INDIGENOUS SMALL-NUMBERED PEOPLES OF RUSSIA

  Tatyana Alexandrovna – the ninth child in the Pechetegin family, was born in 1948 on the longest night of the year on December 22, Uelen. The name was given by a Russian and named Tanya by a paramedic-obstetrician Margarita Marukhno, who delivered Amak. In order for the evil spirits not to find out about the birth of a child in the Pechetegin family, all relatives and residents of Uelen considered her the daughter of Margarita Marukhno and everyone called her not Tanya, but by the surname Marukhno.

  Such caution was due to the fact that the sons born before her died of diseases or accidents. So, until she came of age, the name Marukhno was assigned to her. The parents feared for the little girl's life and never said Tanya's name out loud. She spent his childhood in yaranga – lygarek. Her parents and older sister protected her in every possible way and loved her very much. The older sister was watching her younger sister Tanya.

  For little Tanya, the toys were colored pebbles collected on the seashore, small figures made of walrus tusk made by Uncle Gemauge. There are still children's sledges – k^enret with walrus tusk runners, which her father made.

  In 1956, Tatiana went to school in a preparatory class, completely unaware of the Russian language. She remembers with special warmth his first teacher Tamara Alexandrovna Shikunova, who herself learned the Chukchi language and taught it. She taught Tanya Russian literacy, mathematics, and writing. At the same time, Vladilen Vyacheslavovich Leontiev worked at the Uelensky seven-year school. He and T.A. Shikunova published a methodological guide 'To help the teacher of the preparatory class' from the work experience of teacher T.A. Shikunova in the preparatory class of the Uelensky seven-year school, which was published in 1956.

  The teachers were: Amak, the cousin, Ivan Vasiliyevich Achivantin; the daughter of hunter Unpener, Pechetegin's niece, Margarita Ivanovna Rykvatkot, an excellent student of public education in schools of the Russian SFSR, had a government award, the Order of Lenin. Her teaching experience is 24 years.

  Tanya grew up a very curious child and a good listener, and most importantly, she remembered everything and could tell, and if something was not clear, she asked again. Apparently, noticing these qualities in the child, the parents began to tell her about everything they remembered from their previous lives, about the pedigree of their father and mother, fairy tales, legends, incidents from life and sea hunting, humming melodies to small playful fairy tales.

  Studying was difficult. She had to get used to the Russian language, to get used to school life, to the demands that teachers made. Her favorite subjects were literature, Russian, history, singing, and drawing. Mathematics seemed to Tanya to be the most difficult of all disciplines. During her studies, she developed such qualities as willpower, accuracy, discipline, and ability to finish any task. At the same time, Tanya was a sociable, cheerful, kind child. She loved to visit her numerous relatives and listen to their stories there. When she came home, she retold what she had heard, and asked her parents, 'Is it true that it really happened?' Grandmother K'ek'k'en’ (К’эк’к’эн’) Amak's mother, also contributed to Tanya's granddaughter's upbringing.

     She told fairy tales, legends, about the peoples living in other areas, about her ancestry.  Absorbing everything she had heard and seen, Tatiana decided for herself that after school she would definitely go to work at the Uelen bone-cutting workshop. When she entered the workshop, she saw Vera Emakul and Galina Tynatval depict everything they know and see on walrus tusks. Tanya looked at their work and thought how beautifully they turned out, you can read a fairy tale, legend or story from a drawing, see how you used to live.

  Her parents played a big role in the development of artistic skills, especially her father, who discovered for Tanya an amazing sometimes cruel life of survival in harsh northern conditions, but at the same time love, kindness, and respect for her ancestors. He wanted all descendants to be worthy of their ancestors. All this has been laid down since childhood.

  In the long winter evenings, her father talked about hunting. He talked about sea animals, their habits, described in detail what marine and tundra animals, birds look like, about traditional holidays, rituals, and competitions between villages. I knew many cases that occurred during hunting with hunters, and how one-on-one in the cold sea, sea hunters survived in the struggle with nature for life and returned home with their prey. After all, there will be no family without a male breadwinner. Mama Amak colorfully and consistently described all the important events of her kind and conveyed an understanding of the world around her.

  The deepest folk memory of the ancient times was passed down orally from generation to generation in the Pechetegin family and reached the children of Tatiana Alexandrovna.