Anthropological Survey in Alaska

THE YUKON TERRITORY—SITES, THE INDIANS, THE ESKIMO

The Tanana

BRIEF HISTORICAL DATA

The Tanana is the largest tributary of the Yukon. It is over 600 miles in length, and in its breadth, though not in its volume, it appears to equal, if not to exceed, the Yukon at their junction. The first white men to see the mouth of the Tanana were the Russian traders (about 1860), followed before long by the employees of the Hudson Bay Co. Dall says that it has long been noted on the old maps of Russian America, under the name of the River of the Mountain Men, while the Hudson Bay men called it the Gens-des-Buttes River. (Alaska and Its Resources, 281-282.) Dall mapped the junction of the river with the Yukon. The first who descended a part of its course were two traders, Harper and Bates, who reached the river higher up, sometime in the late seventies. The name of Harper is preserved by having been given to the big bend of the stream, 12 miles above its mouth. Its scientific exploration begins only in 1885, with the passage down nearly its entire length of Lieut. Henry T. Allen, United States Army;[5] the main work concerning the geography and geology of the river being done in 1898 by A. H. Brooks.[6]

POPULATION

The native population of the Tanana has always been remarkably scarce. Dall obtained an estimate of their whole number as about 150 families.[7] Petrof, in 1880, thought they numbered perhaps seven or eight hundred;[8] Allen in 1885 estimated them at between 550 and 600;[9] Brooks, in 1898, thought there were less than 400;[10] and the 1910 United States Census gives the total number of the "Tenan-kutchin," full bloods and mix bloods, as 415.[11]

According to Brooks (Reconnaissance, 490-491), the Tanana natives were separated into two geographic contingents, the eastern or highland and the northwestern or lowland groups. The most easterly group included the Indian settlements in the vicinity of Forty-mile and Mentasta Pass trail; the northwestern comprises to-day those from Nenana to the mouth of the river.

The Tanana Indians were generally regarded by other natives as warlike and dangerous, but so far as their relation with the whites was concerned there was little justification for this notion.[12] Physically they were reported by Brooks to "average rather better than the Indians of the Yukon" (Reconnaissance, 492). There are but a few and scanty other references to them in this connection.

Indian Sites and Villages Along the Tanana

Upper course.—On this much larger part of the river it is possible to report but indirectly.

A. H. Brooks, in 1898, reports thus on this subject:[13] "Several Indian houses are found on and near the Tanana between the Good-paster and Salchakat and constitute a subgroup of the upper Tanana Indians. * * * The most thickly settled part of the region is along the sluggish portions of the lower Tanana. The largest villages are at the mouth of the Cantwell and Toclat Rivers, and each of these consists of a number of good cabins. In the intervening region there are a number of isolated houses and fishing stations, which are marked on the accompanying map."

To which Lieutenant Castner, who explored the upper Tanana, adds the following:[14] "On 750 miles of the Tanana proper and its tributaries I saw seven small hamlets, and not to exceed 100 Indians—men, women, and children."

From information obtained by me at Fairbanks, at the United States marshal's office and from miners, it appears that the following villages are better known:

• Village, 150 miles east of Fairbanks.
• Mansfield Lake village, 300 miles east of Fairbanks.
• Tetlen, 410 miles east of Fairbanks.
• East Tetlen, 7 miles southeast of Tetlen.

LOWER TANANA, NENANA TO YUKON

No old sites were learned of on this part of the river, and few, if any, are probably preserved, due to lowness of banks and extensive destruction (cutting of the banks) by the river.

The present Indian villages on the river are as follows:

1. Nenana (or Tortella), about a mission, half a mile from the railroad station and town of the same name, on the left bank of the Tanana and near the mouth of the Nenana River. (Fig. 1.)

2. "Old Minto," 27 miles from Nenana, right bank; but a small number of Indians there now.

3. Village at the mouth of the Tolovana, right bank (where the Tolovana enters the Tanana); the village is on the distal (downstream) point. Nearly abandoned; only two families there now. Summer (fishing) camp on the opposite point.

4. A small settlement at mouth of Baker Creek, right bank, about 4 miles upstream from Hot Springs.

5. "Crossjacket village," on left bank, about 45 miles above Tanana, 40 miles below Hot Springs. Used to be called "Cosna." Occupied, though only a few there.

6. Near 5, but on the opposite bank, a few habitations.

During the open season the Indians live scattered along the river in fishing camps. This is especially true along the right bank downstream from Nenana.

