Kamasintsy

(Kamasins; self-designation; Kalmazhi), a tribe of Saian Samoyeds (population approximately 500), which lived in the 17th century along the Kan and Mana rivers (the southern part of present-day Krasnoiarsk Krai). In the 18th and 19th centuries they were divided into two groups: the Taiga Kama-sintsy, who engaged in hunting, reindeer breeding, and fishing (as they did in the 17th century), and the Steppe Kamasintsy known as the Kashintsy in the 17th century, who engaged in stock raising, horse breeding, farming, and hunting. The Steppe Kamasintsy spoke the Turkic Kachininskii language. All of theKamasintsy had merged with the Russian peasant population bythe early 20th century.