FIELDIANA
Anthropology
Published by Field Museum of Natural History
VOLUME 61
HISTORIC SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
IN THE NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION,
ALASKA
JAMES W. VANSTONE
Curator, North American Archaeology and Ethnology
FEBRUARY 25, 1971
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY
A Continuation of the
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SERIES
of
FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
VOLUME 61
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/.S NATURAL Y*\
!"> HISTORY >\
FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
CHICAGO, U.S.A.
HISTORIC SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
IN THE NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION, ALASKA
FIELDIANA
Anthropology
Published by Field Museum of Natural History
VOLUME 61
HISTORIC SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
IN THE NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION,
ALASKA
JAMES W. VANSTONE
Curator, North American Archaeology and Ethnology
FEBRUARY 25, 1971
PUBLICATION 1120
PATRICIA M. WILLIAMS
Managing Editor, Scientific Publications
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-H.8857
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS
Contents
PAGE
List of Illustrations 5
Acknowledgements 7
Preface 9
Introduction
Settlement pattern studies 13
The Nushagak River and its inhabitants 16
Methodology 22
I. Village Sites on the Nuyakuk and Upper Nushagak Rivers
Introduction 27
Site descriptions 29
II. Village Sites on the Middle and Lower Nushagak River
Introduction 46
Site descriptions 48
III. Settlements on the Lower Mulchatna River
Introduction 66
Site descriptions 69
IV. Village Sites on Nushagak Bay
Introduction 72
Site descriptions 74
V. Settlements along the Wood River
Introduction 103
Site descriptions 103
VI. Settlements on the Wood River Lakes and Tikchik Lakes
Introduction Ill
Site descriptions 112
VII. Analysis and Conclusions
Settlement typology 120
Prehistory in the Nushagak River region 122
Distribution of settlements 126
Houses and community patterns 129
Changing settlement patterns 133
Settlement pattern determinants — a summary 143
References 146
List of Illustrations
TEXT FIGURES
PAGE
1. Map of Alaska 10
2. Map of the Nushagak River region 12
3. Map of the Nuyakuk, lower Mulchatna, and upper Nushagak rivers. . 28
4. Dil-4 Old Koliganek 31
5. Sketch map of Dil-4 Old Koliganek. Not to scale 32
6. Dil-6 Akokpak 34
7. Sketch map of Dil-6 Akokpak. Not to scale 35
8. Dil-7 Nunachuak 37
9. Sketch map of Dil-7 Nunachuak. Not to scale 37
10. Church at Nunachuak 38
11. Sketch map of Dil-8 Elilakok. Not to scale 39
12. Dil-10 Tunravik 41
13. Sketch map of Dil-10 Tunravik. Not to scale 42
14. Sketch map of Dil-11 Agivavik. Not to scale 43
15. Map of the middle and lower Nushagak River 47
16. Dil-13 Akulivikchuk 48
17. Map of Dil-13 Akulivikchuk 49
18. Dil-16 Kokwok 53
19. Sketch map of Dil-16 Kokwok. Not to scale 53
20. Dil-17 (Kauktun) 55
21. Sketch map of Dil-17 (Kauktun) 56
22. Dil-18 (Nautauagavik) 57
23. Dil-19 Greek Church or Grant's Village 58
24. Sketch map of Dil-19 Greek Church or Grant's Village. Not to scale . 59
25. Dil-20 (Chaiwaiyaguk) 60
26. Dil-21 61
27. Sketch map of Nak-1 (Konogoluk). Not to scale 62
28. Sketch map of NB-2 (Aouguluk). Not to scale 63
29. Sketch map of NB-3 (Nunauwalik). Not to scale 64
30. Fassett's map of Nushagak Bay (redrawn) 73
31. Cannery of the Arctic Packing Company at Kanulik 77
32. Moravian mission buildings at Carmel 79
5
6 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
33. Sketch map of NB-11 Ekuk. Not to scale 87
34. Sketch map of NB-18 Tuchuktovik. Not to scale 93
35. Sketch map of NB-20 Kanakanak. Not to scale 95
36. Sketch map of Dll-26. Not to scale 105
37. Sketch map of Dil-29 Vuktuli. Not to scale 107
38. Sketch map of Dil-30 (Kaokliok). Not to scale 109
39. Map of the Tikchik Lakes and Wood River Lakes 113
40. Map of Dil-40 Tikchik 118
41. Settlement chronology on the Nuyakuk and Nushagak rivers 134
42. Settlement chronology on Nushagak Bay 137
43. Settlement chronology on the Wood River 139
44. Settlement chronology on the Wood River Lakes and Tikchik Lakes 141
Acknowledgements
The five seasons of field work on which this study is based were
supported financially by various institutions. In 1964 and 1965
research funds were obtained from the Canada Council, the Uni-
versity of Toronto, and the National Museum of Canada. I am
grateful to Drs. David J. Damas and A. D. DeBlois, both formerly
of the latter institution, for their assistance and encouragement.
In 1967 I received a grant (H67-0-51) from the National Foundation
for the Humanities for archaeological excavations along the Nu-
shagak River and settlement pattern data was collected as an
adjunct to this work. During the summer of 1969 additional
archaeological investigations were conducted and the collection of
settlement pattern data completed with financial support from the
Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
In the field the following individuals were particularly helpful
in contributing time and effort toward the assemblage of the histori-
cal and ethnographic data in this study: Mr. and Mrs. Charles
Lucier and Mrs. H. P. Nicholson of Anchorage; Mr. and Mrs. C. J.
Stovall, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Andree, Mr. and Mrs. Joe McGill,
Mr. John Nelson, Mr. Peter Nelson, Mr. Charles Franklin, and
Mr. Elmer L. Smith of Dillingham; Mr. Paul Romie, Mr. William
Hurley, Mr. Fred Hurley, Mr. William Nelson, Mr. Wasily Nikolai
and Mr. Luki Aleklok of Ekwok; Mr. and Mrs. John Dull, Jr. of
New Stuyahok and Mr. A. Backford of Nushagak; Mr. Ivan
Ishnook, Mr. Blunka Ishnook, Mr. Charles Nelson, Mr. Antoine
Johnson, and Mr. Nikolai Tungiung of New Koliganek; also Mr.
and Mrs. Maurice Miller, former Bureau of Indian Affairs teachers
in that village.
Air transportation which enabled me to visit sites in the Tikchik
Lakes and Wood River Lakes area in 1966 was provided by Mr.
Leon R. Alsworth of Port Alsworth on Lake Clark. Father Vsevolod
Rochcau, formerly of Dillingham, took an active interest in the
research and helped me make valuable contacts with informants in
that community. Dr. Donald J. Orth, United States Geological
7
8 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Survey, provided me with a copy of the Fassett manuscript map
that figures so prominently in the pages that follow. The text
figures and maps were drawn by Miss Kathleen Kuhlman of Field
Museum of Natural History.
For critical comments on an early draft of this study I am grate-
ful to Drs. Wendell H. Oswalt, University of California, Los Angeles,
and Don E. Dumond, University of Oregon. My wife, Mary
Helms VanStone, read the manuscript and her useful suggestions
have greatly enhanced the final presentation; it is with gratitude
that I acknowledge her valuable assistance and encouragement.
Preface
The purposes of this study are threefold: 1) to describe a series
of historic archaeological sites in the Nushagak River region of
southwestern Alaska with reference to their geographical and
chronological position; 2) to reconstruct changing settlement pat-
terns in the area during the nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
turies; 3) to assess the factors responsible for changing settlement
patterns, and to suggest the manner in which cultural institutions
are reflected in settlement configurations. The specific methodology
on which this study is based will be discussed in detail in the intro-
duction, but it is necessary at this point to say something concerning
the Nushagak research program and its results up to the present time.
Field work was begun in the summer of 1964 with an archaeologi-
cal survey of Nushagak Bay, the Nushagak River, and three of
its major tributaries, the Wood, Nuyakuk, and lower Mulchatna
rivers (figs. 1, 2). Forty-five former settlements belonging to the
period of historic contact were located and many of them mapped.
In addition, considerable ethnographic information was obtained
from residents in the present-day villages of the area. On the
basis of the survey, the Tikchik site (Dil-40), a nineteenth-century
settlement at the mouth of the Tikchik River, was selected for
extensive excavation during the summer of 1965. During that
summer, it was also possible to obtain additional ethnographic
data, primarily at the village of New Koliganek on the Nushagak
just below the mouth of the Nuyakuk River.
Much of the 1966 field season was spent in the Lake Clark area
north and east of the Nushagak, but toward the end of the summer
it was possible to extend the archaeological survey of the Nushagak
region so as to include the Tikchik Lakes and Wood River Lakes
west of the river (fig. 2). In 1967 archaeological excavations were
undertaken at Akulivikchuk (Dil-13) near the present-day village
of Ekwok (Dil-12). It was also possible to examine for a second
time many sites along the middle Nushagak and the lower Mulchatna
rivers as well as on Nushagak Bay. As a result of these second visits,
much new data were obtained and some new sites discovered.
10
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 11
A final field season in the Nushagak River region took place
during the summer of 1969. At that time test excavations were
made at the Nushagak site (NB-8) on the bay opposite Dillingham
and additional information concerning sites on both sides of
Nushagak Bay was obtained from Eskimo informants.
As a result of these five field seasons, there is now more or less
complete information on 64 historic sites in the Nushagak River
region. This number seems sufficient to allow for the preparation
of a detailed report on nineteenth and early twentieth century
settlement patterns throughout the river system.
The present study should be considered as one of a series of
publications dealing with the culture of the Nushagak River Eskimos
during the historic period. Earlier reports in the series include a
monograph on the ethnohistory of the region (VanStone, 1967), an
annotated ethnohistorical bibliography which embodies the histori-
cal research carried out in conjunction with the field work (VanStone,
1968a), and ethnoarchaeological studies of Tikchik (VanStone,
1968b) and Akulivikchuk (VanStone, 1970). The final report in
the series will deal with the village and trading post at Nushagak
utilizing historical, ethnographic, and archaeological data.
Nushagak Hills
Cape Constantine
100 Bristol Bay
Fig. 2. Map of the Nushagak River region.
12
Introduction
Settlement Pattern Studies
The first archaeologist to make substantial use of the concept of
settlement patterns was Gordon Willey. He has defined the concept
as the way in which man disposed himself over the landscape on
which he lived. It refers to the dwellings, to their arrangement,
and to the nature and disposition of other buildings pertaining to
community life. These settlements reflect the natural environment,
the level of technology on which the builders operated, and various
institutions of social interaction and control which the culture main-
tained (1953, p. 1).
Chang (1958) has refined this definition by distinguishing between
those spatial aspects of settlements which result from cultural
ecology and those which are related to social interaction. For the
first he has proposed use of the term settlement pattern: "the manner
in which human settlements are arranged over the landscape in
relation to physiographic environment," and for the second the
term community pattern: "the manner in which the inhabitants
arrange their various structures within the communities and their
communities within the aggregate" (1958, p. 299).
It is clear from the above definitions that in investigating
settlement patterns in the broadest sense, the units of settlements
can be grouped into three categories: 1) the individual structure;
2) the layout of the individual settlement; and 3) the pattern in
which individual settlements belonging to the same culture are
distributed geographically. Data to be presented in the chapters
that follow will focus on these categories. Primary concern will
be with those factors that, during the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, determined settlement and community patterns in the
Nushagak River region.
Special attention has been paid to the determinants of settle-
ment patterns in two recent studies by Trigger (1965, 1968). It
seems worthwhile to summarize some of the major determinants he
mentions, particularly those that would appear to be applicable
in a hunting and gathering context. Trigger (1968, p. 53) defines
settlement pattern determinants as "those classes of factors that
13
14 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
interact with each other to produce the spatial configurations of a
social group." With reference to individual structures, he notes
that they are, quite naturally, determined by the subsistence
technology and environment, specifically the building skills and
materials available to the builders. The size and internal arrange-
ment of individual buildings can also reflect various social institu-
tions but most particularly, perhaps, the social organization.
Concerning the layout of the individual settlement, Trigger
notes that the size and stability of such communities is limited by
the environment and the effectiveness of the subsistence technology.
Everything else being equal, people will naturally choose to live in
places where food and water can be obtained easily and which are
safe and comfortable. Here too, however, social factors are sig-
nificant and settlements frequently reflect the importance of religion,
the political system, and social organization.
With reference to zonal patterning of settlements it is clear
that the distribution of population within any region is going to be
determined in large measure by the nature and availability of
natural resources. Trigger points out, however, that as contiguous
regions become more interdependent, zonal patterning is increasingly
modified by economic factors that are more complex than simply
those related to subsistence. This will be obvious in the Nushagak
River region where trade played an increasingly important role in
the establishment of new communities, the growth of some and the
decline of others. The overall distribution of settlements in any
area is also affected by such significant aspects of culture as political
organization, warfare, and religion. In the concluding chapter
some consideration will be given to the manner in which the latter
operated as a determinant in the Nushagak River region. Similarly,
such dynamic factors as migration and population change due to
epidemics have played an important role in many areas of the
world and at many time periods.
The significance and applicability of specific determinants of
settlement patterns in the Nushagak River region can be more
profitably discussed after achieving familiarity with the patterning
of the region. Here it is desirable simply to present briefly the
framework into which the data will eventually be placed and to
stress that the settlement pattern, whether of communities or
involving the distribution of communities, is ". . . the outcome of
an adjustment which the society makes to a series of determinants
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 15
that vary in importance and in terms of the demands they make
upon the society" (Trigger, 1965, p. 6).
In addition to those mentioned, there have been a large number
of studies in recent years which have dealt in one way or another
with the concept of settlement patterns. Those that deal with
settlement and community patterns in hunting and gathering
societies are not numerous, but they are useful because they fre-
quently concern areas that resemble closely both the cultural and
ecological circumstances in the Nushagak River region. In one
such study Chang (1962) developed a typology that he considered
applicable to circumpolar societies. In so doing he noted that if the
annual cycle of subsistence activities requires movement to a num-
ber of different locales at different seasons of the year, then the
total region within which the seasonal cycle is completed can be
called the annual subsistence region. If the ecological potential
of the annual subsistence region is such that it can be occupied
continuously over a long period of time, then the settlements
within it are called sedentary seasonal settlements. These can be of
two types; those which remain not only within the annual sub-
sistence region, but at a permanent locale are called sedentary sea-
sonal settlements with permanent bases, and those remaining within
the limits of the annual subsistence region, but moving to a different
locale after several years occupancy are called sedentary seasonal
settlements with transient bases (Chang, 1962, pp. 29-30). It will
be clear in the chapters to follow that settlements of both types
occur in the Nushagak River region.
Another socio-cultural classification applicable to the Nushagak
area but given little attention by recent students of settlement pat-
terns is that of Beardsley et al. (1956). The authors of this typology
are particularly concerned with community patterns which are de-
fined as the "organization of economic, socio-political, and cere-
monial inter-relations within a community" (1956, pp. 133-134).
They then proceed to formulate seven primary types of community
patterning among non-herding peoples, one of which, the Central-
Based Wandering type, is applicable to the area under discussion.
For Beardsley and his colleagues, the Central-Based Wandering
community is one "that spends part of each year wandering and
the rest at a settlement or 'central base,' to which it may or may not
consistently return in subsequent years" (1956, p. 138). This
type of community patterning is a form of compromise between
wandering and sedentary life and is possible in some areas where
16 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
wild foods are unusually abundant and can be converted to stor-
agable surpluses. Such communities are further characterized by
socio-cultural cohesion during the sedentary aspect and breaking
into smaller segments or even nuclear families during the wandering
phase. These smaller segments are economically self-sufficient at
such times. During the sedentary phase the community functions
in a manner that is comparable to more sedentary peoples, while
during its wandering phase, the subsistence activities of the people
parallel those of another of the primary types of community pat-
terning, the Restricted Wanderers. That is, they take advantage
of seasonally available wild foods (1956, p. 138).
Both the Chang and Beardsley classifications are clearly relevant
to the present study, although a certain amount of confusion results
from the fact that the authors have given different meanings to the
term community pattern. In Chapter VII the extent to which
settlement pattern data from the Nushagak River region can be
interpreted in terms of the work of these students will be considered.
The Chang and Beardsley classifications, as well as the work of
Trigger, Willey, and others, have relevance for ethnographic as
well as archaeological data. The fact is, however, that most students
of settlement patterns have operated within a framework of pre-
history. This study, on the other hand, will deal with problems
resulting from historic contact. Therefore, the determinants of
settlement patterns will, for the most part, be specific historical
circumstances and changes will be seen to have come about as a
result of shifts in these circumstances. Although the bulk of this
study consists of a series of descriptions of archaeological sites, it is
ethnographic and especially historical data that will be vital to the
interpretations. The prehistoric archaeologist who studies settle-
ment patterns is sometimes able to infer something specific about
related aspects of society concerning which there are few data in the
archaeological record. The ethnohistorian, on the other hand,
knowing certain ethnographic and historical facts about his area of
interest, can understand some aspects of their significance by
studying the manner in which they are reflected in the settlement
configuration.
The Nushagak River and Its Inhabitants
The Nushagak River, the main topographic feature in the
region with which this study is concerned, rises in the Nushagak
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 17
Hills at latitude 60° 35' N, longitude 156° 06' W and flows south-
west 387 km. to the head of Nushagak Bay at Grassy Island. A
tributary of the Nushagak, the Nuyakuk River, drains the six
northern Tikchik Lakes to the west. The four lakes immediately
to the south of them are drained by the Wood River which flows
into Nushagak Bay. These are called the Wood River Lakes.
Also included in the area under consideration are the lower reaches
of the Mulchatna River, the only significant eastern tributary of
the Nushagak. Not included, however, is the Nushagak above
the mouth of the Nuyakuk since virtually no historic settlements
have been reported in this area.
For the purposes of this study, the Nushagak River is divided
into three sections; upper, middle, and lower.1 The upper river is
the area between the mouths of the Nuyakuk and Mulchatna. The
middle river extends from the Mulchatna to the mouth of the
Kokwok. From that point to the mouth of the Nushagak is con-
sidered to be the lower river (fig. 2). Further details concerning
the geography of this extensive region and contiguous areas will be
presented in the chapters that follow.
The precipitation which falls in the Nushagak River region is
light when compared with the heavy rainfall areas of southeastern
Alaska, but it is more than twice as great as that in the upper Yukon
valley and neighboring areas of the interior. At Dillingham the
mean annual rainfall is about 26 in. and the snowfall about 65 in.
Summer weather in general is cool and damp, but there may be
periods of warm weather similar to those which characterize interior
Alaska. The summer season is somewhat longer than that of the
interior, however, and it is seldom that frost occurs after June 1
or before September 1. The greatest extremes of temperature
recorded at Dillingham and Nushagak from 1881 to 1919 were 80
and —54. During the summers of 1964-1967 and 1969 there were
frequent dry and warm intervals, particularly in late June and early
July, when the temperatures were in the high 70's.
The vegetation of the area reflects these warm, wet summers.
Spruce, poplar, and birch are the most common trees with heavy
growths of willows and alder bushes occurring along stream courses
and in marshy depressions. The foreland facing on Nushagak Bay
is, in general, timberless and open areas throughout the region are
characterized by a heavy growth of tall grass.
