The Sioux and the Atsina

The American states North and South Dakota in the upper midwestern States are the home of an aboriginal people known as Sioux. Immediately to the west of Sioux resides another "Indian" tribe whose name is Atsina. Why did this smaller tribe choose to live in close proximity to the Sioux? To answer, one must make an exhaustive study of that period in Chinese history between the fall of the Han Dynasty 220 A.D., and Sui Dynasty that ended 618 A.D. and perhaps into the early years of the T'ang Dynasty.

Why did the Atsina "Indians" live in the American Dakotas so close to the much larger Sioux "Indians"?

During nearly 500 years of violence, war and diversion, North Kan-su and its Etzina region was occupied by Hsien-pi tribes from the Leao River, close to the area of Chinese ship building. Hsien-pi tribes, called Tu-ku-hun, were present in North Kan-su, the Koko-nor region and in the southern Tarim kingdom of Shan-Shan. J. Edkins, China Review, V. 25, 1900/01, "The Dakota Language" identified the Sioux language as Mongol.

Southern Tarim Basin

Men of the Assena (=Atsina) clan of the Hiung-nu fled into the Etzina region of North Han-su to seek refuge with the Tseu (=Sioux).   In myth they say they were protected there by a wolf and had descendants from a she-wolf.    What this means is they were protected by the Wolf Clan of the Hsien-pi (=Tseu) (=Sioux) and married women of the Wolf Clan.

The name Sioux was transcribed from sound by the early fur traders, who heard the name from the Sioux themselves. Sioux was the sound of the Chinese name for the Hsien-pi Tu-ku-hun, which was Tseu. Paul Pelliot, "Notes sur Les Tou-you-houen et Les Sou-pi", Tung Pai, Vol. 20, 1913, pp. 323-331 wrote that Tseu means Slave. The name was used by the Chinese because the Tu-ku-hun Hsien-pi had once been slaves of the Hiung-nu. This means that the Tseu (Sioux) are related to the Uto-Aztec, Navaho, and Slave tribes of the Dene of McKenzie River, as well as the Tlingit and Haida. This means that the Chinese and Central Asians were well aware of the existence of the American continents, and knew that they offered a relatively safe place of refuge from Man's barbarity to his fellow men.

And now, why did the North American "Indians" who called themselves Atsina, choose to settle close to the Sioux (Tseu) when they reached the land which Europeans have named America?

E.H. Parker in his book A Thousand Years of the Tartars states that the name Turk was a totally unknown before the fifth century A.D. About that time, men of the Assena clan of the Hiung-nu fled from the Juan-Juan division of the Hiung-nu, into the Etzina region of Horth Kan-su among the Hsien-pi tribes whom the Chinese called Tseu (Sioux). Before the end of those centuries of division and conflict, in China and Kan-su, Atsina had disappeared as a clan name, but continued up to the 13th century as one of the names of Turkish Khans as can be seen in Dene traditions mentioned in my book, The Dene and Na-Dene Indian Migration, 1233 A.D., pages 185, 232, 270, 274.

When Atsina men fled from the Juan-Juan to the Etzina region of North Han-su to seek refuge with the Hsien-pi, they are said to have been protected by a wolf and to have had connection with a she-wolf whose offspring became the progenitors of Turks. What is the meaning of this so-called myth?

No source consulted mentions the clan name of the Etzina Hsien-pi. Quoting Asiatic sources, all Western writers tell us that the Atsina were protected by a wolf and are descended from she-wolf. Like the Dene, Turks were matriarchal and counted descent from the mother. Also, like the Dene, they expressed their thoughts in figurative style, not in the factual manner of Europeans. This so-called myth means that the Etsina were protected by the Wolf Clan of the Etzina Hsien-pi and are descended from women of that Hsien-pi clan. Thus the early Turks had a Hsien-pi Mongol element. In gratitude, the Turks used the Wolf symbolically in all their political and military operations. To this day, that feeling for the Hsien-pi lingers in the attitude of many Turks towards that most widely known of all descendants of the Hsien-pi, Genghis Khan.

