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Portrait of man and woman. 1914 Khanty

from Kunstukamera archive

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Woman melting grain. 1927. Teleuts

from Kunstkamera archive

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Лар Леонид(Таборчи) Алексеевич

Lar Leonid Alekseevich

Лар Леонид(Таборчи) Алексеевич- ненецкий художник, кандидат исторических науки Lar Leonid Alekseevich - Nenets artist, candidate of historical sciences

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One thing that is very challenging for adoptees especially who are Indigenous is the process of reconnection. There are some, like myself, who were fortunate to reconnect with family and community, but others who will never understand who they are and are layered with displacement. Growing up, I was told I do not look Russian and it went as far as my friends doubting me to the point my mom brought in documentation to show them. This was elementary school. Throughout my reconnecting process, I have had misunderstandings and made errors. It was hard with language barriers and words that are missing in Russian but used in English. Finally gaining clarity and answers with my cousin has been meaningful but it is still a challenge especially if your family became severed from culture through death and displacement and you're trying to reconnect. For adoptees trying out there, I see you and I am here for you. I understand how hard it is to be taken from your land and be forced elsewhere. For me, it was across the world and I was encouraged to push away anything of my past. I chose to reconnect. I have my voice and I will not stay silent.

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Anna Nerkagi

Анна Неркаги (1951)

Anna Nerkagi - Nenets writer, novelist, and social activist of the Nenets people in Siberia, writing in the Russian language. Анна Неркаги - ненецкая писательница, активистка Ненецкого народа.

Aniko of the Nogo clan, 1977

Ilir, 1979

The White Yagel, 1986

The Horde, 1992-1998

White Arctic Moss, written in 1994, published unabridged in 1996 (a sequel to Aniko of the Nogo clan)

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"In Northern California, a Native American tribe is celebrating the return of ancestral lands in one of the largest such transfers in the nation’s history.

Through a Dept. of the Interior initiative aiming to bring indigenous knowledge back into land management, 76 square miles east of the central stretch of the Klamath River has been returned to the Yurok tribe.

Sandwiched between the newly-freed Klamath and forested hillsides of evergreens, redwoods, and cottonwoods, Blue Creek is considered the crown jewel of these lands, though if it were a jewel it wouldn’t be blue, it would be a giant colorless diamond, such is the clarity of the water.

Pictured: Blue Creek

It’s the most important cold-water tributary of the Klamath River, and critical habitat for coho and Chinook salmon. Fished and hunted on since time immemorial by the Yurok and their ancestors, the land was taken from them during the gold rush before eventually being bought by timber companies.

Barry McCovey Jr., director of the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department, remembers slipping past gates and dodging security along Blue Creek just to fish up a steelhead, one of three game fish that populate the river and need it to spawn.

Profiled along with the efforts of his tribe to secure the land for themselves and their posterity, he spoke to AP about the experience of seeing plans, made a decade ago, come to fruition, and returning to the creek on which he formerly trespassed as a land and fisheries manager.

“To go from when I was a kid and 20 years ago even, from being afraid to go out there to having it be back in tribal hands … is incredible,” he said.

Part of the agreement is that the Yurok Tribe would manage the land to a state of maximum health and resilience, and for that the tribe has big plans, including restoring native prairie, using fire to control understory growth, removing invasive species, restoring native fish habitat, and undoing decades of land-use changes from the logging industry in the form of culverts and logging roads.

“And maybe all that’s not going to be done in my lifetime,” said McCovey. “But that’s fine, because I’m not doing this for myself.”

The Yurok Tribe were recently at the center of the nation’s largest dam removal, a two decades-long campaign to remove a series of four hydroelectric dams along the Klamath River. Once the West Coast’s third-largest salmon run, the Klamath dams substantially reduced salmon activity.

Completed last September, the before and after photographs are stunning to witness. By late November, salmon had already returned far upriver to spawn, proving that instinctual information had remained intact even after a century of disconnect.

