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Indigenous Leadership in Northwestern Siberia: Traditional Patterns and Their ContemporaryManifestationsAuthor(s): Andrei V. Golovnev and Sergei KanSource: Arctic Anthropology, Vol. 34, No. 1, Power, Resistance, and Security: Papers in Honorof Richard G. Condon, Steven L. McNabb, Aleksandr I. Pika, William W. Richards, NikolaiGalgauge, Nina Ankalina, Vera Rakhtilkon, Boris Mymykhtikak, and Nikolai Avanum (1997),pp. 149-166Published by: University of Wisconsin PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40316430 .

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INDIGENOUS LEADERSHIP

IN NORTHWESTERN SIBERIA:

TRADITIONAL PATTERNS AND THEIR

CONTEMPORARY MANIFESTATIONS

ANDREI V. GOLOVNEV Translated and Edited by SERGEI KAN

Abstract. Using archival materials, previous ethnographic works, and data collected by the author during ethnographic fieldwork between 1977 and 1994 among the Nenets, the Sel'kup, the Khanty, and the Mansi, this paper outlines the main characteristics of traditional (pre- and early contact) leadership in northwestern Siberia and the effects of Russian and Soviet colonial rule. I then examine in some detail modern manifestations of leadership in four different communities/regions, focusing on continuity and change in the system. Traditional leadership in Samoyed and Ob-Ugrian culture and society has been largely neglected until now.

Introduction

"From now on, you will be called Eldest Yaptik," Youngest Yaptik commanded to the next-to-the- oldest of his brothers. The story of "Five Yaptiks" (narrated to the author on Yamal in 1993 by Ngoet Tadibe, a Nenets storyteller) illustrates an intrigue, typical for the heroic folklore of the Nenets people, in which the younger relative suddenly as- sumes a senior role which had previously be- longed to an older one. Nenets legends usually begin with the oldest brother dominating the younger ones, but end with the youngest becoming the leader over the rest of his male siblings. We see here possible traces of ultimogeniture, which un- doubtedly was once part of the Nenets cultural values and practices. At the same time, these leg-

ends illustrate the flexibility and "democratic" character of Nenets leadership.

Archaeological surveys verify the existence of fortifications, dating from the early Iron Age and the Middle Ages (700 BC-AD 1600s), throughout the Ob River region in areas occupied by the Khanty, Mansi, and Sel'kup peoples. Ugrian and Samoyed folklore contains numerous references to military conflicts. In fact, such groups as the Koda Ostyak (now called Ob-Atlym Khanty), the Pelym Vogul (Southern Mansi), and the Pegaia Orda (Narym Sel'kup) each had a reputation for being the most bellicose among their neighbors. Their "capitals" were governed by "grand princes,"1 whose own status and rank as well as those of their satellites, called bogatyr's (Russian pl. for "mighty warriors"), were based on heredity and rank.2

Andrei V. Golovnev, Institute of History and Archaeology The Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, R. Luksemburg 56, G20360 Ekterinburg, Russia

ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 149-166, 1997



1 50 Arctic Anthropology 34:1

This paper examines traditional leadership among the Nenets, Sel'kup, Khanty, and Mansi, indigenous peoples of northwestern Siberia (Fig. 1). Continuity and change in response to Russian and Soviet pressures are also discussed.

Historical Background Leadership among the indigenous peoples of northwestern Siberia (i.e., the Samoyeds and Ob- Ugrians) is largely unexplored in Siberian ethnology, and might be depicted in two major dimen- sions: in accordance with its social functions and in an historical context. The mutual interdepen- dence of these two aspects of leadership is evi- dent: the leaders' social roles were shaped by political events (especially Russian-Soviet colonization), while local political history was im- pacted by the activity of individual Native leaders.

One of the main difficulties in an analysis of the historical patterns of Native leadership in northwestern Siberia is that Russian medieval chronicles and other sources describe it in very vague and uncertain terms. Consequently, the same accounts may be interpreted in radically different ways. For example, in his analysis of the Ostyak (Khanty) folklore, Patkanov (1891), referred to Native princes and princedoms (Russian sing. kniazhestvd). Bakhrushin (1955), another prominent historian of Siberia, did not hesitate to speak about "

Ostyak- Vogul feudalism" (Fig. 2). In contrast to these two authors, Stepanov (1936) and many scholars after him saw no basis for such evaluations and characterized the traditional social relations among the indigenous peoples of northwestern Siberia as "very simple and not highly developed."

The Russian invasion and the subsequent military subjugation of the Native peoples of Si- beria took place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (see Forsyth 1992). This era, which might be called the "epoch of Ermak" (after the head of the Cossack detachment first to conquer Siberia in the 1580s), was the last time that Native chiefs were fully free to play their customary sociopolitical roles. Some of the local military con- federacies' resistance against the Russian troops seemed to be well organized. For example, the Pelym Mansi made preventative strikes across the Urals upon the Russian fort Cherdyn', while a Khanty "army" of about 2000 fought on the Irtysh River against a detachment of Cossacks. The Sel'kup of the Pegaya Orda, in alliance with the famous Siberian Tatar leader, Khan Kuchum, offered stiff resistance to Russian troops from the Surgut area. Also, a detachment led by a Russian prince, Shakhovskoi, was defeated at the mouth of the Taz River by the Yurak Samoyed (Yenisei Nenets).

During the tumultuous seventeenth century, some of the chief political/military centers of the region, such as the Pelym princedom and the Pe- gaya Orda, were defeated, while a powerful Khanty princedom, Koda, was incorporated into the administrative system of the new colonial government. The Native "small princes" (Russian sing, kniazets) and "aristocrats" or "best people" (Russian pl. luchshie liudi) gradually became the local elders or chiefs (Russian sing, starshina),3 playing the role of intermediaries between the Russian state and aboriginal people. Within the domain of the Native societies' own internal affairs, the attention of indigenous leaders tended to shift at this point away from the military-political and toward the religious affairs. Explicitly or im- plicitly, shamans began to assume leadership roles, especially in those societies where shamanistic power had traditionally been an attribute of military chiefs.

From the indigenous peoples' viewpoint, the eighteenth century was a period of forced baptism by the Russian Orthodox Church. This new stage of the Russian government's assertion of control over Native Siberians could be called the "epoch of Leshchinskii," after the archbishop of Tobolsk who organized the mass baptisms of the Ugrians and the Samoyeds. Many pre-Christian ritual and ceremonial sites were destroyed, and in several lo- cations churches were built upon them. Not sur- prisingly, shamans were persecuted, considerably weakening their influence. This led to a gradual increase in the influence of alternative leaders - the starshinas - whom the state considered legitimate.

The nineteenth century could be called the "Speranskii epoch," after a famous Siberian gover- nor who codified, developed, and was responsible for enforcing the 1822 statute "On the Indigenous Peoples' Administration" [Upravlenie Inorodtsev; see Forsyth 1992:156-157; Slezkine 1994:83-88). That statute combined local customary law and Russian civil law into one system. In so doing, Russian authorities co-opted the Native sociopolitical structures by allocating local governmental functions within the Russian administrative system to Native leaders. By legitimizing those leaders, the 1822 law allowed the Russian authorities to regulate their activities "in accordance with state law." Thus, the new law became a major step towards making the indigenous leadership subor- dinate to the state.

