The name also occurs as OlyutorsorOlutors,[3] as well as Olyutorka, a settlement where many of the Alyutor people formerly lived.
According to the 2010 Russian Census, 482 people identified as Alyutors, but some estimates suggest that there could be approximately 2,000 to 3,000 of them living in Russia in the present day.[4]
Alyutors spoke the Alyutor language (also known as Nymylan language), which belongs to the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family; however less than 10% of the Alyutors still speak it.[5] Most present Alyutors instead speak Koryak and Russian.[6] Today, many Russian experts believe it to be a separate language, though it was previously considered a dialect of the Koryak language.[7]
The Alyutors are mentioned in the very first chronicles about the Russian colonisation of Kamchatka. In 1697, the Russian Cossacks imposed taxes on the Alyutors, who would show armed resistance in the next few years. After the suppression of the 1751 uprising, the number of the Alyutors significantly decreased. Also, they were constantly under attack from the Chukchis, who often confiscated their reindeer herds. In the late 18th century, the Alyutors were an isolated and secluded group of people, which helped them to avoid the smallpox epidemics almost unharmed. Also, such isolation helped them to preserve their traditional way of life.[citation needed]
Traditionally the Alyutors were engaged in reindeer breeding, fishing, trapping, and hunting. They positioned their settlements along the rivers on elevated spots with good visibility around them. Octagonalearth houses with vertical walls meant for 3 to 5 families were the only type of housing among the Alyutors up until the 19th century. Beginning in the 1950s and continuing through the 1970s, Alyutor children were sent to boarding schools which increased their loss of the Alyutor language and decreased their training in Alyutor traditions.[5] Many Alyutors became teachers, doctors, geologists, and zoo technicians during the Soviet period.
Presently, the Alyutor traditions, culture, and art are endangered because of the decreases in reindeer population and reproduction caused by the worsening ecology of the region.[citation needed] Most Alyutors are practitioners of shamanism and Orthodox Christianity.[6]
^Young, T. Kue and Bjerregaard, Peter (2008) Health Transitions in Arctic Populations University of Toronto Press, Toronto, p. 75, ISBN978-0-8020-9401-8, citing the Russian 2002 census
^Krauss, Michael E. (1997). "The Indigenous languages of the North: A Report on their present state: Northern minority languages: problems of Survival" Senri Ethnological Studies (Osaka, Japan) 44: pp 1-34; based on the earlier report: Krauss, Michael E. (1995) The indigenous languages of the North: A report on their present state Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska.
^ abKibrik, Alexandr E.; Kodzasov, Sandro V. and Muravyova, Irina A. (2000) Yazyk i folklor alutortsev Nasledie, Moscow; English edition: Kibrik, Alexandr E.; Kodzasov, Sandro V. and Muravyova, Irina A. (2004) Language and folklore of the Alutor people (translated by Megumi Kurebito) Osaka Gakuin University, Faculty of Informatics, Osaka, Japan, OCLC166421257
Russia