Pictured; Klamath River flows freely, after Copco-2 dam was removed in California

“Seeing salmon spawning above the former dams fills my heart,” said Joseph L. James, chairman of the Yurok Tribe, the leaders of the dam removal campaign along with the Karuk and Klamath tribes.

“Our salmon are coming home. Klamath Basin tribes fought for decades to make this day a reality because our future generations deserve to inherit a healthier river from the headwaters to the sea.”

Last March, GNN reported that the Yurok Tribe had also become the first of America’s tribal nations to co-manage land with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of understanding involving Redwoods National Park.

The nonprofit Save the Redwoods bought a piece of land adjacent to the park, which receives 1 million visitors annually and is a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site, and handed it over to the Yurok for stewardship.

The piece of land, which contained giant redwoods, recovered to such an extent that the NPS has incorporated it into the Redwoods trail network, and the two agencies will cooperate in ensuring mutual flourishing between two properties and one ecosystem.

Back at Blue Creek, AP reports that work has already begun clearing non-native conifer trees planted for lumber. The trunks will be used to create log jams in the creek for wildlife habitat.

Costing $56 million, the land was bought from the loggers by Western Rivers Conservancy, using a mixture of fundraising efforts including private capital, low interest loans, tax credits, public grants and carbon credit sales.

The sale was part of a movement called Land Back, which involves returning ownership of once-native lands of great importance to tribes for the sake of effective stewardship. [Note: This is a weirdly limited definition of Land Back. Land Back means RETURN STOLEN LAND, PERIOD.] Studies have shown around the tropics that indigenous-owned lands in protected areas have higher forest integrity and biodiversity than those owned by national governments.

Land Back has seen 4,700 square miles—equivalent to one and a half-times the size of Yellowstone National Park—returned to tribes through land buy-back agreements in 15 states." [Note: Since land buyback agreements aren't the only form of Land Back, the total is probably (hopefully) more than that.]

-via Good News Network, June 10, 2025

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"In Northern California, a Native American tribe is celebrating the return of ancestral lands in one of the largest such transfers in the nation’s history.

Through a Dept. of the Interior initiative aiming to bring indigenous knowledge back into land management, 76 square miles east of the central stretch of the Klamath River has been returned to the Yurok tribe.

Sandwiched between the newly-freed Klamath and forested hillsides of evergreens, redwoods, and cottonwoods, Blue Creek is considered the crown jewel of these lands, though if it were a jewel it wouldn’t be blue, it would be a giant colorless diamond, such is the clarity of the water.

Pictured: Blue Creek

It’s the most important cold-water tributary of the Klamath River, and critical habitat for coho and Chinook salmon. Fished and hunted on since time immemorial by the Yurok and their ancestors, the land was taken from them during the gold rush before eventually being bought by timber companies.

Barry McCovey Jr., director of the Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department, remembers slipping past gates and dodging security along Blue Creek just to fish up a steelhead, one of three game fish that populate the river and need it to spawn.

Profiled along with the efforts of his tribe to secure the land for themselves and their posterity, he spoke to AP about the experience of seeing plans, made a decade ago, come to fruition, and returning to the creek on which he formerly trespassed as a land and fisheries manager.

“To go from when I was a kid and 20 years ago even, from being afraid to go out there to having it be back in tribal hands … is incredible,” he said.

Part of the agreement is that the Yurok Tribe would manage the land to a state of maximum health and resilience, and for that the tribe has big plans, including restoring native prairie, using fire to control understory growth, removing invasive species, restoring native fish habitat, and undoing decades of land-use changes from the logging industry in the form of culverts and logging roads.

“And maybe all that’s not going to be done in my lifetime,” said McCovey. “But that’s fine, because I’m not doing this for myself.”

The Yurok Tribe were recently at the center of the nation’s largest dam removal, a two decades-long campaign to remove a series of four hydroelectric dams along the Klamath River. Once the West Coast’s third-largest salmon run, the Klamath dams substantially reduced salmon activity.

Completed last September, the before and after photographs are stunning to witness. By late November, salmon had already returned far upriver to spawn, proving that instinctual information had remained intact even after a century of disconnect.

