Magadan Oblast
Magadan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia in the Far Eastern Federal District. It borders Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in the north, Kamchatka Krai in the east, Khabarovsk Krai in the south and its administrative center is the city of Magadan. Its population is 156,996 making it the least populated Oblast in Russia, Magadan Oblast was established on December 3,1953 in what had popularly been known as Kolyma. Upon Stalins death, Dalstroy was disbanded and the administration took over many of its former responsibilities. From on, paid labor replaced most of the manpower, attracted by the regions rapid economic expansion. As a result, many of those who can no longer rely on sources of income are now unemployed. Chukotka Autonomous Okrug was formerly administratively subordinated to Magadan Oblast, Magadan Oblast consists principally of mountainous desert and taiga. The southern part of the region is forested with birch, mountain ash, larch. The animal species in the south include snow sheep, moose, there are many varieties of birds, including ducks and seabirds.
The Sea of Okhotsk has rich fishing grounds for pollock, cod and salmon, as well as crabs, the economy is centered on mining interests for gold and other non-ferrous metals. The city of Magadan is the large industrial center. Agriculture is not well developed in the region, on April 2014 the Russian government has endorsed bills for extending the operations of the Special Economic Zone in Magadan Oblast through to December 31,2025. Magadan Oblast is considered one of the worlds richest mining areas, gold is the regions main resource, although silver and tin deposits are being developed. There are nearly 2,000 placer gold deposits,100 gold ore deposits, there has been interest in exploiting the coal resources in the region. Over the medium term, there seem to be excellent opportunities for petroleum, the fishing industry is the regions only food sector and is second in importance after mining. The 600,000 square kilometers area of the Sea of Okhotsk that borders on Magadan Oblast is one of the most productive regions of the worlds oceans, Magadan Oblast has more than 15,900 kilometers of coastline and 29,016 kilometers of rivers of commercial importance.
The catching vessels of the fishing companies operate mainly in Russias economic zone, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. Most of the catch comes from coastal waters, fishing industry companies are concentrated in Magadan, Ola and Evensk
Kamchatka Peninsula
The Kamchatka Peninsula is a 1, 250-kilometre-long peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about 270,000 km2. It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west, immediately offshore along the Pacific coast of the peninsula runs the 10, 500-metre deep Kuril–Kamchatka Trench. The Kamchatka Peninsula, the Commander Islands, and Karaginsky Island constitute the Kamchatka Krai of the Russian Federation, the vast majority of the 322,079 inhabitants are ethnic Russians, but there are about 13,000 Koryaks. More than half of the lives in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and nearby Yelizovo. The Kamchatka peninsula contains the volcanoes of Kamchatka, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kamchatka receives up to 2,700 mm of precipitation per year. The summers are cool, and the winters tend to be rather stormy though rarely producing lightning. Politically, the forms part of Kamchatka Krai. The southern tip is called Cape Lopatka, the circular bay to the north of this on the Pacific side is Avacha Bay with the capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
North up the Pacific side, the four peninsulas are called Shipunsky Point, Kronotsky Point, Kamchatsky Point, North of Ozernoy is the large Karaginsky Bay, which features Karaginsky Island. Northeast of this lies Korfa Bay with the town of Tilichiki, on the opposite side is the Shelikhov Gulf. The Kamchatka or Central Range forms the spine of the peninsula, along the southeast coast runs the Vostochny or Eastern Range. Between these lies the central valley, the Kamchatka River rises northwest of Avacha and flows north down the central valley, turning east near Klyuchi to enter the Pacific south of Kamchatsky Point at Ust-Kamchatsk. In the nineteenth century a trail led west from near Klychi over the mountains to the Tegil river, North of Tegil is Koryak Okrug. South of the Tegil is the Icha River, just south of the headwaters of the Kamchatka, the Bistraya River curves southwest to enter the Sea of Okhotsk at Bolsheretsk, which once served as a port connecting the peninsula to Okhotsk. South of the Bistraya flows the Golygina River, another highway connects local capital with Bolsheretsk.
