​

Introduction

            At the western foot of the Great Khingan Mountains, on the right bank of the Ergüne River, the Aoluguya Evenks have made this land their home. As indigenous peoples of Siberia, the Evenks have lived a very different way of life. These people live in traditional huts called ǯū, practice shamanism, herd reindeer, and hunt amidst the forests. However, the Evenks struggle to change with the torrents of modernization and urbanization. This paper presents a unique case of how one woman, the former chieftain of the Aoluguya Evenks, Maria Sologon, achieved security for her people through access to the land and cultural preservation.

 

Early Evenk History

The Evenks originate from the region of Lake Baikal, Siberia, Russia. Archaeological records show that the Evenks settled there in the Neolithic age. From Lake Baikal, they eventually migrated “to the east, to the Amur and the coast of the Okhotsk Sea, to the north, to the river basin of the Lena, and to the northwest, to the river basin of the Yenisey.”[1] Along the way, their culture interacted with and absorbed many other Paleo-Asiatic tribes, forming two distinct Evenki cultures: the northern Evenks, who settled along the tundra and herded reindeer, and the southern Evenks, who settled amongst the taiga and steppes and practiced pastoralism.[2]

Ancestors of the modern northern Evenki people sometimes referred to as the Reindeer Evenks, began domesticating reindeer and building a close relationship between the reindeer and the herder. The Evenks saddle their reindeer to be ridden or burdened with luggage.[3] The reindeer remain close to the herders as they come to depend on specialized treatment by the herders, such as “smudge pots to protect against midges and other biting insects, provisions of salt, and protection from predators.”[4] In their culture, the Evenks valued the reindeer highly, often including them in wedding gifts, shamanistic ceremonies, and funerals.[5] From this relationship, reindeer herding became intrinsically tied to the identity and culture of the northern Evenks.

The Cossacks [JJ1] kept the earliest records of the northern Evenks during the seventeenth century when they confirmed multiple tribes of northern Evenks settling along the Olenyok River, north of Lake Baikal.[6] Later, the incursion of the Yakut, Buryat, and Russian settlements in the region drove the Evenki population southward.[7] The adaption of the reindeer from the Siberian tundra to the moderate taiga climate allowed the Evenks to migrate their herds with them. In the early nineteenth century, a portion of the Evenki diaspora, bringing their reindeer herding culture with them, crossed south of the Ergüne River and into the Great Khingan Mountain Range, where sources were abundant.[8] Their traditional hunting and reindeer herding lifestyle remained intact, maintained by economic partnerships with Russian and Cossack fur traders.[9]

 

The Evenks of Aoluguya[JJ2] 

In the belly of the Great Khingan Range stands the Gen River, a result of the Ergüne, which flows through the steppes and acts as a lifetime to the luscious greenery of the forest. Amidst the mountains on the banks of the river is Aoluguya, a township inhabited by descendants of the northern Reindeer Evenks traditionally depended on the resources of the nearby forests for hunting and reindeer herding.[10]

The mountains and forests that have allowed hunting and reindeer herding remain integral to their cultural identity. The Evenks protect and guard the forests, and in return, the forests sustain their hunting and reindeer. A sense of indigeneity thus develops — indigeneity, as an ethnological concept, points to ethnic traditions that are “practiced and owned by people who are bound to a land in life-giving ways.”[11] The relationship between the Evenks, hunting, reindeer herding, and the landscape of Aoluguya exemplifies ethnic indigeneity, as the forests are a bloodline to Evenki culture. Since the migration south of the Ergüne River, the Evenks of Aoluguya entrenched the saliency of their identity to the land, the river, and the forest.

 

Threats to Evenki Security

The Communist Party believed the northern Evenks [JJ3] “engaged in a ‘primitive hunting lifestyle,’ the lowest stage in the Marxist conception of human history; therefore, they had to be reformed by the Chinese state.[12] In 1959, the government established an ethnic township in Qiqian, repurposing an old fur trading post used by the northern Evenks and Russians.[13] Then, again in 1965, the township moved to Old Aoluguya, still in the forest.[14] Although they now lived in wooden houses provided by the state, the Evenks could live their nomadic lifestyle as the government offered new hunting guns, permitted new hunting areas, and economically and institutionally supported reindeer herding.[15] Only the third attempt to modernize[JJ4]  the Evenks through migration from Old Aoluguya to New Aoluguya sparked outrage among them as it stopped their hunting and reindeer herding lifestyles.