1 Most of this section on the Nushagak River and its inhabitants has been
summarized from VanStone, 1967, pt. 1.
18 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
The larger land animals native to the Nushagak region are the
moose (Alces dices), caribou (Rangifer arcticus), black bear (Ursus
americanus), and brown bear (Ursus arctos), but none of these
appear to be plentiful. Moose are said to be scarce in the region
of the Wood River Lakes, but are common around the Tikchik
Lakes and along the Nushagak River. Superficial observations
made during air surveys in 1964 and 1965 indicated moose to be
relatively plentiful in the broad lowland extending west of the
Nushagak and along the Nuyakuk and Mulchatna rivers. Black
and brown bears, particularly the latter, were also seen frequently
in these areas. In Nushagak Bay several varieties of seals and
beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) are plentiful.
The more common smaller animals are the beaver (Castor
canadensis), mink (Mustela vison), lynx (Lynx canadensis), fox
(Volpus fulva and Alopex lagopus), porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum),
river otter (Lutra canadensis), and muskrat (Ondatra zibethica),
but only the beaver, fox, and mink are of much importance today
as a source of commercial fur. Geese and ducks nest in the region
and a variety of other birds may also be seen. The Lakes area
affords ideal spawning grounds for the various varieties of salmon
and Nushagak Bay, along with the other arms of Bristol Bay, has
become the greatest red salmon fishing grounds in the world. The
growth and development of this commercial fishing industry has
had a profound effect on the human population of the region and
will be dealt with in this study as a major settlement pattern de-
terminant. The lakes and rivers of the area are also the habitat of
Dolly Varden (Salvelinus fontinalis), rainbow (Salmo gairdnerii),
and lake (Cristivomer namaycush) trout. These, together with
whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) , provide important sources of
food for the Eskimos.
Throughout its recorded history the Nushagak River region
was occupied by Yupik speakers of the Western Eskimo language
stock. This dialect was spoken in all the villages along the Alaskan
coast from the vicinity of Nome south to Bristol Bay and the
western end of Iliamna Lake. The inland range of Yupik speakers
was to the village of Paimiut on the Yukon River and the vicinity
of Aniak on the Kuskokwim River (fig. 1). The cultural center
of Yupik-speaking peoples was along the central Bering Sea coast
and in this area the Eskimos were oriented toward a maritime
economy in which the seal was the most important food animal.
On the adjacent tundra caribou were hunted and fishing for salmon
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 19
was a significant seasonal activity at the mouths of rivers and in
certain bays.
The Yupik penetration of the Nushagak River system took
place at some unknown time during the prehistoric period when
the people presumably moved inland from the Bering Sea coast.
It seems certain that at the time of this inland penetration, the
Eskimos already possessed a well-developed salmon fishing tech-
nology and were thus able to exploit effectively an inland environ-
ment like that along the Nushagak River and its tributaries where
these fish are abundant.
The problem of accurately identifying the sub-cultural affiliation
of those Eskimos in the Nushagak River region is considerably more
difficult than determining linguistic affiliation. This is partly be-
cause of conflicting statements made by nineteenth-century ob-
servers, but mostly because the present-day picture has been
complicated by the infiltration into the region of Eskimos from
other areas. This population movement has been going on at
least since the beginning of the historic period and probably longer.
A consensus of the sources and informants' statements, however,
make a basic distinction between the coastal Eskimo in the Nushagak
Bay area and those who lived along the river itself.
Nushagak Bay was inhabited by the Aglegmiut whose territory
has been noted in a previous publication as including most of the
Alaska Peninsula to the southwest as far as Port Moller and to the
northeast up to and including the western two-thirds of Iliamna
Lake (VanStone, 1967, p. xxi). Recent research by Don E. Dumond
(personal communication) in the vital statistics of the Alaska
Russian Church Archives, however, suggests that the Aglegmiut
may not have extended to the south as far as Ugashik, nor much
beyond the Naknek River to the north.
The Nushagak River Eskimos have the ethnic name of Kia-
tagmiut. This sub-group of Yupik speakers occupied, at the time of
historic contact, the entire Nushagak River, the lower Mulchatna
River, and the area to the west possibly as far as and including the
Wood River Lakes and Tikchik Lakes. Dumond's research sug-
gests that the Kiatagmiut also occupied the upper Kvichak River
and probably the lower end of Iliamna Lake.
Although the territory of the Aglegmiut had an estimated
population of 1900 at the beginning of the historic period, it is
probable that no more than 500 persons lived around the shores
20 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
of Nushagak Bay. The closest neighbors of the Aglegmiut were
the "Peninsular Eskimos" to the south and east (Oswalt, 1967,
map 2) and the Kiatagmiut to the north and northeast. The
Kiatagmiut, with a population of approximately 400, shared bound-
aries with the Togiagamiut of the Togiak River, the Kuskowagamiut
of the Kuskokwim River, the Aglegmiut, and the Tanaina Indians.
Considering the diversity of ethnic boundaries in southwestern
Alaska, it is not surprising that these boundaries became blurred
as a result of the fur trade, epidemics of introduced European
diseases, the establishment of missions, and particularly the emer-
gence of an important commercial salmon fishery in Bristol Bay.
Nevertheless, it is significant that many Eskimos resident in the
area today recognize the Aglegmiut-Kiatagmiut distinction as having
both a linguistic and cultural basis, even though a slight one.
Ethnohistoric sources .indicate that the nineteenth-century Kia-
tagmiut spent the winter months in permanent villages along the
river and in the spring moved to temporary camps along streams
or lakes in the mountainous country of the interior. There they
engaged in hunting and trapping, returning to the river in early
summer to fish for salmon. In the latter part of the summer when
the fish runs were nearly over the men alone moved to the interior
leaving the women to watch over the full fish caches. Interior
hunting and trapping continued until the first snowfall in October
at which time the men would return once more to the winter villages.
There are indications, however, that this pattern was modified to
some extent in the direction of greater permanence of residence at
villages deep in the interior away from the Nushagak River. It
should also be mentioned that the residents of most villages made
at least one trip a year to Nushagak Bay to visit the trading post
and trade with the Aglegmiut for coastal products. Like the Kiatag-
miut, the Aglegmiut of the early historic period were apparently
strongly inland oriented, making lengthy spring and fall hunting and
trapping trips into the interior. Although they hunted seals and
exploited to a limited extent the more varied environment of their
area, there are indications that sea mammal hunting was not as
well developed among those residents of the settlements around the
shores of Nushagak Bay as among other groups of coastal Eskimos
to the north.
The Nushagak region is closely tied in with the first well-
documented contact between Yupik-speaking peoples and Euro-
peans. In 1818 a party of Russian-American Company employees
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 21
was sent from Kodiak Island to explore the territory north of
Bristol Bay. During these explorations a trading post, Aleksandrov-
ski Redoubt, was established at the mouth of the Nushagak River.
It was the first Company post north of the Alaska Peninsula. Using
the Redoubt as a base of operations, Ivan Filipovich Vasiliev ex-
plored the Nushagak River for the Company in 1829 and 1830.
In 1830 he crossed over into the Kuskokwim drainage and descended
that river to the coast. These explorations resulted in the con-
struction of a series of trading stations at various points along the
middle Kuskokwim culminating, in 1841, with the construction of
Kolmakovski Redoubt opposite the mouth of the Kwik River
about 16 km. above Aniak. This station remained an important
trading center until abandoned by the Russian- American Company
in 1866.
The explorations of Bristol Bay and the Nushagak River by
Vasiliev and other Company employees, together with the founding
of Aleksandrovski Redoubt, later to be called Nushagak by Anglo-
Americans, were responsible for opening the interior regions of
southwestern Alaska to the fur trade. Kolmakovski Redoubt
continued to be supplied from Aleksandrovski until 1845, and the
route up the Nushagak to its upper tributaries, across the divide
and down the Holitna or Hoholitna to the Kuskokwim became
heavily traveled with supplies going upriver into the Kuskokwim
region and furs proceeding in the opposite direction.
In 1841 the first Russian Orthodox church north of the Alaska
Peninsula was established at Aleksandrovski Redoubt and mis-
sionaries began to penetrate the Nushagak River country. How-
ever, they were seldom able to visit the villages in this vast area
more than twice a year and it is likely that the residents of these
villages were, at best, but marginal participants in the newly
introduced faith. Nevertheless, the establishment of the church
at Aleksandrovski and the construction of chapels at certain interior
villages played an important role in changing settlement patterns.
For a long time after the transfer of Alaska from Russia to the
United States in 1867, no attempt was made to explore the Nush-
agak region. At the end of the nineteenth century the inland area
north of Bristol Bay remained comparatively unknown although
it continued to be penetrated by missionaries, occasional trappers,
and traders. The assets of the Russian-American Company were
purchased by Hutchinson, Kohl & Co. of San Francisco. This
firm was soon reorganized to form the Alaska Commercial Company
22 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
which continued to maintain the post at Nushagak and dominated
trade in southwestern Alaska throughout the rest of the nineteenth
century and well into the twentieth. The Russian Orthodox Church
continued to send priests into the interior and was the major religious
influence in the area as it is at the present time. The Moravian
Church established a mission and school called Carmel at the village
of Kanulik (NB-7) near Nushagak in 1886 but its influence was
never great even though two chapels were built on the middle
Nushagak River. The mission was abandoned in 1905.
Of far greater significance for the acculturation of all the peoples
of the Nushagak River region than either Christianity or the fur
trade was the commercial salmon fishing industry that began to
develop in Bristol Bay during the 1880's. The earliest fishing in
Nushagak Bay by Euro-Americans was for salting purposes, but
it was the invention of the canning process that provided a means
by which the Alaska salmon runs could be more fully utilized.
Between 1883 and 1903 ten canneries were constructed at various
points on Nushagak Bay. In the beginning most of the fishing was
done by Euro-Americans while a cannery work force was provided
by imported Chinese laborers. Large numbers of Eskimos were
attracted to Nushagak Bay during the fishing seasons, however,
and gradually some were able to obtain employment in the can-
neries in spite of considerable prejudice against them and their
abilities as workers. Nevertheless, it was not until after World
War II that Eskimos participated fully in the industry. The
commercial fishery was responsible for bringing about major seasonal
fluctuations of population which brought Eskimos from even the
remotest villages to the area and into direct contact with many
different races and nationalities.
Methodology
Methodologically, the research on which this study is based
involved three techniques: 1) archaeological survey; 2) ethnography;
and 3) historical investigations. Of these perhaps the most im-
portant, and certainly the most difficult, was the archaeological
survey. As noted in the preface, a total of 64 sites are reported
on in the following pages. Nearly all of these were visited either
by boat or, for sites in the more remote areas, by aircraft. Nine,
specifically noted in the individual site descriptions, were seen only
from the air and five were not seen at all, but only reported to me
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 23
by informants, there being no opportunity to either visit or observe
them.
All the sites along the river, its tributaries, and Nushagak Bay
conformed to the same general pattern. The river sites were, in
all but a few cases, located directly along the present riverbank
and all, again with one or two exceptions, were easily visible as
cleared areas covered with a thick growth of very tall grass. The
individual house pits were deep, quite distinct, and thus easily
identifiable. What difficulty there was in identifying and accurately
counting the structures was due to the tall grass and not to the
shallow indistinctness that would likely be characteristic of houses
of great age. The absence of sizeable midden deposits was also
characteristic. This fact was particularly easy to ascertain at the
coastal sites because in most locations the bank cutting was as a re-
sult of wave and ice action.
As may be imagined, the observation and enumeration of
archaeological sites over such a large, relatively remote area as the
Nushagak River region was hampered at times by logistic difficulties.
Such factors as the weather and the availability of transportation
played a regrettably large role in determining the amount of at-
tention that could be given to any one site in the area. Naturally
enough, those village sites on the Nushagak River itself were most
accessible and nearly all of them were visited at least twice. On the
other hand, sites in the lakes area could be reached only by plane
and visits to these were of very short duration. More detailed
information concerning difficulties encountered during the survey
and the differential attention given to specific sites will be found
in the chapters dealing with the various sub-divisions of the
Nushagak River region. It is sufficient to note here that the length
of time spent at each site, except for those where extensive excava-
tions were undertaken, varied from an entire day to less than 15
minutes.
The task of discovering and collecting information concerning
historic settlements was made much easier by the willingness of
Eskimos and white long-time residents of the area to provide the
names and locations of sites known to them as well as, in some
cases, considerable supplementary information concerning such
important data as span of occupation and reasons for abandonment.
At the time the field research was begun in the summer of 1964
there were four villages on the Nushagak River; Ekwok in the
middle river region about 70 km. northeast of Dillingham, New
24 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Stuyahok in the same general area, New Koliganek near the mouth
of the Nuyakuk River, and Portage Creek, established in 1963, on
the lower river about 50 km. upstream from Dillingham (fig. 2). In
the case of Ekwok and New Koliganek, many residents are descend-
ants of Eskimos who, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, either lived in the present villages or in abandoned settle-
ments nearby. Thus residents of New Koliganek could be counted
upon to provide information about settlements on the upper
Nushagak and Nuyakuk rivers as well as on some sites in the Lakes
area to the west. Residents of Ekwok were particularly knowl-
edgeable concerning sites along the heavily populated middle river.
A sizeable number of the older inhabitants of New Stuyahok
had lived on the lower Mulchatna River during their youth and thus
provided valuable information concerning movements of people
in that now totally abandoned area. Most families in the new
village of Portage Creek are from New Koliganek and Dillingham.
Residents of Dillingham, the cosmopolitan commercial center at
the head of Nushagak Bay, were helpful in locating sites in that
area. Many of the older coastal Eskimos living in Dillingham had
never been more than a few kilometers up the Nushagak River
but were familiar with the Wood River and those lakes which drain
into it.
Although a large number of Eskimos from all villages of the
area were helpful, the most profitable interviews were with a group
of about 10 elderly men and women whose memories were remark-
ably accurate for the years between about 1900 and 1930, a period
of intensive change in the area. Some of these informants exhibited
considerable historical interest and provided valuable information
that had obviously been passed on to them in their youth by older
relatives. This kind of information was frequently obtained in
response to the mention of settlement names which I had learned
from my studies of historical sources. These names apparently
served to activate the informants' memories as did some names
which they were shown on United States Geological Survey quad-
rangle maps of the area.
The historical source materials utilized in this study were not
only valuable in providing significant information about past settle-
ments in the area, but also gave me a certain expertise that was
useful in a variety of field situations. Elderly informants were
intrigued and flattered by my knowledge of the past and, as noted
above, their memories were successfully jogged to very real ad-
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 25
vantage. As a result of historical studies made prior to the field
work, therefore, it was fairly easy to establish a role as an interested
and informed student of Eskimo culture who desired to add to his
knowledge on selected topics about which he already knew enough
to ask intelligent questions and pursue promising lines of inquiry.
Subjects of interest to me could be discussed on a level that did not
bore the informants and, most important of all, those who could not
help were interested enough to suggest the names of those who could.
With reference to the historical sources themselves, both pub-
lished and archival, little need be said at this point as all are listed
in the bibliography of this study and also, with annotations, in a
previously published bibliographic study of the Nushagak region
(VanStone, 1968a). There is, however, one important source
utilized for the names and locations of settlements that requires
additional explanation. That is a manuscript map of the Nushagak
River, its tributaries and Nushagak Bay drawn in 1910 by Henry
Clifford Fassett of the United States Bureau of Fisheries. Fassett
visited Nushagak Bay and presumably compiled the information
on which his map is based while serving on the United States Fish
Commission steamer Albatross in 1900-1901 (Orth, 1967, p. 13).
The original map apparently came into the possession of the United
States Geological Survey and was used by them in the 1920's.
Since then, however, it has either been lost or possibly returned to
unknown owners. A tracing of the original map was made in 1911
by "J.H.R." and a blueprint copy is now in the library of the
U.S.G.S. in Washington, D.C. In the opinion of U.S.G.S. personnel,
the 1911 tracing is an accurate copy of the original.
In the chapters to follow the procedure will be to describe the
various archaeological sites of the historic period as determined
during the surveys mentioned in the preface. Evidence will be
presented concerning the length of occupancy and the population
of these settlements. Whenever possible an attempt will be made
to relate a given site to those around it. Where populations cannot
be determined directly from references in historical sources, an
estimate will be used based on information in the eleventh federal
census. This important source contains a table which gives the
population and number of dwellings in villages of the Nushagak
census district (Porter, 1893, p. 164). From this list of settlements
occupied in 1890, only some of which can be identified with cer-
tainty, eight from the Nushagak River and Nushagak Bay have
village
population
Agivavik
30
Akakhpuk (Akokpak)
9
Akgulurigiglak (Akulivikchuk)
61
Kakwok (Kokwok)
45
Kanakanak
53
Kanulik
54
Nushagak
268
Yekuk (Ekuk)
65
Total
585
26 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
been selected and the figures added and divided to give the average
number of residents per house.
The villages listed below were chosen for the following reasons:
1) they can be readily identified; 2) all are in the region encompassed
by this study; 3) all can definitely be said to have been occupied
primarily by Eskimos and, at the time the census material was
collected, were subject to a minimum of influences that would have
strongly affected the population.
houses
2
1
5
3
5
7
25
6
54
It will be noted that these figures yield an average of a little more
than 10 persons per house. This figure may be on the low side but,
in the absence of more definite information, it will serve for the
purpose of estimating population where no direct evidence is
available.
In conclusion it is necessary to say something concerning the
site designation system used in this study, a system which utilizes
the 1:250,000 U.S.G.S. topographic quadrangle as an areal base
equivalent to the county in other states (Hadleigh-West, 1967, pp.
107-108). Under this system quadrangle names are abbreviated
and joined with the prefix "49" to form a trinomial that is similar
to the system employed by the Smithsonian Institution. The area
encompassed by this study involves four quadrangle maps: Nu-
shagak Bay (NB), Dillingham (Dil), Naknek (Nak), and Taylor
Mountains (Tay). Since "49" is the prefix for all of Alaska, it is
eliminated from the site designations here in order to avoid repeti-
tion. Thus the total designation will include one of the abbrevia-
tions listed above together with a number. In the chapters that
follow the sites will be described according to convenient and logical
subdivisions of the total region. Since a subdivision may be included
on more than one quadrangle map, the sites will not be designated
in a continuous numerical order. The names of settlements, when
they are known, will be included along with the appropriate ab-
breviations and numbers. Parentheses around a name is an indi-
cation of uncertainty concerning the attribution.
Chapter 1
Village Sites on the Nuyakuk and Upper Nushagak Rivers
Introduction
In this chapter those archaeological sites on the Nuyakuk River
and on the Nushagak above the present-day village of Ekwok will
be discussed (fig. 3). Those sites between Ekwok and the mouth
of the river will be considered in the following chapter.
