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30-596: The village is named after the nearby eponymous river and is translated as shooter , so called because the area was the site of a battle between Chukchi and strangers on horseback. Initially the village was established as the Chaunsky Cultural Base ( Russian : Чаунская культбаза ) at the mouth of the Chaun River , but it was transferred to the mouth of the Rytkuchi River in 1954. A census

60-522: A Tundra climate ( ET ) because the warmest month has an average temperature between 0 °C (32 °F) and 10 °C (50 °F) according to the Köppen climate classification . Chukchi people The Chukchi , or Chukchee ( Chukot : Ԓыгъоравэтԓьэт, О'равэтԓьэт , Ḷygʺoravètḷʹèt, O'ravètḷʹèt ), are a Siberian ethnic group native to the Chukchi Peninsula , the shores of

90-414: A mean annual temperature of −12.8 °C, mean January temperatures of −31.4 °C and mean July temperatures of just +9.5 °C. Snow is a possibility throughout the year and the mean winter wind speed is 5–7 m/s, gusting to 20–40 m/s during strong snowstorms. Mean annual precipitation is 251 mm, and 30–40 cm of snow in places is not uncommon by the beginning of spring. Rytkuchi has

120-426: A naive way. Chukchi Peninsula The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula ; Russian : Чуко́тский полуо́стров , Chukotskiy poluostrov , short form Russian : Чуко́тка , Chukotka ), at about 66° N 172° W, is the easternmost peninsula of Asia . Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village of Uelen . The Chukotka Mountains are located in the central/western part of

150-427: Is assigned a spirit. This spirit can be either harmful or benevolent. Some of Chukchi myths reveal a dualistic cosmology . A Chukchi shaman once explained to the ethnographer Vladimir Bogoraz that "The lamp walks around. The walls of the house have voices of their own. ... Even the shadows on the wall constitute definite tribes and have their own country, where they live in huts and subsist by hunting." After

180-607: Is traditionally the home of tribes of the indigenous peoples of Siberia as well as some Russian settlers. It lies along the Northern Sea Route , or Northeast Passage . Industries on the peninsula are mining ( tin , lead , zinc , gold , and coal ), hunting and trapping , reindeer raising, and fishing . In the Bering Strait about halfway between the peninsula and the Seward Peninsula are

210-862: The Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea region of the Arctic Ocean all within modern Russia . They speak the Chukchi language . The Chukchi originated from the people living around the Okhotsk Sea . According to several studies on genomic research conducted from 2014 to 2018, the Chukchi are the closest Asian relatives of the indigenous peoples of the Americas as well as of the Ainu people , being

240-632: The Cossacks and the Chukchi. As the annual trade fairs where goods were exchanged continued, a common language between the two peoples was spoken. The natives, however, never paid yasak , or tributes, and their status as subjects was little more than a formality. The formal annexation of the Chukotka Peninsula did not happen until much later, during the time of the Soviet Union. Apart from four Orthodox schools, there were no schools in

270-552: The collapse of the Soviet Union , the state-run farms were reorganized and nominally privatized. This process was ultimately destructive to the village-based economy in Chukotka. The region has still not fully recovered. Many rural Chukchi, as well as Russians in Chukotka's villages, have survived in recent years only with the help of direct humanitarian aid. Some Chukchi have attained university degrees, becoming poets, writers, politicians, teachers and doctors. In prehistoric times,

300-513: The 1920s, the Soviets organized the economic activities of both coastal and inland Chukchi and eventually established 28 collectively run, state-owned enterprises in Chukotka. All of these were based on reindeer herding, with the addition of sea mammal hunting and walrus ivory carving in the coastal areas. Chukchi were educated in Soviet schools and today are almost 100% literate and fluent in

330-550: The 2010 census was 517, of whom 284 were male and 233 female. It was estimated at 494 in January 2009, a slight increase on the figure of 482 estimated in 2005 according to an environmental impact report produced for the Kupol Gold Project, a reduction from an estimate of 509 as of 2002, (of which 323 were Chukchi) but an overall increase from 493 estimated in 1993. Rytkuchi suffers from a severe Arctic climate , with

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360-409: The 80 inhabitants of the village were Russian. The collective nature of the reindeer herding was reinforced by the establishment of twelve brigades in 1965, supplied with motorised transport to improve their work. In 1980 an official industry for the production of Chukchi handicrafts was established in the village, and a museum was opened in the village six years later. Rytkuchi is a maritime village on

390-526: The Chukchi and Koryak . The first attempt to conquer them was made in 1701. Other expeditions were sent out in 1708, 1709 and 1711 with considerable bloodshed but little success and unable to eliminate the local population on the large territory. War was renewed in 1729, when the Chukchi defeated an expedition from Okhotsk and killed its commander. Command passed to Major Dmitry Pavlutsky , who adopted very destructive tactics , burning, driving off reindeer, killing men and capturing women and children. In 1742,

420-472: The Chukchi engaged in nomadic hunter gatherer modes of existence. In current times, there continue to be some elements of subsistence hunting, including that of polar bears , seals , walruses , whales , and reindeer . There are some differences between the traditional lifestyles of the coastal and inland Chukchi. The coastal Chukchi were largely settled fishers and hunters, mainly of sea mammals. The inland Chukchi were partial reindeer herders. Beginning in

450-477: The Chukchi land until the late 1920s. In 1926, there were 72 literate Chukchis. The Soviets introduced a Latin alphabet in 1932 to transcribe their language, replacing it with Cyrillic in 1937. In 1934, 71% of the Chukchis were nomadic . In 1941, 90% of the reindeer were still privately owned. So-called kulaks roamed with their private herds up into the 1950s. After 1990 and the fall of the Soviet Union, there