Bus service is available on both roads, most other roads are gravel-covered or coverless ground, requiring off-road capable vehicles. There is semi-regular passenger transportation with aircraft, the obvious circular area in the central valley is the Klyuchevskaya Sopka, an isolated volcanic group southeast of the curve of the Kamchatka River. West of Kronotsky Point is the Kronotsky Biosphere Reserve with the Valley of Geysers, at the southern tip is the Southern Kamchatka Wildlife Refuge with Kurile Lake
Chukchi Sea
Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, the Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The principal port on the Chukchi Sea is Uelen in Russia, the International Date Line crosses the Chukchi Sea from northwest to southeast. It is displaced eastwards to avoid Wrangel Island as well as the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on the Russian mainland, the sea has an approximate area of 595,000 km2 and is only navigable about four months of the year. The main geological feature of the Chukchi Sea bottom is the 700-kilometre-long Hope Basin, depths less than 50 meters occupy 56% of the total area. The Chukchi Sea has very few compared to other seas of the Arctic. Wrangel Island lies at the limit of the sea, Herald Island is located near its northern limit. The sea is named after the Chukchi people, who reside on its shores, the coastal Chukchi traditionally engaged in fishing and the hunting of walrus in this cold sea.
In Alaska, the rivers flowing into the Chukchi Sea are the Kivalina, the Kobuk, the Kokolik, the Kukpowruk, the Kukpuk, the Noatak, the Utukok, the Pitmegea, and the Wulik, among others. Of rivers flowing in from its Siberian side, the Amguyema, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Chuckchi Sea as follows, On the West. The Eastern limit of East Siberian Sea, a line from Point Barrow, Alaska to the Northernmost point of Wrangel Island. The Arctic Circle between Siberia and Alaska, common usage is that the southern extent is further south at the narrowest part of the Bering Strait which is on the 66th parallel north. The Chukchi Sea Shelf is the westernmost part of the shelf of the United States. Within this shelf, the 50-mile Chukchi Corridor acts as a passageway for one of the largest marine mammal migrations in the world, in 1728, Vitus Bering and in 1779, Captain James Cook entered the sea from the Pacific. Since further progress for that year was impossible, the ship was secured in winter quarters, even so, members of the expedition and the crew were aware only a few miles of ice-blocked sea lay between them and the open waters.
The following year, two days after Vega was released, she passed the Bering Strait and steamed towards the Pacific Ocean. In 1913, abandoned by expedition leader Vilhjalmur Stefansson, drifted in the ice along the northern expanses of the Chukchi Sea and sank, the survivors made it to Wrangel Island, where they found themselves in a hopeless situation. Then Captain Robert Bartlett walked hundreds of kilometers with Kataktovik, an Inuit man and they reached Cape Vankarem on the Chukotka coast, on April 15,1914
Yaranga
A Yaranga is a tent-like traditional mobile home of some nomadic Northern indigenous peoples of Russia, such as Chukchi and Siberian Yupik. A Yaranga is a cone-shaped or rounded reindeer-hide tent and it is built of a light wooden frame covered with reindeer skins or canvas sewn together. The word yaranga comes from the Chukchi word for house, jaraŋə, in Russian use, the terms chum and yaranga may be used interchangeably. It is built of a wooden frame covered with reindeer skins sewn together. A medium-size yaranga requires about 50 skins, a large yaranga is hard to heat completely up. There is a cabin called a polog built inside it. The most numerous of the Siberian Yupik peoples, the Chaplino Eskimos had a round, literature refers to it as a yaranga, the same term which the Chukchi people use, but the term used in the Chaplino Eskimos language is mengteghaq. Its framework was made of posts, tarpaulins were used for covering the framework. The yaranga was surrounded by sod or planking around the base, there was a smaller cabin within the yaranga at the rear, used for sleeping and living.
It was separated from the outer, cooler parts of the yaranga with haired reindeer skins and grass, in the language of Chaplino Eskimos, it was called, a word borrowed from the Chukchi language. Household duties were done in the outer room of the yaranga in front of this inner building. In winter storms, and at night, the dogs were there and this room for economical purposes was called. There were types of buildings among Chaplino Eskimos, was a modernized type. Материалы по языку и фольклору эскимосов, Москва • Ленинград, Академия Наук СССР. The transliteration of authors name, and the rendering of title in English, materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes, Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect. Moscow • Leningrad, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, rendering in English, Ungazik settlement, Russian Academy of Sciences. Old photos about former life of a Siberian Yupik settlement, including those of a various house types, photographic collection of A. S. Forshtein in the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to proselytize and/or perform ministries of service, such as education, social justice, health care, and economic development. The word mission originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin missionem, meaning act of sending or mittere, meaning to send. The word was used in light of its usage, in the Latin translation of the Bible. The term is most commonly used for Christian missions, but can be used for any creed or ideology, a Christian missionary can be defined as one who is to witness across cultures. The Lausanne Congress of 1974, defined the term, related to Christian mission as, Missionaries can be found in many countries around the world. Jesus instructed the apostles to make disciples of all nations and this verse is referred to by Christian missionaries as the Great Commission and inspires missionary work. The New Testament-era missionary outreach of the Christian church from the time of St Paul expanded throughout the Roman Empire and beyond to Persia, in 596, Pope Gregory the Great sent the Gregorian Mission into England.
