The Chukchi fought Russian armies for generations, but their story didn’t end in defeat – it became one of survival and coexistence In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, on the frozen edge of Eurasia, the Chukchi watched strangers approach across the tundra. Tall, bearded, clad in breastplates and iron helmets, the men seemed like figures torn from legend. “They had whiskers like walruses, iron eyes, and spears so wide they could block out the sun,” Chukchi elders would later recall. These