The Founders Show #480

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
By holes and politicians, but dressedto dig. Theators and magicians trust to
see the money, then you don't. There's nothing to feel. The holes
while then filling their pockets hide holesand politicians bouncing down the route. Everybodysuition

(00:24):
to no more corruption and dysfunction isgonna take divine interventions and God bless all
out there. You are now listeningto the founders. So the voice of
the founding fathers, your founding fathers, coming to you deep within the bowels
of those mystic and cryptic alligator swampsof the Big Easy, that old Crescent

(00:47):
City, New Orleans, Louisiana,and high up on top of that old
liberty Cypress tree way out on theEagles Branch. This is none other than
your Spengary. Bye bye, otherrepublic Chaplain High mc henry, who with
Christopher Tidmore. You're Wroving, areporter, resident radical moderate and associate editor
of the Louisiana Weekly newspaper at LouisianaWeekly dot net. And folks, there's

(01:08):
nothing new under the sun. Themany of the debates, many of the
issues that we deal with with ethnicitiesin the East, and all this go
back centuries and millennia. They goback to the Empires of the Steps,
which dominated the world island of Eurasiaand still influences today. And we can't
imagine anybody better to talk about thisthan the man who literally wrote the book

(01:33):
Empires the Steps that has just beenpremiered. Doctor Ken Harl of Tulane University
is a frequent voice on this program. You've heard him come on and talk
about Turkey modern politics. But heis literally a classicist and he is truly
one of the great experts on howthe world became High and Christopher and doctor
Harl. You know, I knowabout the Steps because I'm a amateur historian,

(01:55):
I guess you could say. AndI love history all around the world,
doesn't matter where, and so Iknow all about this step. But
you know, most people don't knowwhat that means. I think you mean
like stepping up, going up andset us to airs or something. They
have no idea what the word thesteps means. So you may want to
kind of elaborate on that and letthem understand what that term means, and
to point out that hit Your bookis for sale at the Garden District Bookshop,
and we're doing an event on Augusttwenty nine is what are the empires

(02:17):
of the Steps? And more specifically, when you say steps, what do
you mean, doctor Kennar Well,the steps refer to grasslands that stretch across
most of the long band of landfrom let us say, Hungary today in
central Europe, across the Ukraine andsouthern Russia all the way to the borders

(02:40):
of Manchuria. And these are tallgrasslands punctuated with rivers. Also, you
have inland seas like the Arrow Sea, which has essentially been destroyed by over
development, the Caspian Great Lakes.It's so broken up by mountain ranges at

(03:00):
points you think of ural mountains asthe division between the western and central steps,
the all time mountains between the centraland eastern Steps. And in Turkish,
which I know, they often callthese grasslands ovah. They can actually

(03:22):
be sometimes designated prairie would not bea bad term for parts of it.
But fundamentally, what you're dealing withis vast grasslands that people very early on
on the western edge of it learnto exploit by hurting different types of animals
sheep, goats, cattle primarily,and then they domesticated the horse first for

(03:47):
food and then as an animal ofa piast of burden let's call it,
for pulling mobile homes or for riding, eventually as an animal of warfare,
and it all hinges these societies,these step nomads, hinge on the accessibility
to grasslands for their animals and waterand so ken. This land we're talking

(04:11):
about is huge. I mean,I don't people, I don't know the
people got the vision for that,but it's like one third, maybe one
half of all of Asia. Andit kind of reminds me of our plains
land, Indians prairies and in manycases that the lifestyles are the same.
In fact, if you go andstudy the Indians, I mean the native
peoples of Mongolia, they look justlike our Native Americans out west. It's

(04:32):
very similar. They even have tpslike we all. Yeah. Well,
there there's DNA connections that migrations ofpeople into the Americas from Asia and the
lifestyle developed by the North American NativeAmericans starting in oh the eighteenth century,

(04:53):
when horses got out on the prairieswas transformed into something of the martial war
esus you would see on the Eurasiansteps. And there are certain comparisons that
can be made particularly the clash betweenstep nomads and people of sedentary civilization.

(05:14):
Now, the European Americans had overwhelminglyadvantages with firearms and railways and barbed wire.
You could just go down the list. But in the periods that I've
been dealing with, which stretch ofvery about forty five centuries, from the
appearance of these people first on theRussian Steps down to the career of Camera

(05:38):
Langs who died in fourteen o five, there were advantages to the sedentary civilizations,
but not overwhelmingly as you had inNorth America. And doctor Kenn Harl
is joining us. He's a professorTulane University. But his book Empires of
the Steps as brand new. Itwritten for a general audience. You don't

(06:01):
have to be an academic historian.They're available at the Garden District Bookshop,
signed copies and ken It's not anoverstatement to say almost every civilization that we
know that came upon Europe and cameupon the modern world at some level started
out on the Steps, from theIndo Europeans that are the proto Europeans,

(06:23):
all the way to how the Mongolsinfluenced the Russians. Everything came everything comes
out of the Steps sooner or later. That's fascinating. That was one of
the points of writing the book,and that is to show how important these
people were in shaping civilizations across Eurasiafor this very long period and their dominant

