The work of preserving elderly knowledge in indigenous communities has been undertaken in real life in Siberia, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The details of the work involve a recounting of the Soviet experiences, as well as a monitoring of the adjustment success for the studied indigenous community in the post-Soviet era. The fascinating details of this study can be found below:

Susan A. Crate. “Elder Knowledge and Sustainable Livelihoods in Post-Soviet Russia: Finding Dialogue across the Generations.” Arctic Anthropology 43, no. 1 (2006): 40-51. https://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed March 26, 2017).

The presence and impact of cultural aspects which facilitate the resilience to changes in the Nenets’ socio-ecological systems is discussed in further detail in the following piece.

Bruce C. Forbes, “Cultural Resilience of Social-ecological Systems in the Nenets and Yamal- Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, Russia: A Focus on Reindeer Nomads of the Tundra.” Ecology & Society 18, no. 4 (December 2013): 1-16. GreenFILE, EBSCOhost (accessed March 26, 2017).

As was oft the dialogue during the time, the Soviet Union had claimed a victory for modernity of the Northern People following its firm establishment as a nation, beginning most prominently in the 1950’s. As indigenous communities, the Soviets had believed they had succeeded in transcending the communities across time and into the present: they had taking a primitive society and bypassed it through the developmental modes of production (slavery, feudalism, capitalism) to achieve the pinnacle of socialism. Thus, these communities were largely perceived to be drawn out of “timelessness and brought (them) into history” (227). This would serve to not be the case, as the resilience of the Nenet community would show.

An interesting discussion on the restructuring of the Siberian indigenous identity is found in chapter 13 of the following text:

Gayla Diment and Yuri Slezkine, Between Heaven and Hell: The Myth of Siberia in Russian Culture (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993).

Education served as a hallmark policy of the Soviet region, who wished to most impact the lives of the northern peoples through the implementation of an education which would garner an understanding and appreciation for the socialist system under which they lived. Upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this appreciation would no longer serve a function, and created a sense of disillusionment among the Nenets.

For more information on the details of Soviet initiatives during the intermediary period of rule (1937-1957), read chapter six of the below text:

Terence Armstrong, The Russians in the Arctic: Aspects of Soviet Exploration and Exploitation of the Far North, 1937-1957 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Publishers, 1972).

Perhaps the most extensive historical account of the Russian conquest and annexation of the Siberian region can be found in Benson Bobrick’s East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia. Within it, a thorough account is given on the 400 year history of the region’s interactions with the Russian empire. For more context and information on any time within this period, refer to this piece as the central hallmark for Siberian history.

Benson Bobrick, East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia (New York: Poseidon Press, 1992).

The Polar Ural Mountains and subsequent Mandalada resistance is an accurate and true event in the history of the Nenet community. In 1943, Soviet authorities from the Arkhandel’skaia Oblast were on their way to collect herders for reprimanding herders who sought to oppose the policies of the Union. A skirmish broke out upon their arrival, albeit brief, and the eventual surrendering of the Nenets resulted in the arrest and deportation to political prisoner camps of 36 individuals. Only two would return to camp.

This historical event of cultural resistance would burn in the memories of Nenets for years to come, and recently became available to anthropologists and researchers through an oral history recounting by several primary sources to the event.

For a full reading of the events recounted, read the source below.

Laptander, Roza. “Processes of Remembering and Forgetting: Tundra Nenets’ Reminiscences of the 1943 Mandalada Rebellions.” Sibirica: Interdisciplinary Journal of Siberian Studies 13, no. 3 (Winter2014 2014): 22-44. Historical Abstracts with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed March 26, 2017).

The genesis of reindeer herding carries intimate ties to the development and cultural realization of reindeer herding, as well as provide context for its eventual economic utility. The extensive presence of reindeer in Arctic regions serves as an initial observation towards their significance: today, approximately 3 million wild reindeer and 2 million domesticated reindeer exist, many of whom serve as the foundation of various indigenous communities. Over time, the relationship between reindeer and people has resulted in a “social contract” (Vitebsky, 27). The process of a mutually beneficial relationship, where materials are provided to the human and a subsequent dependency on domestication by the reindeer arises, the reindeer-human bond is formed and culturally embraced. This resulted in the emergence of the centrality of practices by herding community around the reindeer, including the ability to ride reindeer for transportation and the utilization of furs and antlers for communal clothing and materials. In today’s environment, these practices serve as the backbone for economic trade and commercialization of reindeer products and delicacies.

