By First Peoples Worldwide. For the past couple of weeks, all eyes have been on Russia — on the preparations for the Olympics, on the allegations of human rights violations, and on the infamous awkward toilet arrangements.
There are over identified ethnic groups in Russia. Some groups are disqualified because of their larger populations, such as the Sakha Yakuts , Buryat , Komi , and Khakas ; others are currently striving to get recognition.
Additionally, there are 24 larger ethnic groups that are identified as national identities or titular nations. These groups inhabit independent states or autonomous areas in Russia, but do not have specific protections under the law.
The smallest of these Indigenous groups are the Enets people and the Oroks people , while the largest are the Nenets and Evenkis , which both have nearly 30, members. Of the 41 peoples, ten have fewer than 1, members and eleven live beyond the Arctic Circle. At least 16 of these peoples have such small populations that they are considered to be endangered ; at least eleven have been declared extinct.
The Indigenous peoples of Russia are so varied and diverse that it would be a disservice to try and provide a cultural overview. Access to freshwater streams, salmon rivers and beaches where driftwood washes ashore and can be collected are also important. Communities traditionally lived in semi-subterranean loghouses that could sometimes accommodate around a hundred people.
The Aleuts have traditionally lived off what their sea environment could provide them: seals, walruses sea lions and fish. They caught salmon in rivers and the sea and hunted birds. Clothes were made from sea mammal fur.
The only sources of wood were driftwood and trade with other peoples. Today they have been absorbed into the cash economy. Some communities have done well by selling fish. In the old days sister-exchange marriage, polygamy and polyandry were all practiced. Society was arranged with high nobles, nobles, commoners and slaves mostly captive of war.
Today, marriage customs are in line with those of the Orthodox church, the ranking system has been abandoned and most Aleuts live in nuclear families. Easter and Christmas are big holidays.
During Christmas young men bring stars to the church to be blessed. This is followed by a ritual bath in a stream. Peter and Paul Day is celebrated by Aleuts in Alaska who are ancestors of people who were shipped there generations ago from Siberia.
Services are conducted in Aleut, Chukchi and Russian. The Aleut language is relegated mostly to church services. Russian is used at home and in everyday life.
Aleut men are known as skilled carvers of ivory and bones. Women create garments from fur and bird skin adorned with gut-on-gut applique and hair embroidery. Interest in these art form has declined. The Yukagirs are one of the smallest minorities in Russia and the former Soviet Union. There are only around of them. They have traditionally been reindeer herders, fishermen and hunters who lived in the tundras of the Yakutia and Magaden region. They are largely Christianized but in the old days they practiced animism and dismembered deceased family members and kept the body parts as amulets and regarded animals they captured in hunting guests.
There used to be a lot more Yukaghirs. The have a legend that there were once so many Yukaghir bonfires the smoke in the sky darkened the wings of birds flying south, and that the northern lights were nothing but reflections of their campfires.
Their population was decimated by disease after the first contact with Cossacks and Russians in The Yukagirs have traditionally endured a tough life. They spent the winter in camps living off food the collected in the summer.
They hunted when they migrated, often going after deer or elk that they tracked in the snow. In the summer they hunted wild reindeer by driving them into lakes where hunters with spears, waited and stabbed them.
They also collected berries, wild mushrooms and the inner bark and juice of red poplars. They used to consume hallucinogenic fly agric mushrooms. The spring was a tight time for them, after their food supplies ran out. The Yukagirs have a pictorial system for writing on birch bark. In the s an effort was made to create an alphabet for their language so they could publish books in their native tongue.
Yukaghir author Semen Kurilov one jokingly said he is the only writer in existence who knows all of his readers by sight. Responding to the fact the first printing of one of his Russian books was , he said, "that means each of my countrymen can have copies!
A special US-Russian agreement provides for a visa-free regime for indigenous peoples living on either side of the border. According to local folklore , the Nanai descended from a taiga tiger and the daughter of the first human couple on Earth. Another perhaps more likely version of events states that the Nanai people came to Russia from China, although experts say that their ethnogenesis is more complex.
The Nanai worship a sun deity and pray to him until dawn. They also believe in the spirits of their ancestors. Men hunt and fish, while women sew and process animal hide and fish skin. The Nanai live in close contact with nature, and their belief in the spirit world runs very deep. I will build a boat to transport my family. Please forgive me, but I really need you. Let me cut you down. If a bird begins to sing, that is a good omen. Nanai girls can be married off in early childhood, at the age of six or even earlier.
When the wedding day approaches, the young bride is dressed in a silk dressing gown. The fabrics are brought in from neighboring China, where the Nanai have relatives who were separated after the final demarcation of the Russian-Chinese border along the Amur River. Like the indigenous people of Chukotka, small ethnic groups living in the regions bordering China enjoy a special visa-free regime.
They can obtain permission to cross into China right at the border point, but for this they need an invitation from the Chinese side. That is the swan, so that's out of the question. SEITZ: The maps show wildlife concentrations, important cultural sites, and the coastal migrations of bowhead whales.
The most important thing, says Igor Zegrebin of the Russian town of Provideniya, is that the aid goes directly to the people. With all he has just now, he can go to the beach and catch fish, provide food for the family or sell this fish to anybody in the town, and to receive some cash. With outboard motor and with boat, they can go hunting, provide food to their families, and they become independent people. SEITZ: Even with the training and hunting supplies, it's been another cold, dark, hungry winter on the Chukotka peninsula.
The Provideniya mayor wrote the Borough this spring, pleading for an emergency shipment of food, clothing, and medical supplies. The Borough mayor says he's putting together an aid package, and looking for help from other organizations. Donate to Living on Earth! Living on Earth is an independent media program and relies entirely on contributions from listeners and institutions supporting public service. Please donate now to preserve an independent environmental voice. Newsletter Living on Earth offers a weekly delivery of the show's rundown to your mailbox.
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