480-723: The Russian Empire, began to trade peacefully with the Russians. From 1788, they participated in an annual trade fair on the lower Kolyma. Another was established in 1775 on the Angarka, a tributary of the Bolshoy Anyuy River . This trade declined in the late 19th century when American whalers and others began landing goods on the coast. The first Orthodox missionaries entered Chukchi territory some time after 1815. The strategy worked, trade began to flourish between

510-657: The Russian language. Only a portion of them today work directly in reindeer herding or sea mammal hunting , and continue to live a nomadic lifestyle in yaranga tents. The warlike Chukchi waged frequent wars against neighboring tribes, especially the Koryaks . Russians first began contacting the Chukchi when they reached the Kolyma River (1643) and the Anadyr River (1649). The route from Nizhnekolymsk to

540-476: The delta causes high tides to travel deep into the delta, creating salt meadows up to 10 km upstream from Rytkuchi. The economy is centred on reindeer husbandry, and Rytkuchi, along with Ayon , is the main location for reindeer husbandry in Chaunsky District. The men of the village spend most of their time out on the tundra, with many of the women and children spending up to nine months a year in

570-628: The descendants of settlers who neither crossed the Bering Strait nor settled the Japanese archipelago. The majority of Chukchi reside within Chukotka Autonomous Okrug , but some also reside in the neighboring Sakha Republic to the west, Magadan Oblast to the southwest, and Kamchatka Krai to the south. Some Chukchi also reside in other parts of Russia, as well as in Europe and North America . The total number of Chukchi in

600-538: The fairly small Diomede Islands ; the western one is Big Diomede , Russia and the eastern one is Little Diomede Island , Alaska. The much larger St. Lawrence Island , Alaska, is about 50 km (31 mi) southeast of the peninsula's southernmost point. The Eturerveyem River flows into Kolyuchin Bay on the peninsula. 66°00′N 172°00′W  /  66.000°N 172.000°W  / 66.000; -172.000 This Chukotka Autonomous Okrug location article

630-538: The fort at Anadyrsk along the southwest of the main Chukchi area became a major trade route. The overland journey from Yakutsk to Anadyrsk took about six months. The Chukchi were generally ignored for the next fifty years because they were warlike and did not provide furs or other valuable commodities to tax. Armed skirmishes flared up around 1700 when the Russians began operating in the Kamchatka Peninsula and needed to protect their communications from

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660-466: The government at Saint Petersburg ordered another war in which the Chukchi and Koryak were to be "totally extirpated". The war (1744–7) was conducted with similar brutality and ended when Pavlutsky was killed in March 1747. It is said that the Chukchi kept his head as a trophy for a number of years. The Russians waged war again in the 1750s, but a part of Chukchi people did survive this extermination plans on

690-526: The peninsula, which is bounded by the Chukchi Sea to the north, the Bering Sea to the south, and the Bering Strait to the east, where at its easternmost point it is only about 60 km (37 mi) from Seward Peninsula in Alaska ; this is the smallest distance between the land masses of Eurasia and North America . The peninsula is part of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia . The peninsula

720-593: The southern shore of Chaunskaya Bay only 15 km from the Ust-Chaun wetland. The wetland is a flat, alluvial plain, consisting of a large number of small lakes, generally less than 70 cm deep, and is a delta area resulting from the confluence of the Chaun ( Russian : Чаун ), Palyavaam ( Russian : Паляваам ), Pucheveyem River ( Russian : Пучувеем ), Lelyuveyem ( Russian : лелувеем ) and Olvergyrgyvaam ( Russian : Oлвеpгэргырваам ) Rivers. The flat nature of

750-476: The very far North East (see on the right a map for population territories during the extermination activity by the Russian Empire). In 1762, with a new ruler , Saint Petersburg adopted a different policy. Maintaining the fort at Anadyrsk had cost some 1,380,000 rubles, but the area had returned only 29,150 rubles in taxes, so the government abandoned Anadyrsk in 1764. The Chukchi, no longer attacked by

780-432: The village so that the children can get an education. The village has both a high school and a pre-school. The weapons used by the herders are often late nineteenth or early twentieth century Winchester rifles traded to them in pre-Soviet times by American traders in search of furs. The population of Rytkuchi has fluctuated slightly between the 1990s and the present day but has remained around 500. The population according to

810-553: The world slightly exceeds 16,000. The Chukchi are traditionally divided into the Maritime Chukchi , who had settled homes on the coast and lived primarily from sea mammal hunting, and the Reindeer Chukchi , who lived as nomads in the inland tundra region, migrating seasonally with their herds of reindeer . The Russian name "Chukchi" is derived from the Chukchi word Chauchu ("rich in reindeer"), which

840-501: Was a major exodus of Russians from the area because of the underfunding of the local industry. Population estimates from Forsyth: In the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine since 2022, the Chukchis have been reported as one of Russia's ethnic minority groups suffering from a disproportionally large casualty rate among Russian forces. Chukchi jokes are a form of ethnic humor . They are portrayed as primitive yet clever in

870-484: Was first conducted in Rytkuchi in 1939, with the first kolkhoz in the village being established the following year. A year later, cultural amenities in the village were enhanced with the arrival of a dedicated teacher and the establishment of a cultural centre and a clinic. The first sovkhoz in the village was established in 1957 for the purpose of reindeer herding. Two years later, the 1959 census revealed that most of

900-473: Was used by the 'Reindeer Chukchi' to distinguish themselves from the 'Maritime Chukchi,' called Anqallyt ("the sea people"). Their name for a member of the Chukchi ethnic group as a whole is Luoravetlan (literally 'genuine person'). The anthropologist Marshall Sahlins called the Chukchi "tribes without rulers". They often lacked formal political structures, but had a formal cosmic hierarchy. In Chukchi religion, every object, whether animate or inanimate,

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