ANSIPRA BULLETIN
Arctic Network for the Support of the Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Arctic 
Сеть Арктических Организаций в Поддержку Коренных Народов Российского Севера

No. 14 and 14a, December 2005 - English Language Edition

ANSIPRA is a communication network linking Russian Indigenous Peoples' Organisations with international institutions and organisations alarmed about the future of the indigenous peoples of the Russian North. 
ANSIPRA's main goal is to spread information, to mediate contacts, and to assist in project coordination.

 

CONTENTS OF THIS EDITION:

They are like relatives …   A. Gurkova	3
“Go, tell it on the mountain …”   W.K. Dallmann	4

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND GEORESOURCES:
One step forward, two steps backward: the continuing story about Sakhalin   O. Murashko, E. Krikunenko	5
New Forest Code in Russia: Needs of indigenous peoples are being ignored   Y. Bangert, S. Reinke	6
Reindeer breeder to pay fine for cutting down 19 trees   RAIPON	7

POLITICAL AGENDA:
Joint session of Coordinating and Advisory councils in Dudinka: Reorganisation of RAIPON structure   RAIPON	8
Yakutia opposes the federal law bill “On geological resources”   Information agency Regnum	9
Every river in Koryakia will have its owner   Information agency Kamvesti	9
Tomsk: Struggle for rivers ended with indigenous victory   P. Shulbaeva, I. Shafrannik	10

CULTURE:
From producers to consumers: Cultural workers from Siberia come to Canada   Inuit Art Quarterly	11

NOTES	
LA Deputies of Irkutsk Region to approve indigenous peoples’ development programme	13
Representative of RAIPON in Public Chamber	14
Taiga Rescue Network: Youth camp in Scandinavia	14
Reindeer breeders in Chukotka conclude autumn round-up	14
Taymyr expects reindeer population increase	14
Snowchange: International project proceeds in Yakutia	15
ICARP II – Second International Conference on Arctic Research Planning	15
IPY – International Polar Year 2007-08	15

NEW LITERATURE	16

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT	17

Bulletin 14A: English translations of selected articles from “Мир коренных народов - живая арктика” 
(Indigenous Peoples’ World - Living Arctic) No. 16 and 17, 2005:

Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation established   M. Fradkov	18
Public of Buryat Republic opposes oil pipeline close to Baikal Lake   Information Agency“REGNUM”	19
The Great Odul on the destiny of his native people   S. Gorokhov	20
Legislative regulation on Yamal’s natural resources (condensed)   S. Kharyuchi	21 
The federal fishery law to take RAIPON proposals into account   D. Berezhkov	22 
There are achievements, but tundra people still face challenges   Kh. Ezynghi	23
40 years on the air   T. Gostyukhina	26
Shemanovskiy Yamalo-Nenets Okrug Museum and Exhibition Complex   Т. Zvereva and М. Kuzsmenkova	27

They are like relatives …

There is not such a big difference between Sweden and Kamchatka. Sure, people speak different languages. People are nice, like we natives. But they have their own rules here. In our country there are rules, too, but they are very strict, and most people don’t follow them. – What else? Some people here don’t eat meat, they are called "vegetarians", but there are also those who eat meat. Do you know that they prefer a bicycle as the basic means of transport, although they also use cars?

But I love my Kamchatka. You should see it to understand the beauty of our land! Especially in the remote corners. In Kamchatka, like in Sweden, there are many rivers and lakes. Sweden is a beautiful and kind country; the Arctic Circle runs through it! People have understood that trees are the source of pure air. And also they have understood that it is very dangerous when they pollute air and water. This means that if you do not protect them, poor health results. Cutting down trees is also very bad, as I understood when we had the meeting in Årrenjarka (see www.taigarescue.org/camp). A lot of people went there who were against other people who cut down trees.

They also climbed on trees and hung up posters between them. I don’t remember what was written there, but it helps to protect trees. A tree is food for animals –this I definitely know. And if you pollute trees, air and especially water, you cannot live, because we eat fish, but the fish cannot live in bad water. It means that we will die.

I also like the dogs here in Sweden. We have friends here who have dogs, and we take care of them. They love me, they jump up and kiss me. 

So, I love Sweden, but Kamchatka is better. Come to us to Kamchatka! 

Anna Gurkova
11-year old girl from Kamchatka at a Taiga Rescue Network youth camp in Årrenjarka, Jokkmokk, Sweden

ANSIPRA BULLETIN

ANSIPRA Bulletin is an information publication of the “Arctic Network for the Support of the Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Arctic”. The Bulletin is issued twice a year. Additional issues are produced as new information warrants it. The Bulletin is edited in English and Russian. ANSIPRA Bulletin is distributed – by internet or hard copy – to all registered network participants, as well as relevant state agencies and funding institutions. Distribution is free. All written contributions are appreciated. 
ANSIPRA Bulletin is politically independent. A special part of the English language edition, however, presents translations of articles from the newsletter “Мир коренных народов – живая арктика” (Indigenous Peoples’ World – Living Arctic), the official periodical of RAIPON (Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation), selected in cooperation with RAIPON.

Contact us:

Secretariat:	
Norwegian Polar Institute
Polar Environmental Centre
N-9296 Tromsø, Norway
Phone: +47 - 77 75 05 00
Fax: +47 - 77 75 05 01 
E-mail: ANSIPRA@npolar.no
Internet: http://npolar.no/ansipra/ 

Members of the Secretariat:
Winfried Dallmann
Coordinator and editor
E-mail: dallmann@npolar.no
Phone: (+47)-77750648 / 77750500
Fax: (+47)-77750501	
Galina Diachkova
Assistant coordinator and editor 
E-mail: galinadiatchkova@hotmail.com
Elena Krikunenko
Assistant coordinator
E-mail: regions_ritc@km.ru
Helle Goldman
Assistant editor 
E-mail: goldman@npolar.no
Phone: (+47)-77750618 / 77750500
Fax: (+47)-77750501

“Go, tell it on the mountain …”

Winfried K. Dallmann, ANSIPRA Secretariat

This is not written for readers of ANSIPRA Bulletin. It would be like preaching to the choir. We believe our readers already know what follows here. But there are people all over the world who don’t know, don’t want to know, don’t care. Many have made up their imaginary world without being aware of all the calculated influences that were imposed on them by somebody who wanted them to think according to certain patterns. It’s called propaganda. It is used by governments, companies, interest groups, schools, and also by you and me. It is about influencing other people’s minds so they think like we want them to think. 
Propaganda is also used against indigenous peoples. Not only in totalitarian states – even apparently democratic countries can turn public opinion against the support of indigenous peoples. There is this policy of offering people choices, today used especially by right-wing governments. There are, for instance, choices between public social services and private ones, between success and defeat, between truth and lies. A splendid and – seen from the outside – obvious example is present-day Australia under the Howard administration. Lies about the history of colonisation, about the aboriginal cultures, about the causes of the Aborigenes’ miserable situation are officially circulated in the country, as a choice alternative to the truth. Many Australians choose the version that makes them feel most comfortable. The most comfortable version for many white people is naturally that white people must stay in charge of all development in the country. Part of the Australian state policy is to use the high crime rate among indigenous groups as an argument against their self-determination, instead of blaming the state and its treatment of the Aborigines as the cause of the crisis. Things like this keep the Aborigines within a vicious circle. 
Propaganda can be used in a consistent way and determine the all-over state policy, like in Australia. It can also be used occasionally or temporarily to achieve certain goals. It can be used by powerful industrial companies, by local administrative leaders, by anybody who holds a key position in society. Examples from Russia are obvious and can be read in most issues of ANSIPRA Bulletin or in other periodicals. 
A lot of words have been used in books and articles to explain why some governments and companies want to hold public opinion against the development of indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples demand rights to land and water, compete with “modern” industry over rights to resource use. They demand public support and compensation for suffered losses from alienation of their traditional areas, their languange and other cultural values. They stand in the way for the sort of economic development that is preferred by mainstream society. Mainstream society mostly lacks the understanding of indigenous cultures, and so do government officials and business executives. There is ignorance and mistrust. A public opinion supporting indigenous peoples’ demands is regarded as harmful to economic development. 
Today people are afraid of terrorism. Terrorism is a real danger imposed from the outside, unpredictable, hitting not selectively, but everybody. Fear of terrorism is real, but it also can be used by governments against anything that appears inconvenient. It is not difficult to turn public opinion against dissatisfied, protesting minority groups, simply by blaming them for allegedly having connections to some terrorist group. This is particularly effective in countries that have been the target of real terrorism because people are more afraid there. Some obscure forces in the US convinced their people – and even their government – about the necessity of attacking Iraq by using the fear of terrorism and they lied to prove it, consequently rendering Iraq one of today’s worst arenas for real terrorism. Fear of conspiracy with an enemy has often in history made states oppress minorities. And let’s not get started talking some African, Latin American or Southeast Asian countries … the list is far too long. Accusing oppressed and fundamentally dissatisfied minorities of planning terrorism can eventually drive those people to open their ears for the ideas of real terrorists. And then the state has a legitimate reason to fight them with all means. Be careful! This is not irrelevant to Russia – it is already happening in the Caucasus. In reality, things are much more complex. But it is a cold comfort to know that. 
During the Soviet era, the leadership blamed not terrorism, but asserted that Western capitalist forces stood behind every uprising.
Indigenous peoples in many parts of the world are trying to forge a constructive dialogue with their countries’ governments and mainstream, dominant societies. Some governments and companies are trying, too. Dialogue and openness are important. They produce mutual trust. This is good. It may not lead to quick solutions, but it certainly helps to prepare the road and to keep things from slipping. Russia’s indigenous peoples have chosen this way, with a varying – reluctant, cautious, absent or good – response from federal, regional and local administrations. Hopefully things will never go backwards. It depends on so many factors beyond everybody’s control.
This is really not written to tell something new to our readers. It is written to make you aware of the necessity to tell it to others! Those who believe all the propaganda without being aware of it. Like the old Afro-American gospel says: “Go, tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere …” So, please, it cannot be repeated too often. People forget so quickly.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND GEORESOURCES:

One step forward, two steps backward: 
The continuing story about the situation in Sakhalin

Olga Murashko, RAIPON, and Elena Krikunenko, CSIPN/RITC

The last issue of the ANSIPRA Bulletin chronicled in detail events relating to the Sakhalin 1 and Sakhalin 2 projects taking place during the past 12 months’ on the island of Sakhalin. The indigenous peoples of Sakhalin carried out two protest actions, in spring and in summer this year, one of which they were forced to give up.
	In any case, these actions were really effective for only a short time. In August 2005 Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. proposed to the Regional Council of authorized representatives of indigenous peoples of Sakhalin to establish a joint working group to discuss an “Action plan for the development of the indigenous peoples of Sakhalin” with RAIPON experts. 
	Obviously, this proposition was initiated by a the roundtable discussion on “Indigenous Peoples and Industrial Companies: Experiences and Perspectives” which took place in Vladivostok on 24-25 August, where representatives of the company participated. Eight indigenous representatives, who were members of the Regional Council, participated in the working group. Following a recommendation of the President of the Sakhalin Association of Indigenous Peoples, Aleksey Limanzo, the RAIPON experts Vladimir Bocharnikov and Olga Murashko joined the working group. The pitiful fact is that the joint work with the RAIPON experts has as yet only been an idea. Only on a single occasion has the company sent documents about the preparations of the round table meeting to the experts. Olga Murashko and Vladimir Bocharnikov had informed the company which steps were necessary from their point of view in terms of making a full “Action plan for the development of the indigenous peoples of Sakhalin”. This happened in the end of August. Since then nobody has been in contact with the experts. 
	According to Aleksey Limanzo the following is happening in Sakhalin at the present time:
	Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd., which had taken the initiative for the meeting, has essentially returned to a position like the one they had at the end of the previous year, when the indigenous population started to protest. This is obvious, as the company categorically declines an ethnological expert investigation. And its leadership does not take any steps to obtain information, which would be necessary for a realistic assessment of the impacts of the company’s Sakhalin 2 project on the traditional livelihoods and environment of Sakhalin’s indigenous population. 
	This raises the question: Why was the working group established?
	One has to see the start of the company’s interactions with the indigenous population in July in connection with the denial of a loan by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the realisation of their project in 2006. 
	The unwillingness of the company to further cooperate with the indigenous peoples results, to all appearances, from the diverging positions of the indigenous peoples and the company. On the one side the company is ready to think up an action plan, but it is not considering the input of these peoples, namely, it is not willing to assess the real impact of the project on the indigenous population. This is because the results of an environmental impact assessment would be even more expensive for the company then this action plan they say they are ready to work out.
	At the present time a session of this very working group is being planned. But nobody is expecting real results. No matter which questions the indigenous representatives of the Regional Council would raise, they would not be followed up by action on the part of the company.
	Right now Aleksey Limanzo considers it very important to assess the impact of the project on the fish resources of Sakhalin, and as a part of this, the traditional fisheries. The indigenous population of the entire island is worried about this question and wonder if it would be possible to approach Sakhalin Energy in this matter. 
Aleksey Limanzo describes the relations with the company Exxon Neftegaz Ltd., which is working on the Sakhalin 1 project: After the round table meeting in Vladivostok, representatives of the company declared their willingness to cooperate, but no moves have been made from their side. If the situation continues like this, the indigenous peoples of Sakhalin will find themselves forced to renew their protest actions.
	Thus it turns out that the indigenous peoples of Sakhalin find themselves in the same situation as at the start of their actions a year ago. What will be the next winding of this spiral? It is hoped that it depends not only on the patience of the indigenous peoples, but also on the real and considered steps by the company towards the people – forward, not backward steps.
To be continued …

