Duchers

[2] The total number of Duchers (including other related Manchu groups, but not the Daurs or Evenks) of the Amur Valley at the time of the appearance of the Russian explorers in the region ca.

[1] The "tribute" of furs, grain, and livestock, collected (or looted, as the case may be) by the Cossacks from the Daurs and the Duchers was the main economic benefit derived by the Russians from their expansion in the region in the early 1650s, and, in order to deny it to them, the Qing government starting in 1654 resettled the Ducher farmers from the Amur valley to the Sungari and Hurka Rivers further south.

[1] According to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, today's Nanai, Ulch, and other Tungusic people of the middle and lower Amur valley have incorporated descendants of the Duchers.

The etymology of the word "Duchers" (which, besides дючеры and дучеры, had a number of other spelling variants in the 17th-century Russian manuscripts: чючар, джучар, жучер, дючан[3]) is controversial as well.

[3][11] Another view, expressed by A.A. Burykin, is that Russian "дючер" (Dyucher) may have come from Manchu zuche, zuchen, meaning "guards along the river".