Itelmens
Encyclopedia
The Itelmen, sometimes known as Kamchadal, are an ethnic group
who are the original inhabitants living on the Kamchatka Peninsula
in Russia
. The Itelmen language
(ethnonym: Itelmen) is distantly related to Chukchi
and Koryak
, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan
language family
, but it is now virtually extinct, the vast majority of ethnic Itelmens being native speakers of Russian
. A. P. Volodin has published a grammar of the Itelmen language.
The Itelmen had a substantial hunter-gatherer and fishing society with up to fifty thousand natives inhabiting the peninsula before they were decimated by the Cossack conquest in the 18th century.
So much intermarriage
took place between the natives and the Cossacks that Kamchadal now refers to the majority mixed population, and the term Itelmens at some point became reserved for persisting speakers of the Itelmen language. By 1993, there were less than 100 elderly speakers of the language left, but some 2,400 people considered themselves ethnic Itelmen in the 1989 census. By 2002, this number had risen to 3,180, and there are attempts at reviving the language.
Ethnographic maps shows the Itlemens as residing primarily in the valley of the Kamchatka River
in the middle of the peninsula. One of the few sources describing the Itelmen prior to total assimilation with the Russians is that of Georg Wilhelm Steller
, who accompanied Vitus Bering
on his Great Northern Expedition
(Second Expedition to Kamchatka).
to the earthen walls. Atop the wooden rafters, approximately a foot of straw was laid, on top of which the excavated dirt was placed and stamped down. An opening atop the yurt, off to one side of the four posts and supported by the two beams served as a smoke hole and an entrance. Opposite the fire place, they made a passageway to the outside facing the river, which was left open only when fires were lit. Different sleeping quarters were demarked by pieces of wood, on which straw mats and reindeer or seal skins were used to sleep.
In the summer months, the Itelmen live in raised houses called pehm or pehmy. As the ground thaws in the summer, the floors of the winter houses began to flood. In the summer months, each family in the village lived in their own house, rather than sharing a large house as in winter. These raised homes or balagans as the Cossacks called them, were pyramids on raised platforms, with a door on the south and the north side. The extreme moisture of the climate required the raising of the homes for dry storage. Most villages, in addition to summer and winter houses, contained straw huts built on the ground, which were used for cooking dog food, boiling salt from sea water and rendering fat. Before the arrival of the Russians, villages were surrounded by an earthen wall or palisades after which this practice was banned.
religion. The creative god was referred to as Kutka or Kutga. Though he is regarded as the creator of all things, Steller describes a complete lack of veneration for him. The Itelmen attribute the problems and difficulties of life to his stupidity, and are quick to scold or curse him. They believed Kutka to be married to an intelligent woman named Chachy, who was said to have kept him from much foolishness and to have corrected him constantly. Kutka was believed to have lived on the greatest rivers of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and is said to have left a son and daughter for each river, which is used to explain the great variety of dialects present on the peninsula. The Itelmen also worshiped several spirits, Mitgh, who dwelled in the ocean and lived in the form of a fish. They believed in forest sprites, who were called ushakhtchu, said to resemble people. The mountain gods were called kamuli or little souls, who resided in the high mountains, especially volcanoes. The clouds were believed to be inhabited by the god billukai, who was responsible for thunder, lightning and storms. They postulated a devil, who was called kamma, who was said to live in a tree outside Nizhnoi village, which was annually shot up with arrows.
skins are tanned, dyed and sewn into the various garments worn by men and women.
and Yakuts
, they do not enjoy fried food, eating mostly a diet of cold food. A common staple was fish eggs with willow or birch bark
. A common food enjoyed at festivities, Selaga, was a mash made of sarana, pine nut
s, fireweed, Cow Parsnip
, bistort
roots, and various berries cooked in seal, whale
or fish oil
. In Lopatkan, a fermented berry drink was consumed, though there is no indication that any other Itelmen settlements created fermented drinks.
. Atlasov began his conquest of Kamchatka by sending Luka Morozko on reconnaissance foray in 1695, and embarked himself a year later with 120 men, half of which were Yukakghir auxiliaries, to gather tribute and to annex the region for the crown [Benson]. Leaving from Anadyrsk
bay on the backs of reindeer, they explored much of the western coast, crossed the mountains to the east to subdue the population there. By mid July, 1696, he had reached the Kamchatka River, at which point he divided his party in two, one band returning westward and the other remaining on the eastern coast. At this point the Yukaghir auxiliaries rebelled, killing 6 Russians and wounding 6. A band of Koryaks additionally absconded with Atlasov’s itinerant reindeer herd, but were chased down by the Russians and killed to one man.
