约在公元前两千年,鄂温克祖先就生活在贝加尔湖沿岸的山林里,以后逐渐游猎到黑龙江上游地区。元朝称居住在大兴安岭的鄂温克族为“林中百姓”,清朝称鄂温克族为“树中人”。1957年统一民族名称为鄂温克。 “鄂温克”是民族的自称,有两种截然不同的解释,一是“住在山林中的人们”;二是“住在山下的人们。”这后一种解释,据说是相对“鄂伦春”的。过去鄂温克族与鄂伦春族同住黑龙江流域,17世纪中叶因沙俄入侵一同南迁后,鄂伦春人打猎,被称为山岭上的人们,鄂温克族从事农牧业,住在平原,因此被称为“山下的人们”。鄂温克族人民在长期的游牧生活和半农半牧的生产中,练就了一套适合寒冷地区生活、生产的本领。他们擅长于滑雪、狩猎、赛马、摔跤等体育活动。 About two thousand years BC, Ewenki ancestors lived in the mountains along the banks of Lake Baikal, and later sailed to the upper reaches of Heilongjiang. The Yuan Dynasty said that the Ewenki people living in the Greater Xing’an Mountains were “people in the woods,” and the Ewenki people in the Qing Dynasty called “people in the trees.” 1957 unified national name for Ewenki. “Ewenki” is a national self-declaration, there are two very different explanations, one is “people living in the mountains and forests” and the second is “people living in the mountains.” This latter explanation is said to be relatively “Oroqen” . In the past, the Ewenki and Oroqen lived in the Heilongjiang River Valley. After the invasion by Tsarist Russia in the middle of the 17th century, the people of Oroqen hunt and are known as people on the mountain. The Ewenki people engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry live in the plain and are therefore called “ People under the mountain ”. The people of Ewenki have practiced a set of skills suitable for living and producing in cold areas in the long-term nomadic life and the production of semi-agricultural and semi-grazing. They are good at skiing, hunting, horse racing, wrestling and other sports activities.