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Nganasan PeopleThe Nganasans are one of the indigenous peoples of Siberia. They are the northernmost of the Samoyedic peoples, living on the Taimyr Peninsula in the Arctic Ocean. Their territory is part of the Taimyr Autonomous Region of the Krasnoyarsk district. Their "capital" is the village of Ust-Avamsk. They speak a Samoyed language. The Avam Nganasans live in the Avam District in the western part of the Taimyr Peninsula, in the valleys of the rivers Pyassina, Dudypta and Boganida. The speakers of the Vadeyev dialect live in the tundra and in the eastern parts of Taimyr, in the Khatanga District by the river Heta, Lake Taimyr and Khatanga Bay. The Nganasans share their territory with the Dolgans. Their southern and southeastern neighbours are the Yakuts; in the southwest they border upon the Enets. The Nganasans are few in number - about 1,000. Throughout most of their history they have been nomadic hunters, fishers, and herders of reindeer. They have successfully resisted attempts at conversion to foreign religions until the Soviets. The biggest change in their history occurred in the 1940s, when the Soviet authorities decided to end the shamanist beliefs of the Nganasans. Shamans were imprisoned and their holy artifacts confiscated. Since the 1960s, the nomadic life of the Nganasans has been ended and they have been settled in villages, where they live alongside Russians and Dolgans. These sudden changes caused depression for many Nganasans and alcoholism is a big problem among them.
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