The earliest maps of the Nushagak River region show the
Nushagak and its major western tributary, the Nuyakuk, with the
latter flowing out of Tikchik Lake to the west. These maps indi-
cate, however, that at least as late as 1850 and perhaps later, the
Nushagak and Nuyakuk were believed to be one river (VanStone,
1967, p. 12). The Nushagak north of the mouth of the Nuyakuk
was referred to as the "Ilgajak" or "Ilgayak" River (VanStone,
1959, p. 38; Zagoskin, 1967, map opp. p. 358). This nomenclature
appears to have arisen not only because of a mistake in distinguishing
between a tributary and the main river, but also because of local
names given the Nushagak by Eskimos. According to informants
living along the river today, the upriver people referred to the
Nushagak as the Ilgayak, a place name that has no meaning, while
the lower river and Nushagak Bay Eskimos called the river Tahlekuk
which means "elbow," a reference to the shape of its lower reaches.
Thus it seems likely that the early explorers followed the Eskimo
terminology for the river above the mouth of the Nuyakuk while
naming everything below that point, including the Nuyakuk,
Nushagak, a word which, at the present time, has no meaning to
local people.
The Nuyakuk River heads at Tikchik Lake and flows in a
southeasterly direction 58 km. before joining the Nushagak. A
beautiful stream, the Nuyakuk is clear and deep with a moderate
current and high banks on both sides. Just below Tikchik Lake
is a short stretch of fast water and about 5 km. below the lake is a
small waterfall. A third stretch of fast water occurs about 10 km.
27
28
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Fig. 3. Map of the Nuyakuk, lower Mulchatna, and upper Nushagak rivers.
below the lake. Near its confluence with the Nushagak the Nuyakuk
meanders considerably and there are many gravel bars and sloughs.
With few exceptions, the country close to the river exhibits little
relief and the banks are well wooded with spruce, poplars, alders,
and willows. This timber, however, does not extend back from the
riverbanks to any great extent.
The Nushagak River above Ekwok is more or less confined to
one channel, although there are many sloughs, islands, and gravel
bars. The river is navigable for small boats well north of the mouth
of the Nuyakuk, although it is extremely braided above that point.
The right bank from Ekwok to a point approximately 16 km. above
the mouth of the Mulchatna River is bordered by a steep bluff
that ranges from 15 to 65 m. above the level of the river. This
bluff is the eastern edge of a great undulating plain composed of
gravel, sand, and clay that forms the topography of the vast stretch
of country between the Nushagak River and the Tikchik Mountains.
This plain is, for the most part, covered with moss, grass, and brush,
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 29
but along both banks of the river in the area under consideration
there is a strip of timber that continues upstream into the Nushagak
Hills. This strip, which grows thinner above the mouth of the
Mulchatna River and again above the mouth of the Nuyakuk,
consists mainly of spruce, poplar, and cottonwood with some birch
in the better drained areas along the right bank. An important
landmark in this area, located in the plain between the river and
mountains, is Kemuk Mountain, a group of rounded hills rising to
an elevation of approximately 600 m.
The left bank of the Nushagak from Ekwok to a point opposite
the mouth of the Nuyakuk is much lower than the right bank and
rises no more than 2-7 m. above the water level. The first well-
defined bluffs on this side of the river occur about 6 km. above the
mouth of the Mulchatna. About 8 km. east of the confluence of
the Nushagak and Nuyakuk rivers, a low, rounded mountain rises
approximately 535 m. above the surrounding plain. This prominent
landmark, known as Ketok Mountain, marks the southern end of
the divide that separates the drainage basins of the Mulchatna and
upper Nushagak rivers. The word ketok means "can't pass," a
reference to the fact that the mountain is visible from a great
distance to travellers moving up the Nushagak who never seem to
be able to reach or pass it.
Site Descriptions
Tay-1 (Ingrik)
Two elderly informants at New Koliganek described this village
as having been located at the mouth of a small creek which flows
into the Nushagak slightly less than 8 km. below the mouth of the
King Salmon River and on the opposite bank. The survey, however,
was not extended into this area. One informant stated that the
settlement consisted of five or six houses, but the other mentioned
only two. Both agreed, however, that this was the only site on the
Nushagak above the mouth of the Nuyakuk.
On the Fassett manuscript map of 1910 there is a "large winter
village" indicated as being located inland from the left bank of
the Nushagak well north of the mouth of the Nuyakuk. Pre-
sumably this could be Ingrik even though the above-mentioned
informants indicated that the site was on the river bank. It should
also be noted that other informants questioned concerning this
settlement knew nothing about it and did not recognize the name.
30 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
No information could be obtained concerning the period of occu-
pancy, although if Ingrik is Fassett's "large winter village," it
presumably was occupied at the time he collected the data for his
map in 1901-1902. The name means "mountain."
Dil-1 Kaskanak (59° 56 'N, 158° 12'W)
Located at the point where the Nuyakuk River flows out of
Tikchik Lake, this site is shown on the Dillingham quadrangle of
the U.S.G.S. Alaska Reconnaissance Topographic Series of maps
(fig. 3). The name was obtained by the U.S.G.S. in 1932 and
published for the first time by the geologist John B. Mertie (1938,
pi. 1). Although this location was observed only from the air
during surveys in 1964, there was no sign of semi-subterranean
house structures. Informants noted that there had been a reindeer
camp at this location in the early 1920's, but they knew nothing
about a village or fish camp. The place must been an important
portage as there are rapids right at the headwaters of the Nuyakuk.
A well-used trail around them can be seen clearly from the air.
Dil-2, 3 (Kaskanak)
These two sites are both situated on the Nuyakuk River near
Tikchik Lake. Dil-2 is located about V/i km. below the lake
where the river makes a sharp bend to the south. Dil-3 is approxi-
mately 8 km. from the lake at a point where the river makes a sharp
turn east. Both sites, which were observed only from the air, are on
small spits formed at the mouths of creeks flowing into the main
river. Both are known locally as Kaskanak, a fact that created
some confusion in discussions of this general area with informants.
The banks are low in the general vicinity of these sites, each of
which consists of three small houses with tunnels facing the river.
An informant who was 49 years old in 1965 was born at Dil-2 in
1916. He lived there seasonally with his father, his father's brother,
and their families until 1928 or 1929. According to this informant
both Dil-2 and Dil-3 were primarily fish camps occupied only during
the summer months. The river is shallow and narrow in this area
and presumably fish could be taken more easily than at other
locations. It should be noted that the name Kaskanak as applied
to these three sites near the headwaters of the Nuyakuk is fre-
quently confused with a much larger former settlement of the same
name on the upper Kvichak River. References to Kaskanak in
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
31
Fig. 4. Dil-4 Old Koliganek.
historic sources appear without exception to refer to the site on the
Kvichak.
Dil-h Old Koliganek
This site is called Old Koliganek to distinguish it from its two
successors, Koliganek on the left bank of the Nushagak approxi-
mately 8 km. downstream and New Koliganek on the opposite
bank about 3 km. below Koliganek. The Old Koliganek site is
located on the right bank of the Nuyakuk River just above its
mouth. In the vicinity of the site the riverbank is low, but it begins
to rise near the village. Vegetation near the site is extremely sparse
(fig. 4). A few spruce and willows occur along the bank and there
are scrub willows and alders in the lower areas. Back from the bank,
however, the trees rapidly give way to tundra vegetation. Although
the site is opposite a low, grassy island, the channel around one side
of this island is choked with growth and the resultant slough has
practically no current.
The Old Koliganek site is situated on two levels which rise from
a grassy, flat area at the riverbank. On the first, about 2 m. above
the river, are the remains of at least three structures, one of ^ which is
a cabin. Other cabin outlines may have been obscured by the tall
32
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
church
tall grass
L> O
ii
ridge
tall grass
Q
Fig. 5. Sketch map of Dil-4 Old Koliganek. Not to scale.
grass. The second level is approximately 20 m. higher than the
preceding one and here were located seven structures in two rows,
the largest of which was probably a kashgee, or ceremonial house
(fig. 5). The fact that the tunnels of these structures do not con-
sistently face in any one direction should be noted. A grove of
willows has grown up at the southwest end of the site on the highest
bank. Here there is a small cemetery and the rectangular founda-
tions of a church. This would appear to be the only part of the site
where trees have encroached.
An elderly informant who was born at the Old Koliganek site
in the late 1870's recalled nine occupied houses and a single kashgee
during his childhood. He also noted that the name of the settlement
means "one on top of the other," an apparent reference to the two
prominent levels on which the structures were built.
The Old Koliganek site is first mentioned in the vital statistics
of the Nushagak Church in 1878 and there is some indication that
the village was visited by a priest in that year (Alaska Russian
Church Archives, accession 12,766, vital statistics, Nushagak 1842-
1931). x In Koliganek census data collected by the Bureau of Indian
1 To avoid lengthy repetitions, this reference will not be given again. It
should be understood that all references to vital statistics of the Nushagak church
have been taken from this source.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 33
Affairs teacher in 1962, the oldest resident is listed as having been
born in the old village in 1871; this is the earliest birth date obtained
for the site. An early population listing of 30 is given for the settle-
ment by Captain G. W. Bailey of the United States Revenue Marine
who obtained his information from church records at Nushagak in
October, 1879 (Bailey, 1880, pp. 26-27). Father Vasili Shishkin,
a Russian Orthodox priest from Nushagak, visited the village in
January, 1882 but he gives no population figures (DRHA, vol. 1,
p. 144). 2 However, the tenth federal census, data for which was
collected about the same time, lists 91 inhabitants (Petroff, 1884,
p. 17) and in 1898 there were 114 (Elliott, 1900, p. 740).
Old Koliganek is mentioned consistently in the vital statistics
until 1930 and in 1923 a Bureau of Fisheries party visited the
settlement and found only three families in residence (Bower, 1926,
pp. 108-110). In 1931 the anthropologist Ales Hrdlifcka ascended
the Nushagak as far as Old Koliganek while collecting skeletal
material for the United States National Museum. He noted that
the three houses closest to the riverbank were occupied, but he en-
countered only a single family; the small church was still standing
(Hrdlicka, 1944, pp. 361-362).
Informants at New Koliganek maintained that the Old Koliganek
site had been abandoned about 1940 at which time the people moved
to Koliganek. It in turn was abandoned in 1964 when the in-
habitants moved again, this time about 3 km. south to New Koliganek
on the right bank of the river. The reason given for the abandon-
ment of Old Koliganek was that firewood was difficult to obtain.
It would appear that at the time of the move to Koliganek, no
more than three families were living in the old village. It is likely,
however, that at its height, perhaps around the turn of the century,
the settlement had more than 100 residents. Old Koliganek occu-
pied a strategic point at the confluence of two rivers. In addition
to being a good grayling fishing place in the fall, a fact mentioned
by several informants, it was conveniently located for access to
caribou country to the north and to good trapping areas in the
immediate vicinity. In conclusion, then, it can be noted that the
span of occupation at Old Koliganek extended from before 1870,
but perhaps not much before, until about 1940.
2 This is a reference to "Documents Relative to the History of Alaska," 15
typewritten volumes, copies of which are located in the University of Alaska
Library and the Library of Congress. These volumes, the first four of which
contain most of the Russian materials, were compiled as part of the Alaska
History Research Project (1936-1938) of the University of Alaska.
34
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Fig. 6. Dil-6 Akokpak.
Dil-5 (Manasuk)
Elderly informants at New Koliganek recalled that at one time
there had been a sizeable village about half way between Old
Koliganek and Koliganek on the left bank of the Nushagak. It
was called Manasuk and has now been completely cut away by
the river. Most of the inhabitants died in the influenza and measles
epidemic of 1899-1900 and the few survivors moved away. This
village is not mentioned in any of the historical sources consulted
in the preparation of this study.
Dil-6 Akokpak (59° 40'N, 157° 07'W)
This small site is located on the right bank of the river slightly
below the mouth of the Mulchatna. The settlement is shown on
the Dillingham quadrangle of the U.S.G.S. Alaska Reconnaissance
Topographic Series, but its actual location is about 1% km. south
of the point indicated on this map. The site is situated in a deep
depression between two hills and there is a grassy slope on both
sides of a small creek that runs, in a north-south direction, into the
Nushagak River. There are no alders along this creek, but some
have grown up along the bank of the river in front of the site and
almost obscure it from the water (fig. 6). Informants say that the
name Akokpak means "big slough." There is no slough at this
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 35
point, but perhaps the reference is to the many sloughs which
make up the mouth of the nearby Mulchatna River.
There were three structures on the east slope of the site and on
the west side are the remains of a small, recently occupied cabin.
Fig. 7. Sketch map of Dil-6 Akokpak. Not to scale.
A number of foundation logs are visible and sections of oil drums
and the remains of a cast iron stove are lying about. Only the struc-
ture at the extreme north end of the site on the east slope can be
said to approximate a traditional Eskimo house. The other two
on this side of the creek appear to be the remains of cabins (fig. 7).
In addition to the dwellings, there are numerous pits scattered about
the site which could not be identified and projecting poles which
may be the remains of fish drying racks.
The first reference to Akokpak in the sources is to a visit made by
Alfred B. Schanz on February 5, 1891 while on his expedition to
Lake Clark. He does not mention the population and gives no
description of the settlement (Schanz, 1891, no. 1882, p. 156).
A village called "Akakhpuk" is listed in the eleventh federal census
as having a population of nine in 1890 consisting of two families
living in a single house (Porter, 1893, pp. 5, 164). Since Schanz
was a census enumerator for the Nushagak census district, these
sources presumably refer to a single visit. In the summer of 1923
a Bureau of Fisheries party stopped at the village at which time
there were three families in residence (Bower, 1926, pp. 108-110).
36 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
The first and only reference in the vital statistics of the Nushagak
church is in 1929. Hrdlicka (1944, pp. 358-359) mentions a site in
the area and Akokpak fits his vague description, although he refers
to it as being above the confluence of the Mulchatna and the
Nushagak. The site was abandoned, probably temporarily, at the
time of his visit in the summer of 1931. John B. Mertie and a
U.S.G.S. party visited the community in the same summer, found
20 people living there, and noted that the village contained a church
(Mertie, 1938, pp. 24-26). Informants at New Koliganek, however,
denied that there had ever been a church or chapel in this settlement.
Informants at Ekwok in 1964 said that two families abandoned
Akokpak about 1940, but New Koliganek informants maintained
that one old man lived there until 1955. The site was considered
to be a poor place for a village because it was impossible to see well
in either direction, and the wind would whistle down the little
ravine in winter. However, there was good fishing in the fall and
several informants spoke of the site as having been a fish camp.
It would appear, therefore, that Akokpak was occupied from about
1890 until 1940 and perhaps longer, but it is doubtful if the popula-
tion ever consisted of more than three or four families, or about 30
people. Probably Old Koliganek absorbed the residents at the
time they moved, although some may have gone to Nunachuak.
Dil-7 Nunachuak (59° 38 'N, 157° 04' W)
The Nunachuak, or New Village, site is located at the mouth
of a wide, slough-like creek (Nunachuak Creek) on the left bank
of the Nushagak approximately 91 2 km. below Akokpak. At the
present time it appears as a low, flat, cleared area surrounded by a
heavy growth of alders (fig. 8). The entire occupation area is no
more than 2 m. above the water level and the river itself is very
shallow at this point, making it difficult for boats to approach.
This would be particularly true with regard to the large commercial
fishing boats used by the Nushagak Eskimos today and may have
been a factor in the abandonment of the site. A projecting bank
of Nunachuak Creek prevents a clear view upriver from the site
and the view downriver is limited by the lack of elevation. The
area of occupation is about 50 by 25 m.
Nunachuak is obviously a very recent site and is shown on the
Dillingham quadrangle. There are no house pits that would indi-
cate the presence of traditional Eskimo semi-subterranean houses.
Two dilapidated cabins, one elevated cache and two fish racks are
ggfgsa
Fig. 8. Dil-7 Nunachuak.
Nushagak River
^>Cabin
Fish Rack
I Church
I | Cemetery
Willows
Fig. 9. Sketch map of Dil-7 Nunachuak. Not to scale.
37
38
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Fig. 10. Church at Nunachuak.
still standing (fig. 9). At the northwest corner of the site stands a
ruined church surrounded by a cemetery (fig. 10). Presumably
there were at one time many more cabins, but it is difficult to
determine their location in the high grass. It is likely that some
were dismantled and the logs moved to new building sites.
Informants at Ekwok maintained that Nunachuak did not come
into existence much before 1920 and it is not mentioned in any
census until 1930 when it had a population of 32 (Fifteenth Census
of the United States: 1930, pub. 1932, p. 1222). Mertie (1938, pp.
24-26) stopped at the settlement the following year and noted a
population of 25. The community is not mentioned in the vital
statistics of the Nushagak church until 1929 and 1930. Although
the above information seems conclusive, the fact remains that
Bureau of Indian Affairs census reports at New Stuyahok contain
the name of an individual who is supposed to have been born at
Nunachuak in 1892. Of course the location could have served as
a camping spot or fish camp long before the village was established,
and also the census material may be incorrect. The most recent
birth date obtainable for the site, 1955, also comes from Bureau of
Indian Affairs records. It appears unlikely that there were more
than five or six families living in the village at any one time. In
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
39
the 1930's three different men maintained small trading posts in
the settlement and these may have attracted an increased temporary
population at various times.
It is considered probable that Nunachuak was populated in
part by former residents of the Mulchatna River and that those
who eventually abandoned the site moved to New Stuyahok.
Informants mentioned that floods occurred frequently in the spring
and occasionally during the winter thaws. The final abandonment
is said to have taken place for this reason.
Dil-8 Elilakok (59° 33'N, 157° 07'W)
Located about 93^ km. below Nunachuak on the same side of
the river, this site, like Nunachuak, is very low, grass covered,
and at the entrance of a wide, slough-like creek. The Elilakok site
consists of three large house pits, a kashgee, and a number of sizeable
pits which cannot be identified. Two of them are shown on the
site map (fig. 11). The dwellings and the kashgee have prominent
entrance chambers. Like Nunachuak, Elilakok is surrounded by a
heavy growth of alders and is no more than 2 m. above the river
level. No cabin remains were located nor were graves visible. The
possibility of frequent flooding is certain to have been a major
factor in the decision to abandon this site.
There is very little information available concerning the occu-
pation of Elilakok, although it is shown on the Dillingham quad-
Nushagak River
□
□
S
kashgee
willows
Fig. 11. Sketch map of Dil-8 Elilakok. Not to scale.
40 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
rangle. Two informants at New Koliganek recall stopping there
on trips down the river to Nushagak at the turn of the century.
A middle-aged Ekwok man was taken to a dance at the site when
he was ten years old about 45 years ago. The site is mentioned as
being deserted when a Bureau of Fisheries party passed by in the
late summer of 1923. The definite impression given, however, is
that the desertion was temporary (Bower, 1926, pp. 108-110).
Hrdlicka (1944, p. 370) examined the site on June 11, 1931 and
noted that it had only recently been abandoned. In spite of what
would seem to be a relatively late occupancy, there are no references
to the village in any of the census material available for the present-
day Nushagak villages, nor is it mentioned in the vital statistics of
the Nushagak church. In any event, it is clear that the site can date
no earlier than the end of the nineteenth century and was abandoned
by 1930; population was probably never more than 35 to 40. An
Ekwok informant thought that the inhabitants may have moved
to Nunachuak, but this could not be verified.
Dil-9 Inakpuk (59° 32 'N, 157° 09' W)
This site, although shown on the Dillingham quadrangle map
as being located on the right bank of the river about 8 km. below
Elilokak, could not be located during surveys in 1964 and 1967.