In 2003, under the more significant effort to revitalize the northern regions (Open Up the West initiative), the government moved the Evenks once again to New Aoluguya, increasing economic and social integration into urbanization.[16] Like in Qiqian and Old Aoluguya, they were given government-built houses and access to a nine-year boarding school education, added with free electricity, reduced to free college tuition, and guaranteed job placement back in town after graduation.[17] This move became disastrous to the Evenki reindeer herding because the government closed off hunting areas for ecological preservation, and the relocation to a lower altitude became detrimental to the reindeer herds — “they either starved to death, since there was a lack of lichen or were killed in poachers’ traps… The surviving reindeer were bony and weak.”[18] As mentioned earlier, Evenki’s ethnic identity, being hunters and reindeer herders, intertwines with their indigeneity — the connection to the land, river, and forest that paves the way for hunting and herding. Thus, the loss of the hunting and herding lifestyle and departure from their ancestral land severely impacted their ethnic identity. As a result, it deteriorated the sense of community. There are more conflicts between the Evenks and the government than in Qiqian or Old Aoluguya, and disputes have also broken out among the hunters and herders.[19] After the government required many herders to give up their rifles, many turned to alcohol to soothe their emptiness: the rates of alcohol poisoning and alcohol-related deaths soared within the Evenki community.[20]

Hence, the relocation sparks many nuanced questions — should the youth be penalized for moving into town or leaving to pursue a better life? But if they do, who will carry on the culture? How does one keep an indigenous culture alive away from indigenous lands? And what is Evenki culture if they are not actively practicing hunting and herding? In response to these critical issues facing the security of the Evenk people, their chieftain, Maria Sologon, capitalized on the power of media and began preserving the Evenk culture.

 

Maria Sologon

 

“I was born by the torrent river, this torrent river. I have never left it.”[21]

 

At the time of her death at 101, Maria had served as the chieftain of the Aoluguya tribe for more than fifty years. Her grandfather Ginas, the sixth leader of the Sologon clan, led this branch of the Reindeer Evenks away from Russian control in 1858.[22] Her father was a widely respected chieftain in the Evenk community. Her eldest brother, Kudyvan, fought in the civilian militia against the Japanese Imperial Army during the Sino-Japanese War. Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou recognized his valor, later appointing him as an official of the Ergüne Left Banner[JJ5] .[23] When she was born, the Evenks still lived a life not so different from her ancestors in the Baikal region:

 

“Ever since I could walk a deer, I went hunting with my parents, helped feed the deer, set fires, fetched water, and cooked meat for the adults. Later, I learned how to make saddles, shoes, bags, and leather... In the past, we didn’t even need a car when moving. We tied our things to the backs of deer and moved them in one trip. Only with reindeer can the Evenk people live a secure life. This is how we hunted and herded reindeer, year after year.”[24]

 

Her hunting and herding mastery slowly established a reputation amongst her tribespeople. Together with her husband, another skilled hunter in the tribe, she raised their family herd from 6 reindeer to 300 reindeer.[25] As a young woman, she also hunted with her family, becoming a skilled shooter of birds,          roes, and bears:

 

“The most outstanding thing about Maria is that she can ride a reindeer and fly through the dense forest. When she went there, she only brought a gun. When she returned, her sack was full of small mammals like squirrels. The plow behind the reindeer also dragged herbivorous mammals and even some beasts. Whenever she came back from hunting, she would distribute the prey from house to house, and finally, she would take the smallest one back to her home.”[26]

 

But her exceptional talent was her ability to heal diseased reindeer. Her tribesmen later remembered that she knew precisely the disease and the proper herbal treatment from examining the deer for a few moments.[27] She was also widely respected for taking many orphans: “I remember that at one point, I had some twenty to thirty kids always circling me,” she laughed during the interview.[28] [JJ6] 

Evenk culture always respected gender equality. In the culture, women bore the fruits of humanity, and thus, they are the most selfless, strong, capable, and loving. This respect transferred to their family and social life, with women enjoying equal, if not higher, social status amongst the tribe.[29] This gender equality paved the way for Maria’s rise to the chieftain. To preface, she and her family already enjoyed notoriety amongst her tribe members from the leading Sologon family and skilled huntsmen and huntresses. However, her superior skill and big heart propelled her to become the leader. At the time, as reported by Inner Mongolia Times’ Chun Liu, women becoming chieftains was still rare.[30] However, no one in the tribe could rival her leadership. In the 1970s, she became the chieftain of the Aoluguya Evenks.[31]

 

Security of Evenk Culture

 

