With a populace of more than 41,000, the Nenets are one of the biggest of the indigenous groups in Northern Siberia. Their region covers a huge area that stretches from the Kanin Peninsula at the White Sea in the west, right to the Taymyr Peninsula, a distance of in excess of 2,000 kilometers. These days, most Nenets live in northern regions of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District and the Nenets Autonomous District. The Nenets are comprised of two unmistakable groups: the Tundra Nenets who live in the North and the Forest Nenets, a lot littler group of around 2,500 people who live in the timberlands toward the south. 

The Nenets have a place with the Samoyed group of peoples. Their predecessors started in Southern Siberia and are believed to have settled in the Russian North around 1,000 years prior. The principal composed reference to them was made in 1096 in Nestor’s narratives. Generally, the Nenets are reindeer raisers, who likewise hunt, trap, and fish. The Nenets who live in seaside territories likewise hunt ocean warm-blooded creatures though reindeer is the premise of their way of life-giving nourishment, attire, tents, and transport.

In this article, we will be talking more about 5 things you should know about Nenets before going to Yamal. So, get ready to take some notes and check this out.

1. Modern Daily Life 

Today, the Nenets have instructive opportunities at all levels and may proceed to pursue modern professions as specialists, educators, legal advisors, vets, and so on. Regardless of this, reindeer rearing stays significant, both monetarily and socially. Their reindeer herding movement is based around family groups with the herders and their families driving a semi-migrant way of life and remaining with their reindeer the entire all year.

Nenets herders live in tepee style tents ‘mya’. The fronts of which are produced using reindeer skin for use in winter and canvas in the late spring. Their herding includes regular relocations with their reindeer. For the Nenets who relocate up toward the north of the Yamal Peninsula, travels can be the length of 1,000 kilometers each way. Throughout the winter, most herders brush their reindeer on tundra or in backwoods in the southern part of their area before relocating northwards again in the spring up to the Arctic coast. In the harvest time, they start their adventure south once more.

2. Foods Taken from Nature 

Reindeer meat is the most significant piece of their eating routine which they, for the most part, eat raw, frozen or boiled. They additionally drink the blood of a freshly butchered reindeer. Fish is additionally significant nourishment for them and they get species that include: muksun, white salmon, and expansive white fish. Fish is basically eaten raw or frozen. However, they likewise freeze and salt it to preserve it.

Since they have approached flour bread and bannock, both have likewise become a significant piece of their eating routine. Throughout the mid-year, they gather berries including mountain cranberry, blueberry, and cloudberry which they eat fresh and furthermore, make into a jam to save it for the winter. These days, most Nenets approach a wide scope of Russian foods in the shops. 

3. Method for Transport 

The Nenets use, for the most part, reindeer sleds as transport. They have an assortment of kinds of sled for various uses and an extraordinary sled for ladies. In forested regions, they would regularly use around three reindeer to pull a reindeer sled and in open tundra, up to five. They additionally utilize wide wooden skis, especially in the backwoods throughout the wintertime. In summer, they additionally travel by reindeer sled though generally with lighter weight sleds. These days, they additionally use snowmobiles and sometimes modern speedboats when angling. 

4. Traditional Beliefs 

The Nenets’ traditional strict convictions are animistic. All aspects of the regular world have spirits, and creatures, plants, streams, lakes, slopes, and so on all had their own ‘spirit masters.’ The earth and every single living thing were made by the god ‘Num’ and individuals’ prosperity were altogether dependant on him. Num would ensure individuals on the off chance that they requested assistance and made the suitable penances and contributions. Solicitations for help and answers to them were passed by the sky spirits who could only converse with shamans.

Aside from Num, there was another amiable spirit called ‘Ya-nebya’ (Mother Earth) who secured ladies and helped labor. Abhorrent came principally from ‘Nga,’ Num’s child, a pernicious divine force of sicknesses and passing. Shamanism assumed a significant job among the Nenets. Shamans wore a unique outfit embellished with metal adornments and they likewise utilized a drum. Their job includes treating illness, foreseeing the future, and conveying the spirits of the dead to the underground world.

There are holy locales everywhere throughout the Nenets’ domain where reindeer are yielded and individuals leave bits of material and coins and different presents for the spirits. Consequently, they request things like safe travel, great wellbeing, and good luck with hunting and angling. Indeed, even today, a great deal of Nenets still hold a significant number of their traditional convictions and ceremonies and it is common to see men wearing ornaments, regularly bear’s teeth worn on their belts. Numerous reindeer grouping families additionally keep on having a consecrated sled on which they transport their idols.

5. Social Problems

The land and reindeer groups of the Nenets are currently compromised by oil and flammable gas advancement that is fundamental for the Russian economy. The previous 30 years have seen colossal change with enormous modern towns like Noviy Urengoi and Nadym being based on the tundra to support the oil and gas industries. Numerous more established towns like Salekhard, the capital of the Yamal, have been changed by modern structures to a great extent paid for by the gas industry. Regardless of whether reindeer grouping can endure long term on the tundra alongside the oil and gas industry is not yet clear.

Life for some Nenets today, especially those not utilized in reindeer grouping, and who live in towns and communities, is getting progressively troublesome. The high pace of joblessness, poor human services, liquor misuse, and racial segregation are, for the most part, adding to declining expectations for everyday comforts and high death rates among the Nenets.

So, those are 5 things you should know about Nenets before going to Yamal.