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Abstract
The article analyzes a new social and political phenomenon of contemporary Russia: rising voices of Indigenous peoples in Russia’s North under conditions of state pressure and official policy attempting to suppress Indigenous concerns. Indigenous voices of Arctic peoples are analyzed in the context of accelerated industrial development of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YaNAO). These processes are conceptualized in terms of Indigenous resistance. Research focus is on social, economic, and political changes in polar communities that have given rise to the phenomenon of the Voice of the Tundra [Golos tundry] networked protest community. The author reconsiders long-standing approaches to social processes among the Nenets tundra aborigines. Relying on the materials of field research in 2018 and 2019 conducted in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YaNAO), the author formulates a “Yamal paradox”: contrary to expectations that difficulties and trials of nomadic life will inevitably push tundra Nenets into an urban milieu, the traditional nomadic way of life is becoming attractive to them. Demographic growth among the Nenets reindeer breeders and a twofold increase in the size of reindeer herds over the past fifteen years in combination with intensive industrial development of the region have led to a situation where the interests of the growing fuel-and-energy complex and the growing community of nomads have collided in the Yamal-Nenets tundra.
Main respondents and informants were local politicians and government executives, as well as representatives of the intellectual elite of Indigenous peoples of the North, and Nenets reindeer breeders from the tundra. Regional statistics, legislative acts of the YaNAO in relation to the indigenous numerically small peoples of the North (INSPNs), and regional mass information media were also used.
The author thanks Eduard Khabechevich Yaungad, president of the Yamal Potomkam [Yamal Descendants] Association and deputy to the Legislative Assembly of the YaNAO; Oleg Prokop’evich Siugnei, section chief of the department for Indigenous numerically small peoples of the North of the YaNAO; and Yurii Viacheslavovich Laptander, chief of the agroindustrial complex, tasked with Indigenous numerically small peoples of the North (INSPNs) issues for Priural raion YaNAO. Laptander organized a three-day trip to kin-group lands [rodovym ugodiiam] of Nenets nomad reindeer breeders, two hundred kilometers from Salekhard, passing through Pung-Yu, 96 km zheleznoi dorogi Obskaia-Bovanenkovo, Stepino, and Paiuta trade centers. The author is also indebted to Galina Pavlovna Khariuchi, ethnology sector chief of the state “Scholarly Center for the Study of the Arctic” (Salekhard); Yurii Andreevich Morozov, journalist of the city newspaper Poliarnyi krug (Salekhard); Konstantin Gennad’ievich Filant, leading research fellow at the state “Scholarly Center for the Study of the Arctic” (Salekhard); and Sergei Nikolaevich Khariuchi, head of the Center for the Development of Reindeer Breeding, deputy director of the Russian Center for the Development of the Arctic (Salekhard), for valuable advice and recommendations.
Field results have enabled reevaluation of the key problems and challenges confronting Native communities due to the breakneck transformation of the YaNAO into Russia’s new oil-and-gas province. This change in the consciousness of Native peoples has created the potential for Indigenous resistance. Methods of transmission of Indigenous voices and local aboriginal concerns have become new media, such as the “V Kontakte” social networks. The Golos tundry project has reflected the main “sore points” of Indigenous development in the YaNAO: the shortage of lands for the growing reindeer herds due to alienation of kin-group territories to the benefit of the fuel-and-energy complex; the uncertainty of life prospects for nomads in the face of accelerated industrial development of the region, the crisis of Indigenous leadership and official aboriginal organizations.
Notes
Main respondents and informants were local politicians and government executives, as well as representatives of the intellectual elite of Indigenous peoples of the North, and Nenets reindeer breeders from the tundra. Regional statistics, legislative acts of the YaNAO in relation to the indigenous numerically small peoples of the North (INSPNs), and regional mass information media were also used.
