The Upper Kuskokwim people or Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskans, Upper Kuskokwim Athabascans (own native name Dichinanek' Hwt'ana), and historically Kolchan, Goltsan, Tundra Kolosh, and McGrath Ingalik are an Alaskan Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. First delineation of this ethnolinguistic group was described by anthropologist Edward Howard Hosley (who has specialized in the study of Alaskan Athabaskan cultures) in 1968, as Kolchan. According to Hosley, "Nevertheless, as a group possessing a history and a culture differing from those of its neighbours, the Kolchan deserve to be recognized as an independent group of Alaskan Athapaskans."[2] They are the original inhabitants of the Upper Kuskokwim River villages of Nikolai, Telida, and McGrath, Alaska. About 25 of a total of 100 Upper Kuskokwim people still speak the language.[1] They speak a distinct Athabaskan language (as Upper Kuskokwim language or Dinak'i) more closely related to Lower Tanana language than to Deg Xinag language (formerly Ingalik), spoken on the middle Kuskokwim.[3] The term used by the Kolchan themselves is Dina'ena (lit. 'the people' as Tenaynah by Hosley), but this is too similar to the adjacent Tanana and Tanaina (today Dena'ina) for introduction into the literature.[2] Nowadays, the term used by the Kolchan themselves is Dichinanek' Hwt'ana (lit. 'Timber River people'). Their neighbors also knew them by this name. In Tanaina they were Kenaniq' ht'an while the Koyukon people to the north referred to them as Dikinanek Hut'ana.[3] The Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskan culture is a hunter-gatherer culture and have a matrilineal system. They were semi-nomadic and lived in semi-permanent settlements.
Their neighbors are other Athabaskan-speaking peoples: Koyukon (north and northeast), Holikachuk (northwest), Deg Hit'an (south and southwest), and Dena'ina (south and southeast).[4]
Bands and communities
From a total of 6 separate band groupings in the upper Kuskokwim River area in late prehistoric times, the Kolchan have coalesced into one community, Nikolai Village.[2]
Telida band — along the McKinley Fork (Swift Fork) which frequently wintered at Telida.
East Fork band — with winter villages at Slow Fork and Dennis Creek.
South Fork band — with villages in the Farewell area or at the mouth of the Tonzona (Little Tonzona). The latter village moved twice and became Nikolai village during the contact period.
Salmon River band — along the Salmon River and the Pitka and Middle Fork of the Kuskokwim.
Big River band — which used Big River and the Middle Fork with winter villages at Farewell Landing and the mouth of Big River.
nameless band — which ranged around Vinasale Mountain and had close ties with the former Tatlawiksuk and Takotna River bands.
The first written account of the early trade and contact was by Lavrenty Alekseyevich Zagoskin, a Russian naval officer, who was given the mission of exploring the Interior of Russian America for the Russian-American Company. In the 1830s the Russians established a series of trading posts within reach of the Upper Kuskokwim people.[6] On the Kuskokwim River the Russian trading posts consisted of Kolmakof Redoubt and a small post at Vinasale.[3] With the U.S. purchase of Alaska in 1867, control of trading stations and the fur trade passed to Americans.
Hunting-gathering
The homeland of the Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskans is a part of Denali National Park and Preserve and located in the Tanana-Kuskokwim Lowlands ecoregion.[7] The Upper Kuskokwim name of Denali mountain is Denaze/diˈnæzi/ (literally 'the tall one').[8]
The Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskans were semi-nomadichunter-gatherers who moved seasonally throughout the year within a reasonably well-defined territory to harvest fish, bird, mammal, berry and other renewable resources. The people of Nikolai and Telida hunted seasonally in the Alaska Range extensively for many generations, well into the 1900s.[3]
The economy of Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskans is a mixed cash-subsistence system, like other modern foraging economies in Alaska. The subsistence economy is main non-monetary economy system. Cash is often a rare commodity in foraging economies, because of lack of employment opportunities or perceived conflicts in the demands of wage employment and subsistence harvesting activities. Wild resource use in many Athabaskan villages is overwhelmingly for domestic consumption.
