Chukchi people
 Chukchi family
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (15,938 (2002 Census)) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Chukotka Autonomous Okrug (Russia) | |
 Russia
|
15,908 |
 Ukraine
|
30 |
 Estonia
|
11 |
| Languages | |
| Russian, Chukchi | |
| Religion | |
| Shamanism, Russian Orthodoxy | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| other Chukotko-Kamchatkan peoples | |
The Chukchi or Chukchee, Russian: чукчи (plural), чукча (singular), are an indigenous people inhabiting the Chukchi Peninsula and the shores of the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea region of the Arctic Ocean within the Russian Federation. They speak the Chukchi language. The Chukchi originated from the people living around the Okhotsk Sea.
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 Koryak Autonomous Okrug 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 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 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 'true person').
In Chukchi religion, every object, whether animate or inanimate, is assigned a spirit. This spirit can be either harmful or beneficial. Some of Chukchi myths reveal a dualistic cosmology. In the 1920s, the Soviet Union prohibited Chukchi religious practices and tried to suppress their religion..
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Wikipedia