Teleuts

The Teleuts are a Turkic people of about 3,000 members, located in the Kemerovo region in southern Siberia. Politically, the ethnic group is one of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North, Siberia and the Russian Far East, which are represented by the umbrella organization RAIPON.

Traditionally, the Teleuts were farmers and had the Blacksmithing well developed. They practiced a shamanistic religion that has relived after the end of the Soviet Union of a renaissance.

The territory of Teleuts is seriously damaged by mining activities, their settlements are largely surrounded by open pit mines. Their language and their survival as distinct ethnic group is considered endangered.

It is not certain whether the ancient people of the Tiele or Tölös, the ancestors of today Teleuts were.