In Central Siberia, the Evenki have been reindeer herders for 700 years. They not only face the challenge of a harsh climate -- temperatures can drop to minus 60 -- but also a national economy in turmoil. It is against these challenges that this largest aboriginal group of Siberia tries to keep its centuries-old traditional way of life alive.
Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Sep 25/00) - Earlier this year, GNWT Territorial Archaeologist Tom Andrews and a group from the Dogrib nation went to Evenkia.
The purpose of their visit, sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency and the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development's Circumpolar Liaison Directorate, was to discuss the Dogrib nation's experience in community economic development and language revitalization.
Ashbury: What would be your most vivid memory, or vivid image, of your recent trip to Siberia?
Tom Andrews: The thing that affected us most, the thing that will always stay with me, is the strength of the people there. The community of Tura has about 6,000 people. It's an administrative centre, a seat of government for the autonomous region. The people who live there are an aboriginal group called the Evenki.
They have been reindeer (caribou) herders for 700 years. Before that, they were hunters and gatherers living off the land. They are the largest aboriginal group in Siberia. There are about 30 aboriginal groups in Siberia. They have their own autonomous region. There are no roads linking it to other communities. Everything comes in by plane or barges in spring. And the spring before we arrived, the change to the free market economy has caused all kinds of problems throughout Russia. And there's unbelievable corruption. So-called oligarchs control the political realm and the economy. And because the company that provides the fuel oil to the town had not been paid they refused to ship fuel oil to the town and consequently the town went an entire year without fuel oil.
The department of emergency measures sent a wide-body jet to the community daily all winter with fuel to keep essential services going. People were limited to three hours of electricity per day, one hour in the morning and two hours in the evening.
The town's heating system, a utilidor steam heating system that runs to every building in town, was turned to minimum all winter. House temperatures hovered just above freezing.
Ashbury: How severe was the winter?
TA: They had one of coldest winters on record. They had three weeks of 60 degrees below zero. People would wear parkas inside and they lived like that. These were the conditions we arrived in. Children went to school but they were dismissed when classroom temperatures reached minus 12. There was no electricity to the schools and no heat in the schools.
Horrible, horrible conditions.
Ashbury: You didn't find the people depressed about their state?
TA: No. They were perhaps a little fatalistic about it. I mean, 'this is what happens to us, we're Russian.' I think they have a political gene. I mean everybody loves to talk politics over there. There was lots of discussion about politics. But no, everybody just trooped along.
Ashbury: Where do you think they get the will to continue?
TA: They have no choice. They've had strife in their lives before. They're no strangers to that; as aboriginal people, in their history in relation to the Soviet government. At one time they were very wealthy as reindeer herders and that was anathema to the Soviet government so they were programs were wealthy reindeer herders were murdered by the Soviet regime in the 1930s. So they've had a hard existence for many generations.
Ashbury: They depend on the reindeer for food. Are the Evenki able to use their herds for other purposes, like selling the meat?
TA: That was one of the reasons why we were over there ... looking at finding ways to bring reindeer to market. They are bringing North American aboriginal groups over to talk about how they do community development, a model the Siberian people might be able to use.
The winter roads are in atrocious conditions. Airlines will take time to find their volume. There is no infrastructure to get meat to market. One of the things we talked about while we were over there was having the Evenki take control of building and developing winter roads and maintaining those roads to get the produce to market. They have to work on establishing a market.
Ashbury: Using Dogrib programs as examples.
TA: Using the Dogrib nation's experience in community economic development and how they have organized.
Ashbury: When you talked with them about selling meat to Krasnoyarsk and other big cities, and running an ice road system, did you get that these are real things they could develop?
TA: No, people didn't believe those things would work. They felt that the system was just so corrupt that those kinds of efforts would just not work. And that's why one of the recommendations we made after our visit, I think it's important to send Canadians over there to tell our story, but I think it's more important to bring people over here so they can see first-hand how things work here. So they can see with effort (there is a chance for change). Change has taken a long time here as well. And it's not been a smooth road. It's been a rocky road for communities gaining control over their owns self-sufficiency and it's still happening. I think it would be useful for the Evenki and other Siberian First Nations to come here.
Ashbury: What about some of the other things you've seen that will stay with you. From the slides you've shown me it looks like "we've got guests for dinner, so let's butcher a reindeer," is that what happening in these photos?
TA: We flew from Tura to Surinda, which means whitefish river, so they have place names very similar to ours. From there we went out about 20 kilometres by skidoo to a reindeer herders' camp. They camped out in the bush, lived in a caribou skin lodge and there was a canvass tent as well.
When we arrived in camp there were no reindeer. In the distance we could here the herder whistling and ringing his bell and calling his reindeer. Within a few moments, this big long line of reindeer walked right into the camp.
It was interesting for us to be standing that close to live caribou and have them lick salt right out of your hand. They're harnessed to pull sleds. The Evenki ride them. They have saddlebags and carry things as well.
While we were there we actually purchased a reindeer from them. It cost a thousand rubles ($54). And they killed the reindeer. They took it to the side. The herd was right there. We thought they would take it some distance away, not wanting to kill the animal in from of the herd.
They just put their hands on its back and made it lay down then one man slipped a knife to sever its spine. Then they slit its neck and let it bleed, then they skinned it and butchered it. There was lots of back and forth over differing cultural practices over butchering and skinning. Then we ate this reindeer. They eat a lot of their food raw and frozen. They would leave the liver for example in the snow and let it get almost frozen then cut it up and eat it.
Ashbury: Was the whole meal eaten raw?
TA: You would boil and roast meat as well. We all climbed inside this reindeer-skin lodge -- this caribou-skin lodge -- and had this absolutely fabulous meal and amazing discussion comparing our respective homelands and cultural practices. There was probably 15 of us in the lodge.
Ashbury: What about similarities to situations here in the North? What were some of the things that struck you a similar to the NWT?
TA: We watched people set nets under the ice. River fishing. We heard stories that are just as rich and interesting as the stories of First Nations here in the North. They have a beautiful artistic and cultural tradition. There's lots and lots of parallels. They lived by hunting and gathering other resources.
Ashbury: What about products?
TA: Russians have fabulous chocolates and a tradition of alcohol, there own wines and vodkas and soft drinks and fruit juices. Southern Siberia, when we think of Siberia we think of this vast snow-covered area, is like Southern B.C. They have fruit trees. They have all these great fruit drinks and candies. It was interesting to eat there. We stayed with this family in Tura.
Vasilii Kicheev was the head of the local traffic police and his wife worked for a legal firm and she took two weeks holiday while we were there to cook for us. It was spectacular. The hospitality was amazing. It's not a traditional that we have here, not to that extent. Every meal is major event. It begins with toasts and well wishes and greetings. It was wonderful to have people sharing this, especially during hard times.
It was open, warm and welcoming. You didn't want for anything, except maybe electricity.
Ashbury: It's amazing that under the circumstances they were able to offer such a welcome.
TA: The family that we were staying with had two sons that were away. Their young daughter is the same age as my daughter, nine years old. And they are now penpals. That was a very nice experience that was brought back and can be maintained. They send each other gifts and photos. That's nice. Every time a letter's been sent here, they had it translated but eventually one will come in Russian and we're going to have to deal with that. The last gift sent was a Russian ABC book.
