Vatyrkan

Vatyrkan, known in Russian as Khatyrka, lies near the mouth of the river of the same name on the Bering Sea. The river begins in the Koryak highlands and emerges from mountain gorges onto a marshy plain, where its channels divide before reaching the coast. Its Chukchi name has been interpreted as a dry or barren place.

Russian merchants Bakhov and Novikov described the river mouth in 1748. Relations between the peoples of the region could be peaceful or violent: a Koryak leader invited Chukchi families to settle on the river in 1756, but fighting broke out the following year and the newcomers were killed. The coast and its inland valleys were shared by communities whose livelihoods included hunting, fishing and reindeer herding.