In their turn, Christians from Ireland and from Britain became prominent in converting the inhabitants of central Europe, about the same time, missionaries such as Francis Xavier as well as other Jesuits, Augustinians and Dominicans started moving into Asia and the Far East. The Portuguese sent missions into Africa and these are some of the most well-known missions in history. While some missions accompanied imperialism and oppression, others were relatively peaceful, contemporary Christian missionaries argue that working for justice forms a constitutive part of preaching the Gospel, and observe the principles of inculturation in their missionary work. Over time, the Vatican gradually established a church structure in the mission areas, often starting with special jurisdictions known as apostolic prefectures. The two 9th-century saints Cyril and Methodius had extensive success in central Europe. The Byzantines expanded their work in Ukraine after a mass baptism in Kiev in 988. The Serbian Orthodox Church had its origins in the conversion by Byzantine missionaries of the Serb tribes when they arrived in the Balkans in the 7th century, Orthodox missionaries worked successfully among the Estonians from the 10th to the 12th centuries, founding the Estonian Orthodox Church.
The Russian St. Nicholas of Japan took Eastern Orthodoxy to Japan in the 19th century, the Russian Orthodox Church sent missionaries to Alaska beginning in the 18th century, including Saint Herman of Alaska, to minister to the Native Americans. Quaker publishers of truth visited Boston and other mid-17th century colonies, the Danish government began the first organized Protestant mission work through its College of Missions, established in 1714. This funded and directed Lutheran missionaries such as Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg in Tranquebar, India and he got to know a slave from the Danish colony in the West Indies. Within thirty years, Moravian missionaries had become active on every continent, and they are famous for their selfless work, living as slaves among the slaves and together with the Native Americans, the Delaware and Cherokee Indian tribes
Sea of Okhotsk
The northeast corner is the Shelikhov Gulf. The sea is named after Okhotsk, the first Russian settlement in the Far East, the Sea of Okhotsk covers an area of 1,583,000 square kilometres, with a mean depth of 859 metres and a maximum depth of 3,372 metres. It is connected to the Sea of Japan on either side of Sakhalin, on the west through the Sakhalin Gulf, the distribution and thickness of ice floes depends on many factors, the location, the time of year, water currents, and the sea temperatures. With the exception of Hokkaido, one of the Japanese home islands, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Sea of Okhotsk as follows, On the Southwest. The Northeastern and Northern limits on the Japan Sea, some of the Sea of Okhotsks islands are quite large, including Japans second largest island, Hokkaido, as well as Russias largest island, Sakhalin. Practically all of the islands are either in coastal waters or belong to the various islands making up the Kuril Islands chain.
These fall either under undisputed Japanese or Russian ownership or disputed ownership between Japan and Russia, iony Island is the only island located in open waters and belongs to the Khabarovsk Krai of the Russian Federation. The majority of the islands are uninhabited making them ideal breeding grounds for seals, sea lions, seabirds. Large colonies, with over an individuals, of crested auklets use the Sea of Okhotsk as a nesting site. The Okhotsk culture is a coastal fishing and hunter-gatherer culture of the lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk. Some believe that Mishihase was living in the area, Russian explorers Ivan Moskvitin and Vassili Poyarkov were the first Europeans to visit the Sea of Okhotsk in the 1640s. The first and foremost Russian settlement on the shore was the port of Okhotsk, the Russian-American Company all but monopolized the commercial navigation of the sea in the first half of the 19th century. The Second Kamchatka Expedition under Vitus Bering systematically mapped the entire coast of the sea, jean-François de La Pérouse and William Robert Broughton were the first non-Russian European navigators known to have passed through these waters other than Maarten Gerritsz Vries.
