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St. Thomas Law Review

First Page

411

Document Type

Article

Abstract

This essay discusses one vision of self-determination among Luoravetlan women and men in the Chukotka peninsula in the Russian Far East. Self-determination can have many meanings, but the one this essay emphasizes is based on tradition: on the intricate connections between humans, animals, and land, with shared premises, close kin groups, and local production relations. Contemporary Luoravetlan women and men argue that self-determination is bound to fail if it does not take serious the complex interrelations between people and the land in which their social understandings are rooted, and through which their core institutions and values are ensured. This essay calls Luorvatlan efforts, dreams, and aspirations a vision because, self-determination is what moves and guides these women and men in their struggle for greater social justice and rights. It may seem brazen to state this, but in the Chukotka peninsula indigenous selfdetermination is certainly not something that exists or may, perhaps in the near future, be achieved. It is even not something that is being openly discussed by regional and local government officials, indigenous politicians, and other public representatives. It is rather that that cannot be named without rings of nervousness, agitation, and fear among Chukotka's nonindigenous residents and, among Chukotka's indigenous residents, questions as to what it might actually mean for them and their present and future lives. This is why the vision that is introduced here is only one - but one of a guiding force for Yonto, an eclectic association of Luoravetlan workers, intelligentsia, and reindeer herders. "Yonto," in Luoravetlan, means "stormbridger," and the storms Luoravetlan have to bridge now are the ones of hostile government and regional administration. In a metaphorical twining, Yonto takes its name from the heavy storms Luoravetlan women and men have to span when they migrate with the reindeer through the northern tundra. As reindeer herding women and men, Luoravetlan live and continue to live not only off of, but with the land. Together with the animals Luoravetlan women and men travel through the open and vast Chukotka landscape of tussocks and bogs, open rivers and unlocked plateaus. As reindeer herders they take care of animals which, in turn, take care of them. True, not each and all Luoravetlan have lived or live by traveling with animals. Whale, walrus and seal hunting, fishing, collecting mussels, sea weed, bird eggs, various kinds of berries and tundra herbs, too, constitute important parts of Luoravetlan livelihood, and help to expand Luoravetlan knowledge beyond the land to the sea. In placing animals, the land, and the autonomy they bring at the center of their vision, Yonto leaders build on elements that are understood, albeit appreciated in different degrees, by all Luoravetlan women and men. This is a position not of weakness but of strength. This essay shall first briefly describe the vision, and then situate it in the larger context of indigenous struggles and organizing in the Chukotka peninsula.

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