(06:47):
role. The only changed with theadvent of a firearm can Felt firearms in
the sixteenth seventeen centuries. Up untilthen really was one exception, the Emperor
ties On in the seventh century andChina, no ruler of a civilization based
on cities and literacy and collecting taxeswas ever in a position to conquer and

(07:13):
control the significant portion of the Steps. It was just beyond their capacity.
And the result was there's a constantinteraction between the peoples of the Steps and
the great civilizations of Eurasia, whichwould be what became Europe, the Middle
East, India, and China.All of them have long histories of interaction

(07:35):
with these people. The only oneI would say would be Genghis Khan,
who pretty much did accomplish conquering theSteps and his following you know descendants Khans,
Mongol Khans for maybe one hundred hundredfifty years, is that correct?
Yeah, For the thirteenth century isthe Mongol century. Yeah, and what

(07:57):
was remarkable about jengis and he weighedwar in the tradition of the Steps.
He left unusually able successors, hissons and grandsons. And above all,
I give the highest marks to KublaKhan who conquered China, and that was
that was a remarkable feat. Really, Kubla Khan is the only conqueror from

(08:22):
the Steps, who ever conquered theentire Middle Kingdom. And he united China
for the first time in four hundredyears. China had been divided into three
major warring states, and Chinese historycould have taken a very different turn if
the Mongols had not united China inthe thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. One

(08:43):
wonders if it ever would have beenreunited more like Indochina, where you had
three or four major countries, aset of nations or states culturally related but
politically divided. Right, doctor KhalilUniversity, he is joining us talking about
his book Empire, the Steps andKen. You you have written on history

(09:07):
for decades. You not only writeacademic history or a classicist, but you've
taught from one extension university for thegreat courses you've taught the people of history.
And so when you embarked on thisbook, High and I were laughing,
we're like we are, and weare personal friends with you. What
more could he teach? And thenyou did this book, you even discovered

(09:28):
some perspectives that you hadn't thought ofbefore. Could you share them with us?
Yes? One was what I justmentioned my reems, the reassessment of
Kubla Khan I walked away. It'sthe greatest respect for what he achieved.
But also I hope I could bringto light people who would be otherwise unknown.

(09:50):
One would be the people called kushansOr. They spoke what is known
as a Kokaian language and Indo Europeanlanguage now thing and they played such an
implantant role in developing the Silk Roadand Buddhism. They had left from the
They were actually driven out of theEastern Steps by their neighbors and foes,

(10:15):
which flang Nu. They ended upin Transactiana and that would today be Uzbekistan,
and from there they conquered northern Indiaand weld it together this empire that
included parts of the Step zones aswell as Northern India and Afghanistan. And
it was under their patronage that theSilk Road had this period of flourishing on

(10:39):
which traveled especially Buddhist missionaries who broughtthe space to you Stagia. And then
later they became known as the Mogulsin India in that correct, northern Indiana.
That's different. Well, the termmogul is a development of Bungol,
I know, I know, yeain theeenth century Tamerlane. Yeah, that's

(11:00):
they were talking centuries before the kushIts, way before I know. Yeah,
I'm just saying like a thousand yearsbefore. Oh that far back.
Yeah, there were a thousand yearsbefore, ye Tamerlang. Yeah, yeah,
okay. They are contemporaries with theRoman Empire. Actually yeah, and
there is evidence that Roman emperors correspondedwith their cush On equivalents. And I

(11:20):
got interested in them a number ofyears ago when I started collecting cush On
coins, which are remarkable of examplesof iconography, combining step iconography with Chinese
elements and arts from Greco Indian arttraditions. Ken, what about the Scythians.

(11:41):
Well, but before we get,before we go the Kushites. The
Kushites played an important role. It'sit's with Kushite guides that the first Roman
expeditions and ambassadors go to China.It is with it they they're the ones
who are going to open the ideaof the Silk Road, I mean existed,
but the da of intercontinental trade likethat. What was the ethnicity of

(12:03):
the Cossites. They were speaking anIndo European language, and the thought is
that they're somehow connected to the peoplewho dwelled in what we call the Tarim
Basin, which is now the homeof the Wagers in western China. And
these people would have ultimately migrated outof the Steps, the western steps of

(12:28):
Russia and the mummies that were foundthere from the beginning of the end of
the second millennium beginning of the firstmillennium BC down to about the first century
a d show. Many of thesepeople have reddish hair, blue eyes,
seem to share a DNA ancestry withEuropean populations of Russia. But then they

(12:56):
intermarry with people coming from the MiddleEast as well as people from East Asia,
so by the time they arrived inTransoxiana and India, they would have
been a mixed group of people.There would have been a real mixture of
DNA. Because people on the stepsare constantly negotiating with other people sharing the

(13:18):
same grasslands, there's inevitably marriage alliancesbetween They're often quite different people speaking different
languages, and the mixture goes onall the time. That early Turks were
known to had red hair, wouldthat come from the good sites well,

(13:39):
Chinese sources depict this would be inthe Tongue dynasty in the eighth century and
ninth centuries Buddhists from the western regionswith reddish hair and light eyes, which
are apparently Tokarian speakers. And thenlater in that region after the Laps of

(14:00):
the week are the so called ThirdTurkish Khanate in Mongolia. Many Turkish speakers
migrated into that area and brought theirlanguage and intermarried with the population. So
if you look at the weaker populationtoday, they speak a language that's is
Turkish, heavily modified by other languages, and the DNA mixture is quite remarkable.

