Negidals (, "local people"; , negidaltsy) are an Indigenous ethnic group in the Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, who live along the Amgun River
After the fall of the USSR, according to the 2001 census, 52 Ukrainian citizens identified themselves as Negidals. Of these, 31 declared Negidal as their native language, 11 are Russian-speaking and for 9 the mother tongue is another language.
Negidal has two dialects – Upper Negidal (Verkhovskoj) and the now seemingly extinct Lower Negidal (Nizovskoj); the dialectal division corresponds with the subethnic division into Lower and Upper Negidals, the two subgroups having local cultural, traditional, and linguistic differences.
The Negidal language is considered an endangered language; a 2017 study failed to find any active speakers of the Lower dialect, with only a few elderly people actively speaking Upper Negidal in Vladimirovka.
Origin and history
Negidal people are considered to descend from Evenks that settled in the Amgun basin during the Iron Age. After branching off from the main Tungusic ethnic family and reaching the Okhotsk Coast, Negidals were geographically isolated.
Religion
Negidals are officially considered Orthodox Christians but preserved their own animistic beliefs and shamanism.
Both Upper and Lower Negidals employed dog sleds; and the Upper Negidals also rode reindeer sleds, occasionally sitting on the backs of reindeer. Boats and skis are two other traditional means of transportation. In the past, Negidals employed travois (called kelchi), usually for dragging large prey.
Negidals traditionally crafted clothing and footwear out of animal hides and fur and produced handmade household items (such as fur blankets or birch bark utensils). Negidal traditional garments consisted of clothing and footwear made out of fish and seal skin and dog hides. Traditional attire included robes (tetchennge, uykeli), leggings (heykii), different types of footwear (onta) and headwear (avun).
Negidal housing vary depending on the sub-ethnic group (Upper or Lower Negidals) and time of the year.
Traditionally, Upper Negidals lived in large movable chum tents, that were covered with reindeer hides in the winter. Lower Negidals, who were more settled, had winter lodgings—large carcass houses with a kang along one of the walls—while summer lodgings were small gable-roofed bark huts made from bark. Hunters built forest huts for temporary shelter.
Log cabins first began to be used by the Negidal people in the late 18th century. The flooring was made out of birch bark mats. A hut consisted of a hearth (later a stove borrowed from the Russians) and beds, covered with conifer branches and animal hides. These beds served as both tables and resting places. Tools and utensils were hung on the walls or placed in corners.
Negidals adapted farming from Russian settlers in the late 19th century; farming was actively introduced in Soviet kolkhozes, but after the fall of the Soviet Union, it remained mostly in the form of gardens.