Russians want to be indigenous: why they will not succeed

Russians want to be considered the indigenous people in Bashkortostan – as well as everywhere else indeed. They say, most of them were already born here, which meant they were indigenous.

An indigenous people is a people who were formed as the people on this particular territory, and did not come already formed from somewhere. This is the only definition of the indigenous people.

If the Spanish settle in Chukotka, they still cannot be considered the indigenous people, even if several generations of the Spanish are born in Chukotka. They will be indigenous only in Spain. Likewise, Russians are not indigenous  in Bashkortostan.

Or rather, it is even a little different – a significant part of Russians are mankurtized representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation. So they are to some extent indigenous, but not like Russians, but like mankurts.