CHUKCHI, CHANKTUS ("Men") or TUSKI ("Brothers" or "Confederates"), a Mongoloid people inhabiting the north-eastern most portion of Siberia on the shores of the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea. They are settled in small groups along the Arctic coast between the Bering Strait and the Kolyma river, or wander as far inland as the Anadyr basin. They are tall, lean, with some what irregular features and round-headed. The nose is set deep between the cheeks. The lips are thick, and the brow low. The hair is coarse, lank and black. They are classed as Nearetic.
The Chukchi are divided into the "Fishing Chukchi," who have settled homes on the coast, and the "Reindeer Chukchi," who are nomads. The latter breed reindeer in large herds, live on the flesh and milk, and are generally fairly prosperous ; while the fishing folk are very poor, begging from their richer kinsfolk hides to make tents and clothes. They kill off the old and infirm. They believe in a future life, but only for those who die a violent death. It is thus an act of filial piety for a son to kill his parent or a nephew his uncle. This custom is known as kamitok. The Chuk chi sacrifice animals to the spirits of the rivers and mountains, and also practise Shamanism. The use of drums in these rites is general. They are polygamous, but the women are treated kindly. The children are specially petted. Chukchi women are often tattooed with two black-blue convex lines running from the eye to the chin. Since their adoption of Christianity the men some times have a Latin cross tattooed on their chins. The Chukchi burn their dead or expose them on platforms to be devoured by ravens.
See Harry de Windt, Through the Gold Fields of Alaska to Bering Strait (1898) ; Dittmar, "'Ober die Koriaken u. ihnen nahe verwandten Tchouktchen," in Bul. Acad. Sc. (St. Petersburg) , xii. p. 99 ; Hooper, Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski; W. H. Dall, Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. i. (1877) ; M. Czaplicka, Aboriginal Siberia (i914).