It is hard to determine how many norms of indigenous leadership disappeared during the three stages of the establishment of Russian colonial rule: (1) the military invasion, (2) the persecu- tion of pre-Christian rituals and shamans and the promotion of secular elders and chiefs, and (3) co- opting of the indigenous leaders. Nonetheless,



Golovnev: Indigenous Leadership in NW Siberia 1 51

Figure 1. Traditional territories of the indigenous peoples of northwestern Siberia.

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Figure 2. Medieval princedoms of northwestern Siberia.

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some of the forms of traditional or precolonial leadership have been retained to this day.

Characteristics of Traditional Leadership

Russian policies aimed at controlling and co-opting indigenous leaders utilized various methods of transforming their main functions. Some of these functions, such as the military ones, were destroyed almost completely, while others survived but in rather different forms.

In the pre- and early contact Samoyed and Ob-Ugrian societies, leaders did not significantly differ from each other in terms of specialization. The same person could simultaneously serve as a military chief, a powerful shaman, and a local judicial authority figure. Nevertheless, several forms of leadership - military, religious, and administrative/judicial - can be sketched out here as ideal types.

Military Leadership4 As Castren (1890:252), a prominent nineteenth century specialist in Finno-Ugric ethnology, noted:

Long before they were visited by Ermak, primitive Siberian peoples had already acquired a great deal of experience in the bloody fun of war . . . Blood was often spilled as a consequence of internecine conflict between clans within the same tribe. The entire region was involved in a ... bellum om- nium contra omnes (Latin "war of all against all") . . . Eventually a few separate families within the same clan or tribe would unite and elect a chief or prince for their entire group.

The Samoyed and Ugrian military ethic con- trasted sharply with the morality of their everyday life. All imaginable forms of violence against the enemy were allowed and even encouraged, including treachery, thievery, assault, and murder. Refer- ences to scalping, burning, and human sacrifice can be found in myths and historical tales. The specific features of a Native way of life, such as the Nenets pastoral nomadism and the relatively sedentarized existence of the Khanty and Mansi, had a major impact on the distinct norms and styles of Samoyed and Ugrian warfare.

The Ugrians employed sophisticated methods of defending their fortresses. In summer, they deployed boats on the rivers to annihilate enemies upon arrival. In fact, the sighting of an unknown boat in the distance could trigger an immediate alarm. A visit by strangers was considered to be an invasion, unless the guests behaved in accordance with particular social norms which signaled their friendly intentions. An uri (chief), who saw himself as the strongest in his region would construct

his fortified settlement upon the highest ground, while persons below him in status would settle on lower ground. One feature of Ugrian warfare is particularly remarkable. According to folktales, the urt's death inevitably led to the destruction of his settlement and the dispersal of its inhabitants. As the foregoing characteristics demonstrate, these forest- dwelling people lived in isolated, close-knit communities and had clear ideas of the bound- aries of their own lands and those of others.

The nomadic Nenets, who often came across strangers on the tundra, had their own ritual for recognizing and testing potential foes. A standard sign of a challenge to fight was someone's knock- ing on the pole of a person's tent. Usually this knock was accompanied by the following words, "Would you like to be killed inside the tent, or would you come outside to fight?" For the Nenets, unlike the Ugrians, the idea of a foreign invasion into their territory was not sharply defined and, consequently, we find no fortifications in the tundra. Battles were conducted in open spaces. Ac- cording to Nenets tales, the best method of defense was supposed to be a rapid offensive raid against the enemy. Generally speaking, defense against an enemy meant the protection of the residents of a camp and its reindeer herd, rather than the defense of a particular territory. Escaping was not necessarily seen as defeat, but only a tactical ma- neuver, as is typical for many nomadic societies. In Nenets folklore, a fighter rarely wages war alone, and a leader's death never signifies inevitable defeat. On the contrary, the more frightening the folkloric image of a hero's death, the more triumphant his relatives' eventual revenge against his killers will be.

The first serious confrontation between the Russians and the Ob Ugrians occurred in 1499-1500 when a Russian military expedition crossed the Ural Mountains. During that expedition, Prince Semeon Kurbskii's detachment occupied 40 Ugrian gorodoks (little fortresses) and cap- tured 58 Ugrian princes [Razriadnaia Kniga 1977: 56). The Russian Chronicles also mention nine Ugrian princedoms: Pelym, Liapin, Koda, Belo- gor'e, Kazym, Obdor, Bardak, Nimyian, and Boyar. The Koda princedom, the largest among them, included more than ten fortifications under the rule of Grand Prince (Russian velikii kniaz') Alach. Each of these princedoms was said to be able to organize from 50 to 300 warriors (Bakhrushin 1955: 100). According to a report by one Russian voy- evoda, a Sel'kup prince named Vonya could bring into battle a fighting force of about 400 soldiers (Butsinskii 1893:8). The Ugrian princes and great warriors5 appear to have constituted a separate aristocratic rank.

In Nenets tales, an army's size was described symbolically by means of large numbers: "ten




times ten times three,'* "nine times nine times seven," etc. In describing an actual gathering of warriors {mandalada), the Nenets used to use such images as "the troops' movements looked as if the earth itself was moving or mosquitos droning," or "the tundra wavered under the warriors' feet."6 The Nenets had no permanent military leaders. According to folktales and oral traditions, their commanders [saiu erv), who might have been representatives of different clans, appeared and disappeared frequently.7 The tundra nomads seemed not to have a separate category of military chiefs. Instead, the Nenets had many potential war leaders who, under certain special circumstances (warfare, revolt, etc.), could become real ones. This feature of their society, a kind of social flexibility, might be considered democratic military leadership.

This explains why the societies of forest- dwellers (such as the Khanty), in comparison with those of the tundra (the Nenets), offered greater resistance against the Russian invaders and eventually suffered greater defeat. Among the forest people, the aristocracy was defeated first and then partially transformed into the high-ranking ser- vants of the new rulers.

In the course of Russian colonization, warfare gradually subsided. However, in the nineteenth century the Taz Sel'kup were still constructing fences to defend themselves against their enemies, the Yurak (the Taz and the Yenisei Nenets). Battles still took place in the 1840s between the Enets and the Nenets in the vicinity of Turuchedo Lake over the ownership of land at the mouth of the Yenisei River. Anti-Russian and anti-Soviet rebellions by indigenous peoples continued throughout the nineteenth and into the first half of the twentieth centuries. The last ones occurred in the 1930s and the 1940s when the Stalinist state began to interfere much more systematically and ruthlessly with the Native economy as well as with sociopolitical and religious life (see Forsyth 1992; Slezkine 1994). The most significant among these were the Kazym revolt of the Khanty and the forest Nenets, a 1934 uprising of the ToPka and the Vakh Sel'kup and Khanty, and the Nenets mandalada on Yamal and in the Polar Urals in 1934 and 1943. On several occasions during these uprisings, the indigenous people used the cruel traditions of the old wars (including scalping of enemies and human sacrifice) and elected military chiefs who typically possessed some shamanistic skills (see Golovnev 1995:154-197).

