The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1923-03-23

(Preparci by the National Geographic So
ciety, Washington, -. CO
Daghestan. which ii cannot be
claimed was even q name TO most
readers, has emerged from its obscur-
ity with the recent announcement that
it is the latest region in stricken Eu-
rope to which American relief is to be
extended. The country barely man
ages to be in Europe. Despite politl-
cal boundaries Of the past and mud
died racial lines of today, the eau
casus mountains and the Caspian sea
are generally accepted as marking the
lines to the southeast where Europe
ends and Asia begins. Wedged be
tween the two, extending from the
~snOw-capped crest of the mountains on
the south to the belOW-ocean-Ievel
strand Of the Caspian on the northeast,
lies DagheStan, 4 country slightly
larger than Maryland, and officially Il
"republic'' within the Russian soviet
federation.
The Caucasian range may be re
garded for all chronological purposes as
Il great mountainous island in II sea
Of human history, and Oh that island
now live together the surviving Rob
inson CrusOeS of a score of snip
wrecked states and natiOnallties.
Army after army has gone to pieces
in the course of the last 4,OO years
upon that titanic reef; people after
people has been driven up into its wild
ravines by successive waves of mlgra
ton from the south and east; bant
after band of deserters. f%ugitives ant
mutineers has sought shelter ther'
| from the storms, perilS and hardship
of war. Almost every nation In Flu
rope, in whole or in part, n at on
time or another. has crossed, pasSet
by or dwelt near this great Caucasian
range. and each i'll turn has contrlDut
cd its uuota to the Heterogeneous
population of the mountain valleys.
The Aryan tribes, rs they migrate
westward from central Asia, left a rev
stragglers among the peaks or tn
great range: their number was IL
creased bv deserterS from the Gree
and Roman armies OF Alexander IN
Great and Pompey the Mongols unde
Tamerlane, as they marched throug
Dachestan. added Il few more. -
FOO. the Arabs, who ara the coui
fry in the Eighth century, ~eStaDllSlle
military colonies in the
which gradually blended with the pr
existing population. European CRY
saders. wandering back from the no
Land. stopped there to rest II e
resumed their homeWarn Jourhe
Finally. the oppressed and persecute
~ all neighboring lands-Jews, Geo
gians. Persians, Armenians n la'a'
fled TO these rugged, almost inacce
s;h,e mountains as To IA city OF refut
where they might live ana worsh
their gods in peace.
Welded Into a Single People.
In course of time these innumeraD
fra oments of perhaps a undred Dine
ent communities or tribes uhiteu "i
NV the bonds IF a common ihtere'
were nodded by topographical ehNiro
mont into a single ~conglomerate Il
tionolity, and became known 10 TIE
Iou,,and ~peichbors as gortse, or mo
t~oineers. From a mere assemDiase
stroyglers. fugitives II oloniSt III
developed in the course OF a tho"sa
,oors into n brave, hardy, se'f-relia
~roon,e and as early IA the Eighth Ct
tury they had established in the mot
t,in Businesses of Daglestan, M
eastern end of the range, Il large hu
har ne so-cailed free societies, WIN
were governed by elective rrahci'
,,,hout distinction of birth or raj
After that time, FOR another 'housa
wars they were never conquered.
In 1901 these hitherto unconquef
m%ountaineers came into cohiict W
tho titanic power If Russia, n at
9 long and desperate struggle ol he
w sixty years they were nhaiiy 81
dued and the Caucasus became n p
Of the Russian empire.
At the present time the mounts
: ORG az = class, from the Crcassls
NJ the Black sea coast To the Lesghi'
of the Caspian, may be roughly
sor;hed ms n brave, hardy, liberty-l
;rg neopIe who have descended IT
ancestors of widely different ethnol
zeal types and who are separate !
trrNes or clans, Of very different
ward appearance; but who, nevert
a To-, ore SURPRISINGLY alike 1 n