The Naukan, also known as the Naukanski, are a

Siberian Yupik people Siberian Yupiks, or Yuits (russian: Юиты), 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 ...

and an

indigenous people of Siberia Siberia, including the Russian Far East, is a vast region spanning the northern part of the Asian continent, and forming the Asiatic portion of Russia. As a result of the Russian conquest of Siberia (17th to 19th centuries) and of the subseque ...

. They live in the Chukotka Autonomous Region of eastern

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

Language

The

Naukan Yupik language Naukan Yupik language or Naukan Siberian Yupik language (Naukan Yupik: Nuvuqaghmiistun) is a critically endangered Eskimo language spoken by ca. 70 Naukan persons (''нывуӄаӷмит'') on the Chukotka peninsula. It is one of the four Yupik ...

is a

Yupik language 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 ...

, belonging to the

Eskimo–Aleut languages The Eskaleut (), Eskimo–Aleut or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages are a language family native to the northern portions of the North American continent and a small part of northeastern Asia. Languages in the family are indigenous to parts of w ...

. Many Naukan people now speak the

Chukchi language Chukchi , also known as Chukot, is a Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages, Chukotko–Kamchatkan language spoken by the Chukchi people in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The language is closely related to Koryak ...

Culture

Traditionally Naukan people hunted

sea mammal The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

s. Guests from remote settlements traveled from remote settlements to participate in ''pol'a, the month-long Naukan whale festival.

History

Archaeological evidence places the Naukan on the

Chukotka Peninsula The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula; russian: Чуко́тский полуо́стров, ''Chukotskiy poluostrov'', short form russian: Чуко́тка, ''Chukotka''), at about 66° N 172° W, is the eastern ...

off the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...

back 2,000 years. They used to live on

Big Diomede Island , image_name = Bigdiomecropped.jpg , image_caption = Big Diomede seen from its nearest neighbor, Little Diomede , map_caption = , locator_map_size = , nickname = , location = Bering Strait , coordinates = , archipelago =Diomede Isla ...

and

Cape Dezhnev 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 ...

in the Bering Strait. The

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

relocated Naukan people from their traditional coastal village of Naukan in 1958.Ainana, Ludmila, Tatiana Achirgina-Arsiak, and Tasian Tein
"Northeast Siberian."
''Alaska Native Collections.'' Accessed 9 Feb 2014.
They now reside in the indigenous village of Lorino.

Notes

External links

Naukan abandoned Village on Cape Dezhnev Peninsula, Siberia
photo gallery {{DEFAULTSORT:Naukan People Ethnic groups in Siberia Chukchi Sea Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East Siberian Yupik

Language

Culture

History

See also

Notes

External links