New Forest Code in Russia: Needs of indigenous peoples are being ignored 

Yvonne Bangert and Sarah Reinke, July 2005
Society of Threatened Peoples, Göttingen/Geneva, www.gfbv.de
Source: http://www.gfbv.de/inhaltsDok.php?id=530

Introduction 
A new forest code is set to reform forest utilisation in Russia. At the centre of this comprehensive package of laws is the privatisation of the forest areas for private use. Up until now the state has been the sole owner of the forest. The forest code continues what the land code of 2001 began: abolishing the established right of the population already settled there to use the land, pastures and now, the forest free of charge for there own use. These areas are being sold or leased. This also applies to anything built in the forest by the indigenous population. This ruthless privatisation is threatening to deprive particularly the indigenous peoples of their livelihood. Often they have no alternative to living in and off the forest. The collapse of the Soviet collective economy cost most of them their jobs. They usually do not have the means to lease land or forest, let alone to buy it. The group of investors, who can afford to bid in a merciless battle for land resources, is small. The majority of those dependent on hunting, gathering wild plants and fishing in order not to starve, are at risk of losing their livelihood. However, instead of addressing the particular needs of Russia’s indigenous peoples and ensuring their survival as well as that of their ancient traditions and economy, Putin’s government’s new law is depriving them of the few rights that Perestroika had granted them. 

Indigenous Peoples in Russia – importance of the forest for traditional way of life 
All laws which were passed in recent years concerning indigenous peoples had one thing in common: regulations on the protection of indigenous peoples are expressed in the subjunctive and have not been implemented so far because they do not include any implementation regulations. The law on “territories for traditional land use”, which is extremely important for the indigenous peoples, is a good example of this: after these types of territories had been formed in some regions, the law was suddenly put on the back burner and the areas were dissolved. 
	Another example is the 400 page law on the amendment of federal legislation of the Russian Federation, which repeals several articles of the protection of indigenous rights. The following articles were repealed from The Indigenous Peoples of the Russian Federation (Guarantees of Rights) Act: article 4 on socioeconomic and cultural development, articles 6 and 7 on protection of original habitat, traditional way of life, economy and handicraft of indigenous minorities, as well as article 13 on the right of co-determination of indigenous peoples in the legislative bodies. The law was signed by President Putin on 22 August 2004. 
	In Siberia, there are around 40 different indigenous peoples – in total 200,000 inhabitants. Only about 10% of them live according to their traditional nomadic way of life, compared to 70% 30 years ago. Many of them are reindeer breeders. Others live from hunting or gathering mushrooms, berries, roots or herbs. Clean rivers and an intact environment are necessary for fishing. Wood is the most important building material and the only heating fuel available. For most indigenous peoples, the forest is also a spiritual place. Without the forest they would not be able to survive as an independent people with their own history, culture and economy. For centuries, they have cared for and protected the forest’s delicate ecosystem. Their knowledge of preserving the forest is of incalculable value. 
	In the last decades, their habitat has been constantly under threat: oil production, the depletion of uranium, diamonds and oil and now the new forest code. The disastrous consequences can be seen today in an average life expectancy which is 20-25 years below that of the rest of the Russian population, as well as problems such as alcohol abuse, crime and being culturally uprooted. 

The New Forest Code 
The aim of the new Forest Code is to put the seemingly endless Russian forests to commercial use and to generate profit from wood as a raw material. 25% of the world’s forest reserves and 70% of all boreal (in other words, Euro-Siberian and North American) forests are in Russia. The boreal forest consists mainly of conifers. Forests cover an area of 882 million hectares, which represents two thirds of Russian territory. Almost 85% of these forest areas lie East of the Ural Mountains. Only two percent of the forest is under conservation. 
	The Ministry for Natural Resources is responsible for forest administration in Russia, as there is no Ministry for the Environment. Russian government politicians want to use the forest commercially to a much larger extent than up until now. Privatisation is seen as the key to success. Wood logging is set to increase drastically. Up until now only 21% of the allowed amount of 550 million cubic metres of wood per year has been cut down, the head of the Federal Agency for Forestry of the Ministry for Natural Resources of the Russian Federation complains. 51.5% of all Russian exports come from this sector. In other words, wood is one of the most important economic factors in Russia. The political decision-makers are aiming to keep the processing of wood within their country. In addition, a large amount of wood is illegally logged. Particularly China’s severe lack of raw materials has in recent years led to wide scale smuggling of wood into China across the 4000 km long Chinese-Russian border. 
	The indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation are concerned that the new law will deny them access to the forest, and consequently deprive them of their livelihood. Most of them are living below the poverty line and are dependent on the forest. Article 27 of the new law addresses the particular situation of Russia’s indigenous peoples. It states that their traditional use of the forest should be ensured. However, this is not a guarantee, as like the previously mentioned law on traditonal land use, this law does not include implementation regulations, thus depriving the indigenous peoples of any means of effectively enforcing their rights. 
	The new forest code was passed by the Duma after the first reading in April 2005, despite the fact that many of its articles contradict current Russian legislation. The final vote will take place on 19 September 2005. 
	The planned usage rights of the forest areas are set to have a term of 10 to 99 years. These rights will be auctioned. The starting price will be according to the state price per cubic metre of wood. The rights will go to the highest bidder. The draft text fails to mention ecological and social responsibility of the new owners of the forest. This means that there is a high risk of nature reserves being exploited commercially. 
	The forest owner or leaseholder has the right to allow or deny access to his part of the forest. The new law significantly extends the right to forest clearing. This makes it possible for oil companies to buy large portions of the forest, to avoid environmental regulations and build pipelines. 
	The new law does not differentiate between different qualities of the forest. 
	Environmentally protected areas; forest areas, the lungs of the large cities which they are in the direct vicinity of; water protection areas etc. do not receive a particular mention or protection. 

Demands 
1. The UN special rapporteur for indigenous peoples should become involved in the discussion on the forest code and present the Russian parliament and government with examples of “best practice”, which demonstrate the indigenous people’s use of the forest. 
2. The current legislation process should be put on hold, in order to allow an independent commission of international experts to analyse the social, economic and cultural consequences of the forest code on the indigenous people’s way of life in the Russian Federation. 
3. A mechanism must be enshrined in the forest code, which takes into consideration the vulnerability of the indigenous peoples’ way of life, and transfers without sale the ownership of forest areas traditionally inhabited by indigenous peoples to the respective indigenous communities.

Editor’s comment:

The present situation concerning the Forest Code 
(Based on information from the bulletin “Право-Природа: российское экологическое законодательство” [Legal Nature: Russian Environmental Legislation], May-August 2005)

According to the bulletin “Legal Nature: Russian Environmental Legislation”, an All-Russian legal campaign was launched under the slogan “Forests of Russia - property of the people!”. Thousands of protests from citizens against the Forest Code were directed to the President of the Russian Federation and other high officials, requiring the reworking of the bill under nation-wide participation of the public. In addition to civil actions, there were also negative reactions from some regional authorities in Russia, research institutes, and a memorandum from 103 deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation in which they claim the bill would be an infringement of the Constitution of the Federation. Further, they predict that the proposed law would lead to national economic losses, an increase of social tensions, and negative environmental consequences.

Reindeer breeder to pay fine for cutting down 19 trees

RAIPON, 20 July 2005

The Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) received a letter from the Bilibino area in Chukotka. Members of the regional association asked for legal consultation concerning an incident in which a retired reindeer breeder, Anatoliy Vladimirovich Rultuvge, was fined. Anatoliy Rultuvge's statement, a few protocols and official decisions were enclosed. From these documents the following picture appears. 
	Anatoliy Rultuvge is a traditional reindeer breeder who has been herding for many years in the tundra of Ilirney. When he aged and became troubled by illnesses, his activity began to decline and he retired. However, it was hard to get used to a life in the settlement. His pension (3000 rubles) did not cover the costs of urban life so he continued to live, as in his former nomadic years, in the tundra, 10 kilometres from the settlement, in a tent by the nearest stream. But, the problem was that this apparently harmless way of life conflicted with the existing legislation. 
	The local forester, Ivan Nikitovich Litvinenko, suddenly appeared at Rultuvge’s tent one day. Although the visitor was Russian, he too had worked during the last years as a reindeer breeder and even a foreman. However, he did not arrive as a fellow herder, but as a strict guard of the law who had found out that Rultuvge had broken the law. 
	Management officials of the Chukotkan Autonomous Okrug were constantly checking the observance of nature protection legislation and confirmed a number of environmental offences committed by Rultuvge. According to the Forest, Land and Water codes Rultuvge's infringements were the arbitrary occupation of a land area, illegal use of lands in a water-security zone which are allocated for recreational hunting, cutting down of trees around the tent for firewood, etc. 
	Rultuvge had, in fact, cut down some trees (forest wardens counted 19 stumps) to build his camp and to make firewood. Winters in the tent are cold, and dry branches quickly burn through and do not keep the heat. Rultuvge also stored some traps and snares – how can one survive in the tundra without such tools? 
	In the end, after checking all relevant protocols and decisions, an administrative punishment was imposed. Rultivge was to pay a fine and give up his “illegal residence”. The trapping tools had been confiscated by the forester during his first visit. 
	The former reindeer breeder Anatoliy Rultuvge was confronted with complicated questions: 
Had he been breaking the law, in fact during his whole life, while carefully living from nature? Are there really no amendments to laws for those who always have lived in the tundra? How to pay the fine? How to live now, away from the tundra and with such a tiny income? Why was he, the single tent inhabitant of the village of Ilirney denied the right to cut trees for firewood, while the villagers with heating were allowed to do it? Why was he a malicious law-breaker who polluted a stream, while others with lorries and bulldozers have already destroyed lots of rivers, lakes and reindeer pastures in Chukotka? Polluted and destroyed so much, that now there is almost no place for the herds to graze. Why do not punish these people, why not force them to restore what they have torn down? 
	To answer these questions is easy if the problem is approached superficially and formally, but very difficult if one is seriously and conscientiously concerned with the destiny of the reindeer breeder Rultuvge and the future of reindeer breeding in Chukotka, and not only Chukotka.
	RAIPON will try to answer the letter from Bilibino with the help of lawyers, but not in the formal way.

Editor’s comment:
 (on materials of the article by V.A.Kryazhkova “Right and Custom in Russian Reality: Problems of Interaction”, Common Law and Pluralism, 1999. Pp. 20-22): 
	Article 69 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation says: " The Russian Federation guarantees the rights of indigenous numerically small peoples according to the conventional principles and norms of international law and international agreements of the Russian Federation”.
	 Thus, the Constitution of the Russian Federation defines indigenous numerically small peoples as the segment of the population leading a traditional way of life, hence, it is necessary to recognize the customs and traditions of these people. In this case Ivan Litvinenko has ignored the features of the way of life of reindeer breeders of Chukotka, in particular Anatoliy Rultuvge’s right to a traditional way of life.