(14:26):
There are all sorts of physical typesrepresented in the population. Doctor Ken
Harl of Tulane Universities joining us.He has a new book, Empire of
the Steps. It's available at theGarden District Bookshop and he's doing an event
that is open to the public onthe twenty ninth of August. It is
Tuesday, at the Garden District Bookshop. You can find out more information at
Garden District Bookshop dot com or wecan are calling the bookshop itself. We'll

(14:52):
give out those numbers in a second. But Ken Harrell, you're hitting on
an idea that sort of the stepsare the beginnings of pretty much not every
culture, but every dominant culture thatcomes from the Indo Europeans that leads the
forefathers of the Greeks and the Romans, to the not just the Turks,

(15:13):
but to the Russians, to manyof the peoples. All of these cultures
derive somewhere in the middle of CentralAsia, and it leads one to ask
why what's so special about that area? How is the domestication of the horse,
but also the domestication of people formedby the steps that form so many
daughter civilizations. Well, the peopleliving in this shown are are really facing

(15:37):
some of the most daunting of conditions, extremes of temperature between summer and winter
and the constant search for food.Weaklings don't survive on the steps, and
it doesn't take long for the areato become overpopulated. For your ancestral lands,
which you may have occupied for severalgenerations, no longer can sustain your

(16:00):
population and your herds because of justa succession of bad weather droughts, and
so they're constantly on the move,and every adult male has to be a
hunter and a warrior, and theyperfect a type of warfare which makes these

(16:22):
people some of the most formidable soldierswill ever encounter. They're responsible apparently for
inventing the light chariot that transforms awarfare. In the Bronze Age, by
around two thousand DC, we knowthat there aren't chariots on the steps drawn
by domesticated forces, very much similarto the horses of today, and that

(16:45):
represented centuries of greeting to get thathorse with the temperament and the strength to
pull these for chariots. And thenshortly after one thousand in the so called
Iron Age, they get the ideaof putting the man on the horse and
creating saddles that allow huge amount ofarchers, who proved some of the most

(17:07):
deadly soldiers in combat until the adventof firearms, and that gives them a
mobility and a way of waging warferociously, that they can change of civilizations
and the political landscapes of regions theywill invade or migrate into. And we

(17:30):
sometimes think of what medieval history inEurope, What new group has just come
out of the statch? Now youstart with Dons and when with the Mongols,
is just a succession of them thatarrived in Eastern and Sexral Europe.
And that's probably what ignited my originalinterest in this at a very young age.
I was always fascinated by a chillof then. You can always hear

(17:52):
this program Ladies and Gentlemen every Sundayfrom eight to nine m nine five w
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(18:12):
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always Here at the Founder Show,I'm Christopher Tidmore and Chaplinhei Mcinry has always
we're working so very hard to bringyou the truth, the whole truth,
another but the truth. So helpus God, and we've got a man

(18:33):
of truth. I love the wayhe teaches. He's the fact. He's
got the most amazing facts and hepresents them in the most fascinating ways.
So, Ken, I'm so excitedabout and you know I'm after the Scythian
issue, so maybe it's time ora little later in the show. Well,
I want to get on how thebook came about and how the interest
came about. Ken Harl. You'reknown as the resident classicist at two Lane

(18:55):
University. You are so many studentshave come out of your out of your
classes with this encyclopedic knowledges of everythingfrom Greek and Roman history into the Middle
Ages. And when you decided towrite the book, some people turn and
said, wait, wait, you'rea classist, classic historian. But it's
your love of that that sort ofled you to writing Empire of the Steps.

(19:18):
This wonderful book available at the GardenDistrict book Shop and of which we're
having a special event on August twentyninth, Tuesday at the corner of Britannia
and Washington Avenue at the Garden DistrictBookshop. How did you come about to
writing this new book, Empire theSteps. Well, I am trained as
a classical historian in the languages ofclassical Greek and Latin, and the ancient

(19:42):
authors provide some of the best informationwe have about some of these Step nomads.
I mentioned, of course as interestsin the Scythians, and the earliest
a Greek historian, Herodotus, wholived about four ninety to fourt twenty five,
reports about these people on the stepsof Ukraine and Russia today and he

(20:07):
gives extremely good information, and someof it provides us details about burial practices,
about the food supply, the relationshipbetween these nomads and the Greek cities
along the shores of the Black Sea, that is, the trade arrangements that
characterized Steps society right down until thefifteenth century and beyond. You know,

