Between the Vakh and Taz River: On the Origin of the of Northern Selkups

The article deals with some episodes of Selkup history in the valley of the river Vakh and on the adjacent territory of the upper Taz River in the first half of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. The main topics discussed are the following: the localization of the Tymskaya and Karakonskaya volosts, their divisibility and connection with certain groups of the local population, the details of the final process of migration of the Selkup and the formation of their ethnic boundaries with the Khanty. The study is mainly based on the analysis and comparison of archival data with the material of previous historical and ethnographic publications. As a result, the research adjusted the previously assumed boundaries of the Tymsky volost on the Vakh River and the neighboring Karakonskaya volost on the Taz River. It turned out that the Selkups of the Karakonskaya volost had left the Vakh River by 1740 and were already in the basin of the neighboring Taz River. It turned out that the period of relatively free migration of the Selkups had already ended in the middle of the 18th century. Later, there were only movements of small groups of Selkups and Khanty in the space between the Vakh and Taz rivers and in both directions. Having decreased significantly in the early 19th century, limited social communication between the populations of the two river basins did not cease even after a century. A significant part of the Selkups of the river Vakh and their elite remained faithful to their ethnic identity in the first decades of the 20th century.The final rupture of ties between the Selkups of the Upper Taz and the Selkups of the Vakh and the disappearance of the community of the Selkups of the Vakh occurred in the middle of the 20th century.

ethnography of Western Siberia, migration, ethnicity, Tymskaya volost, Karakonskaya volost, Lyaryak