Naukan people

The Naukan, also known as the Naukanski, are a Siberian Yupik people and an Indigenous people of Siberia. They live in the Chukotka Autonomous Region of eastern Russia.[1]

Naukan
Нывуӄаӷмит
Nyvukagmit
Remains of a 2,000-year-old pit house at Naukan village
Total population
510 (2010)[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Russia[2]
Languages
Russian, Naukan Yupik language, Chukchi
Religion
traditional tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
Chaplino people[1]

Language

The Naukan Yupik language is a Yupik language, belonging to the Eskimo–Aleut languages.[1] Many Naukan people now speak the Chukchi language.

Culture
For ceremonial reasons whale bones are erected at Naukan village

Traditionally Naukan people hunted sea mammals. Guests traveled from remote settlements to participate in pol'a', the month-long Naukan whale festival.[3]

History

Archaeological evidence places the Naukan on the Chukotka Peninsula off the Bering Sea back 2,000 years. They used to live on Big Diomede Island and Cape Dezhnev in the Bering Strait. The Soviet Union relocated Naukan people from their traditional coastal village of Naukan in 1958.[2][3][4] They now reside in the indigenous village of Lorino.

See also

Notes
  1. "Yupik, Naukan." Ethnologue. Accessed 9 Feb 2014.
  2. "Asiatic Eskimos - Settlements." Countries and Their Cultures. Accessed 9 Feb 2014.
  3. Ainana, Ludmila, Tatiana Achirgina-Arsiak, and Tasian Tein. "Northeast Siberian." Alaska Native Collections. Accessed 9 Feb 2014.
  4. The end of “Eskimo land”: Yupik relocation in Chukotka, 1958-1959 Archived 2011-08-18 at the Wayback Machine
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