Ivan Krusenstern explored the eastern coast of Sakhalin in 1805, mamiya Rinzō and Gennady Nevelskoy determined that the Sakhalin was indeed an island separated from the mainland by a narrow strait. The first detailed summary of the hydrology of the Okhotsk sea was prepared and published by Stepan Makarov in 1894, American and French whaleships, as well as a few German and British, hunted whales in the Sea of Okhotsk between 1845 and 1907. They primarily caught right whales and bowhead whales, the former in the half of the sea. Bowheads were first caught in 1847, and dominated the catch between 1849 and the late 1860s, beginning in the mid-1850s they caught the occasional gray whale, and made attempts to catch humpback, fin and killer whales as well but were rarely successful. Beluga whales were taken opportunistically, from 1854 to 1856, an average of nearly 150 vessels cruised in the sea each year
Tundra
In physical geography, tundra is a type of biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr uplands, there are three types of tundra, Arctic tundra, alpine tundra, and Antarctic tundra. In tundra, the vegetation is composed of shrubs and grasses, mosses. Scattered trees grow in tundra regions. The ecotone between the tundra and the forest is known as the line or timberline. Arctic tundra occurs in the far Northern Hemisphere, north of the taiga belt, the word tundra usually refers only to the areas where the subsoil is permafrost, or permanently frozen soil. Permafrost tundra includes vast areas of northern Russia and Canada, the polar tundra is home to several peoples who are mostly nomadic reindeer herders, such as the Nganasan and Nenets in the permafrost area. Arctic tundra contains areas of landscape and is frozen for much of the year. The soil there is frozen from 25–90 cm down, and it is impossible for trees to grow, instead and sometimes rocky land can only support low growing plants such as moss and lichen.
There are two seasons and summer, in the polar tundra areas. During the winter it is cold and dark, with the average temperature around −28 °C. However, extreme temperatures on the tundra do not drop as low as those experienced in taiga areas further south. During the summer, temperatures rise somewhat, and the top layer of seasonally-frozen soil melts, the tundra is covered in marshes, lakes and streams during the warm months. Generally daytime temperatures during the rise to about 12 °C. Arctic tundras are sometimes the subject of conservation programs. In Canada and Russia, many of areas are protected through a national Biodiversity Action Plan. Tundra tends to be windy, with winds often blowing upwards of 50–100 km/h, however, in terms of precipitation, it is desert-like, with only about 15–25 cm falling per year. Although precipitation is light, evaporation is relatively minimal, there is a natural pattern of accumulation of fuel and wildfire which varies depending on the nature of vegetation and terrain
Walrus ivory
Walrus tusk ivory comes from two modified upper canines. It is known as morse, the tusks of a Pacific walrus may attain a length of one meter. Walrus teeth are carved and traded. The average walrus tooth has a rounded, irregular peg shape and is approximately 5 cm in length, the tip of a walrus tusk has an enamel coating which is worn away during the animals youth. Fine longitudinal cracks, which appear as radial cracks in cross-section, originate in the cementum and these cracks can be seen throughout the length of the tusk. Whole cross-sections of walrus tusks are generally oval with widely spaced indentations, the dentine is composed of two types, primary dentine and secondary dentine. Primary dentine has a classical ivory appearance, secondary dentine looks marble or oatmeal-like. The Chukchi and Bering Sea Yupik in particular continue to produce ivory, the folk art of walrus ivory carving has been popular in European Russia since the Middle Ages, with notable schools of walrus ivory carving in Kholmogory and Tobolsk.
During Soviet times, several walrus carving collectives were established in villages in Chukotka, International trade is, somewhat restricted by the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species. King Alfred the Great of Wessex records that he was presented with walrus tusks by the Viking trader Ohthere of Hålogaland in about 890, nearly all ivories in Anglo-Saxon art use walrus, and most northern European ivories of the 11th and 12th centuries. Initially large walrus herds were found further south than is the case today. Around 1160 northern European ivory carving was reduced, which may well be because the material was less easily available. Around 1260, at the start of the Gothic period, elephant ivory began to reach Europe again, the Norse carved items in walrus ivory, notably the Lewis chessmen. Ivory trade Scrimshaw Webster, Anglo-Saxon Art,2012, British Museum Press, ISBN9780714128092 Williamson, an Introduction to Medieval Ivory Carvings,1982, HMSO for V&A Museum, ISBN0112903770 Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Sakha Republic
The Sakha Republic is a federal subject of Russia. It has a population of 958,528, consisting mainly of ethnic Yakuts and it is larger than Argentina and just smaller than India which covers an area of 3,287,590 square kilometers. Its capital is the city of Yakutsk, the Sakha Republic is one of the ten autonomous Turkic Republics within the Russian Federation. The hypercontinental tendencies result in warm summers for much of the republic. Borders, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Magadan Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Amur Oblast, Zabaykalsky Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai. water, Arctic Ocean. These waters, the coldest and iciest of all seas in the Northern Hemisphere, are covered by ice for 9–10 months of the year, new Siberian Islands are a part of the republics territory. Sakha can be divided into three great vegetation belts, about 40% of Sakha lies above the Arctic circle and all of it is covered by permafrost which greatly influences the regions ecology and limits forests in the southern region.
