Historically, their origins are disputed..but it is believed they originated around the Altai and Baikal, or even further south..due to the fact that they have words for camels, etc (stuff associated with more southern groups).. and practice horse herding, despite being far up north. Yakut legends indicate some kind of conflict with Mongols (some claiming Genghis Khan, others claiming the Buryats) that drove the Yakuts to migrate up north where they eventually settled in the Lena valley. It would seem that they were the only ethnic group able to with metal forging abilities when they arrived there. For the next several hundred years, it appears that they had little contact with any other major civilization and mostly ended up fighting Tungusic groups that were already there (the Evenkis), Paleosiberians, and to some extent, Uralic peoples (Nenets). They were eventually absorbed by the Russians who used the Lena Valley as a strategic outpost to continue expansion into Kamchatka, and down into the Amur regions.
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