The author thanks Eduard Khabechevich Yaungad, president of the Yamal Potomkam [Yamal Descendants] Association and deputy to the Legislative Assembly of the YaNAO; Oleg Prokop’evich Siugnei, section chief of the department for Indigenous numerically small peoples of the North of the YaNAO; and Yurii Viacheslavovich Laptander, chief of the agroindustrial complex, tasked with Indigenous numerically small peoples of the North (INSPNs) issues for Priural raion YaNAO. Laptander organized a three-day trip to kin-group lands [rodovym ugodiiam] of Nenets nomad reindeer breeders, two hundred kilometers from Salekhard, passing through Pung-Yu, 96 km zheleznoi dorogi Obskaia-Bovanenkovo, Stepino, and Paiuta trade centers. The author is also indebted to Galina Pavlovna Khariuchi, ethnology sector chief of the state “Scholarly Center for the Study of the Arctic” (Salekhard); Yurii Andreevich Morozov, journalist of the city newspaper Poliarnyi krug (Salekhard); Konstantin Gennad’ievich Filant, leading research fellow at the state “Scholarly Center for the Study of the Arctic” (Salekhard); and Sergei Nikolaevich Khariuchi, head of the Center for the Development of Reindeer Breeding, deputy director of the Russian Center for the Development of the Arctic (Salekhard), for valuable advice and recommendations.
1. V. Vladimirova, “Transnatsional’nye indigennye organizatsii, liberal’nyi mul’tikul’turalizm i narrativy ob ‘indigennom separatizme’ na Severe Rossii,” Sibirskie istoricheskie issledovaniia, 2015, no. 1, p. 29; M.M. Balzer, “Indigeneity, Land and Activism in Siberia,” Land, Indigenous Peoples & Conflict (New York: Routledge, 2017), pp. 9–27.
2. M.M. Balzer, Shamans, Spirituality, and Cultural Revitalization: Explorations in Siberia and Beyond (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2012).
4. By ontology in the given situation we understand the fundamental principles of the existence of Indigenous peoples. It entails not only the basis of subsistence, but also the fullness and unity of Indigenous life.
5. J. Rancière, Disagreement: Politics and Philosophy (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993), p. 32; J. Rancière, “Ten Theses on Politics.” Theory and Event. 2001. Vol. 5. Issue 3. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/32639; Zh. Rans’er, Na kraiu politicheskogo (Moscow: Praksis, 2006), pp. 209, 210, 212 [original French work: Jacques Rancière, Aux bords du politique (Paris: Fabrique, 1998).]. In the work “Ten Theses on Politics,” he wrote that “the essence of politics is the manifestation of dissensus, as the presence of the two worlds in one … Politics makes visible that which had no reason to be seen, it lodges one world into another … Politics consists in a transforming this space of “moving-along” into a space for the appearance of a subject: i. e. the people, the workers, the citizens: it consists in refiguring the space”.
6. In favor of my argument are facts connected with the famous “trash” protest in Shies. Construction of the Shies trash disposal site on the border of the Republic of Komi and Arkhangel’sk Oblast of Russia elicited not only a broad protest mobilization in Russia, but awakened consciousness and identity. Many describe the events at Shies as something that had been impossible before—a rise in civic self-awareness through resistance to the Russian authorities. In the opinion of Shies protest activists, with their administrative and repressive actions, the authorities of the Russian regions inadvertently awakened the identity of northerners. Society had never been this cohesive before the “trash” story; the trash agenda began to unite people (T. Britskaia, “Lichnaia obida gubernatora,” Novaia gazeta, September 30, 2019 [https://www/novayagazeta.ru/articles/2019/09/30/82164-lichnaya-obida-gubernatora]).
7. The well-known Russian anthropologist Andrei Golovnev wrote brilliantly about this in the “Risks and Maneuvers of the Nomads of Yamal” research project (A.V. Golovnev, “Riski i manevry kochevnikov Iamala,” Sibirskie istoricheskie issledovaniia, 2016, no. 4, pp. 154–71).
