YUKON-CHARLEY RIVERS Yukon Frontiers Historic Resource Study of the Proposed Yukon-Charley National River

The Han and Kutchin Indians of the Yukon-Charley area evolved a homogenous culture with tribes from surrounding areas. This culture, known as Athapaskan, numbered more than twenty-five tribes in Alaska and Canada. [1] Flexibility and accommodation characterized their ability to meet the harsh demands of the environment and allowed cultural diversification to exploit different resources. Various aspects of this culture—social organization, subsistence activity, settlement patterns, religious beliefs, and individual personality—reflected the adaptation. Differences in quantity, quality, and stability of food resources of particular interior environments produced slight differences in individual Athapaskan tribes. [2] The pronounced contrast between the interior and coastal environments, however, wrought pronounced differences between the Athapaskans and the Eskimos, Aleuts, and coastal Indians.

MAP 3 HAN TERRITORY IN EAST-CENTRAL ALASKA. From Cornelius Osgood's The Han Indians: A Compilation of Ehtnographic and Historical Data on the Alaska-Yukon Boundary, Yale University Publications in Anthropology, 74, 1971. (click on image for a PDF version)

Prior to white contact, the Han Indians exploited most of the Yukon-Charley environment. They settled primarily in three major areas along the Yukon: 1) Charley's Village near the mouth of the Kandik River, 2) Johnny's Village or David's Camp near the mouth of Mission Creek, and 3) Nuklako thirteen miles below the mouth of the Klondike River. Since extensive travel occurred, involving trade and subsistence activities, the Han villages were socially and economically linked to one another and also, though not so closely, to the neighboring Kutchin, Tanana, Upper Tanana, and Tutchone Indians. The Kutchin used the northwestern portion of the area, but not so consistently or efficiently. Thus the primary impact on the Yukon-Charley area came from the Han.

Food resources determined the size of the tribe and the placement of the villages. The larger and more stable the food supply, the larger the population. [3] Unlike the lower Yukon Athapaskans, the Han never depended solely on seasonal salmon runs for food. Instead, caribou, moose, and other animals supplemented their diet. Requiring game as well as salmon, the Han had to range over a large territory, and as a consequence their population before the white advent was small—less than one thousand. [4]

In contrast to coastal Eskimos, the Han resembled other North American Indians. They were tall, generally slender, with high cheekbones and black hair and eyes. Their apparel and ornamentation reflected the distinctive features of their environment as well as trading relationships. Both men and women wore caribou shirts decorated with porcupine quills or long hair. During the winter they added a rabbit skin shirt, moose skin mittens, marten or rabbit skin caps, and caribou skin pants tanned with the hair on and worn next to the skin. [5] For personal decoration and individual distinction, the Han coated the skin with grease followed by red ochre for the face. They wore earrings and necklaces of dentalia shell or colored porcupine quills and also straight bone ornaments through the septum of the nose. Their hairdress, probably their most obvious cultural distinction, was worn long and tied in the back of the head with liberal applications of grease, red earth, goose down, and shells. [6]

In adapting to their climatic extremes, which ranged from sixty degrees below zero in winter to ninety degrees above in summer, the Han developed three types of shelters. The ná kùn, or moss house, served as the permanent dwelling during the coldest months It was a twenty-five-foot-square pole house covered with moss and soil, and each fall two families joined to build and occupy one. The second main type of shelter, niibeeo zhoo, was an elliptical, skin-covered house used for winter travels and sometimes as a semi-permanent dwelling. For travelling in mild weather the Han used a di ty szo, which is similar to a niibeeo zhoo except that the skin was tanned without the hair and no smoke hole was left. [7]

Niibeeo Zhoo (#7), "a place of skin-houses", excavated in 1976, is the archeological remains of a niibeeo zhoo. Seven depressions, twelve by fifteen feet, remain of an early historic village, probably occupied between 1860 and 1898. Historic reports supplemented by excavation reveal that sticks three to five feet long were set upright a foot apart in the snow or earth. Sixteen to twenty previously bent and curved house poles, in this case diamond willow an inch thick and ten to twelve feet long, were set up in the snow at the ends of the house pointing towards the middle. The ends were joined with two arched poles underneath and were lashed to the side stakes. Over this stick framework went a covering of forty caribou skins tanned with the hair on and sewn together to leave a smoke hole in the center. One of the excavated houses may have been used as a sweatbath. Artifacts of Native manufacture included stone skin-scrapers and a bone skin-flesher, arrowpoint, and snowshoe netting needle. The site, located within the city limits of Eagle, could be used to interpret aboriginal and historic Han shelters, lifestyles, and cultural evolution as contrasted with modern Eagle Village

Juts' ok (#20), "summer house", may be the archeological remains of a di ty szo is similar to a niibeeo zhoo except that the skin was tanned without the hair, that no smoke hole was left, and that sometimes birch bark instead of skin was used. Once Juts' ok has been specifically located and its archeological significance evaluated, the site could be used in conjunction with Niibeeo Zhoo to interpret the differences between summer and winter subsistence and social activities.

There are no known sites of the permanent moss house, the ná kùn. (Numbers in parentheses refer to specific historic sites described more fully starting on page 233.)

The Han apparently used these temporary structures when they travelled for subsistence purposes and for trading with other Native groups. [8] They traded red ochre for the Ahtna copper knives and obtained shells and walrus-hide babich from the coast. Living on a large navigable river contributed to ease of travelling and trading. Furthermore, the Han developed a number of specialized birch-bark canoes: the flat-bottomed canoe for dipnet fishing, the thirty-foot travelling canoe, and the long, narrow, kayak-like hunting canoe. For winter travel two different types of snowshoes were developed, one for hunting and one for trail use. When the Han family travelled during the winter, however, a combination of women and dogs pulled a ten-foot sled.

