Many Sakha people still maintain subsistence livelihoods such as horse and cattle husbandry, fishing and hunting. However, Sakha have largely been excluded from the profits of the extractive companies operating on their territories and have also suffered disproportionately from ecological destruction due to resource extraction. Rich in mineral wealth and natural sources, the Sakha republic has seen a number of major confrontations between industrial developers and local communities living close to mining, logging and extractive activities. Despite the extraordinary amount of wealth this generates – around a quarter of diamonds sold worldwide come from Sakha mines – very little revenue has trickled down to the local Sakha communities. For example, in the Sakha dominated areas of the town of Nyurba, there is no plumbing, no water filtration systems, poorly maintained roads and a host of social problems like crime and alcoholism.
Moreover, the Sakha and their smaller-numbered indigenous neighbors (Chukchi, Evenk, Even, and Yukagir) have suffered disproportionately from the disastrous ecological consequences of diamond-related development. Diamond and gold mining operations, as well as hydroelectric engineering in the Sakha Republic, particularly in the Vilyuy region, have led to significant land degradation, water contamination, decrease in biological diversity, relocation of the local and indigenous communities, disturbance in their traditional economic activities, health problems associated with water pollution and degradation of natural environments.
Sakha and Russian are co-official languages in Sakha; the Chukchi, Dolgan, Yukagir, Even and Evenk languages have localized official status in areas where their speakers predominate. The Sakha are not considered to number among the small peoples of the north, and due to their numbers assimilatory pressures have less impact on Sakha; in fact, Sakha identity exercises an assimilatory impact on some of the republic’s smaller Turkic groups.
The proportional share of Sakha in the total population of Sakha has increased since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and according to reports, ethnic Sakha are over-represented in the republic’s political institutions – a situation that may at times have created tensions with ethnic Russian inhabitants of the region. However, there has been little active separatist sentiment in the region.