I would like to add something to it:
1)if you write that a "group was...discovered in Northern Europe"
then you can't be writing about Siberian Nenets, since Siberia is
already Asia. But the Nenets actually do live on both the European
side and the Asian side of the Ural mountains. I live in "Northern
Europe" - in Finland. The Nenets live quite faraway from where I
live.
2)I wonder how accurate is the choice of the words "recently
discovered". For ex. according to L.V. Homich's book "Nentsy" (in
Russian), first mentions of this people in Russian chronicles date
back to the 11th century AD. The Nenets were for a long time called
Samoyeds - maybe this name is more familiar. "Nenets" (plural form
nenetsya') is approximately what the people call themselves and means
"man".
And by the way, they do not call their "teepee" "chum" - chum is a
Russian word for this type of dwelling: the Nenets word is "mya'".
3)According to the Encyclopedia "SSSR", in 1970 there were c. 29 000
Nenets in the Soviet Union. They have had a written language since
the 1930s (written in Cyrillic). Most of the Nenets were
persuaded/forced into the Soviet system (a continuation of the
pressure put on them by Russia), but even in the 1960s there were
still left independent nomadic families.
If I remember correctly, a Finnish documentary film director, Markku
Lehmuskallio, is doing a film trilogy on the nomadic Nenets. One film
came out this autumn and in his interview the director stated his
fear (cf. optimism of the NYT article) that the traditional way of
life of these people will come to an end. He, too, made the
comparison with American West in the 19th c.: only he seemed to have
in mind the times of numerous gold rushes, since the Nenets inhabit
an oil-rich area - all international companies are staking their
claims there. In his film the director filmed also a
Canadian people (Dene?-is there such a people?) and compared their
history and life with the Nenets.
If e.g. the person who wrote the NYT article wishes to "seek their
origins and understand their traditions", he might, quite
prosaically, begin from the nearest library. I'm sure he'll find
something (e.g. under "Samoyed"). As regards the amazing ability of
these Nenets to preserve their traditions - they probably just
retreated into territories (Siberia is huge) where nobody bothered to
get them anymore - so far.
I could comment more but the post is long already (sorry!). If
someone would like to get a little more information on the indigenous
people of Russia, their history of contacts with Russians and does
not know Russian, there is a book called "A History of the Peoples of
Siberia", author James Forsyth, Cambridge University Press, 1992. I
could also try to help - even though I'm not a specialist in this
field.
Best regards,
Pirkko Vishnevskij