“When I think about the Evenki people not having hunting rifles or a place to herd their reindeer, I want to cry. I cry even in my dreams.”[32]

 

Maria strongly detested the 2003 Ecological Move most of her tribe members uprooted their traditional teepees and, with their herd, moved into a government-funded housing settlement at the base of the mountains.[33] Maria’s son died from alcohol poisoning after periods of incessant drinking, as did many of her tribe members, when they turned to alcohol after they surrendered their weapons and ceased to hunt:

 

“Before the relocation of Old Aoluguya, the Evenki people did not drink much. After moving, I also confiscated my gun. I drank all day long with nothing to do and got very drunk. The first person to die was the one who drank to death. Eight people have died already. They are in pain. Their hunting culture has lost even its guns.”[34]

 

Like many of her tribespeople, Maria witnessed the disappearance of their hunting culture. But like the decisive pessimism of her tribespeople, she chose not to fight for hunting but instead focused on preserving the rest of their culture. To draw more attention to the plight of her people, she left her mountain and stepped into the unfamiliar towns. With successive interviews, documentaries, and a biography, Maria Sologon became a symbol of the Aoluguya reindeer spirit and a protector of her culture.

In the years that followed, she operated in defense of her people. In 2004, she invited the film crew of Aoluguya, Aoluguya, into her home and showed the previously isolated community of reindeer herders for the first time. The resulting three documentaries won the 2010 Shanghai International Film Festival’s Natural Documentary Award, the 2011 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival’s Shinsuke Ogawa Award, and the Busan International Film Festival’s Documentary Award.[35] The wide acclaim of the three documentaries drew more visitors to the remote Inner Mongolian town. Many people were interested in Evenk’s traditional way of living, but primarily, they were drawn to Maria — her life, strength, and power. Maria began accepting interviews with government officials and journalists. Partnering with her now long-time friend, the producers of the Aoluguya series Tao Gu, Maria produced her biography, Aoluguya, My Dream.[36] Most prominently, her story inspired Zijian Chi’s The Last Quarter of the Moon, a novel about the lives and deaths of one fictional Evenk family.[37] Chi’s book won the 2008 Mao Dun Literature Prize, one of China's most prestigious literary awards.[38] The novel was instrumental in spreading her story to a broader Chinese audience and prompted media attention around the” female chieftain,” emphasizing the power of a female voice when many areas of China still felt the remnants of a patriarchal society. In 2010, she appeared on television, singing Evenki folk songs to a national audience. In the same year, Maria attended the inaugural performance of an original state play, Aoluguya, based on her life, in Beijing.[39] She came to represent the Evenk people’s past, present, and future.

 

Picture

 

Maria’s success in promoting her culture results from her natural circumstances. First, she had an unwavering spirit that drew people in. Many of the reporters and journalists who interviewed her noted:

 

“Maria Sologon is a kind and resolute woman. She still remembers the past years of the Evenki people, the forests, mountains, rivers, reindeer, and stars in the sky. She knows that her nation will perish, still determined to spend every last moment treasuring it.”

 

Critic Lu Wang once remarked that there was a shocking power in her spiritual resolution: even just her natural poise evoked such profound power that one cannot choose but to listen to what she has to say.[40] Her inherent love of her people, her land, and her culture earned her the position of chieftain, and she channeled that leadership into preserving the people’s traditional ways. Her accomplishments and honor earned her respect from the Evenks and the Han Chinese, who could also marvel at her power and influence.

Besides Maria’s inherent strength, the romanticization of her position and people also played a massive role in her success. Maria’s unique position as China’s last female chieftain has been unanimously chosen as her title, even though in Evenk, her title means leader more than chieftain, which in Chinese has a feudal undertone.[41] Nevertheless, the eye-catching “chieftain” propelled her into Chinese social media. Furthermore, a quick search of Maria and the Aoluguya Evenks through the Chinese social media platform The Little Red Book shows a large romanization of the Evenki lives. Many social media posts emphasize the reindeer’s cuteness and the Evenki people’s mystery. In a time where most Chinese still experience pockets of sexism and yearning to escape the concrete jungles of their cities, the appeal of a strong female leader of a traditional tribe appealed to their imagination of a rural “fairytale.”

 

​









 

 

As the media circulated her story, they intentionally left out the decadence, cruelty, and self-indigence that came to signify the helplessness of the Evenki people upon feeling their culture slipping from their fingertips. It is meant to placate the reader by filtering out the ugly and the sadness, and the audience is left only with the reassuring parts — the lush forests, the vibrant traditional clothing, the uniqueness of reindeer herding, and the power of a female chieftain.