Religious Leadership Among the Nenets, three categories of shamans ex- isted: the vydutana [sevndana) who appealed to the upper/sky spirits, the yangangy who commu- nicated with the ghosts of the lower world, and

the sambana who were capable of penetrating the land of the dead and conveying the souls of the dead into it (Khomich 1981:14). The Sel'kup shamans were divided into the sumpytyl' kup (from sumpyko "to conjure in the light", i.e., in a tent that has a fire burning inside) and kamytyryl' kup (from kamytyrko "to conjure in a dark tent"; Prokofeva 1981:49). Among the Khanty there were the arekhta-ku (from arekh "song"), the ulom- verta-ku (from ulom "dream"), the nyukyl'ta-ku (conjuring in the dark), the isylta-ku (healing man), the pankal-ku (the man who eats the fly- agaric mushroom), and the chirta-ku or the yolta- ku (from yol, "sorcery"; Kulemzin 1976:47-64). The Mansi shamans were divided into the koi- upyng nyayt (conjuring with a drum), the nas- pengne nyayt (summoning patron-spirits of the clan), and the mutran nyayt (harmful magician; Chernetsov 1987:158).

The division of shamans into light and dark did not mean that one brought good and the other evil. Sel'kup informants assert that the two types of shamans supported rather than competed against one another. Both groups protected the people, with the light ones combating the forces of the above and the dark ones against those of the below. Moreover, under certain circumstances, a white shaman could turn into a black one and vice versa. According to the Kazym Khanty, this could happen if an upper world shaman appealed to the spirits of the below to bring disease upon his people's enemies. Therefore, the community's white shaman could be seen as a black one by its enemies.

The impact of Christianity on shamanism was most pronounced in the forest zone, especially among the Mansi whose shamans even borrowed Christian attributes and acted as intermediaries between the new official religion and the traditional indigenous one. Because of strong Rus- sian influence, shamans in Mansi society acquired something of the same reputation that clairvoyants held in Russian Christian communities. Among the Khanty, shamans usually did not stand out as a special social category. According to popular opinion, every man "could shamanize a little," and the real shaman differed from other people only by possessing more developed religious skills. This al- lows us to describe their shamanism as democratic.

In contrast to the Ugrians, the Sel'kup regarded the shamans as masters of distinct domains whose influence spread over an entire set of inter- related social institutions and relationships. Ac- cording to Prokofeva (1981:42-43), the last great shaman among the Taz Sel'kup was David Kalin, who lived at the turn of the century on the Khu- dosey River, a tributary of the Taz. Known as Tama Ira, he was considered to be "the force that con- trolled everybody in his neighborhood." People carefully examined every success or failure of




their spiritual leaders. Frequent failures doomed a shaman to lose his relatives' trust, while success gave him incontestable authority. The Sel'kup conducted their annual festivals during duck migra- tions, when shamans performed their new songs and the community made decisions about enlarg- ing or diminishing the size of their shaman's drum, depending on whether the conjurer's power was seen as increasing or diminishing.

Nenets shamans were usually highly re- spected and cloaked in mystery; any important events, including wars or natural calamities, pre- supposed their interference. Shamanistic talent was an obligatory feature of a great leader. Nenets mythology usually depicts heroes as capable of flying through the sky and bringing themselves back to life. In folktales and personal recollections, the appearance of real historical leaders sometimes has miraculous attributes. Thus, Vavlio Nenyang's fame came not only from his role as a leader of Nenets rebellions, but also as a great shaman. The Gydan Nenets composed an entire legend about Vavlio Nenyang's successor, Pani Tokho. According to this legend, after his arrest by the Russians in the mid-nineteenth century, Pani Tokho was taken to the faraway city of Omsk and put in prison. There, he was allegedly killed and buried deep in the ground. However, the shaman did not die. Having come back to life in the under- ground, he found a spiritual helper, the master of the netherworld, Nga, and both of them returned to the tundra. During the ten years that this shaman spent under the earth, he became covered with white hair and turned into a giant. The Nenets of the Gydan Peninsula repeatedly claimed that on several occasions they recognized his body (which was supposed to be higher than a tent), and saw his huge tracks in the snow and sand. Those who had allegedly seen his companion, Nga, were said to collapse, as if dead. The tradi- tion states that Pani Tokho returned in order to find and kill the kinsman who had betrayed him and, after that, to destroy all of the non-Nenets Newcomers.

During the Russian colonial era, the social roles of the Samoyed shaman differed greatly from that of his Ugrian counterpart, with the former en- joying the status of "the sovereign of his neighborhood" and the latter reduced to a position of low status. Various outside influences weakened the Ugrian shamans. Conversion to Christianity and other external political pressures were more detri- mental to Ugrian peoples, who were more accessi- ble to the outsiders. There could, however, be other reasons from within the Native culture itself. In nomadic and seminomadic Samoyed societies, the shaman had played the same role as the chief aristocrat (prince, bogatyr') among the Ugrians. Leadership among Ugrians had more of a civic

character, in contrast to the Samoyeds, whose leaders were, first and foremost, shamans. Thus, the Nenets system of democratic military leadership paralleled the Khanty one of democratic shamanism.

Administrative Leadership The Russian administration found the Ugrian society easier to deal with than the Samoyed one. Thus, some of the Khanty and Mansi princes were physically destroyed while others were tamed and molded into the instruments of the new regime. When the Natives disobeyed their new masters, the settlements of the Ugrian forest dwellers were easier to locate and bring to order. The Nenets communities, however, were inaccessible. Neither the military expeditions nor the influence of the local Russian administration could reach them. The Kamennye Samoyeds (Ural-Yamal Nenets), sometimes called vorovskie ("treacherous people") by the Russians, were regarded as the most insub- ordinate. The situation with the Ugrians was quite different. Members of the Khanty Taishin clan were elevated by Russian administrators to the position of the princes of the Obdorsk area, thus en- couraging them to spread their influence and power into the Nenets territory. By means of this, the Russians tried to govern the Nenets through the Ugrian aristocracy.

The Nenets revolts were to some extent trig- gered by the system installed by authorities to im- plement the Speranskii Statute of 1822. According to this statute, the indigenous peoples were classi- fied as "roaming" [brodiachie), a category that en- compassed all of the Nenets; "nomadic" {kochevye), including many of the Sel'kup, the Khanty, and the Mansi; or sedentary [osedlye). For each of these categories, the statute established a system of governance, law enforcement and adjudication, and tax collection. The first attempt to form a Nenets (Samoyed) administration in the tundra occurred in 1822, just after the Speranskii law was decreed. The Russian authorities appointed Pay- gol, a Samoyed starosta (elder) from the Karachei clan. However, he later proved to be unacceptable. He refused to be baptized or to assist with the baptism of his people, and also refused to assist a Russian hydrographic expedition on the Yamal Peninsula headed by Ivanov. Paygol did accept prestigious gifts (a velvet caftan, etc.), but expressed his gratitude in a very lukewarm manner (Golovnev and Zaitsev 1992:50). Paygol was forced to retire, and control over the Nenets tundra returned to the Khanty prince, Taishin. In the 1830s-1850s, the Nenets, under the command of Vavlio and Pani, tried to recapture their former in- dependence, but were defeated by Prince Taishin and his Russians allies.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the




