Арктика и Коренные народы
Коренные народы России

Itelmens

Itelmens (from itelmen language «итәнмән» – "existing", "living here") - the indigenous population of the north-west of Kamchatka territory.

Known from Russian sources from the end of the 17th century as Kamchadals.

According to the 2002 census, the number of Itelmens is 3474 people. Currently, they are mainly concentrated in the villages Kovran, Tigil, Palana, Khairyuzovo of Tigil district, Kamchatka territory, and most of the younger generation are descendants of mixed marriages.

Anthropologically, the Itelmens are included in the mainland group of populations of the Arctic small race of the northern Mongoloids. The peculiarity of the racial characteristics of the peoples belonging to this group (Chukchi, Eskimos, Koryaks, Itelmens), in comparison with other Siberian Mongoloids, consists in a certain weakening of the Mongoloid complex: a higher nose bridge, less flat face, darker pigmentation, protruding lips.

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Personalities of the Itelmens

Porotov, Georgy Germanovich [3 May 1929, Yelizovo, Kamchatka Oblast – 1 July 1985, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky] – writer, poet, musician, folklorist.
Klavdiya Nikolaevna Khaloimova (1934 – 2018) was an Itelmen linguist and public figure, a champion of the cultural revival of the peoples of Kamchatka, and the author of an Itelmen primer.
The Itelmen folk ensemble «Elvel», Elvel is the name of a girl who, according to ancient legend, was turned into a volcano by the evil shaman Kanna.
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