For more information on the history of reindeer herding as a central economic practice, refer to chapter 1 of Reindeer People. For more information on economic development, read

Piers Vitebsky, Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia (London: Harper Collins Publishers, 2005).

There are several terms within this first paragraph which deserve definition and context. Ty nich iry serves as the rough translation of May, and means “calving month”. It serves as the representation of the Nenet calendar, which follows lunar months and is associated with the herding season of reindeer. The tiumiu, nio, and si are all important elements of the Nenet tent. The tiumiu is the central hearth; the nio is the female’s side of the tent, and the si is the male’s side. The tiumiu serves as the symbolic division between sides, and the nio and si serve to identify the significance of gender in the Nenet community.

For more information on the gender roles of the Nenet community, as well as additional information on the contextual and locational background of Nenets, read chapters 1 and 2 of Siberian Survival: The Nenets and Their Stories.

Andrei V. Golonev and Gail Osherenko, Siberian Survival: The Nenets and Their Story (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1999).

The work of preserving elderly knowledge in indigenous communities has been undertaken in real life in Siberia, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The details of the work involve a recounting of the Soviet experiences, as well as a monitoring of the adjustment success for the studied indigenous community in the post-Soviet era. The fascinating details of this study can be found below:

Susan A. Crate. “Elder Knowledge and Sustainable Livelihoods in Post-Soviet Russia: Finding Dialogue across the Generations.” Arctic Anthropology 43, no. 1 (2006): 40-51. https://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed March 26, 2017).

The presence and impact of cultural aspects which facilitate the resilience to changes in the Nenets’ socio-ecological systems is discussed in further detail in the following piece.

Bruce C. Forbes, “Cultural Resilience of Social-ecological Systems in the Nenets and Yamal- Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, Russia: A Focus on Reindeer Nomads of the Tundra.” Ecology & Society 18, no. 4 (December 2013): 1-16. GreenFILE, EBSCOhost (accessed March 26, 2017).

As was oft the dialogue during the time, the Soviet Union had claimed a victory for modernity of the Northern People following its firm establishment as a nation, beginning most prominently in the 1950’s. As indigenous communities, the Soviets had believed they had succeeded in transcending the communities across time and into the present: they had taking a primitive society and bypassed it through the developmental modes of production (slavery, feudalism, capitalism) to achieve the pinnacle of socialism. Thus, these communities were largely perceived to be drawn out of “timelessness and brought (them) into history” (227). This would serve to not be the case, as the resilience of the Nenet community would show.

An interesting discussion on the restructuring of the Siberian indigenous identity is found in chapter 13 of the following text:

Gayla Diment and Yuri Slezkine, Between Heaven and Hell: The Myth of Siberia in Russian Culture (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993).

Education served as a hallmark policy of the Soviet region, who wished to most impact the lives of the northern peoples through the implementation of an education which would garner an understanding and appreciation for the socialist system under which they lived. Upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this appreciation would no longer serve a function, and created a sense of disillusionment among the Nenets.

For more information on the details of Soviet initiatives during the intermediary period of rule (1937-1957), read chapter six of the below text:

Terence Armstrong, The Russians in the Arctic: Aspects of Soviet Exploration and Exploitation of the Far North, 1937-1957 (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press Publishers, 1972).

Perhaps the most extensive historical account of the Russian conquest and annexation of the Siberian region can be found in Benson Bobrick’s East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia. Within it, a thorough account is given on the 400 year history of the region’s interactions with the Russian empire. For more context and information on any time within this period, refer to this piece as the central hallmark for Siberian history.

Benson Bobrick, East of the Sun: The Epic Conquest and Tragic History of Siberia (New York: Poseidon Press, 1992).

The Polar Ural Mountains and subsequent Mandalada resistance is an accurate and true event in the history of the Nenet community. In 1943, Soviet authorities from the Arkhandel’skaia Oblast were on their way to collect herders for reprimanding herders who sought to oppose the policies of the Union. A skirmish broke out upon their arrival, albeit brief, and the eventual surrendering of the Nenets resulted in the arrest and deportation to political prisoner camps of 36 individuals. Only two would return to camp.