At the head of the Kamchatka River, they first encountered several heavily fortified Itelmen settlements. Here they were initially greeted cordially by the natives, and received tribute without contest. The proceeded to sack a rival Itelmen village upriver, cementing the alliance with the Itelmen. The first Cossack settlement in the area was Bolsheretsk, founded in 1703 by Atlasov, Although, Steller notes that it was already a prominent village at the arrival of “that wind-bag Atlasov.”
The Itelmen he found there were in possession of a captive Japanese merchant’s clerk, who had been part of an expedition that wrecked and was overcome by Itelmen upon arrival at the Kamchatka River. Atlasov, who initially assumed the prisoner to be a Hindu
from India, resulting in confusion over the word "Hondo" or Tokyo
, had him sent to Moscow where Peter the Great had him establish a Japanese language school.
In 1706, senior governing officials were killed by a band of Koryaks
and a period of general lawlessness abounded. The Cossacks began to take great liberties with the legal amount of tribute required and began the practice of taking Itelmen as slaves, often gambling with and trading them. During this time rebellions were abundant. Atlasov resumed legal control, in an effort to return law to the peninsula, after serving some time in jail. In 1711, his men mutinied, and he was assassinated in his bed, after fleeing to Nizhnekamchatsk, where he was given asylum. The mutineers were excused from the death penalty provided they continue government work. Thus an expedition to the southern tip of the peninsula and onto the Kuril Islands
was conducted, led by Danila Antsiferov
and Ivan Kozyrevsky.
Under his rule, the Itelmen allied with their northern neighbors, the Koryaks, and burned Antsyferov to death in his bed. The rebellions did not quiet down until the 1715 outbreak of smallpox
on the peninsula, at which point the Russian crown
had lost 5 years of tribute and at least 200 Russians.
Overtime, the remaining populations were assimilated. Due to increasingly large suicide rates, the crown made a law prohibiting natives from taking their own lives. A large mixed population emerged, who were Russian Orthodox
in religion, but distinctly Itelmen in looks and customs. The government granted legal status to these mixed children readily, Itelmen women were legally allowed to marry into the Orthodox Religion. By the arrival of Bering’s second expedition to Kamchatka, the population had shrunk to approximately 10% of what it was prior to the arrival of the Cossacks.
So much "intermarriage" took place between the natives and the Cossacks that 'Kamchadal' now refers to the majority mixed population and the term Itelmens is reserved for persisting speakers of the original Kamchadal language (about a thousand).
The Kamchadal language (ethnonym: Itelmen) is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, and together they form the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family. A. P. Volodin has published a grammar of the language.
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
who are the original inhabitants living on the Kamchatka Peninsula
Kamchatka Peninsula
The Kamchatka Peninsula is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of . It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west...
in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. The Itelmen language
Itelmen language
Itelmen, also known as Western Itelmen and formerly known as Kamchadal, is a language belonging to the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family traditionally spoken in the Kamchatka Peninsula. Fewer than a hundred native speakers, mostly elderly, in a few settlements in the southwest of Koryak Autonomous Okrug,...
(ethnonym: Itelmen) is distantly related to Chukchi
Chukchi language
The Chukchi language is a Palaeosiberian language spoken by Chukchi people in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug...
and Koryak
Koryak language
Koryak is a Chukotko-Kamchatkan language spoken by circa 3,000 people in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in Koryak Okrug. It is mostly a language spoken by Koryaks. Its close relative, the Chukchi language, is spoken by about twice that number. The language together with Chukchi,...
, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan
Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages
The Chukotko-Kamchatkan or Chukchi–Kamchatkan languages are a language family of extreme northeastern Siberia. Its speakers are indigenous hunter-gatherers and reindeer-herders....
language family
Language family
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. The term 'family' comes from the tree model of language origination in historical linguistics, which makes use of a metaphor comparing languages to people in a...
, but it is now virtually extinct, the vast majority of ethnic Itelmens being native speakers of Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
. A. P. Volodin has published a grammar of the Itelmen language.