8. G. Khariuchi, Vavlë Neniang (Vauli Pietomin). Istoriko-etnograficheskie ocherki (St. Petersburg: “Istoricheskaia illistratsiia,” 2018). One odd thing about this book immediately caught my attention. A work dedicated to events of aboriginal resistance to the colonial policies of the tsarist administration is presented as “ethnographic and historical sketches” [istoriko-etnograficheskie ocherki]. The aspiration of the Russian administrators to maximally depoliticize problems associated with Indigenous peoples of the North can be discerned here.
9. “Putin, V.: mestorozhdeniia na Iamale dolzhny stat’ nashei novoi neftegazovoi provintsiei,” Arkhiv. Vesti.ru 2009.24.09 (https://www.vesti.ru/doc.html?id=316840); “V. Putin: Iamal stanet novoi neftegazovoi provintsiei Rossii,” RBK, September 24, 2009 (https://www.rbc.ru/economics/24/05/2019/5ce6f6c79a79473c9d0a89a8).
10. “Putin iz Moskvy zapustit novoe mestorozhdenie ‘Gazproma’ na Iamale,” Znak, March 19, 2019 (https://www.com/2019-03-19/putin_iz_moskvy_zapustit_novoe_mestorozhdenie_gazproma_na_yamale).
11. C.A. Hofstein, “Yamal, le gaz qui venait du froid,” Le Figaro, February 25, 2019 (http://www.lefigaro.fr.international/2019/02/01/01003-20190201ARTFIG005-yamal-le-gaz-qui-venait-du-froid.php).
12. For example, numerical strength of the population in the arctic part of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) from 1990 through 2018 shrank by 2.2 times (M.S. Nifontova, “Komu nuzhna rossiiskaia Arktika?” Nezavisimaia gazeta, June 17, 2019 (www.ng.ru/ideas/2019-06-17/7_7599_ideas1.html).
13. G.F. Detter, “Modeli osvoeniia resursov i territorii Iamalo-Nenetskogo avtonomnogo okruga,” Arktika i Sever, 2017, no. 26, pp. 99–100, 106.
14. I often use the term “curtailment” [zakryvanie] of the Indigenous problem in my work. It may not be the best term, but is useful in signifying the tight control of Russian authorities over the organizations and leaders of Indigenous peoples, and of questions associated with Indigenous subject matter as a whole. This control, as shown, became a part of Russian state policy in relation to Indigenous peoples, beginning in 2012.
15. For greater convenience, I use the acronym RAIPON, the English equivalent of AKMNSiDV. All the more so given that the acronym RAIPON is widely used in Russia itself.
16. Sergei Khariuchi, who was perfectly loyal to the authorities, was removed from his office as president of RAIPON. Two vice presidents of the Association—the brothers Rodion and Pavel Suliandziga—were removed from their positions. The latter was subjected to persecutions from Russian authorities and had to emigrate to the United States in 2017.
17. See O.Iu. Vlasova, “‘Edinaia Rossiia’ protiv korennykh malochislennykh narodov Severa, Sibiri i Dal’nego Vostoka,” Molodëzhnaia obshchestvennaia palata, April 7, 2013 (http://www.mdpalata.ru/opinions/_Edinaya_Rossiya_protiv_korennykh_malochislennykh_narodov_severa_sibiri_i_dalnego_vostoka).“This was the heaviest congress and the most difficult choice,” “Etnoradio” director Ainana Tagrina, a participant in that congress, remarked helplessly” (“V khode viborov novym glavoi Assotsiatsii korennykh narodov izbran Grigorii Ledkov (ekskliuziv),” Natsional’nyi aktsent, March 29, 2013 (http://nazaccent.ru/content/7307/-v-hode-skandalnyh-vyborov-novym-glavoj.html)).
18. Interview with G.P. Khariuchi, head of the ethnology sector of the state public institution “Nauchnyi tsentr izucheniia Arktiki” [Scientific Center for the study of the Arctic], October 30, 2018, Salekhard.