The Yukon Below Tanana

BRIEF HISTORY

The Yukon is the principal river of Alaska. It is one of the greatest and most scenic rivers in the world. It is approximately 2,300 miles long (from the headwaters of the Lewes River), in its middle and lower courses ranges at times with its sloughs to several miles in breadth, and includes many hundreds of islands of its own formation. Its scenery is still essentially primeval, affected but little by human occupation or industry. It has, in fact, gone considerably back in these respects since the gold rush was over.

This great stream has been known to the white man for less than a century. Cook, in September of 1778, sailed near, discovering Stuart Island and Cape Stephens of the St. Michael Island, but missed the river.

In 1829 P. E. Chistiakof, director (1826-1830) of the Russian-American colonies, sent the naval officer Vasilief to explore the coasts between the Alexander Redoubt (at the mouth of the Nushagak) and the Shaktol or Norton Sound, and in 1830 Vasilief explored the larger part of the Kuskokwim River, of which the Russians knew already from their earlier explorers. Here they heard of an even greater stream to the north.

In 1831, on the recommendation of Vasilief, Michail Dmitrievich Tebenkof was sent to Norton Sound with the view of further exploration and the establishing of a post in that region. Tebenkof discovered that Cape Stephens was not a part of the mainland but of an island; and he built here a fortified post which in honor of his patron saint is called St. Michael, a name which subsequently passed to the whole island. The post was to serve both trade and further exploration.

From St. Michael, at the end of 1834, a small party is sent out under the leadership of an educated "kreol" (son of a native mother and Russian father), Andrei Glazunof, and on January 26, 1835, they reach the good-sized Indian village of Anvik, on the Kwikhpak, or Yukon.[15] From here Glazunof travels down the river to the large village of Aninulykhtykh-pak (above Holy Cross), the last Indian (as distinguished from Eskimo) village down the river, whence Glazunof sends most of his party back to St. Michael and himself proceeds to the Kuskokwim.

In 1836 the Russians effect the first settlement on the Yukon, at Ikogmiut (Zagoskin, 6), later known as the Russian Mission.

In 1838 Malakof, over land portage, reaches Nulato and builds there a trading post, which, during his absence the next winter, is burned by the natives. In 1841 Dieriabin rebuilds and fortifies this post, becomes its headman, and is there eventually (1851) killed by the Indians.

In 1841 Lieut. Laurenti Alexief Zagoskin is delegated to explore the "Kwikhpak," with its portages to the Kotzebue Sound, and the Kuskokwim River; and in 1843 he navigates and maps 600 miles of the Yukon, or from about the mouth of the Apkhun (northern) pass to the mouth of the Novitna River, with approximately 100 miles of each, from their mouth, of the Koyukuk and of the Ittege (or Innoko) Rivers.

The Russian post at Nulato remains until the sale of their American dominions by the Russians to the United States in 1867. From it and from St. Michael individual Russian traders ranged over the river and its lower affluents, but there was no further noteworthy scientific exploration. In 1863, however, Lukin, who after Vasilief and Kolmakof helped to explore the Kuskokwim, reached to Fort Yukon.

Meanwhile the river has been visited by both the English and the Americans. In 1847 Mr. Bell, of the Hudson Bay Co., having heard of the great stream from some of the Indians who visited the fort on Peels River, set out in quest of it, accompanied by a native guide, and reached it by the Rat and the Porcupine Rivers.[16]

Between 1843 and 1867 the river in its lower and middle reaches is freely traversed by the Russian traders. In 1851 Nulato is reached by Lieutenant Barnard, of H. M. S. Enterprise, in search of Franklin, only to be massacred there with some of the Russians and natives by the offended Indians of the Koyukuk. In 1861 Robert Kennicott traverses a part of the Yukon, and in 1865 he, with Capt. Charles S. Bulkley, leads there the expedition of the Western Union Telegraph Co., which is accompanied by William H. Dall and Frederick Whymper, and results in much information. Already, however, in 1863, Strahan Jones, commander of the Peels River Fort, has descended the Yukon to the mouth of the Novitna River or the uppermost point reached by Zagoskin, thus completing its identification as one and the same great stream. This point and the Tanana mark the westernmost penetration by the English (the Hudson Bay Co.).