 
___________________________________________________
POLITICAL AGENDA:

Joint session of Coordinating and Advisory councils in Dudinka: Reorganisation of RAIPON structure
RAIPON Information Center

On 28-29 September 2005 members of the Coordinating Council of the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON) and the Advisory Council on Affairs of Indigenous Peoples of the North at the Plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation in the Siberian Federal District (SFO) met in Dudinka, the northernmost city of our country to jointly discuss the problems of the native people of the North. 
	On the first day the visitors to the city were taken on excursions. They visited the Taymyr Centre of National Cultures, the Museum of Local History, the district hospital, and the Dudinka Sea Port, where the leaders of these institutions competently reported in detail about the history of the area, notable local individuals, and perspectives for the region’s development.
	The next day at the Arktika centre a joint session of the Coordinating Council of RAIPON and the Advisory Council took place. The session was attended by Lyubov Burda, assistant to the Plenipotentiary of the President of the Russian Federation in the SFO and chairman of the Advisory Council, Sergey Kharyuchi, president of RAIPON and chairman of parliament of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, and the heads of representative and legislative authorities of the SFO, Federation Council, State Duma of the Russian Federation, Russian federal agencies, and the presidents of regional associations of indigenous peoples that are members of the Coordinating Council of RAIPON.
Discussions during the session concerned the economic and social development of Taymyr’s indigenous peoples, problems of traditional wildlife management, realisation of a youth policy, and immediate priorities for RAIPON’s activities. At a special session of the Coordinating Council the reports of RAIPON’s vice-presidents were presented. 
	Decisions taken by the participants of the joint session will be posted on the Internet. 
	At the session of the Coordinating Council Sergey Kharyuchi reported on the priority activities of RAIPON for the coming four years and how to attack these problems. As he noted, during recent years RAIPON has gained much authority, both within Russia and internationally, and now the basic work should be conducted in the regions where indigenous people live. Therefore, RAIPON’s vice-presidents would be nominated among those who live and work in these regions. Along with this proposition, the following vice-presidents, representing the individual federal districts, were appointed:
1. Far Eastern Federal District: 
Aleksey Limanzo, president of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (AIPON) of the Sakhalin Region
Dmitriy Berezhkov, president of the AIPON of the Kamchatka Region 
Andrey Krivoshapkin, president of the AIPON of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
2. Siberian Federal District: 
Semyon Palchin, first vice-president of parliament of Taymyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Okrug
Irina Shafrannik, president of the AIPON of Tomsk Region
Anna Naykanchina, president of the AIPON of Buryat Republic 
3. Uraianl Federal District: 
Vladimir Kurikov, adviser of chairman of parliament of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug
Maria Klimov, president of AIPON of Purovsk District of Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
4. Northwestern Federal District: 
Vladislav Peskov, president of the AIPON of Nenets Autonomous Okrug
Lyudmila Gashilova, president of the RAIPON branch of St. Petersburg
The first vice-president of RAIPON remains Pavel Sulyandziga. 
The members of the Coordinating Council received the text of RAIPON’s Charter with the latest adjustments and amendments approved at the 5th Congress (Moscow, April 2005), registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The next session of the Coordinating Council is planned to be held in the Purovsk District of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in the spring of 2006.

Yakutia opposes the federal law bill “On geological resources” 

Source: www.regnum.ru/news/524838.html
11 October 2005

The government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) advise the president of Russia to not sign the federal law “On geological resources”. 
	The law was discussed by the government of the Republic. In the opinion of the ministries of Yakutia, ratification of the law in its current form will promote the transition of geological resources into private property. According to the conditions stipulated by the bill, only large commercial companies can obtain mineral exploration and extraction rights. These rights can be subsequently transfered by auction and the assignee will be exempt from the duties of the former owner. Thus, the bill fosters a secondary market for natural resource sites, a market not controlled by the state, but by the resource owners. 
	The Yakutian ministers have also called the pointed out to the Ministry of Natural Resources that the project does not stimulate development of geological prospecting, does not consider regional specificity and the interests of numerically small indigenous peoples, and excludes the federal and regional ownership of geological resources. 
	One of the main defects of the bill is the high potential for corruption. This was noticed not only the Yakutian experts, but also experts of federal organizations, including Russian scientific institutes. Openings for corruption can be seen in a number of clauses regulating interactions between resource owners and federal officials. 
	The government of the Republic points out that the principle of “two keys” would lower the risk for corruption more than creating conditions of mutual control of federal and regional authorities. In addition, the government of Yakutia listed in its conclusions a number of specific proposals concerning principles and criteria of allocation of federally, regionally, and locally owned resource sites, about the creation of a federal fund for plots of resource reserves, and so on. 
	The bill was developed, and subsequently modified by the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, approved by the federal government and brought before the State Duma of the Russian Federation in June 2005.

Every river in Koryakia will have its owner

Source: http://www.kamvesti.ru/index.php?id=article&date=2005-10-07&na=1 
7 October 2005

The Congress of Northern Indigenous Peoples of the Koryak Autonomous Okrug (КАО) and the Kamchatkan Oblast started on 6 October 2005, in Palana, the administrative centre of the KAO. Its participants have assembled to discuss two fundamental issues: (1) a referendum on the association of the KAO and the Kamchatkan Oblast as a new subunit of the Russian Federation, and (2) the legal status of numerically small indigenous peoples (NSIP) and the preservation of their traditional ways of life. 
	These questions are not new to the delegates of the KAO. They were heard the day before at a similar conference of the NSIP of Koryakia. This conference dealt with legislative questions concerning the lives of the indigenous population: conditions and development of reindeer breeding, creation of territories of traditional nature use, the legal status of fishing and hunting sites, the social status of indigenous settlements. 
	The governor of the KAO, Oleg Kozhemyako, reported on how the district authorities deal with these problems:
	“The indigeous proportion of Koyakia’s total population is the highest of all similar regions in Russia. An effective policy concerning these inhabitants is necessary”, Oleg Kozhemyako told the participants of conference. “The result of of the lack of such policies is familiar to all of us: the break-down of all basic traditional occupations of the indigenous people, which are characterised by unique sources of income, and, as a consequence, a critical decrease of all social parameters.” The governor noted that ways to stabilise reindeer breeding, a vital subsistence activity in the district, are already being implemented. The problem of lacking salary payments to reindeer breeders has been practically eliminated, their payments have been adjusted, and next year we plan to double salaries. In addition to salary, individual food provisions worth 1800 roubles each are provided to everybody, and this amount is set to rise the next year. In total the sum of 22 million roubles is suggested to be spent for such purposes from the district budget for 2006. These measures will allow a 13 % increase in reindeer, which today make up about 34,700 head. The district administration is also working toward the establishment of territories of traditional nature use with long-term affiliation to particular indigenous communities. This concerns fishing, hunting and the development of ethno-tourism. In 2006 a register will be established, and an inventory made of all rivers of the KAO, which then will be attached to the users living in the district. Thus, greater rivers will be attached to the large industrial enterprises, while the small rivers and tributaries are given to native communities.
	Inventories, and then aerial surveys, of a number of wildlife species will be made for the hunting sites. Commercial hunting will increase employment, and the fees collected from the sale of commercial hunting licenses will add to the district’s treasury, as they do today. Low cost hunting licenses, not exceeding 1,500 rubles, will be distributed to representatives of the NSIP. Starting next year, ethno-tourism will be developed in one or two communities as pilot projects, which will help to attract the attention of potential tourists. Traditional native dwellings will be constructed, and boats as well as other equipment for fishing and hunting delivered.
	One of the largest-scale measures of the district administration towards improving life in the КАО will be the development of medical services. 2006 has been declared the Year of Medicine in the KAO. The district program for health service improvements will provide diverse equipment for all regional hospitals, strengthening the professional skills of medical staff, and increasing of their salaries. The programme is supposed to be partly funded by the federal budget. 
	As a result of the delegates’s work during the two days of the conference, where vital issues concerning indigeous peoples’ life in Koryakia were discussed in detail, a resolution directed to the President of the Russian Federation, to the government of the КАО and local self-management bodies, was accepted.

Tomsk: Struggle for rivers ended with indigenous victory 

Polina Shulbaeva and Irina Shafrannik, Info Centre of Association of Indigenous Peoples “Kolta Kup”

From 7 to 15 September 2005, Polina Shulbaeva, the expert on public relations and environmental curator for indigenous affairs of the Tomsk Oblast, made a reconnaissance trip on behalf of the clan community “Rodnik” of the Verkhneketsk District in the Tomsk Oblast. Rodnik is chaired by Nikolay Nikolaevich Karelin. 
	The aim of the trip was to find out about recent developments concerning the allocation of and claims to communal rivers, in other words, to investigate all points of view on the situation and to look at it with third party’s eyes. 
	On 7 April 2005, the clan community Rodnik had forwarded a claim on two rivers, Pirino and Layga, on which there are settlements inhabited by members of the clan community engaged in traditional livelihoods. The clan community was founded by four persons; seven indigenous persons of the Tomsk area work on a constant basis for the community, and three other inhabitants of the settlement Stepanovka, and additionally seasonal workers, both indigenous and other inhabitants from Stepanovka and Belyy Yar are involved. 
	The Hunters’ and Fishermen’s Society of Verkhneketsk, with which the District administration at that time already had allocated 150 waters, claimed the same rivers! The administration refused to give the rivers to the indigenous community Rodnik, arguing that the fishing rights of the inhabitants of the settlement Stepanovka (2400 inhabitants, of which 110 are indigenous) would be infringed if the rivers would be allocated with Rodnik, made up of only 4 persons (employees were not considered). 
	The administration of the Verkhneketsk District explained its decision with the view expressed at a meeting of 50 inhabitants of Stepanovka, which took place on 8 April 2005, were they required the rivers to be reserved for the Hunters’ and Fishermen’s Society. The interesting fact is that all participants of the meeting were members of the Hunters’ and Fishermen’s Society!!! 
	The Verkhneketsk administration introduced the case to the Office of the Public Prosecutor of the Tomsk Oblast, as an official report to the Oblast administration’s Department of Municipal Education. The report ended up at the Representation of the President of the Siberian Federal District and at the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North. The final decision was made by the Federal Fishery Agency “Verkhneobrybvod”, which was addressed by the community Rodnik. 
	On 30 August 2005, the Federal Fishery Agency passed the decision “… Having studied the relevant documents (authorisations and applications), Verkhneobrybvod gives priority concerning the claim of fishing sites to the indigenous clan community Rodnik, because the Charter of the Hunters’ and Fishermen’s Society does not indicate in any way that this organisation represents indigenous people”. 
	After her trip Polina Shulbaeva provided the following information: 
1. From the settlement Stepanovka the first base of the clan community Rodnik can only be reached on the river Ket. The journey takes between 9 and 24 hours, depending on weather, natural conditions and technical circumstances. 
2. Working brigades reach the bases on КS-100 boats. They live in specially constructed small houses on the base, where there are accommodations with bathroom, living room, toilet, and work facilities. All working brigades are supplied with full board, provisions and fuel. 
3. In the clan community 7 indigenous and 3 other local workers are permanently employed, when necessary complemented by seasonal workers from among the local population. During her 32-hour stay in the settlement Stepanovka, 4 individuals (one indigenous and three non-indigenous) expressed their desire to be employed by the clan community. 
4. During the time (ca. 80 hours) she spent at the bases of the clan community Rodnik on the rivers Pirino and Layga, situated over 40 km from Stepanovka, she did not notice any boat or person on the rivers, in the forests or in the bogs within the territories in question. 
5. During conversations the workers of the clan community Rodnik expressed the opinion that the clan community is absolutely necessary, as it provides work which previously did not exist in the settlement. The local population is not against allocating the rivers and territories to the community as this will increase employment; any local resident can go to the territory of the bases and collect wildlife items but because of the remoteness and high fuel costs local people have not been there for some years, except for forestry employees; moreover, the clan community purchases wildlife items from the local population, giving them an income. This is important considering the high unemployment in the settlement.

___________________________________________________
CULTURE:

From producers to consumers 
Cultural workers from Siberia come to Canada to learn about Inuit art 

This article appeared originally in Volume 20, No. 3, Fall 2005 issue of the Inuit Art Quarterly and was reprinted with the permission of the Quarterly.

“We know that the situation
in their home country is
different but we hope that
they will have found some
good ideas here to adapt
to their own situation”
— Mattiusi Iyaituk

Ten cultural workers from the indigenous regions of the Russian North spent two weeks in Canada this past April to learn first-hand how Canadian Inuit art is marketed and promoted. The objective of the workshop — From Producers to Consumers — was to provide an overview of the process by which Canadian Inuit art gets from the hands of producers in arctic villages into the hands of consumers around the globe. It was an unprecedented opportunity to see in person how artwork is promoted, priced and distributed through the marketing system unique to Canadian Inuit art, and the envy of indigenous producers everywhere in the world. 
	Discussion and analysis of the marketing system was reinforced with on-site presentations at wholesalers and retailers in Toronto and guided tours of public art galleries in Toronto and Ottawa. Although funds prevented the Russian interns from visiting an arctic village, the Arctic came to them in the form of the eight directors of the Inuit Art Foundation who arranged their annual spring board meeting to coincide with the last week of the workshop. They were joined by 12 other artists at Arts Alive 05, a weekend arts festival and cultural exchange that brought the event to a climactic close. This opportunity to interact formally and informally with the interns was an important component of the workshop; for, as well as maximizing the exchange of ideas, it will inevitably result in helping to overcome the isolation of northern artists through the establishing of new connections. 
	Spearheaded by the Inuit Art Foundation (IAF), the workshop marked the end of a broader initiative backed by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC-Canada), the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) and the Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North (RAIPON), which sought to establish a foundation for the sustainable political, economic and cultural development of Russia’s many indigenous peoples. From Producers to Consumers, was a follow-up to Connecting Cultures, a 2002 workshop in Tyumen, Siberia delivered by IAF President Mattiusi Iyaituk and IAF staff, as well as staff of the Indian and Inuit Art Centres (DIAND). 

