Chapter VI: Part 6

In the morning boat coaling, dirty work, so all who can go ashore. Meet Mr. Williams again; buy a few native articles in stores, visit Mrs. Evans, the teacher-nurse, who has on an occasion successfully amputated a native's finger. The deputy marshal takes me to his house, gives me some dried deer meat and smoked salmon strips, and promises to be on a lookout for specimens for us. Near noon return. Still rough.

At night a bad blow and the ship tossing a great deal, almost as during the storm to St. Lawrence. Feel it considerably, but after 3 a. m. wind and water moderate. Feel effects of it, however, whole morning. For an explorer to be ever in rough weather subject to seasickness is a horrid affliction.

August 19. Off Nome once more. Everything, city, mountains, appear exceedingly, unnaturally clear--not a good sign. After 9 a. m. go to town. Soon at the Lomens' headquarters, and the sons, particularly Carl, bring out three smaller boxes full of things from St. Lawrence and Nunivak Islands, and give me the choice of all. And after I am through--near two hours' fast work--Carl adds one beautiful tusk (carved) from Nunivak Island, and then adds another, and two big bones of a mammoth, some as gifts, some as an addition to his loan to our institution. Excellent men.

Lunch with Ralph and Carl; then a good walk in the open; and then another lecture. All pleased, and two bring me specimens for our museum. Slowly back to boat and 4.45 on the _Bear_ again. Nice day, but getting cooler and blustery.

Captain Ross comes to port, the graphophone starts its usual jazz songs next (ward) room, then the supper, all visitors gone, and the _Bear_ raises anchor to be off for the north once more.

August 19, evening. A new, final chapter begins with to-day. What will it contain when over?

August 20. Rough. Go north until in plain sight of the Diomedes as well as Cape Wales, and then the captain decides landing would be risky, if not impossible; and so reluctantly we turn back and proceed toward Teller. What a tantalizing experience this must have been to poor Jenness, who is waiting for us on the Little Diomede, a most dreary place, to be taken off; and I, too, expected collections at both the Diomedes and the Cape.

Saturday, August 21. Port Clarence, off Teller. This proved a day never to be forgotten; for failure of a rigid system, for bad weather, for strain and endurance, and nearness to almost anything.

My purpose was to utilize the _Bear's_ visit to Teller for a survey of a Chukchee-Eskimo battle field, of which I heard repeatedly from the Yukon onward. Sometime during the earlier half of the last century the Chukchee from Asia are said to have made an invasion of the peninsula and to have reached as far as the Salt Lake, east of Teller, when they were met by the united Eskimo and badly defeated. The exact spot where this happened is, however, somewhat uncertain, and it was to locate it, examine, and collect what might be possible of the remains that were said to be still there that I asked Captain Cochran to let me have one of the motor boats, to which he kindly consented, uniting the trip with some topographical observations for his own purposes.

The evening before I was told by the second officer that we shall start some time soon after midnight for that part of the old battle field--there seemed to be two of them--at the eastern point of the Salt Lake. As a result could not undress, and after ship stopped in Port Clarence, near 11 p. m., had but a little rest. The call came at 4 a. m. A little breakfast, a package of lunch, and start at 5.10.

First note. Ship about 7 miles from Teller. Water deep enough much nearer, but we came at night. Here there are already dark nights between about 9 p. m. and 4 a. m., and so they were cautious.

Second. The officer says he has orders not to stop at Teller, where there is an old Indian (Dunak) from whom I expected to get exact bearings, and where there is also a white trader, Mr. Peterson, who knows the place and might possibly have accompanied us.

Third. Distances, as usual, longer than estimated. We find eventually that the destination is about 32 miles from Teller.

Fourth. A brisk head wind and sea retarding us.

Fifth. As we approach our spot, a shoal water, with grass, preventing us from going straight to the most likely place, and no other way was tried. It is 11 a. m. and already I hear an intimation that we shall not have time for anything except to make a lunch. This is the same officer, a very good man at his post but rigid and without much interest in anything else than his own field, who after 10 miles' trip to Kotzebue gave us 25 minutes there, when it required 15 minutes alone to reach the school from the boat.