territory occupied by the Nenets, the Sel'kup, the Khanty, and the Mansi was incorporated into three provinces (Russian guberniia): the Tobolsk Gu- berniia, which included the Beryozovskii, the Surgutskii, the Turinskii, and the Tobolskii districts; the Turukhanskii district of the Eniseiskaia Guberniia; and the Tomskaia province (Narymskii krai). Each district was in turn divided into volost's (townships) which consisted of sedentary settlements (small towns and villages; Russian gorodok and derevnia, Khanty yurt and Mansi pauV) and/or nomadic groupings (Russian stoibis- che [camp], rod [clan], and vataga [band]).8 The new provincial and district governments usually did not include representatives from the indigenous population. An elder representing an indigenous group (Russian starshina) and operating with the help of two assistants headed the Native district or volosV. In addition, a Russian clerk ("affairs' keeper," pisar') was appointed by the authorities. Sometimes, the position of the volosV administrator was passed down through an aristocratic Native dynasty, such as the Taishin, Ar- tanziev, the Alachev, and others. In the process of conquering Siberia, the Russians used representatives of these dynasties to affirm their power. In order to attract the indigenous leadership, the Rus- sian authorities conferred the title of prince upon them. Thus, the princes from the Taishin clan kept their special titles, and were automatically recognized as heads of the Obdorsk volosV (Zibarev 1990:40, 46).

The Samoyed and Ostyak starshinas were responsible for collecting tribute or tax [iasak) and keeping records of tribute payers. The starshina also conveyed the tribute to a special office in charge of Native affairs [inorodnaia uprava) and was responsible for seeking out tax avoiders. Upon a successful delivery of the tax payments, a starshina was supposed to receive 2% of the amount he had collected.

The Native courts were also led by princes and/or starshinas. The decision making was based on traditional or customary law. Judges conducted their deliberations verbally and had discretion in establishing their own procedures and their own judgments. The Native courts had jurisdiction over all matters affecting the indigenous population, except for those related to anti-Russian rebellions, premeditated murder, violence, robbery, and theft of state or communal property. The roles of prince and starshina varied. For example, in eastern Khanty society, the starshina [starosta) tried to fol- low the norms of customary law and listened carefully to the opinion of myr kel' ("the word of the people"). In contrast, reports from the lower Ob region (Obdorskaia inorodnaia uprava) indicate that the Taishin princes accepted bribes, ignored the communal opinion, and abused their power in set-

tling cases (Shatilov 1931:84-85; Bartenev 1896: 98; Zibarev 1990:54-56, 61, 96).

The Nenets starshina collected tribute from the members of his vataga, or clan. He was usually a rich reindeer herder (Nenets teta) who owned his own pastures and was designated serm'paertia (lit. "a conductor of business" or a leader of an economic task force), or he was the head of one of the camps who became a clan starshina. The starshina's position could be inherited by a son from his father, but only if the father had a good reputation and the son was seen by his kin as being an appropriate heir. For example, in the beginning of this century, the head of the Serodeta clan, named Hambi, lost many of his reindeer and became poor. His kinsmen regarded this as a bad sign. Following his death, the position of the clan starshina passed not to one of his sons, but to another member of his clan, Eremzi Serodeta (Go- lovnev and Zaitsev 1992:49-50).

Despite obvious Russian influence upon the institutions of leadership, one could still recognize specific Ugrian and Samoyed features in the new administrative system. The positions of the Khanty and Mansi princes and starshinas were more entrenched, due to their own dynastic system, than those of the Nenets. Among the latter, military and economic task force leaders changed frequently and easily.9 The absence of a distinct administrative leadership among the Nenets was caused to some extent by the Russians' persistent avoidance of direct collaboration with the real Nenets leaders - mostly shamans, who themselves did not desire any contact with officials. It appears that at the turn of the twentieth century, the Ugrian leaders were somewhat willing to cooper- ate with the Russian administration, while the Samoyed were still reluctant.

Leadership During the Soviet Era All of the stages that the tsarist government went through in its effort to establish domination over the indigenous peoples of Siberia were repeated by the new regime installed after the 1917 revolution, though at a much more rapid pace. Military activities began with the Civil War in 1920, fol- lowed by the suppression of the anti-Soviet peas- ant resistance in 1921. Then came the ideological Sovietization of the North, manifested in a series of campaigns against shamanistic "superstitions" and in "cultural revolution." The 1930s was an administrative-judicial stage, marked by the establishment of national regions [okrugs), which resulted in the near annihilation of the local indigenous self-governance. In just two decades (the 1920s-1930s), the Soviet state carried out a complex set of colonizing actions which had taken the old regime three centuries to establish in Siberia.




These new actions went far beyond any of the tsarist regime's policies. In the 1930s-1950s, the totalitarian system subordinated the economic structures of the indigenous people by means of such radical political actions as the nationaliza- tion of the land, the creation of a system of collec- tive farms, the sedentarization of the nomads, and the so-called " raskulachivanie" (the expropriation of the wealthy peasants' property). During this time, repressive actions against the Native aristocracy and the shamans continued. According to Na- tive recollections, the shamans' drums finally stopped sounding on the tundra after the suppression of the last Nenets mandalada (rebellion) on the Yamal Peninsula in 1943 (Esiko Laptander, personal communication, 1993). Since the 1960s, as a consequence of industrialization and the mas- sive influx of Newcomers, Native northerners found themselves increasingly in the position of a lumpen proletariat. The loss of traditional knowledge and ethnic pride accelerated. Gradually the Soviet policies destroyed or seriously undermined the indigenous institutions of leadership (see Forsyth 1992:229-393; Slezkine 1994:131-337).

From the end of the 1980s, a revival has taken place, but its direction is still unclear because the indigenous population, including a growing number of its leaders, have in most cases lost many of their traditional cultural values. The official leaders of the new movement for ethnic/ cultural revival are often people who were brought up under the Soviet value system. For such persons, political goals are often more important than the preservation and revival of the traditional Na- tive culture.

In the remainder of this paper, I discuss four cases of local Native leadership today: the Nenets (Yamal Peninsula), the Sel'kup (Taz River), the Khanty (Trom'egan River), and the Mansi (Sever- naia Sos'va River) (see Fig. 3). In each of these regions, the indigenous peoples reside in compact communities, consisting of a so-called "ethnic village" and its surrounding areas and governed by a rural council (Russian sel'sovet). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the population of Tol'ka seVsovet (Sel'kup area) numbered approximately 2000 inhabitants, one-quarter of them Natives; in the Russkinskie seVsovet (Khanty area), there were 1800 people, 700 of them indigenous; the Sos'va sei 'so vet (Mansi area) numbered 1300 persons, 700 of them indigenous; and the Yaptik-Sale sel'sovet (Nenets area) had 370 inhabitants, with about 350 of them indigenous (field journals, 1987-1993).

Two important features characterize each of these four indigenous communities. First, there are some inevitable contradictions inherent in any attempt at coexistence among the modernized small town or village dwellers, on the one hand, and the traditional forest and tundra dwellers, on

the other. Second, the formal administrative leadership is exercised by outsiders. In each of these communities, a Russian man aged 40 to 50 is the official head of the local administration. In Sos'va and Tol'ka, they are long-time residents, well ac- quainted with the indigenous people's culture and lifestyle. In Yaptik-sale and Russkinskiye, however, the administrators are Russian Newcomers with rather limited experience of living among Na- tive peoples.

