Mythologies of the Yukaghir Tribes

The Yukaghirs, or Yukagirs (Northern Yukaghir: одул, деткиль (odul, detkil), Russian: юкаги́ры), are a Siberian ethnic group in the Russian Far East, living in the basin of the Kolyma River. The Tundra Yukaghirs live in the Lower Kolyma region in the Sakha Republic; the Taiga Yukaghirs in the Upper Kolyma region in the Sakha Republic and in Srednekansky District of Magadan Oblast. By the time of Russian colonization in the 17th century, the Yukaghir tribal groups occupied territories from the Lena River to the mouth of the Anadyr River. The number of the Yukaghirs decreased between the 17th and 19th centuries due to epidemics, internecine wars and Tsarist colonial policy which may have included genocide against the sedentary hunter-fisher Anaouls. Some of the Yukaghirs have assimilated with the Yakuts, Evens, and Russians. Currently, Yukaghirs live in the Sakha Republic and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation. According to the 2002 Census, their total number was 1,509 people, up from 1,112 recorded in the 1989 Census. According to the latest 2001 all Ukrainian census, 12 Yukaghirs are living in Ukraine. Only 2 of them indicated Yukaghir as their native language. For the remaining others (6) it is Russian and for 1 it is some other tongue.

Yukaghir, remnant of an ancient human population of the tundra and taiga zones of Arctic Siberia east of the Lena River in Russia, an area with one of the most severe climates in the inhabited world. Brought close to extinction by privation, encroachment, and diseases introduced by other groups, they numbered some 1,100 in the late 20th century. Although they still generally inhabit the upper valley of the Kolyma River, the once-nomadic people are for the most part engaged in hunting, fishing, and reindeer herding. The domestication of reindeer probably started in the mid-17th century, just before Russian conquest. The Yukaghir can be classified into two divisions—the Northern, or Tundra, and the Southern, or Kolyma, Yukaghir. Their dialects are not mutually intelligible, and (until the late 20th century) multilingualism in several combinations of Russian, Chukchi, Even, and Sakha (Yakut) was common. Few of the younger Yukaghir speak their mother tongue, and because of assimilation they are generally monolingual or bilingual in Sakha or Russian. The Yukaghir economy once depended heavily on seasonal migrations of elk and wild reindeer; these were killed in large numbers from canoes at water crossings or tracked by ancient methods. Fishing, next in importance, was based on biannual runs in major rivers. Molting waterfowl also were taken in quantity. The meat supply was supplemented by the gathering of berries, nuts, and other products of trees and shrubs. The groups’ activities involved cooperative methods and seasonal movements. Permanent homes were occupied only in winter; skin or bark shelters were used in warmer weather. Metal was rare, and most implements were of bone or antler. The Northern Yukaghir were patrilocal (centred on the male’s family) while the Southern Yukaghir were matrilocal. Inheritance in both groups was patrilineal. Small family groups were generally organized into clans. Each clan was guided in matters of food provision and clan defense by an able adult male. Although the Yukaghir were Christianized in the 18th century, they retained many traditional beliefs, including the practice of shamanism.

The Yukaghir languages (/ˈjuːkəɡɪər, juːkəˈɡɪər/; also Yukagir, Jukagir) are a small family of two closely related languages—Tundra and Kolyma Yukaghir—spoken by the Yukaghir in the Russian Far East living in the basin of the Kolyma River. At the 2002 Russian census, both Yukaghir languages taken together had 604 speakers. More recent reports from the field reveal that this number is far too high: Southern Yukaghir had maximum 60 fluent speakers in 2009, while the Tundra Yukaghir language had around 60–70. The entire family is thus to be regarded as moribund. The Yukaghir have experienced a politically imposed language shift in recent times, and a majority also speak Russian and Yakut. In the Russian 2020-2021 census, 516 people reported speaking a Yukaghir language as their native language. The relationship of the Yukaghir languages with other language families is uncertain, though it has been suggested that they are distantly related to the Uralic languages, thus forming the putative Uralic–Yukaghir language family.

The Upper Kolyma Yukaghirs, a small group of indigenous hunters in north-eastern Siberia, rarely give names to spirits and have no neatly ordered system of classification. I develop an argument that relates this to the nature of Yukaghir experience, going beyond the academically widespread view of knowledge as a matter of linguistic representations or cognition and focusing instead on the way things occur in the flux of people’s everyday activities. Moreover, drawing on recent findings within cognitive science, which show that concepts can and do exist independently of language, and that dreaming shares basic cognitive structures and processes with waking life, I suggest that it is possible that children, before they learn to talk, could develop prototypical concepts of spirits through dream experiences. In this case, language would not be essential for conceptual thought about spiritual beings.