It is clear from historical evidence that some 1500 years ago there were Hsien-pi Tseu (Sioux) and Atsina living in the Etzina region of North Kan-su. No one can deny that in the Dakotas are the homes of a people whose name is Sioux (Tseu), and that to the west of them is a tribe called Atsina., Tseu is the Chinese name for the Hsien-pi Tu-ku-hun. It has the same sound as Sioux, which the French fur traders transcribed from sound. For information on the name Tseu, see Paul Pelliot's article in Tung Pao, Vol. 20, 1913, "Notes Sur Les T'ou-yu-houen et Les Sou-pi".

The Blackfoot, Bloods, and Peigan but not Sioux are related to the Atsina and are of Turco/Hsien-pi origin.

There are still two important questions to address. Why and when did the Tseu (Sioux) and Atsina migrate to the land Europeans have name America? Did they come alone, or were they accompanied by other Kan-su tribes?

From the Christian era to 1233 A.D. there were five migrations from Asia to America, and three of them resulted from violent periods in CHina and Central Asia. First of these three were the Yuchi, after the fall of the Kushan Empire in Northwest India, via perhaps the Atlantic Ocean. Second, about 400A.D. The Kan-su migration (included the Khri, Tseu, Atsina, Little Yueh-che, the Red Paint Tibetans and the Jung, following the Tibetan War. And soon after were the Third, the Fu-Sang about 425 A.D. for the same reason.

When considering the names of some of the "Indian" tribes living far to the east of Sioux and Atsina, one is struck that some those names are of tribes living in the Warring States of China where the population was multi-ethnic. Those names are not found as a group in any other part of Asia. We shall examine some of the more important of those names.

It is important to remember that these people have had more than twice as much time as the Apache and the Navaho to move from their place of entry to a more satisfactory location. They moved east, while the Apache and Navaho moved south.

Cree is the name of an "Indian" people whose habitat stretched from Central Alberta to Central Quebec. The name Cree was transcribed from sound by Europeans and has the same sound as the ancient name for the Koko-nor, which was Khri Lake. The Ch'iang, who lived around Khri Lake were mainly of the Ch'iang tribes who were closely related to the Yuch-che. T.W. Kingsmill wrote that Yuch-che and Ch'iang fade into each other by imperceptible degrees. The Crees of Sault Saint Marie called themselves Saulteaux. Near the Ssu-chuan border, not far from Khri Lake, lived a Ch'iang people who called themselves Tso-tu, in sound no different from Saulteaux. It seems more than likely that the Cree are descended from Ch'iang tribes who once lived in the vicinity of Khri Lake later named Koko-nor. See my article "Whence come the Cree" in the Midwestern Epigraphic Journal, Vol 9, 1995, pp. 45-46.

Between Calgary and Banff are the Assinaboine People who boil water with heated stones, hence their nickname, Stoneys. According to H.H. Howorth, Assena is a variation of the name Atsina. We can conclude that the Assina-boine are descended from the Atsina Turks, and are, in fact, the same people whose ancestors came from the Etzina region of Northern Kan-su.

Not too far from the Sioux and the Atsina is a tribe of "Indians" whose skin is so white that some years ago much was written of their possible descent from Norse traders who were said to have worked in the region. There is a much better reason for the presence of fair or white skinned people living in the vicinity of the Sioux and the Cree.

In 176 B.C., when the Hiung-nu were driving the Yueh-che out of Kan-su, some of the Little Yueh-che turned back into the Nan-shan and remained in Kan-su. They spoke an Italo-Celtic dialect and are portrayed at Bazaklik in the Turfan Oases as fair or red haired with fair to white complexions. Mummies of some of these Caucasian people which are 40000 years old are now being studied by Chinese and American scholars. Five hundred years after they had chosen to remain in Kan-su, the Little Yueh-che, like the Ch'iang, were living in various locations within Kan-su and the border state Shen-si, wherein lay the departure point Chun-hsing of the Han period for those whishing to reach the northern trade depots or the Chinese port on the Liao-tung. It was the tribe known as the Mandan whose white skin, some years ago excited interest and speculation on a possible Norse inheritance. Among tribes originating in Kan-su, a white people would certainly have been of Little Yueh-che Caucasian origins.

