North of the Altai highlands the foothills fall to the forest and the Ob steppe: the Biya, the Katun's lower course and the taiga of the Kuznetsk Alatau, where later centuries find Tubalar, Chelkan, Kumandin, Shor and the Kuznetsk Tatars.
None of these names is attested in 1200 and no source of the time describes them; they are hunters, fishers, smiths and herders, mostly Turkic-speaking, some Samoyedic, who answer to no steppe khan. The Kyrgyz tradition claims furs from forest peoples to their north and west; it is not dated.
Who holds it
- Title
- Elders and clan heads; no chief named
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
See the evidence note.
Overlord
None shown.
What it holds
- Hunting, fishing and iron-working in the river valleys
- Winter villages and dugouts in the taiga valleys (thin)
- Furs, the one export
How it was acquired
Inherited ranges.
Allies and rivals
See the summary.
How things stand that morning
Self-governing and out of sight of every power on this sheet.
Wealth
Herds, hunting and furs.
Military
Hunters and herders; no castles.
Threats
- Dzud (winter of ice), a hard year for the herds
Places of note
- Winter villages on the Biya and Katun (guess): River villages and dugouts in the taiga valleys. No village is named.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: No source of 1200; included so that the ground is not left to the nearest realm.
On the map: Conjecture from later ethnography.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.