This historical event of cultural resistance would burn in the memories of Nenets for years to come, and recently became available to anthropologists and researchers through an oral history recounting by several primary sources to the event.

For a full reading of the events recounted, read the source below.

Laptander, Roza. “Processes of Remembering and Forgetting: Tundra Nenets’ Reminiscences of the 1943 Mandalada Rebellions.” Sibirica: Interdisciplinary Journal of Siberian Studies 13, no. 3 (Winter2014 2014): 22-44. Historical Abstracts with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed March 26, 2017).

The genesis of reindeer herding carries intimate ties to the development and cultural realization of reindeer herding, as well as provide context for its eventual economic utility. The extensive presence of reindeer in Arctic regions serves as an initial observation towards their significance: today, approximately 3 million wild reindeer and 2 million domesticated reindeer exist, many of whom serve as the foundation of various indigenous communities. Over time, the relationship between reindeer and people has resulted in a “social contract” (Vitebsky, 27). The process of a mutually beneficial relationship, where materials are provided to the human and a subsequent dependency on domestication by the reindeer arises, the reindeer-human bond is formed and culturally embraced. This resulted in the emergence of the centrality of practices by herding community around the reindeer, including the ability to ride reindeer for transportation and the utilization of furs and antlers for communal clothing and materials. In today’s environment, these practices serve as the backbone for economic trade and commercialization of reindeer products and delicacies.

For more information on the history of reindeer herding as a central economic practice, refer to chapter 1 of Reindeer People. For more information on economic development, read

Piers Vitebsky, Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia (London: Harper Collins Publishers, 2005).

There are several terms within this first paragraph which deserve definition and context. Ty nich iry serves as the rough translation of May, and means “calving month”. It serves as the representation of the Nenet calendar, which follows lunar months and is associated with the herding season of reindeer. The tiumiu, nio, and si are all important elements of the Nenet tent. The tiumiu is the central hearth; the nio is the female’s side of the tent, and the si is the male’s side. The tiumiu serves as the symbolic division between sides, and the nio and si serve to identify the significance of gender in the Nenet community.

For more information on the gender roles of the Nenet community, as well as additional information on the contextual and locational background of Nenets, read chapters 1 and 2 of Siberian Survival: The Nenets and Their Stories.

Andrei V. Golonev and Gail Osherenko, Siberian Survival: The Nenets and Their Story (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1999).

As the ecological impact of the region is considered, it is worthy to note the group consciousness that the Alaskan natives experienced with regards to this risk. The heightened awareness of this ecological impact on the region became evident in the political activism and energy behind these local communities in the decade leading up to the project proposal. With the expanding presence of oil and gas extractive companies in the Northern Yukon and surrounding territories, a strong negative externality was exerted onto “fur-bearing creatures” and the resulting trapping lifestyle of the indigenous communities. Furthermore, the integrity of the region’s permafrost became comprised with the widespread and often times ill-measured construction of roads and conduct of industrial activity. Finally, the studied biodiversity of the Arctic region indicated that the ecosystem proved to be particularly vulnerable to the impacts of manmade industrial activity. These elements of vulnerability and danger to the Arctic region contributed to the notion that its ecosystem had become decidedly “disturbed” by the impacts of industrial development. This collective experience of a disturbed ecosystem led to the emergence of political activist groups such as Inupiat Paitot (or the “peoples heritage”), a political organization with the mission to serve all Alaskan natives against the external pressures of the oil and gas industries. As the development of a group consciousness among Alaskan natives grew, and subsequent grassroots organizations began to take on the political cause in the Arctic, national and international efforts to confront environmental science were simultaneously becoming a formalized and mainstream effort within into policy-making and industrial project consideration. Upon the initial arrival of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry in 1974, the stage was set for a grassroots movement against the project. In defense of an ecosystem at severe risk of damage, Alaskan natives now possessed the political and social capital necessary to bring about a concerted effort to preserve the region’s resources as well as the self-determination of indigenous communities.

