Chukchi, or Chukchee (Russian: чукчи (plural), chukcha, чукча (singular)) are an indigenous people inhabiting the Russian Far East on the shores of the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea. They speak the Chukchi language. The Chukchi originated from the people living around the Okhotsk Sea. Chukchi (Luoravetlan (in native language), Chukot, Chukcha) is a Palaeosiberian language spoken by circa 10,400 people (2001) (Chukchi) in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in the region called Chukotka. ... A shaman doctor of Kyzyl. ... The Russian Orthodox Church (Русская Православная церковь) is that body of Christians who are united under the Patriarch of Moscow, who in turn is in communion with the other patriarchs of the Eastern Orthodox Church. ... The Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages, sometimes called the Luorawetlan languages, are a language family of northeastern Siberia. ... Indigenous peoples are: Peoples living in an area prior to colonization by a state Peoples living in an area within a nation-state, prior to the formation of a nation-state, but who do not identify with the dominant nation. ... Far Eastern Federal District (highlighted in red) Russian Far East (Russian: Д́альний Вост́ок Росс́ии; English transliteration: Dalny Vostok Rossii) is an informal term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i. ... Bering Sea and the North Pacific Ocean The Bering (or Imarpik) Sea is a body of water above, and separated from, the north Pacific Ocean by the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands. ... Chukchi (Luoravetlan (in native language), Chukot, Chukcha) is a Palaeosiberian language spoken by circa 10,400 people (2001) (Chukchi) in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in the region called Chukotka. ... The Sea of Okhotsk (from the Russian Okhotskoe more) is a part of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the disputed Russo-Japanese Kurile Islands on the east, the Japanese island of Hokkaido to the south and the island of Sakhalin, the Amur province of Siberia...

The majority of Chukchi reside within the Chukotka Autonomous Region (Russian okrug), but some also reside in the neighboring Sakha Republic to the west, Magadan Province to the southwest, and Koryak Autonomous Region to the south. Several Chukchi also reside in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other parts of Russia, as well as in Europe and North America. The total number of Chukchi in the world is a bit over 15,000. Chukotka Autonomous District (Чуко́тка) in the Russian Far East is the farthest northeast region of Russia, on the shores of the Bering Sea. ... The Sakha (Yakutia) Republic (Russian: Респу́блика Саха́ (Яку́тия); Yakut: Саха Республиката) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... Categories: Stub | Oblasts of Russia ... Categories: Stub | Autonomous Districts of Russia ... Moscow (Russian: Москва́, Moskva, IPA: ) is the capital of Russia and the countrys principal political, economic, financial, educational and transportation center, located on the river Moskva. ... Saint Petersburg (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991) and Petrograd (Петрогра́д, 1914–1924), is a city located in Northwestern Russia on the delta of the river Neva at the east end of the Gulf of Finland...

The Chukchi are traditionally divided into the Maritime Chukchi, who had settled homes on the coast and lived primarily from sea mammal hunting, and the Reindeer Chukchi, who nomadised in the inland tundra region with their herds of reindeer. The Russian name "Chukchi" is derived from the Chukchi word Chauchu ("rich in reindeer"), which was used by the 'Reindeer Chukchi' to distinguish themselves from the 'Maritime Chukchi,' called Anqallyt ("the sea people"). In physical geography, tundra is an area where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. ...

Beginning in the 1920s, the Soviets organized the economic activities of both coastal and inland Chukchi and eventually established 28 collectively run, state-owned enterprises in Chukotka. All of these were based on reindeer herding, with the addition of sea mammal hunting in the coastal areas. Chukchi were educated in Soviet schools and today are almost 100% literate and fluent in the Russian language. Only a portion of them today work directly in reindeer herding or sea mammal hunting. Several Chukchi have university degrees, with some becoming poets, writers, politicians, teachers, and doctors. State motto (Russian): Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Translated: Workers of the world, unite!) Capital Moscow Official language None; Russian (de facto) Government Federation of Soviet republics Area  - Total  - % water 1st before collapse 22,402,200 km² Approx. ... Russian (Russian: русский язык, russkiy yazyk, ) is the most widely spoken language of Eurasia and the most widespread of the Slavic languages. ... Binomial name Rangifer tarandus The reindeer, known as caribou in North America, is an Arctic-dwelling deer (Rangifer tarandus). ... Sea mammal may refer to any mammal that lives in water, usually ocean. ... A hunter on horseback shoots at deer or elk with a bow. ...

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the state-run farms were reorganized and nominally privatized. This process was ultimately destructive to the village-based economy in Chukotka, and the region has still not fully recovered. Many rural Chukchi, as well as Russians in Chukotka's villages, have survived in recent years only with the help of direct humanitarian aid.

In Chukchi religion, every object, whether animate or inanimate is assigned a spirit. This spirit can be either harmful or benifitial. Chukchi religious practices were prohibited by the Soviet Union in the 1920's.

The Chukchi stereotype is a source of numerous Russian jokes, due to their leaning towards rural life. Contemporary Chukchis also tell jokes about Russians and other ethnic groups. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Russian jokes or anekdoty (Russian: анекдо́ты), the most popular form of Russian humour, are short fictional stories or dialogues with a punch line. ...

It is popularly thought that an ancient Chukchi custom dictates that if a man should take in a traveler for the night, he should "lend" the traveler his wife for the night as well as part of his hospitality. This impression probably has more to do with the imagination of the observer than with actual Chukchi practices. Since Chukchi men did at one time frequently travel long distances in order to engage in trade, many of them did establish special reciprocal partnerships with families in distant settlements that they regularly visited and overnighted with. This could involve intimate relations with the wife in a partner family, and could even result in a man having children by another woman living in a distant village, while his own wife might have a child by the husband in his partner family. Thus, this was not a matter of "lending" one's wife to any traveler who stopped for the night, but rather of establishing a close, reciprocal relationship with a particular family over a long period of time. While contemporary Chukchi do not continue this practice (at least not in any systematic way - those old travel patterns were disrupted by Soviet collectivization), there are living Chukchis who suspect they have siblings in other parts of the region as a result of this former practice.

References

• Patty A. Gray, 2005, The Predicament of Chukotka's Indigenous Movement: Post-Soviet Activism in the Russian Far North (Cambridge)
• Anna Kerttula, 2000, Antler on the Sea (Cornell University Press)
• Waldemar Bogoras, 1909, The Chukchee (Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History)
• The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire
• All Things Arctic