Yukaghir

Innokenti S. Gurvich and Paul Friedrich, transl.

Jukaghir, Odul, Wadul, Yukagir

The Yukaghir are one of the smallest minorities in Russia. Territorially, they are subdivided into two groups: the Upper Kolyma (or Taiga) group lives in the Verkhnekolymsky District of the Sakha Republic and in the Srednekansky District of Magadan Oblast along the tributaries of the Kolyma River. The Lower Kolyma (or Tundra) Yukaghir reside in the Srednekolymsky and Nizhnekolymsky districts of the Sakha Republic between the Kolyma and the Indigirka rivers. Both groups live among numerically dominant neighbors: Yakuts, Chukchee, Evens, and Russians.

The region in which the Yukaghir are settled is one of mountains, low ridges and plateaus, divided by valleys and dotted with swamps and lakes. The mountains are covered by hardy northern trees: pine, larch, birch, and alder (good shelter for black bears, musk deer, squirrels, and mountain sheep). Aside from some dwarf birches and arctic willows, the northern plains and flatlands of Yukaghir country support only sedge grasses, mosses, lichens, and berry-bearing bushes. Both territorial groups inhabit arctic or subarctic zones, the main feature of which is permafrost. A cold winter with blizzards and winds gusting up to gale strength lasts about eight months. In January the mean temperature ranges from -40° to -70° F, and -90° F has been recorded. Polar night (with midnight sun) reigns in the Kolyma lowlands and the northern part of the Chukotski Peninsula. During the late spring and early summer many plants bloom, enormous flocks of ducks and geese appear, the salmon run, and the lowlands become one great marsh. Summers are short and cool.

During the nineteenth century the population dropped drastically, from 2,350 in 1859 to 1,500 in 1897, eventually falling to below 500. Since then, according to Soviet statistics, it changed as follows: 1926-1927: 443; 1959: 442; 1970: 613; 1979: 835; 1989: 1,112. This growth is mostly due to the high incidence of ethnically mixed marriages, the offspring of which commonly categorize themselves as Yukaghir. A 2010 census put the population at about 1,600.

The Yukaghir language, occupying a special, isolated position among the languages of northeastern Asia, has been provisionally classified as Paleoasiatic. Recent analyses have shown that many elements of Yukaghir are related to elements in the Uralic languages. The question of the family affiliation of the language, however, remains open. There are at least two mutually unintelligible dialects: Upper Kolyma Yukaghir and Tundra Yukaghir. In the vocabulary are loanwords from Yakut, Even, and Russian. According to the Soviet census of 1970, the Yukaghir language was spoken by 288 people. An alphabet was devised in Soviet times. Because of widespread contact with neighbors, the older generations have been multilingual for a long time. In addition to the native language, an individual would have had command of two or more of the following: Chukchi, Even, Yakut, or Russian. In recent decades, however, such multilingualism has begun gradually to disappear. Young people are typically monolingual or bilingual, in Yakut and/or in Russian. Formerly, the Yukaghir practiced pictographic writing on birch bark; men recorded hunting routes and young women indulged in romantic representations.

In terms of culture, The Yukaghir are descendants of the aboriginal population of northeastern Siberia, evolved from a variant of the eastern Siberian Neolithic hunters and lake and river fishermen who used dugout canoes and ceramic utensils. Until the arrival of the Russians they were scattered across a huge territory from west of the lower Lena River in the west to the Anadyr River Basin in the east, subdivided by tribe and clan. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Yandagir, Omolok, and Khromov lived in the Yana River Basin, and the Alayi, Omok, and Kogyme were on the Kolyma River. The Anadyr Basin was subsequently taken over by the Chuvan, Khodynt, and Anaul. Some of the Lower Kolyma groups called themselves “Odyl” (brave) and “Dektili” (strong). Until the arrival of the Russians there were still Yukaghir west of the Lena River and in the southern regions of the Sakha Republic, but they were forced out or assimilated by the predecessors of the Tungus, Even, and Yakut. First outside contact was by Siberian Cossacks: the Yakut Cossack Ivan Rebrov in 1633 and the Yenisei Cossack Ielisei Buza in 1639, both of whom reported fabulous wealth in game and fish. The Yukaghir generally helped or guided the Russians during the colonization period of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and they suffered terribly from reprisals by the Even and Chukchee, from epidemics of smallpox and measles (1669 and 1691-1694), from reindeer plagues, and from the partial cessation of the migrations of wild reindeer. By the early twentieth century conditions were terribly harsh and, Soviet authorities claim, there was considerable exploitation by a Yukaghir “upper class.”