In 1865 begin American explorations proper. In that year, under an agreement with the Russians, Maj. Robert Kennicott, heading a party of the Western Union Telegraph explorers, crosses from St. Michael to Nulato. Kennicott dies in Nulato a year later, but the explorations are carried on to result eventually in a series of valuable publications, more particularly by Dall and Whymper.[17]

The researches under the auspices of the Western Union Telegraph Co., themselves backed by the Government, are followed by explorations under the direct auspices of the American Government. Thus, in 1869 there is a reconnaissance of the river by Capt. C. W. Raymond; in 1883, that by Lieut. Frederick Schwatka; in 1885 by Lieut. Henry T. Allen; in 1898 by Capt. W. P. Richardson; and these are succeeded by the geological surveys of A. H. Brooks and companions.[18]

From 1878 on commenced placer and mining explorations for gold in Alaska leading gradually to the eventual great gold rush of the later nineties, which brought a whole flotilla of large river steamers and other craft to the Yukon and led to a rapid growth of some of the old and the establishment of a number of new settlements along its banks. The rash passed in turn, many of the miners and others departed, boats became idle and were beached or taken to the St. Michael ship "bone yard," where, together with most of the buildings, they are now (1926) being broken up; and the Yukon has reverted in a large measure to its former primeval, dormant, lonely state.

Such, in brief, is the white man's history of the Yukon, with all of which the river remains but half known, at best. It has never been fully surveyed, which would be a vast and unending task. It contains a large number of barely known little tributaries that are lost in the jungle-covered flats with their many pools and lakes. It has innumerable islands and channels, in which the traveler is easily lost, and it cuts and builds constantly during the open season. Its valley is squally and rainy. The stream may one moment be like a great, liquid, softly flowing mirror, to be in a few minutes churned into an ugly and dangerous roughness from which every smaller boat must seek shelter. Its shores are inhospitable, except for the native fisherman and hunter, and torment man with swarms of gnats and mosquitoes.

But there is no malaria; no snakes or other poisonous things. And when the weather is decent the water, the wooded shores, and the fresh, clean virginal parklike islands have a greatness and charm that compensate for much. Besides which there is the still more intensive allure of original exploration. Botany, zoology, and above all paleontology, find here still a fruitful field, while for anthropology, and especially archeology, the land is still largely a terra incognita.

The Yukon Natives

Upon their arrival on the Kvikpak and Yukon, the Russians found the banks of the stream peopled in its upper and middle courses by Indians and lower down by the Eskimo.[19] The last Indian village downstream was Aninulykhtykh-pak, since completely gone. Its site is identifiable with one that used to exist in front of the present mission of Holy Cross or just above. The first Eskimo village of some note was Paimute.

As to the Indians of the Yukon and its tributaries, there is a considerable confusion of names, almost every author using his own spelling and subdivisions. It is evident that there were two sets of names of the various Indian contingents, namely the names, sometimes contemptuous, given to them by outsiders, and the names in use among themselves, which generally meant the people of this or that locality. The facts are that they all belonged to the Tinné or Dené family;[20],[21] that there were two probably related generic names for them, namely Kutchin (used especially on the upper Yukon) and Khotana (used mainly along the central and lower parts of the stream); and that along the Yukon itself, with its channels, there were three main subdivisions of the people: The Kutchin (with various qualifications) on the upper parts of the river, down to Fort Yukon; the Yukonikhotana, from Fort Yukon to Nulato;[22] and the Kain (Petrof) or Kaiyuh (Dall) Khotana, or Inkaliks (of the Russians), from Nulato to Holy Cross.

In addition there were the Tenan-kutchin Tenan-khotana or Mountain-men of the Tanana; and the Yunnaka-khotana (Zagoskin) or Koyukuk-khotana (Dall), the people of the Koyukuk.

These groups were settled in a moderate number of permanent or winter villages along the rivers, in the summer spreading along the streams in camps. The population found by the first Russian explorer, Glazunof, from Anvik to Aninulykhtykh-pak, was seemingly a rather large one. He is reported by Wrangell to have counted, at Anvik, 240 grown males; at Magimiut, 35; and at Aninulykhtykh-pak 300. At the last-named village in particular there were present "many people," Glazunof estimating altogether nearly 700. These figures, except for Magimiut, seem too large and were not even approached later; but before the next count, that by Zagoskin, all these settlements had been visited by smallpox; and at the big village Glazunoff may have seen a potlatch, such as may still yearly be witnessed at some settlements on the river.

Zagoskin in 1843 made a detailed and evidently reliable count of all the villages that became known to him. His data in this respect, as in others, being of fundamental value, are here given, the Eskimo, for convenience, being included.

Native Villages on the Yukon and in the Vicinity, 1843 (Zagoskin, III, 39-41)[23]

Dall, referring to 1866-67 (Contr. Am. Ethn., I, 23, 39), estimated the number of the Yukon Eskimo at 1,000 and that of the Yukon and Koyukuk Indians, from the mouth of the Tanana downward, at 2,800. Only a few sites of villages are incidentally given by Dall.