(20:32):
it's interesting the Scythians also were greatmetalurgists and jewelry makers, really fine jewelry
in that fascinating well, it's youknow, it's a mobile object. Yeah,
it's uh, you know, they'renot in a position to create monumental
architecture, although you have these Kurgons, which are very impressive burials. But
the it's as if the genius isput to work on jewelry, on weapons,

(20:59):
and on clothes, text tiles,and it's believed they were the maybe
the fiercest, most dangerous, andmost cruel all the warriors of the Steps.
Is that would you say that's truefor the Scythians? Sis, I
don't know. I think the mostpretty good too. I was like,
right, right, but you knowthe Bible certainly, certainly Camerlaine has one

(21:21):
of the best. Yeah right,I mean he had a lot of Scythians.
But listen, do you know thatthe Bible lists them as the most
despicable and evil of all people,the Scythians. Well, this is an
example of you know that this iswhen the historian, whoever writes the history,
defines history. I mean, becausethe one act of the matter is

(21:41):
ken when you when you're talking aboutthese people of the Steps, it's your
classical history, and it's gonna bepeople people know who know a little bit
of history. You know, somebasics. Well, you had at tilt
of the hun come in, andyou had the Sacks that went on throughout
Italy and throughout the East. Thenyou had the Goths. Before that,
you had you had the various groups. But they don't think about the fact

(22:04):
that some of the groups that camein that were being attacked started off as
Indo European essentially people of the steps, that this is a constant cycle that
happens over centuries and millennia, overand over and over. Well, there
was a great deal of movement inthe antiquity that actually went from west to

(22:25):
east. Because the horses domesticated onwhat we would call the Caspian Contic or
the South Russian Steps. At fourthousand DC, most of the horses in
the world were concentrated in that region, so it was natural for the people
there to domesticate the animal and learnhow to harness this animal with real vehicles

(22:49):
and Indo European languages all go backto a common language. It's usually designated
PIE by philologists, people who studythe origin development of languages, meaning proto
Indo European, and it's a reconstructedvocabulary and grammar based on the daughter language,
and there are numerous cognates, thatis, related words from language for

(23:14):
language, and among those are wordsdealing with the horse and the wheel chariots,
which were all derived from a commonword in the daughter languages, and
that would include many of the languagesof India, of Iran, the extinct
languages in the Middle East such asHittite and the language of the Makani,

(23:37):
and then the languages of most ofEurope most Europeans speak, and Indo European
language divided into various branches, andit all points to the common origin and
the common culture. The culture builtaround the horse and built around moving across
the steps, and those languages werebrought into India, Iran, the Middle

(23:57):
East and Europe a series of migrationsthat dictated the linguistic and basic ethnic divisions
of that part of the world downto today. Now it's been modified by
other migrations, and particularly by Turkishmigrations in the Middle Ages, in which

(24:18):
the Cirkish language is carried wet.The Turkish language originated probably on the Mongolian
steps, that's where our earliest recordsof it are In the eighth century.
I talked a great feel about theearly Turkish and stiffens there. And there's
actually a copy in the Museum ofAnatolian Civilizations in Anca of the monumental inscription

(24:42):
of Khan Videgay, who is theKhan of the second Turkish Confederation on the
Eastern steps from the eighth century.But that language originated the east, was
carried west into Turkey as well asTurkish languages as we're brought into Uzbekistan and

(25:03):
Kirkmenistan and Kazakhstan. And let's let'sand let's explain that for people who might
not know this, Essentially most ofthe Central Asian states speak a variation of
Turkish that's pretty much intelligible to somebodywho speaks Turkish. Yeah, yeah,
I mean you can. It mightbe sound a little different. Well,
one friend of mine in Istanbul said, it sounds like something our great great

(25:26):
grandparents would say would say, butthey understand, you know, people in
Uzbekistan understand what somebody says in Turkish. It's literally the same language to this
day. And it's yeah, withoutgetting too personal in the matter, my
my wife would be able to she'sa Turkish speaker, she would be able
to understand Azerbaijani and the surface ofKirkmenistan pretty easily. When you get to

(25:51):
Uzbekistan and to Kazakhstan. Your analogyis very good, she would says,
it isn't quite correct Turkish. It'ssort of provincial Turkish, or I understand
what they're saying, but you shouldreally say it this way. So the
languages, the Turkish languages have notdiverged nearly as much as the Indo European

(26:17):
languages because that migration occurred much muchlater, and these Turkish people adopted a
writing, particularly a kind of Runicscript that they use in the eighth century,
but then they gave that up forthe Arabic script. And writing helped

(26:37):
probably keep those languages closer together,as well as frequent migration of the tribes.
Whereas you think of you know,Celtic and dramatic languages and Slavic language,
well they've they've diverged. You can'tstart, You can't. You couldn't.
You are someone speaking Polish and someonespeaking French. Those are really two

(26:59):
very different languages right now, arefinished very Kinharl, author of the new
book Empire The Steps, you gothrough many different cycles of these migrations.
From the steps, what is theearliest one you track in the book is
the Hick Sauces. It is evenearlier. Well, there's two early migrations
which are in part verified by archaeologyand the study of languages. One is

(27:25):
the movement of Tartarian speakers out ofthe Indo European heartland, which would be
somewhere on the down between the Dawnand Vulgar Rivers, very far east to
the western foothells of the Altai Mountains. This migration brought these people to that

(27:45):
mountain region and then at a laterdate they moved into the Tara Basin,
and examples of that language or laterexamples of that language is what we're discovered
in excavations at the Caribbean cities ofthe town basin, which is called Takarian.

