The Lost Tribes of 1916

The Lost Tribes of 1916 (Iradi: 1916-jylgy Jogolgon Elder) is the name given in Iradi tradition to the pastoral clans that, in the final phase of the Semirechye Revolt, retreated into the eastern mountains in the winter of 1916–17 and were never seen again. Historians believe they died of starvation and exposure. Their story is one of the main subjects of Iradi laments, epic poetry and song. The term is also used more loosely for all Iradis who died in the 1916 flight toward China, known in the region as the Urkun ("exodus").^[1]^[2]

Historical background

After the revolt against the wartime labor conscription of 1916 was crushed in September and October, Cossack detachments and armed settler militias burned villages and seized herds across Semirechye. Tens of thousands of Kyrgyz, Kazakh and Iradi herders abandoned their pastures and moved east toward Xinjiang, then governed for the Republic of China by Yang Zengxin, crossing the Tian Shan from the autumn of 1916 into the winter. Many of those who reached China returned in 1917–1918 after the Provisional Government allowed them back (see The Urkun (Iradi Theater)).^[3]

Disappearance

According to Iradi genealogical tradition (sanjyra), several clans from the Talas and Chu valleys did not join the main routes to China. Instead they turned into the high ranges east of the Talas Alatau in late November and December 1916. Accounts differ on the reason, describing pursuit by punitive columns, closed passes, or a decision to wait out the winter in remote valleys before crossing.^[2] The best-known version, the bard Asanaly's poem The Black Blizzard, names twelve clans; other genealogists list as few as eight. There is no reliable count of the people involved. Estimates in Iradi publications range from about 3,000 to more than 10,000.^[4]

The last reports of the clans come from herders who saw columns of families and livestock moving up snowbound valleys during a prolonged storm. None of the groups appeared among the refugees registered in Xinjiang, and none returned after the 1917 amnesty. Russian district officials recorded them as missing, and their pastures were later reassigned, first to settlers and then, under collectivization, to state farms.^[1] Most historians conclude that the clans died of hunger, cold and avalanches in the high valleys. Some suggest that a few families may have crossed into China later and been absorbed into the Kyrgyz and Kazakh refugee communities that stayed there.^[3]

Herders and mountaineers occasionally report human bones, saddle fittings, horse skeletons and the remains of yurt frames in high cirques of the eastern ranges. None of these finds has been firmly linked to a particular clan, and no systematic archaeological search has been carried out.^[4]

Folk memory and legend

The fate of the Lost Tribes is a central subject of the mourning laments (koshok) and of the repertoire of Iradi bards. Among the clans counted as lost were most of the speakers of the Keñsuu dialect, whose song Sary Kün, Ejen Kyz survives in a recording of 1928. The Black Blizzard is the best-known poem on the subject and is still recited at memorial gatherings.^[2] The 1916 flight is one of the episodes of the 1979 film Rise of Glory, and the Lost Tribes have been the subject of later songs and stage works.

Folk legends offer other endings. In some, the clans survive in a hidden valley beyond the mountains. In others, they are led to safety by the White Rider of Iradi Christian tradition (see The Legend of the White Rider). Ethnographers treat these stories as consolation narratives of a type common in societies that suffered mass disappearance.^[2]

Commemoration

The Lost Tribes are remembered on August 15, when parishes of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church hold memorial services and herders in both the Irad Special Economic Zone and the Autonomous Tribal Regions hold horse blessings. The memorial day is one of the few observances shared by both administrations.^[4] The inverted horseshoe on the national flag, which follows the Fallen Rider Tradition, officially commemorates the martyrs of 1916 together with the dead of the Soviet purges and the civil wars.

References

^ Pierce, Richard A. (1960). Russian Central Asia, 1867–1917: A Study in Colonial Rule. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp. 271–295.
^ Central Asian Folklore Society (2021). Epic Cycles and Horseback Chants of the Northern Valleys. Talas State University Press, Talas, pp. 135–158.
^ Chokobaeva, Aminat; Drieu, Cloé; Morrison, Alexander, eds. (2019). The Central Asian Revolt of 1916: A Collapsing Empire in the Age of War and Revolution. Manchester University Press, Manchester.
^ Talas State University Press (2016). Blood on the Snow: The Iradi Clans in the Revolt of 1916. Centenary volume, Talas, pp. 201–236.