INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT the URALIC, MONGOLIC, ASIAN, TUNGUSIC, AND OTHER NON-TURKIC  NATIVE SIBERIAN CULTURES

• Siberia is four times as large as France and yet ony has 3,000,000 people. The population is shrinking as more people move into the cities.
• The Siberian people include a large number of small ethnic groups living in Siberia.
• Many ethnic Siberian people engage either in reindeer herding or fishing. They also hunt furbearing animals, farm and raise horses or cattle. In the past, many had both summer and winter dwellings, their winter homes sometimes being partially or entirely underground and their summer homes being various styles of tent. During the Soviet era the government attempted to settle these groups on collective farms and to introduce new occupations, but some groups still engage in their traditional pursuits. 
• Shamanism is still common in some Siberian cultures. 
• Some of the people of Siberia are Turkic (see Turkic Cultures)
• The Mongolic peoples are a Central and Northern Asian ethno-linguistic group. Although the largest Mongolic group are those of Mongolia, they also live as minorities across Northern Asia, including Russia, China, and many of the former Soviet Union states. 
• The Tungusic peoples are the peoples who speak Tungusic languages. They inhabit Eastern Siberia.  

• The Buryat people are descended from various Siberian and Mongolic peoples that inhabited the Lake Baikal Region. Buryats west of Lake Baikal and Olkhon, are more "russified", and they soon abandoned nomadism for agriculture, whereas the eastern (Transbaikal) Buryats are closer to the Khalkha, may live in yurts and are mostly Buddhists. In 1741, the Tibetan branch of Buddhism was recognized as one of the official religions in Russia, and the first Buryat datsan (Buddhist monastery) was built.

• The Ket are thought to be the only survivors of an ancient nomadic people believed to have originally lived throughout central southern Siberia. The Ket language has been linked to the Na-Dené languages of North America.
• The Evenks inhabit a huge territory of the Siberian taiga from the River Ob in the west to the Okhotsk Sea in the east, and from the Arctic Ocean in the north, to Manchuria and Sakhalin in the south.
• The Chukchis call themselves "ygoravetlyan" ("true, genuine man"). Furthermore, the coastal tribes call themselves "ankalyn" ("coastal man"), and the tundra Chukchis call themselves "chavchu" ("reindeer man").
• The Koryaks name stems from the neighboring people's words meaning "'with the reindeer".
• The Yupik are a group of indigenous or aboriginal peoples of western, southwestern, and southcentral Alaska and the Russian Far East. They are Eskimo and are related to the Inuit and Iñupiat peoples. 
• The name Yukaghir is considered to be a name of Tungus origin meaning the 'icy or frozen people'.
• Dungan is a term used in territories of the former Soviet Union to refer to a Muslim people of Chinese origin

SOME STATISTICS FOR the URALIC, MONGOLIC, ASIAN, TUNGUSIC, AND OTHER NON-TURKIC  NATIVE SIBERIAN CULTURES (2011)

ADOPTION FACTS ABOUT URALIC, MONGOLIC, ASIAN, TUNGUSIC, AND OTHER NON-TURKIC  NATIVE SIBERIAN CULTURES

There are many "Social Homes" for orphaned and abandoned children in outlying areas of Siberia.  Overall these "Homes" may have less funding, staff and volunteers than their counterparts in the cities. The majority of children in Russian "Homes" are considered "Russian", in the Siberian areas as well as in the cities, but a certain percentage are children of Asian or Tungusic heritage.

We strongly urge you to comply with the requirements established by the government and complete all post-adoption requirements in a timely manner.  Your adoption agency may be able to help you with this process and/or provide you with more specific guidelines.  

If your agency is unable to help you with this, or no longer has an active program, the Joint Council on International Services suggests that families in this situation contact them for guidance.

In Fall 2006, the following advice was obtained by Karen's Adopiton Links for all families who needed to file their own Post Placement Reports:

HELPFUL LINKS

Resources below are presented for information purposes only. Unless noted specifically as a FRUA INC group, FRUA INC does not endorse, nor have any connection with the following.

Karen's Adoption Links

InterCountry Adoption Service Provider Search

Pre-Adoption Process & Paperwork

International Adoptive Medical Clinics & Physicians

PEAR (Parents for Ethical Adoption Reform) 

Indigenous Peoples of Siberia (Wikipedia)

Trans-Siberian Railway 

Siberia and the Circumpolar Arctic

Native Peoples of Siberia

There are also other online parent support groups, lists and forums related to adoption from Eastern Europe and Central Asia on Yahoo Groups, Facebook, the EEAC, Adoptive Families, and Adoption.com

Child Welfare Gateway

North American Council on Adoptable Children

 There are also other online parent support groups, lists and forums related to Inter-Country/Culture Adoption on Yahoo Groups, Facebook, the EEAC, Adoptive Familes, Adoption Services Support Groups, and Adoption.com