“I always help my husband.” How nomadic families combine traditions, modern life

MOSCOW, October 24. /TASS Correspondent Yulia Bochkareva/. The Even-Bytantaysky District in Yakutia is one of the most remote and sparsely populated places, where about 3,000 people live. It was formed in 1989 to allot land to the Evens roaming the Verkhoyansk area. These lands beyond the Arctic Circle are known for highlands, rivers and ridges. No wonder the district’s emblem shows a bighorn sheep – a symbol of strength and resistance to the local conditions. People living there carefully preserve reindeer husbandry and pass skills from one generation to another.
The large family of Alexey Yumshanov and Tuyara Kolesova is one of the families that preserve and continue traditional occupations of the indigenous Even people. They have five children: four sons and a daughter. The eldest son is in the ninth grade, and the youngest, the twins, are three years old. To keep the children’s education ongoing, the family lives in the administrative center – Batagai-Alyt, and during summer holidays they join work on pastures. In 2022, when Yakutia celebrated the 100th anniversary, the couple was recognized as a Family of the Year – the Yumshanovs-Kolesovs were winners in the Nomadic Family nomination.
“From the age of three, they join us to pastures, they learn the life and learn to work like adults do. It’s amazing, must be the nature: children on the nomad never get sick. But as soon as we return to the village, all diseases come out immediately,” Tuyara, the mother, said.
Both spouses have been closely connected with reindeer husbandry and the Even-Bytantaysky District.
The family head, Alexey, comes from that district and after school he chose to be a reindeer herder. The reindeer herd of the Leninskoye enterprise, where he works now, is a most advanced farm in the district. Alexey has many awards for high production in preserving the reindeer population. The work requires full dedication, thus he can visit his family in Batagai-Alita only from time to time.
Tuyara is also familiar with nomadic life – her father took the girl to camps where she learned that life. He still works with deer, where her husband works – in the Eveno-Bytantaysky District.
Yakutia now ranks third in the country in terms of the number of domestic reindeer. The sector has 107 reindeer herding farms, and employs, as of January 1, 2022, more than 1,200 people, where 997 of them are reindeer herders and 235 keep the camps.
“I don’t think reindeer husbandry will disappear in the future. At least not in the Eveno-Bytantaysky District, where people live only due to reindeer husbandry. There are reindeer herders among children and young people. Anyway, kids, brought up in the nature and forest, are absolutely different from others. Their views on life and problems are completely different. They begin to train them for hunting from elementary school,” Tuyara said. “Not everyone is ready for the life of a reindeer herder, even if well trained. It’s a kind of a strength test. But if a person passes it, he is prepared for life, he is not afraid of difficulties and is ready to face them.”
Everyday concerns are an integral part of the life. The life of a reindeer herding team in harsh conditions, where winter continues for about eight months and where people have to watch the herd all this time, makes certain adjustments.
Along with grazing deer and moving them to another pasture, in every new location the families need to organize housing and cook, and this responsibility falls on females. They are engaged both the tent installation and in its all equipment.
The Evens eat mostly meat and fish. Their work requires a lot of physical exertion, therefore they need high-calorie food cooked from fresh domestic and wild venison, moose, lamb, wild animal meat, fish and deer milk. Plus, of course, the products they gather.
Women are responsible for household affairs as well as for raising children. “Their duties are extremely difficult, but every woman anyway copes with them,” Tuyara said. “I always help my husband. Be that shipping, or any other job, I always follow him, we are always together.”
Tuyara is skilled to make national clothes that reindeer herders still use in everyday life, as time has proved they cannot be replaced with anything different.
Women sew by hand sets of clothes for kids and adults, which differ in composition and decoration. The Evens’ traditional clothing is a swing caftan, for summer (naimi) and for winter (dudika); winter dokha (muka); bib – for women (nel), for men (neleken); short trousers; nogovits/fur stockings (doton); cap-shaped hat (avun); mittens (kukatan); gloves and boots -torbasa (unta).
Making such clothes requires thorough knowledge of all the traditional clothing stages – from making threads of deer tendons and to processing of hides and leather. Women fill special patterns of beads and wool that decorate clothes with sacred meanings so that the person wearing them could be warm and comfortable as well as blessed and protected against troubles and dangers.
In March, Tuyara won the nomination “National Costume of North’s Peoples” at Yakutia’s 14th Crafts Exhibition and Fair. “My granny and mother Elena Klepandina are artsy-craftsy. Mom studied sewing and knows traditional sewing methods, she also worked at a factory that used to be in the Eveno-Bytantaysky District. Since childhood, I watched her doing needlework, sewing, and from early age, I was trying to be equally skilled in work with a needle. While earlier I studied Yakut national clothes, nowadays I am creating Even outfits,” she says.
Another special occupation Tuyara has is cutting out paper with scissors. The patterns she makes cannot be repeated later, she said. She has been cutting out paper for 16 years – this skill is very useful in her current job as a designer at the Harpan Ethnic Cultural Center. Her works are known for big sizes – some may be a meter high or even more. In 2014, she released an album of patterns, and a year later – a calendar. “Now, I want to do patterns in wood,” she said.
Every family member has a creative hobby – drawing, plasticine modeling, dancing or singing.
Evens believe people and nature form up a single whole, and every element or creation of nature has its own master spirit. On roads and plains in Yakutia, you can see the “beleh mas” tree, which is usually tall and branchy, with a lot of colorful ribbons tied to it. Such a tree is related directly to the Yumshanovs-Kolesovs family.
“What family traditions we have? Let me think,” she said. “Far from the village, at the camp there’s a larch. Every autumn we come up to it, tie up ribbons, especially if we expect a big event or something major, or in case of an illness, or if we have a specific request.”
Over recent 50 years, the number of Evens – one of the North’s indigenous low-numbered peoples – has been steadily growing, so Tuyara says it is very important to preserve and also to pass on to children and grandchildren the beliefs, culture, language and traditions of her people.