Negidals (, "local people"; , ''negidaltsy'')The Negidals – The Red Book of the Peoples of Russian Empire
/ref> are an Indigenous ethnic group in the

Khabarovsk Krai Khabarovsk Krai (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krai) of Russia. It is located in the Russian Far East and is administratively part of the Far Eastern Federal District. The administrative centre of the krai is the types of ...

in Russia, who live along the Amgun River and

Amur River The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ''proper'' is ...

. The ethnonym "Negidal" is a Russian rendering of the Ewenki term ''ngegida'', which means "coastal people".

Distribution

Negidals are an indigenous ethnic group inhabiting the lower reaches of Amgun River (formerly also living in the

region) in Priamurye, Russian Far East. Nowadays, the majority of Negidals live in Ulchskiy District and, to a lesser extent, in Imeni Poliny Osipenko District (mostly in Vladimirovka village) in

; a number of Negidal families also live in Nikolayevsky, Nanaisky and other districts.Negidals have been a small indigenous community in the Russian Far East since the first population censuses, as demonstrated by the Negidal Population Table. A major drawback of most censuses is the insufficient coverage of the Negidal population, in particular, the Soviet censuses listied Evenks and Orochs as Negidals in certain cases: According to the 2002 census, there were 567 Negidals in Russia, 147 of whom still spoke the Negidal language. According to the 2010 census, there were 513 Negidals in Russia, 75 of whom still spoke the Negidal language. After the fall of the USSR, according to the 2001 census, 52 Ukrainian citizens identified themselves as Negidals. Of these, 31 declared Negidal as their native language, 11 are Russian-speaking and for 9 the mother tongue is another language.

Language and subgroups

The Negidal language belongs to the Tungusic language family and is closely related to the

Evenki language Evenki ( ), formerly known as Tungus, is the largest member of the northern group of Tungusic languages, a group which also includes Even, Negidal, and the more closely related Oroqen language. The name is sometimes wrongly given as "Evenks". ...

. Negidal alphabet was introduced in 2009 but is scarcely, if ever, used. The majority of Negidals living in Russia speak the Russian language. Negidal has two dialects – Upper Negidal (''Verkhovskoj'') and the now seemingly extinct Lower Negidal (''Nizovskoj''); the dialectal division corresponds with the subethnic division into Lower and Upper Negidals, the two subgroups having local cultural, traditional, and linguistic differences. The Negidal language is considered an

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a " dead langua ...

; a 2017 study failed to find any active speakers of the Lower dialect, with only a few elderly people actively speaking Upper Negidal in Vladimirovka.

Origin and history

Negidal people are considered to descend from

Evenks The Evenki, also known as the Evenks and formerly as the Tungus, are a Tungusic peoples, Tungusic people of North Asia. In Russia, the Evenki are recognised as one of the Indigenous peoples of the Russian North, indigenous peoples of the Russi ...

that settled in the Amgun basin during the

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

. After branching off from the main Tungusic ethnic family and reaching the Okhotsk Coast, Negidals were geographically isolated. The Amgun River served as a link connecting isolated Negidal settlements. Ancient Negidals who settled in this region relied primarily on fishing and kept their economic and cultural traditions. Although Negidals preserved traditional ties with the

, they also began actively contacting autochthonous peoples such as Ulchs, Nanai and

Nivkh Nivkh or Amuric or Gilyak may refer to: * Nivkh people (''Nivkhs'') or Gilyak people (''Gilyaks'') * Nivkh languages or Gilyak languages * Gilyak class gunboat, ''Gilyak'' class gunboat, such as the Russian gunboat Korietz#Second gunboat, second R ...

, who consequently influenced Negidals' ethnogenesis, as well as their cultural and economic life, and to some extent, assimilated them. From the middle of the second millennium until the nineteenth century, the Negidals, like other local groups, paid tribute to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and maintained trade relations with

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic peoples, Tungusic East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized Ethnic minorities in China, ethnic minority in China and the people from wh ...

merchants. Negidals first made contact with Russians in the early 17th century. As Russia expanded into the region, migrants from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and Ukraine began to actively settle in the Far East. In the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, Negidals had been affected by the

collectivization Collective farming and communal farming are various types of "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member- ...

. Particularly, in 1945, due to the merging of smaller

kolkhoz A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz. These were the two components of the socialized farm sector that began to eme ...

es, Negidals from Chukchagirskoye and Kamenka were resettled to Vladimirovka village.

Religion

Negidals are officially considered Orthodox Christians but preserved their own

animistic Animism (from meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things—animals, plants, Rock (geology), rocks, rivers, Weather, ...

beliefs and

shamanism Shamanism is a spiritual practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with the spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritual energies into ...

Traditional life and society

Traditionally, Negidals relied primarily on fishing and hunting. Upper Negidals also practiced

reindeer herding Reindeer herding is when reindeer are herded by people in a limited area. Currently, reindeer are the only semi-domesticated animal which naturally belong to the North. Reindeer herding is conducted in nine countries: Norway, Finland, Sweden, Russ ...

(exclusively as a means of transport). Negidals fished in winter and summer and hunted marine mammals (primarily seals) using harpoons. Both Upper and Lower Negidals employed

dog sled A dog sled or dog sleigh is a sled pulled by one or more sled dogs used to travel over ice and through snow, a practice known as mushing. Numerous types of sleds are used, depending on their function. They can be used for Sled dog racing, dog sl ...

s; and the Upper Negidals also rode reindeer sleds, occasionally sitting on the backs of reindeer. Boats and skis are two other traditional means of transportation. In the past, Negidals employed

travois A travois (; Canadian French, from French language, French ; also travoise or travoy) is an A-frame structure used to drag loads over land, most notably by the Plains Indians of North America. Construction and use The basic construction con ...

(called ''kelchi''), usually for dragging large prey. Negidals traditionally crafted clothing and footwear out of animal hides and fur and produced handmade household items (such as fur blankets or

birch bark Birch bark or birchbark is the bark of several Eurasian and North American birch trees of the genus ''Betula''. For all practical purposes, birch bark's main layers are the outer dense layer, white on the outside, and the inner porous layer ( ...

utensils). Negidal traditional garments consisted of clothing and footwear made out of fish and seal skin and dog hides. Traditional attire included robes (''tetchennge, uykeli''), leggings (''heykii''), different types of footwear (''onta'') and headwear (''avun''). Negidal housing vary depending on the sub-ethnic group (Upper or Lower Negidals) and time of the year. Traditionally, Upper Negidals lived in large movable ''chum'' tents, that were covered with reindeer hides in the winter. Lower Negidals, who were more settled, had winter lodgings—large carcass houses with a kang along one of the walls—while summer lodgings were small gable-roofed bark huts made from bark. Hunters built forest huts for temporary shelter. Log cabins first began to be used by the Negidal people in the late 18th century. The flooring was made out of birch bark mats. A hut consisted of a hearth (later a stove borrowed from the Russians) and beds, covered with conifer branches and animal hides. These beds served as both tables and resting places. Tools and utensils were hung on the walls or placed in corners. Negidals adapted farming from Russian settlers in the late 19th century; farming was actively introduced in Soviet kolkhozes, but after the fall of the Soviet Union, it remained mostly in the form of gardens.

References

External links

Article about the Negidal people at the Upholding Rights of Indigenous Peoples of Sibea project of ''Novosibirsk State University''

Negidal folk music
{{Authority control Ethnic groups in Russia Tungusic peoples Khabarovsk Krai Indigenous peoples of Siberia Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East Pages translated from Ukrainian Wikipedia Pages translated from Russian Wikipedia