Forest Nenet͡s Roads: Indigenous Mobilities at the Edge of Extractivism
Elena A. Volzhanina, University of Aberdeen
David G. Anderson, University of Aberdeen
Abstract: Arctic petroleum extraction is often portrayed as a juggernaut which destroys landscapes and indigenous communities. Whilst certainly powerful and destructive, most indigenous communities can use their knowledge and skills to pick and choose aspects of the petrochemical developments around them. This short ethnography documents the constructive way in which a community of Forest Nenet͡s reindeer herders selectively connected to and disconnected from a growing road network through employing a variety of traditional and novel technologies, including indigenous road-making.
Vyngapur Nenet͡s conical tent (ḿāʔ) with a Niva jeep in the background. August 2018, Ngarka Khasleta river.
Тhe Nenet͡s communities of Northwestern Siberia are commonly renowned for their large reindeer herds, and for some, the epic migrations they make with their animals across the tundra of the I͡Amal peninsula (Golovnev, 2017; Laptander, 2020; Rouillard, 2012). Nenet͡ses however live across a vast landscape which is both ancient and deeply connected to a globalizing world. To the North tundra, Nenet͡ses have adapted their traditional economy to incorporate an Arctic railway and opportunistic trade with oil workers. To the South, Nenet͡ses known as Forest Nenet͡ses live within the forested zone, building a herding and fishing economy using automobiles and locally constructed roads.
The construction of roads and the laying of trails by indigenous peoples is an old theme in ethnohistory. The routes of many transport arteries, such as the Dempster Highway in Canada’s Western Arctic, were once well-worn dog-sled trails made by Gwich’ins (Greir, 1989; Slobodin, 1963). Indigenous people in Eastern Siberia all create home-made roads: Sakhas and Tofolars build them to connect and disconnect their communities to the extractive settlements around them (Argounova-Low, 2012; Kuklina & Holland, 2018). For Khantaĭka Evenkis the definition of a “road” is in fact not a physical infrastructure but the knowledge of where and how to move (Anderson, 1998). As the Arctic industrializes, some communities, such as Zabaĭkal Evenkis pour their energy into disconnecting from the petro-state to emphasize a “right to remoteness” (Schweitzer & Povoroznyuk, 2019).
Map of circumpolar indigenous peoples involved in road construction
This article highlights the local roads built and designed by one regional group known as the Vyngapur Forest Nenet͡s community. The name of the group comes from the name of the trading post to which the indigenous population was assigned in the 20th century[1] (Turutina, 2000). The Vyngapur Forest Nenet͡s homeland is the Pi͡akupur watershed, including its left and right tributaries: Vyngapur and Purpe. This territory is part of the Purovskiĭ District, which was formed in 1932 within the I͡Amal-Nenet͡s Autonomous Okrug. Elena Volzhanina conducted expeditionary research in this area in 2004 and from 2007 to 2009 for three to four weeks in the summer (July, August, September). In August 2018, after a long break, a repeat visit to this site was organized with David Anderson.
Map of the I͡Amal-Nenet͡s Autonomous Okrug featuring the Vyngapur tundra.
The Vyngapur Forest Nenet͡ses live in the Northern taiga zone characterized by larch, pine and cedar. The forest is broken up with large open spaces of tundra. Therefore, this forested region is known as Vyngapur tundra. Another peculiarity is the absence of rich places to fish—an ecological quality requiring high mobility. Therefore, the Vyngapur Forest Nenet͡ses traditionally put their emphasis on accentuating their mobility through the use of harnessed reindeer. According to official statistics (1926–2010), the number of Vyngapur Nenet͡ses never exceeded 300 people. The number of reindeer grazing in the Vyngapur tundra differs in different periods ranging from 8691 reindeer in 1926 to 2000 in 2018 (Volzhanina, 2010).
Detailed map of the Vyngapur tundra with roads and oil installations, taken from (Volzhanina, 2012).
In 2003–2004, an all-weather road network was set down by construction workers in the Vyngapur tundra to service the Vyngai͡akhinskoe and Ety-Purovskoe oil fields[2]. In 2004, a further road was built in the region, from the village Khanymeĭ to Muravlenko, which provided access to the federal highway. A modern map of the distribution of Vyngapur Nenet͡s settlements shows that their camps are now surrounded by paved roads (Volzhanina, 2012). Rather than confining mobility, as has been reported by Sámis, an indigenous community in Northern Europe (Löfmarck & Lidskog, 2019), for the time being, these new motorways have created new opportunities for Vyngapur Nenet͡ses.
The gradual incorporation of roads into the Vyngapur Nenet͡s lifestyle grew out of a history of innovation. This community was the first in I͡Amal to adapt snowmobiles for summer use. By the late 1990s, every household kept a “summer” snowmobile and a “winter” one. Vyngapur Nenet͡ses prefer to use the Soviet-era “Buran” snowmobile, a double-tracked machine, roughly copying the design of the first Canadian skidoo of the 1960s. It works on low-grade fuel and parts, or handmade parts from discarded metal, which can be easily sourced. The wide double belts mean that the machine will not sink when travelling over the melted active layer of permafrost in the summer. To turn a “winter” snowmobile into a “summer” snowmobile involves removing the bonnet for ventilation, strengthening parts of the frame, and clearing special paths or “roads” (Volzhanina, 2010, 2012). The latter innovation was a precursor to contemporary road construction
“Summer” snowmobiles on a forest road. A Vyngapur Nenet͡s family on their way home into the forest. September 2007, Ni͡aby-i͡akha river.