The Itelmen had a substantial hunter-gatherer and fishing society with up to fifty thousand natives inhabiting the peninsula before they were decimated by the Cossack conquest in the 18th century.
So much intermarriage
Interracial marriage
Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...
took place between the natives and the Cossacks that Kamchadal now refers to the majority mixed population, and the term Itelmens at some point became reserved for persisting speakers of the Itelmen language. By 1993, there were less than 100 elderly speakers of the language left, but some 2,400 people considered themselves ethnic Itelmen in the 1989 census. By 2002, this number had risen to 3,180, and there are attempts at reviving the language.
Ethnographic maps shows the Itlemens as residing primarily in the valley of the Kamchatka River
Kamchatka River
The Kamchatka River runs eastward for through Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East towards the Pacific Ocean. The river is rich with salmon, millions of which spawn yearly and which once supported the settlements of the native Itelmen....
in the middle of the peninsula. One of the few sources describing the Itelmen prior to total assimilation with the Russians is that of Georg Wilhelm Steller
Georg Wilhelm Steller
Georg Wilhelm Steller was a German botanist, zoologist, physician and explorer, who worked in Russia and is considered the discoverer of Alaska and a pioneer of Alaskan natural history.-Biography:...
, who accompanied Vitus Bering
Vitus Bering
Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correNavy]], a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands...
on his Great Northern Expedition
Great Northern Expedition
The Great Northern Expedition or Second Kamchatka expedition was one of the largest organised exploration enterprises in history, resulting in mapping of the most of the Arctic coast of Siberia and some parts of the North America coastline, greatly reducing the "white areas" on the maps...
(Second Expedition to Kamchatka).
Village structure
Itelmen tended to settle along the various rivers of the Kamchatka Peninsula. At the time of the arrival of the first Cossacks to the peninsula, in the early 1650s, villages numbered between 200 and 300 residents, a number which had dwindled to 40 or 50 at most by the time of the composition of Steller’s account in 1744. Each village was centered around a single patriarchal household. Generally, young men seeking marriage joined the village of their wife. When a village became too large to sustain itself, it was divided and a portion of the villagers would create a settlement at another point along the same river. Steller describes a great variation of dialects from river to river, as the Itelmen predominantly communicated with communities which shared the river.Itelmen houses
Itelmen lived in different houses during the summer and winter seasons. The winter house, which was inhabited beginning in November, was dug into the soil 3 – in the shape of a rectangle. The walls were then covered with sticks and straw to prevent moisture from contaminating the interior. 4 beams at the center of the dwelling supported the roof of the house, upon which rafters were laid, connecting the top of the yurtYurt
A yurt is a portable, bent wood-framed dwelling structure traditionally used by Turkic nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. The structure comprises a crown or compression wheel usually steam bent, supported by roof ribs which are bent down at the end where they meet the lattice wall...
to the earthen walls. Atop the wooden rafters, approximately a foot of straw was laid, on top of which the excavated dirt was placed and stamped down. An opening atop the yurt, off to one side of the four posts and supported by the two beams served as a smoke hole and an entrance. Opposite the fire place, they made a passageway to the outside facing the river, which was left open only when fires were lit. Different sleeping quarters were demarked by pieces of wood, on which straw mats and reindeer or seal skins were used to sleep.
In the summer months, the Itelmen live in raised houses called pehm or pehmy. As the ground thaws in the summer, the floors of the winter houses began to flood. In the summer months, each family in the village lived in their own house, rather than sharing a large house as in winter. These raised homes or balagans as the Cossacks called them, were pyramids on raised platforms, with a door on the south and the north side. The extreme moisture of the climate required the raising of the homes for dry storage. Most villages, in addition to summer and winter houses, contained straw huts built on the ground, which were used for cooking dog food, boiling salt from sea water and rendering fat. Before the arrival of the Russians, villages were surrounded by an earthen wall or palisades after which this practice was banned.