A new network stretching over a vast region 

Previously unknown to each other, the Russian interns established a new network stretching over a vast area of land. Of the 10 workshop participants who travelled to Canada, most came from regions in Siberia and the Yamal, Khanty-Mansiysk, Kamchatka and Primorsk. At the beginning of the workshop, they indicated their communities on a circumpolar map and spoke about their lives and their art. Elena Takieva and Vera Rosheva, from the Yamal region, talked about their efforts to preserve the traditions of their indigenous people. “We are trying to create full-time jobs for our artists so that we can preserve the traditions of our people, unfortunately many of which are lost,” said Takieva, who works as the deputy director of the District House of Arts and Crafts in Salekhard. “We are trying to create a system like we see here in Canada.” 
	Valeri Nypevgi and Andrei Rakhtuvi, from the Uelen bone carver’s studio in a small village on the east coast of Chukotka, marvelled at the similarities in art, religion and way of life between the Inuit of Canada and the Siberian participants. “We represent a single culture that is spread across the North,” Nypevgi later concluded. The two interns enhanced their presentation with a video documentary of their community, produced with the assistance of CIDA. 
	Elena Posvolskaya and Lilia Banakanova, both of whom live in the Kamchatka Peninsula, are approaching the preservation of their culture from different angles. Posvolskaya, a community chair, is the marketer of a traditional syruplike product called “Kamchatka Honey” while Banakanova is the founder of a performing folk troupe in Anavgai called Nurgenek (“A Dancing Festival”). 

“It’s next to impossible for an artist to take something from the land and successfully get it placed, marketed, represented, promoted and understood, from A to Z, on his own accord”
— Tom Chapman

	Galina Shuganova and Ilya Raishev, from the Khanty-Mansiysk district, are both interested in reviving the arts and culture of the Khanty and Mansi peoples. Shuganova, manager of the arts and culture department of a community organization called Creative Association — Culture, helps to organize workshops and open-air museums (which resemble traditional reindeer herding camps) to promote the local arts and culture. 
	Raishev, a decorative fine arts student studying woodcarving, is working on a project to revive the crane, a native Mansi instrument once used in customary celebrations and to commune with the spiritual world, but which now only exists in the form of sketches at the local museum. “We don’t have much information on this instrument. And I assume that basically it was an artist a long time ago who made this in the first place,” Raishev said. “There is a person who has put together sketches. It was somebody who had seen the instrument as a child and he made sketches from memory. And I took those sketches and I am now reconstructing this instrument from those sketches.” 
	Vladimir Sulyandziga, another woodcarver, was the sole representative from the Primorsk region, a southern region of the Russian Far East. In addition to wanting to learn about the pricing and marketing of Inuit art, Sulyandziga was also interested in brushing up on his carving technique, something he later got to explore at the Arts Alive 05 festival. 
	Elena Krikunenko, a late addition to the Siberian delegation, came to Canada’s capital via Moscow, where she works as an outreach coordinator for the Russian Indigenous Training Centre. The five-year-old centre, established by the Institution-building for Northern Russian Indigenous Peoples’ Project (INRIPP) to help promote the sustainable development of Russia’s indigenous peoples, has several branch offices to keep the expanding network connected. According to Krikunenko, her organization is still at the embryonic stage of supporting the indigenous arts, but she hoped to acquire more of the know-how and connections to help this vital industry thrive. 
	Each of the interns had their own reason for coming to Canada; some were representatives from indigenous support agencies, while others were indigenous artists looking to improve their marketing and business acumen. Their one commonality, outside of their country of origin, was a desire to preserve and develop their indigenous culture and economy through the enhancement of their artistic heritage. 
	“Indigenous people from around the globe are expressing an interest in learning the key to the success of Canadian Inuit art,” said Marybelle Mitchell, executive director of the Inuit Art Foundation. “It is not just that Canadian Inuit art is wellknown, it also sells at higher prices than can typically be obtained for community artwork from elsewhere.” 
	While Canadian Inuit art, and supporting agencies like the IAF, are looked upon as models for indigenous development the world over, Mitchell cautions that indigenous groups should not expect to replicate the conditions that led to the global prominence of Inuit art. “I think it is important not to raise false expectations that what happened in Canada can be repeated,” she told the interns during a marketing seminar. “I believe that there was, in the mid-20th century, a particular convergence of priorities and events that resulted in Canadian Inuit work finding a unique marketing niche.” 
	Through the sharing of practices, the organizers hoped that the Russian interns would be able to learn from the Canadian Inuit experience, lessons they could take home with them to their respective communities. “We know that the situation in their home country is different but we hope that they will have found some good ideas here to adapt to their own situation,” said IAF president Mattiusi Iyaituk. 
	According to Shuganova there is much to learn from the Canadian Inuit experience, but it will need to be tailored to the circumstances of each Siberian community. “I can certainly apply this experience in my community but it will be on a different level, because we do not have the same level of administrative support,” she said. “The marketing system could be used as a model for us. When I am back, we will try to organize an analytical seminar and a regional program for the development and support of indigenous art.” 

From the land to the market 

As well as participating in seminars and activities in Ottawa, the Russian interns spent three days in Toronto where they were given special presentations from some wholesalers and dealers. They learned about the cooperative structure in the Canadian North from R.J. Ramrattan, buyer for Arctic Cooperatives Limited. They also received wholesale marketing advice from Nunavut Development Corporation’s Tom Chapman, manager of sales and marketing. “I think I communicated to the group that one of the successes of our corporation is the support of the Government of Nunavut,” Chapman said: 
Because of the geographic challenges — and certainly with what it is that they are trying to accomplish — it’s very important that a governing body ... recognizes the challenges and lends them support financially and otherwise to get things rolling. It’s next to impossible for an artist to take something from the land and successfully get it placed and marketed and represented and promoted and understood, from A to Z, on his own accord. There has to be a formal structure in place that assists all the way along. 
In addition to touring the Art Gallery of Ontario, where the group viewed a modest exhibition of prints by Kenojuak Ashevak and the permanent exhibition of Henry Moore sculpture, they also visited two commercial art dealers in Toronto: Feheley Fine Arts, a privately owned family business specializing in Inuit fine art, and the Guild Shop, a non-profit retail gallery owned and controlled by the Ontario Craft Council. “We are showcasing and helping the artists,” said Ann Tompkins, the Guild Shop’s Inuit and Native Gallery Director. 
That’s why we exist, to display their work and help them. Not just Inuit artists, but others who are able to produce good things. [They] can’t personally market their work across the country themselves. They need assistance. And we can reach people internationally in so many ways. 
In Ottawa, the interns had more than a few opportunities to see how Inuit art is exhibited, including in some of Canada’s most distinguished venues: the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the National Gallery of Canada. Both of these institutions help to reinforce the distinction between Inuit art and the craftwork and souvenirs also produced in arctic communities. Since the National Gallery is the gatekeeper of Canadian art — the ultimate arbiter of quality — the fact that it collects Inuit art speaks volumes about the eminence the artform has achieved in Canada. At DIAND offices, the interns were given tours of the Indian and Inuit Art Centres and multi-media presentations outlining the centres’ programs and activities. These presentations helped to underscore the special nature of the DIAND-run facilities, which allow the Canadian government to continue its historical role of promoting Inuit art. There, interns also met with Inuit art curator Heather Campbell, a graduate of the Inuit Art Foundation’s Cultural Industries Training Program. “I was pleased that the Inuit Art Centre was able to host the interns from Siberia,” Campbell said: 
I had learned so much during my trip to Eastern Siberia in 2002 that I was eager to share our knowledge, experiences, and culture with them during their trip to Canada. Handson experience is crucial to a better understanding of the Inuit art marketing system. How the interns will use this information to further develop the marketing of indigenous art in Siberia will be an inspiration to us all. 
At Arts Alive 5, the Russian interns received hands-on assistance in the displaying, pricing and presentation of artwork. By all indicators, the workshop was a huge success. Feedback culled from the intern’s evaluation of the program was full of experience that was gained. “As a young artist just starting out I have learned a lot,” said intern Ilya Raishev, a decorative fine arts student from Khanty-Mansiysk. “It is very important to exchange experience because we can learn so much from each other. Some problems are similar, some of them have already been solved in Canada [that] we are just facing now.” 

__________________________________________________
NOTES:

LA Deputies of Irkutsk Region to approve indigenous peoples’ development programme

Source: http://bsn.irk.ru/?c=shownews&id=17142 
15 December 2005

The target programme “Economic and social development of indigenous people in the Irkutsk Region until 2011” needs 27,885,000 roubles. The programme budget is split into two phases: the first (2006-2008) of 16,7 million roubles; the second (2009-2010) of 11,1 million roubles. This was made known by the head of the Department of Northern Affairs at the regional administration of governor Nikolay Jakovchenko, at a session of the Committee on Public Health Services and Social Security of the Legislative Assembly (LA) on 14 December 2005. The programme had earlier been discussed and approved by the Committee.
	Nikolay Jakovchenko reported that the programme concerns 40 settlements in 8 districts of the Irkutsk Region, where two indigenous peoples are represented, the Tofa and Evenks, exceeding a total number of 1700. The programme tackles a number of challenges: improving the educational system and the teaching of children, spiritual and cultural development of indigenous people, and support for traditional crafts. Additionally, the programme is intended to partly finance some social facilities and to improve the transportation system in the areas where Evenks and Tofa live. Members of the LA committee recommended the programme to be accepted at the next (17th) session of the regional parliament on 21 December 2005.

Representative of RAIPON in Public 
Chamber

Galina Diachkova, from Russian Newspaper, 1 July 2005, and Aborigen Kamchatki, No. 11, 22 November 2005 

One of the events of the last autumn was the nomination of RAIPON’s 1st vice-president, Pavel Sulyandziga, as a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. This event indicates the significance of RAIPON in the Russian state. Pavel Sulyandziga’s role will be to represent the interests of indigenous peoples in one of the new federal state institutions, which can influence the country’s legislation. The Public Chamber is also one of the channels for the expression of public opinion about various issues in the country.
	Nominations to the Public Chamber consist of several levels: First, the President of the Russian Federation nominates by decree 42 members. Second, another 42 members are included according to recommendations from nation-wide public organizations. Third, 6 members from each of the seven Federal Districts join. [In November 2005 a conference of delegates of the Far Eastern Federal District took place in Khabarovsk, at which 10 members were proposed on the basis of recommendations from regional public associations.] The entire Chamber consists of 126 members.
	Back in 2004 the President of the Russian Federation, V.V. Putin, announced the necessity of creating a state institution: “I am considering to form a Public Chamber as a platform for a wide dialogue, where civil initiatives could be presented and discussed in detail. Not less important, such a chamber should become a place of carrying out public evaluations of key state decisions, first of all legislative bills, that concern the development of the country and that have national significance.”
	The law “On the Public Chamber” came into force on 1 July 2005. The status of the Public Chamber is that of an official institution. Among the important functions of the Public Chamber is the control of legislative activity of the state authorities and the maintenance of a dialogue between citizens and the state.

Taiga Rescue Network: Youth camp in Scandinavia

Zhanna Dolgan, volunteer of TRN
30 August, Jokkmokk, Sweden

From 22 to 29 August a youth camp was organised by the Taiga Rescue Network, an international organisation engaged in the rescue of the boreal forests of our planet (www.taigarescue/camp). In the camp were representatives of youth movements engaged in the preservation of forests in European countries and Russia. Dialogue was constructive despite the language barrier – there were Finns, Swedes and Russians from different parts of the country, aged 16 to 32 years.
	It was constructive also because the themes of the training courses and seminars concerned each participant of the camp: “Ecophilosophy, ecology of forests”, “Social and cultural aspects of forest building”, “Lobbying strategy”, “Campaigns – examples of successful campaigns”, “Legislative base in Russia”. During seminars and training courses participants met with representatives of indigenous people: Saami (northern Sweden) and Koryak (Kamchatka). An important aspect of the informal dialogue was to share each other’s knowledge and skills. Everyone who possessed any special abilities or creative skills was invited to share them with others during the evenings. People from Kamchatka presented their area through dances, stories, legends, and souvenirs. The location of the camp was one of the unspoiled corners of our planet. The nearby lake Årrenjarka was rich in fish and an abundant variety of berries. Cedar trees, larch, pine trees—the species of the boreal forests need to be protected as they belong to the “lungs” of our planet. Theory was followed up by practice: hikes across the forests and mountainous landscape showed what we may be deprived of – we saw a unique species of a tinder fungus that is almost not found elsewhere in Sweden anymore. Climbing in trees, as it appears, is not only a sport, but also a way of indirectly manipulating the ecological situation. People climb up trees with special equipment, hang up banners with straight appeals contra or pro, take pictures, send them to the mass media and thus try to influence the situation concerning the felling of trees. One of the indirect ways to influence the ecological situation is to use only recycled paper. Despite the fact that each country has already chosen how it will struggle against deforestation and the deterioration of the ecological situation, all have come to the common opinion that cooperation and an exchange of experience is necessary for all organisations. The general idea for our future cooperation was developed: camps will be organised in different regions and with different ecological issues. Invitations have been heard from Russians in Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, and even Kamchatka. We are looking forward to the proposals from our Kamchatkan organisations.

