Part 13

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]

FOOTNOTES:

[5] Allen, Henry T., Military Reconnaissance in Alaska. Comp. Narr. Expl. Alas., 415-416, 446-452.

[6] Brooks, A. H., Reconnaissance in the Tanana and White River Basins. Twentieth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., Washington, 1900, pt. VII, 437-438; also the Geog. and Geol. Alas., U. S. Geol. Surv. Doc. 201, 1906.

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.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] "Their numbers are supposed not to exceed 150 families." Alaska and Its Resources, p. 108.

[8] Notes Alas. Ethn., 161.

[9] Brooks, op. cit, 493.

[10] Brooks, op. cit., 493.

[11] Population, III, 1137.

[12] See Castner, J. C., A Story of Hardship and Suffering in Alaska: Comp. Narr. Expl. Alaska, 686-709.

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.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] Brooks, A. H., A Reconnaissance in the White and Tanana River Basins, Alaska, in 1898: Twentieth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., 1900, pt. VII, p. 491.

[14] Castner, op. cit., p. 706.

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.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] There is some confusion about the exact date of Glazunof's journey, partly due perhaps to the fact that he started on Dec. 30. Wrangell (Stat. and Ethnog. Nachricht., 138) says that Glazunof's expedition was outfitted the same year (1833) in which the St. Michael redoubt was established. In Zeleny's abstract of Zagoskin's report (p. 212) and by Zagoskin himself (pp. 6, 23) the departure of the expedition is put a year later, or 1834, which is probably correct. Dall's remarks (Alaska and Its Resources, 276, 338) on the subject contain several errors, both of dates and facts. There is also considerable confusion as to the names Kvikhpak and Yukon. The term Kvikhpak (Kvikh, river; pak, large) is of Eskimo origin and was applied by these to that part of the river which they occupied. The name Yukon, or something near this, is of Indian derivation and was applied to those parts of the river, below Tanana at least, that were peopled by the Khotana or Indians.

[16] Richardson, J., Arctic Searching Expedition, London, 1851, II, 206.

[17] For details see Dall's Alaska and Its Resources, Boston, 1870.

[18] See Compilation of Explorations in Alaska, Senate Rept. 1023, Washington, 1900; and reports on Alaska of the United States Geological Survey.

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.

FOOTNOTES:

[19] See Auszug aus dem Tagebuche des Schiffer-gehülfen Andreas Glasunow. In Wrangell. Ferd. v., Statistische und ethnographische Nachrichten ü. d. Russichen Besitzungen a. d. Nordwestküste v. Amerika. Ed. by K. C. v. Baer, St. Petersburg, 1839, 137-160. Zagoskin, A., Pes̆echodnaia opis c̆asti russkick vladenii v. Amerikě. 2 parts, St. Petĕrsburg. 1847-1848, pp. 1-183, 1-120, and 1-43; with a map.

[20] Dall, Contr. N. A. Ethn., vol. 1, p. 17.

[21] Zagoskin: "* * * great family of the Ttynai nation, which occupies the interior of the mainland of our colonies and known to us under various names--Yug-elnut, Tutna, Golcanĕ or Kilc̆anĕ [according to the pronunciation of those giving the information], Kenaici, Inkaliti, Inkalich-liuatov [distant Inkaliks], and others--names given to them by the neighboring coastal people."

[22] Petrof, Ivan, p. 161: "This tribe, comprising the Yunakhotana and the Kutchakutchin of Dall, inhabits the banks of the Yukon River from Fort Yukon westward to Nulato."

NATIVE VILLAGES ON THE YUKON AND IN THE VICINITY, 1843 (ZAGOSKIN, III, 39-41)[23]

+-------+----------+------- Villages | Total | Adult | Houses | | males[24]| -----------------------------------------+-------+----------+------- INDIANS | | | Inkalit-Iugelnut: | | | Inselnostlende | 33 | 8 | 2 Khuingitatekhten | 37 | 11 | 3 Iltenleiden | 100 | 30 | 6 Tlego | 45 | 14 | 3 Khuligichagat | 70 | 25 | 5 Kvygympainag-miut | 71 | 25 | 3 Vazhichagat | 80 | 18 | 5 Anvig | 120 | 37 | 5 Makki | 44 | 9 | 3 Anilukhtakpak | 170 | 48 | 8 +-------+----------+------- Total | 770 | 225 | 43 +=======+==========+======= Inkiliks proper: | | | Kunkhogliuk | 11 | 5 | 2 Ulukak | 35 | 10 | 4 Ttutago | 32 | 8 | 2 Kakoggo-khakat | 9 | 3 | 1 Khutul-khakat | 16 | 4 | 2 Khaltag | 9 | 3 | 1 Khogoltlinde | 60 | 17 | 4 Takaiak | 81 | 27 | 7 Khuli-kakat | 11 | 3 | 1 +-------+----------+------- Total | 264 | 80 | 24 +=======+==========+======= Yunnaka-khotana: | | | Notaglit | 37 | 8 | 3 Tlialil-kakat | 27 | 7 | 3 Toshoshgon | 30 | 5 | 2 Tok-khakat | 6 | 3 | 1 Nok-khakat | 50 | 11 | 3 Kakhliakhlia-kakat | 26 | 7 | 2 Tsonagogliakhten | 11 | 4 | 1 Tsogliachten | 7 | 2 | 1 Khotyl-kakat | 65 | 19 | 4 Unylgakhtkhokh | 17 | 2 | 2 Nulato | 13 | 2 | 1 +-------+----------+------- Total | 289 | 70 | 23 +=======+==========+======= Tlegon-khotana: | | | Innoko natives seen on the Yukon | 44 | 33 | 3 Village totality | 45 | 14 | 3 +-------+----------+------- Total | 89 | 47 | 6 +=======+==========+======= All Indians counted on Yukon and Koyukuk | 1,359 |[25]422 | 132 +=======+==========+======= ESKIMO | | | Kavliunag-miut | 11 | 3 | 1 Nygyklig-miut | 13 | 4 | 1 Kanyg-miut | 45 | 11 | 4 Ankachag-miut | 122 | 32 | 6 Takchag-miut | 40 | 12 | 3 Ikuag-miut | 130 | 35 | 6 Nukhluiag-miut | 60 | 17 | 4 Ikogmiut | 92 | 22 | 5 Ikaligvig-miut | 45 | 14 | 3 Pai-miut | 123 | 35 | 5 +-------+----------+------- Total of Kvikhpag-miut | 681 | 185 | 38 -----------------------------------------+-------+----------+-------

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):