This is perhaps not surprising since informants were unanimous in
describing it as a small fish camp, occupied seasonally, and without
standing cabins or house pits of the traditional type. It is said to
have been located on what is now a very small and shallow slough.
According to one informant, the name means "big bar" or "big
island" and refers to a large island just below the site.
Inakpuk is shown on Fassett's map as "Pit-mik-ha-mut" and
there was one family living there in 1923 (Bower, 1926, pp. 108-110).
A single reference to the settlement occurs in vital statistics in the
office of the Deputy Magistrate in Dillingham, a marriage license
having been issued to a resident of Inakpuk in August, 1922. The
name Inakpuk was obtained in 1930 from Frank H. Waskey, a long-
time resident of the Dillingham area, by the U.S.G.S. and was
published by Mertie (1938, pi. 1). All this information would seem
to indicate that the settlement was occupied during the 1920's
and possibly into the 1930's, but it is doubtful if more than two
families ever resided there at the same time.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
41
Fig. 12. Dil-10 Tunravik.
Dil-10 Tunravik (59° 31'N, 157° 15'W)
About 8 km. above New Stuyahok and 1% km. northeast of
the mouth of Tunravik Creek on the right bank of the river is
Tunravik, a site about which very little information could be ob-
tained even though it is obviously recent and is shown on the
Dillingham quadrangle map. Like other sites on the right bank,
this one is located in a rather narrow ravine between two hills,
through which flows a fast-moving stream. In the ravine bottom
the alder growth is almost impenetrable and the stream itself is
virtually invisible (fig. 12). On the south side of the creek the hill
rises abruptly and there are no signs of occupation. On the north
side four houses were located on a bluff, while the flat area along the
creek is covered with a heavy growth of tall grass (fig. 13). West
of the occupied part of the site is a flat, grass covered area with
some well-defined depressions that may be the remains of cache pits.
All four of the structures on the bluff were of the traditional type
with their tunnels and entryrooms facing downriver. The largest
structure at the front of the bluff may have been a kashgee.
Like the inhabitants of a number of right bank sites, residents
of Tunravik chose the north side of a creek and utilized a steep,
natural slope. The site commands a good view downriver and
42
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
hill
dense willows
Fig. 13. Sketch map of Dil-10 Tunravik. Not to scale.
on the south side there is a trail that leads up the hill to a point
from which it is possible to see a distance of 11 or 12 km. upriver.
Although there are no references to Tunravik in the sources,
some information concerning the occupancy was obtained from
informants. According to a man who was 50 years old in 1966,
there were people living at the site when he was eight or nine.
Another informant in his 70's believed that there were two occupied
houses at the settlement when he was a small boy around the turn
of the century and that these people eventually moved downriver
to Ekwok. This information would suggest an occupancy extending
from perhaps the end of the nineteenth century until about 1925.
If all the dwelling units were occupied at the same time, which is
by no means certain, a population of 35 or 40 is suggested.
Dil-11 Agivavik
One of the most important and well-documented sites on the
Nushagak River, Agivavik is situated on the right bank about
8 km. below New Stuyahok. At this point the riverbank is high
and there is a moderate growth of willows as well as a few spruce.
The Agivavik site resembles Tunravik in many respects. It is
located in a ravine formed by a swift moving stream, on both banks
of which are thick growths of alders. On the south side of the
stream there are no indications of occupation, the slope rising
abruptly behind the alders. On the north side the rise is also abrupt
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
43
\
hill
*
willows
.c
3
O
(0
^^ ^^^\s^ ""
<y.o
) 1^
, willows
K>
\M
o
0 h'"
o^—
Fig. 14. Sketch map of Dil-11 Agivavik. Not to scale.
but not so steep. Four structures were located on a grass-covered
ridge near the riverbank and a fifth at the extreme western end of
the site. Toward the west this ridge slopes off to a flat, grass-
covered area where there are two small house pits (fig. 14). All
these structures approximate the traditional Eskimo type, the one
at the western end of the ridge appearing to be somewhat older than
those near the riverbank. The two small house pits in the flat
area by the creek at the rear of the site appear to be the most recent.
They could almost represent the remains of cabins, although there
are shallow excavations and short entrance passages.
In addition to the structures just described, there are at least
five additional house pits on the north side of the creek in the
forested area well above the visible portion of the site; they do not
show on the site map. These structures, which were not discovered
until the area had been examined a third time, have been almost
totally obscured by advancing vegetation. Spruce and cottonwood
trees are growing out of them and the ground cover is predominant-
ly moss. The tree growth and moss cover make it difficult to deter-
mine the exact number of structures in this area. It seems likely
that these dwellings represent a prehistoric component which was
never disturbed because more recent inhabitants confined their
activities to that part of the site most accessible to the river.
The entire Agivavik site is dotted with small pits and there
may also be midden deposits in the more recently occupied sections.
44 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
The inhabitants of the settlement would have enjoyed a good view
downriver even though the site is protected from the main channel
by several low islands. In fact, it is really on a slough and not on
the river proper.
There is no shortage of source material documenting the occupa-
tion of Agivavik. It is mentioned for the first time in the vital
statistics of the Nushagak church in 1863 and thereafter occurs fre-
quently until the final reference in 1902. There is some indication
that the settlement was visited by a missionary for the first time in
the former year. In 1878 the village is mentioned in the missionary's
journal (DRHA, vol. 1, p. 330), and in the following year it is noted
in Bailey's list of communities as having a population of 47 (1880,
pp. 26-27) . Father Shishkin mentions a visit to Agivavik in January
1882 at which time it appears to have been one of only three occupied
villages on the river (DRHA, vol. 2, p. 144). Data for the tenth
federal census, collected the preceding year, lists a population of 52
but there is no indication as to how many houses were occupied
(Petroff, 1884, p. 17). Ten years later in February, 1891, however,
A. B. Schanz, collecting statistics for the eleventh census, noted
that there was a population of 30 living at Agivavik in two houses
(Schanz, 1891, no. 1882, p. 156; Porter, 1893, pp. 5, 164).
These are the extent of the references to Agivavik until Hrdlidka
visited the site in 1931. At that time his guide told him that the
settlement had been occupied in part until "about 30 years ago"
(HrdliSka, 1944, pp. 373-374). The village is shown on maps
attached to the annual reports of the Governor of Alaska from 1901
to 1908, although it is located on the wrong side of the river and
well above the mouth of the Nuyakuk. Fassett, on his manuscript
map of 1910, shows a site in the approximate location of Agivavik,
but he calls it "At-mik-ha-mut." Agivavik is mistakenly identified
by Orth (1967, p. 51) as being located on the Ugashik River.
On the basis of the above information, it seems certain that
Agivavik was abandoned sometime during the first decade of the
present century. Concerning length of occupancy and size, it seems
safe to conclude that the site was occupied back into the late pre-
historic period at which time it may have been considerably larger
than at any time after historic contact. After the beginning of the
historic period, it is probable that the population seldom, if ever,
exceeded 60.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 45
Dil-12 Ekwok (59° 22'N, 157° 30' W)
Ekwok is situated on the right bank of the Nushagak just above
the mouth of Klutuk Creek. The village name apparently occurs
for the first time on Fassett's map, but a post office, established in
1935, is known as Ekwak. The settlement is frequently confused
in the sources with Ekuk on Nushagak Bay. Although Ekwok is
occupied today, it is mentioned here because of its age and significant
relationship with other sites in the general area.
Ekwok was presumably established sometime in the late nine-
teenth century since census material collected by the school teacher
in 1940 shows several residents who were born there in the 1890's;
it had a population of 79 in 1898 (Elliott, 1900, p. 740). The village
is first mentioned in the vital statistics of the Nushagak church in
1902 and during the summer of that same year a biological survey
party under the direction of W. H. Osgood found it deserted. He
describes the settlement as "a small collection of igloos and caches"
which he surmises were temporarily occupied by people from the
larger community of Kokwok about 5 km. further down the river
(Osgood, 1904, p. 18).
At Ekwok today there are few indications of the old site. Modern
cabins have obliterated the old house pits, most of which were
apparently located on a bluff upriver from the present village
(VanStone, 1967, pp. 148-150). Informants stated that many
Kokwok people had moved to Ekwok, particularly in 1918-1919
as the former village was very hard hit by the influenza epidemic
which struck Alaska in those years. It seems clear that Ekwok
gradually came to replace Kokwok (Dil-16) and Akulivikchuk
(Dil-13) as the most important population center in the middle
river region. By 1923 it was already the largest village on the
river (Bower, 1926, pp. 108-110).
Chapter 2
Village Sites on the Middle and Lower Nushagak River
Introduction
The left bank of the Nushagak from Ekwok to the mouth of
the Iowithla River is bordered by the steep bluff referred to in the
previous chapter. The right bank downstream as far as Portage
Creek is low just as it is north of Ekwok. From a point approxi-
mately 12 km. below Ekwok the river is divided into two large
channels of about equal size. The eastern channel is known as the
Keefer Cutoff; the western is the one used by all traffic at the present
time. These two channels continue in a southwesterly direction
and merge about 16 km. east of Black Point. From there to Black
Point the Nushagak is a moderately swift stream frequently braided
with small sloughs and channels (fig. 15).
The Nushagak River estuary, which spreads from Black Point
to the mouth of the Wood River and runs in a northwesterly direc-
tion, has a length of about 32 km. and an average width of 3 km.
Dark gray mud flats border both sides of this estuary. On the
northwest bank the lowland is higher and alder bushes fringe the
shore. The flats along the southwest bank, however, rise only
slightly above the level of high tide and are covered with a thick
growth of marsh grass. These low flats spread to the south for a
distance of approximately 3 km. but wedge out toward Black Point.
Beyond the mud flats in a southerly direction toward the bay are
treeless plains of gravel, sand, and clay ranging from 35 to 85 m.
in elevation and dotted with small lakes.
For the purposes of this study, the mouth of the Nushagak is
considered to lie just south of the Wood River mouth on a line
between Dillingham and Picnic Point. The seaward region is re-
garded as Nushagak Bay. Only at Black Point, about 48 km. to
the southeast of Dillingham, does the river begin to maintain a
continuous downstream current, while the effect of the tides is
present as far upstream as Portage Creek.
46
a
be
5
47
48
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Fig. 16. Dil-13 Akulivikchuk.
Site Descriptions
Dil-13 Akulivikchuk
This important site, one of the largest on the river, is located
on the right bank of the Nushagak approximately 5 km. below
Ekwok (fig. 3). It was excavated during the summer of 1967
(VanStone, 1970). The right bank of the Nushagak in this area is
low but rises again south of Akulivikchuk and is 10 to 12 m. high
at this site. The formerly occupied area appears as a large, cleared,
relatively flat expanse of ground approximately 150 m. long and 80
m. deep. It is covered with tall grass and divided about equally
into two halves by a deep ravine that at one time contained a
running stream (fig. 16) . An informant suggested that the name of
the settlement may have been derived from agoonli which means
"in between," a reference to the small creek which formerly divided
the site.
At the peripheries of Akulivikchuk are thick growths of small
spruce and cottonwoods with the latter being more common near
the riverbank to the north and south, while the former predominate
along the back of the site to the west; a few willows are also growing
in the ravine. Trees are not encroaching to any great extent and
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
49
Fig. 17. Map of Dil-13 Akulivikchuk.
the cleared area of former occupation must be nearly the same
size at the present time as it was when the settlement was abandoned.
To the southwest of the ravine the cleared area is somewhat
smaller than to the northwest, and only a single house depression,
together with a number of pits, is located on this side. The re-
maining seven houses, the single kashgee, and a large number of
presumed cache pits of varying sizes were on the northern side
(fig. 17). The fact that the only good view down the river is from
the north side may account for this distribution. This appears to
have been a major factor in the orientation as well as the location
of the structures since, with two exceptions, all those on the northern
side of the ravine face downstream.
In considering the natural advantages of Akulivikchuk as a
place to live, it is possible to mention the high ground, the presence
of fresh water running in the ravine, a good hunting and fishing
location, and a favorable downriver view of as much as 3-5 km.
Another factor that may have been taken into consideration by the
residents was the availability of large timber for building, although
there is little of that left in the area today.
Although Akulivikchuk was almost certainly one of the larger
and more important settlements along the Nushagak throughout
all or most of its occupation, it is mentioned infrequently in the
historic sources. In 1843, a man from the village, presumably a
50 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
visitor to the mission at Aleksandrovski, is noted in the vital statistics
of the church as having been baptized. Residents of the settlement
continue to be listed in the statistics more or less regularly until
1899 although, as will be noted presently, the village may have
been abandoned somewhat earlier.
The only definite reference to Akulivikchuk in the late nineteenth
century published sources is a population listing of 72 in Petroff
(1884, p. 17, map 1). In the eleventh federal census reference is
made to a village called "Akgulurigiglak" in the Nushagak census
district but it is not shown on the accompanying map. The settle-
ment is listed as having a population of 61 including 16 families
living in five houses (Porter, 1893, p. 164) . If this is not a reference
to Akulivikchuk, then the absence of the village from the 1890
census suggests that it may have been abandoned by that time.
When questioned on the subject, informants could only say that
the settlement was abandoned sometime around the turn of the
century. Reference to the village in the vital statistics of the
Nushagak church as late as 1899 could be misleading since it is
not always clear whether the statistics refer to the place of a pa-
rishoner's birth or to his residence at the time his name appears.
The cause of the community's abandonment cannot be deter-
mined with certainty. Several informants mentioned that during
one winter when many of the village children were playing in
front of the settlement on the river ice, it suddenly gave way and
a large number were drowned. It was said to have been after this
unfortunate accident that people left Akulivikchuk. However, the
emergence of other villages in the general area may also have played
a role.
Hrdlicka visited the Akulivikchuk site in the summer of 1931
noting on his way up the river that it was "a very large old site
on right bank, largest yet" (1944, p. 357). On the return trip he
was even more impressed and described the site as follows:
Reach another large old site two miles below Hurley's [Ekwok].
Extends on both sides of a now dry small stream and then along a
large flowing creek. Much larger than the site [Agivavik] above
Hurley's but there is evidently an older part and a later. Scores of
square pits of igloos some large, many small. Collectively extend
along main river and creek for at least half a mile, igloos several deep
(p. 374).
It is difficult to recognize the Akulvikchuk site from this description;
Hrdlicka greatly overestimated its size. Also there is nothing to
suggest that it was occupied for long during the prehistoric period.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 51
A reasonable estimate of the total period of occupancy would be
from approximately 1800 to 1900. It is unlikely that the popula-
tion ever exceeded 100.
Dil-U (Okstukuk) (59° 31 'N, 158° 18'W)
Okstukuk Lake is at the headwaters of the Kokwok River.
At the point where the river flows out of it there is a small site
partly on the lakeshore and partly on the right bank of the river.
The shore, generally low with a heavy growth of spruce, is about
2 m. above the water level at the site. It slopes back immediately
along the riverbank and there are two small house pits situated in
this low area with their tunnels facing the river. They have no
entryrooms and the structures are no more than a meter above
the river level. A third house pit is located on the higher part of
the site which fronts on the lake. The tunnel and entryroom of
this structure parallel the lakeshore and face away from the river.
Okstukuk Lake is shown as "Ok-su-kok" on the Fassett map,
but the site is not indicated. Neither is it mentioned in any of the
sources. An informant in his 90's living at New Koliganek said
that the site had been used as a spring camping place within his
lifetime. Another informant nearly as old noted that it was already
abandoned when he was a small boy. All informants agreed, how-
ever, that the Okstukuk site was not a permanent settlement but a
fall fishing camp for whitefish with some moose hunting. A weir
was constructed and the fish dipped out of it. People always left
this camp before freeze-up to return to permanent villages along
the river.
Dil-15
This site is located along a small slough, now virtually dried up,
about 3 km. above Kokwok. At one time this may have been an
important channel of the river, but it is now necessary to walk in
from the slough entrance about 150 m. to the site. The location
of this former settlement was difficult to determine even when
pointed out by informants and it could not be seen during air
surveys in 1964. The site is known to Eskimos at Ekwok and
apparently was visited by Hrdlidka (1944, p. 375) in 1931 who
believed it to be prehistoric.
The slough bank is about 2 m. high at the site but willows and
cottonwoods have grown all along the bank virtually obscuring a
flat, shallow cleared area perhaps 100 m. long and covered with
52 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
tall grass. Willows, some birch, cottonwoods, and spruce are en-
croaching from all directions. The remains of six structures were
tentatively identified, but none could be seen clearly and there
may be more.
Informants at Ekwok believe this site to be of great age and
few are willing to suggest a name for it. Two Ekwok informants
referred to it as being located at the "old" mouth of the Kokwok
River; the place where the Kokwok used to flow into the Nushagak.
The topography of the area today, however, does not suggest
that this is the case. These informants called the site Old Kokwok
and said that the inhabitants had moved from there down to
Kokwok. This site illustrates the difficulties involved in locating
older settlements along the Nushagak unless they are situated in
the same places utilized by later peoples.
Dil-16 Kokwok (59° 19 'N, 157° 33' W)
Kokwok, located on the right bank of the Nushagak at the
mouth of the Kokwok River, a major western tributary, is the
largest abandoned village on the Nushagak, consisting of at least
ten residential structures. At the point where the Kokwok joins
the Nushagak the bank is flat and about 7 m. above the level of
the river. This bank is cutting back at a fairly rapid rate, but
there seems little danger that any part of the site will be destroyed
in the near future. The formerly occupied area, which is virtually
flat, is about 340 m. long but only about half that in depth. The
area to the rear of the site is covered with a thick growth of willows
and the surrounding country is low in all directions (fig. 18). In
fact, this is one of the few areas of the Nushagak where the bank is
relatively low on both sides of the river.
Seven of the 11 identified structures at Kokwok were more
or less in a row at the front of the site. The cleared area in back of
these structures is extensively pitted; the remains of a church and
three houses are located there (fig. 19). When shown a plan of the
village, informants in Dillingham and Ekwok stated definitely that
the structure designated as a church was the small Moravian
chapel built in 1897-1898. One source (McElwaine, 1901, p. 181)
mentions that the Russian Orthodox Church had a chapel in the
village but this was denied by informants. At least two of the
identified structures along the riverbank were not houses of the
usual Eskimo type. Both were probably cabins and the larger of
the two, located next to the structure that is considered to be the
Fig. 18. Dil-16 Kokwok.
^*
__^- -^^
^^^
& 0
□
Church
Kashgee
<Q □
□
JQ o g
Nushagak River
Fig. 19. Sketch map of Dil-16 Kokwok. Not to scale.
53
54 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
kashgee, is almost certainly the remains of a log structure photo-
graphed by a visitor to the village in 1901 (Shawhan, 1902, p. 515).
It may well be that the remains of other cabins on the site were
overlooked. Cabin locations are difficult to see in tall grass, par-
ticularly if the logs used in their construction have decayed or were
removed at the time of abandonment. The house pits, however,
are sharply defined, and the manner of their collapse can usually
be noted.
Kokwok is mentioned regularly in the vital statistics of the
Nushagak church between 1847 and 1910. This last date seems to
precede the actual abandonment of the site by at least ten years.