19. The former president of RAIPON, who was removed from his post at this congress.
20. “V khode vyborov novym glavoi Assotsiatsii korennykh narodov izbran Grigorii Ledkov (ekskliuziv),” Natsional’nyi aktsent, March 29, 2013 (http://nazaccent.ru/content/7307/-v-hode-skandalnyh-vyborov-novym-glavoj.html).
21. A. Tarasov, “Narod tol’ko meshaet: vpervye ob etom zaiavleno otkryto,” Novaia gazeta, November 16, 2012 (https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2012/11/15/52362).
22. Anna-Lena Lauren, HBL i Sibirien: “I den har varmen sralter vara renar ihjal,” March 10, 2018.
23. For more detail about this see R.A. Kolesnikov, R.I. Loktev, A.I. Sinitskii, Ia.K. Kamnev, and O.Ia Kulikova, “Deistvie ekologicheskikh faktorov kak prichina zimnego i rannevesennego padezha olenei v Seiakhinskoi tundra poluostrova Iamal,” Nauchnyi vestnik Iamalo-Nenetskogo avtonomnogo okruga (Salekhard, 2018), issue 3 (100), pp. 38–45.
24. A.-L. Lauren, “De Skapar Ett Minisamhalle i Protest Mot Moskvas Sopor–Mitt i Den Arktiska Vildmarken,” Dagens Nyheter, September 9, 2019 (https://www.dn.se/nyheter/varlden/de-skapar-ett-minisamhalle-i-protest-mot-moskvas-sopor-mitt-i-den-arktiska-vildmarken).
25. Some data in derives from “Okruzhnaia dolgosrochnaia tselevaia programma ‘Sokhranenie traditsionnogo obraza zhizni, kul’tury i iazyka korennykh malochislennykh narodov Severa Iamalo-Nenetskogo avtonomnogo okruga na 2012–2015 gody.’ Utverzhdena postanovleniem pravitel’stva Iamalo-Nenetskogo avtonomnogo okruga (s izm. ot 23.07.2012 № 579-P; s izm. ot 18.12.2012 № 1075-P; s izm. ot 16.08.2013 № 653-P; s izm. ot 14.02.2014 № 116-P),” http://docs.cntd.ru/document/473400126 konsortsium “kodeks” Elektronnyi fond pravovoi i normativno-tekhnicheskoi dokumentatsii. Another part of the data is from Yurii Laptander, chief of the department of the agro-industrial complex and affairs of Indigenous and numerically small peoples of Priural Raion of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. Interview October 27, 2018 and May 24, 2019, settlement of Aksarka, YaNAO.
26. These regions are the most “aboriginal”: Yamal Raion is 60 percent indigenous, Taz—52 percent.
27. Material of a focus group. Salekhard, October 23, 2018.
28. S.M. Zuev, V.A. Kibenko, and E.A. Sukhova, “Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie faktory zhiznedeiatel’nosti kochevogo naseleniia Iamalo-Nenetskogo avtonomnogo okruga,” Vestnik Tiumenskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie i pravovye issledovaniia, 2017, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 39–40; S. Roberts, “A Warm Welcome: Siberian Reindeer Herders Opening Their Tents to Tourists,” Financial Times, July 9, 2017.
29. Reindeer-breeder nomads from among the Indigenous peoples are furnished with apartments in settlements under the “Provision of citizens from among the INSPNs with housing” program” (Rossiiskaia Arktika: korennye narody i promyzhlennoe osvoenie, ed. V.A. Tishkova (Moscow/St. Petersburg: Nestor–Istoriia, 2016), p. 72.
30. “Dva olenia na gektar. Na Iamale nachali sokrashchat’ pogolov’e tundrovykh zhivotnykh,” Novyi den’, April 28, 2018 (https://newdaynews_ru/yamal_ugra/634547.html).
31. Razvitie sel’skogo khoziaistva Iamalo-Nenetskogo avtonomnogo okruga na 2014-2020gg., Okrug long-term targeted program (http://de.gov.yanao.ru/doc/prog_sel_plan/projects/proj_post_10.doc).