(28:06):
The Trukarian language is a Indo Europeanlanguage that broke away from the mother
language before certain features were seen todivide it into an eastern and western branch.
Where's the terran area base that wouldbe today Jingzhong, the western province

(28:29):
of China, or Weager Stands asthe local population want to call it.
It's in the news where government inBeijing is trying to control this region just
beyond the gate. And it's adesert region rimmed by fertile areas by rivers.

(28:51):
And this was the key route betweenChina and Central Asia. All the
caravans had to cross that region.And in excavations we've been able to find
Buddhist texts, particularly in Takarian.The language could be deciphered because these are
translations are very well known Buddhist textsin Brahmi script. And and it's it's

(29:19):
an independent language. The term hascome from Greek who called this these people
out there Taquoi Tarkarian, and theyprobably migrated somewhere before we're around three thousand
DC east, thousands of miles east. Then the other migration went to the

(29:42):
southwest and brought people into what isnow Turkey, and they carried a group
of Indo European languages represented by Hittite, Luvian Pollock. And these are languages
that were later written in the kineaformscript in the hit types built an empire

(30:03):
in Asia minor in Syria in theBronze Age. Those languages are now extinct.
They passed away and again they showthey show features, for instance,
without getting into too many linguistic IndoEuropean languages usually have gender of masculine,

(30:23):
feminine, and and that distinction isnot in hit type. They have animate
and inanimate distinction. There's certain featuresof the verbs that show a very archaic
structure that's not seen in other IndoEuropean languages. And they didn't apparently suffer

(30:47):
certain changes in consonant sounds and vowelsounds that you see in later languages.
So it looks like a very earlymigration, maybe about twenty eight hundred DC
when they started moving and they enteredtheir Anatolian homeland, perhaps twenty two hundred
BC twenty three hundred BC at theearliest year. So those would be the
first two migrations, one east andone to the southwest. And you see

(31:10):
that, and you see that doctorKane Harl's joining us. He is a
professor at tu Land University. Buthe's an author of the new book Empire
of the Steps. There's gonna bean event going on talking about this.
He'll be speaking at it and signingthe books at the Garden District Bookshop on
the twenty ninth of August. Ifyou want to find out more information,
you can actually call five O foureight nine five twenty two sixty six.
That's five O four eight nine fivetwenty two sixty six. Or go to

(31:33):
Garden District bookshop dot com and kenyou keep bringing up what is modern day
turkeys Anatolia, that the peninsula,it seems to be the place that,
more than any other area, thatconstantly draws these empires, that the Steps
over and over and recreates a cultureon top of another culture, on top
of another culture, on top ofanother culture. Well, Anatolia, which

(31:56):
I know very well since I spentmaybe twenty five years of my professional life
working in archaeological sites and traveling thecountry. The interior of the country is
essentially a fragment of the Steps.It has high grasslands. It could be
put under cultivation and recently has beenby the current government or its ideal for

(32:20):
stock raising. So on various occasionsit has attracted nomadic peoples off the Steps
into there. The first would bethe hit Tights and their cousins. Another
would be the Camerians and the earlyIron Age, who are apparently a branch
of the Scythians that I talked about. It is a constant danger for the

(32:44):
Romans to keep step people's coming overthe Caucasus Mountains into Anatolia. It becomes
the home of the Turks in theMiddle Ages, the Celtic Turks, followed
by more Turkish migrations in the thirteenthcentury, many of them trying to escape
the Mongols. And the landscape ofAnatolia has changed significantly over the centuries.

(33:09):
Sometimes the medterranean world is dominant.You see the development of cities and roads,
everything associated with stay of the RomanEmpire. And then you can also
go in the other direction, whereit moves to a nomadic stock raising culture,
where agriculture assumes a much lesser role, and that's what happens between the

(33:32):
eleventh and thirteen centuries very much.You still have agriculture in the valleys,
these deep river valleys, but thesteps have been turned over to stock raising.
Is still for nomen and can tellus about the Cossacks where they fit
in this? And there's another groupthat's pronounced either Tatars or Tartars. Can

(33:53):
you tell us about those two groups? Well, the Tatars are one of
the Mongolian tribes. Charter is actuallycoined by an English chronicler, Matthew Parris,
comfortably distant from the Mongol invasions.And when Batu, the grandson of

(34:15):
Genghis Khan, he's the son ofthe oldest son of Genghis Khan, he
invaded first Russia and then Central Europe. In twelve forty two reports came out
of Russia of these terrible horsemen whohave reappeared and are sacking every city in

(34:37):
Russia, and only North Korod escapedsack because it was so far north and
protected by the Spring Marshes. Heconcludes that these people must come from tartarists,
which is the classical word world forthe world or her horsemen. Well,