In 1878 Kokwok was one of two Nushagak River settlements
(the other being Agivavik) visited by the Orthodox priest (DRHA,
vol. 1, p. 330) and in the following year the village is listed by
Bailey (1880, pp. 26-27) as having a population of 83. This figure
would appear to be very much on the conservative side since in
1882 Father Shishkin noted in his diary that he had 145 communi-
cants in the village (DRHA, vol. 2, p. 144). The tenth federal
census, in which the settlement is called "Kukuak," lists a popula-
tion of 104 in the same year and this would seem to have been the
high point of its population (Petroff, 1884, p. 17). Within ten
years the number appears to have been cut in half, although it is
always necessary to keep in mind that the number of people enu-
merated in any of the Nushagak villages would vary greatly with
the season of the year. In any event, when A. B. Schanz visited
Kokwok in January of 1891 while enumerating for the eleventh
census, he noted only two occupied houses and the kashgee. The
first house contained 22 people, the second 23, and an elderly
widower was living in the kashgee. Schanz noted in particular
the huge size of the kashgee with its side planks which were as
much as 13 cm. thick, 1 m. broad, and up to 17 m. in length. Even
today it is an impressive ruin (Schanz, 1891, no. 1881, pp. 138-139;
Porter, 1893, pp. 5, 164).
Beginning in 1896-1897 the Moravians extended their influence
to Kokwok where, as has been noted, a chapel was constructed the
following year (SPG Proceedings, 1897, p. 23; 1898, p. 25). « By
1900 the Moravians considered Kokwok, along with Grant's Village
(Dil-19) to the south, to be one of their stations on the Nushagak
1 This is a reference to the annual Proceedings of the Society of the United
Brethren for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, published by the Moravian
Church at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
55
River (SPG Proceedings, 1900, p. 37). The village appears on
Fassett's map as "Kok-wok-ha-mut" and a population of 106 is
listed for it in 1898 (Elliott, 1900, p. 740).
In the summer of 1902 W. H. Osgood's party visited Kokwok
and found only 25 people living there. However, their visit was in
early September and they noted almost as many people proceeding
upriver on hunting trips (Osgood, 1904, p. 18). About 1906 the
village is mentioned as being the largest settlement on the river
(Cobb, 1907, p. 32), but there is some doubt as to the validity of
this statement. Still, it is likely that only Old Koliganek could
have been larger at this date providing Kokwok had remained
approximately the same size as noted in the eleventh census.
Informants at Ekwok agreed that Kokwok was in a decided
decline after the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919. Apparently
residents were hard hit and most of the survivors moved up to
Ekwok. Informants emphasize, however, that the decline began
before the epidemic and one suspects that it may have begun not
long after the mid-1880's. This may have been due to the fact
that many Kokwok people moved to the bay after the beginning of
the commercial fishing industry, a factor that certainly influenced
other river communities as well. It is probably true, too, that
Fig. 20. Dil-17 (Kauktun).
56
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Carmel, the Moravian mission at Kanulik (NB-7), attracted some
Kokwok people after the Moravians began to extend their influence
up the river. There were, however, still two families living at
Kokwok as late as 1923 when a Bureau of Fisheries party passed
by the village (Bower, 1926, pp. 108-110). This is the final refer-
ence to Kokwok in the sources and by this time, as previously noted,
Ekwok had replaced it as the largest settlement on the river.
Dil-17 (Kauktun)
The first site below Kokwok is on the same side of the river and
about 6^2 km. from that village. It is small and occupies the
slope on the north side of a small creek overgrown with alders
(fig. 20). The riverbank is 5-7 m. high at this point. There is one
small house pit close to the bank with the tunnel facing downriver
(fig. 21). A thin growth of spruce and willows characterizes the
general area.
An informant at Ekwok noted that the name of the small creek
on which this site is located is Kauktun and ventured his opinion
that the site might have had the same name. Other informants
agreed concerning the name, but none could provide information
with reference to its age. There are no references to Kauktun
in the sources. A settlement called "Gun-guk-ha-mut" is shown
on Fassett's map in approximately the same location as Kauktun
or Dil-18. Orth (1967, p. 398) calls it "Gunguk" without giving
Willows j L-""
wo** //
<
>?
Willows
Steep Bank
Nushagak River
s — "
— 5^**
Fig. 21. Sketch map of Dil-17 (Kauktun).
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 57
Fig. 22. Dil-18 (Nautauagavik).
any additional source. He says it is "5 mi. S of mouth of the
Kokwok."
Dil-18 (Nautauagavik)
This site is located approximately 8 km. below Dil-17 on the
same side of the river. Being a grassy slope beside a small, dry
creek, Dil-18 closely resembles other sites on the right bank. Here,
as elsewhere, a draw has been formed by the creek but the cleared
area is on the downriver side only, the upriver slope, and the sur-
rounding area generally, being covered with a rather heavy growth
of birch and willows (fig. 22). There are no distinct house pits in
the cleared area, although one vague depression was tentatively so
identified. Above the cleared area in the woods on top of the bank
are two house pits, one large with an entryroom opening off the
tunnel and the other small without such a room. These are shallow,
poorly defined depressions which, in all probability, belong to the
prehistoric period.
The name for this site was obtained from one informant in
Ekwok who claimed to remember an old man who lived there more
than 50 years ago. Both this settlement and the previously de-
scribed Dil-17 may have been seasonally occupied fish camps.
58
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Dil-19 Greek Church, Grant's Village, Kanack, Aivuviktulik
Although the name Greek Church is one that is always given
locally to this spot, the implication being that a Russian Orthodox
chapel once stood on the site, elderly informants along the river
agreed that this was the location of Grant's Village and the site of
a Moravian chapel. An Eskimo from an unknown village was
given the name Abraham Grant by the Moravians at Carmel as
their first adult communicant from upriver. He became a member
of the church in April, 1896 and later in that year was sent up the
Nushagak as a "helper" to preach to the upriver people. He estab-
lished himself at a place which the Moravians always referred to as
Grant's Village. In September of 1896 the Rev. John H. Schoechert,
a missionary at Carmel, made a trip to Grant's Village and work
was begun on a small chapel that was finished the following year.
In January, 1897 Mr. Schoechert baptized 13 individuals at Kokwok
and Grant's Village, the first recorded upriver baptisms for the
Moravians (VanStone, 1967, pp. 43-44).
The Eskimo name for Grant's Village is Kanack, but later
it was called Aivuviktulik, a reference to the fact that a church
had been built there. The site is in a small ravine between two
high banks formed by a dry stream (fig. 23). The riverbank is
Fig. 23. Dil-19 Greek Church or Grant's Village.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
59
Fig. 24. Sketch map of Dil-19 Greek Church or Grant's Village. Not to scale.
generally high in this area and both sides of the creek are clear of
trees and covered with tall grass. There are willows, cottonwoods,
and a few birch around the site, but the vegetation is not heavy.
The slope is gentle on both sides of the creek and the entire site is
about 200 m. long and 100 m. deep. There were three small houses
on the upriver slope with their short tunnels facing downriver. On
the downriver slope are two small house pits and the remains of
the chapel, a rectangular log structure about 3 m. by 4 m. Only
the decaying foundation logs can be seen. The tunnel of one of
the houses on this slope is still standing (fig. 24) .
An elderly informant at Ekwok said that her husband had lived
at Greek Church for a while in his youth about 50 years ago. Pre-
sumably the Moravian chapel was abandoned when the Moravians
left the Nushagak region in 1906, if not sooner. Hrdlidka (1944,
p. 356) mentions the site but apparently did not land there on his
trip up the river in 1931. He simply noted that it was a large, grassy
patch about half an acre in size. It is unlikely that the population
of this small settlement ever exceeded 50.
Dil-20 (Chaiwaiyaguk)
About 93^2 km. below Greek Church on the same side of the river
is a small site along the flat top of a cutting bank that is about 5 m.
above the level of the river (fig. 25). A few hundred meters below
this site is a small trapper's cabin built by John Nelson of Dillingham
60
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Fig. 25. Dil-20 (Chaiwaiyaguk).
in 1926. It is still standing and the location is shown on the Dil-
lingham quadrangle. The site itself is a flat, cleared area on the
upriver side of a small creek that enters the Nushagak at this point.
There is a scattering of willows and a few spruce in the vicinity,
but the tree growth is generally very thin. In approximately the
center of the cleared area was one house about 4 m. square with the
tunnel facing downriver and no entry room. There is a particularly
good view down the Nushagak from this point.
This may be the site described to me and called Chaiwaiyaguk
by an elderly informant at Ekwok. She was not at all certain of its
location, noting only that it was below Greek Church. She might
very well have been referring to Dil-21. The people who lived
at Chaiwaiyaguk, certainly not more than 10 or 15, are said to
have moved up to Kokwok but the period of occupancy and aban-
donment could not be determined.
Dil-21
This is the site of a trapper's cabin built more than 40 years ago
by Ernest Olsen of Dillingham and located about 1 km. below the
mouth of the Iowithla River on the right bank of the Nushagak.
A small creek enters the river at this point and there is a grass-
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
61
Fig. 26. Dil-21
covered bluff on the upriver side where the remains of the Olsen
cabin are situated. A fairly heavy growth of birch and willows
surround the site but the tundra comes almost to the banks of the
river on the downriver side (fig. 26). In addition to the cabin, there
are two house depressions in the woods on the upriver side of the
creek. They are small, shallow, and appear to be of some antiquity.
Their presence in this location illustrates the fact that a careful
search of the timbered areas at the peripheries of many of the
historic sites in the Nushagak River region may reveal the presence
of earlier, prehistoric structures.
It was not possible to obtain any data from informants con-
cerning the occupation of Dil-21. Those questioned were aware
only of the presence of the trapper's cabin. Hrdlicka (1944, pp.
355-356) seems to have noted both this site and the preceding one
(Dil-20) in 1931 without stopping to investigate. It is perhaps
significant for interpreting this general section of the Nushagak
that Fassett's manuscript map shows no settlements between
Kokwok and the mouth of Portage Creek.
Nak-1 (Kungviywalik, Kongogoluk, Konogoluk)
This site is located about 3 km. downriver from the mouth of
Portage Creek on the left bank of the Nushagak just beyond the
62
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
point where the river makes a sharp turn and begins to flow in an
east-west direction. A dry stream bed opens on the river here
after running almost parallel to it for a few hundred meters. Along
S
>
N
gentle slope
o0
□ NX
i steep rise
Nushagak River
Fig. 27. Sketch map of Nak-1 (Konogoluk). Not to scale.
the north side of this creek a small slope rises gradually to a height
of about 4 m., forming the bank of the main river. This bank is
relatively short, perhaps 75 m. long, and then drops off sharply
to the east. It rises again, however, and the site is actually located
in a ravine between two hills. Along the slope on the north side
of the creek are two house depressions, each about 5 m. square,
with their short tunnels facing the creek (fig. 27). At the west end
of the slope, well away from the house depressions, is a sizeable
rectangular pit. Opposite the occupied area on the other side of
the dry creek a gentle slope rises to a high bank covered with tundra
vegetation and a sparse scattering of stunted spruce.
Three names for Nak-1 were obtained from informants; Kung-
viywalik, Kongogoluk, and Konogoluk. It is probable that the
latter is closest to the actual name. There are no specific references
to this site in the sources and the oldest informants along the river
could not remember a time when it was occupied. On Fassett's
map, data for which, it will be remembered, was collected in 1901-
1902, there is a village indicated just below the mouth of Portage
Creek, but it is not named. Hrdlidka (1944, p. 355) noted the site
in 1931 but apparently did not go ashore to investigate. Occupation
might be placed in the early part of the twentieth century and it is
unlikely that more than 20 individuals were ever in residence at one
time.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 63
It is worth noting that Portage Creek derives its name from the
fact that it is possible to make a short portage from its headwaters
and thus move easily to Kvichak Bay without being exposed to
the open ocean and the long trip around Etolin Point. As an inside
passage, this portage is comparable to, and an extension of, the one
that allows travellers to avoid Cape Constantine when travelling
from Kuskokwim Bay to Nushagak Bay. This portage is not
used at the present time because most Eskimos have large com-
mercial fishing boats that cannot travel up Portage Creek. It was
important, however, as recently as 30 years ago.
NB-1 (Chuikak)
Approximately 32 km. west of Portage Creek, in the Black Point
region where the river turns in a northwesterly direction, is a small
site situated along the right bank on a steep bluff that rises nearly
15 m. from the water. Immediately to the east of the site the land
is flat, a characteristic feature of much of the shoreline along the
right bank of the Nushagak toward its mouth. It appears that at
one time there may have been a creek flowing into the river just
below the bluff. Toward the east there is tundra vegetation while
the bluff itself is covered with very thick, high grass. Scrub willows
grow toward the rear of the site.
Nushagak River
□
o
\
1
tundra and scrub willows
j
Fig. 28. Sketch map of NB-2 (Aouguluk). Not to scale.
64 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Nushagak River
□
pits
6 a
□
a
i ~\
V
tundra and scrub willows
Fig. 29. Sketch map of NB-3 (Nunauwalik). Not to scale.
Because of the heavy growth of grass on the bluff, it was very
difficult to determine the outlines of house structures with any de-
gree of certainty. However, there appear to have been at least
three large houses along with numerous unidentifiable pits. In-
formants believed the site to be old, but no definite information
could be obtained. An Ekwok resident said that the settlement
had been called Chuikak, or at least this name was given to the
present Black Point area. The Fassett map shows a site on the
right bank of the river west of Lewis Point which is designated
"Nu-nah-go-luk." Although at first glance this would appear to
be far to the west of NB-1, Fassett has placed Lewis Point con-
siderably to the east of its location on modern maps.
NB-2 (Aouguluk), NB-3 (Nunauwalik)
Almost directly across the river and slightly to the northwest
of NB-1 are two small sites less than 500 m. apart. NB-2 has likely
been a fish camp in recent years. It is very narrow, not more than
50 m. in depth, and runs along the bank of the river for a distance
of perhaps 75 m. On the site are the remains of four small cabins
and two larger structures that appear to at least approximate
aboriginal houses (fig. 28). There are also numerous pits scattered
about. The riverbank in the vicinity of NB-2 is about 8 m. high,
but only a short distance to the west it slopes down to form the
grassy tidal flats that characterize the country around the mouth
of the river. Scrub alders grow along the bank except in the vicinity
of the site and tundra vegetation is found inland. Because the
bank of the river is flat in this area, NB-2 is difficult to see from a
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 65
boat. The bank is not cutting and there are sand bars which make
the general area unapproachable except at high tide.
Just west of NB-2 is NB-3, a small site which resembles the
former in many ways. NB-3 is about 100 m. in length and very
narrow. It is right at the edge of the river bank and consists of
two small house depressions together with a number of unidentified
pits (fig. 29). The general environment is the same as that of NB-2.
Information concerning these two sites is scanty, as there are
no references to either one in the sources. An elderly Dillingham
informant considered the two to be one and said it was called
Aougulik. Others agreed with the name but insisted that it applied
only to NB-2. The name Nunauwalik was obtained for NB-3
from one informant. Both sites were apparently occupied early
in the century and perhaps as late as 1940. They are said to have
been fishing camps for residents of Nushagak Bay.
Chapter 3
Settlements On the Lower Mulchatna River
Introduction
The Mulchatna River heads at Turquoise Lake in the southern
foothills of the Alaska Range northwest of Lake Clark and flows
southwest 256 km. to the Nushagak River (fig. 3). From its mouth
as far as the mouth of the Kakhtul River, the farthest point of
investigation, the Mulchatna is a tortuous, winding stream without
stable banks on either side except in occasional places where high
bluffs, often some distance from the main channel, extend along the
river bank for a few kilometers. The Mulchatna is timbered along
its course in much the same manner as the Nushagak, and the vast,
low plain of this important tributary is an undrained country
covered with hundreds of small lakes.
At the present time there are three mouths to the Mulchatna
which, according to local residents, are continually changing. The
banks are very low in this area and at high water the shore line is
extensively flooded. The heaviest timber in the Nushagak drainage
basin stands in this lower part of the Mulchatna valley and the
many dead trees that are seen in this area suggest that flooding is
a common occurrence. The river channel also gives evidence of
having changed its course many times and there are numerous
sloughs which have been cut off from their contact with the river
at both ends. Under such conditions, archaeological sites could
be cut away in a relatively short time and this may account for the
small number that were observed. Hrdlicka (1944, pp. 365-66)
made similar observations after his trip up the river in the summer
of 1931. The name Mulchatna is said to be derived from the
Russian words molchanie (silence) or molchat (keep silent), perhaps
a reference to the rather desolate environment.
Definite information concerning Russian exploration of the
Mulchatna is scarce. It seems certain, however, that explorers and
traders in the Iliamna Lake area penetrated the upper river in the
66
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 67
late eighteenth century and may even have followed it to its mouth
and explored part of the Nushagak (see VanStone, 1967, p. 4;
Zagoskin, 1967, p. 335). In any event, it is much more likely to
have been explored from this direction than from the south since
the early Nushagak explorers were particularly interested in the
upper reaches of that river and the route to the Kuskokwim.
In 1846 the general manager of the Russian -American Company
was considering reducing Aleksandrovski from a redoubt to an
odinochka (trail house) and subordinating it to Nikolayevski Redoubt
on Cook Inlet. At that time, Ivan Veniaminov, the Russian Ortho-
dox bishop of Alaska, instructed the missionary at Nushagak to
explore the route to Iliamna Lake so that, if the mission at Alek-
sandrovski was closed, the priest at Nikolayevski Redoubt could
visit the Nushagak River country (DRHA, vol. 1, pp. 365-366;
VanStone, 1967, pp. 26-28). Although the Nushagak mission was
never closed, it appears that henceforth the priest included the
Mulchatna in his area of influence, for beginning in 1859, the river
is mentioned in the vital statistics of the church. No names of
settlements are given; simply a reference to "Mulchatna villages."
These references continue into the first decade of the twentieth
century, but there is some indication that beginning about 1880,
one village rather than several is being mentioned.
In 1879 Bailey lists the population as being 208, all Athapaskans.
This presumably represents the number of people from the river on
the records of the Orthodox Church at Nushagak at that time
(Bailey, 1880, pp. 26-27). The tenth federal census also speaks of
villages in the plural and gives a population of 180, again empha-
sizing the fact that all are Athapaskans. If the people enumerated
at this time were indeed Athapaskans, and there is no reason to
doubt it, it would be interesting to know if any lived below the
mouth of the Kakhtul River, the traditional Eskimo-Tanaina
boundary.
Father Vasili Shishkin of Nushagak visited the river frequently
in the 1880's and probably later. In his journals for 1881-1883 he
speaks about a single Mulchatna village that was located above
the mouth of the Kakhtul and he gives the definite impression that
the Mulchatna below this point was unoccupied (DRHA, vol. 2,
pp. 144-147). By 1890 Petroff also reports that the population of
the river was very small and that these Athapaskans "pass their
winters in log houses covered with earth, but lived a roving life
68 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
during the summer, erecting a temporary shelter of poles and bark
wherever they chose to tarry on their hunting expeditions" (Petroff,
1891, p. 3).
