninth century AD, the Yueh-che word for people was Ten, but north of the Gobi desert the word was Den. The Uighur conquest of the oases of Turfan and Kutcha changed Ten to Den, just as the Manchu dynasty changed Tun-houang to Dun-Houang. Kristenaux means Cree People. If linguists identify the oldest and first level of the Cree language as being related to northeast Tibet, those who spoke the European influenced third level are surely descendants of the Little Yueh-che tribes who fled into the Nan-shan circa 176 BC and joined the Ch'iang Tibetans. Diamond Jenness7 in "Indians of Canada" states that the Cree of Sault Saint Marie are called Saulteaux because they lived near a waterfall. There may be another explanation. If Level One of the Cree language should be identified as related to northeast Tibetan, the odds are that the French fur traders heard the name from the Crees themselves. Near the Ssu-ch'uan borders, not far from Khri Lake (Koko-nor), lived a Ch'iang people whose name was Tso-tu - in sound, 8 no different from Saulteaux. If Level One of the Cree language should be recognized as having northeast Tibetan roots, the Cree who used the name interpreted as Saulteaux, are descendants of the Ch'iang Tso-tu. For some decades we have been led to believe that the script used by the Cree was invented by the Rev Mr Evans, though the missionary, himself, did not make this claim. Recently, we have been told that the script originated with the Cree, themselves. If the Cree are descended from people who once lived in the vicinity of Khri Lake (Koko-nur), this is not at all surprising. The traders of the Silk Road were familiar with many scripts and languages. When German, French, and British archaeologist who went to the Central Asian kingdoms at the beginning of the 20th century, the German expedition to Turfam and Koutcha brought back documents in 17 different scripts and 24 different languages.9 How many more were added by the Pelliot and Stein scholars seems not to have been estimated. If the above material on Cree names is valid, one problem remains - at what time did the Cree arrive on the continent which Europeans have named North America? The Han period, 206 BC - 220 AD, was one of relative stability, but one cannot rule out the possibility that Arab traders stationed at Khri Lake, accompanied by Ch'iang Tibetans and Little Yueh-che, may have sailed to the Great Land (North America) for commercial purposes, or to escape a problem with the Han. The fall of the Han in 220 AD ushered in more than four centuries of division and war throughout China and Central Asia. The Hsien-pi Tu-ku-hun conquest10 of the Koko-nor (Khri Lake) region circa 300 AD, may have sent ancestors of the Cree on a no-return voyage to the Great Land, or possibly, it was the Toba takeover of the region10 about 500 AD that was responsible for their migration. Chinese or Tibetan history and Cree tradition may supply the answer. It is no longer possible for me to study at the great libraries and museums of Europe and the United States, and still more impossible for me to visit the Khri Lake (Koko-nor) region of Tibet. However, there may be linguists or historians who would find it interesting to attempt to solve the reason for and the time of the Cree migration to North America, and thus make an interesting contribution to the history of mankind. |
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