Dolgan

The Dolgans only emerged as an ethnic group between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, as a result of their intermixing with other nationalities – Evenk, Yakut, Enets and Russian. They assimilated elements of the cultures of the neighbouring Evenk and Nganasan peoples. Today, around seven thousand Dolgans live in compact groups in the Khatanga and Dudinsk districts and in the town of Dudinka. They continue to engage in reindeer breeding, which is also linked to their main arts and crafts of carving on reindeer bones, making clothes and footwear from reindeer fur and the production of domestic utensils for their nomadic way of life.