Ethnic groups of Russia: Kereks

They are one of Russia’s smallest ethnic groups. Today, literally only about 20 (!) Kereks remain! Half a century ago, there were just under 100 of them, but assimilation by the neighboring Chukchi people played a role in their continued decline.

The Kereks settled along the Bering Sea coast as early as the first half of the first millennium BC; their endonym, ‘ankalgakku’, means ‘seaside people’. Their traditional livelihoods included fishing and hunting wild reindeer and bears. Large marine animals were hunted using a harpoon known as the ‘Kerek needle’.

In the 18th century, the Kereks frequently found themselves in the crossfires of numerous wars between the Chukchi and the Koryaks, suffering greatly at the hands of both sides. Many scholars described them as “the most unfortunate tribe in the Northeast”.

The Kereks’ cuisine consists of boiled, dried or frozen fish and meat. A special delicacy was a sausage known as ‘pavalyaan’: a seagull's esophagus was inflated and dried, filled with the yolks of various birds' eggs and then boiled.