The Chukchi are a minority ethnic group with a population of approximately 15,000 living in the northeastern end of the Asian Continent, the Chukchi Peninsula, Russian territory, and the surrounding area. The majority of the population lives scattered throughout the eight areas of the Chukchi Autonomous Okrug, while others live in the adjacent Koryak Autonomous Okrug and the SAHA Autonomous Republic. Besides the Chukchi there also live a small number of Asian Eskimos here, in addition to the tens of thousands of white people, mostly Russians and Ukrainians that moved in during the days of the former Soviet Union, mainly concentrated in small villages and towns. Meanwhile, the tundra that makes up most of this area is the living space for the Chukchi. The Chukchi are roughly divided by two elements: living circumstances and what they do for a living. In other words, coastal Chukchi live in the eastern seashore areas of the Chukchi and Bering Seas, where they hunt for marine animals such as walruses, seals, and whales in addition to fishing; the others are the reindeer breeding Chukchi who live a nomadic life, following their reindeer across the extensive tundra. The writer has been conducting research and fieldwork on the language and culture of reindeer breeding Chukchi for the last few years; so this page does not included any pictures of coastal Chukchi.

　The culture of the reindeer breeding Chukchi is significantly different from the one of the coastal Chukchi because of their living circumstances. As a matter of fact, their lives are closely related to their domesticated reindeer. In other words, they depend on their reindeer for transportation, as food and as clothing. Moreover, they use various parts of the reindeer for spears, sleigh reins, etc. The life of these Chukchi people pretty much rotates around their reindeer.