"A vivid mixture of history and reporting, The Shaman's Coat tells the story of some of the world's least-known and most ancient peoples: the indigenous tribes of Siberia. Russia's equivalent to the Native Americans or Australian Aborigines, they number more than one million, divided into two dozen different and ancient nationalities - among them Buryat, Tuvans, Sakha, and Chukchi - spread across a fierce and endless landscape. Though they have begun to demand land rights and political autonomy since the fall of Communism, most Westerners are not even aware that they exist.". "Journalist and historian Anna Reid traveled the length and breadth of Siberia - to interview shamans and Buddhist monks, reindeer herders and whale hunters, camp survivors and Party apparatchiks. Drawing on sources ranging from folktales to KGB reports, The Shaman's Coat travels through four hundred years of history, from the Cossacks' campaigns against the last of the Tatar khans to those of native rights activists against oil development today. The result is a moving group portrait of some of humankind's most threatened and extraordinary peoples, and a unique and intrepid travel chronicle."--BOOK JACKET.