Pictured; Klamath River flows freely, after Copco-2 dam was removed in California

“Seeing salmon spawning above the former dams fills my heart,” said Joseph L. James, chairman of the Yurok Tribe, the leaders of the dam removal campaign along with the Karuk and Klamath tribes.

“Our salmon are coming home. Klamath Basin tribes fought for decades to make this day a reality because our future generations deserve to inherit a healthier river from the headwaters to the sea.”

Last March, GNN reported that the Yurok Tribe had also become the first of America’s tribal nations to co-manage land with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of understanding involving Redwoods National Park.

The nonprofit Save the Redwoods bought a piece of land adjacent to the park, which receives 1 million visitors annually and is a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site, and handed it over to the Yurok for stewardship.

The piece of land, which contained giant redwoods, recovered to such an extent that the NPS has incorporated it into the Redwoods trail network, and the two agencies will cooperate in ensuring mutual flourishing between two properties and one ecosystem.

Back at Blue Creek, AP reports that work has already begun clearing non-native conifer trees planted for lumber. The trunks will be used to create log jams in the creek for wildlife habitat.

Costing $56 million, the land was bought from the loggers by Western Rivers Conservancy, using a mixture of fundraising efforts including private capital, low interest loans, tax credits, public grants and carbon credit sales.

The sale was part of a movement called Land Back, which involves returning ownership of once-native lands of great importance to tribes for the sake of effective stewardship. [Note: This is a weirdly limited definition of Land Back. Land Back means RETURN STOLEN LAND, PERIOD.] Studies have shown around the tropics that indigenous-owned lands in protected areas have higher forest integrity and biodiversity than those owned by national governments.

Land Back has seen 4,700 square miles—equivalent to one and a half-times the size of Yellowstone National Park—returned to tribes through land buy-back agreements in 15 states." [Note: Since land buyback agreements aren't the only form of Land Back, the total is probably (hopefully) more than that.]

-via Good News Network, June 10, 2025

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Karelian language

Karelian is very endangered, the assimilation in both Russia and Finland has nearly stopped the natural way the language is passed on within families.

The estimations of size of language community in totality is estimated to be bit over 36 000, although somewhat more understand the language to some level even if they do not speak it.

Here are some donation links to associations and activists who carry the language and culture and who you can help:

Arton Kričja - handcrafter, activist

Karjalan Kielen Kodi - language nest, association

Karjalan Sivistysseura - Association, support by buying books, cards etc

Karjalazet Nuoret Suomes - Karjalaiset Nuoret Šuomessa ry - organisation of young Karelians in Finland

Kondien Fed'a - activist, linquistic, politician

Raine Rysä - artist, activist

Roakkaliha - artist

Sadly associations in Russia usually can not accept donations or funding from outside of the country, as the Government tends to stamp this as associations being "foreign agents" and as such forced to disband.

If you have more links feel free to add or PM me and I'll add them!

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Woman playing Altai Khomus (Jew's harp). 1927

from Kunstkamera archive

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Udmurt Girl from Tatarstan, Russia

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Mari Girls in festival garments, early 20th c.

from Kunstukamera archive

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Some of my amateur photography.

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Altai woman

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Афанасий Николаевич Осипов

Afanasy Nikolaevich Osipov(1928-2017)

Афанасий Николаевич Осипов -народный художник Саха Afanasy Nikolaevich Osipov -People’s Artist of Sakha

Osipov first came to the Arctic North in early 1958. Then he visited the coast of the Arctic Ocean. The Northern cycle was one of the first in his work. Individual works of this cycle, including portrait etudes, were seen against the general background of art exhibitions in the country in those years. While being in the tundra for a long time, the artist studied in many ways the traditional way of life of the Northern peoples, touched their original life values, and captured what he saw in his works.

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Портрет ненецкой девушки. конец XIX века Portrait of a Young Nenets Woman

Artist Maria Ostrovskaya-Shatelen. The Sakha Republic National Art Museum Художница Островская-Шателен М.А. Национальный художественный музей Республики Саха