The Russian administrators today make the decisions regarding many important issues and continue to have considerable power and control over indigenous peoples. Usually, each Russian leader has his own stable circle of allies among the Natives, maintaining specific amicable, patroniz- ing, or business relationships with them. This indigenous cohort, in each case, is not large, but is influential among the Native people because of its access to the higher structures of power. At the same time, a Russian administrator's influence is based on the stability, effectiveness, and length of time in office, his ties with the higher levels of administration within the district and okrug, as well as ties with the directors of the largest local business enterprises. Sometimes significant contradictions or even conflicts exist between the Russian leaders themselves. For example, in Yaptik-sale, in 1993, the head of the local administration and the head of the industrial fishing department did not get along; in Tolka, the administrative head was not communicating with the director of the state farm; etc. In such cases, conflicting parties form their own separate cohorts of supporters among the Natives. Combined with various other factors, this creates important obstacles to the formation of an indigenous group of leaders.

The Yamal Nenets For the Nenets reindeer herders, sedentary life in Soviet-style villages contradicted the essential principles of their traditional lifestyle. In their indigenous philosophy, sedentary life was regarded as a sign of bad luck, misery, and a lack of free- dom. In former times, only failed herders or families who had lost their herds became village dwellers. During the Soviet period, however, some villagers acquired new skills and higher education or technical training, giving the village community a new and, in some respects, higher status vis-a- vis the remaining nomads. As in earlier times, the tundra has remained the main production base and the source of traditional values and practices. Still, over the years, Nenets villagers developed a new type of community, in which the way of life differs considerably from that of the tundra. New clan formations have grown and occupied important places in the village social hierarchy.

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my own 1993 observations suggest that there are no sharp contradictions between the tundra and the village; in various respects, they complement each other. They exchange useful goods and ideas. Consequently, there has been competition for prestige between the tundra and the village communities and both of these have produced their own cohorts of Nenets leaders.

In the Yaptik-sale tundra (the area surrounding the Yaptik-sale settlement), the Yaptik clan predominates. According to local cultural tradi- tion, its members are considered to be the owners of area pastures. Secondary clans, such as the Salinder, the Niaruy, and others, are represented in the tundra in relatively small numbers. How- ever, within the village, members of these clans are more numerous and have more power, providing a counterweight to Yaptik influence. The village, which is more involved with the commercial winter fishery than with tundra reindeer herding, seems to be a relatively autonomous community within the entire Yaptik-sale region. About ten to 12 brigades of fishermen from the southern Yamal area (Novyi Port fish factory) are brought to the coastal part of the Yaptik-sale area in the winter. At the time of my field research, the Yaptik-sale village served as an intermediary between the tundra Nenets and the Russian and Nenets fishermen brought in from the outside. Remarkably, this intermediary role is played mostly by Native women, who constitute the majority of the village's inhabitants.10

The elite Native group in this village consists of representatives of the Niaruy clan. Three formally educated young women from the same family occupy the key positions in the settlement, managing cultural activities (e.g., "festivals of native culture," the village community club, etc.) and serving as secretaries for the local administrative officers - positions of some significance and prestige in these communities. Their elderly mother is a distinguished leader among the village women. She controls a great deal of day-to-day information, and appears to be the main advisor for most of her fellow villagers.

Just across the river lives a male relative of this old woman, known among the local people as a shaman. He maintains a lifestyle marginal to that of the rest of the community, expressed, for example, by keeping a pack of large, vicious dogs in his tent. According to local lore, one may gain access to this shaman through the intercession of the old woman. For the village dwellers, as well as strangers, the shaman personifies a frightening force, lending support to his clan's authority and prestige.

Because of its alliance with the Niaruy clan, the Salinder clan, which is heavily represented on the tundra, also enjoys high status. The above-

mentioned elderly woman's maternal relatives come from this clan and she maintains close ties with its members living on the tundra. Representa- tives of the Salinder clan have a local reputation of being conflict prone. This reputation adds to their influence on the tundra and in the village. Despite their aggressive character, however, they are over- shadowed on the tundra by the much larger but less aggressive Yaptik clan. Traditionally, the Yap- tik clan had a legitimate access to the land in the surrounding Yaptik-sale tundra, or at least to the largest part of that territory. They continue to make decisions about all questions concerning the timing and routes of the herd's migration and the use and allocation of pastures. The Yaptik clan are considered to be responsible for the reindeer herds' well-being on the Yaptik-sale tundra. The fetish representing the chief spirit-protector of the Yaptik-sale tundra (and one of the central deities of the pan -Nenets pantheon), Yaptik haesie, has always been cared for by one of the eldest men of the Yaptik clan.

There are several esteemed male elders of the Yaptik clan who lead the decision-making process on the tundra. However, in communicating their decisions to the village, they exercise extreme cau- tion, since they know that these decisions might be ignored or lead to conflict. The views of these elders are conveyed through their sons or younger relatives who know Russian quite well and therefore communicate more freely with the entire village community, including its non-Nenets residents. Today, most tundra dwellers agree that many important decisions affecting their lives -

including the use of pasture lands for industrial gas and oil development - are made without any real participation by the reindeer herders. These major decisions are the prerogative of regional non-Nenets authorities and are transmitted through the village authorities, thus increasing the communication gap between the tundra and village communities. Thus, different forms of leadership exist in the tundra and the village. In the latter, leadership is based on the local Native leaders' ties with higher officials in charge of administration and industrial development, including transportation. From the Native people's viewpoint, village leadership is exercised by women who mediate between the tundra dwellers and the outsiders. On the tundra, another version of leadership exists, based on traditional land use and social relationships.

In other areas of the Yamal Peninsula, the leadership situation both resembles and differs from that of Yaptik-sale. For example, in the northern Syoyakha tundra, where the traditional northern Nenets values, lifestyle, and economic activities (reindeer hunting, herding, and fishing) have been best preserved, the dominant clan, Ngokateta,




provides leadership for both the tundra and the village. For almost 20 years, one of the male elders of this clan has served as the formal village leader in his capacity as the head of the local state administration. His relationship with the tundra dwellers has been based on frequent visits with them and, since 1990, on new commercial activities conducted by him and his sons - the gathering of panty (reindeer antlers) for sale, fur-trapping, and the production of reindeer meat. In some respects, these activities are greatly dependent for transportation and financing on the adjacent oil and gas enterprises located in nearby Sabetta, a settlement run by the gas industry.

In 1992 a new subdistrict for Native self-governance was established in the Polar Urals by the regional administration located in Aksarka (itself the center of the Priural District) in cooperation with the local Nenets. The settlement of Laboro vaia serves as this new subdistrict's administrative center. Its head administrator comes from the largest and most influential tundra clan, Laptander. Yet, in the village, he has been opposed by representatives of another clan, Nogo, headed by four highly educated middle-aged women. His youth (in 1993 he was 29) has clearly imposed limitations on his power, despite the support of influential tundra kinsmen. His situation exemplifies the contradictions between the tundra and the village. Ulti- mately he must choose between becoming a reindeer herder and living outside the village or continuing to manage village affairs, thus isolating himself from the reindeer herders' community. Ac- cording to the opinions expressed by both tundra and village inhabitants, he is both a good village administrator and fine leader of a nomadic camp. However, by 1992, his attempts to combine these two positions had not yet succeeded.