Religion
The Itelmen ascribed to a polytheisticPolytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
religion. The creative god was referred to as Kutka or Kutga. Though he is regarded as the creator of all things, Steller describes a complete lack of veneration for him. The Itelmen attribute the problems and difficulties of life to his stupidity, and are quick to scold or curse him. They believed Kutka to be married to an intelligent woman named Chachy, who was said to have kept him from much foolishness and to have corrected him constantly. Kutka was believed to have lived on the greatest rivers of the Kamchatka Peninsula, and is said to have left a son and daughter for each river, which is used to explain the great variety of dialects present on the peninsula. The Itelmen also worshiped several spirits, Mitgh, who dwelled in the ocean and lived in the form of a fish. They believed in forest sprites, who were called ushakhtchu, said to resemble people. The mountain gods were called kamuli or little souls, who resided in the high mountains, especially volcanoes. The clouds were believed to be inhabited by the god billukai, who was responsible for thunder, lightning and storms. They postulated a devil, who was called kamma, who was said to live in a tree outside Nizhnoi village, which was annually shot up with arrows.
Division of labor
In general, labor was very clearly divided based on gender, though many tasks were shared. When fishing, the men and women paddled together, however only the men fished while the women performed all related tasks such as cleaning and drying the fish and collecting the eggs. In home construction, men performed all the wood work, digging and carpentry while the women performed the task of thatching the straw roof and cutting the straw with bone sickles made from bear shoulder blades. The women prepare the whole fish supply, except fermented fish and dog food, which is left to the men. The women perform all the tasks of gathering seeds, berries and fireweed, which is used as a type of tea. From grass they construct mats, bags, baskets and boxes for storage and transportation. Dog and reindeerReindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
skins are tanned, dyed and sewn into the various garments worn by men and women.
Food
The Itelmen seldom observed a set eating time except when entertaining. They also seldom ate as a family unit except when eating opana (warm food), or fresh fish. Unlike their indigenous island neighbors, the TungusEvenks
The Evenks are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, with a population of 35,527...
and Yakuts
Yakuts
Yakuts , are a Turkic people associated with the Sakha Republic.The Yakut or Sakha language belongs to the Northern branch of the Turkic family of languages....
, they do not enjoy fried food, eating mostly a diet of cold food. A common staple was fish eggs with willow or birch bark
Birch bark
Birch bark or birchbark is the bark of several Eurasian and North American birch trees of the genus Betula.The strong and water-resistant cardboard-like bark can be easily cut, bent, and sewn, which made it a valuable building, crafting, and writing material, since pre-historic times...
. A common food enjoyed at festivities, Selaga, was a mash made of sarana, pine nut
Pine nut
Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pines . About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of great value as a human food....
s, fireweed, Cow Parsnip
Cow Parsnip
The Cow Parsnip is the only member of the genus Heracleum native to North America. Its classification has caused some difficulty, with recent authoritative sources referring to it variously as Heracleum maximum or Heracleum lanatum , as H. linatum, or as either a subspecies, H...
, bistort
Persicaria bistorta
Persicaria bistorta is a herbaceous flowering plant found throughout Europe. The generic placement of this species is in flux. While treated here as in Persicaria, it has also been placed in Polygonum or Bistorta.The Latin name "bistorta" refers to the twisted appearance of the root...
roots, and various berries cooked in seal, whale
Whale oil
Whale oil is the oil obtained from the blubber of various species of whales, particularly the three species of right whale and the bowhead whale prior to the modern era, as well as several other species of baleen whale...
or fish oil
Fish oil
Fish oil is oil derived from the tissues of oily fish. Fish oils contain the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid , and docosahexaenoic acid , precursors of certain eicosanoids that are known to reduce inflammation throughout the body, and are thought to have many health benefits.Fish do not...
. In Lopatkan, a fermented berry drink was consumed, though there is no indication that any other Itelmen settlements created fermented drinks.
The Cossack conquest
Steller cites anecdotal evidence of several Russian forays into Kamchatka prior to the arrival of Vladimir AtlasovVladimir Atlasov
Vladimir Vasilyevich Atlasov or Otlasov was a Siberian Cossack who was the first Russian to explore the Kamchatka Peninsula. Atlasov Island, an uninhabited volcanic island off the southern tip of Kamchatka, is named after him....