In the Soviet period the Yukaghir progressed in many ways. Famines ceased, and the exploitative wholesale buying of was discontinued. In 1929, in response to the cessation of reindeer migrations, the government helped the Yukaghir reorganize for reindeer breeding and fur hunting. In 1931 Yukaghir attended school for the first time; adult illiteracy was eliminated by World War II. Paramedical stations and small hospitals were established in Yukaghir settlements. Clubs emerged in the encampments, and films were shown regularly. Traveling clubs entertained reindeer breeders. Most Yukaghir moved to collective farms in Russian-style log houses with attached vegetable gardens. Most Lower Kolyma Yukaghir, together with Chukchee, Evens, and Russians, belonged to one of two “millionaire collectives” devoted to reindeer breeding, hunting, and fishing.

During winter the Yukaghir lived in conical tipis covered with reindeer hides. The birch poles for the frame were acquired at each stopping place. The covering for a tipi consisted of five or six skins on the lower part and four or five on the upper part, that amount being needed as insulation against the cold; during the summer rainy period tipis were covered with the bark of larch trees. A fireplace was located in the center of the tipi and cloth bed curtains were set up over the sleeping places. In regularly used campgrounds supplies were kept in a storehouse elevated on one or two poles, with a gabled roof and a ladder made of a notched pole.

If no food was obtained during the late winter–early spring migration, the situation became critical and the Yukaghir were forced to turn to the Yakut or the Even. But they also often lived half-hungry, and in the nineteenth century many episodes of starvation were recorded. There are many Yukaghir tales of small, isolated nomadic groups that meet a tragic end when the hearth fire went out. Every family needed several sledges for migrations, with four or five dogs harnessed to each. Women and children helped the dogs convey the heavily loaded sledges, while men on skis broke trail. Between them went a man harnessed by a strap to the bow of a sledge, steering it with the help of a long pole attached by a belt to the first cross-bar of the sledge. Three or four such bars, vertical half-hoops of bent birch wood, connected the runners to the chassis. In the late winter and early spring, women and children also used skis.

Gathering was supplementary. In summer the Yukaghir collected wild currants and raspberries, bulbs, the inner bark of the larch, and the juice of the red poplar; in winter it was larch sapwood, cedar nuts, and berries. They learned from Russians to use mushrooms to garnish soups. The seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Yukaghir used fly agaric mushrooms as a narcotic (probably as part of shamanic rituals), but after Russians arrived this was replaced by tea and tobacco.

During migrations the men tracked reindeer and elk, primarily along rivers. Upon discovering the trail of a reindeer or elk, the men broke up into groups that took turns pursuing the animal so as not to allow it to rest. The hunters strove to drive their prey out over sections covered by deep snow with an icy crust, where their weight would cause them to fall through the crust, injure their legs on its sharp edges, and exhaust themselves. Pursuing elk and reindeer on skis called for great endurance and skill, so it was usually young men who engaged in this kind of hunt. In a successful year, one family would take up to a hundred reindeer and elk, ensuring a supply of meat that would last for many months.

The Upper Kolyma Yukaghir began to fish in the spring, moving about using rafts and dugout or board canoes. In the summer season women and children settled near lakes and fished using nets set in the streams or a bone gorge on a sinew line. Catches during this season were customarily for everyday consumption. Slightly putrefied fish were preferred. Only the autumnal catch was large enough to allow the storage of fish, and several expeditions would provide oneself and one's dogs with enough for the coming season. The Yukaghir surrounded schools of fish with seines, got them to shore, and landed them. The places to fish in this way were well established. In past times the Yukaghir also fished with dragnets made of willow withies.