The Yukagir are one of the smallest minorities in the former USSR. Territorially, the Yukagir are subdivided into two groups: the Taiga group lives in the Upper Kolyma District of the Yakut Republic and in the Saimanchanskoi District of Magadan Province along the tributaries of the Kolyma River. The Tundra Yukagir reside in the Lower Kolyma District of the Yakut Republic between the Kolyma and the Indigirka rivers. Both groups live among numerically predominant neighbors: Yakuts, Chukchee, Even, and Russians. In the Soviet period the Yukagir progressed in many ways. Famines disappeared and wholesale buying of fur, which had exploited the hunters, was discontinued. In 1929, in response to the cessation of reindeer migrations, the government helped the Yukagir reorganize for reindeer breeding and fur hunting. In 1931 Yukagir attended school for the first time; adult illiteracy was eliminated by World War II. Paramedical stations and small hospitals have been established in Taiga and Tundra Yukagir settlements. Clubs have emerged in the encampments, and films are shown regularly. Traveling clubs now entertain reindeer breeders. Today most Yukagir live on collective farms in Russian-style log houses with attached vegetable gardens. Most Tundra Yukagir, together with Chukchee, Even, and Russians, belong to one of two "millionaire collectives" devoted to reindeer breeding, hunting, and fishing.

Recorded as the most ancient among the people of Eastern Siberia, the Yukaghirs are natives of the Republic of Sakha (ie. Yakutia) particularly Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and Magadan Oblast presently with 1,603 in population. They are comprised of two tribes – the tundra, and the forest Yukaghirs – each with distinct settlement area, culture including language, and livelihood. For the forest Yukaghirs, their livelihood is primarily hunting wild reindeer and elk, and fishing. The tundra Yukaghirs have a more complex economy based around big-game reindeer breeding with hunting and fishing as secondary activities. Yukaghirs believe that animals have spirits, or ‘patrons’, who are subjects of the Master of the Earth. These spirits, seen as the protectors of the animals, look after the wellbeing of their wards. They are believed to be friendly toward hunters but only if they observe the unwritten laws of hunting, that is, to hunt only what are enough to feed their families. Such hunters are called ‘lucky hunters’, or hunters who observe the unwritten rules.

The Yukaghir from the Upper Kolyma Valley call themselves Odul, those from the Alazeya call themselves Vadul, and those from the Indigirka call themselves Dutke, Dutkil and Buguch. The name Yukaghir is considered to be a generic name of Tungus origin meaning the 'icy or frozen people'. However, there are also some other interpretations and Y. Kreinovich, for instance, claims that the origin of the word is unclear. As recently as the beginning of the 17th century, the Yukaghirs were over a large territory in North-Eastern Siberia -- from the lower reaches of the River Lena in the west to the middle and upper reaches of the River Anadyr in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Verkhoyansk Mountains in the south. It has been suggested that the early Yukaghir ( the Yukaghir-Chuvan tribes) inhabited areas further to the west and to the south. In the 12th or the 13th century the Tungus people (the Evens and the Evenks) invaded Northern Siberia, coming from the mountain taigas behind Lake Baikal. It may be assumed that the Tungus and the Yukaghir met near the River Vilyui and the lower Aldan. Probably part of the Yukaghir moved still further to the north: to the upper Yana, Indigirka, Kolyma and Anadyr rivers, and into the forests and the tundra. A part of them intermingled with the Tungus. Today, a small number of the Yukaghir live in the Nizhnekolymsk district in Yakutia (the Forest Yukaghir or the Odul) and in the Srednekansk district in the Magadan region (the Tundra Yukaghir or the Vadul).

The Tundra Yukaghirs live in the Lower Kolyma region in the Sakha Republic; the Taiga Yukaghirs in the Upper Kolyma region in the Sakha Republic and in Srednekansky District of Magadan Oblast. By the time of Russian colonization in the 17th century, the Yukaghir tribal groups occupied territories from the Lena River to the mouth of the Anadyr River. The number of the Yukaghirs decreased between the 17th and 19th centuries due to epidemics, internecine wars and Tsarist colonial policy which may have included genocide against the sedentary hunter-fisher Anaouls. Some of the Yukaghirs have assimilated with the Yakuts, Evens, and Russians. Currently, Yukaghirs live in the Sakha Republic and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation. According to the 2002 Census, their total number was 1,509 people, up from 1,112 recorded in the 1989 Census. According to the latest 2001 all Ukrainian census, 12 Yukaghirs are living in Ukraine. Only 2 of them indicated Yukaghir as their native language. For the remaining others (6) it is Russian and for 1 it is some other tongue.

The Yukaghirs are made up of 13 nomadic subgroups, including the Chuvans. They are the remnants of a population who for centuries have inhabited the tundra and taiga zones of Arctic Siberia. In their original Siberian home the Yukaghirs were nomadic hunter-gatherers. They would follow elk and reindeer migrations. The men would hunt for animals and fish while the women gathered edible plants during the warmer parts of the year. They used reindeer for transportation and sold skins of animals for cash. With the decline of their traditional economic activities, the dismal environmental situation of their lands, and the decrease in the population of the Yukaghir people, they and their language are close to becoming extinct. Some have migrated to other parts of Russia or Ukraine.