THE MYSTERY OF ‘TARTAR ISLAND’

As a teenager, I grew up in New Brunswick, Canada. In New Brunswick, the local Indian tribe are the Micmac. The Micmac were known for eating ‘fiddleheads’, the signature food of New Brunswick. Later in life, I learnt that many believe that Micmac to be possibly the most sophisticated of the North American Indian tribes, with a written language and rich history of interaction with many cultures.

Today, I have been lucky enough to be doing business and living in Kazakhstan and Central Asia for 20 years. Importantly for this story, I have a traditional Kazakh coat and hat, given to me as a present by Kazakh friends. I remember them asking me about my nationality after I told them about some of the discoveries, I had made researching the region’s ancient past. I told them that their ancient past is far more connected to the rest of the world than conventional history admits.

Several years ago, I read two books by an author called Gavin Menzies called ‘1421’ and ‘1434’, which are about several giant Chinese fleets with giant ships that sailed much of the world, it seems. In fact, there were at least seven Chinese fleets sailing into the early 15th century. The books appear to be gaining some acceptance, though they remain controversial.

At the same time, I reviewed ‘The Island of the Seven Cities’ by Paul Chiasson, which discusses archaeological evidence that the Chinese settled in what is now called Cape Breton Island in the North of Nova Scotia in Eastern Canada. Cape Breton sits just outside the estuary to the St. Laurence river, opposite the island of Newfoundland. Chiasson discovered what he believes are the archaeological remains of 7 Chinese cities and a harbour on Cape Breton Island. Like 1421 and 1434, The ‘Island of the Seven Cities’ was immediately controversial.

These books intrigued me, as I have my own theory that the Bretons of the west coast of France, previously called the Armoricans, were actively trading with ‘Indian’ tribes on the east coast of North America long before Columbus arrived in 1492. I believe that America is named after French Armorica. There is a locally known legend on the islands of the Breton Iles des Brehat that Columbus visited these islands asking for advice before sailing to America. Traders and fishermen on the Iles des Brehat were known historically to trade and fish with America,

Chiasson’s book,The ‘Island of the Seven Cities’ inspired me to further research the Cape Breton Micmacs. It’s interesting that the island is called ‘Cape Breton’ given the link to Armorica/Brittany in France.

When finding pictures of typical Cape Breton Micmac men’s coats, I was amazed. It was strikingly similar, if not identical, to traditional Kazakh coats. Many of the sailors on the Chinese fleets of 1421 and 1434 were tartars; probably many from what is now Kazakhstan. An intriguing coincidence! If indeed Chiasson’s book was true, and the Chinese fleets established a colony of seven cities on what is now Cape Breton, then very likely those who settled were originally Central Asian Tartars. It was highly likely that the Cape Breton Micmac coat has the very same origin as my Kazakh traditional coat!

For many years now, I have been collecting ancient maps of Central Asia, but since discovering the Kazakh link with Cape Breton in Canada, I have been intrigued with ancient maps of the Americas too. While on a trip to Guatemala, I discovered a copy of an ancient map of North America, showing the location of the legendary lost Viking city of ‘Norumbega’. On this same map, Cape Breton was named “Tartar Island’. Another intriguing coincidence. The mysterious ancient Tartar past of Cape Breton, ‘Tartar Island’, was becoming more interesting with each new discovery.

Recent Newfoundland archaeological discoveries provide credence to other Viking Tartar origins in America, such as ‘Nurumbega’. After the discovery of the ancient Chinese archaeological sites on Cape Breton and its link to the huge Chinese fleets of the 15th Cen- tury, there have been several discoveries about origins of the now extinct ‘Indian’ tribe of Newfoundland, the ‘Beothuk’. Academic evidence suggests the disappearance of the Seventh Chinese fleet and the disappearance of the Viking settlements of Greenland may be connected through the ‘Beuthuk’ people. Possibly, both the disappearance of the original Chinese Tartar presence North-Eastern America and the Greenland Viking communities’ disappearance may have occurred for similar reasons. In both cases, their motherland naval supply routes were cut-off. This was due to the black death in Scandinavia and an early 1400’s mini-ice age in the case of Greenland’s Vikings. The Tartar Chinese colonies were cut off due to the Chinese Peking mandarins banning further Chinese exploration fleets. Both Viking and Chinese Tartar colonies collapsed.

Recent studies of the indigenous ‘Beothuck’ people of Newfoundland have concluded they had Chinese Norse origins. For example, the ‘Beothuk’ had signs on poles identical to those of China around the same time. Various stories and legends about the ‘Beothuck’ peoples ancestral background led to formal genetic analysis revealing mtDNA evidence of Chinese, Norse, and even Celtic origin. Linguistic evidence suggests some Celtic Norse ancestry. Evidence suggests the Newfoundland’s original Indian population was killed off completely by various plagues between 1402 and 1404, leaving the ‘Beothuck’ ancestors to find an empty Newfoundland after 1404. Coincidentally, Vatican records suggest that the last of the Greenland Viking community left in giant ‘heathen’ ships in the early 1400’s.

Amongst oral legends of Newfoundland’s ‘Beothuck’ people were stories told of giant ships lying sunk near shore. Even in the 1890’s, a massive ship could be seen in a local harbour, with masts still protruding from the surface. After intensive searching in 2017, further similar ships were located. Evidence now clearly indicates Tartar Chinese Norse origins of the ‘Beothuck’ people and the likelihood that Greenland’s Vikings were rescued by Chinese ships and brought to Newfoundland.

Is it possible that occupation around the world led to a sudden expansion of Tartar culture, only to be suddenly cut off when China banned further fleets after 1433? At a minimum, academic and genetic evidence now shows that Chinese Tartar Viking communities existed in Newfoundland and probably Cape Breton Island; the ‘Tartar’ Island of Seven Cities. Could it be that this Chinese Tartar Viking culture expanded further into New England’s legendary land of ‘Nurumbega’, only to disappear once the naval link to China was cut? Is my traditional Kazakh coat truly the origin of Cape Breton’s Micmac coats?

by Bruce Gaston