Reindeer breeders in Chukotka conclude autumn round-up 

RAIPON, 11 October 2005

In Chukotka 80 % of the reindeer have now been counted. Since the beginning of 2005 the livestock in the area has increased by 24,966 animals or 19 %. By 1 October there were 156,349 head, 70,585 of which were females. Now reindeer breeders bring in the new-born calves for veterinary treatment. The goal for Chukotka was to have 150,000 head by 1 January 2006.

Herd size by district:
Anadyrskiy	58,109
Bilibinskiy	27,731
Iultinskiy	25,470
Chaunskiy	18,920
Shmidtovskiy 	15,094

Taymyr expects reindeer population increase 

Source: www.regnum.ru/news/558359.html
12 December 2005

The newspaper the Taymyr Telegraph has reported that the total number of reindeer in Taymyr is presently about 52,500. According to Valeriy Kyzylchakov, head of Department of Traditional Livelihoods, 46,200 head were registered in the district by 1 January 2005. 
	“For this year an increase of the livestock by 6-7 thousand is expected,” he noted. “An increase like this has not been seen for a long time. Reindeer are now being rounded up, and the exact number of livestock will be known by the middle of January 2006.” 
	In the opinion of experts, hunting of wild reindeer in 2005 was successful. On the account of the Taymyrskiy enterprise 5,200 deer were taken compared to 4,200 in 2004. Many enterprises have yet not reported their data. It is calculated that during the autumn of 2005 wolves killed about 400 reindeer. One attempt to hunt animals by helicopter has not given results. The newspaper Taymyr writes that Svetlana Valieva, the deputy head of the settlement Khantayskoe Ozero, ,addressed a request to the head of the Department on Regional National Policy and Development of Northern Indigenous Peoples, asking for help in tackling the wolf problem, “even in the form of cartridges and gasoline, to become independent in fighting the predators”.

Snowchange: International project proceeds in Yakutia

Source: YaSIA, http://ysia.ru/view.asp?id=041005_07
11 October 2005,

YAKUTSK. On 28-30 September, in Anchorage (Alaska, USA), the third international conference of the project “Snowchange 2005: Indigenous and Local Observations of Ecological and Climate Change” was held. The project was initiated by professor Tero Mustonen from the Polytechnical Institute of Tampere (Finland). Supported by the Arctic Council, it became a priority project of the Northern Forum within the framework of their environmental programme. 
	About 130 representatives of indigenous, governmental, scientific and public organizations from all Arctic countries gathered to discuss how climate change in different parts of the Arctic is being manifested, which influence it has on the life, traditions and culture of indigenous peoples, and which measures can be taken by states, regional authorities and local communities to mitigate the effects of global warming. 
…
Next year the project will proceed in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), where it will be carried out with longer and more detailed research in previously chosen model areas. In this connection it is necessary to mention that the Nizhnekolymskiy District in Yakutia also is a model area under the large international UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) and Global Environment Facility (GEF) “Integrated Ecosystem Approach to Conserve Biodiversity and Minimize Habitat Fragmentation in the Russian Arctic” (ECORA). Cooperation between the two projects has been coordinated. Many other possibilities for cooperation with other organizations have been envisaged. These include, for instance, the making of documentary films about the influence of climate change on the life of indigenous peoples, support to educational programmes, and the exchange of delegations.

ICARP II – Second International Conference on Arctic Research Planning

Galina Diachkova, IASSA board member

ICARP II, the Second International Conference on Arctic Research Planning, was held in Copenhagen (Denmark) on 10-13 November 2005. The main idea of ICARP II was the preparation of Arctic Research Programmes for the forthcoming period of 10-15 years. Since 2003 priority research programmes have included sustainable development, indigenous people and changes in the Arctic regions, the Arctic Ocean basin, Arctic climate and ecosystems, cryoshpere and hydrological systems, the Arctic shelf; Arctic climate forecast, and science as public interest. 
	The conference focussed on the development of international and national research programmes, and also such initiatives as IPY (International Polar Year 2007-08), recommendations for ACIA (Arctic Climate Impact Assessment), and the programmes of ISAC (International Study of Arctic Change) and IASC (International Arctic Science Committee). For detailed information see www.icarp.dk.

IPY – International Polar Year 2007-08

Galina Diachkova, IASSA board member

At the Second International Conference on Arctic Research Planning (ICARP II, 13 November 2005) participants discussed issues relating to organising the IPY, the international research campaign for studying the natural and social processes in polar regions. Key areas of research under the IPY will concern the maintenance of the traditional cultures of northern indigenous peoples, education and distribution of knowledge about polar areas, history of tectonic development in geology, ecology, changes in ocean currents and marine ecological systems, assessments of changes connected with the melting of polar ice, the role of polar areas for climate development, and space research. IPY will be a global project in which approximately 1000 scientists from 50 different countries and six continents, as well as Arctic indigenous peoples, will participate. For detailed information see www.ipy.org.

NEW LITERATURE:

The Arctic: Land and People. Analysis of National Land Policy of Northern Federations. 
[Воспроизводится по тексту: Беликович А.В. Арктика: земля и люди. Анализ национальной земельной политики северных федераций.]
A.V. Belikovich, 1995 (Reprint 2004. In Russian.)
Magadan: SVHC DVO RAN, 1995, 128 pp. (Volume NIC “Chukotka”, Ed. 3).
Life has made an experiment with Arctic people, having forced them to become a component of greater states, not only administratively, but also politically and culturally. The citizens of these states – among them, the greatest of the world powers – are predominantly settled in more southern latitudes and have a “Western” lifestyle. What has come out of these collisions of different civilisations in terms of how the environment was impacted and the technological development of the peoples involved? The book attempts to analyse the results of this socio-political experiment in various countries, choosing the land as the core around which all the events develop.
	There are three types of indigenous peoples’ organisations in the Arctic: economic, political and administrative-territorial ones. In the northern states there are all possible variants of ethnic groups’ national movements for the preservation of their culture and the ways in which they have traditionally managed their natural resources: in one case this has been realised mainly by means of land use agreements, in the other cases indigenous people have accepted the official management system of the state into which they have been integrated. The book offers reflections on a possible combination of these movements under our – Russian – conditions.

Practical Dictionary of Siberia and the North
Akbaljan E., Golubchikova V., Khvtisiashvili Z.
Publications Maecenas, Paris 2004. 1104 pages, hard cover. ISBN 5-98797-002-4. 
 “Practical Dictionary of Siberia and the North” is the first book to embrace the history, nature, geography and economy of the world’s circumpolar region (Siberia, Scandinavia, Canada, Alaska, the North Pole, Northern Russia, Greenland). Northern peoples are also covered, including ethnographic data on numerically small indigenous peoples. The dictionary contains 500 black-and-white illustrations and three colour inserts with Northern maps, flora and fauna, and clothing of Northern peoples.
	The publication is offered in two languages, English and Russian, with an attached CD containing 2,000 more illustrations, photos, and maps, as well as sound tracks with samples of Northern ethnic music.
Russian language edition: Severnaya entsiklopediya.
Evropeyskie izdaniya, Moscow 2004. 1200 pages, hard cover. ISBN 5-98797-001-6. 
Additional info about this book:
English edition: http://www.ruslania.com/context-161/entity-1/details-5472/language-1.html 
Russian edition: http://www.ruslania.com/context-161/entity-1/details-5368/language-1.html
The Predicament of Chukotka's Indigenous Movement. Post-Soviet Activism in the Russian Far North
Patty A. Gray 
University of Alaska, Fairbanks, November 2004. 302 pages. Hardback. ISBN-10: 0521823463 | ISBN-13: 9780521823463
This is the first ethnography of the Russian North to focus on post-Soviet relations of domination between an indigenous minority and a non-indigenous majority in an urban setting. Patty Gray charts political transformations in Chukotka as its administration sought to represent itself as “democratic” while becoming ever more repressive, especially toward the indigenous population. The “predicament” refers to how the nascent indigenous movement was prepared to address Soviet-style domination, and instead was confronted with this “new Russian” style.
Order in North America:
http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521823463
Order in Europe:
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521823463

Chukotka Past and Present. [Tjukota i fortid og nutid]
Edited by: Bent Nielsen 
(6 articles in Danish, 1 article in English) 
Department of Eskimology and Arctic Studies, University of Copenhagen, 2005. ISBN 87-87874-21-0
In this publication, seven Danish scholars give presentations on Chukotka. Every article has a different focus (archaeology, history, linguistics, philology, socio-linguistics, and anthropology). The reader is offered a wide range of information and research concerning Chukotka and its population. 
Order through: 
Adda Schack, Department of Eskimology and Arctic Studies, Strandgade 100H, DK-1401 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Phone: (+45) 35 32 96 70
E-mail: eskimologi@hum.ku.dk

unter dem Sternbild der Grossen Bärin 
beneath the constellation of the Great Bear[ess]
под созвездием Большой Медведицы
Dorothee Logen 
2005. Copies can be obtained from the author at rentier-ost@web.de. Price: 18 €, Russia 200 RUB, plus postage

A booklet with a short introductory text in German, English and Russian and the artist’s photographs of “Prazdnik Severa” (Festival of the North) in 2004. Indigenous people from the Kola Peninsula gather in Murmansk for this annual festival . The book is the result of an art project and informs readers about mythology, the author’s own history, and the Saami as a people between systems: that of wealthy Scandinavia on one side and and on the other that of the dramatically run-down Russia. The very hard living conditions on the Russian side exemplify the situation of many small-numbered indigenous peoples in Siberia.

CONFERENCE:

Cultural Diversity in the Epoch of Globalisation
28-30 March 2006
Murmansk, Russia
The conference is hosted by the Murmansk State Pedagogical Universit . 
Conference languages: Russian and English.
Registration deadline: 20 February 2006 . Please request a registration form from intero@mspu.edu.ru. 
Major topics:
 1. Culture and language in contemporary world;
 2. Intercultural communication in conditions of cultural diversity;
 3. Problem of culture in information society;
 4. Problem of mass and elite culture;
 5. Classical and non-classical philosophy of culture: tendencies and perspectives;
 6. Regional variants of national culture;
 7. Cultural links and contacts in the history of the region;
 8. The culture of indigenous people of the North and contemporary civilisation;
 9. Upbringing in the context of modern culture;
10. Culture and the process of socialisation in contemporary world;
11. Russian classical culture in contemporary world.
Contact:
Murmansk State Pedagogical University
International Department
Yegorov St. , 15
Murmansk 183720
RUSSIA 
Phone: + 7 8152 45 27 56
Fax: +7 8152 45 27 52
e-mail: intero@mspu.edu.ru

Translations from «Мир коренных народов – живая арктика (Indigenous Peoples' World – Living Arctic)»

According to an agreement between ANSIPRA and RAIPON (Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North), we present translations of selected articles of the newsletter «Мир коренных народов – живая арктика» (Indigenous Peoples’ World – Living Arctic), the official periodical of RAIPON. The following part of this issue presents translated articles from Indigenous Peoples’ World No. 16 and 17, 2005.

