Book Review: The Dene and Na-Dene Indian Migration 1233 A.D. - Escape From Genghis Ghan to America by Ethel G. Stewart

This article first appeared in the MES Journal Vol 9, 1995

MES Journal Editor John White's Note: This Book Review was completed by August 20, 1993 in anticipation of publication in FATE Magazine and a possible radio interview. This latter event did not occur, but Ms Stewart (1904-2002) retained a copy of the review in her files. The review is published in the MEJ by permission of the author [His organization can be visited at 21st Century Radio]. Ms. Stewart’s book was published by ISAC Press, Columbus, GA, 1991, 482p. If Cecil B. DeMille were still making movies, he would relish making an epic Hollywood blockbuster out of this book. Without creative embellishment he would have a true story of an advanced Asian culture which developed block printing in the 8th century A.D., movable type by midway through the 11th century A.D., and whose WOMEN were sending letters to the Tibetan government in the 7th-8th century AD. They were also creating iron and steel products centuries before Europe. This advanced culture was wiped out by the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan, all except for a small group who resisted and fled to the American continent. Some of them are known to us today as the Apache and Navaho. Their escape not only diminished Genghis Khan's booty, but it also brought about his death, as the Queen of the ill-fated civilization forced to migrate to the "New World" in 1233 A.D. was responsible for his murder. This remnant of a once-great civilization may have won vengeance, but they lost a great deal more. They succeeded in escaping from one of the world's greatest military geniuses, but they lost both their homeland and their advanced cultural and scientific achievements, as their migration forced them to become hunters and food gatherers The story of this monumental tragedy is described in the solid research of Canadian scholar Ethel G. Stewart, in The. Dene and Na-Dene Indian Migration 1233 A.D.: Escape from Genghis Khan to America, ISAC Press, 1991. After 40 years of unrelenting effort, Ms. Stewart has uncovered a scenario that deals a hard blow to historical fallacy of cultural isolation in pre-Columbian America.      An advanced culture was wiped out by Genghis Khan, except for this small group who fled to the American continent. Some of them are known to us today as the Apache and Navaho. 18th and 19th century explorers of America found the Athapakan peoples dispersed along North America's West Coast from Alaska to Mexico. These are known as the Dene ("Denny"). The Na-Dene emigrated with the Dene but clung to the West Coasts of the continent and are today associated with the Haida and Tlinget tribes of the British Columbia Coastal Islands. It took Ms. Stewart 40 years to complete her research because Western historians have traditionally neglected the history of Central Asia making the unraveling of Oriental history extremely time-consuming. Many documents left by early explorers, traders and missionaries were ignored and their claims dismissed as mythical. Ms. Stewart laments that conventional anthropological studies of American-Indian origins do not include an examination of Asiatic tribal history. She claims that anthropologists appear to know nothing about the connection of the "Silk Road" and Asiatic Coastal trade with the fur trade of Northeast Asia with its "...Amur depots, and sea otter hunting, all of which was disrupted and seriously curtailed after 1233 A.D., when the Mongols destroyed the Amur fur trading posts." According to Ethel Stewart, the Dene tribal names are derived from those used in the oases of Central Asia at the beginning of 13th century. These indicated that the Kutchen, the Navaho, Apache and 17 small Dene Tribes along the Pacific coast from Southern British Columbia to Northern California come from the Oases of the Tarim Basin, while all other Dene Tribes except the Altai Naiman leaders of the fugitive migrants had their origin in the kingdom of HSI-HSIA, which included the Ordos region of the Yellow River, and the Oases of Kan-Su. The Na-Dene were Altaics from north of the Gobi, Stewart's documentation of the Dene's ancestral recollections was assisted greatly by the endeavors of Father Emil Petitot, who established the Catholic Mission at Good Hope on the Lower McKenzie River from 1860-1875. Petitot was able to document the oral traditions of some of the most highly cultured migrants before their native culture was changed dramatically by the European missionaries. Father Petitot lived with these people for 15 years, and recorded their oral traditions claiming ancestors who had fled their country to escape death at the hands of a leader they named "The Crow Who Runs." That leader was Genghis Khan, according to Ethel Stewart. Not surprisingly, traditional anthropologists dismiss Father Petitot's research and documentation because they believe oral traditions to be mythical. Ms. Stewart wisely provided her readers with a glossary that is tied directly into the book chapter by chapter. Without this most essential glossary, the reader would be lost in a sea of mysterious words. Bravo, Ethel Stewart! And what a glossary -- sometimes whole paragraphs are given to explain some obscure words which convey how the Dene felt about adversaries. Such as "Public Women" defined as "Inmates of the Mongol brothels, and a Dene nickname for the Mongols." The bibliography is also helpful as it enables the reader to trace the origins and foundations of Ms. Stewart’s beliefs and to grasp why this research was so difficult that other mainstream researchers preferred to ignore the subject rather than give it the kind of exacting attention needed to trace the Dene and Na-Dene's origins.      After 40 years of unrelenting effort, Ms. Stewart has uncovered a senario that deals a hard blow to historical fallacy of cultural isolation in pre-Columbian America. Without Stewart’s profound dedication to tracing the linguistic links between the Dene and Na-Dene and their Asian ancestors, it would be difficult to explain the Chinese artifacts discovered all along the Pacific Coast of America, and Ancient Chinese shipwrecks off the coast of California. The numerous cultural and religious similarities between the Dene and Na-Dene and those in Central Asia are also explained well in this book, such as their knowledge of crocodiles, caravans and the Central Asian habit of supplying their wants via trade. They also shared an ability to recognize locations of iron ore from which they made their knives. The Divine Triad in the religion of Central Asia was identical to the Dene's Divine Triad. A belief in reincarnation and the destination of life after death were also shared by the Dene and Central Asia. Indeed, elements of Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam can all be identified with the religious traditions of the Dene and Na-Dene. Joseph B. Mahan, author of North American Sun Kings, ISAC Press, wrote the preface to Stewart’s work, and concluded that Stewart has "produced a work that will in time be recognized as the very heavy "straw" which finally broke the camel's back of the historical fallacy of cultural isolation in pre-Columbian America." I couldn't have said it better --that's why I quoted him! (Dr. Robert R. Hieronimus, Ph.D. is the author of Founding Fathers, Secret Societies: Free-masons, Illuminati, Rosicrucians, and the Decoding of the Great Seal, Destiny Books, 2006.)