Ivan Petrof, as a special agent for Alaska of the United States Census for 1880, reports himself the following Indian settlements and numbers of inhabitants on the Yukon (Compil. Narrat. Expl. Alaska, 68; gives also data on Eskimo, but his arrangement and unidentifiable localities prevent these data from being used here):

Later demographic records on the Yukon and its tributaries and on the coast comprise additional data by Petrof, published as a part of the Eleventh (1890) United States Census and arranged by districts and linguistic groups; and the data of three subsequent United States Censuses, 1900, 1910, and 1920, which are given in differing ways, but in the main by major ethnic and territorial or jurisdictional subdivisions.

Due to incomplete enumerations; to the use of native estimates for actual count (as seems to have been the case with Dall's figures, as well as others); the different methods and classifications employed; and the inclusion of units now into one and now into another group (as with Petrof, who includes three Indian villages below Anvik among the Eskimo, etc.), the various counts are not comparable and give but hazy ideas of the true conditions. Yet they are not without value, particularly in showing the earlier population of the villages and the relative proportion of the sexes and ages. The more helpful details are given in the appendix; for still others see references in bibliography.

PRESENT CONDITIONS

To-day, judging from all the obtained evidence, which comprised information, the witnessing of a potlatch at Tanana at which were assembled practically all the Indians above Nulato, and a visit below the Tanana of nearly all the villages where the Indians still live, the total number of the Tinneh on the lower Tanana (from Fairbanks to the mouth of the river) and on the Yukon from Tanana to Anvik, can scarcely be estimated to reach 1,000. It is probably well below that number. Moreover, not one-half of the adults and much fewer among the young are still full bloods. Disease, bad liquor (Yukon), and mostly as yet imperfect accommodation to changing conditions are steadily diminishing the numbers. Since our visit many have died from influenza, especially at Anvik. Their future is not hopeful. On the Tanana, however, and with the more educated in general, conditions are better, and much good is being done by the four missions on the two rivers (Nenana, Tanana, Anvik, and Holy Cross).

The old Indian settlements along the Yukon are gone, with a few exceptions. On some of the sites, as at Tanana, Nulato, Kaltag, etc., there are new villages bearing the old names but built by or in imitation of whites and sheltering a mixed population. The very names of not a few of the older Indian sites have gone into oblivion; or the natives call those they still know by a corruption of a white man's name, such as "Ulstissen" (for Old Station). Anvik alone has kept its original site and some of its old character, the mission and the white trader being across the river.

In the Eskimo part of the Yukon, below Holy Cross, conditions on the whole appear to be somewhat better. There has also been a diminution in population. The majority of the old villages have ceased to exist, while under the influence of whites some new settlements or names have appeared. Yet there are respectable remnants of the Eskimo, and, being better workers than the Indian and seemingly more coherent, they manage to sustain themselves somewhat better than he does. Their greatest handicap is disease. The beneficial effect among them of the old Russian Mission has declined, but there are a number of Government schools which have a good influence. They are more tractable, sensible, and in some respects perhaps more able than the Indians.

But there exists to-day no clear-cut demarcation, geographical, cultural, or even physical, between the two people. Anvik, the last Indian village downstream, is in every respect at least as much Eskimo as Indian; more or less Eskimo-like physiognomies are seen again and again among the Indians; and Indianlike features are common among the Eskimo. There has either been an old and considerable admixture on both sides, or there are some fundamental similarities of the two groups; perhaps both.

Archeology of the Yukon

Up to 1926 no archeological work had been done along the Yukon or its tributaries, and barring a few isolated specimens there were no archeological collections from these regions.

The archeology of the river consists, (1) of the dead but formerly known villages; (2) of older sites, "dead" and unknown before even the Russians arrived; and (3) of random stone objects worked by man that now and then are washed out from the river banks or are found in working the ground. Except in details conditions are much alike along the whole river and will best be dealt with as a whole.

THE RANDOM SPECIMENS

Wherever the beach of the river shows more or less of stones that are not talus or just pebbles, there are generally found stones worked by man. Such localities are scarce. The first exists between Tanana (the village) and the mission above it. Here specimens are found occasionally on the beach and occasionally in the soil of the local gardens. Other such sites were located at Bonasila, below Anvik, and in four places between Paimute and the Russian Mission. A few are also present from Marshall seaward.

An examination of the terrain adjacent to such parts of the beach shows mostly, but not always, traces of an old settlement.

