Brigade No. 4

A Reindeer Herding Camp in the Tundra

    The village of Snezhnoe has two reindeer herding camps connected with it, one of which is Anadyrskaia brigada, "The Anadyr' Brigade," or as it is more affectionately known, "Brigade Number Four" ("Four" is the number assigned to this brigade in Soviet times -- it was one of ten brigades). The reindeer camp is divided into two main parts:  the base camp, which consists of three family iarangi (the reindeer skin dwelling in which Chukotka reindeer herders live when they are working in the tundra); and the nomadic camp, which follows the herd around the tundra as it continually moves to fresh grazing grounds. During the winter, these two parts consolidate into one camp that moves every few weeks.
 

This is the base camp, which remains in one place throughout the summer.  Primarily women and children live here.	This is the nomadic herding camp, which moves every two or three days. Men, women and children live here

The base camp is where lots of kids from the village spend their summer vacations, with their families. Babushka (grandmother) Omraunaut is in charge of this base camp, and is much beloved by the children of the camp. She cooks and cares for the kids, sews their clothes, sings for them, and keeps everyone laughing with her jokes.The nomadic herding camp is where the reindeer herders live, in tents.  Besides the herders themselves (in this case, an unusually young group of men), there are also women and children living at the camp.

Here you see most of the young  herders of the brigade, minus the  brigadier and deputy brigadier.	These are the four children who  were living at the camp at the time  of my visit: Maksim, Miroslav,  baby Tanya and Lena.	Six-month-old Tanya and her mother.  Although this woman was living at the camp primarily to be with her husband, according to the Soviet sovkhoz system (which still hadn't changed much by 1996), she was given a job description  of "cook" and paid a salary.

Of course, the main work of the camp is tending its herd of about 1500 reindeer. The herders work in teams of two for twelve-hour shifts: a day shift and a night shift. They must guide the deer to fresh pasture, and protect them from predators like wolves, bears, and even wild caribou. These caribou, or dikary, like to snatch away domestic does to add to their own wild bands. Periodically, the herders have a roundup of the domestic reindeer in order to give them medical attention, castrate young males, or slaughter some to feed their families. To see a reindeer roundup, click below.

Go to the Reindeer Roundup Page 

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