The main season for hunting wild reindeer was autumn, when herds returned from their summer haunts, forced to cross bodies of water along the way. Pitching camp nearby, hunters could each take several dozen reindeer, providing meat for the entire winter. Siberiaki (native Russians) and sedentary Yukaghir also took part in these hunts. They would drive reindeer into lakes through corridors flanked by scarecrows or wait for a herd to cross a river. Hunters in boats stabbed the animals to death with iron spears, pikes and/or large knives. Failing that, they would pursue the wild reindeer while riding on tame ones. In winter they used sledges drawn by reindeer or dogs. Next to reindeer paths, not far from their campsites, they would set up crossbows rigged to fire when reindeer passed.

The traditional economy was marked by certain variations. Although the basis of livelihood was wild reindeer hunted at fords, the Yukaghir also hunted elks, arctic foxes, hare, and ptarmigan. Foxes and arctic foxes were chased with sledges and killed with cudgels. In summer the Yukaghir dug up arctic fox dens and took the cubs. Also important was bird hunting, especially during the autumn molting season when the birds, unable to fly, could be driven into nets. As late as the nineteenth century birds were hunted with a bola. In March the Yukaghir, like the Even, crossed over the tundra to hunt wild reindeer using decoys.

In the traditional economies of both the Upper and Lower Kolyma Yukaghir, a great number of extremely archaic, evidently well-adapted hunting and fishing techniques date to the Neolithic period.

The yearly subsistence cycle of the Upper Kolyma Yukaghir was divided into several seasons. During cold winter months the Yukaghir were sedentary, living off their reindeer and summer stores of fish and meat. Winter camps were usually situated near fishing holes. In winter quarters they repaired their sledges and fashioned boats and canoes for sale to the Yakut and the Siberiaki (original Russian settlers and their descendants). At the end of February or early March they abandoned their winter camps. The nomadic period lasted from February until July. This interim period between winter and spring was the most difficult.

Fur trapping was large-scale. “Every industrious Yukaghir set up to 500 traps annually in various places after the first snow” (Stepanova et al. 1964: 792). Pelts were exchanged for hunting supplies and horse hair used for fishing nets.

Yukaghir men bartered animal furs for products imported by Russian merchants. Furs also served as currency to pay tribute and other debts.

Among the hunter-gatherer Upper Kolyma Yukaghir, men travelled deep into the forest to hunt big game, especially elk. Old people, women, and children gathered berries, and prepared nets and traps.

Private ownership of land or particular resources was not recognized. By the end of the twentieth century, the traditional territory of the Yukaghir was reduced to the settlement of Nelemnoye located deep in the taiga of the Verkhnekolymsky District of the Sakha Republic, and pockets of seasonal camps along the Arga-Tas mountain range.

When studied by Jochelson at the end of the nineteenth century, the Yukaghir were reduced to six localized clans in the settlement of Nelemnoye. Members of all the clans were intermarried with people of other ethnic groups.

Descent was traced through the father’s line and children traced their descent from the male ancestor or originator of the father's clan.

In pre-contact times each clan was endogamous. This practice resulted in cousin relationships reproduced from generation to generation. This pattern was fully disrupted under the Soviet regime when collectivization was imposed as a way of life.

Among the Upper Kolyma Yukaghir, marriage was matrilocal (after considerable premarital freedom), whereas among the Lower Kolyma Yukaghir it was patrilocal. Pre-marital sex among young people was highly tolerated. During this time of “free love” young people often chose their future spouse. Yukaghir marriage is not accompanied by any celebration.

The most common type of domestic group was the minimally extended nuclear family, consisting of a married couple, their children and elderly parents. Adult girls had their own separate sleeping tent in which they received visitors. At the end of the winter, closely related families travelled by dog sledge to hunt, gather and fish.

