Chukchi

 Listen how "Chukchi" is pronounced

Also referred to as "Chukchee," "Luoravetlan," "Chukot," and "Chukcha," these people are traditionally divided into the "Maritime Chukchi" and the "Reindeer Chukchi."

The Reindeer Chukchi (called Chaucu, "rich in reindeer") are herding nomads. Their reindeer provide them with transportation, meat, milk, and hides for clothing and shelter.

The Maritime Chukchi (called Anqallyt, "the sea people") have settled in coastal settlements and are primarily sea mammal hunters as well as fisherman. Many Maritime Chukchi still travel in wooden-framed boats covered with walrus skins.

The largest native nation on the Asian side of the North Pacific, the total Chukichi population is an estimated 15,000.

Today modern Chukchi follow traditional pursuits, at times aided by mechanized equipment and scientific knowledge about reindeer breeding and other matters related to their specialized way of life. The reindeer-herding subgroup is no longer nomadic, and both groups live in settlements containing medical facilities and other modern services, such as transportation and communication.

Since the 1950s, Chukchi have become accustomed to mass-manufactured store-bought food (beef, preserves, refined starchy snacks, etc.) that have harmed their once naturally-strong immune systems, which once received wholesome nutrition, vitamins, and minerals from the natural, unprocessed meat of reindeer, seal, walrus, fresh fish, and tundra plants.

An absolute disaster for Chukchi health was nuclear testing in the 1950s and 1960s. Though carried out in the airspace of the far north, the resulting radioactive residue and heavy metals have passed through the food chain (from moss to reindeer to man) and have damaged Chukchi health significantly. Influenza, tuberculosis, cirrhosis of the liver, and stomach and lung cancer are common. Only 40% of pregnant women give birth to healthy children, and 8-10% of newborn Chukchi children die out of every thousand (the average in Russia is 1.5%). The tragic picture is compounded by excessive alcoholism and a suicide rate considerably higher than that of Russia as a whole.

The preservation of Chukchi folk culture and the nation's capability for reproduction is in peril. Children are routinely brought up at Russian boarding-schools, depriving parents of the chance to pass on to them their traditional experience and customs. It is these decades Soviet influence that create a generation gap that threatens this native community. Although there remain numerous well-respected elders still practicing native tradition, middle-aged and younger generations are now attached to a more comfortable village life. Traditional occupations have diminished, and new, suitable jobs are not easy to find.  

The future of the Chukchi depends on the revitalization of their indigenous (traditional) culture and the development of some level of self-government. They have recently begun to revive as a nation, addressing their issues and problems, challenging their former apathy, and are beginning to hope again.

Source and image: courtesy of http://www.chukotka.org