In recent years, his closest relatives have been urging him to return to the tundra. He is, after all, the most important figure in their private herding operation, while his efforts to accomplish something significant in the village often bring no results. Thus, the clan structure which helps ad- vance and maintain the authority of the tundra leaders impedes their active participation in the modern village's social and political life. At the same time, the demands of successful village leadership interfere with effective leadership on the tundra.

The Taz SePkup The village of Tol'ka is administrative center of an area located within the Tol'ka River basin. Recent Newcomers - Russians, Belorussians, and Ukraini- ans - constitute the overwhelming majority of this village's population. Here, interethnic relations underscore the marginal position of the indige-

nous people. In this village the Sel'kup tend to hold low-status jobs requiring unskilled or manual labor. The Newcomers often treat the Natives with disdain or even scorn and are uninterested in their lives. At the same time, however, there is no overt hostility toward the indigenous population among the non-Natives, in contrast to other regions where a system of state-imposed (often more pro-forma than real) privileges for the indigenous peoples have been instituted. In Tol'ka, two women of mixed Sel'kup/Russian background are the officials responsible for issues affecting the indigenous population. They are also the local representatives of a Native association, Yamal for Its Descendants (Yamal-Potomkam).11 However, they have not had any real influence on the administrative decision making. Generally speaking, there is hardly any evidence of indigenous Sel'kup leadership in Tol'ka.

Traditionally the Sel'kup resided in a remote area surrounding the Devil's Lakes (Sel'kup LozyV- to or Russian Chortovye Oziora), which are located about 80-90 km from the village of Tol'ka. One gets there by crossing nearly impenetrable swamps and forests, traveling 150-160 km along the Tol'ka River in summer and by snowmobile in winter. This isolation provides the inhabitants with relative autonomy from the village, but at the same time creates a new dependency on outsiders, especially for helicopters, which have become the fastest means of local transportation. In addition, the Sel'kup territory is located at the apex of two districts, Krasnosel'kup and Purovsky, within which two commercial enterprises are located: the Tol'ka state farm (the official owner of the Devil's Lakes territory) and the Tarko-sale fishery. These, and frequent visits by individuals involved in the oil and gas industry located at Novyi Urengoi and Noiabr'sk, have produced intensive outside interference in the local economy. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that the Sel'kup find it difficult to identify those authorities who are charged with providing them economic support and protecting their land and resources.

Dependent on the whims of their mighty non-Native neighbors, the Sel'kup have been un- able to organize their own system of local leadership. The sky above Devil's Lakes has literally become a place which Newcomers drop out of to compete with each other for the fur, fish, and berries obtained by the Sel'kup for barter and for sale. Each day the Sel'kup wait to see who will arrive by helicopter: a lumberjack, a salesman or a trading partner, an oil and gas industry worker, an administrator, or even a local prosecutor.

In this region, the Sel'kup leaders are divided among separate households. For example, a large family, consisting of three nuclear families, lives in one camp and conducts joint economic activi-




ties. This family is headed by an experienced hunter and fisherman who has a rich store of knowledge of traditional culture and an engaging manner. Thanks to these qualities, he has good relations with the outsiders, including a connection with the helicopter owners. He and his grown sons have been the first to take advantage of the post- Soviet political climate to assert their claims to an- cestral clan lands near the Tol'ka River and to fight with the Tarko-sale fishery for control over traditional foraging areas. At the same time, ties between the various Sel'kup families tend to be rather weak. Each tries to forge its own forms of economic activity and cooperation with outsider individuals and groups. With the family as the pri- mary economic and social unit, the traditional clan-organized supervision of land use is no longer maintained.12

The situation in the upper reaches of the Taz River differs from that in ToPka. In the upper Taz area the administrative center is the village of Ratta, predominantly inhabited by the Sel'kup. Native people still maintain a traditional lifestyle and reside in compact groups in the vicinity of the Ratta River. Within their separate communities, older men (usually shamans or quasi-shamans)13 fill the traditional models of Sel'kup leadership. In the Ratta village itself, the official leader (i.e., the head of the local administration), is a member of a large and influential clan. Here, the clan principle was still active during the time of my research.

In the lower reaches of the Taz River, the village of Krasnosel'kup is the administrative center of both the surrounding area and the entire administrative district. No traditional camps surround this village. The Sel'kup living in the village itself are paupers confined to menial jobs. One formally educated man of Sel'kup and European ancestry is the official representative of the Yamal Potomkam association for the entire Krasnosel'kup District, but his separation from the traditional Sel'kup region means that he has little influence over key issues involving his people.

The Surgut Khanty The Russkinskie village is located in the middle reaches of the Trom'egan River. Formerly, the adjacent lands were owned by Khanty of the Russkin clan. Since the early 1990s, this large village has been surrounded by concrete slab roads, oil and gas pipelines and drilling fields, and its population is growing rapidly. To the south is the Fe- dorovskoe oil field, serviced by the non-Native workers from the city of Surgut; to the north is the Tevlinskoe oil field. To the east and west, the territory is occupied by oil and gas enterprises along the Pirn and the Agan rivers. Today, outsiders can reach any local Khanty camp by car.

Within a short period of time, the Khanty community in this area was surrounded and pene- trated by modern industrial development. Having no way to escape, the people were compelled to adapt to the new conditions. For their part, the "oil people," under pressure from public opinion and following a series of protests by the indigenous residents, have undertaken certain reforms. Large sums of money have been invested in compensation payments to the Natives, and in con- struction of paved roads, houses, schools, and community buildings. However, only one-third of the recently constructed housing in the Russkin- skie village has been allocated to the indigenous families. The biggest problem for the Native people has not been this effort to buy them off, but the invasion of oil money, which has created a new form of dependency. Along with the destruction of traditional hunting and fishing lands, this dependency has changed the traditional social structure, reorienting it towards the administrative-financial complex.

In Russkinskie village, a talented Native holds the position of deputy head of the local administration as well as that of head of the commit- tee on Native people's affairs. A former village car- penter from an influential clan, he has become an active figure in local administration due to his connections with the traditional outlying settlements, and his control over the distribution of compensation funds provided by the oil industry. Being in charge of helicopter flight as- signments and coordination of other modes of transportation has enabled him to maintain regular contact with the remote Khanty camps. Inhabi- tants of remote territories place their hopes in him. Within the village community, his support comes from several women, including his wife, a representative of the Spasenie Ugry (Ugra Salvation), another Native rights association. With his clan's encouragement, legal papers documenting traditional Native rights to clan and family lands were distributed in the Russkinskie area during 1992-1993.

