The Rovčanis, Moračanis, Vasojevićis, Uskocis…

Today, the Kolašin Municipality has more than 12000 inhabitans and over one third of them, around 4500, live in Kolašin itself. On average there are 13 inhabitants per square kilometer.
The people of this region lived poverty and privation in the past because of the overpopulation of villages and the natural type of farming. This situation resulted in mass emigration, first to Serbia and, from the beginning of the 20th century, increasingly to other countries, especially the United States. It was recorded that, in 1911, every third recruit of Kolašin brigade was working abroad.
With the construction of roads and other infrastructural facilities, particularly in the period after the Second World War, condition developed for better use of the natural resources of this, for tourism, very attractive region. That was the opportunity for better and richer life of the local population.
Like in all other parts of Montenegro, people here know exactly their ancestors and their tribal and clan family origin. So the region of Kolašin is mostly populated by the following tribes: the Rovčanis, Moračanis, Vasojevićis, Uskocis and some immigrants who came from other parts of the country.
Every one of these groups has stories and tales as a part of the family tradition orally passed from generation to generation. Thus Gojak, the son of Niša Ilijanov, is said to be the forefather of the Rovčanis tribe. He settled in here in the middle of the 15th century and, with his wife Grda, had four sons: Bulat, Vlaho, Srez and Šćepo, from whom all the major phratries originate- the Bulatovićis, Vlahovićis, Srezojevićis and the Šćepanovićis.
Most of the members of the Moračanis tribe originate from Duke Bogić who had seven sons. Two of them had been killed and, with the other five sons, he moved from Zeta to Morača where many new branched Morača tribes were born. After the Berlin Congress, many them settled in around Kolašin, lioke the Rovčanis, but they also moved to other regions.
The territory between Pivljanne, Bukova Poljana and Planinica, and Trešnjevik and Komovi ,and from Mateševo upstream the Tara valley, was inhabited by the members of  the big Vasojevićis tribe. The tribe Uskocis are inhabited mostly around the upper Morača.
The descendants of the native inhabitans from ancient times complete the demographic mosaic as well as the settlers from Bijelo Polje and other regions. Migrations, both immigration and emigration, has always been typical for kolašin and its environs, and even today it is primarily expressed as a trend of people moving to bigger city centers.

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