Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East
The numerically small indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East ( Коренные, малочисленные народы Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока ) belong to the indigenous peoples of the Russian Federation.
This is an administrative category. About the classification of individual ethnic groups to this determines the so-called Uniform Register of indigenous small peoples of Russia ( peretschen Jedinyj ' korennych malotschislennych narodow Rossii / Единый перечень коренных малочисленных народов России ) of 24 March 2000.
1926/27, took the young Soviet Union attempted to gain an overview of the people and culture of the north of Siberia.
Under this generic term fall 44 indigenous peoples, each with less than 50,000 members of the seeds of the Kola Peninsula in the west to the Chukchi, Yupik ( Eskimo ) and Ainu in the extreme Far East. Other major ethnic groups are the Nenets and Khanty of western Siberia and settled between Western Siberia and northern China Evenki. One of the smallest indigenous peoples of Siberia are the Enzen with less than 200 members. In anthropology a summary of the two cultural areas "Siberia" ( reindeer herders from Lapland to about the Kolyma ) and " paleo- Siberia" (former hunter-gatherers of the far North East ) is carried out sometimes.
The total number of members of these peoples is about 200,000.
Other nations in the Asian part of Russia, which have both more members as well as their own republics within the Russian Federation, are often also referred to as indigenous, and this status within Russia is controversial. The latter include Tuvan, Yakuts, Buryats and Khakassians.
Languages
Some indigenous peoples of the Russian North belong to the Finno-Ugric language family, with the Khanty and Mansi are linguistically the closest relatives of Hungary.
Another group belongs to the family of Turkic languages , such as the Shor, Teleuts, Kumandiner and Altai.
The languages of the Evens and Evenki are tunguso - Manchurian language family.
The languages of the Chukchi, Itelmens, Koryak and some other peoples are isolated languages , that is, they have no relationship with other living languages and are collectively referred to as paläoasiatische languages.
Legal and political status
Article 69 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation says:
" The Russian Federation shall guarantee the rights of small indigenous peoples in accordance with the generally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties and agreements of the Russian Federation. "
The Russian law On guarantees of the rights of small indigenous peoples of Russian Federation ' of 30 April 1999 defining the people of the north as
"People who live in the traditional settlement areas of their ancestors in the traditional way, to pursue their traditional economic system, within the Russian Federation not more than 50,000 members have and see themselves as separate communities. "
Thus, there are four different aspects of affect:
Is particularly problematic after Donahoe / Halemba the fact that the Russian legal norm indigenous peoples determines to a purely 'traditional' way of life, without determining this term in any way. Theoretically, it would therefore be possible that a person, by adopting an urban lifestyle, lose their belonging to the indigenous peoples of the North. Also, could the same time a consequence of emigration from the traditional habitat. Clear contrary to recognized within the United Nations definition of Indigenous peoples ' is the numerical ceiling of 50,000, the result of historical developments, but larger ethnic groups, such as Tuvan, Buryat and Yakut arbitrarily by the recognition as " indigenous peoples " excludes.
While the Russian constitution performs the special rights and privileges of indigenous peoples unspecified, results from the existing federal laws, a number of privileges traditionally economize indigenous communities:
- Exemption from property tax;
- Right to form obschtschiny ' ie indigenous family or tribe -based joint venture;
- Privileged access to natural resources (forest, wildlife, fish stocks )
- Possibility of compensation for the extraction of natural resources in their territories;
- Opportunity to make a civilian alternative service instead of military service
- Possibility of earlier retirement pension
These privileges are threatened by a variety of recent legislative initiatives. Especially in conflict with indigenous rights is operated by the Finance Minister German Gref liberal economic course. The revisions of the soil ( semel'ny Code / земельный кодекс ), forestry ( Lesnoi Code / лесной кодекс ) and Gewässerkodizes ( Wodny Code / водный кодекс ) see long-term leases of natural resources and lands to private investors, and threaten indigenous collective farms in a position bring, in which they are forced to pay for the use of their traditional means of livelihood market prices to the state.
Most important political representation of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia is RAIPON based in Moscow. Nominally, all members of the indigenous peoples of the north member of this organization.
Their political influence is kept within narrow limits. While still in the last Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and in the first State Dumas of the Russian Federation, several representatives of the northern peoples were to be found, as has been the general election of 2004 nor to find in the Federation Council in the State Duma a member of these ethnic groups.
Representatives RAIPONs call for the establishment of a federal agency, or about a Ministry of Indigenous Peoples. The success of their claim, however, is very uncertain.