Naukan people

Last updated
Naukan
Нывуӄаӷмит
Nyvuqaghmit
Ruined House, Naukan.jpg
Remains of a 2,000-year-old pit house at Naukan village
Total population
510 (2010) [1]
Regions with significant populations
Flag of Chukotka.svg  Chukotka, Flag of Russia.svg  Russia [2]
Languages
Russian, Naukan Yupik language, Chukchi
Religion
traditional tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
Chaplino people [1]

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]

Contents

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 Whale Bones, Cape Dezhnev.jpg
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. 1 2 3 4 "Yupik, Naukan." Ethnologue. Accessed 9 Feb 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Asiatic Eskimos - Settlements." Countries and Their Cultures. Accessed 9 Feb 2014.
  3. 1 2 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

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eskimo</span> Exonym used to describe Indigenous people from the circumpolar region

Eskimo is an exonym that refers to two closely related Indigenous peoples: Inuit and the Yupik of eastern Siberia and Alaska. A related third group, the Aleut, who inhabit the Aleutian Islands, are generally excluded from the definition of Eskimo. The three groups share a relatively recent common ancestor, and speak related languages belonging to the family of Eskaleut languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Dezhnyov</span> Easternmost point of the Asian continent

Cape Dezhnyov or Cape Dezhnev ;, formerly known as East Cape or Cape Vostochny, is a cape that forms the easternmost mainland point of Asia. It is located on the Chukchi Peninsula in the very sparsely populated Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia. This cape is located between the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Strait, 82 kilometres (51 mi) across from Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska; the Bering Strait is delimited by the two capes. The Diomede Islands and Fairway Rock are located in the midst of the strait.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yupik peoples</span> Indigenous peoples of Alaska and the Russian Far East

The Yupik are a group of Indigenous or Aboriginal peoples of western, southwestern, and southcentral Alaska and the Russian Far East. They are related to the Inuit and Iñupiat. Yupik peoples include the following:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chugach</span> Indigenous Alaskan people

Chugach, Chugach Sugpiaq or Chugachigmiut is the name of an Alaska Native people in the region of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound on the southern coast of Alaska. The Chugach people are an Alutiiq people who speak the Chugach dialect of the Alutiiq language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chukotka Autonomous Okrug</span> First-level administrative division of Russia

Chukotka, officially the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, is the easternmost federal subject of Russia. It is an autonomous okrug situated in the Russian Far East, and shares a border with the Republic of Sakha to the west, Magadan Oblast to the south-west, and Kamchatka Krai to the south, as well as a maritime border on the Bering Strait with the U.S. state of Alaska to the east. Anadyr is the largest town and the capital, and the easternmost settlement to have town status in Russia. It is the closest point from Russia to the United States, measuring at 88.51 kilometres or 55 miles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siberian Yupik</span> Yupik who live near the Bering Strait

Siberian Yupiks, or Yuits, are a Yupik people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far northeast of the Russian Federation and on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska. They speak Central Siberian Yupik, a Yupik language of the Eskimo–Aleut family of languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inuit Circumpolar Council</span> Inuit run Arctic organization

The Inuit Circumpolar Council is a multinational non-governmental organization (NGO) and Indigenous Peoples' Organization (IPO) representing the 180,000 Inuit and Yupik people living in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and the Chukchi Peninsula. ICC was ECOSOC-accredited and was granted special consultative status at the UN in 1983.

Central Siberian Yupik, is an endangered Yupik language spoken by the Indigenous Siberian Yupik people along the coast of Chukotka in the Russian Far East and in the villages of Savoonga and Gambell on St. Lawrence Island. The language is part of the Eskimo-Aleut language family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yupik languages</span> Languages of the Yupik peoples

The Yupik languages are a family of languages spoken by the Yupik peoples of western and south-central Alaska and Chukotka. The Yupik languages differ enough from one another that they are not mutually intelligible, although speakers of one of the languages may understand the general idea of a conversation of speakers of another of the languages. One of them, Sirenik, has been extinct since 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uelen</span> Selo in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia

