Winter visit to the Reindeer People
Hello everyone,
When I visited the Reindeer People for their celebration of Reindeer People’s Day on August 2nd, they invited me back for a winter visit. I took them up on this invitation and on November 14th Nina Salikova, Jenny Seleznova (12 year old daughter of my Deputy), and I, flew to a remote herding site by MI8 helicopter. We arrived there at 10 AM and of course immediately had to go into the tent (Chum) for tea and a very large lunch, and to get dressed in the same winter clothes that the Nentsy people wear. We then went by reindeer sleigh on an 8 km trip with 4 teams of 4 animals each, to a lake where the men had previously set out 20 fish nets. This trip took about 1.5 hours and I was very surprised at the stamina of these reindeer, they never stopped running; up hills, through deep snow and right over or thorugh willow groves, downhill and over open steams.
The drivers stopped the teams about every 30 minutes to let them rest plus to just enjoy the magnificent Arctic scenery. These Nentsy people ride these sleighs like a surfer rides the waves, with incredible balance and aplomb; we hung on for dear life! Once we got to fairly flat terrain my driver got off the sleigh and let me take it on my own, a great thrill! We spent 2 hours at the lake and caught about 150 fish; 20 Northen Pike, 20 Perch and the rest were Arctic Grayling. We then enjoyed a great shore lunch right off the back of a sleigh; with bread, reindeer ribs, tea and a little chut-chut of Vodka.
By this time it was dark but we drove back under both starlight and bright moonlight, you could not see the other teams but you could hear their bells, a magical trip that will always be in my memory. The Chum is quite large, 14 of us slept the night on the wood floor, using 2 layers of reindeer hide as a mattess.
The next morning we got up and helped them corral about 200 reindeer that they keep close by, this small herd is used to make up the teams which they change out from day to day. Several of these animals have large bells tied into their horns so they are easy to find in the morning, you can hear the bells from several kms. away in the clear and quiet Arctic air. This again was great fun and quite exciting for us city folk. Although Nina is a Komi, she had never expereinced such a visit before and found the whole experience to be very thrilling. We then rode another 9 kms. back to our remote production and camp facilities in time to catch a 2 PM helicopter back to Usinsk.
These Nentsy are following a way of life that has not really changed for a thousand years, they are living proof that you can still live quite well in complete harmony with the environment and we all came home feeling quite honored for having being able to share two days of their lives with them. When we left they invited us back in May as they say spring is the nicest time of all, and we are already planning and counting down the days…
Best regards from Jim Guthrie, Nina Salikvoa, and Jenny Seleznova.
Enjoy the photos!
Jim Guthrie
(November 30, 2003)