Articles on p. 18-20: From ‘Indigenous Peoples’ World – Living Arctic’ No. 16
Articles on p. 21-27: From ‘Indigenous Peoples’ World – Living Arctic’ No. 17

Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation established 

M. Fradkov, Chairman of the RF Government 
Moscow, October 1, 2004 
N 1504

In accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation (RF) of 13 September 2004, No. 1168, “On the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation”, the Government of the Russian Federation ordains:
1. The RF Ministry of Regional Development is a federal body of executive power to fulfill the function of the development of the state policy and legal regulation in the sphere of socio-economic development of the regional entities of the RF, federal and ethnic relations, delimitation of authority on matters of joint competence of the RF and the regional entities of the RF, local self-administration, frontier cooperation, development of the regions of the Extreme North and the Arctic, protection of the rights of ethnic minorities, the native environment and traditional lifestyle of indigenous peoples and ethnic communities. 
2. The RF Ministry of Regional Development – on the basis of and in order to fulfill the Constitution of the RF, federal constitutional laws, federal laws, federal enactments by the President of the RF and the Government of the RF – shall perform independently legal regulation, and also develop and submit to the Government of the RF drafts of federal constitutional laws, federal laws, enactments by the President of the RF, including those on the following issues:
а) refinement of federal relations, development of local self-administration, regulation of inter-ethnic relations in the RF;
b) socio-economic development of the regional entities of the RF and municipal units;
c) monitoring of the socio-economic processes in the regional entities of the RF and municipal units;
d) delimitation of the authority between the administrative bodies of the RF, the administrative bodies of the regional entities of the RF and municipalities;
e) changes in the ethnic and state and administrative-territorial structure of the RF;
f) frontier cooperation;
g) development of the regions of the Extreme North and the Arctic;
h) protection of the rights of ethnic minorities;
i) protection of the traditional environment and traditional lifestyles of indigenous peoples and ethnic communities1.
3. The RF Ministry of Regional Development shall be allowed to have two Deputy Ministers and up to 7 departments along the main directions of the Ministry’s activities.
4. The maximum number of employees at the central office of the Ministry of Regional Development shall be 240 man-years (not including personnel servicing the premises) and the salary schedule of the aforesaid employees shall be 167.302 million rubles quaterly.
5. The proposal of the RF Ministry of Regional Development regarding the location of its central office in Moscow shall be agreed upon.
6. The RF Ministry of Regional Development shall within two weeks file the draft Ministry Status and respective proposals on changes of the enactments by the President of the RF and the Government of the RF.

Public of Buryat Republic opposes oil pipeline close to Baikal Lake

Information Agency “REGNUM” 

An oil pipeline exceeding a length of 4,200 kilometers is planned by the stock company “Transneft”. More than 800 km of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean Pipeline will pass through the Irkutsk Region, from Taishet to the border of the Buryat Republic. An additional 555 km of the pipeline will run north of the Baikal Lake, across the territory of the Severobaikalsk and Muisk Districts of the Buryat Republic − extremely complex engineering conditions due to a very high seismicity, extensive areas of permafrost, and numerous sites of frequent mudflows. The oil pipeline will also traverse the Chita and Amur regions as well as the Khabarovsk and Primorsk territories. About half of the pipeline length is expected to run along the frontier with China.
	In Taishet and in Perevoznaya Bay two large transfer pumping stations are planned, and 30 more transitional stations as well as 14 accumulating stations would be constructed along the pipeline. The assumed volume of oil transfer is 80 million tons per year. From the Perevoznaya Bay the pumped oil will be transported further by oil tankers.
	According to estimates of the project developers, 50% of the pipeline will be within naturally hazardous zones of flooding, mudflows, avalanches and seismic activity exceeding magnitude 7 on the Richter scale. The entire route is situated within the range of frequent forest fires. The most dangerous part is the section north of the Baikal Lake where earthquakes may reach magnitude 10. In the Irkutsk Region the pipeline would run along the Baikal-Amur railroad, crossing tens of rivers on its way, including rather big ones, such as the Angara, Lena, and Vitim. In the Buryat Republic the pipeline would cross the Upper Angara River, a large tributary of Baikal Lake.
	The main question asked by participants at public hearings concerning the proposed East Siberia-Pacific Ocean Pipeline, which took place in Ulan-Ude, was whether Russia is really in need of such a pipeline for transporting crude oil. It is well known that the established oil resources at a global scale will run out within 30 years. It has been questioned whether Siberian oil reserves are large enough to ensure the required oil offtake. Moreover, it is not advantageous for Russia to sell crude oil, taking into account a possible decline of petroleum reserves. Sale of oil-based products such as fuel, motor oil, fuel oil, etc. would be much more profitable. But even if somebody would invest in oil prospecting and production in East Siberia, and it could be shown that there is enough oil to make it worthwhile economically, the question remains whether the government and stock company Transneft would be able to guarantee meeting the requirements of environmental safety while implementing the project. 
	The participants at the hearings expressed their concerns in this matter. Representatives of public agencies, nature conservation organizations, scientists, journalists, citizens of Ulan-Ude, the Buryat Republic and other regions of the Russian Federation participated in the discussions. There were numerous remarks concerning how the hearings were being carried out and about the information that had been presented by Transneft. Disagreement with the proposed arrangement of the project implementation was registered in the minutes of the hearings. 
	Several suggestions were offered to the project developers. These included calculating the expediency of delivering oil products to Asian-Pacific countries, and formulating a plan for preventing oil spills at the section of the pipeline going close to Baikal Lake. Preliminary data of an Environmental Impact Assessment that was carried out do not include important information on the impact of the pipeline on the habitat of the last population of unique wildlife like the Far Eastern leopard in the Barsovyy Sanctuary and the Kedrovaya Pad’ Preserve and its impact on the water area of the National Far East Marine Preserve. Impacts of possible accidents on mariculture along the Khasan shoreline were not evaluated either. It was suggested to supplement the Environmental Impact Assessment with these data. Within the Amur Region the route of the pipeline should be changed so that it takes a detour around the Imangra Reserve, without changing the borders of this protected area. The crossover point of the pipeline at the Amur River should also be shifted downstream past the water intake facilities of the city Khabarovsk. 
	In addition, nothing has been said by the project developers concerning the impact of the pipeline on indigenous peoples’ culture regardless of the fact that in every administrative unit the line will cross residential areas or lands used by indigenous people in other ways. The participants at the public hearings therefore suggested that an Ethnological Impact Assessment of the project be undertaken. 
	As a result, the participants of public hearings concluded that they could not approve the company’s “Justification of Investments for Building the East Siberia - Pacific Ocean Pipeline”, presented as an Environment Impact Assessment, as it did not contain sufficient data. The public organization Baikal Environmental Wave reported that it was suggested to repeat hearings in those regions of the Buryat Republic where the pipeline is supposed to run.

The Great Odul on the destiny of his native people 

S. Gorokhov, Professor, A.K. Ammosov Yakutsk State University 

June 2006 will mark the centenary of Nikolai Spiridonov (Teki Odulok), a glorious son of the Yukagir people, the first scientist from among the peoples of northern Yakutia, a gifted writer, and the founder of the Yukagir literature.
	Nikolai Spiridonov was born in the Nelemnoe area into the family of the hunter Atylyakhan who had no reindeer. He was the eleventh child in the family. Since childhood he was a very smart, positive and inventive boy. The life of the boy, who was born on the bank of a river with the tragic name Yasachnaya (from the word yasak, i.e., the tribute that native people had to pay to the tsarist government), was tragic. The hardships of the yasak, the death of the elder brothers, brought about the family’s breakdown. The father and mother had to give away their younger son to merchants to work as a servant. The young Yukagir managed to enter a primary clerical school.
	After Soviet power was established, Nikolai was one of the first people in the Kolyma area to enter the Komsomol (Young Communist League). Subsequently, he was seized and for 17 months kept in captivity by counterrevolutionary rebels, from whom he finally managed to escape. When he was 18 he found himself in Yakutsk, where he finished a one-year Soviet Communist Party school. In 1925, he was sent to Leningrad to study.
	After two years, a scientific expedition to Kolyma was organized, and Nikolai Spiridonov, a student of Leningrad University, was employed as a member of the expedition. The young researcher meticulously gathered information and artifacts bearing on the history, ethnography and folklore of his native people. He wrote essays In the Extreme North that were published in 1933 (republished in 1950 in Yakutsk).
	In 1931 Spiridonov graduated at the Ethnographic Department of the University and, at the advice of Prof. V.G. Tan-Bogoraz, entered the graduate course of the Institute of the Peoples of the North. In the course of his graduate studies he had published some extremely valuable articles: Yukagirs and the Yukagir Language. At an age of 28 he successfully defended his Cand. Sc. Economy Thesis – Trade Exploitation of Yukagirs – to become the first scientist from Soviet Yakutia with an academic degree and the first such scientist from among indigenous peoples of the Russian North. Without delay, Smirnov started working on his doctoral dissertation, which, according to his wife, a chemistry teacher in the Krupskaya Pedagogical Institute, he completed by 1936. Unfortunately, nothing is known regarding the manuscript of the dissertation.
	Under the pen-name Teki Odulok (the small odul), Spiridonov is known as a gifted author. The book The Life of Senior Imteurgin is undoubtedly the first major work of the literature of the peoples of the North. When the writer was still alive it was translated into English and Czech, and republished three times in the Russian language. Thus, Teki Odulok is the first northerner whose works became known to foreign readers, in particular, in England, France and Czechoslovakia as early as the mid-1930s.
	Being a very active and energetic person, Spiridonov could not stay away from the social life of the country. Back during his student years he actively contributed to the work of the Committee of the North of the All-Union Central Executive Committee, wrote articles, and developed draft programs for Sovietization of the North. In 1931, as a member of the organizing Committee of the Far Eastern Regional Executive Committee, he was sent to organize the Chukchi Ethnic Okrug. He spent 7 months there. After he defended the dissertation, he worked as the 1st secretary of the Ayano-Maiskiy Party Committee and subsequently, until April 1936, he was head of the ethnic sector of the Khabarovsk Writers’ Union.
	For about one year – the last year of his brief life – he managed to live fairly quietly in Leningrad. On April 16, 1937 he addressed a meeting of the Children’s Publisher Detgiz in Moscow. His speech was emotional and bright, the speaker put in it all his soul, his concern for the future of the life of the peoples of Russia and his native people. He said: “I want to demonstrate in what way the tsarist government destroyed the entire people”. Two weeks later, on April 30, he was arrested, accused of spying for Japan, and on 17 March shot in Leningrad. He was not yet 32. Spiridonov was rehabilitated on 29 October 1955.

Legislative regulation on Yamal’s natural resources (condensed)

S. Kharyuchi, President of RAIPON

The Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO) is a unique territory and a real storehouse of geological resources. During the long history of the Russian state thе Russian North has been a supplier of raw geological resources for the central part of the country. During the last decades Yamal has been one of the main donor regions. It covers an area of 750,000 square kilometers, which constitutes 4.5% of the Russian territory; its population is 502,000 (0.035% of the Russian population – the editor), but it provides 54% of the primary energetic resources of the country. The country is in need of natural resources, and the region in need of development. With an annual production exceeding 500 million tons, Yamal is the main gas supplier of Russia and may remain so during the 21st century. According to impartial estimates, more than 600 billion cubic meters of gas and 80-100 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons can be produced in Yamal per year. 
	In a long-term outlook on YNAO’s social and economic development five directions should become the bases for accelerated economic growth:

1) development of transportation infrastructure to facilitate industrial utilization of mineral resources in remote regions of the Okrug; 
2) development and governmental support of lesser fuel- and energy-related enterprises to provide energy for exploiting fields with large hydrocarbon deposits, as well as fields with small or average resources;
3) accelerated industrial utilization of those hydrocarbon fields that may guarantee energy supply for the country during this century;
4) large-scale development of oil and gas refining facilities within the Okrug;
5) development of energy production in the Okrug to meet the needs of energy supply. It is of importance that the legislative background for the exploitation of geological resources is developed in the YNAO.

During ten years of systematic and constructive work by People’s Deputies hundreds of statutory and legislative acts regulating social and economic development of the YNAO have been developed and are currently in force. Realizing the uniqueness of the region and taking into account difficulties of fuel and energy development, one of the first laws passed within the YNAO was the law “On the georesources and their use in the YNAO”, which regulated relations connected with geological studies, utilization and preservation of geological resources in the okrug. After the Federal Law “On Georesources” was changed, a new edition of the law was prepared and passed, which provides protection of interests of both the extractive industry and the area’s inhabitants.
	One of the main tasks of the YNAO government authorities is increase oil and gas production while also preserving the natural environment for the traditional management and use by indigenous peoples: oil and gas fields are at the same time the areas of the most productive reindeer pastures and fishing grounds.
	To create the economic and social conditions for ensuring effective and sustainable natural resource utilization and management in the YNAO, serious work has been started to establish a legislative basis for the investigation, reproduction, rational utilization and preservation of natural resources, as well as preservation of the environment. 
	Several laws are related to the problems of land use, traditional nature management of Northern indigenous peoples, and conservation of natural resources. These are:

1) The YNAO Law “On specially preserved areas of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug” (1997), which regulates the organization, preservation, and utilization of specially preserved natural areas of particular scientific, cultural, esthetic, or recreational value, and guarantees protection of the legal rights and interests of Northern indigenous peoples, as well as preservation and development of their traditional lifestyle and occupations;
2) The YNAO Law “On fishery management in water bodies of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug” (1998) and the Law “On fishing in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug” (1998) protect fishing as a traditional occupation;
 3) The YNAO Law “On reindeer husbandry” (1998) determines legislative, economic, environmental and social fundamentals of reindeer husbandry as one of the most important livelihoods of indigenous peoples.;
4) The YNAO Law “On the territorial public self-government in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug” provides for the creation of ethnic communities with a special legal status.

