Çokuurdaax

Çokuurdaax occupies the left bank of the Indigirka, just below the river’s confluence with the Allaikha. To the west and northwest stretches the Yana-Indigirka Lowland; beyond the opposite bank rises the Kondakov Plateau. This position between lowland and upland gives the river a clear role as a route through an enormous northern territory.

Cossack parties reached the Indigirka in the 1630s and 1640s, either by sailing down the Lena and along the Arctic coast or by crossing the Chersky Range from the upper Yana. The river then became a main route for collecting fur tribute from the hunters of its basin, and local households moved between river camps and the tundra with the seasons.