Indigenous Identity in the Resource Landscape of Buryatia’s Oka District

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article features the problem of Indigenous identity (indigeneity) formation through interaction with the landscape, based on the example of Oka district in Buryatia. The two main ethnic groups residing in Oka—the Oka Buryats and the Soyot—have been sharing one territory and exerting a strong influence on one another over a span of several centuries. In 2000, the Soyot received the status of an Indigenous numerically small people of the Russian Federation, leading to the establishment of additional boundaries between the ethnic groups. At approximately the same time, the informal extraction of nephrite [raw jade] began in the region. The nephrite is subsequently transferred to Irkutsk or Ulan-Ude and sold to China. The close connection that Oka residents have with the rhythms and cycles of nature influences how they perceive the extraction of nephrite. Local inhabitants associate aspects of the landscape, including its resources, with local spirits. For this reason, the informal mining of nephrite is perceived not simply as a business, but as a spiritual journey as well, one that includes complex systems of understandings with the masters of the territory, and likewise with the state. The article shows that two parallel understandings of Indigenous identity exist in Oka. Indigenous identity is seen as a formal “status,” established by the state, and as a spontaneously arising community of “Okans.” Community is formed through assertion of rights to resources and through historical connection with the territory, as well as relations of mutual support between the inhabitants.