If the Amerindian peoples have today for the most part neglected, if not forgotten the rudimentary elements of their ancestral way of life, the same cannot be said for their counterparts of the high Asiatic latitudes. Cut off from the western world during the socialist era, the "small people of the North", as they are still called, have continued to lead a way of life close to nature in Sibéria, albeit managed by the Soviet power in position.
After the difficult transition period of post-communism (from collectivism to privatisation), the situation has not been helped by the Russian economic crisis and the resignation of gouvernmental authorities faced with the native problems. These successive shocks have effected the peoples of the Great North. Some of them have sunk into idyllness and poverty, seeing their Tundra burnt by petrol, gas or mining industries. To use two examples : the Yamal peninsula has twice as many natural gas reserves as the United states ; Norilsk harbours the world's largets nickel mine.Other peoples have on the contrary managed to organize and adapt themselves, trying to rediscover their traditional way of life as a means of survival in the face of all these upheavals.

What is the situation exactly at the beginning of this third millenium ? What do we really know about the Nenets transhumance, about the Nganassans shamanism, about the Dolganes traditional habitat, about Evenks children's schooling, about the Tchouktches social life or walrus hunting amongst the Yuit people.So many questions to wich this expedition will be able to provide important information with the help of films, articles, books and photographs.