All this would seem to suggest that the Eskimo penetration of
the lower Mulchatna is a fairly recent occurrence, perhaps having
taken place in the last 50 or 60 years. Fassett's map shows a vil-
lage, presumably Eskimo, at the mouth of the Mulchatna called
"Pahls-chat-nok" that would have been occupied around the turn
of the century. There are no references to such a village in the
sources, although there was a small trading post at the mouth of
the river in 1902 (VanStone, 1967, p. 60). In any event, a village
at this point in Fassett's time would have disappeared by now
since, as previously noted, the river banks are particularly unstable
in this area.
Since about 1940 there have been no Eskimos or Athapaskans
living on the Mulchatna. The peoples referred to by Bailey, Petroff,
and Shishkin were probably inhabitants of Tanaina Indian villages
on the upper reaches of the river (VanStone and Townsend, 1970,
pp. 21-23). The Pedro Bay Tanaina have hunted and trapped
along the upper river and many have trap lines in this area at the
present time. It seems unlikely, however, that the Tanaina regu-
larly penetrated below the mouth of the Kakhtul River, although
they may have occasionally. Eskimos did sometimes reach Iliamna
Lake and there doubtless was considerable contact between Eskimos
and Indians in this general area.
Beginning as early as 1887 there was some prospecting activity
and placer mining for gold on the Mulchatna (VanStone, 1967,
chap. V). As a result, a number of old cabins were observed at
various locations along the river. The oldest appear to be at the
mouths of the Kakhtul River and Old Man Creek. These date
back at least to the turn of the century and seem to have been
mistaken for Eskimo sites by Hrdlicka (1944, p. 366) in 1931.
No indications of Eskimo population could be seen at these locations
when I visited them in 1967. Five additional cabins between Old
Man Creek and the mouth of the river were observed. These ap-
pear to be trapper's cabins of varying ages. One or two may date
back to the early years of the century, and at least two were
said to be used by Eskimos from New Stuyahok at the present
time.
vanstone: nushagak river region 69
Site Descriptions
Dil-22 Kananakpok
Kananakpok, located on a slough of the main river, is the first
site on the Mulchatna and is situated on the left bank about 40 km.
above its mouth (fig. 3). The formerly occupied area is perfectly
flat, semi-circular in shape, and surrounded by a low, mixed forest
made up predominantly of spruce. Just downriver from the site
is a small creek called Kananakpok Creek. The cleared area is
about 200 m. in length and between 75 and 100 m. deep. At high
water the site is less than 2 m. above the level of the water. There
are no old style house pits in the area, but at least eight rectangular
cabin foundations were noted together with two standing cabins.
According to one informant, the name means "where you can see
it," possibly a reference to the location of the site along a slough
with a view out toward the main river.
In 1930 Kananakpok is mentioned for the only time in the vital
statistics of the Nushagak church. During the summer of the
following year, HrdliSka came upon the village, rather to his surprise
as he had not been told about it while in Dillingham. He referred
to it as a reindeer camp and counted nine log cabins and three
tents. At the time of his visit few Eskimos were in residence, most
of them being up the river branding reindeer. Hrdlidka was told
that most of the inhabitants of Kananakpok were not born on the
Mulchatna but had come to the river only recently. Former resi-
dents of the lower river were said to have died in the influenza
epidemic of 1918-1919. The villagers had a herd of about 800
reindeer (Hrdlifika, 1944, p. 370). A pioneer bush pilot at Dilling-
ham who has flown in the Nushagak region since the early 1930's
said that beginning in 1934 he flew regularly into Kananakpok and
that there were always a few families there until about 1940.
It is not clear whether the village was occupied the year around
or only during the summers. The impression is, however, that it
was a year around settlement with perhaps more activity during
the summer months when reindeer were rounded up and branded.
A New Koliganek informant mentioned that the site of the village
was used as a fish camp by New Stuyahok people after it was
abandoned and may even be used occasionally as such at the present
time. If Hrdlicka's figures on houses and tents are correct, it
might be assumed that anywhere from 60 to 120 persons inhabited
the settlement in the early 1930's. The total period of occupancy
would not seem to have exceeded 15 or 20 years. The site must
70 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
have been often subject to spring flooding and the slough on which
it is located is now closed at the upper end. It can be entered only
at the lower end and with considerable difficulty when the water is
high. Both these factors may have been responsible for the site's
abandonment. It is equally possible that the location ceased to be
convenient after the almost total collapse of reindeer herding in the
late 1930's (VanStone, 1967, pp. 88-89).
Dil-23 Nauluktulik
There is a small site on the right bank of the Mulchatna ap-
proximately 5 km. above Kananakpok. Four traditional Eskimo
houses with their tunnels facing down the river were on this site.
Immediately downriver from the site is a stable bluff 20-30 m. high
which slopes abruptly as a small creek enters the main river from
the northeast. The bank then rises on the upriver side of the creek
and a tongue of gradually sloping, grass-covered land on which the
structures were located is formed. The formerly occupied area is
surrounded by a thick growth of willows which are beginning to
encroach on the site.
According to an informant at Ekwok, this spot is one where
caribou crossed the river and Eskimo hunters would wait for them.
In fact, the name, Nauluktulik, means "swimming across." The
informant mentioned that there was no one living at this place
in his childhood more than 50 years ago. Hrdlicka (1944, p. 365,
fig. 215) noted the site on his way up the river and a photograph of
it appears in his book.
DU-2U Old Stuyahok (59° 45'N, 156° 50'W)
The Old Stuyahok site is situated on a small slough at the
mouth of the Stuyahok River. It closely resembles Kananakpok,
being a semi-circular clearing in the forest not more than 300 m.
long and about 75 m. deep. The foundations of from 10 to 15
small cabins placed close together could be determined and two
dilapidated cabins are still standing. It would appear that many
of the cabins were dismantled when the village was abandoned.
An informant at New Koliganek who visited Old Stuyahok fre-
quently in the early 1930's maintains that there was no kashgee,
nor does he remember seeing any old style houses. I could not see
the remains of any such houses at the time of my visits to the site
in 1964 and 1967. This is surprising since it was occupied before
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 71
log cabins were being built in the area. Old Stuyahok, like
Kananakpok, was subject to spring flooding and this is said by
informants to have been one cause of its abandonment.
In the winter of 1891 A. B. Schanz and his party visited Old
Stuyahok on their way to Lake Clark. Schanz (1891, no. 1882, p.
156) noted that while there were a number of "huts," there was
only one inhabited house in which six starving people lived. This
is the only reference to the settlement in the sources. The Stuyahok
River is shown on Fassett's map as the "Swan or Est-y-a-rok River."
In 1950 there were several elderly people living in Ekwok who had
been born in Old Stuyahok, but it is unlikely that the village was
very large during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
It may even have been totally abandoned at times, perhaps after
the great influenza epidemic.
It would seem to have been during the 1920's that the com-
munity began to grow. Two informants in Dillingham stated that
people came to the settlement from a village some 25 km. up the
Stuyahok River, but this information could not be verified. Some
may have come from settlements on the Nushagak. In any event,
the above-mentioned bush pilot who flew into Kananakpok in the
1930's, also flew regularly to Old Stuyahok and he said that during
the decade between 1930 and 1940 the settlement was a thriving
community with more than 20 occupied houses and a population
of at least 60 and perhaps many more. The most recent recorded
birth at Old Stuyahok among residents of Nushagak villages in
1964 was 1938 and the site was abandoned shortly after that date.
Informants stated that most of the inhabitants moved to New
Stuyahok which was established in 1940. Some, however, went
to Nunachuak and Ekwok. As mentioned previously, there have
been no Eskimos living permanently on the Mulchatna River
since about 1940.
It appears likely, then, that the Old Stuyahok site was occupied
more or less continuously from about 1890 until around 1940. At
the beginning it was small, but grew rapidly in the closing years of
occupation. It is possible that as many as 150 persons lived there
at one time, but most of the time the number was probably less.
HrdliSka apparently did not notice the village on his trip up the
river in 1931. This is perhaps not surprising since the settlement
is not easily visible from the main channel and may have been
abandoned or nearly so during the summer months.
Chapter 4
Village Sites On Nushagak Bay
Introduction
Nushagak Bay is a large tidal embayment about 32 km. wide
where it opens into Bristol Bay. Funnel-shaped, it narrows to about
4 km. off Dillingham at the mouth of the Nushagak River. From
Etolin Point northward there are many shifting channels and shoals
in the middle of the bay with extensive tidal flats and shoals along
the west side as far as Coffee Point. The ship channel varies but
generally lies west of the center of the bay and ranges in depth from
eight fathoms off Coffee Point to about four fathoms off Dillingham.
Tidal currents are said to be strong, with the ebb being slightly
stronger because of the current from the Nushagak and Wood
rivers (fig. 15).
The country bordering on Nushagak Bay is, for the most part,
a swampy lowland, virtually treeless and possessing a tundra type
of vegetation. Along the beach are gray silts that form the tidal
flats. Gravel beaches occur in some locations, particularly where
the land rises to form cliffs of alluvial material. The west side of
the bay northeast of the Snake River is low and tundra-covered
in some places, but rises occasionally to form bluffs 20-35 m. in
height. In the region around Dillingham stands of spruce begin to
appear and continue northward as isolated patches to the Wood
River Lakes. On the east side of Nushagak Bay the foreland rises
in gently rolling benches to a height of more than 35 m. in the vicinity
of Nushagak. The coast north of this point consists of either gravel
bluffs or moderate slopes well back from the water with a silt plain
in front of them along the shore.
Although there are no rivers of importance flowing into Nushagak
Bay along the east coast, there are two of significance which enter
the bay along the west coast not including the Wood River which
flows into the Nushagak at its mouth. The Snake River heads at
Lake Nunavaugaluk and flows southeast 73 km. to the bay. The
72
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
73
Ah-lek-nug uk
U.S. School
Cho-gi-ung ~p>
Ke-ik-dok or Sheep 17
Picnic Pt. IM-ya-gai-ak or
Snag/Plr^, Nushagak River
>/0A.P.A. Tr4p >-
Dillingham U.S. Jail -*4. Ayf*A. Trap IJ^PX
Ke-nak-e-nuk Mfrph^Trar* j£^"k.wok L
U.S. School /£^^J^?P. J^u-v.-a-rok
;Ah-lu-ta-bai-ok
Ke-ik-dung-ah-na-rok
(New Island) or Williams I.
/A.RRA.Trap>^, Hospital
/,r>r.. 7 %?• Nun-nung-y-na-hok or Ka-
A.P.P.A. 8>^Tath-le-y-kuk or Nushagak
Mai-ok-o-wik-ha-mut
M TraP
i/.Nusf
hagak
Ka-ga-luk-ha-mut
Dre-ni-ak-ha-mut
Dreniak or
Snake River
/\l-u-shuk
,or E-gu-shak R
ha-mut
Pt \\
: A.P.A.TrapU
Coffee Pt.
Clark Pt. /»>— «*,
A. PA. Trapl, U Sa
Haller Spiti'
Ekuk Pt
^Greek Church
Post Office
nu-lik or
Carmel
Misson
Etolin Point
Fig. 30. Fassett's map of Nushagak Bay (redrawn)
1.
2.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
Alaska Salmon Co., "Wood River" cannery.
Alaska-Portland Packers Assoc, Portland or "Snag Point"
cannery.
Alaska Packers Assoc, P.H.J, or "Scandinavian" cannery.
Alaska Packers Assoc, Bradford or "B.B." (reserve) cannery.
Site of C. E. Whitney & Co. saltery.
Alaska Packers Assoc, "Rohlff's" or Arctic cannery.
NorthwesternJFisheries Co., "Northwestern" or "Whaler's"
cannery.
Alaska Fishermen's Packing Co., "Fishermen's" or "Astoria"
cannery.
Columbia River Packers Assoc, "Creek" or "Combine" can-
nery.
Alaska Packers Assoc, "Clark's" or "N.C." cannery.
North Alaska Salmon Co., "Haller's" cannery.
Alaska Packers Assoc, saltery and trap.
Peter M. Nelson, saltery and trap.
74 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Igushik River heads at Amanka Lake and flows southeast 80 km.
This river was known to the Russians and appears in Tebenkov's
(1852, map 4) atlas as "R. Iguzhak."
Site Descriptions
NB-Jf. Ekwagamiut, Ekochamute
On the eastern shore of Nushagak Bay approximately 1% km.
above Nushagak and at a point where the bank recedes and turns
toward the east, is the site of a salting station and small village
(fig. 15). Dillingham informants referred to it as Ekwagamiut
and it may be the place called Ekochamute in Carmel mission
records during the 1880's and 1890's (Alaska material, box vi,
records of ecclesiastical acts, no. 3). It is shown on Fassett's map
as "I-kwok" (fig. 30). The site has no access to the water at the
present time because of the rapid growth of grass-covered tidal
flats in the area. For this reason, during surveys in 1966 and 1967,
it was seen only from the air. Presumably there was a slough by
which the site could be reached during the period of occupation.
At the south end of Ekwagamiut are the foundations of two
large, square-to-rectangular structures which presumably are the
remains of saltery buildings. The saltery was that of C. E. Whitney
& Company and was originally built and operated by the Bristol
Bay Canning Company on the Snake River in 1886. It was moved
to the other side of the bay in 1892 (Moser, 1902, p. 205). Near
the remains of the saltery buildings are two Eskimo house de-
pressions and two partially collapsed log cabins. A row of four or
five small house depressions stretch along the bank to the north of
the saltery buildings.
It is possible that Ekwagamiut was occupied by as many as 50
or 60 people at the time the saltery was in operation. In 1900 62
whites and three natives are said to have been employed in salting
fish (Moser, 1902, p. 205). The total period of occupancy, which
was probably seasonal, may cover no more than 20 or 30 years, in-
cluding the last two decades of the nineteenth century when there
were a number of salteries in Nushagak Bay.
NB-5 Tuviarok
Not more than a kilometer below Ekwagamiut is a small site
called Tuviarok by several informants in Dillingham. Like Ekwa-
gamiut, it is presently cut off from the waters of Nushagak Bay by
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 75
mud flats and was observed only from the air. Four or five small
house depressions are situated on a spit extending in a northeast-
southwest direction. The spit slopes up to the south of the houses
so that the inhabitants would have had a view only toward the
north and the northeast. The entire spit is surrounded by a grassy
plain, but a small creek still flows down from higher country to the
east and penetrates the grassy tidal flats as far as the bay. Tuviarok
is shown on Fassett's map and informants believe that it was not
occupied after about 1910. John Clark, the agent of the Alaska
Commercial Company at Nushagak in the late nineteenth century,
is said to have operated a saltery at this location. It would appear
that the site was seasonally occupied with a summer population
that is unlikely to have exceeded 50.
NB-6 Ahlutobaiok
About \}/2 km. northeast of Kanulik is another small site that
was observed only from the air. It consists of four or five small
structures on a bluff, at least some of which appear to have been
log cabins. To the north of the site the bluff is cut by a dry creek
and, like the other sites above Kanulik, this one is isolated from the
water by a broad, flat, grassy plain. A Dillingham informant
called this site Ahlutobaiok and the settlement is shown on Fassett's
map. It is said to have been occupied around the turn of the cen-
tury up to about 1910. The village is not mentioned in the vital
statistics of the Nushagak church, or in any other source with the
exception of a single reference by the Rev. Frank E. Wolff (SPG
Proceedings, 1886, p. 23) who, at the time he was constructing the
original mission buildings at Carmel in 1886, noted the presence of
a small village immediately to the northwest. Considering the
small size of the houses at Ahlutobaiok, it is unlikely that more
than 35 persons were in residence at any one time.
NB-7 Kanulik (58° 58'N, 158° 28'W)
The site of the village of Kanulik and the Moravian mission of
Carmel is located on the east side of Nushagak Bay about 6) ■> km.
above Nushagak and up a narrow slough just south of the lower
end of Grassy Island. The high bluff which is characteristic of the
shore line at the Nushagak site slopes down to the north until the
bank in the vicinity of Kanulik is no more than 10 m. above the level
of the bay. Grassy flats, cut by numerous sloughs, spread out in
front of the site. This vast area of tidal mud flats and high grass
76 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
has been steadily growing through the years. Growth has been so
extensive and rapid that the large slough, called Ralph Slough
after the cannery that formerly stood next to Kanulik, is now largely
filled. The site, which formerly could be reached by large ocean-
going vessels, is now almost completely isolated in a sea of mud
and grass, and can be reached only at high tide in a boat of very
shallow draught. This process of silting in was noticeable even
at the time the Carmel mission station was occupied and it un-
doubtedly was a factor in the eventual abandonment of the village.
The Kanulik site and mission are located on a tongue of land
with two sides formed by Ralph Slough and the third by a small
stream which cuts sharply toward the south. Near the tip of this
tongue, which rises approximately 10 m. above the tidal flats, are
the remains of the Arctic Packing Company sometimes called
Ralph's cannery, established in 1884 (fig. 31). Two dilapidated
buildings can still be seen together with pier pilings which extend
out into what once was the slough. At the northeast end of the
site near the cannery buildings 11 structures were identified, only
four of which are the remains of traditional Eskimo houses. The
others, some of which are shown in the upper left-hand corner of
Figure 31, are square or rectangular in shape and may have been
cabins or outbuildings associated with the Carmel mission. To the
south of these structures is a broad, flat, grassy area where the main
mission buildings were located. Their outlines can be seen clearly
from the air, but on the ground they tend to be obscured by thick,
tall grass. At the extreme southeast corner of the site are four
house depressions that were located on the fringe of the mission
buildings. To the east of the formerly occupied area is a relatively
low, marshy meadow which extends inland approximately 400 m.
before the land begins to rise gradually in a series of low, rolling hills.
Kanulik is mentioned in the vital statistics of the Nushagak
church for the first time in 1843 and regularly thereafter until 1916.
In the tenth federal census the population is given as 142, but this
figure may include summer residents from other villages in the
area (Petroff, 1884, p. 17). Bailey (1880, p. 26) lists 98 persons
living in "Kanovlik" in 1879, the last figures before rapid change
came to the settlement. In 1884, as previously noted, the Arctic
Packing Company established the first salmon cannery on Bristol
Bay at the village (Moser, 1899, pp. 173-174; VanStone, 1967,
pp. 67-68), and two years later the Moravian Church chose this
location for the establishment of its mission station called Carmel
c
OS
a
B
o
U
c
c
ca
O
77
78 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
(VanStone, 1967, pp. 38-40). The Rev. Frank E. Wolff, who was
responsible for the construction of the original buildings, stated
that "the spot chosen (for the construction of the buildings) . . .
stands about four hundred yards to the southwest of the 'cannery'
and about the same distance from the water's edge on the bay
side, and about two hundred yards directly back of the village
toward Nushagak" (SPG Proceedings, 1886, p. 23).
In the report of the eleventh federal census, the population of
Kanulik is listed as 54 people living in seven houses (Porter, 1893,
pp. 5, 164). Carmel is listed separately as having a population of
187 including 74 whites, 17 "Indians," and 96 "Mongolians."
The latter doubtless refer to Chinese laborers who, from the very
beginning of the salmon fishery in Nushagak Bay, were brought up
from California and Hong Kong during the summer months to
work in the canneries (VanStone, 1967, pp. 73-78). Since the
total of 243 for both Kanulik and Carmel includes both whites and
Chinese workers, the census data was presumably collected during
the summer months. The relatively small size of Kanulik suggests
that an attempt may have been made by the census enumerator to
separate summer residents from the permanent population. This
figure is more reasonable than the one in the tenth census and need
not indicate a marked decline in the population. In 1898 Elliott
(1900, p. 740) lists 124 people as living at Kanulik, a figure that
doubtless includes the Carmel mission.
