In Russia’s largest region, the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Indigenous (KMNS) leaders and communities representing five different cultural groups have succeeded in preserving traditional ways of life, and particularly nomadic reindeer husbandry, through the enormous political, social, and environmental changes of the past century. To ensure continued cultural survival, Indigenous leaders have developed a wide range of political and legal instruments, processes, and bodies within and without Russian governance structures. Key among these instruments is the “Territory of Traditional Nature-Use” (TTP), a geographically bounded legal-cultural landscape within which dozens of normative republican and federal acts, constitutional laws, and codices regulate and protect traditional land-use, socioeconomic organization, and ways of life.