32. G.G. Filant, “Ob obrazovanii territorii traditsionnogo prirodopol’zovaniia korennykh malochislennykh narodov Severa v Iamalo-Nenetskom avtonomnom okruge,” Problemy sovremennoi nauki i obrazovaniia. Iuridicheskie nauki, 2016, no. 39 (81), pp. 83–91.
33. Interview with E.Kh. Yaungad—president of the “Iamal – potomkam!” Association. Salekhard, October 24, 2018, and S.N. Khariuchi—deputy director of the Russian center for the development of the Arctic, head of the Center for the Development of Reindeer-Breeding. Salekhard, November 13, 2019.
34. Interview with Iu.A. Morozov, journalist with the newspaper Poliarnyi krug. Salekhard, November 14, 2019.
35. The figure was furnished by employees of the department for science and innovations of the YaNAO in November 2019.
36. The figure was compiled based on the materials of A.V. Golovnev’s work “Riski i manevry kochevnikov Iamala,” Sibirskie istoricheskie issledovaniia, 2016, no. 4, pp. 157, and was subsequently refined based on the results of an interview with the president of the “Iamal–potomkam!” Association, Eduard Yaungad. Salekhard, October 24, 2018.
37. Author’s interview with reindeer-breeders at the “Paiuta” factory [trading post] of Priural Raion of the YaNAO, October 27, 2018; Author’s interview with Timur Akchurin, executive director of the “Union of Reindeer Breeders of the Yamal.” Salekhard, October 24, 2018; Author’s interview with Mihail Okotetto, head of the “Ilebs” community of reindeer breeders. Salekhard, October 23, 2018.
38. As Russian sociologists and ethnologists have noted, the most acute contradictions arise in connection with industrialists’ notions of land that “doesn’t belong to anybody” (S.A. Tulaeva and M.S. Tysiachniuk, “Mezhdu neft’iu i oleniami. O raspredelenii blag mezhdu neftianikami i korennymi narodami v rossiiskoi Arktike i Subarktike,” Ekonomicheskaia sotsiologiia, 2017, vol. 18, no. 3, p. 88; Rossiiskaia Arktika, p. 19).
39. Ol’ga Murasho presented the results of her research in July 2011 at the Ninth Congress of Ethnographers and Anthropologists of Russia in Petrozavodsk (Karelia). Georgetown University professor Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer described the data in “Indigeneity, Land and Activism in Siberia,” Land, Indigenous Peoples & Conflict (New York: Routledge, 2017), p. 14.
40. Numto—a regional nature park—is on the shore of the sacred lake of the Khanty peoples in the north of Yugra territory in the Khanty-Mansi National Okrug. The natural complex is situated around the eponymous lake, called the jewel of the park. Lake Numto is the largest body of water in Tiumen’ Oblast. It is one of the largest marsh and aquatic regions of Western Siberia. The Surgutneftegaz company is producing oil in the southern area of the park, but in autumn of 2016, despite the protests of local residents and some scientists, drilling was begun in the north of the park. This is a place where the Khanty lead a traditional way of life, where animals live that are listed in the Red Book [of endangered species], and features migration routes of many animals and birds. The oil industry leaders of Siberia have transformed the village of Numto into a closed site, where only selected journalists, officials, oilmen, and local residents are permitted. Outsiders cannot pass through into the park and the Numto population center without permission (“Taina derevni Numto. Kak suzhaiutsia granitsy sviashchennykh zemel’ khanty,” «7 x 7». Gorizontal’naia Rossiia. Mezhregional’nyi internet-zhurnal, April 17, 2019, 7x7-journal.ru/articles/2019/04/17/tajna-derevni-numto-kak-suzhayutsya-granicy-svyashennyh-zemel-hanty). Thus ended the story about the sacred lake Numto connected with aboriginal resistance to the ideology and practices of Russian extraction [ekstraktivizma].
41. Yurii Vello [Vaella] (Aivaseda) was a well-known Nenets activist and writer. He was not only a protector of the sacred lake Numto, but for a long time a living symbol of Indigenous resistance in Siberia.