In January of 1900 the Moravians collected the census and
noted that the population was growing due to the increasing ten-
dency for Eskimos to move to the vicinity of the cannery and the
mission. In that year Carmel, including Kanulik, had a population
of 151 permanent residents living in 31 houses with all the mission
buildings being counted as one. Of that number, there were eight
white families including white men married to native women and,
presumably, mission personnel (SPG Proceedings, 1900, p. 46).
Kanulik is not included in any federal census after 1890, nor is
it possible to say with certainty just when the cannery of the Arctic
Packing Company closed down. It is known to have been operating
as late as 1907 (Freeman, 1908), after the Moravians had departed,
but there is some indication that it closed shortly after that date
and definitely by 1916 (U.S. Coast Pilot : Alaska, pt. II, 1916, p. 240).
In 1900, the "Nushagak" post office was located at Kanulik (Moser,
1902, p. 201).
79
80 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
In 1896 an attempt was made to start a "new village" at Carmel
which was to be located west of the mission, the old village having
been situated to the northeast. This new village was laid out in a
straight east-west line and consisted of three log houses inhabited
by two Eskimos who were helpers at the mission and a white man
with an Eskimo wife. The experiment seems to have been a failure
as other Eskimo families showed no interest in the new village
(SPG Proceedings, 1897, p. 22; 1898, p. 27).
As far as the mission itself is concerned, in 1891 it consisted of
the original dwelling house, a school house, a large chapel, and a
garden (Schwalbe, 1951, pp. 51-52). In 1905 when Bishop J.
Taylor Hamilton visited the mission just prior to its closing he made
the following detailed observations of the physical plant:
Several houses of natives and also of white men who have married
Eskimo women stand on the Mission tract. The station itself, on a
bluff rising thirty-five feet or so above high water, consists of the
following frame or log houses. Connected by their rear extensions,
the first house, lately the house of Dr. J. H. Romig, and the former
school, containing the chapel, the hospital and the dwelling of Brother
Paul Zucher, may be described as central in relation to the group of
mission buildings. The former building is a story-and-a-half, the
latter two stories in height. The chapel occupies the eastern end of
the larger house, and has windows on the north, east and south, with
its entrance to the south. Its recently papered walls and its new,
plain, unvarnished pews make a pleasant impression on the visitor.
It can seat about seventy-five persons, with space for extra chairs.
Both buildings are furnished with cellars and are neatly painted
externally. At some distance to the north of the larger building
stands the school, of logs shingled on the outside, with a room ac-
commodating desks for twenty scholars, a wood-shed and a loft in
which supplies are stored. Closer to the larger mission-house and
somewhat to the northwest are the storehouse and barn, built of logs
and under one roof, a long low house. To the east of the group that
constitutes the mission houses proper is a workshop. A large wood
and sled-house, a frame barn and a small smokehouse, at some dis-
tance from the dwelling houses and to the southeast, not far from the
river's bank and the wharf, complete the list of buildings. Between
these last and the shore lies the mission garden proper, well fenced on
account of the dogs, and one hundred paces by twenty-six in extent.
There is also a smaller garden, or potato patch near the stable.
Finally, the mission has its wharf, built on piles — for the tide here may
sometimes make a difference of twenty-six feet — and an inclined
railway, the tracks being wooden, on which a car is drawn up onto
the bluff by means of a windlass by horse-power, in order to bring
from the boats below supplies of merchandise or fish or the wood
required by the Mission for fuel (Hamilton, 1906, p. 30).
There is a photograph of the mission buildings (fig. 32) in the
S.P.G. Proceedings (1905, opposite p. 53).
Bishop Hamilton noted further that the influence of the mission
and the cannery had had a decided effect on Eskimo housing at
Carmel and Kanulik. At least five houses built by the Eskimos
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 81
combined new ideas with old building techniques. They had
windows and were heated in winter with stoves made of sheet iron
or improvised out of five gallon kerosene cans (Hamilton, 1906,
p. 31).
In the summer of 1905 the bishop noted that about 100 Eskimos
were living in the vicinity of the mission but it is likely that the
number decreased somewhat when Carmel was abandoned the fol-
lowing year (Hamilton, 1906, p. 31). The closing of the cannery
sometime before 1916 must have caused a further decline in the
population. Many people doubtless moved to Nushagak, while
others crossed the bay to new settlements that were growing up
on the west side. It is not certain when the site was finally aban-
doned, but elderly informants at Dillingham believe that the last
families either died or moved away following the influenza epidemic
of 1918-1919.
By way of summary, it can be noted that the Kanulik site was
probably occupied at the time of first European contact in the area.
The village seems to have reached its peak in size when the Arctic
Packing Company cannery and the Moravian mission were in
operation. At least it can be said with certainty that at that time
the settlement was a focal point for a concentration of population
during the summer months. With the elimination of these attrac-
tions and the general trend for villages on the west side of Nushagak
Bay to assume greater importance, the village declined to the point
where the influenza epidemic was able to eliminate, or nearly
eliminate, the population.
NB-8 Nushagak (58° 57'N, 158° 29'W)
The Nushagak site is the most prominent feature in the Nushagak
Bay area, located as it is on a bluff much higher than the coast line
on either side of it. The fact that the slope is rather abrupt on
both sides gives the bluff its unique appearance and makes it a
definite landmark. In front of the bluff is an extensive gravel and
mud beach, the greater part of which is submerged by high tide.
In this beach area stand the remains of two canneries, both directly
in front of the bluff. During the summer of 1969 four houses on
the Nushagak site were excavated. The result of these excavations,
together with related ethnographic and historical data, will be in-
corporated into a separate study of this important trading center.
Therefore, the discussion of the Nushagak site here will be restricted
to a brief description of its physical characteristics and sufficient
82 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
historical and ethnographic background to indicate its position in
the settlement configuration of Nushagak Bay.
The site is situated about 35 m. above the beach and the ascent,
even when one of several paths are followed, is a steep one. Six
buildings still stand on the formerly occupied area including the
Russian Orthodox church of St. Peter and St. Paul, the third church
building to stand on the site since the construction of the first chapel
in 1832 (VanStone, 1967, p. 22). Between the church and the
southern end of the site, a distance of approximately 250 m., 18
house depressions were counted, a number that can be considered
only approximately correct due to the very high grass that covers
the site in summer. This number does not include the remains of
several structures on the edge of the bluff that were probably cabins
and other frame buildings built by white and Eskimo residents;
some of these may have been associated with the canneries, the
church, or stores. The area north of the church to the northern
peripheries of the site, approximately 175 m. in length, has been
considerably disturbed and it is in this area that the structures
still standing today are located. Nevertheless, three house de-
pressions could be seen and at one time there were doubtless more.
Assuming that the total of 21 traditional houses is reasonably cor-
rect, Nushagak is the second largest archaeological site seen in the
entire river system. Only Kanakanak, directly across the bay, is
larger.
Nushagak was the site of Aleksandrovski Redoubt constructed
by the Russians in 1818 and it continued to be the trading center
for the Nushagak River region from that time until well into the
American period (VanStone, 1967, pp. 49-57). No plan or detailed
description of the early Russian post exists and it is unfortunate
that buildings constructed on the site in more recent years have
obliterated indications of the older Russian structures. Conflicting
opinions have been expressed by informants with reference to these
older structures. Some have maintained that the Russian buildings
were on the beach back against the bluff where, at a later date, the
warehouses and store of the Alaska Commercial Company were
located. Others have suggested that these buildings were on the
point at the south end of the site. A careful examination of the
formerly occupied area makes clear the virtual impossibility of
locating the remains of the Russian buildings except by the merest
chance. The entire site clearly indicates the disruption caused by
the presence of two large salmon canneries in the area, both in
continuous operation for more than 30 years.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 83
Directly in back of the church building is an upward extension
of the bluff which has the appearance of a hill when viewed from the
beach. A path leads from the church up this hill and the village
cemetery is situated on top with the graves extending back onto
the tundra. A heavy growth of willows obscures most of the
cemetery and only the most recent graves are visible. In fact, by
far the greatest part of the cemetery has been totally obliterated
by the advancing willows which are moving down hill along the
total length of the site and have even encroached on some of the
peripheral structures.
It is not difficult to see why the Nushagak bluff was considered
a good location for a village and trading post. There is a com-
manding view of the entire bay area and certainly no one approaching
the river could fail to notice the location or to appreciate its ad-
vantages as a place of habitation. Fishing is good directly in front
of the site and beluga are frequently seen today along this section
of shoreline. Drinking water is available from a small stream
that flows down the bluff at the north end of the site, and there
may have been other sources of water in the general area during the
period of occupation.
The Eskimo name for the Nushagak site, as for the river, is
Tahlekuk (Porter, 1893, p. 91). The village may have been occupied
prior to the construction of Aleksandrovski Redoubt in 1818 (Tikh-
menev, 1939-41, pt. II, p. 396), although the Russians did not
normally establish their trading posts in existing settlements. The
earliest population figures indicate that in 1849 there were 74 men
and 94 women living in the community and ten years later there
were 76 men and 103 women (DRHA, vol. 2, p. 3). These figures
suggest the continued importance of the village during a period
when other posts had been established in southwestern Alaska and
Aleksandrovski was no longer as significant a trading center as it
had been between the time of its founding and 1845 (VanStone,
1967, pp. 52-54).
Sometime between 1872 and 1874, during three seasons of work
in Alaska, the historian and naturalist Henry W. Elliott visited
Nushagak and not only provided the most detailed description
ever made of the settlement (Elliott, 1875, pp. 375-376), but drew
a sketch of the village as well (p. 374). He gives no population
figures and, in fact, does not specifically refer to his visit in any
detail. However, a few years later, in 1879, Bailey (1880, pp.
26-27) lists a population of 121 for the settlement divided as follows:
84 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
33 Creoles, 12 Aglegmiuts, and 76 "Kuskoquims." These figures not
only indicate that the village maintained a fairly uniform population
throughout the Russian period, but suggest, if the proportions and
sub-cultural affiliations are correct, the extent to which migration
from the Kuskokwim was already an established fact in this area.
A noticeable jump in population for the village is indicated in
statistics obtained for the tenth federal census where 178 residents
are listed including one Euro-American, 86 Creoles, and 91 Eskimos
(Petroff, 1884, p. 17). This increase in a period of less than two
years suggests that Petroff' s figures include temporary summer
residents. The eleventh census ten years later gives a population
of 268 for Nushagak living in 25 houses. This is broken down into
64 Euro-Americans, 20 Creoles, 85 "Indians," and 99 "Mongolians"
(Porter, 1893, pp. 5, 164). If the latter category refers to Chinese
cannery workers, as has been previously assumed, this is difficult to
understand since, according to reliable information, canneries were
not established at Nushagak until 1899. In the summer of 1888
the Governor of Alaska, A. P. Swineford, visited Nushagak and
noted that the settlement consisted of a store, the church and
parsonage, a few log cabins occupied by creole families, and from
30 to 50 semi-subterranean houses (Swineford, 1898, pp. 162-163).
He says nothing about cannery buildings or employees. A final
nineteenth century population listing for Nushagak was made
by C. P. Elliott in 1898. He gives a reasonable listing of 63 men
and 58 women for a total of 121 (1900, p. 740).
In 1899 the Pacific Steam Whaling Company and the Alaska
Fishermen's Packing Company erected canneries directly in front
of the settlement (VanStone, 1967, p. 70), and these must have
had an important effect upon the village. This importance is
probably reflected in the population figures for 1900 which were
324 (Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1913, vol. Ill, p.
1134). A marked decline to 74 is noted in 1910 which may reflect
several factors, notably the season of the year in which the census
data was gathered, the exact nature of the fishing industry in that
year, and the growing importance of settlements on the west side
of the bay (Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, vol. 1, p.
1222). Regardless of the significance of these factors, however,
it is apparent that the Nushagak settlement was decidedly in
decline after 1900. In 1920 the population is given as 16 and in
1930 as 43 (Fifteenth Census of the United States: 1930, vol. 1, p.
1222) . After 1930 the village is no longer listed in the census reports.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 85
Some of the reasons for the decline of Nushagak are apparent
in the data that has been presented, but it might be well to sum-
marize them here. The two salmon canneries were abandoned
during the 1930's and this doubtless was an important factor, al-
though the settlement's decline began long before these establish-
ments ceased to operate. Of much greater significance were the
attractions of Dillingham which emerged as an important center in
the 1920's and 1930's. The population of the west side of the bay
continued to grow throughout this period at the expense of the
east side. It is probably true too that the influenza epidemic of
1918-1919 took its toll at Nushagak as it did at other villages in the
region. In 1916 Father Vasili Kashevarov, who, except for a period
of six years, had been the priest at Nushagak since 1896, died and
was not replaced. Although a respected lay reader was in residence
until 1963, people were drawn away from the historic church and
attended services at the Orthodox church near Dillingham. In
1964 there were two families with houses at Nushagak and even
they did not spend the entire year there. In 1969 only one family
remained.
NB-9 (Ungiok)
This site, which I did not see and about which no information
could be obtained from the sources, is shown on Fassett's 1910
manuscript map as being located inland in the Combine Flats area
approximately 5 km. northeast of Clarks Point. A Dillingham
informant recognized the name and noted that there were three
occupied frame houses at this location during his childhood in the
early 1920's. He thought that at one time the settlement had been
much larger.
NB-10 Stugarok, Sayuyuk, Clarks Point (58° 30 'N, 158° 33 'W)
The village of Clarks Point, about 3 km. above Ekuk, is occupied
at the present time and there are indications that its occupation
goes back at least to the end of the nineteenth century. In 1888
the Nushagak Packing Company established a cannery on the
Clarks Point spit which at that time was known as Stugarok. This
settlement is listed in the eleventh federal census as having a popula-
tion of seven living in one house (Porter, 1893, p. 164). Some
informants stated that an older village was situated on the bluff in
back of the present settlement, but others maintained that people
had always lived on the spit. In any case, no site was noted on the
86 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
bluff at the time of a rather cursory search in the summer of 1964.
A sketch map of Nushagak Bay in Moser (1902, opp. p. 196) shows a
"native village" on the bluff. This map was made in 1890 with
additions in 1900. A settlement called "Sayuyuk" is shown on
Fassett's map, but it is impossible to tell whether it is on the bluff
or the spit. The post office at Nushagak was moved to Clarks
Point in 1935 (Ricks, 1965, p. 13). It seems probable that Eskimo
occupation at Clarks Point does not precede the establishment
of the cannery by very many years. The community has continued
to be a cannery town with a large influx of population during the
summer months, but a very small number of permanent inhabitants
(VanStone, 1967, pp. 150-151).
NB-11 Ekuk (58° 49'N, 158° 33'30"W)
Like Clarks Point, the village of Ekuk is inhabited at the present
time (VanStone, 1967, pp. 151-152), but it is a^o the location of a
large and important archaeological site. The old settlement was
situated on the northern edge of the Ekuk Bluff (see Nushagak Bay
quadrangle) at the southern end of a narrow spit on which the
present-day village is located. The Ekuk Bluff runs in a north-
westerly direction to the vicinity of the site and then turns abruptly
to the east. Wave and ice action have formed a narrow spit of
gravel bars nearly 4 km. in length at this point. In back of this
spit is an extensive marshy area cut by numerous sloughs. The
spit, including the marshy area, is a little more than a kilometer in
width at its widest point.
The Ekuk site appears to have been cut back considerably by
water and ice, so much so that only a small portion remains. It is
separated into two sections by a ravine which runs down the center
and at one time contained a stream. The north side of the site is
protected by the spit and is no longer cutting. The south side is
still being rapidly cut away. A beacon light on the site is shown
on the Nushagak Bay quadrangle 100 m. back from the edge of the
bluff. In the summer of 1964 the light was about to fall over the
bank and had been replaced by another one located down on the
spit. The topographic survey on which the map is based was
conducted between 1946 and 1950.
The Ekuk Bluff in the vicinity of the site is 20 to 25 m. high and
on the south side of the ravine there are two large house depressions
close to the bank (fig. 33). On the north side an occupied house
stands at the base of the site almost in the ravine. The outbuildings
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
87
Nushagak Bay
beach
Fig. 33. Sketch map of NB-11 Ekuk. Not to scale.
and dog tethering places associated with this dwelling have destroyed
some midden. At the top of the bank and at the very rear of the
site stands a Russian Orthodox church still used by the villagers
even though it is a long way from the present-day dwellings at the
end of the spit. In front and north of this structure are many
graves. Among these graves near the front of the site are three
house pits, all with their tunnels facing the bay. On the south side
of the ravine, in the area where the bank is rapidly cutting, almost
2 m. of midden could be observed. Further to the southeast the
midden is shallower, probably not more than a meter in depth.
Bones, metal, wood, and very thick, coarse, plain potsherds were
picked out at random.
From an ecological standpoint, the location of the Ekuk site
seems to be a good one. Situated on a high bluff with a good water
supply and commanding an excellent view of the bay, the site would
appear to meet most of the desireable requirements for a coastal
settlement. Fish and beluga are plentiful in the area at the present
time and it is likely that sea mammals were abundant in the past.
A good gravel beach would have been an additional advantage.
The site may have lost some of its advantages when the spit began
to build, although the water has always remained close. However,
the cutting bank doubtless was a significant factor in the decline
of the settlement, and the presence of the cannery at the north end
of the spit would also have encouraged people to move in that
88 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
direction. Presumably such a move took place gradually. It would
appear, however, that until 1900 most Ekuk residents lived on the
bluff. The previously mentioned sketch map of Nushagak Bay in
Moser (1902, p. 196) shows the village on the bluff with no buildings
of any kind on the spit.
It seems clear that Ekuk was a large and important village
during the late prehistoric period. The earliest historic reference
to the settlement was made by the Russian naval officer Vasili
Stepanovich Khromchenko who anchored off the bluff on May 28
(OS), 1822. Residents of the village came out to the ship in baidarki
and Khromchenko, rather than proceed up the bay to Aleksandrovski
Redoubt, transferred his crew and equipment by small boat to the
post (Khromchenko, 1824, pt. 10, p. 314; pt. 11, pp. 38-40). From
that time on Eskimo guides from Ekuk were used by most vessels
bringing supplies to Aleksandrovski, their captains being unwilling
to risk running aground on the treacherous tidal flats of the bay
(Russian-American Company Records, Communications Sent, vol.
10, folio 103).
Ekuk is mentioned frequently in the vital statistics of the
Nushagak church throughout the period covered by the data; that
is, from 1842 to 1931. This being the case, it is surprising that no
other Russian sources specifically mention the settlement, although
there are frequent references in the Records of the Russian- American
Company to an Aglegmiut village, probably Ekuk, near Aleksan-
drovski. It also seems that a priest seldom visited the community.
Perhaps it was considered to be close enough to Nushagak so that
the inhabitants could be expected to come to the post to fulfill
their spiritual as well as their material needs.
