ABSTRACT
With the fall of the Soviet Union and the establishment of the Russian Federation, a suite of legal acts guiding Indigenous rights to land and resources has been adopted, at both the federal and sub-federal level. The laws have authorized two main means of providing Indigenous people with greater access to the lands they need to pursue their traditional activities: 1) land may be transferred to Indigenous obshchinas (clan communes) for the pursuit of such activities, and 2) Territories of Traditional Nature Use (TTP) may be established, which provide some protection from industrial encroachment. While federal law provides the framework for such approaches, regional law fleshes out the details for establishing obshchinas and TTPs. In this chapter, we describe the federal and regional laws, and how the latter vary across space. We then look at how these laws have been implemented and experienced in place, by one Indigenous people, the Evenki, across a number of jurisdictional boundaries in Southeastern Siberia.
