Karagass

Karagass, a Turki people of South Siberia, where they occupy the northern slopes of the Sayansk range between the Angara river and the headwaters of the Yenisei. Physically the Karagass resemble the neighbouring Kirghiz nomads, although regarded by Castren as originally Samoyedes. Most of them are nominal Christians, but still practise many old Shamanistic rites; some are settled in villages, where they cultivate a little land, but the majority are still hunters and trappers, employed by the Russian traders in procuring the costly furs of animals frequenting the surrounding forests.