. Atlasov began his conquest of Kamchatka by sending Luka Morozko on reconnaissance foray in 1695, and embarked himself a year later with 120 men, half of which were Yukakghir auxiliaries, to gather tribute and to annex the region for the crown [Benson]. Leaving from Anadyrsk
Anadyrsk
thumb|Anadyrsk was on the east-west part of the Anadyr River at the point where it swings northAnadyrsk was an important Russian ostrog in far northeastern Siberia from 1649 to 1764...
bay on the backs of reindeer, they explored much of the western coast, crossed the mountains to the east to subdue the population there. By mid July, 1696, he had reached the Kamchatka River, at which point he divided his party in two, one band returning westward and the other remaining on the eastern coast. At this point the Yukaghir auxiliaries rebelled, killing 6 Russians and wounding 6. A band of Koryaks additionally absconded with Atlasov’s itinerant reindeer herd, but were chased down by the Russians and killed to one man.
At the head of the Kamchatka River, they first encountered several heavily fortified Itelmen settlements. Here they were initially greeted cordially by the natives, and received tribute without contest. The proceeded to sack a rival Itelmen village upriver, cementing the alliance with the Itelmen. The first Cossack settlement in the area was Bolsheretsk, founded in 1703 by Atlasov, Although, Steller notes that it was already a prominent village at the arrival of “that wind-bag Atlasov.”
The Itelmen he found there were in possession of a captive Japanese merchant’s clerk, who had been part of an expedition that wrecked and was overcome by Itelmen upon arrival at the Kamchatka River. Atlasov, who initially assumed the prisoner to be a Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
from India, resulting in confusion over the word "Hondo" or Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, had him sent to Moscow where Peter the Great had him establish a Japanese language school.
In 1706, senior governing officials were killed by a band of Koryaks
Koryaks
Koryaks are an indigenous people of Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East, who inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea to the south of the Anadyr basin and the country to the immediate north of the Kamchatka Peninsula, the southernmost limit of their range being Tigilsk. They are akin to the...
and a period of general lawlessness abounded. The Cossacks began to take great liberties with the legal amount of tribute required and began the practice of taking Itelmen as slaves, often gambling with and trading them. During this time rebellions were abundant. Atlasov resumed legal control, in an effort to return law to the peninsula, after serving some time in jail. In 1711, his men mutinied, and he was assassinated in his bed, after fleeing to Nizhnekamchatsk, where he was given asylum. The mutineers were excused from the death penalty provided they continue government work. Thus an expedition to the southern tip of the peninsula and onto the Kuril Islands
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands , in Russia's Sakhalin Oblast region, form a volcanic archipelago that stretches approximately northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many more minor rocks. It consists of Greater...
was conducted, led by Danila Antsiferov
Danila Antsiferov
Danila Yakovlevich Antsiferov was a Russian explorer.Upon the death of Vladimir Atlasov in 1711, Danila Antsiferov was elected Cossack ataman of the Kamchatka. Together with Ivan Kozyrevsky, he was one of the first Russian Cossacks to visit the Shumshu and Paramushir Islands of the Kuril Islands...
and Ivan Kozyrevsky.
Under his rule, the Itelmen allied with their northern neighbors, the Koryaks, and burned Antsyferov to death in his bed. The rebellions did not quiet down until the 1715 outbreak of smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
on the peninsula, at which point the Russian crown
Tsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia was the name of the centralized Russian state from Ivan IV's assumption of the title of Tsar in 1547 till Peter the Great's foundation of the Russian Empire in 1721.From 1550 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 a year...
had lost 5 years of tribute and at least 200 Russians.
Overtime, the remaining populations were assimilated. Due to increasingly large suicide rates, the crown made a law prohibiting natives from taking their own lives. A large mixed population emerged, who were Russian Orthodox
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
in religion, but distinctly Itelmen in looks and customs. The government granted legal status to these mixed children readily, Itelmen women were legally allowed to marry into the Orthodox Religion. By the arrival of Bering’s second expedition to Kamchatka, the population had shrunk to approximately 10% of what it was prior to the arrival of the Cossacks.
The Kamchadal ethnic theory
Kamchadal is the name given to the original inhabitants of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Theirs was a substantial hunter-gatherer and fishing society with up to fifty thousand natives inhabiting the peninsula before they were decimated by the Cossacks in the 18th century.So much "intermarriage" took place between the natives and the Cossacks that 'Kamchadal' now refers to the majority mixed population and the term Itelmens is reserved for persisting speakers of the original Kamchadal language (about a thousand).
The Kamchadal language (ethnonym: Itelmen) is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, and together they form the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family. A. P. Volodin has published a grammar of the language.