So we end by landing on the extremity of a spit there to make lunch, and I have only the time it takes to prepare the latter. I find, in hurry, remains of five old semisubterranean dwellings on the northern side of the point, and about as many low mounds with remnants about of rotten driftwood--undoubtedly old burials. Probably the skeletons have been assimilated by the tundra vegetation and blown material. A single native skull, a female, without face, is lying about. Collected.

While lunch is being made ready the officer and the boatswain, Mr. Berg, each shoot a duck. Then the lunch, a hurried loading, and departure, after some delay in setting the sail, at 1.30 p. m. I saw nothing that looked like a battle field. Its determination and survey must be left for some future explorer.

Sail rapidly. Wind fresh, with us, also waves. Cross Salt Lake, and Tussoc "River." About 4.30 reach Grantly Harbor and wind increases; also waves. We run fast, and well enough, but the umiak (skin boat) we are pulling begins to suffer. It rides crazily and is jerked over the seething waves. The crossbar by which it is partly held breaks, and now the boat goes more sidewise, with water lapping over its border and getting in. Wind now quite a gale, breaking waves everywhere--every now and then a big one--whitecaps all over. A dim view of Teller in distance, when the skin boat begins to fill more rapidly and sag. Must stop engine--waves toss us like mad--one could be thrown bodily out of the boat if not careful in bending or moving and holding. The sail comes down and the mast is laid down, a bad piece of work. Berg and Pete Brant (an elderly trapper with us but formerly of Coast Guard Service at Nome, a good sailor and knowing these waters) work very hard and well. The skin boat has to be pulled alongside and bailed out by young Weenie, a very hard and dangerous task. Mr. Berg's rain hat ("souwester") blows off and is lost in the seething waves. Later Weenie nearly loses his--snatches it out between the boats with a narrow escape for his head. Then Weenie climbs into the skin boat--a brave act--and finishes the bailing, but is much "in" after getting back. Then our big staunch motor launch starts again at reduced speed. But the skin boat does great antics and threatens to fill again or break; so Pete Brant holds the rope and is jerked every now and then, until I fear that he may any moment be jerked out into the waves and watch to catch his legs. Fortunately he succeeds in preventing it, but there was a slim margin.

It has drizzled or rained, besides the wind, most of the afternoon, and there is a lot of spray to splashes from the waves. All this has to be taken as it comes, but the water is not cold, and our boots and oilskins give protection. Nevertheless my right knee to hip gets thoroughly wet and chilly, and I was not alone. But there is little time to think of such things. We see at Teller the waves breaking high on the shore, some boats already on the beach and others being driven there, a few people looking helplessly on.

About 5.50 we round the Teller spit and come in the lee of it into calmer water. But the visibility over the water is probably not over a mile now, and we see no trace of the _Bear_. The gasoline supply is getting rather low; and all are more or less cold, though dressed warmer than I and, due to their hip-high rubber boots--mine reach only to the knee--not wet. I now shake a lot with the cold, without being able to stop it. So we skirt the protecting bluffs southward to where everyone thinks the _Bear_ is, near a little stream from which they were to take fresh water. But though we all strain our eyes to the limit, there is no trace of the ship.

Thus reach Cape Riley and the stream, which is found dry, without a drop of water. Get on the pebbly beach, turn skin boat over to get the water out, and hurry to chop wood. No wood save the water troughs, so chop these. Must have fire. I warm up a little by running around and chopping. They pour gasoline on the wood, make a big fire, cook a pot of coffee, and with bread and preserved meat make a supper, though it is mainly coffee.

Near 8 and getting dark. Storm, outside of protection of cliffs, unabated. There is a second watering place, 7 or 8 miles across the bay, and our only chance to find the _Bear_ is to rush for this. But to do this we must go diagonally across the waves and similarly against the wind--a bad prospect. Also, we have only just about enough gasoline to reach the place. But there is no help.

Thus a new start, and before long we are once more in the waves. It is now quite obscure. The waves break now and then and splash over us. Before long the skin boat is again sagging and in danger of sinking. Once more pull alongside and dangerous, exhausting bailing by Weenie.

And so on, tossed, driven aside, but thanks to the good engine never stopping. I hold to seat not to be thrown against things or even out; the others are becoming gruff, irritable. And then Higsby makes out a faint light far ahead. No one certain, but in a while it seems moving. A solitary small light somewhere far on the shore, probably, not the boat.