Yet, the successes of Maria’s media campaigns testify to the effectiveness of this strategy. Before her story reached a wider audience, cultural promotion in Aoluguya had stagnated. However, the sudden media boom surrounding Maria’s story and her allure became a catalyst for using her uniqueness to craft a narrative that will simultaneously bring economic stimulation to the Evenks and increase awareness of cultural preservation.[42] As a result, Maria’s story fostered the township’s ecotourism, drawing immense social media attention around the Evenk people and the economic boom.[43]

Most importantly, because of her story, the local and regional government began prioritizing Evenki culture and their needs. When the Evenks surrendered their rifles, not only did they lose the ability to hunt, but they also lost the means of protecting themselves and their herd. After a reexamination of government policy, Evenki herders were granted protective rifles against bears and poachers.[44]  The government also began to foster the inclusion of Evenki cultural traditions and customs as Culturally Intangible Heritage, promoting the spread, education, and preservation of traditional craft making, embroidery, cuisine, and language.[45] Many Evenks who moved away from the mountains tried to maintain aspects of their culture as much as possible in the new setting. In turn, they begin to adapt Evenki culture to the new modernization reality, mirroring what their ancestors migrated after migration. For example, Evenki villagers carried their established code of conduct, “aoaur,” into their own wooden houses:

 

“Whenever guests arrive, the whole family will come out to welcome them with both hands clasped and raised according to their traditional etiquette… [it is important to keep a cultural heritage

that stems from generations of] their labor, traditions, and religious beliefs.”[46]

 

Maria used her power, her position, and the perception of her people to protect her people. She left a legacy for her tribe, forging a path towards greater security for their future — regarding their land, herds, and traditions.

 

A few days before her passing, Maria wished to return to the mountains that had nourished her entire life. A day later, she passed peacefully. Her last words to the world were: “The mountains raised the reindeer, the reindeer raised me, I belong here.”[47]

 

Conclusion

 

            Maria Sologon’s activism serves as an example of exemplary indigenous women’s leadership when given the right conditions to succeed — one cannot analyze her experience without paying attention to how gender contributed to her success. First, her gender did not detract from her rise to leadership within her community. She had grown up equally valued by her family, with a father who welcomed her daughter on their hunting trips and passed down the invaluable insights from his experience. At the same time, her community positions women as equal to men. The Evenk people respected strength and skill more than the arbitrary gender factor and opened their leadership to all capable members. As a result, the shared admiration for her leadership earned her the role of chieftain, a position she used to advocate for her community.

Secondly, throughout her fight for Evenk security, her position as a woman augmented her ability to reach a wider audience. Her role as a female chieftain, a gender anomaly, attracted media attention, propelling her to the national stage. From then on, she gained the power and attention to revigorated the Evenk community, influence local policies to protect Evenk heritage, and instill a sense of cultural pride and continued preservation amongst the younger generation.

Maria Sologon’s soul returned to the mountains and rivers of the Khingan range, but her legacy lives on and continues to teach the world that when women are given the conditions to lead, they can do so with life-altering effects.

 

 

 

[1] Lauri Vahtre and Jüri Viikberg, “The Evenks,” The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire, October 31, 1991, accessed November 27, 2023, https://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/evenks.shtml.

[2] Vahtre and Viikberg, “The Evenks.”

[3] N.V. Ermolova, “Evenki Reindeer Herding: A History,” Cultural Survival, March 26, 2010, accessed November 27, 2023, https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/evenki-reindeer-herding-history.

[4] Ermolova, “Evenki Reindeer Herding: A History.”

[5] Sergei Shirokogoroff, Social Organization of the Northern Tungus (The Commercial Press Limited, Shanghai, 1934), https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA01068874.

[6] Hiroki Takakura, “The Shift from Herding to Hunting among the Siberian Evenki: Indigenous Knowledge and Subsistence Change in Northwestern Yakutia,” Asian Ethnology 71, no. 1 (2012): 36-37.

[7] Takakura, “The Shift from Herding to Hunting among the Siberian Evenki: Indigenous Knowledge and Subsistence Change in Northwestern Yakutia,” 37-37.

[8] Siqinfu, “From Nomads to Settlers: A History of the Aoluguya Ewenki (1965–1999),” in Reclaiming the Forest: The Ewenki Reindeer Herders of Aoluguya, 1st ed. (Berghahn Books, 2016), 23, https://doi.org/10.1515/9781782386315-006.

