The ethnonym "Negidal" is a Russian rendering of the Ewenki term ngegida, which means "coastal people".

[6] Negidal people are considered to descend from Evenks that settled in the Amgun basin during the Iron Age.

After branching off from the main Tungusic ethnic family and reaching the Okhotsk Coast, Negidals were geographically isolated.

From the middle of the second millennium until the nineteenth century, the Negidals, like other local groups, paid tribute to China and maintained trade relations with Manchu merchants.

Negidal traditional garments consisted of clothing and footwear made out of fish and seal skin and dog hides.

Traditional attire included robes (tetchennge, uykeli), leggings (heykii), different types of footwear (onta) and headwear (avun).

Traditionally, Upper Negidals lived in large movable chum tents, that were covered with reindeer hides in the winter.

A hut consisted of a hearth (later a stove borrowed from the Russians) and beds, covered with conifer branches and animal hides.