[7] They who lived around Nerchinsk and the Aga steppe faced both Cossack demands for tribute and Khori-Buriats trying to occupy their pastures.

The Khori Buriats occupied most of the Aga steppe and forced the Ewenkis to flee to the Qing Dynasty.

After 1880 Russia's Khamnigan moved to semi nomadic herding of cattle, sheep, camels and horses.

Some time after 1918 the Evenks, along with their Buriat neighbors, fled over the border into Mongolia and Hulun Buir, establishing the current Khamnigan communities there.

They still use a language heavily influenced by Russian and attach symbolic importance to bread.