Kereks (
autonym: , , "seaside people"; ) are an ethnic group of people in
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 ...
. In the 2021
census
A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
, only 23 people registered as ethnic Kereks in
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 ...
. According to the 2010 census, there were only 4, and according to the 2002 census, there were 8 people registered as Kereks. According to the 1897 census, there were still 102 Kereks. During the twentieth century, Kereks were almost completely assimilated into the
Chukchi people
The Chukchi, or Chukchee (, ''ḷygʺoravètḷʹèt, o'ravètḷʹèt''), are a Siberian ethnic group native to the Chukchi Peninsula, the shores of the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea region of the Arctic Ocean all within modern Russia. They s ...
.
In 2024, Ukrainian media reported that "one of the last members of the Kerek people" had died; furthermore, he "was
killed in action
Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...
on the
Kursk front of the Russo-Ukrainian War. But later reporting indicated the soldier's obituary was a fake, and a photo of another Russian soldier from
Buryatia
Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia, is a republic of Russia located in the Russian Far East. Formerly part of the Siberian Federal District, it has been administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District since 2018. To its nort ...
, who died in the war with Ukraine, was used for the grave photo.
Language
Their traditional language is the
Kerek language, but it is no longer spoken. Kerek descendants speak
Chukchi and
Russian. The Kerek language, which belongs to the Chukchi–Kamchatka family (it is included in Paleoasiatic languages), is close to the
Koryak language and is often considered a dialect of the latter.
Lifestyle
Historically, the Kerek were a settled people who engaged in fishing and hunting of wild deer and mountain sheep.
Southern Kereks also practiced small-scale
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 ...
. They also kept sled dogs and collected fur from marine mammals.
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 ...
and
animism
Animism (from meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and in ...
was strong among the Kerek, with the Kerek never converting to Christianity.
References
Further reading
* Leontev V.V. ''On the land of ancient Kereks''. Magadan: Magadan Book Publishing House, 1976. 260 p.
External links
The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire -- Kereks
Indigenous peoples of Siberia
Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East
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