Arctic and subarctic tundra define the region, where lichen. In the southern part of the belt, scattered stands of dwarf Siberian pine. Below the tundra is the vast taiga forest region, larch trees dominate in the north and stands of fir and pine begin to appear in the south. Taiga forests cover about 47% of Sakha and almost 90% of the cover is larch, Sakha spans three time zones, Yakutsk Time Zone. Covers the republics territory to the west of the Lena River as well as the territories of the located on the both sides of the Lena River. Covers most of the territory located between 127°E and 140°E longitude. Covers most of the territory located east of 140°E longitude. Districts, Allaikhovsky, Nizhnekolymsky, Verkhnekolymsky, the Chersky Range runs east of the Verkhoyansk Range and has the highest peak in Sakha, Peak Pobeda. The second highest peak is Peak Mus-Khaya reaching 3,011 m, the Stanovoi Range borders Sakha in the south. Sakha is well endowed with raw materials, the soil contains large reserves of oil, coal, gold, tin and many others.
Sakha produces 99% of all Russian diamonds and over 25% of the diamonds mined in the world, Sakha is known for its climate extremes, with the Verkhoyansk Range being the coldest area in the Northern Hemisphere
Siberian Yupik
Siberian Yupiks, or Yuits, are a Yupik Eskimo people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far northeast of the Russian Federation and on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska. They speak Central Siberian Yupik, a Yupik language of the Eskimo–Aleut family of languages and they are known as Siberian or Asian Eskimo. The name Yuit was officially assigned to them in 1931, at the time of the campaign of support of indigenous cultures in the Soviet Union. Their self-designation is Yupighyt meaning true people and these even include some moving sculptures with complicated pulleys animating scenes such as walrus hunting or traditional dances. The winter building of Chaplino Eskimos was a round, dome-shaped building and it is called yaranga in the literature, the same word referring to the similar building of the Chukchi. In the language of Chaplino Eskimos, its name was /məŋtˈtəʁaq/, there was a smaller cabin inside it at its back part, the /aːɣra/, used for sleeping and living. It was separated from the outer, cooler parts of the yaranga with haired reindeer skins and grass, but the household works were done in the room of the yaranga in front of this inner building, and many household utensils were kept there.
In winter storms, and at night the dogs were there and this room for economical purposes was called /naˈtək/. There were types of buildings among Chaplino Eskimos, /aːwχtaq/ was a modernized type. Many Eskimo cultures had persons working as mediator — usually termed as shamans in the literature, as Eskimo cultures were far from homogenous, thus shamanism among Eskimo peoples had many variants. Siberian Yupiks had shamans as well, compared to the variants found among Eskimo groups of America, shamanism among Siberian Yupiks stressed more the importance of maintaining good relationship with sea animals. Ungazighmiit people had /aˈliɣnalʁi/s, who received presents for the shamanizing and this payment had a special name, /aˈkiliːɕaq/ — in their language, there were many words for the different kinds of presents and payments and this was one of them. Similarly to several other Eskimo cultures, the name-giving of a newborn baby among Siberian Yupik meant that a person was affected. Even before the birth of the baby, careful investigations took place, after the birth, the babys physical traits were compared to those of the deceased person.
