Three types of Ewenki

The name Ewenki means in his language "the people who lives in the forests of the mountain". It is the denomination, with small changes, which have been used in the last 50 years to call a human group, who lives in two countries (China and Russia) and three different provinces, it realizes very varied activities and it had been known previously with half a dozen of different names.

According to the authorities this name granted them to itself after 1957 attending on the desires of the proper population; but considering the changes that happen in the culture and language of the current Ewenki, it is not possible to discard that under this name several different ethnic groups are not included.

Due to the migrations and dispersions of the Ewenki along his history, they have been known by his neighbors like Solon, Tungus or Yakuts. In the documents of the dynasty Qing it is called Solonbiebu.

The Ewenki population in China was in the year 2000 of 30.000 persons. A light increase on the 26.000 registered in 1990. In Russia there is another 30.000 Ewenki. The language that there speak the Ewenki of each of these countries is not mutually intelligible.

In China the Ewenki they live very dispersed in the following regions:

- Autonomous region of Interior Mongolia. Especially in the Flag (flags were the base of the administrative organization under the dynasty Qing) Autonomous Ewenki and other nearby flags.
- Province of Heilongjiang. Districts of Nahe and Nenjiang and municipality of Qiqihar.

One believes that Ewenki de Heilongjiang, approximately 3.000 persons, came there emphasized by the emperor Yongsheng in 1732 to defend the border of the Russian attacks.

There is a certain division between the form as there are named the Ewenki and the place where they were residing during the dynasty Qing, all of them in the high basin of the river Amur or Heilongjiang.

- The Solon were living in the area between the river Sheleja and the Jingqili.

- The Tungus they were distributed in the east of the Lake Baikal, in the basin of the river Qita.

- The Yakut to the west of the Baikal, in the basin of the river Lena.

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