Travels Among the Dena: Exploring Alaska's Yukon Valley

Travels Among the Dena: Exploring Alaska's Yukon Valley

by Frederica de Laguna
Travels Among the Dena: Exploring Alaska's Yukon Valley

Travels Among the Dena: Exploring Alaska's Yukon Valley

by Frederica de Laguna

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Overview

This robust and engaging travel narrative re-creates a remarkable adventure in the summer of 1935, when Frederica de Laguna, then in her late 20s, led a party of three other scientists down the rivers of the middle and lower Yukon valley, making a geological and archaeological reconnaissance. De Laguna has based her story on her field notes, journals, and letters home. She augments this first-hand account with excerpts from the reports of earlier explorers and data published after her trip. The result is a fascinating and informative cross-cut of historical events along the Yukon River and its tributaries.

Travels Among the Dena chronicles the expedition from its outfitting in Seattle and the trip by steamer and railway to Fairbanks and Nenana, through an 80-day journey on skiffs down the Tanana and Yukon rivers to Holy Cross near the coast, with side trips on the Koyukuk, Khotol, and Innoko rivers, before a one-day return flight to Fairbanks with pioneer bush pilot Noel Wien. Maps illustrate the route taken downriver, and the author’s photographs capture images of the time. The resulting volume is both a delightful addition to the literature of travel adventure in Alaska and an important contribution to the discipline of anthropology.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780295801056
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Publication date: 10/01/2011
Series: McLellan Endowed Series
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 368
Sales rank: 751,913
File size: 6 MB
Age Range: 18 Years

Table of Contents

List of Maps and Plans

PREFACE

A Note on Spelling Athabaskan

TO ALASKA

The Undertaking

— On the Track of the First Americans

— The Party

— Otufitting

— Meeting in Seattle

— Freight Problems

The Voyage

— The U.S. Geological Survey

— Stories About the Chandalar Kutchin

— Prince William Sound

Excurision to Fairbanks

— A Stop at Anchorage

— Matanuska Farmers

— The Alaska Range

— Fairbanks: The Campus Site and Ester Creek Placer Mine

— Hindsight

GETTING STARTED

Nenana on the Tanana River

— Our First Camp

— Building the Skiffs

The Dena and Their Neighbors

— The Early Explorers and Other Sources

— Athabaskans of the Middle and Lower Yukon Valley

—Neighboring Tribes and Distant Relatives

—The Tanana Indians in Early Reports

The Nenana Indians of 1935

— Friendly Visits

— Recording Myths and Other Lore

— A Wedding Feast and Dance

ADVENTURES ON THE LOWER TANANA

Amateur Boatment

— Last Jobs and Loading the Skiffs

— Swift Waters

— Further Adventures: an Unplanned Bath

— Titus Alexander of Baker Creek

— Telegraph and Telephone in the Wilderness

— Hot Springs Slough and Hot Baths

Harper Bend: The Murder of 1878

— Harper Bend

— Early Traders

— Schwatka's Version of the Murder

— Mercier's Version of the Murder

— McQuesten's Version of the Murder

— A Sequel to the Murder

The Mouth of the Tanana

— Nuklukayet or NukuloRoyet

— The Trading Grounds in 1867

— The End of the Trading Grounds

TANANA MISSION AND THE YUKON ABOVE

Tanana Mission and Town

— Tanana Mission

— A Little Ethnography

— A Little Archaeology

— The Yukon Above Tanana Mission

The Kutchin

— The Fort Yukon Indians, 1847-50

— The Fort Yukon Indians in 1867

Tanana Station

THE MIDDLE YUKON: TANANA MISSION TO RUBY

The Tozi

— A Vain Hunt

Trading Posts in the Tanana-Tozi Area

— Nuklukayet #3: The Old Station in the 1880s

From the Tozi to the Nowitna

— New Old Station: Mosquito Troubles

— Kalland

— The Palisades: Boneyard of the Ghosts

— The Birches: A Possible Homicide?

