[11][12] The Nganasans are the northernmost ethnic group of the Eurasian continent and the Russian Federation, historically inhabiting the tundra of the Taymyr Peninsula.

In the winter, they resided in the south of the peninsula at the edge of the Arctic tree line, and during the summer they followed wild reindeer up to 400 miles to the north, sometimes even reaching as far as the Byrranga Mountains.

[14] The homeland of the Proto-Uralic peoples, including the Samoyeds, is suggested to be somewhere near the Ob and Yenisey river drainage areas of Central Siberia or near Lake Baikal.

As the Tavgs were the largest Samoyedic group at the time of this merger, their dialect formed the basis of the present-day Nganasan language.

[17] The Nganasans first came into contact with Russians sometime in the early 17th century,[11] and after some resistance, began to pay tribute to the Czar in the form of sable fur under the yasak system in 1618.

In 1666, the Nganasans ambushed and killed yasak collectors, soldiers, tradesmen, and their interpreters on three occasions, stealing the sable furs and property belonging to them.

[14] They usually exchanged sable furs for alcohol, tobacco, tea, and various tools, products which quickly integrated themselves into Nganasan culture.

[27] Additionally, the Soviets took a greater interest in the Nganasans as a people, and starting in the 1930s, ethnographers began to study their customs.

Most Nganasan men were employed as hunters, and the women worked as teachers or as seamstresses decorating reindeer boots.

Their religion is a particularly well-preserved example of Siberian shamanism, which remained relatively free of foreign influence due to the Nganasans' geographic isolation until recent history.

In addition, mtDNA haplogroup Z, found with low frequency in Saami, Finns, and Siberians, is related to the migration of people speaking Uralic languages.

Nganasans are linked to "Neo-Siberian" ancestry, which is estimated to have expanded from the northeast Asian region into Siberia about ~11,000 years ago BCE.

[34] In 2019, a study based on genetics, archaeology and linguistics found that Uralic speakers arrived in the Baltic region from the East, specifically from Siberia, at the beginning of the Iron Age some 2,500 years ago, together with a Nganasan-related component, possibly linked to the spread of Uralic languages.

[35] In another genetic study in 2019, published in Nature Communications, it was found that the Nganasans best represent a possible source population for the Proto-Uralic people.