42. This refers to federal law of the RF “On the introduction of changes in individual legislative acts of the Russian Federation in the part of regulating the activity of noncommercial organizations carrying out the functions of a foreign agent” (http://graph.document.kremlin.ru/page.aspx?1620877), signed by the president of the RF on July 20, 2012. The law is aimed at regulating the activity (http://ria.ru/politics/20120721/705224525.html) of noncommercial organizations (NCOs) that receive monetary funds and other property from foreign sources and participate in political activity. Subsequently, this logic acquired daunting power in the hands of the state. On June 4, 2014 (http://graph.document.kremlin.ru/page.aspx?3635974), the president of the RF signed a law that gives the Ministry of Justice of the RF the right to include noncommercial organizations in the registry of “foreign agents” unilaterally—Federal Law No. 147 “On the introduction of changes in article 32 of the federal law ‘on noncommercial organizations.’” Ultimately, the law has spelled disaster for noncommercial organizations. The first to suffer were human rights [organizations], second—environmental ones, and third—scholarly and sociological centers (https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2017/11/20/74607-5-let-odinochestva).
43. Interview with G.P. Khariuchi, head of the ethnology sector of the state public institution Nauchnyi tsentr izucheniia Arktiki [Scientific center for the study of the Arctic] October 30, 2018, Salekhard.
44. Research by the staff of the Scientific Center for the Study of the Arctic, conducted in 2018, showed that in some arctic tundras the size of the reindeer herd exceeds the allowable limits by a considerable magnitude (Kolesnikov et al., “Deistvie ekologicheskikh faktorov.”).
45. “Dva olenia;” “Olenevodam Iamala predlozhat den’gi za iskhod iz tundry,” Novyi den’, June 14, 2018 (https://newdaynews.ru/yamal_ugra/638217.html).
46. Interview with S.N. Khariuchi; interview with Iu.A. Morozov.
47. Zuev et al., “Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie faktory,” p. 38.
48. Not by chance the new head of the YaNAO Dmitrii Artiukhov bid his vice-governor Irina Sokolova to “attend to the problem of the impoverishment of aborigines.” In his report on December 4, 2018, he declared that “the traditional economy [khoziaistvo] is not bringing the indigenous population a satisfactory income” (“Vitse-gubernator Iamala Sokolova zaimetsia problemoi obnishchaniia aborigenov,” Novyi den’ (Salekhard: Sluzhba informatsii, December 4, 2018) (https://newdaynews.ru/yamal_ugra/650832.html).
49. Leaders of the moderated online forum did not conceal their cooperation with Greenpeace. Eiko participated in several Greenpeace video clips. However, the connection between Greenpeace and “Golos” has not been observed recently. It is hard to say when the cooperation between the two parties ended. Administrators of the moderated online forum may have feared they would be accused of working with a “foreign agent,” since Russian authorities include Greenpeace in this category (See, for example, I. Snegov, “Piat’ regionov prosiat priznat’ Grinpis inostrannym agentom,” Parlamentskaia gazeta, January 12, 2018, pnp.ru/politics/pyat-regionov-prosyat-priznat-grinpis-inostrannym-agentom.html).
52. Tulaeva and Tysiachniuk, “Mezhdu neft’iu.”
53. “Na Iamale v Zaksobranie idet izvestnyi oppozitsioner iz aborigenov,” Novyi den’, June 25, 2018 (https://newdaynews.ru/yamal_ugra/638916.html).
55. A. Ivanov, “Tundrovyi Maidan i Naval’nyi-olenevod,” Zavtra, October 3, 2016 (http://zavtra.ru/blogs/tundrovij_majdan_i_naval_nij-olenevod/).
56. I. Gridin, “Olenevody otvetili na obvineniia iamal’skikh vlastei,” Novyi den’, November 24, 2016 (https://newdaynews.ru/yamal_ugra/586627.html).