— Mouse Point

The Nowikakat Trading Grounds

— Zagoskin at Nowikakat, 1843

— Dall and Whymper at Nowikakat, 1867

— Nowikakat Canoes

The End of a Long Day

THE MIDDLE YUKON: RUBY TO BISHOP ROCK

Ruby

— Dago Kid Brown's Dog Ranch

— Rabbits

— The Melozi River

— Old Melozi

— Charley Knox's Mother-in-law from Nulato

Old Louden to Bishop Rock

— Fish Camps

— Old Louden

— Captain Jacobsen at Old Louden, 1882

— Big William's Camp

— The Cave-Off Cliffs

— Galena

— Bishop Rock

— Sites Near the Rock

THE KOYUKUK RIVER

Near the Mouth of the Koyukuk

— Koyukuk Station

— Ethnographic Information

— Strong Headwinds and the Young Girl's Cave

A Trip up the Koyukuk

— To Kateel

—The Site at Kateel

Early Explorations and Stories of the Koyukuk

— Zagoskin's Trip to Kateel, 1843

— Allen on the Koyukuk River, 1885

— The Wild Woman of Kateel

The Koyukuk Graveyard

— The Cemetery

— Burial Practices

Koyukuk Station to Nulato

— Terentief's Station

—The Dayton's Fish Camp

— A Visit to the Steamer

NULATO ON THE YUKON

The Modern Town

The Nulato Massacre

— The Indians Involved

— History of the Nulato Post

— Premonitions of Trouble: The Ulukuk

— Premonitions of Trouble: The Takaiaksa

— Sanctions

— The Unfortunate Lieutenant John J. Barnard, R.N.

Prelude to the Attack

— Preparations

— The Messengers to Kateel

— Reasons for the Attack

— The Role of the Shamans

The Attack

—Massacre of the Nulato Indians

— Those Who Escaped

— Attack on the Russian Post

After the Massacre

— The Relief Party

— Aftermath

Empty Coffins at Nulato

— The Death of Robert Kennicott

— About a Worm

KALTAG AND THE KHOTOL-KAIYUH, TO SHAGELUK SLOUGH

To Kaltag

— Kaltag

The Khotol River and Kaiyuh Slough

— The Kayar Region

— The Khotol River

— The Old Fish Camp

— Hrdlicka and Dixon at the Old Fish Camp

— Paul Esmailka's Place

— Above the Forks

— The Kaiyuh Country in 1865 and 1867

— Return to the Yukon

The Yukon to Shageluk Slough

— Kaltag Again

— The Yukon below Kaltag

— Stink Creek

Holikachuk Country

— Blackburn

— Black Bear River

— The Yukon below Blacburn Island

JOURNEY TO THE INNOKO RIVER

Shageluk Slough

Holikachaket

— Lucky Finds

— The Holikachuk and their Neighbors

— The Several Holikachakets

Masks and Masked Dances of Holikachaket

— The Feast or Festival of Masks

The Masks

— Individual Acts or Dances

— Related or SImilar Ceremonies

Prelude to Tragedy

Tragedy

— Airplane Crashes

— Mrs. Keating

— Death

— Cause of Death

Return to the Yukon

SHAGELUK SLOUGH TO ANVIK AND BONASILA

Anvik Rapids and Grayling

— Anvik Rapids

— Graying River

— New Grayling

— Five Dollar Bill's Place

Anvik

— Anvik Old Station and Anvik

— Reception at Anvik

— Questions of Religion

— The Anvik River

— Anvik River Site

— Anvik Point Village

— Anthropologists and Informants

— Good-bye to Anvik

Bonasila

— Old Bonasila

— The Last Camp

— New Bonasila

HOLY CROSS AND HOMEWARD BOUND

Holy Cross

— The Mission

— The Gerharts

— Plans for Going Outside

— Frank Fox's Site

— Waiting

Northern Air Transport

— Noel Wien

— Flight to Fairbanks

Fairbanks and Nenana

On the Richardson Highway

EPILOGUE

APPENDIX: Typical Specimens

SOURCES

INDEX

What People are Saying About This

Frederica de Laguna

Operating on a shoestring, for this was the height of the Depression, we launched at Nenana two skiffs of our own making and unconventional design, like the most foolhardy party that ever embarked on the great river. For the next 80 days, over a distance of 1,600 miles, we fared through what was then truly a wilderness looking for ancient archaeological sites and recording our adventures and misadventures, our many disappointments and fewer lucky finds, and above all, our rewarding contacts with the Native peoples and white settlers we met along the way.

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