O-jib-way is a Tibetan style name transcribed from sound by Europeans who were probably French fur traders. It begins with the Tibetan nound prefix a, which had a dull o or u sound; jib appears to be how the traders heard the word jik, which meant dog used by Chinese and Central Asians to express their contempt for the Northern nomads. Way was wei, the name of a northern river. O-Jik-Wei means Dogs of Wei. Undoubted, in Asia, the Ch'iang Khri of the Koko-nor called their Tu-ku-hun conquerors who had lived along the Wei River, Dogs of Wei. The fact that the Ojibway in North America lived in the midst of Cree tribes supports this interpretation of the European version of their name.

Huron (Hu-ron) begins with the Central Asian name for the mixed population of the Tarim Oases Hu and ends with the Tibetan word for valley ron. Huron may mean Valley of the Hu, or Hu Valley. If the Huron in the province of Ontario actually did live in the valley of a river, the meaning of the name Huron by which they were known to the early French fur traders may well have meant Hu Valley.

The Red Paint People of Eastern Canada and the United States appear to have been totally of Tibetan ancestry. Until the mid seventh century A.D., the Tibetans painted their faces red. But when the Tibetan king Sron-btsan-sgam-po married a Chinese princess, she disliked the custom so much that the king ordered his people to end the practice. Documents of Central Asia translated by F.W. Thomas contain many references to this old Tibetan custom -- "burned by the Red Faces; at what time the Red Faces and the Chinese shall fight; the demon Red Face army of Tibet; and the demon army of Tibetan Red Faces." This should put an end to the mystery of the origin of the North American Red Faces.

Although the Iroquois were not Tibetan, they appear to have been associated with the Tibetans in the time of the Warring States, and were part of the largely Tibetan migration to America. As with all other "Indian" tribal names, Iroquois had been transcribed from sound. When the "Indians" identified themselves to the incoming French and English, the invaders assumed that the names they heard were polysyllabic, whereas, like many Asian names, they were composed of tribal, clan and place names. Iroquois should be written as I-ro-kwa, which combines the clan name, I, with the name of a Kan-su town or district.

I is an alternative name for the Jung tribes of Kan-su and the neighbor provinces of China which were inhabited by a large number of Man tribes and associated I, or Jung. From various sources one may read - "the Man of the West and the I of the North." Western Man are associated with the I (see F.W. Thomas, Nam - pp.56, 152).

Ro in Northeast Tibetan means country, district, town, and was used with place names.

Kwa also written as Kva was the name of a Kan-su town in Chinese form, Kwa-cu. I-ro-kwa means I people of the town or district Kwa in Kan-su. There were not Tibetans. They were of the I or Jung tribes and associated with Tibetans.

An "Indian" tribe to the west of the Sioux and Atsina is the Yurok. Yurok (Yuruk) is the name of a Turkish tribe that accompanied the Ottomans as they moved into Anatolia and who later ended up across the Bosporus in Europe. The presence of Yurok (Yuruk) in Southern Europe and America indicates division in the role of members of Asiatic clans.

There is reason to believe that the migration of a number of Kan-su tribes to North America took place as the Tibetan dynasty of the Warring States was ending, between 394 - 417 A.D., more that 1500 years ago. Before English and French explorers arrived, they had more than 1000 years to search their new home for the most satifactory location.

Dr. Cyclone Covey has written of an Egyptian component of the Algonquin Language. From Burrows Cave artifacts, it appears that Egyptians were in America before thetime of Cleopatra and Marc Anthony--at least 500 years before the arrival of the Kan-su tribes. During the 1000 years between their arrival and that of the English and French, there was certain to have been marriage between Egyptian and Iroquois Kan-su migrants. That would have led to an increase in tribal names--some of them Egyptian.