Uelen is a rural locality in Chukotsky District, just south of the Arctic Circle in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in the Russian Far East. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 720. Located near Cape Dezhnev where the Bering Sea meets the Chukchi Sea, it is the easternmost settlement in Russia and the whole of Asia. It is located in the Western Hemisphere, but the International Date Line curves around it, so it remains in a Russian time zone (UTC+12:00). Uelen is also the closest Asian settlement to North America. It is on the northeast corner of the Uelen Lagoon, a roughly 15 by 3 kilometres east-west lagoon separated from the ocean by a sandspit. Municipally, Uelen is subordinated to Chukotsky Municipal District and is incorporated as Uelen Rural Settlement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chukchi Peninsula</span> Peninsula on the eastern coast of Siberia

The Chukchi Peninsula, at about 66° N 172° W, is the easternmost peninsula of Asia. Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village of Uelen. The Chukotka Mountains are located in the central/western part of the peninsula, which is bounded by the Chukchi Sea to the north, the Bering Sea to the south, and the Bering Strait to the east, where at its easternmost point it is only about 60 km (37 mi) from Seward Peninsula in Alaska; this is the smallest distance between the land masses of Eurasia and North America. The peninsula is part of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naukan Yupik language</span> Eskimo–Aleut language spoken in Russia

Naukan Yupik language or Naukan Siberian Yupik language is a critically endangered Eskimo language spoken by c. 70 Naukan persons (нывуӄаӷмит) on the Chukotka peninsula. It is one of the four Yupik languages, along with Central Siberian Yupik, Central Alaskan Yup'ik and Pacific Gulf Yupik.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lavrentiya</span> Selo in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia

Lavrentiya is a rural locality and the administrative center of Chukotsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, located on Lavrentiya Bay, close to the Bering Strait. Population: 1,459 (2010 Russian census); 1,333 (2002 Census); 3,012 (1989 Soviet census). Lavrentiya is the only district administrative center in the whole autonomous okrug that does not have urban status; it accounts for 30.2% of the district's total population. Located in Lavrentiya is the easternmost airport in the world, the Lavrentiya Airport, UHML.

Sirenik or Sireniki are former speakers of a divergent Eskimo-Aleut language in Siberia, before its extinction. The total language death of this language means that now the cultural identity of Sirenik Eskimos is maintained through other aspects: slight dialectal difference in the adopted Siberian Yupik language; sense of place, including appreciation of the antiquity of their settlement Sirenik.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yttygran Island</span> Island in the Bering Sea

Yttygran Island is an island in the Bering Sea 24 kilometres northwest of Cape Chaplino, close to the coast of Chukotka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Chaplino</span> Cape in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russian Federation

Cape Chaplin or Cape Chaplino is a cape pointing eastward in the Bering Sea in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation.

Providence Bay is a fjord in the southern coast of the Chukchi Peninsula of northeastern Siberia. It was a popular rendezvous, wintering spot, and provisioning spot for whalers and traders in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Emma Harbor is a large sheltered bay in the eastern shore of Providence Bay. Provideniya and Ureliki settlements and Provideniya Bay Airport stand on the Komsomolskaya Bay. Plover Bay in English sources sometimes refers specifically to the anchorage behind Napkum Spit within Providence Bay but was commonly used as a synonym for Providence Bay; Russian 19th century sources used the term for an anchorage within Providence Bay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chukotsky District</span> District in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia

Chukotsky District is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the six in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is the easternmost district of the autonomous okrug and Russia, and the closest part of Russia to the United States. It borders with the Chukchi Sea in the north, the Bering Sea in the east, Providensky District in the south, and the Kolyuchinskaya Bay in the west. The area of the district is 30,700 square kilometers (11,900 sq mi). Its administrative center is the rural locality of Lavrentiya. Population: 4,995 (2021 Census); 4,838 (2010 Russian census); 4,541 (2002 Census); 6,878 (1989 Soviet census). The population of Lavrentiya accounts for 30.2% of the district's total population.

Sireniki is a village (selo) in Providensky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, in the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. Population: 469 (2010 Russian census); Municipally, Sireniki is subordinated to Providensky/Providenia Municipal District. In 2010, a law was passed abolishing the municipal rural settlement of Sireniki. The village continues to exist, but is now municipally part of Providenia Urban Settlement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naukan (village)</span> Selo in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia

Naukan is a deserted Yupik village on Cape Dezhnev, Russia. Prior to 1958, it was the easternmost settlement in the Eurasian continent. This distinction is now held by the Russian village Uelen in the Chukotsky District.