The Yukaghir inherited through the male line.

Children received special care and affection, both in mythology and day-to-day family life. Part of the reason for this was a rapid decline in population size and the prevalence of barren women.

Until the nineteenth century, extended nuclear families may have been grouped into largely exogamous patrilineal clans—essentially a small group of patrilineally related families never exceeding a hundred persons in number. “The old man,” the ablest adult male in the group, selected fishing sites, dispatched hunters, directed the distribution of food, and organized the group for defense.

The Yukaghir were Christianized during the eighteenth century, but some traditional beliefs persisted. Yukaghir legends preserve accounts of the ancient world. Giant elk hunters, their true form hidden behind fantastic features, subdue elk and fasten them to their coats, but eventually are conquered by the more clever Yukaghir. In animal tales a major role is played by Raven, not as world maker, but invested with satiric traits. The real culture hero, the cunning hare, kills the “Ancient Old Man,” foe of the Yukaghir. Related to these myths was the so-called sun shield, a silver or bronze disk attached to the clothing over a shaman's chest, bearing a representation of a winged centaur against a background of plant motifs.

There was a cult of exchange or cooperation between humans and animals. Animals obtained through hunting were considered guests. If they were honored they would return to this world and come again as guests.

Through the assistance of special spirits, shamans were believed to influence the course of events, cure the sick, foretell the future, and do harm to their enemies. Shamans were revered even after they died. Their corpses were dismembered, dried, and divided among related families; these relics were used as amulets in divination. The shaman's costume, tambourine, and other paraphernalia resembled those of the Tungus.

An important communal event in Yukaghir culture is the birth of the first child. Invitations to this festival (pa'čil) are extended to relatives and neighbors.

Despite their small numbers, the Yukaghir have given the world many talented writers, such as the author and public figure Nikolay Spiridonov, who uses the pseudonym Teki Odulak. In 1935 he published his tale, “The Life of the Older Imturfinga,” in which he related the hard life, activities, and customs of his neighbors and fellow countrymen. Semyon Kurilov, who belongs to another generation, published the novel Khaniso and Khaperkha, two parts of which were issued in 1970 under the title New People. His younger brother, Gabriel Kurilov, is a linguist, a doctoral candidate in philology, and a researcher at the Institute of Language and History of the Yakut branch of the Siberian Department of the Academy of Sciences of the former USSR. He has written Complex Nouns in the Yukaghir Language (1977). He is also a novelist, and his poetry has been published in Russian, Yakut, and Yukaghir. The Yukaghir have started to craft stories about themselves, to inform the world of their fate, and to express their national consciousness more forcefully.

Shamans’ spirits were believed to cure illness and provide protection from malevolent beings.

Illness was believed to be caused by some evil spirits. As nomadic people, the Yukaghir had no cemeteries or common places of burial. Instead, they buried their dead wherever they died in the course of their seasonal migrations. The body was interred in boxes made of rough boards fastened with wooden pegs.

This culture summary is from the article "Yukagir" by Innokenti S. Gurvich (translated by Paul Friedrich), in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 6, Russia and Eurasia/China, Paul Friedrich and Norma Diamond, eds. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall & Co. 1994. Population figures and geographical references were updated by Leon G. Doyon in August, 2019.

Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2019. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-second edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com. Accessed August 8, 2019.

Forde, C. Daryll (1963). “The Yukaghir: Reindeer Hunters in the Siberian Tundra.” In Habitat, Economy, and Society, edited by C. Daryll Forde. New York: E. P. Dutton, 101-106.

Jochelson, W. (1910-1926). The Yukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, vol.13. Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition; v. 9, pt. 1-3. Leiden: E. J. Brill; New York: G. E. Stechert.

Stepanova, M. V., I. S. Gurvich, and V. V. Khramova (1964). “The Yukagirs.” In The Peoples of Siberia, edited by M. G. Levin and L. P. Potapov. Translated from the Russian by Scripta Technica, Inc. English translation edited by Stephen P. Dunn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 788-798.