A point that needs investigation is the possibility of an Egyptian presence in Central Asia and China. Marco Polo wrote that the Gerboa of the Mongolian Plain was known as Pharaoh's Rat. Apparently the Far East knew something of Egyptian culture. However that may be, Kan-su migrants would have learned of Egyptian culture through intermarriage with Egyptians in America.

The Kan-su origin of the tribes named above raises the question of the pre- Columbian mining of iron in the midnorthern United States. Before attributing that industrial activity to the Norse or another European people, the possibility that it was the work of Kan-su Asiatics should be investigated. According to Eberhard and other Orientalists, the casting of iron ond the production of steel began in China and Chinese-dominated states in the century B.C. -- nearly 700 years before the Kan-su migration fo North America. In the periid 220 - 400 A.D. there was an incessant demand in Kan-su for military equipment and therefore iron products. In that period, the Juan-Juan spoke of the Turks as their "Blacksmith Slaves."

Unless further evidence of migrations from Asia to America come to light, it appears that from the beginning of the Christian era to 1233 A.D. , there were five. Three of them resulted from violent periods in the history of China and Central Asia.

The first of these migrations was that of the Yuchi and perhaps their associated tribes, which followed the fall of the Kushan Empire in Northwest India. The Yuchi clam that they came to America by way of the Atlantic. Dr. Joseph B. Mahan's book, The Secret tells of that tradition.

The Kan-su migration circa 400 A.D. appears to have followed the ending of the Tibetan Warring State of Kan-su in 394 A.D. It was a large migration of Tibetans and their associated Kan-su tribes. Included were the Khri of the Koko-nor region, the Hsiem-pi Tseu and Atsina of the Etzina region of Kan-su, the Red Paint Tibetans, who stopped painting their faces red in the mid seventh century A.D., and the Jung, who called themselves I and were from the Kan-su town Kwa. Transcribed from sound by Europeans in America, these names were Cree, Sioux, Atsina, Mandan, Red Paint People, and Iroquois.

Following closely upon the Kan-su migration of about 400 A.D. was the smaller Fu-sang migration of 452 A.D. It is said to have included a significant number of Buddhist priests and to have taken them to what is now the sourthern United States and Mexico. One of the leaders of the expedition, a man from Gandhara, returned in 499 A.D. and reported to the Toba emperor of China. However, there are many unanswered questions about the Fu-sang affair. Why would men from Gandhara be included in the expedition? Why would a considerable number of Buddhist priests go to America at this time? Was the intent to supply the migrants of 400 A.D. with priests of the religion that had replaced Confucionist and Taoist ideas? Would that have been important to the Toba dynasty? Did the ancestors of the Toltec accompany the Fu-sang expedition? The name Toltec appears related to the Ch'iang tribes who called themselves Tek, and to the name Tolan, the area around Liang-chou controlled by military forces which included Ch'iang and could well have included Little Yuch-che. Is this why they followed Yuche (Tokharian) custom and prefaced their clan name Tek with that of their place of origin Tolan? As was customary in Tokharian, they dropped the final n, and preserved harmony by suppressing the a-sound. Tolan was reduced to Tol and their name to Tol-Tek. They were the Tek of Tolan.

Always remembering the move of most of the Kans-su Yuech-che into the Tarim Oases after 176 B.C., there is a need for a thorough study of early Buddhist and Shamanist ideas in Kans-su and the Tarim Oases. In the F.W. Thomas translation of Tibetan documents brought back from Central Asia in the early years of the 20th century, there are expressions such as Mother Breast, Earth Breast that are of religiouc significance. There seems to have been a special appreciation of the earth as sacred to Mankind. Was this an early concept of Buddhism, or of ancient Shamanism? Was this feeling for the sacredness of the earth brought to North America by the members of the Kan-su migration? (see F.W. Thomas, Tibetan Literary Texts, Vol 1, pp 18, 19, 99, 103-305, 308-310).

[Web Master Note: Read Dr Cyclone Covey's comments on Ethel's article

Also see Covey's - Algonquins, Egyptains and Uto-Aztecs ]