Chukchi people

The Chukchi, true reindeer-army people of the Chukchi Peninsula, the Chukchi and Bering coasts, number little over 16,000, mostly in Chukotka, with kin toward Sakha, Magadan and Kamchatka. Sprung from the Okhotsk-sea peoples, they are the closest Asian kin of Native Americans, Beringians who stayed when the sea rose. Sea Chukchi hunt whale and walrus from skin boats; reindeer Chukchi drive hundred-thousand herds across the tundra, fighting Koryak and Yukaghir neighbours and unconquered by Cossacks until late. Shamans, fire-boards, whale festivals and the racing of упряжка teams order the polar year. Soviet collectivisation fenced the herds into brigades; mines and ports now dot the coast. Anadyr radio, whalebone carvers and the reindeer races keep Beringia's keepers keeping. Chukotka schools still teach Chukchi to every child. Sakha, Magadan and Kamchatka kin keep the dialects. Sixteen thousand Chukchi keep two ways of life. Okhotsk ancestors' songs still open the whale feasts. Beringia's keepers still watch both continents.