Talkeetna History
The Talkeetna and Chulitna Rivers join the Susitna River at Talkeetna, an Indian word meaning "where the rivers join."
Originally a Tanaina Indian village before europeans arrived, Talkeetna was established as a mining town and trading post in 1896,
before either Wasilla or Anchorage existed. A gold rush after gold was found on the Susitna River brought prospectors to the area, and by 1910, Talkeetna became a riverboat steamer station.
In 1915, Talkeetna was chosen as the site for the Alaska Engineering Commission, who would build the Alaska Railroad, and the community peaked near 1,000. World War I and completion of the railroad in 1919 dramatically decreased the population.
Several of its old log buildings are historical landmarks, and Talkeetna was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 1993. During 1998, the community petitioned the Local Boundary Commission for incorporation as a home rule city. Visit the Talkeetna Historical Society Museum online, or offline in Downtown Talkeetna to learn more about Talkeetna's past.
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Native Peoples of Alaska
The Aleut
Aleut people are closely related to Eskimos, but over time they developed remarkably successful physical and cultural adaptations to the harsh maritime environment of the Aleutian Chain. They numbered 15,000 - 18,000 at the time of contact and populated all the major islands in the Aleutian Chain. A typical village consisted of 200 people living in four or five communal sod houses. The sea lion was the main staple of the Aleut, though Beluga whale hunting was also an extremely important and ritualized activity: The men hunted large marine mammals in the distinctive Baidarka, or one-man skin kayak. Other Aleut inventions were the atlatl, or throwing board, a long wooden visor to protect the face from the elements, and the labret, a decorative wooden piece inserted into a pierced lip. Aleut social organization was matrilineal, and boys were trained in hunting primarily by their maternal uncle, not their father. Most marriages were monogamous, though some polygamy (when one male mates with more than female while each female mates with only one male) did occur.
The Aleuts were one of the first and most dramatically affected groups by Euro- American contact. Their highly developed hunting expertise was required by the Russian fur traders in order to procure sea otter, sea lion, and other pelts for the burgeoning markets. Aleut men were brutally enslaved and sent far afield to procure pelts. When they resisted the Russians used such tactics as mass murder and the holding of hostages to force compliance. Sometimes the entire male population would be removed from an island, leaving the women and children to starve without any men or boats to supply meat. Within 50 years of contact the healthy and successful Aleut population had been reduced to less than 1000. Although later cultural salvage efforts have preserved many aspects of traditional life, the events of the nineteenth century amount to a full-fledged genocide. The Aleut Corporation, created in 1971 by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, is one of the smallest of the Native Corporations, with only 4200 shareholders.
The Athabascans
Athabascan is a general term to describe the linguistically varied groups of native Alaskans that populate the Interior, Over 11 different linguistic groups are associated with this culture. The Athabascan refer to themselves as ‘Dena’ or “the People.” There were 10,000 - 11,000 Athabascan at the time of contact, widely dispersed throughout the vast land area of the Interior but concentrated around the resources of 4 major waterways: the Yukon; Tanana; Susitna, Kuskokwim and Copper River drainage. Near these rivers, salmon was a primary food source, though this was supplemented to varying degrees by caribou hunting and plant gathering.
Nomadic through specific resource territories, Athabascan peoples subsisted in small groups of 20-40. In summer, entire family Units would move to fish camps along waterways; in winter, semi-permanent inland villages were repopulated. House types were dependent regional resources; architecture was often borrowed from neighboring Aleut and Eskimo cultures.
The social system of Athabascan was matrilineal in nature; children belonged to the clan of their mother. The traditional family group consisted of a woman’s family and her brother’s family; a woman’s husband and her brother shared hunting duties. As well, a woman’s brother took some responsibility for raising and training of his nieces and nephews to ensure children grew up knowing their clan’s history.
Contact with Europeans and Americans came later and was less cataclysmic than for other groups, due to their geographical isolation. They were far ranging and successful traders, so much so that when the American traders arrived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was the native trade routes that first undermined the western trade routes, not vice versa.
The Tlingit and Haida
The Tlingit (say “clink-it”) and Haida are the people of Southeast Alaska, and are more closely related to the native people of Canada than to the other Alaskan groups. They probably settled in Southeast between 2,000 - 4,000 years ago and numbered 15,000 at the time of contact. The Tlingit and Haida built large houses (40’ x 60’) that housed 4 -- 6 families that operated as an economic unit salmon was the primary staple, supplemented with bear and small game procured by bow and arrow hunting, and berry and clam gathering. The Tlingit and Haida utilized the high quality timber in Southeast to build both dug out canoes and totem poles. Totem poles were originally symbolic expressions of the formal structured kinship terminology and stratified matrilineal social organization of the Tlingit and Haida. In modern times, however, they have been adapted to other uses, such as the commemoration of special events or people.