Although the Han travelled extensively for subsistence purposes, a salmon diet allowed the community to reside at a central village for most of each year. [9] The Yukon River environment bountifully provided three species of salmon—king, dog, and silver. To take advantage of nature's predictable run of salmon during July, August, and September, the Han spread out in individual fish camps located at good eddies a few miles apart and not far from the central village. Here they employed specially designed fish traps, dipnets, and occasionally gill nets. Once caught and cleaned, the salmon were split lengthwise and placed on racks to dry in the sun until ready for caching.

Of the ten fish camps located in the Yukon-Charley area, Bob Stacy's Fish Camp (#11) has enough fabric remaining to interpret this aspect of the Han annual subsistence cycle. Although the the site is of recent age and not of prehistoric origin, the site has the essential pole-rack structure, approximately twenty-five by ten feet large, and numerous log-ribbed holes used as fish caches. A few benches and a table remain, adding a feeling of the transitory that is reinforced by the lack of a permanent structure. Canvas tents were probably utilized in recent times or possibly the di ty szo in earlier times. Although Bob Stacy probably used a fish wheel instead of fish traps or dipnets for procuring fish, the basic construction and purpose of the camp depict the same feeling. Moreover, the site could also interpret culture change as it evolved in historic times.

In early fall, after the salmon runs, the Han left their villages to take advantage of the fall caribou migrations. Since caribou moved in large herds, several techniques were developed to obtain as many caribou as possible for food, skins, bone, and antler. [10] Caribou fences, consisting of two long rail fences that converged into a corral, allowed a number of animals to be killed by bow and arrow or set snares. If the caribou missed the fences, the Indians themselves occasionally formed human surrounds. Whereas caribou hunting utilized large groups of people and occurred mostly in the fall, moose hunting throughout most of the year required individual stalking and killing skills. If the kill happened too far from the village or camp, the Han dried and cached the meat near the kill site and returned when more snow allowed easier shipment with sleds.

A caribou fence is reported in the middle Fortymile country and was once used by the Han.

An Indian Hunting Camp (#32) is a modern equivalent to the earlier moose-hunting expeditions. A camp site, complete with fire hearth, benches, and a table, overlooks the Yukon River. Meat drying racks are set farther back on the island. The site could not only interpret the activities involved in procuring moose, but the broad themes of cultural continuation and adaptation.

After caching the meat, the Han returned to their villages along the Yukon to make snowshoes, sleds, and winter clothing. [11] They lived on their summer's dried fish stores until December when they returned to their meat caches and retrieved their contents. When all cached food was depleted, generally in February, they split up into family groups to fish through the ice and to hunt moose, stray caribou, mountain sheep, rabbits, and grouse. In the spring they returned to their camps along the river to make canoes and nets in preparation for summer salmon fishing. At the same time, water fowl returning from the south stopped frequently at small lakes to wait for Arctic lakes and meadows to thaw. The Han, profiting from nature's cycles, subsisted on a variety of animals until the salmon runs began.

Most, if not all, of the Han institutions arose from this day-to-day struggle to subsist in an exacting environment. [12] Moreover, the changing seasonal economic relationship of the Han to their environment ordered their social organization. Although basically village oriented, they broke up several times a year to exploit the resources more efficiently. During the early fall they cooperated in communal caribou drives, but in the late winter they hunted moose and other animals individually. In the spring they joined with a partner to hunt water fowl. By summer they had separated into individual fish camps but still maintained close contact with the nearby village. Family ties, friendship, and a sense of community sharing tied them to their village.

Religious beliefs likewise reflected a close tie to the land and its animals. Animal myths and stories characterized their folklore. Shamans often derived their power from animal spirits. Individuals identified with particular animals or with certain animal characteristics. As in the social structure, most religious rituals were individualistic rather than communal. The annual King Salmon Ceremony, however, represented a culture-wide celebration. On the other hand, the potlatch, a gift giving festival in honor of a dead relative, combined the individual's desire for prestige with the group's desire for a rare social gathering. Although the potlatch emphasized the virtue of sharing one's property, it also depicted the relationship of subsistence skills and social structure to the environment. The best trapper or hunter would have the most goods to share. [13]

In addition, then, the culture emphasized the individual and his responsibility to summon his skills and energies in the quest for food for his family. Since the nuclear family represented the strongest unit in the culture, each individual played a vital role in its well-being and self-sufficiency. [14] Each avoided anything that might adversely affect his subsistence abilities. Menstruating women, for example, stayed away from the village, and hunters shunned women giving birth. Although the culture stressed self-reliance and individualism, a flexibility to depend on others and to cooperate when necessary was equally important. Thus, the rigors of the environment tempered both social and individual impulses and fused them into a unifying culture.

The impact of the environment on the evolution of the Athapaskan culture provides an Alaskan dimension of the hypothesis Frederick Jackson Turner applied to the continental frontiers of the United States. Moreover, the Indian symbolizes many of Turner's character traits of the unique American—individualistic, self-reliant, innovative, adaptive, and yet socially dependent. [15] In contrast to the frontiers that followed, however, the Athapaskans tried to maintain a harmonious relationship with their natural environment. With the arrival of the white man and his goods, skills, and institutions, this relationship changed radically.