In areas outside the village, the traditional style of social interaction has been preserved up to the present in spite of, as well as in response to, the rapid change. Three older men who claim to be (and possibly are) shamans, live in the territories surrounding Russkinskie and retain their traditional authority. However, due to the entire area's accessibility to outsiders, many local families, including those of the three shamans, have experienced an invasion by foreign and Russian visitors. In the summer of 1993, several families were visited in rapid succession by teams of Rus- sian and foreign journalists, tourists, and scien- tists. Iosif Sopochin, who has had to lead groups of visitors to different camps, complained to me of




being exhausted by this invasion of guests. As he put it, "an economic invasion has now been re- placed by a cultural one" (I. Sopochin, personal communication, 1993).

In an adjacent district to the east on the Vari- ogan River, the Khanty and the forest Nenets occupy a small plot of land tightly surrounded by oil and gas development. The head of the Native community (Russian obshchina),14 a talented community organizer and poet, Vella-Ayvaseda, tried for many years to establish institutions of local indigenous self-government in the Variogan village. First, he attempted to obtain formal recognition of the community from the district and regional authorities. Later, he delineated the rights of Natives as well as Newcomers within the community. Fi- nally, he created an open-air museum as a center to preserve and showcase Native heritage. He described his goal as "giving the Khanty and the forest Nenets an opportunity and the right to organize their life for themselves." He argued that they should be in control of their economy without significant outside assistance or interference as well as without outside financial investment or compensation funds (Vella-Ayvaseda, personal communication, 1991). However, by 1993, he became disillusioned with these activities and departed to a remote forest location.

In areas lacking the kind of talented leaders that exist in Variogan and Russkinskie, the situation is more complicated. Regular interaction between Natives and non-Natives involves direct or indirect bribes, unequal bargaining, and the use of legal fictions created to deprive the indigenous people of traditional lands and rights.

The Sos'va Mansi In this century, the region of the Northern Sos'va River, inhabited traditionally by the Mansi, has experienced constant and intensive voluntary immi- gration of outsiders. From the mid-nineteenth century, the Komi-Zyrians began to arrive, and since the 1920s, Russian peasants15 have settled the area and developed its resources, forcing indigenous groups out of their homelands and impacting their culture and way of life. Today, descendants of the two groups of immigrants form the majority of the local population. In contrast to the Surgut Khanty, whose intense exposure to Newcomers began only in the last few years, the Sos'va Mansis' contacts with the non-Mansi immigrants have been long- term and stable. They have borrowed some of the Newcomers' practices and material culture, including cattle breeding, gardening, and the use of imported tools and clothing. For their part, the Russians and the Komi-Zyrians adopted indigenous ways of fishing and hunting, and appropri- ated plots of Native land for their own economic

activities. As a result, the Natives and the immi- grant Old-timers (Russian starozhily) have become quite close. Especially in the face of recent industrial invasions, these two groups express identical views. Responses to a questionnaire distributed by the author in this community in 1992 demon- strated that in some cases the non-Natives appeared to be more conservative in their views about land use and tourism than the indigenous people (Golovnev and Zaitsev 1992:52-53).

A Russian Old-timer from the Fedotov family is currently the head of the Sos'va village administration. A commercial firm headed by another Rus- sian Old-timer plays a leading role in economic and social reforms in the area, trying to restore abandoned Native settlements and to organize a new commercial-economic network. It is not yet clear whether this activity will benefit the local Mansi or not.

Among the Mansi of the Sos'va village, an old man from the Kostin clan gained some promi- nence due to his knowledge of local ethnic history and culture. He appears to be the chief Mansi ex- pert and consultant for his own Native neighbors and the Russian authorities on issues of land ownership and traditional rituals. Nonetheless, he is not recognized as the local Mansi leader, mainly because he and his relatives have never been the traditional owners of the adjacent territories.

There is no evidence of the existence of a Na- tive community in the Sos'va village. The Russian and the Komi-Zyrian settlers (including the head of the local administration) offer gentle but firm resistance against any attempts to mobilize and organize the Natives. The local representative of the Spasenie Yugry association, a young woman, is not interested in fighting for the establishment of a separate Native community in Sos'va. According to her, male Mansi elders are not in favor of any social reconstruction in the village which might destroy relationships between Natives and non- Natives. The elders' personal interests, as well as those of the young woman, are oriented towards restoration of some abandoned settlements outside of Sos'va village. As of 1993, this project was still only in the planning stage.

In the basin of the Northern Sos'va River, there are several other villages besides Sos'va where Mansi reside. In two of them - Kimkiasuy and Lombovozh - they constitute the majority. In Kimkiasuy, a Mansi Native community has recently been created with the assistance of the Rus- sian administrator of Sos'va (who has actually re- sisted organizing a similar community in the central village of Sos'va). In 1992, there were no real Native leaders in the Kimkiasuy community; however, a group of seven or eight young men who form the core of the new Native community have the potential to become leaders. The situation in



Golovn ev: In digen ous Lea dership in NW Siberia 1 63

Lombo vozh is quite different. There, most Native people believe that a movement to create any kind of legalized Native community is hindered by the absence of real leaders.

Any attempt to create an influential indigenous leadership in the Sos 'va region faces another major difficulty: almost all of the highly educated Sos'va Mansi live outside their homeland, in such places as Berezovo, Khanty-Mansiisk, and even St. Petersburg. In Khanty-Mansiisk, the regional center, Mansi (most of them from the Northern Sos'va area) constitute the core of the Yugra Salvation, including its ex-president.

Conclusion I would like to consider once again whether the modern Samoyed and Ugrian leaders bear any resemblance to their legendary, traditional predeces- sors. At first glance, it would seem that there is no resemblance. After all, the most important traditional Nenets requirement for being a chief was also to be a shaman, but we know that shamans disappeared from the Yamal Peninsula in 1943. Does this mean that today's Nenets and other Na- tive leaders are completely nontraditional func- tionaries, created by the Soviet system?

It is true, of course, that the Soviet state is at least partly responsible for the creation and rise of current indigenous leaders. Almost all of them are, or used to be, residents of large villages or even towns. They are formally educated and incorporated into the government system, and are fairly comfortable in the modern world. From the point of view of their own peoples, they are to a large extent leaders on behalf of the state. However, from the point of view of the Russian authorities, they are leaders on behalf of the Natives. It is hard to imagine today how these opposing views could be reconciled. One might conclude that these leaders' real function is to act as intermediaries between the two opposite sides, to have two faces.

The most fundamental obstacle to developing Native institutions of leadership today seems to be the adjustment of the traditional sociopolitical or- ganization to modern industrial, financial, and administrative institutions. This obstacle has different manifestations in the four communities discussed above. In the case of the Yamal Nenets, it is the opposition between clan leadership and that of the modern village. In the Sel'kup case, the small size of the indigenous group and the new dependency on external modes of transportation are further complicated by the fact that their traditional territory is subdivided between several regional administrative entities. In the Khanty case, there is a sharp decline in the size of traditional subsistence areas and a gradual increase in the

new dependency on outside economic forces. In the Mansi case, the overlap between the Natives' and the Old-timers' interests contributes to the lack of influential Native local leaders.

A major challenge for the Native leaders themselves is to reconcile the interests of the outsiders, with which they themselves partially identify, with those of the more traditionally oriented individuals among their own people. There are several ways in which this challenge is dealt with. The Khanty and Mansi leaders are closely con- nected to governmental structures, thus continuing the pattern established by their feudal prede- cessors. The future of this kind of traditional leadership depends mostly on evolution within the official system. It is ironic that the best-case scenario for these kinds of leaders is to be able to somehow soften the conflict between the traditional settlements and the expanding industrial economy.