(34:59):
in you just raised what was goingto be to my history. For
those that have listened to this program, they've heard can come on talk about
modern international politics, particularly when itdeals with Turkey, but on many other
subjects, which is an expert andwell versed and a lot of what we
find of Russian attitudes throughout the twentiethcentury and even today with the Ukraine War,

(35:22):
this app this preference for absolutism,this fear of not having any natural
barriers on a great plane so thatit's easy for invaders. All of these
are born through almost cultural or racialmemories of being dominated by various step peoples

(35:43):
and their authoritarianism that comes up fromit actually was a reaction to that.
It was the Mongols had absolute rulers, so the Russians did to fight back,
and so it literally these people ofthe Steps still influence our politics today.
And speaking of that, I mentionedthe Cossacks, and I know you're
going to tell us a little themwith them, but in reference to this,
they conquered most of Russia for theRussians, for them, for the

(36:04):
Russians independent operators who are used bythe Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, and then when
that gets partitioned in the eighteenth centuryamong Austria, Prussia and the bulk of
that goes to Russia. Bazaars findthem very useful to keep on and they
are essentially the Russian answer to nomadson the steps. You know, Russia

(36:34):
is built in the forest zone andit's moving into the step areas to prevent
the conquest by among Ols nomadic opponentever again and and and using mobile cavalry
is one way to do that.I mean, the only way to fight
the nomads is to somehow to adopttheir tactics. And what's better than mounting

(36:59):
your own well, and how farback to the Cossacks scope, Yeah,
they're represented independent communities that were used, that came to terms with thes are
and we're given a privileged position withinthe military hierarchy in order to drive back
these nomadic invaders to patrol the frontiers. When did they first show up?

(37:23):
When did the Constacks first show upin the Steps? They are a development
of fifteenth century and really there,as I say they first form on the
eastern border of Poland Lithuania, wehave to remember teev And Ukraine to a

(37:44):
large extent, was part of thatconfederation in fact, and that's you can
almost make the argument Poland feel strongties we're fighting. We're fighting the same
Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth battle against Russia thatthat occurred in the beginning of the sixteen
hundreds. Well, it's live onthe same territory. I think tars bull

(38:05):
But did a great job well,and that leads us to the question,
as we've only got a couple ofminutes left, Ken Harl, how does
the empires of the Steps their historystill influence our politics today. Well,
to build upon what you both saidearlier, about Russia. Another feature of
that Mongol yokers you would call it, was that every Russian government wants to

(38:30):
be on top of any kind ofmilitary innovation. And the reason Russia is
still considered in the circle of greatpowers, however you want to count them,
is that the fact it has nuclearweapons and continues to develop nukiller weapons,
and even with the setbacks and thecurrent war, of Russian technology is

(38:52):
notably its tanks, none molesh.The Russians have always had a reputation of
being in the forefront of military technologybecause that's the only way to prevent themselves
from suffering that conquest again. Andanother point that that should be taken is
the Mongols conquer all of what wewould call Russia just about and subjected it

(39:16):
to their status as tributaries. Overthree hundred years, no other power has
ever conquered and Russians are determined forthat not to happen again. And that's
the determination you see in the currentregime in the Krumblin that they have in

(39:37):
their mind that Ukraine is part ofthe greater Russia. You know, Pie
is the mother of Russian cities,and it belongs under our control. Because
back control is absolutely necessary for oursecurity as well as our facial hegemony in
this region. And it also bycontrolling Ukraine into the end of Transnisti,

(40:00):
you end up with mountainous barriers,the same as the Askabazian war against Georgia.
With it's constantly how do we finda barrier so that this step does
not leave us defenseless. And misterPutin is very much in the tradition of
Peter the Great and Catherine and Great, but he also probably admires Ivan the
Terrible, who's the one that carriedout the military revolution, gave a chance

(40:25):
just the march across Siberia, marchacross the steps and end that pattern forever.
I've often wondered that Ivan the Terriblelearn a lot of his evil tricks
from Gengel's Khan. He was theTerrible. Well, Moscow got to start
as the collection agency for the GoldenBoard. That really they collected the tribute

(40:52):
something. That's why they became sopowerfully important state. Yeah, doctor ken
Harl has been joining us. Hisbook is Empired Steps. It's available at
the Garden District Bookshop. But he'sdoing a special event which you are invited.
Ladies, and gentlemen, it's goingto be on the twenty ninth of
August. To find out more information, call five O four eight nine five
twenty two sixty six or got toGarden District bookshop dot com. That's five

(41:14):
O four eight nine five twenty twosixty six. And we're almost at a
time. One last question, becauseafter all, Afghanistan is a big,
you know thing in our lives.I live there and I work closely with
the Postuns. Did the Postuns haveanything to do with the steps and the
functions of it? They weren't verynomadic, I don't think. But do
you know anything about him? Therewas that Postuns? The Postuns of southern