Stuhl, Andrew. Unfreezing The Arctic: Science, Colonialism, and the Transformation of Inuit Lands. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

The Northern Frontier is a historical term which regards the arrival and exploitation of the Arctic region by outsider actors, or Tan’ngit, as a deterministic outcome of economic development. The notion of a predestined Arctic frontier therefore serves as a trend that significantly predates the Mackenzie Valley and Western Arctic gas pipeline and energy corridor proposal of 1977. Beginning in the 19th century, the arrival of imperial powers to the region sparked the beginning of a prolonged era of economic transformation and exploitation, fueled by the engine of an emergent capitalist economy and in the aura of colonial expansion. The establishment of industrial companies in the region, such as the Hudson Bay Company or the American Commercial Company, signified a physical presence in the region which symbolized a flag-staffing on the region. The economic trade among Inuit communities would be transformed as a result of this development. A primary example of this can be seen in the commercialization of the bowhead whale, which marked a significant advance for the drive of industrial development in the United States. The utility of whale products became widespread within metropolitan commerce, as “whale oil found its way to lighthouses, candle makers, and factory machines, while baleen formed corset stays and buggy whips”. This innovative process of commodifying the marine ecosystem of the Beaufort Sea attracted significant labor and capital investment, a development which culminated in the federal support of whale extraction from the region by the end of the century. The extension of the frontier moves beyond economic development as well. The emergence of scientific exploration in the region, often heralded for its “neutrality and objectivity”, served a particularly one-dimensional purpose in mapping the geography, ecology, and resource potential of the Arctic for imperialist powers. The historical basis of the Northern Frontier becomes important in understanding the cumulative experience of the indigenous communities upon the arrival of the pipeline and corridor proposal.

Stuhl, Andrew. Unfreezing The Arctic: Science, Colonialism, and the Transformation of Inuit Lands. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Research on the mechanics behind sea-bed permafrost and ice scour, and the relationship it holds to pipeline construction and oil/gas development, has advanced significantly in the 40 years since the birth of the Report on the Mackenzie Pipeline inquiry. National government agencies have sought to strengthen their commitment to scientific research and the standardization of safe industrial development in the Arctic. In a report from the Pew Charitable Trusts on Arctic Standards in September 2013, a set of requirements are established regarding the construction, installation and operation of equipment used to explore and develop oil and gas resources. The requirements primarily involve the containment and prevention strategies for Given these requirements, the Pew organization recommends the following for safe industrial development in the Arctic: the limitation of Arctic off-shore drilling to periods of time when oil spill cleanup capability is operable; the construction of all equipment which can withstand maximal ice force and sea state impacts; a readily available arsenal of equipment which can control and contain oil spills; the inclusion of spill response equipment which can address oil trapped under ice or within ice-infested waters; and the construction of redundancy systems to best prevent the occurrence of oil spills in the region. Additionally, a series of pipeline construction standards are laid out to address the technical difficulties of construction in the presence of sea-bed permafrost and ice scour. For more information and greater detail on this report, visit the URL cited at the bottom of this annotation.

The Pew Charitable Trusts. "Arctic Standards: Recommendations on Oil Spill Prevention, Response and Safety in the US Arctic Ocean". www.pewtrusts.org September 23, 2013. http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/assets/2013/09/23/arcticstandardsfinal.pdf

The need for research and improved programming regarding the effects of oil and gas development in the North continues to the present day. In a report released by the National Research Council (NRC) in 2014, the Arctic stands as the emerging frontier for commercial activity as the recession and thinning of Arctic sea ice continues. Despite the current market disincentive for oil and gas development in the region, which most recently resulted in Shell’s abandonment of its drilling operations in the Alaskan Arctic, the emerging possibility of commercial development leads to a growing need for reliable research on the oil/gas impact and strengthened programming for responding to potential disaster. The NRC offers a variety of actionable recommendations for furthering such research and programming in the Arctic, which includes the following: the establishment of a real time “oceanographic-ice-meteorological forecasting system” to monitor widespread sea ice movement, thickness, and related occurrences; a “long-term Arctic oil spill research and development program”, with the inclusion of industry, academic, governmental, non-governmental, grassroots and international groups; and a joint effort by the US Coast Guard and the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation to promote training programs for oil spill responses in local communities. These notable recommendations, among many more, are the product of the latest efforts to develop strengthened research to address the potential environmental impacts of oil and gas development in the region, as well as prepare the region for the inevitability of oil spills and related incidents.

Committee on Responding to Oil Spills in the U.S. Arctic Marine Environment; Ocean Studies Board; Polar Research Board; Division on Earth and Life Studies; Marine Board; Transportation Research Board; and the National Research Council. Responding to Oil Spills in the U.S. Arctic Marine Environment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2014.