The Tlingit and Haida were traders as well, interacting frequently with the Athapaskans. Due to the organized, military nature of their society they were never subjugated by the Russians and retained their autonomy well into the American period. The Tlingit and Haida were the first to organize to fight for-Native rights and land ownership.
The Inuit
The Inupiat were some 10,000 Eskimo people living in the far north of Alaska at the time of contact. On the northern coast they subsisted primarily by hunting large marine mammal, especially whales. In land this activity was supplemented by caribou hunting and mixed hunting and fishing. The Inupiat invented both the toggle headed harpoon and the umiak, a long, open skin boat up to 50 feet long for whale hunting. Their clothing consisted of animal skin parkas that utilized layering and drawstrings to combat the extreme arctic temperatures. They built semi-subterranean sod houses with underground entrances that housed 8 -- 12 people and were heated by body warmth and seal-oil lamps. The bilateral social organization of the Inupiat is identical to that of modern American society; maternal and paternal relationships assume equal – importance (in fact, the name of our system of kinship terminology is “Eskimo’).
The Inupiat were not much affected by Euro-American contact until the arrival of the Yankee whalers in the 1850’s. When contact did occur, however, entire communities were decimated by the introduction of alcohol and disease.
The Yupik
The Yupik, or Southern Eskimos, were the most numerous and diverse group at the time of contact, consisting of approximately 30,000 individuals spread out from Prince William Sound to the Bering Sea. Like Athabascan groups, the semi-nomadic Yupiks traveled with migrating fish and game. Small hunting and fishing camps were established in the summer; in winter, villages consisting of 100-300 people were repopulated. On the Pacific Coast, whales and large marine mammals were the primary food source, while intensive salmon fishing and migratory wildfowl and berries were important on the river and inland areas. Houses were rectangular sod dwellings with underground or surface entry.
Yupik social organization was based on the quasqig, or men’s house, where all males lived and worked communally. The quasqig hosted most community activities including ceremonies, singing, and dancing. The women and young children lived separately as family units in a smaller, architecturally similar dwelling, called an ena’. The ena’ had a removable skylight made of beaded walrus or seal intestine. Young boys made the transition from the ena to the quasqig at the age of ten. Social norms and behavior in Yupik culture focused on survival and compatibility among family and village groups. Roles and social status were determined solely on skill and gender rather than lineage. A successful hunter often became a village leader called a ‘Nukalpitt.’ Women’s roles revolved around child-rearing, sewing and food preparation.
Fiercely superstitious with regards to the hunt and daily life, the concept of Shamanism was prevalent across Yupik culture as a means of coping with and understanding the atrocities and hardships of life in the arctic. Both good and evil shamans played roles in village life. The good shaman healed, searched out animal spirits for hunters, and asked for survival necessities. On the other side, bad shamans continuously battled good shamans for power, placing curses, killing and making life miserable for a village.
Fine-tuned through centuries of trial and error, Yupik tools and technology were highly adapted to survival in the harsh Arctic. Technology varied dependent on village location, generally marine or riverine (delta regions). Important household items for women included an ‘uluaq’ (fan-shaped slate knife), seal-oil lamps, and skin-sewing implements made from stone, bone, or walrus ivory. Men’s tools were associated primarily with hunting. Spears, harpoons, snow goggles, ice canes, and elaborately decorated masks detailed with spiritual symbols all aided in successful hunting.
Groups within the Yupik include the Yup’ik, who lived primarily in the Yukon Kuskokwim River Delta and along the Bering Sea Coast, the Chugach along the Chugach mountain range and the Koniag on Koniag Island. Contact occurred at widely differing times, as the Chugach and Koniag were the first to be decimated by the Russian fur traders along with the Aleut, while the Yup’ik of St. Lawrence Island were one of the very last groups to be impacted.
Native Peoples of the Kenai Peninsula
Speaking of the Native Peoples on the Kenai can be confusing as there were several different groups living here. The most numerous were the Dena’ina, an Athapaskan Indian group that originally numbered 10,000 but were reduced to 3,000 by the 1780’s due to the introduction of influenza and smallpox. The Dena’ina number less than 800 today. There is archeological evidence of occupation along the Kenai as from as early as 1200 years ago, and Dena’ina people themselves date occupation as early as 3000 years ago. The early people subsisted on the same resources that are abundant today, fish, caribou, and wild plants. Note that the Dena’ina did not ear moose until the arrival of gold miners, trappers, and explorers in the area.
Anthropologists believe the first native settlers of the Kenai were the Unegkurmiut (spellings vary widely), a Yupik subgroup. There is one site on the Kenai Peninsula dated to 1700 years ago (Yerden-Walker 1994). These people were more closely related to the Yup’ik Chugach and Koniag than to the Athabascan Dena’ina, but little is known about them since there were only several hundred members living on the far east of the peninsula at the time of contact. It is not known why these Yup’ik Eskimos had all but left the peninsula by the mid 1700’s.
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