The name was important, if the baby died, it was thought that he/she has not given the right name, in case of sickness, it was hoped that giving additional names could result in healing. Amulets could be manifested in forms, and could protect the person wearing them or the entire family. About the effige of orca on the tools of the marine hunter, the orca, raven, whale, were revered animals. For example, a spider saves the life of a girl, the motif of spider as a benevolent personage, saving people from peril with its cobweb, lifting them up to the sky in danger, is present in many tales of Sireniki Eskimos
Chukchi Peninsula
The Chukchi Peninsula, Chukotka Peninsula, or Chukotski Peninsula, at about 66° N 172° W, is the eastmost peninsula of Asia. Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village of Uelen and it is bordered by the Chukchi Sea to the north, the Bering Sea to the south, and the Bering Strait to the east. The peninsula is part of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia, the peninsula is traditionally the home of indigenous peoples of Siberia as well as some Russian settlers. The peninsula lies along the Northern Sea Route, or Northeast passage. It was said to be the location of the prison camp/lead mine where Cornelius Rost claimed to have been imprisoned, as described in the book As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me, the existence of such a camp at that time has been refuted. Industries on the peninsula are mining and trapping, reindeer raising, aĭnana, L. and Richard L. Bland. Umiak the traditional boat of the coast dwellers of the Chukchi Peninsula, compiled in the communities of Provideniya and Sireniki, Chukotka Autonomous Region.
Anchorage, U. S. Dept. of the Interior, secular dynamics of coastal zone ecosystems of the northeastern Chukchi Peninsula Chukotka, cultural layers and natural depositions from the last millennia. Asia at the Juncture with America in Antiquity The Stone Age of the Chukchi Peninsula, Ian, Travels in Siberia, Farrar and Giroux,2010. Portenko, L. A. and Douglas Siegel-Causey, birds of the Chukchi Peninsula and Wrangel Island = Ptitsy Chukotskogo Poluostrova I Ostrova Vrangelya. New Delhi, Published for the Smithsonian Institution and the National Science Foundation, Washington, D. C. by Amerind,1981
Koryaks
Koryaks are an indigenous people of the Russian Far East, who live immediately north of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Kamchatka Krai and inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea. The cultural borders of the Koryaks include Tigilsk in the south, the Koryaks are culturally similar to the Chukchis of extreme north-east Siberia. Both peoples refer to themselves by the endonym Luorawetlan, meaning the real people, the Koryak language and Alutor, are linguistically close to the Chukchi language. All of these languages are members of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family and they are more distantly related to the Itelmens on the Kamchatka Peninsula. All of these peoples and other, unrelated minorities in and around Kamchatka are known collectively as Kamchadals, neighbors of the Koryaks include the Evens to the west, the Alutor to the south, the Kerek to the east, and the Chukchi to the northeast. The Koryak are typically split into two groups, the coastal people Nemelan meaning village dwellers, due to their living in villages and their lifestyle is based on local fishing and marine mammal hunting.
The inland Koryak, reindeer herders, are called Chaucu, meaning rich in reindeer and they are more nomadic, following the herds as they graze with the seasons. According to the 2010 census, there were 7,953 Koryaks in Russia, the name Koryak was from the exonym word Korak, meaning with the reindeer in a nearby group Chukotko-Kamchatkan language. The earliest references to the name Koryak were recorded in the writings of the Russian cossack Vladimir Atlasov, the variant name was adopted by Russia in official state documents, hence popularizing it ever since. The origin of the Koryak is unknown, anthropologists have speculated that a land bridge connected the Eurasian and North American continent during Late Pleistocene. It is possible that migratory peoples crossed the modern-day Koryak land en route to North America, scientists have suggested that people traveled back and forth between this area and Haida Gwaii before the ice age receded. They theorize that the ancestors of the Koryak had returned to Siberian Asia from North America during this time and some linguistic similarity exist between the Nivkh and the Koryak.
The Koryak once occupied a larger area of the Russian Far East. Their overlapping borders extended to the Nivkh areas in Khabarovsk Krai until the Evens arrived, a smallpox epidemic in 1769-1770 and warfare with Russian Cossacks reduced the Koryak population from 10-11,000 in 1700 to 4,800 in 1800. Under the Soviet Union, a Koryak Autonomous Okrug was formed in 1931, based on the local referendum in 2005, this was merged with Kamchatka Krai effective July 1,2007. Families usually gathered into groups of six or seven, forming bands, the nominal chief had no predominating authority, and the groups relied on consensus to make decisions, resembling common small group egalitarianism. The lives of the people in the interior revolved around reindeer and they used all the parts of its body to make sewing materials and clothing and weapons. The meat was eaten roasted and the blood, marrow
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 323.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). 
