By Yap Su-Yin

Mot e Bada Mide, 28, recalls a time when her grandfather, accompanied by her father and the older boys, would ride out on their reindeer to the hunt, returning only after they had bagged game.

Nothing went to waste. Raw meat was salted and kept. Deerskin was strung out to dry in the sun. Sometimes, the tanned hides were made into shoes and clothes or to line yurts. Along with her brothers, she learned to ride at the age of 6, especially when the family took the cattle to graze. By the time she was 12, she was a seasoned horsewoman, who could lasso cattle single-handed on horseback.

Her favorite time was twilight. After warm ox stew, the elders would lean back, drag deeply on their tobacco and begin to tell the stories of old. The ones she loved best were of her forefathers. Back in the seventh century, they had lived in the forests northeast of Lake Baikal on the upper reaches of the Heilong River, before moving down to the middle reaches of the river to live.

To outsiders, the Ewenki were known for domesticating reindeer for hunting and the transport of goods across dense mountain forests, swamps or even snow. In the Yuan Dynasty (1271- 1368), they were called "forest people," while during the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), they were referred to as those "riding on the deer's back." By the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), they were called Suoluns, or Kemunikans, meaning "those who knew how to use deer."

It was also during this period of Manchu rule the mid-17th century that frequent attacks by Tsarist Russia forced the tribes to keep moving. Some 1,600 Suolon frontier guards were relocated with their families to the Hulun Buir Grassland. Immigration scattered the tribes across seven banners of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Nahe County of Heilongjiang Province, where they now live together with Mongolians, Daurs, Han and Oroqen.

Depending on their natural environment, some became nomads, others hunters or farmers. Most settled in the ranges of the Greater Hinggan Mountains in China's northeast. Despite all the movements, these descendents never forgot their first home around Lake Baikal. In 1957, after the Republic of China was formed, they named themselves Ewenki, meaning "people living in big mountain forests."

There are some 26,000 Ewenki in China. In the Ewenki Banner of the Hulun Buir League, where half of them live, there are just over 20,000 households of nomadic herdsmen scattered over 19,000 square kilometers of grassland. This area has some 600 lakes and more than 10 springs.

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