Indigenous Numerically Small Peoples and Extraction Companies in the Ob North: Cooperation or Conflict?

Abstract

The article examines the main sources of contradictions in relations between communities of Indigenous peoples and economic agents in the Yugra homeland. Based on analysis of individual cases, conclusions highlight involvement of new actors, public associations and nongovernmental organizations in processes termed conflictogenesis. Conclusions emphasize increasing need to expand practices of social partnership to resolve contradictions. A significant role for ethnological expert review is suggested in settling conflicts.

Keywords:

• industrial development
• Ob North
• Indigenous
• numerically small peoples of Russia
• ethnological expert review
• conflict
• cooperation, Yugra

Notes

1. Doklad, podgotovlen po itogam soveshchaniia mezhdunarodnoi gruppy ekspertov po teme “Ustoichivoe razvitie na territoriiakh korennykh narodov,” United Nations Economic and Social Council Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, Economic and Social Council of the UNO, New York, January 23–25, 2018, http://undocs.org/ru/E/C.19/2018/7 [English version: United Nations Social and Economic Council, Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Report of the expert group meeting on the theme “Sustainable Development in the Territories of Indigenous Peoples” (January 23–25, 2018), February 21, 2018, https://undocs.org/en/E/C.19/2018/7.]

2. See note 1.

3. Federal law of April 30, 1999 no. 83-FZ (revised July 13, 2015) “On guarantees of the rights of the indigenous numerically small peoples of the Russian Federation,” http://legalacts.ru/doc/federalnyi-zakon-ot-30041999-n-82-fz-o.

4. Draft Law no. 1026256–6 “On state support for persons belonging to the indigenous numerically small peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East of the Russian Federation leading a nomadic and (or) semi-nomadic mode of life,” http://sozd.parlament.gov.ru/bill/1026256–6.

5. Conclusion of the Government of the RF of March 21, 2016 No. 1777p-P44 on the draft of the Federal Law “On state support for persons belonging to the indigenous numerically small peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East of the Russian Federation leading a nomadic mode of life,” http://base.garant.ru/57727070/.

6. “Assotsiatsiia korennykh narodov Severa vystupila protiv proekta zakona ob etnologicheskoi ekspertize,” Natsional’nyi aktsent, March 22, 2018, http://nazaccent.ru/content/26840-associaciya-korennyh-narodov-severa-vystupila-protiv.html.

7. “V Rossii mozhet poiavit’sia zakon o sokhranenii nematerial’nogo naslediia korennykh narodov,” Parlamentskaia gazeta, March 23, 2018, https://www.pnp.ru/culture/v-rossii-mozhet-poiavitsya-zakon-o-sokhranenii-nematerialnogo-naslediya-korennykh-narodov.html.

8. “Gosduma rassmotrela zakonoproekt o kompensatsii ushcherba korennym malochislennym narodam,” Natsional’nyi aktsent, March 28, 2018, http://nazaccent.ru/content/26884-gosduma-rassmotrela-zakonoproekt-o-kompensacii-usherba.html.

9. Informatsionnye materialy ob okonchatel’nykh itogakh Vserossiiskoi perepisi naseleniia 2010 goda. Natsional’nyi sostav naseleniia po sub”ektam RF, http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/per-itog/tab7.

10. Doklad, podgotovlen po itogam, http://undocs.org/ru/E/C.19/2018/7.

11. “Ostavit’ sviashchennoe ozero bez khranitelia? V Iugre razgoraetsia skandal vokrug kul’tuvogo mesta aborigenov,” URAnews, June 17, 2015, https://ura.news/news/1052211947; “Odin na ozere nefti,” Radio Svoboda, August 21, 2015, https://www.svoboda.org/a/27199956.html; A. Stepygin, “OON vmeshalsia v spor aborigenov Iugry s «Surgutneftegazom»,” URAnews, 2015, October 6, https://ura.news/articles/1036272526; “Delo Kechimova blizitsia k razviazke,” Surgutfilm., December 9, 2016, http://surgutfilm.ru/delo_kechimova; “Iugorskomu shaman Kechimovu vynesli prigovor,” Natsional’nyi aktsent, February 3, 2017, http://nazaccent.ru/content/23073-yugorskomu-shamanu-kechimovu-vynesli-prigovor.html.

12. Julia Yakel’, “Bez viny vinovatye. Traditsii i zakon – dve grani zhizni korennykh malochislennykh narodov,” February 2, 2018, http://raipon.info/info/news/3018/.

a. For background on the relatively supportive Sakha Republic legal provisions, see especially A. N. Sleptsov, “Pravovye osnovy etnologicheskoi ekspertizy” Etnografichekoi Obozrenie no. 6, 2018, pp. 92-96; and M.M. Balzer, “Indigeneity, Land and Activism in Siberia,” Land, Indigenous Peoples & Conflict, ed. Alan Tidwell, 9–27 (New York: Routledge, 2017).

b. On the Khanty and the group Spasenie Yugry [Salvation for Yugra], see Andrew Wiget and Olga Balalaeva, Khanty: People of the Taiga (Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press, 2011); and Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, The Tenacity of Ethnicity: A Siberian Saga in Global Perspective (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).

c. Julia Yakel’ is a well-respected Indigenous lawyer. Compare her chapter in N. I. Novikova and D. Funk, eds., Sever i Severiane: Sovremennoe polozhenie Korennykh malochisklennykh Narodov Severa, Sibiri i Dal’nego Vostoka (Moscow: Akademii Nauka, 2012), pp. 8-21 and her “Bez viny vinovatye. Traditsii i zakon – dve grani zhizni korennykh malochislennykh narodov,” February 2, 2018, http://raipon.info/info/news/3018/. On legal issues, energy companies and Indigenous groups, see especially Natalia Novikova, Okhotniki i Neftianiki (Moscow: Nauka, 2014).