General information (endonyms, ethnographic groups, population according to the latest census, settlement)

Negidals are a Manchu-Tungus people. Their territory of residence is the Lower Amur basin in the Khabarovsk Territory. Negidals live mainly in three districts of the Territory: Imeni Poliny Osipenko, Ulchsky, and Nikolaevsky. The process of ethnic formation of the Negidals took place in the basin of the Amgun in the 17-19 ^th centuries. In the early sources and ethnographic literature, the Negidals were mentioned under the ethnonym “Tungus.” Their traditional occupations have historically been hunting, fishing, gathering, and reindeer herding.

The total number of Negidals, according to the 2020 All-Russian Population Census, is 483 people (224 men and 259 women).

Negidal Yakov Semenov (55-60 years old). Lenkodi camp.

Negidals.

Russia, Khabarovsk Territory

The Nimelen River.

1920

Collectors: Nina Lipskaya (Valrond), Albert Lipsky. Dimensions: 8.0 x 11.0 cm.

The Negidals are divided into the Amur group and two territorial groups of the Amgun Negidals: Nizovsky and Verkhovsky (i.e., Lower and Upper). Historically, Evenks, Nivkh, Nanai, and Ulchi, as well as some representatives of other peoples of the Lower Amur lived in the settlements together with the Negidals. The sources of the second half of the 19 ^th -century quote several variants of the name of this people, for example, Nishdals, Niegda, Negda, Neidals, Nizhdals, Negedans, Nigidatters, Nagidal, and Nigidals. All these names come from the Russified form of the term ngeida , which meant “coastal,” or “the farthest” in the Evenki language ( nge – “bottom of the slope”, “shore”, “edge”; gida – “side”). The Sakhalin, Chumikan, and other Evenki groups used the terms Ngeegidaa ( Neegda , Neegidaa ), which in one case meant “the coastal space,” and in the other “the Negidal people.” The Arman Evens used the term ngeeg in the meaning of “coastal” or “farthest.” The Sakhalin Ulta called the Negidal people Neegida .

Old Negidal woman, 70 years old. Lenkodi camp.

Negidals.

Russia, Khabarovsk Territory

The Nimelen River. 1920

Collectors: Nina Lipskaya (Valrond), Albert Lipsky.

Dimensions: 8.0 x 11.0 cm.

In the 20th century, the names Elkan Beyenin, Elekem Beye, and Olkan Boye were added to the existing exonyms of the Verkhovsky and Nizovsky Negidals. The Negidal people called themselves Elkan Boyonin ( Ilkan Beyenin ), which meant “one of our own, a local, a native.” In the language of the Okhotsk Evenks, the word “ilkan” means “real.” Negidals also called themselves Amngun Beyenin , which can be translated as “the Amgun man.”

MAE No. 1838-301.

A group of village residents. Ust-Amgun. Negidals.

Russia, Khabarovsk Territory, The Ust-Amgun village. Beginning of the 20th century.

Photo by Lev Sternberg.

Dimensions: photo on the left 7.4 x 6.4 cm; photo on the right 7.4 x 6.6 cm.

In 1844-1846, Alexander Middendorf identified 9 tribes (clans) among the Negidal people in the basins of the Amgun, Nimelen and Tugur: Alchakul, Ayumkan, Muktegil, Nyasiksagil, Tapkal, Toyomkon, Uddan, Semakogil and Chukchagil (History and Culture 2014: 27). At the end of the 1920s, scholars identified 13 clans among the Negidals, which included the nine of the above and 4 new ones: Amunkan, Bosakogil, Sigdan, and Хatagil. Glafira Vasilevich also mentioned the clans Vakagil and Tumali. In addition, the Negidals also had the Samagil clan. According to Gennady Nevelsky, despite the fact that the name Neidals was generally used in relation to the Negidals, they mostly called themselves by names of geographic locations or lakes, for example, the Akhtub, the Gul, and the Pul. The self-name “Akhtub” is associated with the village of Ukhta on the left bank of the Amur, located opposite the village of Bogorodskoe. The word “Gul” is associated with the Tungus of the Gulyugir clan, who migrated to the right bank of the Amur in the 17th century. The word “pul” comes from the hydronym Pilda. Now this clan name is known as Pilduncha . The Pildu River flows into the southern tip of Lake Udyl. The Pilduncha associate their origins with the Udege.

MAE No. 1837-89.

Group portrait of local residents. Negidals.

Russia, Khabarovsk Territory

The Amur River basin.  Beginning of the 20th century.

Photo by Lev Sternberg.

Dimensions: 13.0 x 18.0 cm.

The largest Negidal clan was Nyasikhagil. In 1926, the largest Negidal clans were Nyasikhagil (110 people), Ayumkan (88), Chukchagil (48), and Chomokhogil (29). The remaining 9 clans had fewer than 80 people in total. The Verkhovsky Negidals called their Nizovsky relatives from the lower reaches of the Amgun Khod’on ( Khodzon ) or Khezeni , which means “the Lower ones.” The Nizovsky Negidals called all their Verkhovsky relatives by the ethnonym Chukchagil , and called themselves Nasikhagil. 

MAE I 1464-29.

Mother holding a cradle with a child. Negidals.

Russia, Khabarovsk Territory, The Amur River basin

Late 20th century.

Photo by Pyotr Shimkevich.

Dimensions: 8.0 x 11.0 cm.

The neighboring peoples used various exoethnonyms to call the Negidals, for example, “Nizovsky,” “Verkhovsky,” “the Coastal ones,” “the River ones,” “Amgunsky,” and by other names.

On the shore of the Amgun.

August 2004

Photo by Vladimir Davydov

The census of 2002 identified 567 Negidals (505 of them reside in the Khabarovsk Territory). In the Khabarovsk Territory, Negidals lived in almost all the districts. The largest number inhabited the Ulchsky district (193 people), 24 lived in the village of Bogorodskoye, 49 in Takhata, 58 in Tyr, and 15 in Beloglinka. In the Imeni Poliny Osipenko district there were 157 Negidals:  82 in the village of Vladimirovka, 33 in Udinsk, and 18 in Kherpuchi. There were 12 Negidals in the district center.

In the Nikolaevsky district, 49 Negidals lived in the workers’ settlement of Mago; 1 to 8 people (each) in the Amursky, Ayano-Maisky, Vaninsky, Verkhnebureinsky, Komsomolsky, Nanaisky, Okhotsky, Solnechny and Tuguro-Chumikansky districts of the Khabarovsk Territory. The only place densely populated by the Negidals, taking into account the intensive migration processes, is the rural settlement of Vladimirovka, which at the beginning of 2022, was inhabited by about 200 Negidals.

The village of Vladimirovka, Imeni Poliny Osipenko district, Khabarovsk Territory

Photo by Viktoria Malakshanova

The village of Vladimirovka

August 2004

Photo by Vladimir Davydov

According to the census of 2010, the total number of Negidals was 513 people, of which 480 lived in the Khabarovsk Territory. According to the census of 2020-2021, the number of Negidals was 483.

 The Negidal settlement in the Khabarovsk Territory (percentage of the total population), according to the All-Russian Census of 2010.