Udege

The Udege are a Tungusic forest people of the Sikhote-Alin mountains and the right-bank tributaries of the Ussuri and Amur, whose self-name means “people of the forest”. Ming writers counted them among the Wild Jurchen under the name Wudiha. They lived in clans led by elected elders, hunting elk and sable, fishing and gathering ginseng; their animism centred on kinship with the bear and the Ussuri tiger, on shamans and on air burial.

In 1343 the Wozhe wild people of the Liaoyang region rose against the Yuan, and in 1346 they rebelled again together with the Shui Dada when officials pressed them for gyrfalcons.

In the early 1600s Nurhaci campaigned against the Woji forest bands and brought them into the nascent Qing order, under which they tendered a sable tribute every two years in exchange for court gifts.