The large animals most harvested were Dall sheep (drodeya, drodiya), caribou (midzish), black bear (shisr) and grizzly bear (tsone, chone).[3] Until the late 1800s and early 1900s moose (dineje) were absent in most of the area.[3] Before moose started to appear in the late 19th century and gradually replaced caribou population in upper Kuskokwim regions, caribou were the main target species for native hunters.[9] Caribou also spend much of the year in the mountains, moving down to the lowlands primarily during the winter.[3] Traditionally, Dall sheep were a favorite meal for people in Upper Kuskokwim region. People used to travel to Alaska Range to hunt them in November.[9] Grizzly and black bears are rarely hunted in Upper Kuskokwim region. A traditional method of winter bear hunting uses dogs to locate dens.[9]Hare or rabbits (gwh) are one a small game species.
Small game species such as upland game birds (ptarmigans and grouse) were a valued source of fresh meat and are widely dispersed but their populations are cyclic and in some years they are very scarce.[3] The spruce grouse (dish), sharp-tailed grouse (ch'iłtwle), ruffed grouse (trok'wda), willow ptarmigan (dilgima) and rock ptarmigan (dziłk'ola) were taken opportunistically throughout the year with bow and arrows or with snares and fence-snare arrangements. Migratory waterfowl (ducks and geese) pass through the area by the thousands in the spring when the headwaters of the rivers first open, but most move on to nest elsewhere. During the fall migration, when there is plenty of open water, most fly over the area without stopping except for a brief rest.[3] Ducks and geese were easily captured when molting. Men in birchbark canoes quietly approached waterfowl in bays and coves and shot them with bow and arrows. Women and children then caught the birds and collected eggs from their nests.
Alaskan economical salmonoid fish species
Fishing (creek and river) was done near the village sites, and the fish were stored in large subsurface caches and is domestic and most common.[10] All band members except the very young children assisted in harvesting and processing the catch. Available fish species include chinook salmon, silver salmon, chum salmon, broad whitefish, humpback whitefish, round whitefish, least cisco, sheefish, grayling, Dolly Varden, burbot (loche), pike, sucker, eel, blackfish, lake trout, and one non-fish species, freshwater mussels.[11] The main economical fish (łuk'a) species are mostly Pacific salmon species. In Upper Kuskokwim region, salmon have been an important food resource as well as in other places in the North. There are five species of Pacific salmon recognized in Alaska, but only three of them (king or chinook, dog or chum and silver or coho) regularly venture up to the Upper Kuskokwim region. Currently, king or chinook (gas) salmon occupies the majority of the harvest of salmonids in this region, followed by dog or chum (srughat'aye) and silver or coho (nosdlaghe) salmon. Whereas hundreds of thousands, and even millions, of salmon enter the Kuskokwim River, by the time they reach the headwaters only a few thousand or even a few hundred are left to spawn in any given stream.[3][9] In the Upper Kuskokwim Athabascan language, August is nosdlagheno'o (lit. 'coho salmon month').[9]
Whitefish, northern pike, Arctic grayling, inconnu (sheefish), suckers, burbot (lingcod, lush) and a few resident Dolly Varden trout are present but these are also widely dispersed and not present in every stream.[3] According to the people in the Upper Kuskokwim region, Dolly Varden trout (hoch'ilmoya) used to be much more common in the past, spawning in the area where salmon also spawn. However, it seems that their number has decreased recently.[9] The round whitefish (hwstin'), lake whitefish or broad whitefish (tilaya,taghye), and humpback whitefish (sajila) are the most abundant group of fish north of the Alaska Range, inhabiting almost every type of river and freshwater habitat in this section of Alaska.[9]Northern pike (ch'ighilduda,ch'ulkoy) are harvested by people of Upper Kuskokwim region in summer, fall and during freeze-up.[9] In Upper Kuskokwim region, Arctic grayling (ts'idat'ana) are harvested in summer, fall and early winter, using rod and reel gear or nets.[9]Sheefish (zidlaghe) are harvested in the Upper Kuskokwim drainage mainly in summer months between June and August and less frequently in September and October.[9]Burbot or lingcod (ts’onya) used to be harvested with nets in Upper Kuskokwim region.[9] Traditionally, people set up a fish trap made out of spruce to catch Alaska blackfish (hozrighe,tułnuna) beneath the ice in winter.[9] Other fish species include the longnose sucker (donts'oda).[9]
The Upper Kuskokwim kinship is based on what is formally known as an Iroquois kinship and reflects the matrilinealclan system and the importance of cross cousin marriage. The Upper Kuskokwim social system characterized by unilineal descent and a division into three named, matrilineal, common descent or clan-like groups. These groups were: St'chelayu (lit. 'fish people'), Tonay'tlil'tsitnah (lit. 'middle kind' or 'people in the middle'), and Medzisht'hut'anah (lit. 'caribou people').[2]
The Upper Kuskokwim people are today strongly Russian Orthodox in faith, the result of missionary influence from the lower Kuskokwim and Yukon rivers beginning in the mid-nineteenth century.[2] Churches were built in Nikolai and Telida in the early 1900s.[3]
Cuisine
The Alaskan Athabaskan Indian ice cream (nemaje) is dessert-like berries, Indian potato, and fish (whitefish, sheefish) mixed with fat[9] (commonly Crisco now, but bear fat is occasionally used) and different from the Canadian Indian ice cream of First Nations in British Columbia.