Vyngapur Nenet͡ses have creatively integrated the Niva jeep into their regional journeys. The Niva is a relatively inexpensive SUV well adapted to the rough road conditions in the Vyngapur tundra. At first, in 2008, the jeep was used only for segments of the Vyngapur Nenet͡s journeys. For example, an often-used route from the Khanymei village (where many Nenet͡s families have their permanent homes) to their camp in the tundra stretched out along 38 km of paved road, leading from the village to the river Pi͡akupur, then five km along a dirt track to the Pi͡akupur trading post. The journey continued through the checkpoint barrier of the territory of the Komsomol’skoe gas field. The security guards often did not even stop the dusty, somewhat worn-down Nenet͡s Nivas, since they recognized them by sight. The Nenet͡s drivers parked their vehicle on the banks of the river Pi͡akupur and shifted to a motorboat for another 15 km to the place where “summer” snowmobiles had been left. The third part of the journey to get to the camp was thus performed with “summer” snowmobiles. The one-way journey took four to five hours.
A Niva jeep on the paved road from Khanymeĭ. August 2018, Ngarka Khasleta river.
By 2018, all Nenet͡s men had learned to drive a Niva car[3]. Nenet͡ses buy used cars from the people who live in the area (Tarko-Sale, Muravlenko) or purchase new ones on credit or in cash in car dealerships in Tarko-Sale or Novyi Urengoi. Niva jeeps have quickly become part of the modern Nenet͡s economy. Nenet͡ses travel by car to get water, check on reindeer or to go fishing. Cars are now parked in the same place the sacred sledge once occupied—the exalted position in front of the conical tent. With the increase in transport accessibility, yesterday’s reindeer herders have turned into fishermen. Some families still own small herds of reindeer, but they are not used for transport purposes[4]. Using a car gives them wide opportunities to transport fish regardless of the season and to sell products of hunting, fishing and reindeer herding on local markets all year round. Due to the limited places suitable for hand-made roads building in Vyngapur tundra, Nenet͡s summer and winter camps now tend to be clustered closer together to take advantage of the paved road infrastructure. Moreover, the camps have transformed into places of permanent residence with stationary buildings. Most of Nenet͡s families have been given apartments in the village Khanymeĭ or in the city of Tarko-Sale[5]. They however still have camps in the forest “tundra”, with their reindeer one step away from the roads. Cars and roads have thus increased the mobility of indigenous people between their camp, the village, and towns and stopped the isolation of Nenet͡ses in the spring-summer-autumn period (April until October) from the rest of the Purovskiĭ District. The mobility between the camp and the village (town) has also risen with a gender aspect to it. Nenet͡s women spend more time in the village now with their children when they are in school, but they are able to go frequently back to the tundra.
As part of the partial transition to SUV mobility, local Nenet͡ses have to build their own roads to connect with the oil-worker-road-network around them. In designing these roads, Nenet͡ses are able to adjust the degree to which their forest settlements are open to the surrounding industrial settlements. Therefore, local roads come in many types. The simplest is a dusty track which weaves in among the white sandy subsoil of the forest. These tracks both connect and deceive in that only a regular traveler would know which trail to follow. Another complex design is the laying of cut poles across melting permafrost or swampy areas. These poles provide density and support for a light vehicle. The more advanced versions are home-made wooden bridges which can support limited Niva jeep and “summer” snowmobile traffic but not the heavier vehicles used by oil workers.
Adjusting of cut poles to traverse permafrost. August 2018, Ngarka Khasleta river.
A locally constructed timber bridge for automobiles. August 2009, Pi͡ako-Pur river.
Vyngapur Nenet͡ses demonstrate a successful model of adapting a traditional nomadic economy to the conditions of industrial development, switching from reindeer sleds to cars, but maintaining a nomadic lifestyle and engaging in fishing, hunting and reindeer herding. In this article we have shown how this local indigenous community has used road building to manage the impacts of fossil fuel development and associated changes to their environment. In the last thirty years during which Vyngapur Nenet͡ses have shifted from maintaining trails for harnessed reindeer transport, to building roads to allow vehicles to be used for certain segments of their journeys, there has been a massive change in Vyngapur Nenet͡s mobility. Roads of all types—federal paved roads, oil company roads, and Nenet͡s roads—have become the main facilitator of transportation. While maintaining mobility, they still can adjust their “right to remoteness” according to their needs in this quickly industrializing region of Western Siberia.
Footnotes:
[1] The trading post Vyngapur was opened in the late 1930s and closed in 1986. It was located at the mouth of the river Vyngapur at its confluence with the river Pi͡akupur.
[2] The Vyngai͡akhinskoe oil and gas field was discovered in 1968 whilst the Ety-Purovskoe oil field was opened in 1982. The license to develop both fields belongs to the Gazprom Neft’ company which has been operating them since 2003 (https://neftegaz.ru/tech-library/mestorozhdeniya/142247-ety-purovskoe-neftyanoe-mestorozhdenie/; https://neftegaz.ru/tech-library/mestorozhdeniya/142253-vyngayakhinskoe-neftegazovoe-mestorozhdenie/).
[3] I (E.V.) know a situation where the driving license was bought for a bag of dried fish by the Nenet͡s man.
[4] Reindeer retains its importance for rituals, for preparing traditional Nenet͡s cuisine, and for sewing traditional winter clothing. A new function for the reindeer is to participate in reindeer races on Reindeer Breeder Day in Spring.
[5] Tarko-Sale is the administrative center of the Purovskiĭ District. It was founded in 1932 and was made a town from 2004. The village Khanymeĭ was founded in 1977. The birth of the village is associated with the construction of the Surgut-Urengoĭ railway and the development of hydrocarbon deposits. Both settlements are located on the traditional territory of Forest Nenet͡ses.
All photographs were taken by the authors.