The Nenets leaders' conduct is less uniform. Two of them are heads of the district [raion] administration.16 At the same time, they have close ties with the reindeer-herdsmen, including their own relatives. The administrative head of the largest Yamal district {YamaVskii raion), a Russian man, regularly consults with, in his words, "two elders of the Yamal tundra." These two also happen to be heads of the local administrations in Seoyakha and Siunai-sale.

I have seen one Nenets ex-president of Yamal Potomkam wearing a tie underneath his parka [malitsa] while visiting a nomads' camp on the tundra. This combination looked strange - a tie in a Nenets tent and a malitsa in the office - but he wore both because he needed to go back and forth between the two places all the time. Sometimes, similar types of combinations fail. According to the latest information available to me, the young leader of the Laborovaia (Polar Urals') community left his official position and returned to his nomadic camp. There are other Nenets examples of Native leaders returning to their traditional envi- ronment, abandoning their dealings with the "outside."

Today, a visitor to a Nenets tent may meet many Native people wearing the malitsa or its fe- male equivalent [yagushka] who have advanced educations. These people explain that they have returned because "here on the tundra things are better for us, while there in the city everything is foreign." Well-versed in the subjects taught at state schools as well as in traditional knowledge, they constitute a new stratum of tundra society. One might argue that this group resembles the traditional democratic leadership described earlier (a system in which a chief might rise or fall depending on circumstances).

The very ability of the Nenets leaders to go




back and forth between the city and the tundra is an interesting manifestation of the idea of "having two faces." This shuttling between the tundra and the city can be seen as a new style of nomadism, which is comfortable to these well-educated Na- tive leaders. At the same time, it is also a way of preserving and reviving traditional leadership.

But what about shamanism as an aspect of leadership among the Nenets? On the one hand, there are still some elements of traditional shamanism left on the tundra. On the other hand, the works of a Nenets novelist, Anna Nerkàgi, and of a Nenets poet, Yurii Vaella-Ayvaseda (both leaders who have gone back to the wilderness), are attempts to create a new Native mythology echoing the old shamanic world view.

And what about military leadership? While there is no real chance anymore for the Native people to engage in any kind of serious military resistance, there is still a great deal of potential for various forms of confrontation. Thus, in 1991 both Yuri Vaella-Ayvaseda and Anna Nerkagi headed protests against the industrial invasions of their areas - Variogan and the Polar Urals, respectively. Each had to decide whether the encounters between protesters and authorities should be con- frontational or cooperative. Eventually, both chose to avoid any actions that might have led to violence, so as not to repeat the terrible consequences of the armed rebellions of the 1930s and 1940s.

In the final analysis, one could say that while the nature and direction of the future development of post-Soviet northwestern Siberia is not entirely clear, certain elements of a distinct indigenous leadership might survive and persist, particularly among the tundra Nenets.

End Notes 1. Khanty Moldan, Mansi Asyka, Sel'kup Vonia, and Russian bol'shoi kniaz'.

2. The indigenous peoples of northwest Siberia are composed of the Samoyed (Nenets and SeFkup) and the Ugrian (Khanty and Mansi) peoples. Both groups speak languages belonging to the Uralic language family. The largest of the so-called "numerically small peoples of the Russian North," the Nenets (population about 35,000), live in the tundra zone of the European part of Russia and western Siberia - from the Northern Dvina River in the west to the Taimyr Peninsula in the east. The SeFkup people (3500) are divided into a southern group, living on the middle Ob River, and a northern group, located in the area of the Taz and the Turukhan rivers. Also located in western Siberia are the two peoples referred to in this paper as the Ugrians. The Khanty (23,000) and the Mansi (8000), whose languages belong to the Ugric group of the

Uralic language family, are the southern neighbors of the Nenets. They live in the taiga of the middle and lower Ob River. Today, the entire area inhabited by the Samoyed and Ugrian peoples has a widespread, substantial population of Russians, Ukrainians, and other non-Natives (see Fig. 1).

3. Starshina (or starosta) is a Russian term for the local administrative heads of Native villages or clans. Their main duty was tax collecting. 4. For a more detailed discussion of this topic see Golovnev (1995:96-154).

5. Russian bogatyr', Khanty urt, Mansi otyr, and Sel'kup sengira (lit. "an old man-wood grouse," i.e., a powerful old man) or kok (prince). 6. Information on the last Nenets rebellion of 1943 was given to the author by Esiko Laptander at Polar Ural, August 1993.

7. Women could also sometimes play the roles of temporary captains. 8. Vatagas were institutions devised by the Rus- sians for organizing the collection of tribute. They were usually twice the size of the most populous nomadic camps. On the average, a Nenets vataga numbered between ten and 30 families and constituted a portion of a traditional clan. However, according to the 1858 census, the second vataga of the Karacheiski clan included 94 families. Thus, the vatagas were superimposed on the preexisting indigenous economic systems of nomadic camps. The absence of a special term for vataga in the Nenets language confirms this point, as well as the sense of the Nenets name for vataga starshina - ngarka mir'm paertia ("the holder of great tribute").

9. This was particularly common in Nenets subsistence task forces; for example, the serm'paertya ("conductor of affairs") who headed fox-hunting parties continued to hold the position only as long as the hunt was successful. If the foxes "became nervous" and could no longer be caught, a new serm'paertya would be selected immediately.

10. It is not uncommon for Native women in parts of this entire region to live in villages and, as a result, to have more formal Soviet/Russian schooling than Native men.

11. The associations Yamal Potomkam [Yamal for Its Descendants) and Spasenie Yugry (Salvation of the Ugrian People) were organized in 1989 in the Yamal-Nenets and the Khanty-Mansi autonomous okrugs, respectively. Their main goals are to defend the rights of the indigenous people and preserve their sociocultural traditions. The establishment of these organizations was authorized by the Communist Party and their activities have always




been closely coordinated with the local state authorities.

12. In fact, the Tol'ka state reindeer farm has trans- ferred its attention completely from herding to timber production. Reindeer are now privately owned and used primarily for transportation. 13. Quasi-shamans are persons who possess some knowledge of traditional shamanism and/or sometimes pretend to have it; they insist on being and sometimes actually are treated as real shamans.

14. The "Native communities" are officially designated groups of indigenous people living in one area. In practical terms, these communities have no clear administrative/political rights. 15. These were the so-called kulaks (well-to-do peasants), who were exiled by the state from their original communities.

16. None of the Khanty, the Mansi, or the Sel'kup hold such a position.

Acknowledgments. The research for this article was funded in part by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) and the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. This article was originally prepared for and will appear in a modified and expanded version as a chapter in the book, Siberian Survival, co-authored with Gail Osh- erenko of the Institute of Arctic Studies at Dart- mouth College. The author and the translator would like to thank Gail Osherenko for her assistance on the English-language version of the manuscript. They would also like to express their gratitude to Igor Krupnik, Allen McCartney, and an anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful criti- cisms and suggestions.

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