Alutor
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The Alutor or Aliutor are a northeastern Siberian people of the Kamchatka and Chukotka peninsulas in Russia. Traditionally hunters, gatherers, fishers and reindeer-herders, they speak a Chukotko-Kamchatkan language. Conquered by the Russians in the late 17th century, they were brutally exploited. Enforced collectivization and Russification and attacks on their traditional shamanist religion under Soviet rule all proved disastrous. Following the collapse of the USSR and the withdrawal of state support, desperate poverty forced many to attempt to rebuild their traditional subsistence. In 1997 they numbered only about 2,000[citation needed].