57. “Chinovniki Iamala ustroili slezhku za aborigenami v sotssetiakh: akkaunty, vyskazyvaniia, politicheskie vzgliady,” Rossiiskoe informatsionnoe agentstvo Novyi den’, December 12, 2018 (https://newdaysnews.ru/yamal_ugra/651503.html).
58. Tulaeva and Tysiachniuk, “Mezhdu neft’iu.”
59. “Eiko Serotetto ob”iasnil izbirateliam, zachem idet v deputaty,” Sluzhba novostei IamalPRO, August 2, 2018 (http://www.yamalpro.ru/2018/08/02/eyko-serotetto-obyashal-izbiratelyam-zachem-idet-v-deputatyi/).
60. Rancière, Disagreement; Rans’er, Na kraiu.
61. “‘Oleni-tiuleni’ i severnye strasti. Itogi s”ezda v Salekharde ustroili daleko ne vsekh predstavitelei korennykh narodov,” Natsional’nyi aktsent, April 17, 2013 (https://nazaccent.ru/content/7523-oleni-tyuleni-i-severnye-strasti.html).
62. “Khanty iz roda Aipinykh trebuiut ot Lukoila prekratit’ oskvernenie sviatykh mest i ne gubit’ prirodu. Konflikt vyshel v internet,” Znak. Elektronnaia gazeta, February 21, 2013 (https://www.znak.com/2013-02-21/hanty_iz_roda_aypinyh_trebuyut_ot_lukoila_prekratit_oskvernenie_svyatyh_mest_i_ne_gubit_prorodu_konf); V. Zav’ialova, “V Iugre zapakhlo separatizmom. Khanty khotiat zabrat’ u neftianikov svoi zemli i zaiavliaiut o prave na samoopredelenie,” Znak, November 13, 2013 (https://znak.com/2013-11-3/hanty_hotyat_zabrat_u_neftyanikov_svoi_zemli_i_zayavlyaut_o_prave_na_samoopredelenie); Iu. Makliuk, Spasut li khanty Rossiiu? (http://world.350.org/russian/2013/12/khanty-vs-lukoil/).
63. R. Paine, “Aboriginality, Multiculturalism and Liberal Rights Philosophy,” Ethnos, 1999, vol. 64, no. 3, p. 327; N. Dyck, “Aboriginal Peoples and the Nation-State: ‘Fourth World Politics in Canada, Australia and Norway,’” ed. N. Dyck (Newfoundland: Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1985), p. 7.
64. R. Paine, “The Claim of the Fourth World,” in Native Power, ed. J. Brosted (Oslo, 1985), p. 53.
a. For further historical perspective, see Andrei Golovnev, Govoriashchie Kul’tury: traditsii Samodiitsev i Ugrov (Ekaterinburg: Akademiia Nauk, 1995); and Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, The Tenacity of Ethnicity: A Siberian Saga in Global Perspective (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), pp. 75-98.
b. My field interviews confirm the politicized hijacking of this RAIPON congress. Indigenous protests continue over leadership, land, and the controversial proposed merger of Yamal and Archangelsk regions, as discussed in the Introduction to this issue. In the Nenets Autonomous District capital of Naryan-Mar a weeks-long 2020 singing demonstration was staged in the tradition of the Baltics “to continue their protest against the possible unification with Arkhangelsk Oblast” (nazaccent.ru/content/33594-zhiteli-neneckogo-okruga-s-pomoshyu-peniya.html).
c. Yuri Vella (Vaella), who I knew and admired, was once detained for attempting to slash the tires of an all-terrain vehicle owned by gas explorers trespassing on his kin-group’s lands. His poetry and collaboration with the famed Kiowa writer N. Scott Momaday has been memorialized in the volume Meditations: After the Bear Feast, The Poetic Dialogues of N. Scott Momaday and Yuri Vaella (Brunswick: Shanti Arts, 2016). See also Natalia I. Novikova, “Model’ mnogokul’turnosti Yuri Vella” Vestnik Ugrovedeniia Vol. 2, no. 8, pp. 376-386.