Yakuts

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Yakuts
Total population 450,000
Regions with significant populations Russia
Language Russian, Sakha
Religion Russian Orthodox, with a significant part of the population practicing Shamanism
Related ethnic groups Other Turkic Peoples

Yakuts, self-designation: Sakha, are a Turkic people associated with the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic.

The Yakut or Sakha language belongs to the Northern branch of the Turkic family of languages. There are about 456,000 speakers (Russian census, 2002) mainly in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in the Russian Federation, with some extending to the Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions, and the Taimyr and Evenki Autonomous Districts. The population of Yakutia is about 980,000[1] of whom approximately 382,000 are Yakuts[2] or about 39% of the population in Yakutia; their share lowered during Soviet rule due to forced immigration, and other relocation policies, but has slightly increased since. Given the large number of speakers, the Yakut language is considered to be somewhat less endangered than most other regional languages of the Russian Federation.

The Yakuts are divided into two basic groups based on geography and economics. Yakuts in the north are historically semi-nomadic hunters, fishermen, ysk and reindeer breeders, while southern Yakuts also engage in animal husbandry focusing on horses and cattle.[3]

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[edit] Origin

Most scholars believe the Yakuts originally migrated from Olkhon and the region of Lake Baikal to the basins of the Middle Lena, the Aldan and Vilyuy rivers, where they mixed with other northern indigenous peoples of Russia such as the Evens and Evenks.

The northern Yakuts were largely hunters, fishermen and reindeer herders, while the southern Yakut raised cattle and horses. Both groups lived in yurts and led a semi-nomadic life moving from winter to summer camps each year.

In the 1620s Russians began to move into their territory, annexed Yakutia, imposed a fur tax, and managed to suppress several Yakut rebellions between 1634 and 1642. The discovery of gold and, later, the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway, brought ever-increasing numbers of Russians into the region. By the 1820s almost all the Yakuts had been converted to the Russian Orthodox church although they retained, and still retain, a number of shamanistic practices.

In 1919 the new Soviet government named the area the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

Stalin's policy of collectivisation, which began in 1928, was responsible for many thousands of deaths, from which Yakut society did not really begin to recover until the 1960s.

An independent Yakut Republic was declared by the Supreme Soviet of Yakutia on 15 August, 1991 but, as the Russians greatly outnumbered the Yakuts in the region, this never became a reality.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) - General Information" Kommersant - Russia's Daily Online;
  2. ^ "The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) - overview" Russia Trek dotcom source: Yakutsk State University;
  3. ^ Yakuts. Centre for Russian Studies. Retrieved on 2006-10-26.

[edit] References

  • Leontˀeva, Sargylana (2002) "Comments on Ойуун Уол 'shaman fellow': a Yakut historical legend." In John M. Clifton and Deborah A. Clifton (eds.), Comments on discourse structures in ten Turkic languages p. 287-291. St. Petersburg, Russia: SIL International.
  • International Business Publications (ed.) (2001) Sakha Yakut Republic Regional Investment and Business Guide (US Government Agencies Business Library) (3rd ed.) International Business Publications, USA, ISBN 0-7397-9012-9
  • Opyt Etnograficheskogo Issledovaniya (ed.) (1993) Yakuty (The Yakuts, text in Russian, w/illustrations) Opyt Etnograficheskogo Issledovaniya, Moscow

[edit] External links

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