The Programme of Source and Raw Material Development has been developed, approved, and is now in force. It provides stable earnings to the Okrug budget and facilitates the resolution of numerous social and economic problems. 
	Recent years have shown that if an enterprise fulfills its licence obligations this significantly improves its image among the Okrug inhabitants. Agreements between municipal agencies and fuel and energy companies are aimed at both supporting Northern indigenous peoples and preserving and developing the social, cultural and educational spheres of the Okrug settlements.
	...
	Before 1997 local authorities were empowered to licence extractional activities of common geological resources. At the end of 2003 some amendments were introduced to the YNAO Law “On the use of georesources for geological investigation, extraction of common resources, and building of underground installations of local significance”. Licensing has been attributed to the authority of the federal entity in agreement with local authorities. These amendments permit the development of plans for resource extraction and the formulation of uniform demands to companies concerning their accounting, land restoration, land leasing, and other terms.
	…
	The social and economic development of the Okrug is directly connected with the activity of oil- and gas-producing companies, the rational use of natural resources and the preservation of unique tundra environment. Abiding by the principle primum non nocere (“first, do no harm”) will prevent negative impacts of oil and gas production on traditional forms of nature use and management. Partnership agreements with large oil and gas companies will guarantee nature preservation, building of premises, for social and cultural institutions and growth of all branches of the Okrug economy, including the development of indigenous settlements.

The federal fishery law to take RAIPON proposals into account 

D. Berezhkov, Vice-President for Fishing Issues, RAIPON 

The problem of access to fish resources is one of the most acute for the indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation. All the indigenous peoples of the North are, to varying extents, engaged in fishery, but for the indigenous peoples of the Far East, fishing is the basic traditional livelihood and the major source of subsistence.
	This explains why the Coordinating Council of RAIPON addressed this issue on the initiative of the Far Eastern associations. At the Council meeting, the Vice-Governor of the Kamchatka Region, Alexander Mikhailov, and I persistently brought up the fishery related problems of Northern indigenous peoples. These problems urgently need to be resolved in Kamchatka. We spoke of the need to allocate economic quotas for indigenous fishers and the allocation of productive fishery areas, among other things. A resolution of the Coordinating Council was carried on this issue, which was forwarded to the regional authorities of the Russian Federation, to the Plenipotentiaries of the President in the okrugs, and respective ministries and agencies, which subsequently was very helpful to us in introducing RAIPON’s proposals to the Federal Bill “On Fishery”.
	RAIPON’s President Sergey Kharyuchi proposed in Sakhalin that I should continue related work at a federal level at RAIPON as Vice-President for Fishery.
	The most important event in this respect was, to my mind, the work in October 2004 in Moscow. At that time, a Special Working Group at the State Duma of the Russian Federation was finishing work on the Federal Bill “On Fishery and Preservation of Aquatic Biological Resources”. We managed to meet the chairperson of the commission, Natalya Komarova, Chair of the State Duma Committee for Natural Resources. We also had negotiations in the Federation Council, Presidential Administration, and Ministry of Agriculture. Our problems were understood everywhere. Thus, it became clear that it is only at the regional level that our quotas and fishing grounds are a matter of fierce resistance on the part of the administration. Federal officials, by contrast, are aware that without traditional subsistence our peoples would inevitably become extinct. 
	The great assistance of Sergey Kharyuchi, Pavel Sulyandziga, Olga Murashko and the experts has made it possible for us to prepare our proposals regarding the Bill, which were handed over to the members of the Special Working Group. Our proposals were accepted to become part of the final versions of the law adopted by the State Duma, the Federation Council, and signed by the President of the Russian Federation. Our proposals concerned allocation, of quotas and fishing grounds for the representatives of indigenous peoples and their communities to maintain their traditional modes of livelihood. 
	Thus, after ten long years, Russia received the long-awaited fishery law, and the indigenous peoples’ right to fishing supported by federal law. Nowadays long and hard work is required on regulations, proposals for the Government enactment, and contributions to the preparation of new fishery bills. I am confident that we shall be able to continue that work relying on the experience available. In addition, in the course of the last trip in December last year in Moscow, we conducted negotiations with the management of the Federal Fishery Agency. An oral agreement was made regarding a document on collaboration between RAIPON and the Federal Agency for Fishery. This will provide a legislative framework for our proposals on behalf of indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation.

There are achievements, but tundra people still face challenges 

Kh. Ezynghi, Vice-President of the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!”

From the editorial office:
	We met Khatyako Ezynghi, Vice-President of the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!” and deputy to the State Duma, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YNAO), at the Roundtable on Interaction of Oil Production Companies and Indigenous Peoples in Naryan-Mar in December 2004. Kh.М. Ezynghi spoke after he heard mutual accusations of representatives of oil companies and indigenous residents of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. In his address, Ezynghi pointed out that disputes in terms of tundra people and extracting companies coming to terms with one another, the YNAO is notably ahead of other regions , judging from what he had heard in Naryan-Mar, and he spoke about the positive experience gained from the interaction of indigenous peoples, the YNAO administration and the oil and gas production companies. Actually, his address made a great impression on everybody and changed the tone of the discussion. Whereas previously, indigenous people complained about abuse by the oil producers and the companies denied abuse and the need for refinement of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug (NAO) legislation to settle conflict situations, after Ezynghi’s address, the representative of the biggest company operating in NAO, Naryanmarneftegaz, called upon the Legislative Assembly of the NAO to follow the example of the YNAO and refine the legislation of the Okrug.
	I was very interested in what Ezynghi has said so I asked him to furnish me with the text of his speech for publication in our magazine. He promised me to do that and two weeks later he provided me for publication the text of the interview that he gave to the newspaper «Krasnyy Sever» (recorded by Olga Zhelobaeva). That interview contained facts which I had heard in his address in Naryan-Mar, although the conclusions and the tone were quite different. The reason for this disparity is evident: if one compares the situation of indigenous peoples in the NAO and YNAO, the achievements of YNAO are clear, and others should strive for them, but back home the vice-president of the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!” should focus on the problems yet to be rectified. There are many achievements in Yamal, but the tundra people still face a number of challenges. That was my summary of the address of Kh.М. Ezynghi in Naryan-Mar. The text of the interview is published below.
О. Murashko

“Before the advent of the oil and gas industry, the Okrug economy was built upon traditional occupations, based on the traditional lifestyles of indigenous peoples. That is why the indigenous people are wary of and sometimes negative toward the great attention received by the administration at all levels to the development of the oil and gas industry.
	I am aware of the inevitable – when the resources of gas and oil are finished, there will be nothing left in the memory of the local people. At the same time, the local people will lose their traditional subsistence skills and, particularly, spiritual culture. 
	For indigenous peoples such a prospect is disastrous. 
	In addition, we are engaged in the study of health, the quality of people’s food and metabolic processes. 
	During recent years (the period of economic reforms) according to our observations and the statistical data of the Okrug, the health status of the indigenous peoples of the North has deteriorated considerably. This is accounted for by the following reasons: 
•	Lack of high-quality food;
•	Bad socio-domestic conditions, both in the migratory and, especially, in sedentary population in rural areas (irrespective of ethnic affiliation);
•	Lack of public health monitoring, particularly for indigenous people;
•	The stress experienced by indigenous people associated with the lack of prospects in solving domestic social and family problems;
•	Lack of attention on the part of local administrative agencies to protect social and economic rights of indigenous people engaged in traditional economic activities.
The Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!”, jointly with the Tyumen Research Center of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, has been engaged in investigating these problem for three years. Primary data, even before they are analysed, are not comforting as they indicate that there are ongoing irreversible processes in the health of the migratory population.
	Unfortunately, the need for support of scientific research does not receive due attention of the YNAO administration authorities. We are fully aware that somebody does not like that the Association is engaged in the study of the important problems mentioned above, and, moreover, that the study findings may become known to the indigenous people. It would be much simpler and more efficient for the administration to employ each year research organizations from all over Russia or, say, from Africa. That situation would be covered by the media at length, including TV, and with time the people would calm down and be satisfied. In the meantime, the health of indigenous people decreases every day.
	Fundamental science is concerned with such topical problems associated with processes, which may “delegate” the risk and responsibility to the coming generations. Presumably, the most important thing is to know in what way metabolic processes operate in the human body under the effect of ecological and biological factors, whether human life is shortened, and what is the quality of the food consumed in a particular natural and climatic environments.
	We only showed the tip of the iceberg to demonstrate that there are limits to the socially-admissible human impact on the ecosystems. The study’s results allow us to establish criteria of a socially-admissible risk as applied to the technologies of the development of natural resources, and also to assess the generation of “pioneers” and the development they generate.
	In the meantime, the existing system of medical service is based on budget investments and relies on statistical data, for instance, that the number of sick people increased, which implies that further allocations are called for. The lack of understanding is not always obvious, but time is lost and the grief and misfortunes of the people increase. I am saying this to urge the Okrug’s administration and the municipalities to help the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!” to identify and rectify the causes of the indigenous people’s health problems.
	In order to preserve the culture of indigenous people, including their traditions and customs, the Association carries out various activities, like festivals and meetings of the indigenous people in big industrial cities where people of various ethnic affiliations and cultures have come to reside, to develop natural resources in indigenous residence and traditional subsistence areas. Such gatherings marked the beginning of improving interrelations and pursued two purposes:
•	to demonstrate the highly-developed and unique culture of the indigenous people;
•	to call particular attention of oil and gas producers, including their managers, to the need of preserving the environment and to the various environmental and technological problems.

March 1993, Salekhard. Festival of the peoples of the North of the YNAO, organized by the Committee of the Peoples of the North of the YNAO administration (head of the committee, S. Kharyuchi) and the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!” (vice-president Kh.M. Ezynghi) with the participation of the State Committee of the North of the Russian Federation (headed by A. Evai). The main sponsor of the festival was Gazprom and the immediate sponsor Nadymgazprom (Director General V.V. Remizov). Invited were the managers of construction and oil and gas producing enterprises not only from the YNAO but also from other regions of Russia. After these festivals the relations between the indigenous people living in the areas where oil and gas companies are operating and the residents of industrial cities of the Okrug improved. Agreements on mutually advantageous partnership relations with state farms and hatcheries were made. The company Gazprom is constructing facilities for the processing of traditional products (the collective farm Baydaratskiy), and negotiations on the construction of a pipeline to the YNAO capital Salekhard were started. On the initiative of the regional branches of the Okrug Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!” oil and gas companies allocate to reindeer herders and fishermen snowmobiles, outboard motors, boats, cloth, beads, tarpaulins, Russian leather, tinned goods, and boarding school supplies. Musical instruments are distributed to cultural centers in rural areas.
	Expected at festivals of reindeer herders and fishermen are the managers of oil and gas companies, the administration of industrial cities, and commercial companies. Today, in accordance with the old tradition, guests of the festivals come with gifts. 

March 1992, Yarudei station, Nadym Region. The Conference of Reindeer Herders of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug: “Reindeer Herders – Preservation and Development of the Major Livelihood of the Peoples of the North”. In addition to other issues the problem of interactions of the traditional livelihood with modern development was brought up. The main sponsor of the conference was Nadymgazprom. During this conference, in a talk with S.N. Kharyuchi, V.V. Remizov, V.D. Arteev, Kh.М. Ezynghi, S.P. Yar, and A.I. Kuzin, a proposal was about organizing a reindeer herders’ meeting in the city of Nadym. 

February 1995, city of Nadym. The competitions of reindeer herders in ethnic sports. When we were preparing for the competitions, they predicted all kinds of results, particularly negative ones. But time has shown that the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!”, the Committee for the Peoples of the North of the YNAO Administration, and the management of the Nadymgazprom company to be right. 2005 will see the tenth annual competitions. Such activities have also been repeatedly conducted in other big industrial cities of the Okrug.

