The Kereks are aborigines of the Bering Sea, their settlements are known since the ХVII century in the territory from Anadyr Bay to Olyutorsk Cape. For a long time they were in natural isolation.
In the XVII century's beginningwas numbered about 320 people. In the ХVIII century the number of Kereks decreased as a result of wars with the Chukchi and Koryaks, which stopped with the arrival of the Russians. But even after that the Kereks became economically dependent on the Chukchi. The Chukchi used their labor in herding reindeer herds.
In the late 18th and 19th centuries, the Kereks suffered from smallpox epidemics and from the devastation of their natural resources by American whalers and Japanese fishermen. In 1897 they numbered 600 people. The number of Kereks in 1926 - 315, in 1937 - 152, in 1959 - 64, in 1970 - 42 people, in 1975 - 14 people, 2002 - 8 people, 2010 - 4 people.
According to Soviet ethnographic historian V.V. Leontiev, they were divided into 4 groups: Tuman Kereks - from Anadyrsky Bay to Cape Barykov (settlements Nigrin, Nigrunutategin, Talkap'ergyrgan, Tapan'ergyn, Elkytveem), by the 20th century they were assimilated by Chukchi; Navarin Kereks - from the Barykov Cape to Cape Navarin (Gachgatagyn, Kayamamkut, Maynamamkut, Upank, Amaamyn, Kaniyun settlements), by the beginning of the 20th century only Meynypilgyn settlement remained; Opukinsky Kereks - from the mouth of the Khatyrka River to Nataliya Bay (Vatyrkan, Myllan, Kitana, Yagnasynon, Ilpin, Mimilvytgyn settlements), assimilated by the Chukchi in the 20th century; Kovachinsky Kereks - from Natalia Bay to Cape Olyutorsky.
Vladilen Leontiev in his book “On the land of the ancient Kereks” the main reasons for the disappearance of the people called intertribal wars, a sharp decline in marine fauna in the late XIX century and outbreaks of smallpox epidemics.
