The Kamchadals (russian: камчадалы) inhabit Kamchatka,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. The name "Kamchadal" was applied to the descendants of the local Siberians and aboriginal peoples (the

Itelmens The Itelmens (Itelmen: Итәнмән, russian: Ительмены) are an indigenous ethnic group of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. The Itelmen language is distantly related to Chukchi and Koryak, forming the Chukotko-Kamchatkan langua ...

Ainu Ainu or Aynu may refer to: *Ainu people, an East Asian ethnic group of Japan and the Russian Far East *Ainu languages, a family of languages **Ainu language of Hokkaido **Kuril Ainu language, extinct language of the Kuril Islands **Sakhalin Ainu la ...

Koryaks Koryaks () are an indigenous people of the Russian Far East, who live immediately north of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Kamchatka Krai and inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea. The cultural borders of the Koryaks include Tigilsk in the south ...

and

Chuvans Chuvans (russian: чуванцы) are one of the forty or so "Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East" recognized by the Russian government. Most Chuvans today live within Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in the far n ...

) who assimilated with the

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

. The descendants of the mixed-blood Russian settlers in 18th-19th century are called Kamchadals these days. The Kamchadals speak Russian with a touch of local

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...

s of the aboriginal languages of Kamchatka. The Kamchadals engage in fur trading,

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

market gardening A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to som ...

and

dairy farming Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history t ...

, and are of the

Russian Orthodox Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...

faith. The

Kamchadal language Itelmen ( itl, script=latn, Itənmən) or Western Itelmen, formerly known as Western Kamchadal, is a language of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family spoken on the western coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Fewer than a hundred native speakers, mostly ...

was a Kamchatka creole with Russian and indigenous elements.

History

In 1767 and 1768, a Russian ship brought smallpox to the region for the first time, and it is believed to have killed three fourths of the native population. In the journal of Captain

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

, "The small pox . . . made its appearance in 1767 and 1768. It was brought into the country by a Russian vessel bound to the Eastern islands, for the purpose of hunting otters, foxes, and other animals. The person who had in his blood the fatal germ was a sailor from Okotsk (sic), where he had taken remedies for the disorder previous to his departure; but the recent marks of it were visible. Scarcely landed, he communicated this cruel malady to the poor Kamchadales, which carried off three-fourths of them." So, Kamchadals as an ethnic group were not numerous after this contact with fur traders. As a result of the

Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1875) The Treaty of Saint Petersburg ( ja, 樺太・千島交換条約, Karafuto-Chishima Kōkan Jōyaku; russian: Петербургский договор) between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire was signed on 7 May 1875, and its ratif ...

, the Kuril Islands were handed over to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, along with its Ainu subjects. A total of 83 North Kuril Ainu arrived in

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky ( rus, Петропавловск-Камчатский, a=Петропавловск-Камчатский.ogg, p=pʲɪtrɐˈpavləfsk kɐmˈtɕatskʲɪj) is a city and the administrative, industrial, scientific, and cultu ...

on September 18, 1877 after they decided to remain under Russian rule. They refused the offer by Russian officials to move to new reservations in the

Commander Islands The Commander Islands, Komandorski Islands, or Komandorskie Islands (russian: Командо́рские острова́, ''Komandorskiye ostrova'') are a series of treeless, sparsely populated Russian islands in the Bering Sea located about ea ...

. Finally a deal was reached in 1881 and the Ainu decided to settle in the village of Yavin, Kamchatka. In March 1881 the group left Petropavlovsk and started the journey towards Yavin by foot. Four months later, they arrived at their new homes. Another village, Golygino was founded later. Under Soviet rule, both the villages were forced to disband and residents were moved to the Russian dominated Zaporozhye rural settlement in Ust-Bolsheretsky Raion. As a result of intermarriage, the three ethnic groups assimilated to form the Kamchadal community. According to Alexei Nakamura, Kurile Kamchadals along with Ainu living in Russia are fighting for official recognition. Since the Ainu are not recognized in the official list of the peoples living in Russia, some of them are counted as ethnic Kamchadals.

References

{{authority control Russian sub-ethnic groups Social groups of Russia Ethnic groups in Siberia Kamchatka Krai

History

See also

References