But soon another stronger light discerned, seemingly moving to the left, and later several--the ship in all probability.

We toss and reel and stagger nearer, but motor still going strong. For the skin boat they found at last a position in which it takes but little water. Finally see decisively a blinking light, the mast signal. We show our lantern a few times. Then the ship looms before us, but there is still the risky task of getting alongside and aboard. However, all is accomplished without real damage.

The cabin--the good and anxious captain--a little canned grapefruit, and bed. But head falls and rises, the events of the day reappear, wonder what has become of the trade schooner we saw being driven on the beach--and so on until consciousness passes into deep sleep. The _Bear_ is fairly quiet, not in the brunt of the weather. And this eventually moderates, so that a little after 4 we start again, only to anchor once more at 6, a little below where last night we had our supper.

August 22. Cloudy, drizzly, rough still, and wireless news of widespread bad storms, even in the States. So we shall wait. One more hope for my collections at the Cape and with Jenness.

Captain says this morning the officer misunderstood his orders about Teller. The trip demonstrated a number of things. One of the main and most gratifying was the sterling quality of the men with me, officer, boatswain, motorman. Weenie, Pete, in the teeth of real danger. They were all that men should be under such conditions, which is the best way I can express it. The trip may have been in vain so far as its scientific object was concerned, but it brought a number of men face to face with life's stresses and found their mettle of the truest quality, without exception, to witness which was worth the whole experience.

August 22-23. During the night have left Port Clarence and endeavored once more to reach Wales and the Diomedes, to be again turned away by fog and rough weather. The captain doubts if there will be any more decent "spells." The season for this stormy sea is too far advanced. Unable to land anywhere.

The day is followed by another horrid night, again off the St. Lawrence Island. Boat tossing and heaving and rolling, waves reaching and even splashing over the level of the high upper deck in the back, everything tied tip and cleared or fastened, a danger in making even a few steps of being thrown against something, or on the deck of being thrown overboard, and everything constantly cracking, creaking, with every few minutes an impact big thud-like or a splash of a wave, the floor heaving and twisting; and thus from before evening until morning. Then a trace easier, but the whole day gloomy and rough and the night again more unsettled. To-day better, wind which began east then turned northwest, then almost north, now stopped, but a heavy swell is running, heaving us nearly as much as yesterday. We have gone very slowly.

Have arrived off Savonga. The sky is now clear and there is not much wind, but the swell is and keeps on such that, notwithstanding the repeated calls of our siren, the Eskimo whom we see above the beach near their boats, do not dare to launch these and come, nor does the captain care to risk one of our own launches, though we need fresh reindeer meat and all would like once more to meet the nice lot of natives of this village. After a prolonged wait and as conditions show no improvement, nothing remains but to leave the island.

Our next stop, if the weather permits, is to be at Nunivak Island. This is a large island off the Alaskan coast, well below the present delta of the Yukon and some distance above Kuskokwim Bay. The island is one of the least explored, and the people living upon it one of the least known. It is only during the last few years that a trading and a reindeer post has been established on this island, and only the second year that there is a teacher. What little is known of the natives, a branch of the Eskimo, shows that they have many different habits from those farther north, in clothing, decoration, etc. They make rather good black pottery, and from this island come the most elaborate carvings in ivory, reminding strongly of small totem poles. A photograph of a group of these people, seen at the Lomen Studio at Nome, showed remarkably broad and short faces, unlike the Eskimo of the north. All of which made me very anxious to visit the island.

To be brief such a visit, though promised to me by the captain, could not be realized. The waters about the island are so imperfectly charted that in weather that continued half rough it was thought unwise to risk a landing. I felt this keenly, as the various other impossibilities of the trip. But I could never forget all the unexpected help I received from the Revenue Cutter Service, for which I was deeply grateful, and had to acknowledge the justice of the captain's position. We came so near that the land birds from the island were already about us, but then turned toward the Pribilofs and Unalaska....

Only little remains to be told. At the Pribilof Island, St. Paul, we stopped at night, to take on four live fur seals for the Academy of Sciences of San Francisco, and there we ran once more into stormy weather. Here are a few notes from this period:

August 27. Toward evening again a gale, southwest. At night worse. Ship tossing rather wildly. No possibility to me of either getting up or resting. Barely keep from being horribly ill again.

