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.
Language The Naukan Yupik language is a Yupik language, belonging to the Eskimo–Aleut languages. Many Naukan people now speak the Chukchi language.
Culture
Traditionally Naukan people hunted sea mammals. Guests 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 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.Ainana, Ludmila, Tatiana Achirgina-Arsiak, and Tasian Tein. "Northeast Siberian." Alaska Native Collections. Accessed 9 Feb 2014. The end of “Eskimo land”: Yupik relocation in Chukotka, 1958-1959 They now reside in the indigenous village of Lorino.
Notable people Elizaveta Dobrieva (born 1942), teacher and researcher
See also Yaranga, a conical reindeer-hide tent Central Siberian Yupik language Sirenik Yupik Yupik peoples Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East
Notes
External links
Naukan abandoned Village on Cape Dezhnev Peninsula, Siberia, photo gallery