Authorities sent him to the remote community of Viakhtu, 100 km north of Port Aleksandrovsk, where he first began his ethnographic fieldwork on the Nivkhs, Oroks, and Ainu.
As a part of Qing Empire, a few Tungusic and Paleosiberian peoples lived here prior to Russian colonization: Udeges, Nanais, Nivkhs, Orochs, Ulchs, Oroks, and Manchus.