Cultural Survival encourages children and teens to learn about Indigenous Peoples, especially how Indigenous communities work to defend their rights and protect their lands. Sometimes, when governments and companies are not respecting their rights, Indigenous Peoples ask us to help them by writing letters.

Right now, the Telengit people in Russia are asking us to help them re-route construction of a gas pipeline that would cut right across their most sacred place, the Ukok Plateau. This high plateau in the Altai Mountains on the border between Russia and China has been a sacred burial ground for at least 8,000 years. The Telengit people journey to the Ukok Plateau to make offerings to the spirits of the heavens, the mountains, and the waters amid the graves, stone monuments, and petroglyphs (rock carvings) of their ancestors. Snow leopards, argali mountain sheep, and other endangered species roam the permafrost landscape of the Ukok Plateau. We can help the Telengit people save the Ukok. Learn more, and then please write a letter to the president of Russia!

The Telengit People
Some say their forefathers served as the personal guards of the famed Mongol warrior, Genghis Khan, who conquered Eurasia. They call their horses “human wings” and treat them with great honor. The Telengit also raise yaks, camels, sheep, and goats. They use the yaks and camels for carrying heavy loads. All the animals provide meat, hides, wool, and milk. The Telengit make round houses called yurts out of felt and bark. When singer-storytellers come to visit, everyone gathers to hear them sing the long Telengit legends. They sing a special way called throat singing, making two notes at the same time, one high and one low. At the Telengit Culture Center, young people learn throat singing, and they compete for prizes at regional festivals.

 What Difference Would a Pipeline Make?
Russia wants to sell natural gas to China by building a 1700-mile pipeline across the Ukok Plateau. Pipelines can break or explode and leak gas into the lands, lakes, and rivers they cross. Earthquakes are common in the Ukok region, so that would be a big danger to the pipeline. To build the pipeline, they will have to build a road alongside it. Once a road is built, it is very hard to keep people from using it, so in no time traffic will be criss-crossing the sacred lands. How will the Telengit people be able to protect their sacred sites and burial grounds? How will animals like the snow leopard, who need large undeveloped territories, survive?

The Ukok Plateau is in UNESCO’s “Golden Mountains of Altai” World Heritage Site. UNESCO warned Russia that building the pipeline would put the World Heritage Site in danger. Now our letters can help convince Russia’s president to re-route the pipeline and save the Ukok Plateau.