Traditional Chukchi People

The Chukchis are a semi-nomadic, reindeer-hunting people of extreme north-eastern Siberia. Today, the Chukchi population totals about 16,000; there is evidence that, in the past, the population was greater. Both the climatic and political oppression that have endured over the centuries have given the Chukchis the nickname "Apaches of the North". Of course, they dont call themselves that. They call themselves the Luoravetlan, which means "the genuine people," possibly implying something negative about the rest of us.

The word Siberia is almost synonymous with "cold", but the earliest Chukchis probably enjoyed a milder climate than they do today. In those warmer times, they apparently relied on dogs primarily for help in hunting the plentiful reindeer. About 3,000 years ago, however, the climate changed drastically for the worse. The reindeer had to travel farther and farther to find food, and the deer dependent Chukchis had to travel with them, taking their households along.

During this same period, the Chukchis engaged in a series of struggles with the Eskimos for control of the Bering Strait region. The Chukchis lost, and consequently, they were pushed even farther back into the interior, far from the seal rich seas.

It was in this way that the Siberian dogs added sled hauling to their list of accomplishments. These animals were so highly prized that only very young, very old, and very sick Chukchis were allowed to ride in the sleds as passengers. The sleds were mostly used for hauling goods; the people walked. Sometimes the Chukchi women and children pulled the sleds also, right along with the dogs.

Chukchi land, officailly known as the Chukchi Autonomous Region, is a place of almost unbelieveable hardship. It is mostly tundra, a vast and treeless plain, with permanently frozen subsoil. The forested tundra had plenty of rugged mountains, however, alternating with lowlands and many small lakes, with swampy taiga along the coast (taiga ends where tundra begins). The rivers are mostly mountain streams which flood heavily and rapidly. When they're not flooding, they're frozen. That's just the way it is in Chukchi country. The winter lasts up to eight months, and even the summer isn't what you'd call balmy.

Although the Chukchis were an illiterate people, they gave birth to a rich and complex culture. They created portable art in the form of ritual dances and tambourine music. They developed an elaborate, monotheistic religion based on shamanistic healing, and conceived of a heaven whose gates were guarded by a pair of their Chukchi dogs. Furthermore, the Chukchis belived that anyone who mistreated a dog would not be allowed into Chukchi heaven.

After a while, the Chukchis learned to domesticate the reindeer they had previously hunted. It was a whole lot easier than chasing them around over the tundra. As a result, the Chukchis became a little less nomadic; they taught their dogs to herd the deer instead of killing them. Reindeer meant everything to the Chukchi people. They used them for food, tents, transportation and clothing. They burned reindeer fat in their lamps. Thread for sewing came from reindeer sinew.

The Chukchis bred their dogs for multi-purpose work: hunting, herding and hauling light loads. Because the Chukchis had their now domestic reindeer to pull the heaviest loads, they placed a premium on developing their dogs for speed, endurance and agility, rather than brute strength. It paid off. No other breed in the world can haul a light load as fast and far as the Sibieran Husky and on so little food.

There's a difference of opinion as to whether the original dogs of the Chukchi were the same dogs as the Siberian Husky of today. What genetic traces of those long ago and far off times lie in the present-day Siberian Husky is impossible now to determine. We have no photos and no written contemporary records. Many authorities believe that originally there were two seperate breeds, perhaps developed by seperate groups - one for sledding, and one for herding. Others think the earliest Huskies did it all - pulled, herded and hunted. They may have even eaten their "owners" from time to time. Whatever the case may have been, today's Husky is used for sled pulling only, although if left unchecked, they will occasioanlly kill deer. (They wont herd them though)

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