Shors or Shorians Shor : sg. This region is historically called Mountainous Shoria. The Shors also live in Khakassia and Altai Republic. According to census , there were 13, Shors in Russia 12, in , 16, in , 14, in , 15, in , 15, in and 15, in The Shors speak their own Shor language.
The Shors as a people formed as a result of a long process of intermixing between Turkic , Ugric , Samoyedic , and Ket -speaking tribes. The region where the Shors currently reside was Turkicized under the influence of the Yenisei Kyrgyz during the medieval period.
The Shors resulted from this ethnic mixing and adopted Turkic speech the Shor language as a result. The region subsequently fell under the influence of the Oirats from the late 14th century to the early 17th century. Although Mongol control of the area was nominal, many of the languages including Shor contains significant amounts of Mongol loanwords.
Their ability to smelt iron from ore was a feat that only one other indigenous Siberian people the Yakuts were able to achieve before the Russian advance into the area.
In the early 17th century, the Shors and their territory were conquered by the Russians. In the 18th century, Russian settlers began to move in to the area. The Shors' niche as producers of ironware for the Oirats, Altaians , and Kyrgyz was soon eroded by the Russian traders. The Russians had more advanced products to offer and this effectively ended Shor blacksmithing. This resulted in most Shors abandoning their old occupations and villages to move to nearby towns so they can make a better living as hunters.
