Itelmen Woman in Traditional Dress: The Itelmen (AKA Kamchadal) are the indigenous people of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. A hunter-gatherer & fishing society decimated by the Cossack conquest in the 18th century, today their language is virtually extinct. The Itelmen language is distantly related to Chukchi & Koryak; together they form the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language. Though less than 100 elderly speakers of the language are left, there are ongoing efforts to revive it.