The Evenks (Russian: Эвенки Evenki; Chinese: 鄂温克族 Èwēnkè Zú; Mongolian: Хамниган Khamnigan) are a Tungusic people of Northern Asia. In Russia, the Evenks are recognized as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North.

In the 17th century, the Russian empire began to expand enough to contact the remote Evenkis. Cossacks, men who served as a kind of “border-guard” for the tsarist government, imposed a fur tax on the Siberian tribes. The Cossacks exploited the Evenki clan hierarchy and took hostages from the highest members in order to ensure payment of the tax.

In modern times, the Evenks’ connection with the reindeer is now shared with “their iron cousins” – cars.

The skill of riding the domesticated reindeer allowed the Evenkis to “colonize vast areas of the eastern taiga which had previously been impenetrable” (Vitebsky, 31).

The Evenks use a saddle unique to their culture which is placed on the shoulders of the reindeer which lessens the strain on the animal. Also, the Evenks traditionally did not use stirrups but used a stick to balance.

The Evenki people did not eat their domesticated reindeer (although they did hunt and eat wild reindeer) but kept them for milk.

Top image via Alternate History.
Second image from top via Traveling Your Dream, showing a Nenet, a member of a different ethnic group near the Arctic Circle that also heavily utilizes reindeer.
Third and fourth images from the top also via Traveling Your Dream.
Other photos via Fond-Tatiana.

Quoted text via Wikipedia.