The peoples of the North have long become literate
But life is still bad
Yesterday, the IV Congress of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East began its work in the conference hall of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation. Such congresses are held every four years. Representatives of 41 nations once again came to Moscow to ask the president for a better life or at least to remind them of their existence.

In the lobby, merchants dressed in silk robes were laying out goods on ottomans: a miniature tent with an interior for 2 thousand rubles, a “frog” fur coat made of deer fur for 25 thousand rubles, pendants, pincushions, key holders, figurines of bears and seals made of bone rubles 800-900 each. Having priced out these handicraft products, the guests of the congress went to the hall, where it was reported that small peoples can not only sew fur coats and carve bones, but also read and write. The president of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation, Sergei Kharyuchi, said this: “We do not have illiterate reindeer herders or fisher-hunters. Everyone has an 8-10 grade education.”
Nevertheless, educated indigenous northerners have enough problems: due to industrial development of land, a thin fertile layer of soil is destroyed, sand remains on which moss does not grow, and deer die of hunger; in remote areas there is nothing to feed children. When distributing fishing quotas, the right of priority access of indigenous peoples to territories of traditional environmental management is violated, since small-numbered peoples do not have the money to pay for quotas. Among these same peoples, the highest levels of mortality, unemployment, cancer and tuberculosis and the lowest standard of living were recorded even in Russia. Many representatives of small nations said that officials remember these problems only during demonstrative actions as part of election campaigns.
The result of the first meeting was an appeal from the congress delegates to the government of the Russian Federation, in which they proposed: to introduce permanent prosecutorial supervision over the observance of the legal rights of indigenous peoples; introduce an insert in the general passport for indigenous peoples indicating their nationality; adopt and sign the federal law “On the territories of traditional environmental management of indigenous peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East of the Russian Federation”; preserve village hospitals, paramedic and obstetric centers and their supply of medicines; maintain small schools to maintain the finally achieved universal secondary level of education. And the main thing is to put under strict control the import of alcoholic beverages into areas densely populated by indigenous peoples. Because for more than a century, the only product uninterruptedly imported by the numerous Russian people into the places of residence of these already small peoples was and remains vodka.

ELENA Kommersant-VANSOVICH

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 66 dated 04/13/2001, p. 9