The specimens consist of characteristic axes or adzes, stone scrapers, hammers, stone knives (along the Eskimo part of the river), tomahawk heads (probably), objects less well defined, and chips. There may be semifossilized animal bones, and rarely a bit of charcoal, a piece of pottery (for details see Narrative), or an object of ivory.

The ax proper is peculiar. It is a cupid's-bow ax, double-edged, and with one or two grooves across its middle. (Pl. 10.) It is as a rule made of heavy basaltic stone, and its edges are sharpened by polishing. Rough parts may have been polished also on the body. Its distal surface is convex (from sharp edge to sharp edge), its proximal surface straight or mildly convex. I succeeded in getting a specimen remounted recently by one of the Indians near Tanana. This form of an ax is still remembered by the old Indians when in use. They cut trees with it, cutting sidewise and detaching the wood in splinters. They also remember clubs with stone heads, and told me they were carried on the back over the right shoulder so as to be ready for instant and effective use.

These axes have apparently been used by both the Indians and the Eskimo, but there is an interesting difference. The several specimens I obtained or saw from Tanana to Ruby were all complete. But from, about the vicinity of Ruby downstream the bi-edged ax seems to disappear, or, rather, one-half of it disappears, the butt henceforth either being left unfinished or one-half of the double ax being broken off and the remainder being mounted now as an adze on a shorter handle. This form, and it exclusively, with various secondary modifications, is found over a wide area among the Eskimo and may reach into Asia, for I obtained a specimen of it from one of the Diomede Islands. It connects directly with the Bering Sea Eskimo ivory adze and chisel. On the other hand the bi-edged ax appears, in various modifications, to extend widely over Indian Alaska.

The remaining stone implements need but little mention here. They will be studied and reported separately by our archeologist. A special note will, however, be necessary later about the very primitive stone industry of Bonasila, below Anvik. (See p. 144.)

Of pottery I have seen no example above Anvik, but this can not be taken as evidence of its absence above that point. At Anvik, Bonasila, and farther down the pottery is like that of the western Eskimo. It is coarse ware, hand shaped, and of rather poor quality. It consists of small round bowls to fairly large, more or less conical, jars. It is never painted but is frequently decorated with thumb marks and especially with grooves running parallel with the border.

Ivory implements were encountered first at Bonasila and consisted of a few fine long points barbed on one side, looking like those of the Eskimo and probably of Eskimo origin. There were also a few tools of bone, generally scrapers.

Russian beads, especially those of the large blue variety, are occasionally encountered, usually singly or in small numbers, especially in some spots.

A unique archeological specimen from the lower middle portion of the Yukon Valley is the large stone dish obtained by Mr. Müller, the trader at Kaltag. (See p. 34.)

Besides these random specimens, other cultural objects are found along the Yukon in connection with old burials. These consist of an occasional wooden dish, sharpening or polishing stones, rarely a figurine (doll?) in ivory, Russian snuffboxes, fire sticks, dishes of birch bark, etc. The cullings in this field are quite poor, but there has been no excavation of older burials that have been assimilated by the tundra and lie now in the earth beneath.

The archeology of the old habitation sites, on the other hand, particularly perhaps on the Shageluk and between Holy Cross and Marshall, is decidedly promising and invites careful excavation.

Location of Villages and Sites on the Yukon

Especial attention was given to the location of the numerous dead villages and older sites along the Yukon. This task was found, in most instances, fairly easy with villages that "died" since the Russo-American occupation, for mostly they still show plain traces and are generally remembered by the old Indians or even old white settlers. Their precise allocation on a map, however, is not always easy or certain. As to the prehistoric sites the search is much more difficult and depends largely on chance discoveries.

The villages still existing give only a partial clue, in many cases, to the old, even where these bore the same name, for on occasions a village changed its location, though remaining in the same general vicinity and retaining the same name. Thus there existed at different times apparently, between the earliest contacts with whites and the present, at least 2 Nuklukhayets, 2 Lowdens, 3 Nulatos, 3 Kaltags, 2 Anviks, etc.; besides which there were differences in recording the names and changes due to efforts at translation of the native term, or an application by the whites of a new name, often that of a trader or settler, to an old site.

In places even late village sites, in others burials, were witnessed being undermined by the river or the sea. Such sites with their contents will probably sooner or later be completely lost from this cause. Many doubtless have thus been lost previously.

The villages and sites located along the Yukon are here enumerated and as far as possible charted. Information about them was obtained from the older Indians or river Eskimo and from such whites as had direct knowledge in that line. Most of these sites were examined personally, but in some instances this was impossible. The details concerning those seen will be found in the Narrative, but a few generalizations may here be useful.