Enets
The Enets, or Entsy, Entsi, Yenisei, Yenisei-Samoyed, Yenisey Samoyeds or Yeniseian people are a traditionally nomadic people who live on the east bank, near the mouth, of the Yenisei River, many in the village of Potalovo in the Taimyr Autonomous Territory, Taymyria of Krasnoyarsk Krai in western Siberia near the arctic circle. At times, improperly, they have been described as divided into the Enets, the Nenets and the Nganasans. There are about 300 Enets.The town of Potalovo was visited in the late 1990s by the British travel writer, Colin Thubron who found the Entsy deculturated and demoralized, beset with problems of alcoholism and family violence. The reindeer collective established in Nikita Khrushchev's day had been severely impacted by acid rain from the nickel smelters at Norilsk. A fur farm which raises fox was similarly diminished. About half the population was unemployed with a few employed in reindeer herding on the west side of the river, the remainder living by fishing in the Yenisei River. Fisherman from Potalovo sometimes catch red sturgeon and Omul a type of Salmon as well as char, gang fish and northern pike. Thubron mentions a salted fish product called muksun.
Their language is called Yeniseian, one of the Samoyedic languages, which with the Finno-Ugric languages and Yukaghir, form the Uralic branch of the Ural-Altaic linguistic phylum. They still speak their languge, but education is in Russian so there is fear they may lose their languge.
Some social services continue to be provided by the Russian government, a small hospital, with a doctor and a few nurses; schools, although older children must attend in Dudinka to the north; and small pensionss, often used for the purchase of vodka. The electric plant had recently burned and electricity was provided intermittently by a generator. Life expectancy is 45 with many dying violent deaths due to family violence and fighting.
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