The selo of Uelen is located in the district, which is a focal point for indigenous artwork of the region as a whole and the birthplace of Yuri Rytkheu, the first internationally recognized Chukchi writer.

Chukotsky District covers the northern half of the Chukchi Peninsula, at the northeastern tip of Eurasia.

It also features the most easterly point on the Eurasian landmass: Cape Dezhnev, named after Russian navigator Semyon Dezhnyov.

It was formerly the setting for a Dalstroy gulag site and the alleged starting point for Clemens Forell's epic journey in the novel As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me.

Semyon Dezhnyov and his Cossacks nearly had their entire fleet destroyed as they attempted to sail around the cape that would ultimately bear his name on their way to the Anadyr River in the mid-17th century.

However, it was not for a further fifty-five years that the coast of the region was visited by James Cook, and a permanent Russian presence in the form of trading posts in any of the villages was not established until the early 1900s.

[16] These settlements were destined to become local hubs and model Soviet villages[17] Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, local indigenous people rely more heavily on their traditional hunting skills and are considering the resettling a number of these villages due to the lack of centralized relocation.

During Soviet times, until its closure in 1951, Dezhnyovo was an important outpost of the Uelen state farm (linked by tractor transport).

[18] The village was formed in 1902 around a trading post run by Olaf Svenson (North-East Siberia Co.) and the Karayev Brothers (Churin & Co.) until 1931, renamed 'Red Star' but closed 1951 with the population moved to Uelen.

[18] Its name derives from the Chukchi word "Mytkuvḷen", meaning "much oil/blubber" (from мыт- "grease", кув- "many"), due to the fact that the coast here has a concave bend where the current washes ashore dead whales and walrus which were used for oil and dog food.

[18] Its name derives from the Naukan Yupik word "Nyvuqaq", meaning "cespitose" (from нывуӄ "turf, sod").

[23] Naukan, situated on the easternmost point of the Chukotsky Peninsula, was a key trading post linking those Chukchi who engaged in reindeer herding in the tundra and American sea hunters.

[18] It was a major center of Eskimo culture until closed in 1958 by Soviet authorities, people moved to Nunyamo, Pinakul, Lavrentiya, Uelen.

[22] In pre-Soviet times, American geologists extracted graphite from shaft mines in the surrounding mountains and the pigments extracted were used by the indigenous population for decoration and ritual activity[25] The site is still used by local people as a stopping point and a shelter on fishing trips.

[18] It was located five miles east of Cape Dzhenretlen and was established in the early 20th century by American gold prospectors based there who built wooden houses.

These people either migrated to the Far East or are the descendants of those who did, enticed by the higher pay, large pensions, and more generous allowances permitted to those prepared to endure the cold and the isolation, as well as those who were exiled here as a result of the Stalin's purges or after having been released from the gulag.

There is next to no industrial activity in this district, with the population mainly involved in reindeer herding, fishing, and seal hunting, with an administrative program in place to ensure that local indigenous peoples receive material incentives to continue with their traditional way of life.

It is also home to an indigenous choir which has a history of cultural collaboration with their Inuit cousins across the Bering Strait in Alaska.

In addition to revealing the existence of a culture dependent on whale and walrus hunting, archeologists also unearthed early examples of the indigenous peoples ivory carvings, a number of which are now held at the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St. Petersburg.

[15] The writer Yuri Rytkheu was born in Uelen in 1930 to a family of trappers and hunters and was the first Chukchi author to achieve national prominence.

His book A Dream in Polar Fog deals with the Chukchi people's efforts to adapt when a foreigner is shipwrecked on their shores.