Selkups
overview
The name selkups use for themselves is sölkup or shölkup. Russians have called them Ostyak Samoyeds. Selkups are the last tribe of the Southern Samoyeds. According to last official statistics there are 4000 Selkups, 50% of them speak their native language. Most people speaking Selkup language are living in Yamal Nenets autonomous region (in Krasnoselkup county).
Selkup language belongs to Samoyed group of the Uralic languages.
The interesting fact is that the written language of the selkup people was Latin based (1879) which was changed to Cyrillic based alphabet in 1930's russification campaign.
Selkups are making their living mostly from hunting, fishing and fur-trade.
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