(41:36):
Afghanistan. Oh, no, therethere they're They're not a group in Afghanistan
that claims descant from the Mongols.There are no I know that. Yeah,
absolutely, Yeah. They speak essentiallya language related to the Iranian branch

(41:59):
of languages and yeah, and arevery closely connected to the Indian subcontinent.
Yeah, okay, all right,well a ken, we're almost at a
time. Any final thoughts, andof course the event is coming up in
August twenty ninth, Tuesday at theGarden District Bookshop, which is the corner
of Britannian Washington Avenue in the inthe historic Rink. It'll be at six

(42:21):
o'clock and you can find out moreinformation by calling the Garden District Bookshop at
five or four eight nine twenty twosixty six. Any final thoughts, but
your new book, Empire the StepsFinal thoughts. I had a great deal
of fun doing it. I waswriting it during the pandemic. Actually,
it took me two years to putit together, and I had wonderful little

(42:44):
exchanges with my wife when I wouldquote Mongol words and she would just look
in disapproval and say, no,it should be this. You know,
Mongolian and Turkish are very close,and the additial two and Turkish is a
k in a queen Mongol is Okayand Turkish. So when I speak of
Koumish, the fermented mayor's milk strength, which is the beverage of choice by

(43:08):
Mongols cons and several of them,like Ogadai, were essentially functional alcoholics on
it, she says, no,no, no, it's Komish, corrects
me, well, I had Ihad some. I had some in t
of Mongols and Turks. I hadsome with it with a group of nomadic

(43:29):
herdsman and Tajikistando was staying with andI'm after drinking that you can't pronounce anything,
so it's kind of you should havethat at at his showing at the
bookstore. I don't know if that'sallowed in the United States. All right,
on that note, Ken Hall,thank you very much for joining us
here in the Founder's show. It'sa pleasure to be here, and we'll
see you on the twenty ninth ofAugust at the Garden District Bookshop. More

(43:51):
information Garden District Bookshop dot com orcall five four eight nine five twenty two
sixty six. Thank you much.We'll be back to the patriotic moment after
these important messages. Thank you,Kennon godblos By Rescue, recovery, re
engagement. These are not just words. These are the action steps we at

(44:13):
the New Orleans Mission take to makea positive impact on the homeless problem facing
the greater New Orleans area. TheNew Orleans Mission is a stepping stone out
of that life of destruction and intoa life of hope and purpose. Partner
with us today. Go to wwwdot New Orleans Mission dot org or make

(44:36):
a difference by texting to seven sevenninety eight. Well, folks, let's
chaplin Hi McHenry, and I'm hereto tell you about our ministry, LAMB
Ministries. We're an intercity ministry withan interstity focus and Formula four interstity Folks,
please go to our website LAMB andNola dot com. It's LAMB NLA

(44:58):
dot com, or just call mechaplain Hi mckenry at area code five zero
four seven two three nine three sixnine and find out all about us prayer
warriors. We need financial support andwe need volunteers, so if you have
an interest, please contact us again. You can go to our website LAMB
Nola dotam and thank you so veryvery much. Well, folks, it's

(45:27):
chaplin, Hi mckenry, and we'relistening to the Finders Show, and it
is not a time for us togo into our our chaplain by by patriotic
moment. We just take a briefmoment to remind you of the biblical foundations
of our country, our Judeo Christianjurisprudence. And today we're gonna talk about
Father Abbey Emmanuel Roquette. Father Roquettewas a remarkable man from New Orleans born
in eighteen oh three, lived along life of seventy four years for those

(45:52):
days, and was born to wealthand social prominence. He was a true
Creole general in a Creole aristocrat,if you will, well educated from the
finest universities in America and Europe,and he came back to he fell in
love as a as a teenager withhis beautiful Indian Choctaw Indian gal named Oshula,

(46:16):
meaning bird singer, and he wasmadly lovingly. But she had a
tragic end, died early of adread illness, and without young Adrian Roquette
decided that he would go into theministry remain celibate for the rest of his
life. And then so he did. He became was groomed for the leadership

(46:39):
at the Saint Louis Cathedral, andyet after ten years, decided he was
going to go full time as amissionary to the local Native Americans, the
Choctaw Indians and the great you know, the greater New Orleance areas South Louisiana
in Mississippi. And so off hewent. And now I'm bringing in an
Indian story here because we talked inthis our earlier event with doctor Harrel.

(47:05):
He told us amazing stories about theSteps and the people of the Steps,
and many of them were like ourNative Americans. So I thought it'd be
fitting to talk about our steps herein America, because you see, many
of the Choctaw Indians eventually migrated andmoved to west of the Mississippi into the
Great Plains, which were the AmericanSteps, if you will, So I
thought it was fitting to talk aboutthe Choctaw Indians, and they're fearless leader.