Nikolai is a city in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 94 as of the 2010 census, down from 100 in 2000.
Athabaskan is a large family of Indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific Coast and Southern. Kari and Potter (2010:10) place the total territory of the 53 Athabaskan languages at 4,022,000 square kilometres (1,553,000 sq mi).
The Kuskokwim River or Kusko River is a river, 702 miles (1,130 km) long, in Southwest Alaska in the United States. It is the ninth largest river in the United States by average discharge volume at its mouth and seventeenth largest by basin drainage area. The Kuskokwim River is the longest river system contained entirely within a single U.S. state.
The Chena River is a 100-mile (160 km) tributary of the Tanana River in the Interior region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It flows generally west from the White Mountains to the Tanana River near the city of Fairbanks, which is built on both sides of the river. The Tanana empties into the 2,300-mile (3,700 km) long Yukon River.
The Gwichʼin are an Athabaskan-speaking First Nations people of Canada and an Alaska Native people. They live in the northwestern part of North America, mostly north of the Arctic Circle.
Telida is an unincorporated community located in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. At the 2010 census the population was 3, unchanged from 2000.
Deg Xinag is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the Deg Hitʼan peoples of the GASH region. The GASH region consists of the villages of Grayling, Anvik, Shageluk, and Holy Cross along the lower Yukon River in Interior Alaska. The language is severely endangered; out of an ethnic population of approximately 250 people, only 2 people still speak the language.
The Denaʼina, or formerly Tanaina, are an Alaska Native Athabaskan people. They are the original inhabitants of the south central Alaska region ranging from Seldovia in the south to Chickaloon in the northeast, Talkeetna in the north, Lime Village in the northwest and Pedro Bay in the southwest. The Denaʼina homeland is more than 41,000 sq mi (110,000 km2) in area. They arrived in the south-central Alaska sometime between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago. They were the only Alaskan Athabaskan group to live on the coast. The Denaʼina have a hunter-gatherer culture and a matrilineal system. The Iditarod Trail's antecedents were the native trails of the Denaʼina and Deg Hitʼan Athabaskan Native Alaskans and the Inupiaq Inuit.
Northern Athabaskan is a geographic sub-grouping of the Athabaskan language family spoken by indigenous peoples in the northern part of North America, particularly in Alaska, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. The Northern Athabaskan languages consist of 31 languages that can be divided into seven geographic subgroups.
The Upper Kuskokwim language is an Athabaskan language of the Na-Dené language family. It is spoken by the Upper Kuskokwim people in the Upper Kuskokwim River villages of Nikolai, Telida, and McGrath, Alaska. About 40 of a total of 160 Upper Kuskokwim people still speak the language.
Southwest Alaska is a region of the U.S. state of Alaska. The area is not exactly defined by any governmental administrative region(s); nor does it always have a clear geographic boundary.
Upper Tanana is an endangered Athabaskan language spoken in eastern Interior Alaska, United States, mainly in the villages of Northway, Tetlin, and Tok, and adjacent areas of the Canadian territory of Yukon. In 2000 there were fewer than 100 speakers, and the language was no longer being acquired by children.
The Hän, Han or Hwëch'in / Han Hwech’in are a First Nations people of Canada and an Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the United States; they are part of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. Their traditional lands centered on a heavily forested area around the Upper Yukon River, Klondike River (Tr'on'Dëk), Bonanza Creek and Sixtymile River and straddling what is now the Alaska-Yukon Territory border. In later times, the Han population became centered in Dawson City, Yukon and Eagle, Alaska.