Later in night ship had to be turned back and just drift.

August 28. All day the storm continues. I could take no meals, not even a drop of water. In bed and barely standing it. Ship hove to at last and just drifting.

August 29. Gale keeps on just as bad, howling till 1.30 a. m. Then it moderates somewhat and ship starts going again. Last night we were only 60 miles from Unalaska, now a good deal farther out. Steam, still in half a gale and big sea, until after midday, when, not without some difficulty and danger, we reach the fine little protected harbor of Unalaska. Feel weak, near worn out.

August 30, p. m. Rest, and all is well again. Secure a little rowboat and go with old Pete Brant to near-by islands. Storm over for the day and fair, though not entirely. Row, climb hills, pick berries and mushrooms, watch a bearlike semiwild pig, out whole afternoon, returning strengthened, refreshed. Only no appetite yet. Found no traces of human occupancy, but heard of some in the "Captain's Bay" and at other spots.

The few Aleuts in Unalaska at this time show physiognomies akin to the brachycephalic Indian, and not the Eskimo type.

August 31-September 1. A new gale, with drizzles. Luckily we are at a dock, but I can do little. They are cleaning the boilers and coaling. Evening of 1st have a good dinner--captain and the rest of us from the _Bear's_ cabin--at a friendly local trader, Louis Strauss, and after that give lecture on "Man's Origin, etc." Introduction by Capt. Van Buskirk, local commodore of the Revenue Cutter Service. Lecture well received, make numerous friends, get good information. Strauss's supper was the first I could eat with some taste and hunger. But the lecture did me good.

September 2. Coaling and overhauling of boilers finished. Gale stopped. Ship leaves 1 p. m. Day fairly sunny. Everyone sees us off. Harbor and hills look fine, though sky again clouded. Outside quite a swell after the gales. Pass the _Haida_, practicing with her cannon. The _Algonkin_ was here too, with the story of their visit to the Punuk Islands. The fresh green steep mountains toward the entrance of the harbor are refreshing to the eye.

Pass through Akitan. Pass picturesque, especially the outstanding isolated rocks near the islands.

Toward evening, far to the left (east), see under the clouds a glorious icy cone, the "Pogrovemoi," and later a lower but still great mountain a little farther and to the right an old but not so very old volcano. Other volcanoes there are, the captain tells me, now hidden by the low clouds.

Have a new passenger, Mr. Charles Brower, the trader of Barrow. Came from the _Brower_, ship of his own company, a little larger and faster than the _Bear_, and going also to San Francisco, but with poorer accommodations. Brings with him a box of archeological specimens from the Barter Island, in the north. Examine them, but find little of special interest.

It takes us a little less than 10 days of a fairly good journey to reach San Francisco. Dock at Oakland late in the evening. The next morning, after breakfast, the boxes and barrels with collections are taken on the dock--a big pile. Then the Santa Fe officials kindly run a flat freight car to the pile, the boxes, etc., are loaded on, the main part taken to the freight depot, the most valuable ones to express, shipped, and shortly after what remains of the expedition is on the Santa Fe Limited for Chicago. It only needs to be added that, notwithstanding the variety of receptacles and the difficulties of packing, the collections reached the Institution without damage to a single specimen. Thanks once more for the help received in making all safe to the captain and officers of the _Bear_, to Mr. Berg, the best of boatswains, to the carpenter, and to all those of the crew who assisted.

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]

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):

Anvik station and village 94
Single house 20
Single house 12
Single house 15
Tanakhothaiak 52
Single house 15
Chageluk settlements 150
Khatnotoutze 115
Kaiakak 124
Kaltag 45
Nulato, station and village 163
Koyukuk settlements 150
Terentiefs station 15
Big Mountain 100
Single house 10
Sakatalan 25
Yukokakat 6
Melozikakat 30
Mentokakat 20
Soonkakat 12
Medvednaia 15
Novo-kakat 106
Kozmas 11
Nuklukaiet 27
Rampart village 110
Fort Yukon 82

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.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] See also Petrof (Ivan), Tenth Census Rep., Wash., 1880, VIII, 37; but his transliteration of names is not always correct.

[24] This doubtless included many subadults.

[25] 31 per cent, or 1 in 3.2.

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.