Relatives Halfway Round the World: Southern Athabascans and Southern Tarim Fugitives

Abstract

Scholars in the fields of history, linguistics and comparative religion have challenged the conventional view that America is a time capsule of Palaeolithic culture. Most notably, historian Ethel Stewart (1904- 2002) suggested more recent Asian origins for some American Indian languages and religions. Xi-Xia, a Northeast Tibetan kingdom, fell to Genghis Khan in 1227. Orthodox history maintains that the men were slaughtered and the women enslaved. Stewart, however, argued that the warriors of Xia may have fled to America after the conflict. On the basis of similarities she identified in historical and oral traditions, Stewart believed that these warriors were responsible for the introduction of the Athabascan languages to the continent, sometime after the thirteenth century, making them relatively new to America. Stewart’s views are supported by material evidence of continuous Asian influence in North America, and by linguistic evidence of a link between Athabascan and Central Asian peoples. Linguist Edward Sapir, for example, noting similarity between Tibetan and Athabascan languages, joined them under one phylum. Supplementing Stewart’s work, this article presents evidence overlooked by Stewart in the field of comparative linguistics, and in comparative studies of Asian and Athabascan ceremonies. Here, I will demonstrate that the nine-day sandpainting rites of Tibetans and Athabascan Navajo share colours, symbols, rules, and names, pointing to the adoption of both systems within the past millennium. I will discuss linguistic similarities that point to a connection between Xia-Tibetan and Athabascan. Also, I will compare symbolism within Navajo and Tibetan cosmology, concluding that Navajo traditions may describe a Central Asian view of the New World.

Keywords

• comparative linguistics, tibet, athabascan navajo