The Yupʼik or Yupiaq and Yupiit or Yupiat (pl), also Central Alaskan Yupʼik, Central Yupʼik, Alaskan Yupʼik, are an Indigenous people of western and southwestern Alaska ranging from southern Norton Sound southwards along the coast of the Bering Sea on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and along the northern coast of Bristol Bay as far east as Nushagak Bay and the northern Alaska Peninsula at Naknek River and Egegik Bay. They are also known as Cup'ik by the Chevak Cup'ik dialect-speaking people of Chevak and Cup'ig for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect-speaking people of Nunivak Island.
Chief David Salmon was an indigenous Alaskan that served as Chief of Chalkyitsik and later First Traditional Chief for the Gwich'in people. He was known for his commitment to improving his community and working for the people. Salmon would use his position and influence as chief to begin many public works and create programs dedicated to helping the Gwich'in people. As an advocate for education, Salmon would spread his knowledge by creating traditional Athabascan items for display or teaching his community to keep Athabascan traditions alive. At the same time, Chief Salmon would be trained and become the first Episcopal priest for Interior Alaska and spend a lot of his life spreading his faith.
The Alaskan Athabascans, Alaskan Athapascans or Dena are Alaska Native peoples of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. They are the original inhabitants of the interior of Alaska.
The Tanana Athabaskans, Tanana Athabascans or Tanana Athapaskans are an Alaskan Athabaskan peoples of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. They are the original inhabitants of the Tanana River drainage basin in east-central Alaska Interior, United States and a little part lived in Yukon, Canada. Tanana River Athabaskan peoples are called in Lower Tanana and Koyukon language Ten Hʉt'ænæ, in Gwich'in language Tanan Gwich'in. In Alaska, where they are the oldest, there are three or four groups identified by the languages they speak. These are the Tanana proper or Lower Tanana and/or Middle Tanana, Tanacross or Tanana Crossing, and Upper Tanana. The Tanana Athabaskan culture is a hunter-gatherer culture and have a matrilineal system. Tanana Athabaskans were semi-nomadic and as living in semi-permanent settlements in the Tanana Valley lowlands. Traditional Athabaskan land use includes fall hunting of moose, caribou, Dall sheep, and small terrestrial animals, and also trapping. The Athabaskans did not have any formal tribal organization. Tanana Athabaskans were strictly territorial and used hunting and gathering practices in their semi-nomadic way of life and dispersed habitation patterns. Each small band of 20–40 people normally had a central winter camp with several seasonal hunting and fishing camps, and they moved cyclically, depending on the season and availability of resources.
Alaskan ice cream is a dessert made by Alaskan Athabaskans and other Alaska Natives. It is traditionally made of whipped fat or tallow and meat mixed with berries or mild sweeteners such as roots of Indian potato or wild carrot, mixed and whipped with a whisk. It may also include tundra greens. There is also a kind of akutaq which is called snow akutaq. The most common recipes for Indian ice cream consist of dried and pulverized moose or caribou tenderloin that is blended with moose fat until the mixture is light and fluffy. It may be eaten unfrozen or frozen, and in the latter case it somewhat resembles commercial ice cream.
Yup'ik cuisine refers to the Eskimo style traditional subsistence food and cuisine of the Yup'ik people from the western and southwestern Alaska. Also known as Cup'ik cuisine for the Chevak Cup'ik dialect speaking Eskimos of Chevak and Cup'ig cuisine for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect speaking Eskimos of Nunivak Island. This cuisine is traditionally based on meat from fish, birds, sea and land mammals, and normally contains high levels of protein. Subsistence foods are generally considered by many to be nutritionally superior superfoods. Yup’ik diet is different from Alaskan Inupiat, Canadian Inuit, and Greenlandic diets. Fish as food are primary food for Yup'ik Eskimos. Both food and fish called neqa in Yup'ik. Food preparation techniques are fermentation and cooking, also uncooked raw. Cooking methods are baking, roasting, barbecuing, frying, smoking, boiling, and steaming. Food preservation methods are mostly drying and less often frozen. Dried fish is usually eaten with seal oil. The ulu or fan-shaped knife is used for cutting up fish, meat, food, and such.
Katie John was an Alaska Native advocate and cultural expert. John was a plaintiff in a court case against the United States challenging the denial of Native subsistence fishing rights, known throughout Alaska as "the Katie John case." She was instrumental in developing an alphabet for the Ahtna language and preserving the culture and traditional way of life of the Ahtna Athabaskan people.
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