Vitimske

The Vitimske are the Evenki, or Tungus, bands of the Vitim Plateau, the upper Vitim basin in present-day northeastern Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai. They spoke Vitim Evenki dialects of the Northern Tungusic branch and lived as nomadic taiga hunters who kept reindeer for riding and transport and pitched conical birch-bark tents.

Russian Cossacks first entered their country in 1639, when Maksim Perfilyev sailed up the Vitim to the mouth of the Tsipa; forts such as Barguzin soon imposed the fur tribute, or yasak, on the local clans and took hostages to ensure payment. Tribute demands and the spread of Russian settlement gradually pushed Vitim hunting groups deeper into the eastern taiga over the following two centuries.