Conservation of the environment and meeting environmental protection standards in the Okrug today are far from comparable with those ten years ago, thanks to technological advances. For instance, the geophysical investigations of the Yamalgeofizika company used to involve drilling and explosives, but nowadays they have started to use the environmentally safe Sonic Impulse Response Method.
	The construction of the Obskaya – Bovanenkov railway in its time was heatedly discussed by everybody, including non-specialists. According to the proposal of the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!” reindeer herders of three state farms of the Yamal area were invited to the railway construction site, where the tundra residents saw with their own eyes that railway is the most environmentally safe compared with other means of transport. The reindeer herders analysed all pros and cons and came to the conclusion that:
•	the railway is indispensable for the development of Yamal oil and gas fields;
•	the need for the railway will last for at least 50 years;
•	the railway will offer good prospects for the tundra and migratory population, who will receive wood, food and medical aid, while traditional products can be transported from the area to markets elsewhere.
What decided it for the reindeer herders was that they saw the railway with their own eyes. The railway seemed to have been dropped from above and it eliminated the need to travel through the tundra. The resolution of the reindeer herders’ assembly was to allow the construction of the road to the Bovanenkovskoe field. It is noteworthy that no tundra resident objected to the extraction of oil and gas. The people have one demand: development should not stand in the way of our traditional lifestyle and reindeer herding, fishing and hunting must be protected. The implementation of nondestructive technologies by the oil companies instills hope for the preservation of the traditional lifestyle.

In April, 2004 the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!” jointly with the YNAO Department of Natural Resources Regulation supervised the operation of geophysical investigations. From June to September 2004, the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!”, the Yamalgoefizika enterprise, jointly with the environmental commission of the Tazovskiy District inspected the work of Nakhodkaneftegaz Ltd., a subsidiary of Lukoil-Western Suberia Ltd. Our meetings promoted further fruitful work both for the companies and for the indigenous people. The Director General of Lukoil-Western Siberia, V.M. Nekrasov, signed an agreement with the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!”, which guarantees the mutual responsibility of the parties, the production of oil and gas while conserving the environment, and the traditional lifestyle of the indigenous peoples. During a visit to the Nakhodka field there was a curious episode that might have disturbed the mutual accord. But thanks to V.Ya. Rogachev, Deputy Director General of Lukoil-Western Siberia Ltd., the incident was soon dismissed. This convinces us once again that in Russia there are people who are guided by principles and enthusiasm in their work. And we indeed appreciate their efforts. No less productive was the attitude of N.N. Kharyuchi, head of the MO of the Tazovskiy District, who approved the Agreement between the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!” and Lukoil-Western Siberia Ltd.
	When the Nakhodka field was developed, the new environmentally safe methods had become familiar, and this mostly served as an incentive for further cooperation. We admit that the technologies used by YNAO oil and gas companies for environmental protection are excellent; we merely call upon everybody for openness and confidence among the indigenous people, including the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!”. 

A major question in the development of oil and gas fields is where reindeer herders, fishermen and hunters are to go from their lands occupied by oil and gas production facilities.
	For reindeer herding enterprises the profit loss can be estimated. Urengoygazprom allocated about 100 million rubles to the CJSC Nydinskoe for the liquidation of a single reindeer herding team at the Pestsovoe Field. But who would return the lost profit to the families of reindeer herders – to reindeer-herders, fishermen, hunters, who are dependent on their own reindeer? And the moral loss, which can hardly be evaluated in terms of money?
	Reindeer herders have lost lands for over 50 years. Where should these people live, what should they do? Where will their children live, what they will study, how will they be dressed, will they be healthy? These questions could have been solved long ago, if not for the monopoly of state farms in the social sector. But reindeer have not been publicly owned since the establishment of reindeer-herding joint-stock companies. Reindeer herders are not deer owners but rather a paid work force, having no tools to protect their social or economic rights. That is why in March 1992 at the Yarudei Station, participants of the reindeer herder conference of the Okrug demanded that the reindeer herding farms must not be turned into joint-stock companies. Back at that time we foresaw what would happen today. Employed in the public sector are from 12 to 20% of the migratory population, and 75-80% of the population get their food and clothing from their reindeer. 
	In March 1992, at the Yarudei Station, the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!” recommended to the local and administrative bodies and local self-administration to start a Program for the Preservation and Development of Traditional Livelihood of the Autonomous Okrug.
	A research conference, titled The Concept of Socio-Economic Development of Northern Indigenous Peoples of the YNAO, was arranged. It was a good basis for the solution of the problems at the time of sheer lawlessness. 
	The traditionally based economic activities of the Northern peoples are only poorly developed. First, at the municipal level no financial or material assistance is rendered to the newly-formed indigenous clan communities. Second, the managers of commercial enterprises are often not to be relied upon. Third, the state and municipal authorities have no agencies responsible for the commercial activities of Northern indigenous peoples.
	The existing, commercial reindeer-herding and fishery enterprises are fully supported by local administration. The monopoly thus created in the agricultural field brings misfortunes to indigenous people; in fact natural resources are massively destroyed due to overgrazing by reindeer, cutting of antlers, and reduction of fishing and hunting grounds for individuals.
	Over the last 10 years, at the initiative of the Association “Yamal to Our Descendants!”, some fairly big opportunities are offered at the state and municipal levels, i.e., programs and subprograms are funded for the preservation and development of reindeer herding and trading stations. Several reforms in fishery have taken place. But the fact is suggestive that the reindeer herders themselves, the tundra residents and fishermen, are not living any better.”

40 years on the air 

T. Gostyukhina, Director, Programme for Peoples of the North, Regional State Broadcasting Company Yamal-Region

In a historical perspective, the alphabets for the languages of the indigenous peoples living in our okrug appeared very recently. It happened in the second quarter of the last century. But the Nenets language was broadcast for the first time on 5 March 1964, even later than the appearance of the alphabet.
	40 years have passed since then. But how much has it changed our lives! For several years a special Directorate of Programmes for Peoples of the North has functioned within the Okrug Broadcasting Company of the Yamal Region. This small but efficient and service-minded department runs television and radio programmes in five languages: Nenets, Khanty, Selkup, Komi-Zyryan, and Russian.
	Every year the equipment of the Directorate is improving. Now there is a car, computers with language-specific alphabets, and contemporary recording facilities. An extensive database and numerous business trips enable us to compile interesting and variable programmes about every ethnic group. Captioning information in different northern languages notably expanded the TV audience.
	The main concerns of the journalists of the Directorate are to preserve and develop native languages and to provide the rural and nomadic population with information on regional and national current events. Economic problems, legislation affecting local people, establishing new relationships with the state and local governments - these are issues reflected in many of the programmes.
	There is a 20 minute TV broadcast once a week, repeated some hours later. This work is supervised by Zinaida Longortova, an experienced journalist, who has been working in mass media for more than 15 years. In addition to the programme The Northern Colour in Russian on the culture of indigenous peoples, she also writes Tut Sultam, a programme in the Khanty language in which she tells listeners about her native people.
	Larisa Taiberi, a university student, has been compiling broadcasts in the Nenets language for three years. Every programme is more interesting and diverse than the preceding one. 
	The programme Iz’vatas Olem in Komi-Zyryan is appreciated by the audience for interesting stories about this people. It is compiled by the experienced journalist Anatoliy Terent’ev and the young correspondent Anna Rocheva.
	In addition to the above-listed languages there are the radio programmes in the Selkup language Me Chelomyn and Kentyl. The programme Voice of Newcomers by Rufina Andreevna is known very well not only within her native region but also in the Purovsk Region, where the Selkups have been settled since ancient times. 
	There are three journalists working together at different programmes in the Khanty language in the special department: Evgeniy Ozelov, Yuliya Nakova and Elena Sibareva. Their programmes Onas and Murkhi sun are most heard in those regions where this language is still preserved – the Ural foothills and the Shuryshkarsk Region.
	Much work is done by the experienced editors Anna Lamdo and Yuliya Taleeva in the Nenets language on broadcasting folklore texts, preparing programmes about indigenous story tellers, and about contemporary people learning the basics of market relations. Their programmes Yamal Yun and Nedarma are broadcast once a week.
	10 years have passed since the editorial board for programmes in the Komi-Zyryan language was organized. A creative approach is typical for programmes by Maria Eltysheva and Valentina Shakhova, who visit even distant places, where only two or three Komi-Zyryan families live. 
	Today’s controversial issues are frequently dealt with in the programmes, such as how the traditional way of life may be preserved under the extensive development of the oil and gas industry in the region. Nelly Longortova discussed this question during her visit to the Khants living and working in the Sugmuto-Pyakutin Community.
	Larisa Taiberi raises in her programmes the problems of rebuilding trading stations and rendering of services, cooperation of reindeer herders and municipal authorities with those who now own these places.
	The life in small settlements, problems affecting the indigenous youth, preservation of the natural environment, programmes for children – all these issues are reflected in our broadcasts.
	The fact that only one to three persons work in each department does not entail a lack of new topics or a failure to take advantage of new technologies. Round-table discussions, live broadcasts, and talk shows generate new feelings and attract not only those speaking indigenous languages, but the Russian-speaking audience as well. 
	40 years is really not such a long time. But today journalists meets much greater requirements than in the 1960s. It is essential to understand the fundamentals of economy and legislation, to keep up with recent developments in the life of arctic indigenous peoples, and to master modern information technology. At the same time a journalist should have a perfect command of his or her native language, be acquainted with traditions and customs, and not be daunted by difficulties encountered during visits to remote nomads’ camps and small villages.
	The present generation of journalists endeavors to satisfy these requirements to combine a contemporary, creative approach with the broad.

Shemanovskiy Yamalo-Nenets Okrug Museum and Exhibition Complex 

Т. Zvereva and М. Kuzsmenkova, members of the Department of Museum Education

In 1906, the Senior of the Obodor Mission, Father Irinarkh (Ivan Shemanovsky) founded a museum – Ethnographic Collections of Native Peoples of the Tobol North, which has become one of the centers for storing and popularization of the cultural heritage of the indigenous peoples of the Ob North.
	In Soviet times The Ethnographic Collections of the Tobol North was renamed as the Obodor-Yamal Bureau of Local Lore Studies and subsequently became the Salekhard Local Lore Museum. The Museum was later granted regional status and was renamed the Yamalo-Nenets Local Lore Okrug Museum 
	There are over 40 000 objects housed in the museum today. In the year of its 90th anniversary, the Okrug Local Lore Museum was named after its creator– Ivan Shemanovsky. And in October 2002, one of the oldest cultural institutions merged with the young Exhibition Center. Yury Neelov, Governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, issued a decree to establish the Shemanovsky Yamalo-Nenets Okrug Museum and Exhibition Complex.
	Today it is a single complex with attractive, unusual architecture, modern technical equipment, meeting facilities and conference hall, exhibition center, a museum with exhibition hall and storage facilities. The merger of the two institutions brought about ample opportunities for staging exhibitions and conducing workshops and conferences in a well-equipped facility of over two thousand square meters.
	Today, the museum is not only a solid institution with a rich history and unique museum collections, but is also a center where various spheres of activity and information flows intersect. The museum is a popular cultural centers not only of the city but of the wider Okrug. The modern institution with deep historical roots attracts a large number of people irrespective of their age and social status.

The following are new initiatives of the museum..

Children’s Studio Co-creation
Со-Creation is a studio for schoolchildren who want to study the history and culture of their land.. In the program children set off on a fascinating journey to the sources of the world. We open doors to the age of legends, to the time when all things and phenomena received their names. Our guides on that journey are the most interesting sciences: archeology and ethnography. The children come to know: 
- Where the fairytale came from; 
- What is the picture of the world;
- What do people need myths for and who thinks them up;
- What would have become of the man unless he had not made important discoveries in antiquity;
- How to utilize the mammoth;
- What can the ancient jugs tell you about;
- What did toys look like before, etc. 
The program of classes in the studio familiarizes children with ethnography and archeology. The classes are conducted in a participatory and unusual manner. The children most interested in ethnography have classes turned into an ethnographic puppet theater. And children carried away by archeology can try their own hands at the ancient technologies of working with ivory, wood, ceramics, leather, etc. so these classes turn into artisan workshops. Schoolchildren can take part in expeditions, gather information for their own studies, and subsequently participate in various research conferences for schoolchildren throughout Russia. Teachers are invited to participate. Classes may involve one school grade and be taught alternately at school and at the museum. Students in grades 1 – 7 are invited..
The Inter-school Scientific Society proposes collaboration with the museum’s departments to aid subject teachers to do research work with school students.
The Department of Natural History invites students of the general history of the region, its plant and animal life, paleontology and geology.
The Department of History and Local Lore Studies invites students of the history of the region of the 17-19th centuries, the history of the 20th century, including the 501st Construction Project, the Great Patriotic War, and oil and gas industrial development in the region.
The Department of Archeology invites students of the ancient history of the region, the human settlement of the region, the economy systems and the study of ancient art.
The Department of Ethnography invites students of the peoples living in northern Western Siberia, their traditions, culture, folklore and religious concepts.
The Department of Museum Studies was stablished to aid school museums. It specializes in the study of museum activities, collection work, creations of temporary and permanent exhibitions, and museum and exhibition design.
In the near future the following departments are to be established at the musuem:
The Department of World Art Culture (with the assistance of the State Hermitate, St. Petersburg) and the 
Department of Computer Technologies.