(47:32):
They ended up calling him Chataima,meaning like a chocolate. That's what
they call fall the Roquette, becausehe became their best friend, and he
became the man that protected them fromany and all encourageons by the Europeans.
He was truly a beloved man amongthe Choctaw Indians, and he had a
long life. He ended up becominga great literary figure in his day,

(47:55):
was considered to be one of thegreatest literary figures ever in the history of
America by the Europeans. He wrotepoem, prose, and song, and
his songs were like today would bethe top forty hit parade. He was
quite a remarkable man, visited bythe great literary figures of his day coming
down to New Orleans and going intohis little hovels and huts on the North

(48:16):
Shore, living with the Indians.And anyway, when he died, they
buried him. And you know,those Choctaws came from far and wide,
many him from the wet, fromthe great plains of America are steps,
if you will. And they camefor the funeral parade and set and set,
you know, celebration of his hisentry into heaven. And it was

(48:38):
quite an affair. It was quitean experience. It filled the city with
Native Americans and you know, mainof the Choctaw Indians, and they loved
chattah Ema. Well, when itwas all over with, everybody went home.
And then about two weeks later,the body of chata Ema I'm talking

(48:59):
about, Father Adrian Roquette disappeared.To this day, we don't know where
it is. It is believed heis buried in the Indian secret barrow grounds
on the North Shore, probably FountainBlood Park with his beloved Osula. What
a story, Well, folks,Father Roquette loved America. He talked about
it all the time. He talkedabout the biblical foundations of our country and

(49:22):
that's what made us great. Hehad a great love of America. When
he was coming back from europem timeand his writings, he was talking about
how he couldn't wait to get backto New Orleans and get back to America
because it was a land of freedomand the land of liberty and the land
of God's blessings. There is anothergreat influence over America and even over Europe,

(49:44):
over the biblical foundations of our country. By the way, he even
translated the Bible into Choctaw he andhis brother. So, folks, I
don't know abouts you, but doyou think that when you die you're going
to heaven like I'm sure Father Roquettedid. Do you have that confidence,
at a surety that you know thatyou know that you know when you die
you're going to heaven. Well,it's not time for us to go into

(50:07):
our chaplain byh by gospel. Moonwould just take a brief moment to show
you how you can know that youknow that you know you're going to heaven
when you're die and you're saved froma burning hill. You know, the
Bible says for by grace, we'vebeen saved by faith, and even that
is not of ourselves. It isa gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Theword grace there means gift, God's
gift of love, mercy, salvation, heaven, being delivered from hell.

(50:31):
That is all wrapped up into theword grace. We've been saved by grace
through faith. That's how you getit. You take it, you reach
out for it with faith, thefaith of a little child. And it
goes like this, folks, Jesusdied for all your sins because you could
never do that. You could neveraccomplish that. And when you come to
realize that, you've just repented,and that's vital. And then after you

(50:54):
repent, from that point on thenext step it's easy. Then then you
believe that Jesus is the only onewho could save you, that he really
did die for all your sins,was barred and rose in the dead.
So you see repentsions just a changeof mind. That's what the Greek word
means, mallinoia. Change your mindabout believing that you thought you could help
God out, you thought you couldmake it so you would go to heaven

(51:15):
by some or all of your goodworks or whatever. Realize nothing that you
have is good enough for God.So forget it and realize that He was
totally good enough for you, andthat's all you need. His death,
barren, erection, and resurrection.He died for all your sins, I
mean all the day born to dayhe die. He times the great sins
were washed away with the blood ofthe Lord Jesus Christ. And then he

(51:37):
was buried, and then he rosefrom the dead to win for you his
precious free gift of resurrection, everlastinglife. If you've never believed this before,
do it now, folks. Don'twait till it's too late, like
the old country preacher said, becauseit's in the Bible. The Bible says,
now today is a day of salvation. Well, folks, it's not

(51:58):
a time for us to go intoour chaplain by watched on the wall the
days of Noah, because that wasone of the signs that Jesus gave us.
It would be as in the daysof Noah. What were the days
of Noah? Like, Well,it's Jesus tells us. He says,
they were eating and drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, it means a
lot of divorce, a lot ofsexual permiscuity, a lot of drunkenness and
gluttony and whatnot. And and thenthey were living like that up until the

(52:22):
last second, rejecting mut Noah andGod and making fun of them. And
then the flood came and it wastoo late, folks. That's a sign
for us about what's coming. Thereare many signs, are over two hundred.
They have all happened, are inthe process right now. A few
of the few that are left inthe process of being completed right now.
Jess said, when you see allthese things happening, I'm at the door.

(52:44):
I'm coming, folks, jeeves comingback, really really soon. The
days of Noah were terrible time,but Jesus said, it's even gonna be
worse in these coming times, inthe days of the end, before the
judgment day. Are you ready forthat day? Folks? Are you ready
for these trying times that are coming? Folks, You better get ready.
If you're not ready, it's justgonna be too late. You need a

(53:07):
safe house. You need a bunker. Go to the bunker, name the
Lord Jesus Christ, and hide inthere. Choose out as your safe house,
is your place of protection and safety. And I promise you, folks,
you'll do well, well, folks, it's not time for us to
close. As the close of themindset Martin singing a creole goodbye, and
God bless you all out there callingcreol goodbye. These think we just tweeted,

(53:40):
Our time will amitted all three sitbysit love me this time for a
creol goodbye.