[9] Aurore Dumont, “Declining Evenki ‘Identities’: Playing with Loyalty in Modern and Contemporary China,” History and Anthropology 28, no. 4 (August 2, 2017): 519, https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2017.1351363.

[10] Mei Ye, “In Love with Gen River,” in Chinese Women Writers on the Environment : A Multi-Ethnic Anthology of Fiction and Nonfiction (McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers, 2020), 193.

[11] Yanshuo Zhang, “Entrepreneurs of the National Past: The Discourse of Ethnic Indigeneity and Indigenous Cultural Writing in China,” Positions 29, no. 2 (May 1, 2021): 441, https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-8852163.

[12] Xie, “From Hunters to Herders. Reflections on the ‘Ecological Migration’ of the Chinese Evenki Reindeer Herders,” 4.

[13] Dumont, “Declining Evenki ‘Identities’: Playing with Loyalty in Modern and Contemporary China,” 519.

[14] Xie, “From Hunters to Herders. Reflections on the ‘Ecological Migration’ of the Chinese Evenki Reindeer Herders,” 5.

[15] Xie, “From Hunters to Herders. Reflections on the ‘Ecological Migration’ of the Chinese Evenki Reindeer Herders,” 5.

[16] Siqinfu, “From Nomads to Settlers: A History of the Aoluguya Ewenki (1965–1999),” 24.

[17] “鄂温克族发展现状,” 中华人民共和国国家民族事务委员会, accessed December 5, 2023, https://www.neac.gov.cn/seac/ztzl/ewkz/fzxz.shtml.

[18] Xie, “From Hunters to Herders. Reflections on the ‘Ecological Migration’ of the Chinese Evenki Reindeer Herders,” 6.

[19] Xie, “From Hunters to Herders. Reflections on the ‘Ecological Migration’ of the Chinese Evenki Reindeer Herders,” 7.

[20] https://m.huxiu.com/article/765024.html?type=text

[21] https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_19592784

[22] https://m.yicai.com/news/101515462.html

[23] https://web.archive.org/web/20220902103235/https://www.neac.gov.cn/seac/c100456/201708/1075363.shtml

[24] https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_19592784

[25] https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_19592784

[26] https://www.chinanews.com.cn/dxw/2023/08-19/10063989.shtml

[27] https://www.chinanews.com.cn/dxw/2023/08-19/10063989.shtml

[28] https://m.yicai.com/news/101515462.html

[29] https://xianxiao.ssap.com.cn/catalog/2337197/bookid/1856612.html

[30] https://web.archive.org/web/20220902103235/https://www.neac.gov.cn/seac/c100456/201708/1075363.shtml

[31] https://m.yicai.com/news/101515462.html

[32] https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_20025452

[33]

[34] https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_8990009

[35] https://www.chinanews.com.cn/cul/2014/04-26/6109589.shtml

[36] https://www.baike.com/wiki/%E5%BF%A7%E4%BC%A4%E7%9A%84%E9%A9%AF%E9%B9%BF%E5%9B%BD/?view_id=4cv5kys3k5w000

[37] https://lib.scu.edu.cn/node/105373

[38] https://lib.scu.edu.cn/node/105373

[39] https://www.chinanews.com.cn/dxw/2023/08-19/10063989.shtml

[40] https://www.chinanews.com.cn/dxw/2023/08-19/10063989.shtml

[41] https://m.yicai.com/news/101515462.html

[42] https://m.fx361.com/news/2020/0521/6678727.html

[43] http://inews.nmgnews.com.cn/system/2020/12/01/013026668.shtml

[44] https://www.chinanews.com.cn/cul/2012/01-16/3608653_2.shtml

[45] https://www.sohu.com/a/315936658_523177

[46] Ye, “In Love with Gen River,” 193.

[47] https://www.sohu.com/a/579266306_120583812

 [JJ1]Who are the Cossacks? You didn’t introduce them!

 [JJ2]This sounds a bit similar to the first paragraph where you introduce the Evenks of Aoluguya. It also has similar content as the paragraph above where you discuss rte importance of reindeer

 [JJ3]I would add a transition sentence between these two paragraphs

 [JJ4]This is a bit confusing because you just mentioned they could live comfortably, seems counterintuitive. Perhaps indicate in the previous sentence that is was the second attempt or that there were three attempts to modernize total and some went well and the final didn’t.

 [JJ5]Maybe define this

 [JJ6]What interview