Uyghurs
Contemporary scholars consider modern Uyghurs to be the descendants of a number of people, including the ancient Uyghurs of Mongolia who arrived at the Tarim Basin after the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate, Iranic Saka tribes, and other Indo-European peoples who inhabited the Tarim Basin before the arrival of the Turkic Uyghurs. DNA analyses indicate that the peoples of central Asia such as the Uyghurs are all mixed Caucasian and East Asian. Uyghur activists identify with the Tarim mummies, remains of an ancient people who inhabited the region, but research into the genetics of ancient Tarim mummies and their links with modern Uyghurs remains problematic, both to Chinese government officials concerned with ethnic separatism, and to Uyghur activists concerned that the research could affect their people's claim of being indigenous to the region.
History of Tuva
The indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Tuva Republic are a Turkic-speaking people of South Siberia, whose language shows strong Samoyedic and Mongolian influences. The name "Tuva" probably derives from a Samoyedic tribe, referred to in 7th-century Chinese sources as Dubo or Tupo, who lived in the upper Yenisei region. These people were known to the Chinese and Mongolians as Uriankhai. Most scholars trace the name to the Uriankhai of the Greater Hinggan Range, a Jurched people who as a result of extensive migrations gave their name to several peoples living in the region from east Siberia and northeast China to the Altai mountains. These should not be confused with the Altai Uriankhai (ethnic Mongolians living in western Mongolia), the Altainor Uriankhai (a Turkic-speaking people in the Altai Republic within the Russian Federation), and the Khovsgolnor Uriankhai (reindeer herders in the eastern Tuva Republic).
Tuvans were subjects of the Uyghur Khanate during the 8th and early 9th centuries AD. The Uyghurs established several fortifications within Tuva as a means of subduing the population. The Uyghur Khanate was overthrown in 840 AD by a rebellion of the Yeniseian Kyrgyz who came from the upper reaches of the Yenisei. During this period, some Uyghurs were absorbed into Tuvan society. The Khirghiz ruled Tuva until the 13th century.