Not until 1879, therefore, are the first population estimates for
the village available. In that year Bailey (1880, pp. 26-27) lists
107 inhabitants of Ekuk, 79 Aglegmiuts and 28 "Kuskoquims."
For the tenth federal census a year or two later, 112 residents were
enumerated (Petroff, 1884, p. 17). The size of the community at
that time gives some indication of the number of house pits that
have been obliterated by the cutting bank. A marked drop in the
population is noted ten years later when data for the eleventh
federal census was collected. At that time Ekuk had a population
of 65 living in six houses (Porter, 1893, pp. 93, 168). From this
time on the population of the settlement steadily declined.
An Orthodox chapel is mentioned as being located at Ekuk in
1890 (Porter, 1893, p. 183) and in 1903 the North Alaska Salmon
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 89
Company opened a cannery at the north end of the spit. It was
later sold to Libby, McNeil and Libby and is still in operation at
the present time (Cobb, 1931, pp. 462-463). Population figures
for Ekuk after 1890 are unreliable, but it is significant that official
census reports contain no figures for the community from 1890 to
1930, and again from 1940 to 1960. It is likely that between the
former set of dates the population seldom rose above 25 (Rogers,
1955, p. 4) and in 1930 the figure was 37 (Fifteenth Census of the
United States, 1930, vol I, 1931, p. 1222).
Today Ekuk, like Clarks Point, has become almost exclusively
a cannery town with practically no permanent year around popu-
lation. As might be expected from trends that have already been
noted, the attractions of developing communities on the other side
of the bay have drawn population away from this cramped, windy
spit. Nushagak itself may even have played a role in the depopula-
tion of Ekuk in the two decades before that center began to decline.
If this were indeed the case, it would explain why Ekuk's big drop
in population began after 1880 while Nushagak's did not take
place until 20 years later.
NB-12 Igushik (58° 42'N, 158° 53'W)
On the west side of Nushagak Bay there was a pattern of former
population all along the Igushik Ridge from the point marked
Igushik on the Nushagak Bay quadrangle to the first bend in the
Igushik River. The Igushik Ridge is a steep bluff which, at its
southern end, is more than 20 m. above the water level. To the
north along the Igushik River the bluff slopes away toward the
flat, marshy tundra that characterizes the banks of this river.
Although there are wide, grassy flats separating the bluff from the
beach throughout this area, it is obvious that the bluff has been
sloughing away, particularly in the vicinity of the Igushik site.
Because of tidal activity and extensive mudflats along this part of
the Nushagak Bay shoreline, access to the sites in this region is
very difficult. In spite of several efforts, I was never able to visit
the Igushik Ridge area. The information that follows, obtained
during brief air surveys in 1965 and 1967, is far from complete.
At the southern end of the Igushik Ridge is the site of the
former village of Igushik, at one time one of the largest and most
important villages on the west side of Nushagak Bay. The site
does not extend back away from the bluff to any great extent and
between 15 and 20 house depressions can be seen strung along the
90 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
bluff, close together, with their tunnels and entryrooms pointing
in every direction. There also appear to be some structures that
are not Eskimo houses; probably cabins and other buildings built
in the later years of the site's occupation. From the air the site
clearly stands out as a green area surrounded by the greenish brown,
treeless tundra that is characteristic of this section of the coast. A
cemetery is visible at the upper end of the site.
Although the Igushik River was apparently known to the Rus-
sians, there are no references to the village in sources of this period.
It is mentioned regularly in the vital statistics of the Nushagak
church between 1876 and 1894 but for reasons that cannot be
determined, there appear to be no earlier or later references. The
priest at Nushagak was apparently making regular visits to the
village by 1883 (DRHA, vol. 2, pp. 145-146) and by 1900 a chapel
had been constructed (McElwaine, 1901, p. 181). The settlement
is listed by Bailey (1880, p. 26) as having a population of 84 in 1879,
but the inhabitants were not enumerated for the tenth federal
census. However, in 1899 it had a population of 123 (Elliott, 1900,
p. 740). Apparently not long after the turn of the century the
settlement began to decline and this may be why it is not shown
on Fassett's manuscript map. In 1930 the population was 28 and
in 1940 it was 16. The community was completely abandoned,
except for occasional summer residents, not long after the latter date.
Informants noted that Igushik was hard hit by the influenza
epidemic of 1918-1919 and that fact, together with its relative
inaccessibility and the growing importance of Dillingham as a
cosmopolitan trading center for the entire area, was doubtless
responsible for the final abandonment of the village. It is unfor-
tunate that more information is not available concerning the early
occupancy of Igushik. Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to assume
that the settlement was in existence, and perhaps of considerable
size, when the Russians first came into the area. It obviously con-
tinued to be important until the beginning of the twentieth century.
NB-13 (Ahk-tung-ha-mut)
Approximately 3-5 km. above Igushik on the ridge is a small
site located along two sides of a creek that enters the Igushik River.
This creek would have provided the inhabitants with fresh water
which might otherwise have been difficult to obtain as the tide
extends well up the river. The ridge here is not quite as high as
at Igushik, but otherwise the general topography is the same.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 91
Approximately ten house depressions were observed from the air,
the greater number being downriver from the creek mouth. They
appear more rounded and less distinct than those at Igushik. A
small cemetery is located at the southern end of the site and the
graves seem to have been placed among the old houses.
This site is not mentioned in any of the sources nor could in-
formation concerning it be obtained from informants, some of whom
seemed to consider it part of the Igushik site. Fassett's map shows
two small settlements at the mouth of the Igushik River (fig. 30).
It is possible that NB-13 is the site referred to on this map as
Ahk-tung-ha-mut.
NB-H (K-lok-ha-mut)
Still further up on the right bank of the Igushik River, perhaps
3 km. above NB-13, is a site consisting of about five house pits
and a small cemetery. Like others in this area, it was observed
only from the air. This may be "K-lok-ha-mut," the second of
the two villages shown on Fassett's map. Less than a kilometer
below this site are the obvious remains of a saltery, probably the
Alaska Packers Association saltery. In the National Archives
(Record Group 22) there is an annotated copy of United States
Coast and Geodetic Survey Chart 9050 of Nushagak Bay showing
three saltery sites on the west bank of the Igushik River at its
mouth. From north to south they are the Alaska Packers Associa-
tion saltery, a Libby, McNeill and Libby saltery, and the Peter
Nelson saltery. The annotations on this map were probably made
about 1919, perhaps somewhat earlier. All these salteries were
above Igushik and it may be that both NB-13 and NB-14 were
associated with them in much the same way that NB-4 was asso-
ciated with the saltery in its vicinity.
NB-15, NB-16 (Dre-ni-ak-ha-mut)
At the mouth of the Snake River on the right bank is a very
recent site consisting of the remains of four structures, one of which
is a partially collapsed cabin. The riverbank here is low and the
site is surrounded by the typical tundra vegetation of this general
area.
About 6 km. upriver from NB-15 and on the same side of the
river is a small site on a bank about 10 m. high with about 25 m. of
grassy tidal flats directly in front of it. At the present time there is
no fresh water in the vicinity of the site and no indications of a
92 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
dried up creek nearby. The house depressions are very obscure
but there would appear to be six or seven.
Fassett's manuscript map (fig. 30) shows one site on the right
bank of the Snake River. It is called "Dre-ni-ak-ha-mut" and the
river is indicated as the "Dreniak or Snake River." The above
mentioned map of Nushagak Bay in the National Archives (Record
Group 22) a]so shows a single site on the lower Snake in approxi-
mately the same position as NB-15. This map was published in
March, 1911.
NB-17
Amost directly opposite NB-16 is a site consisting of four or
five house depressions with their tunnels facing the river. The bank
rises at this point and the site is about five meters above the level
of the river. A 3-5 m. wide stretch of grassy tidal flat extends out
in front of the site. The bank looks as though it may have cut at
one time and that the site may be smaller now than it once was.
There are clumps of willows in the vicinity and a small, stagnant
looking creek enters the river. There is also a small lake behind the
site.
It was virtually impossible to learn anything from informants
concerning these Snake River sites and they are not mentioned in
any of the sources, at least not by names that are recognizable to
me. One 65 year old Dillingham resident did mention that he
could not recall when any of them had been occupied. It seems
likely that the three Snake River sites were turn of the century
villages or camps and that all had been abandoned by 1920 or
shortly thereafter.
NB-18 Tuchuktovik
Just to the south of Coffee Point is a small site which many
informants called Tuchuktovik. On Fassett's map, however, it
is called "Ka-ga-luk-ha-mut." According to one informant, Tuchuk-
tovik means "to get across," a reference to the fact that this was a
narrow place for crossing Nushagak Bay. Here a small creek enters
the bay and although the bank in this general area rises as much as
35 m., it slopes off gradually near the creek and then rises slowly
on the other side. The bluff again attains considerable height but
then slopes off toward the flat, wide mouth of the Snake River.
The creek at Tuchuktovik, although not large, has a relatively
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
93
Nushagak Bay
«
CD
tent frames
drying racks
Fig. 34. Sketch map of NB-18 Tuchuktovik. Not to scale.
wide valley that is at least 400 m. across at the mouth and con-
tinues wide for at least 2 km. inland with gently sloping banks on
both sides.
On the north side of the creek along a low bank not more than
5 m. high and sloping toward the creek bed are the remains of six
houses (fig. 34). Four of these are small cabins banked high with
sod on all sides and retaining a few of the logs used in their con-
struction. Two shallow depressions resemble traditional Eskimo
houses with their short, wide entrance chambers facing the bay.
The structures are visible largely as a result of the sod that was
piled around them and they doubtless represent a type of Eskimo
house greatly modified by exposure to Euro-American building
practices. They may even have been above-ground log structures
covered entirely with sod and having wide storm sheds which, in a
ruined state, resemble more traditional entrance passages. In the
flat creek bed near its mouth are several tent frames and drying
racks suggesting that the site has been used as a fish camp in recent
years.
Tuchuktovik is mentioned for the first time in the vital statistics
of the Nushagak church in 1914 and is referred to in each of the
three succeeding years. However, the records are fragmentary
for the years between 1915 and 1931. One informant, born at
Togiak but a resident of Dillingham since 1922, said that one or
two families were living at Tuchuktovik when he first moved over
94 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
to Nushagak Bay. It seems unlikely that the site was occupied
for more than 15 or 20 years or that it was inhabited by more than
40 or 50 people at one time. It may have been a fish camp or spring
sea mammal hunting camp for people whose permanent homes
were farther up the bay.
NB-19 Miogavik
Six and a half kilometers northeast of Tuchuktovik at the
mouth of a small creek is Miogavik, a place name mentioned by
several informants as being the location of an old village. The
shore line is high throughout this area, just as it is to both the north
and south, ranging from 35 m. down to about 8 or 10 m. At the
location of the site the bluff slopes gradually and there is a rather
wide creek bottom. The vegetation is thin and tundra-like with
just a few scattered clumps of willows. No house pits could be seen
and it is apparent that the site has been almost completely cut
away. Near the top of the slope on the north side of the creek is a
small cemetery, part of which also seems to have been cut away.
Miogavik is mentioned in the vital statistics for the first time
in 1906 and continuously through 1915. Informants were not in
agreement about the abandonment of the site. Some said it was
wiped out during the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, while others
maintained that it had been occupied somewhat later. It was not
possible to obtain information concerning the size of this settlement,
but it probably was similar to Tuchuktovik and may also have
been a fishing and hunting camp.
NB-20 Kanakanak
The old Kanakanak site, perhaps the largest and most important
nineteenth century settlement on Nushagak Bay, is located about
1 km. south of the United States Public Health Service Hospital
and the present village of Kanakanak. Since the latter was also
occupied at the close of the nineteenth century, it is necessary to
keep these two locations separate; just one of the complicated prob-
lems of nomenclature that must be faced in discussing settlement
patterns on the northwest side of the bay.
The Kanakanak site is located at the point where a small creek
enters Nushagak Bay and creates a wide breach in the high bank
that characterizes the shore line in this area. In fact, as has previ-
ously been noted, the west shore of the bay is consistently high
from just north of Kanakanak as far south as Coffee Point. In
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
95
Fig. 35. Sketch map of NB-20 Kanakanak. Not to scale.
the vicinity of the site the bluff is 20 to 25 m. high, but it slopes
abruptly at either side of the small creek. At the creek mouth a
flat area about 50 m. wide occurs on the north side but on the south
the slope rises abruptly. Inland it turns away to the north and
south with the land rising gradually; thus a small valley is formed
through which the creek flows.
On the flat area north of the creek at its mouth stand two
sheet-metal buildings which formerly housed a small hand-pack
salmon cannery (fig. 35). The slope immediately north of this
area is covered with scrub willows, although there are occasional
open places. Due west are two small rises, one above the other.
On one of these are two house pits, and on the other two house pits
and a cabin foundation. The structures on the second ridge appear
very recent and the so-called house pits were probably above-
ground cabins with sod piled around them and small storm porches
similar to those house remains described for Tuchuktovik. One in-
formant stated that these structures were formerly occupied by
families from Nome who worked for the Kanakanak hospital just a
few hundred meters to the north, but it was not possible to verify
this information.
It is on the south bluff near the edge that most of the house
depressions on the Kanakanak site are located. Here the remains
of 20 houses could be determined and it is probable that there are
more. At the time of the survey, grass was extremely high on the
96 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
site making it difficult to obtain an accurate count of the house pits.
In the Nushagak region, archaeological survey should be carried
out as soon as possible in the spring before the grass, which covers
all historic sites, has an opportunity to grow. Far back on the
ridge to the south is a standing cabin and two cabin foundations.
At least one of the house pits toward the front of the site is in the
process of being cut away and there is every indication that much
of the Kanakanak site has already fallen into the bay. In fact,
local inhabitants who have lived in the area 30 or more years agree
that as much as 20 m. of the entire front of the site has been cut
away during their lifetime.
Some of the house pits still to be seen are quite large, their main
chambers measuring up to 6 by 8 m. Others are somewhat smaller,
the smallest being approximately 4 by 5 m. Tunnels and entry-
rooms seem to extend in every direction, but the greatest number
point north toward the head of Nushagak Bay. Well back from the
house depressions and obscured from view by a low ring of scrub
willows stands the church foundation surrounded by a small ceme-
tery. Another cemetery is located on the brow of the bluff well
back from the edge. On the face of the cutting bank it is possible
to see some midden, but not nearly as much as might be expected.
If much of the front of the site has been cut away, then pre-
sumably the largest deposit of midden has disappeared too.
With the bulk of the houses above the creek on the south bluff,
a good view up the bay was possible for the residents of Kanakanak
and perhaps more protection from prevailing storms coming from
the southeast. This is a type of protection that inhabitants of
settlements on the other side of the bay would not need. Informants
state that there was once a fair amount of sizeable timber in the
area and today, just a few kilometers north in the vicinity of Squaw
Creek, there are some stands of large spruce. At the present time,
however, the site is completely barren of trees except for scrub
alders. Inland the high grass disappears to be replaced by tundra
vegetation with occasional clumps of alders in sheltered places.
Kanakanak is mentioned regularly in the vital statistics of the
Nushagak church between 1843 and 1914. It seems certain that
the settlement was an important population center well before the
arrival of the Russians. The village is infrequently mentioned in
the journals of the missionaries perhaps for the same reason that
Ekuk is seldom mentioned; the residents were within the sphere of
influence of the church at Nushagak and were not often visited by a
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 97
priest or lay reader. However, there appears to have been a chapel
in the village by 1900 and perhaps much earlier (McElwaine, 1901,
p. 181).
The first population figures for Kanakanak are not available
until 1879 when Bailey lists 51 residents, a surprisingly low figure
for this date (Bailey, 1880, pp. 26-27). The settlement is not
mentioned in the tenth federal census, and it is apparent that
Petroff, or his enumerators, did not visit the west side of the bay at
all. In the eleventh census of 1890, the population of Kanakanak
is listed as 53 persons living in five houses, a figure that also seems
very low. After 1890 it is difficult to make reliable and accurate
statements about the population of old Kanakanak since New
Kanakanak is in existence by this time and it is not always clear
to which village the sources refer.
Taking into consideration the number of house pits now visible
on the site and the fact that many structures have been washed
away, it would seem that the settlement must have had at one
time a population of at least 150 even allowing for the fact that
all houses were probably not occupied at the same time. An elderly
informant at Dillingham said that his father had taken the census
just before 1900 and there were approximately 150 people in the
village at that time. However, he may have been referring to the
later settlement that grew up around the cannery at the mouth of
Bradford Creek.
In 1904 the Moravian Bishop Hamilton made a clear distinction
between Kanakanak and New Kanakanak, noting that the former
had a population of 40 (Hamilton, 1906, p. 39). Although sup-
porting data is lacking, it is probably true that Kanakanak reached
its greatest size before 1880 and that it was in decline by the time
Bailey collected his population data from Nushagak church records
in 1879. A new growth presumably took place after 1890 in re-
sponse to economic development on the west side of Nushagak Bay.
Unfortunately, this rapid growth cannot be documented either,
because census records fail to distinguish between the two Kana-
kanaks. A factor in favor of this point of view, however, is a state-
ment by Hrdlicka (1944, p. 380) that the village was large until
the influenza epidemic when many residents died and the rest
moved to other settlements. Informants are agreed that the site
was totally abandoned after the epidemic.
98 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
NB-21 Bradford, New Kanakanak, Olsenville
Under this site number and the next an attempt will be made
to outline the development of the major settlements on the west
side of Nushagak Bay at the present time, New Kanakanak and
Dillingham, and to straighten out the confusing nomenclature that
exists in this area. A single site number is assigned to the New
Kanakanak complex even though two settlements are involved.
However, the villages considered are in close proximity and the
growth of one has influenced the other. Actually there are few
settlement indications of an archaeological nature to be considered
in this area. The time period covered is roughly from 1886 to 1910
and, in a few instances, later.
In 1886 the Bristol Bay Canning Company built a salmon
cannery on the western shore of Nushagak Bay at the mouth of
a small creek, unnamed on maps, which some people in the area
have called Cannery Creek and others Bradford Creek. The
location of this cannery, which was referred to locally as the Brad-
ford cannery, was little more than a kilometer above the village of
Kanakanak (VanStone, 1967, p. 68). There is now a short loop road
off the main road between the Kanakanak hospital and Dillingham
at this point and a mooring place at the mouth of the creek for
fishing boats. The site of the cannery, which ceased operation in
1907 and was apparently dismantled shortly thereafter, has washed
away.
The place name Bradford occurs for the first time in the eleventh
federal census and is listed as having a population of 167; 83 whites,
1 "Indian," and 83 "Mongolians" (Porter, 1893, p. 5). Obviously
these figures are made up mostly of cannery workers, but a small
settlement appears to have grown up around the cannery, a settle-
ment that remained after the fishing operations had ceased. The
high bank on the south side of Bradford Creek was called Bradford
Point and is so named on the Nushagak Bay quadrangle. Water
towers for the cannery were located on this bank and, according
to informants, four or five families lived at this place; vague indi-
cations of their houses can still be seen.
In October of 1904 a post office was established at Bradford,
but it was given the name of Dillingham in honor of Senator William
P. Dillingham of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Committee on
Territories. In 1903 Dillingham and his subcommittee had con-
ducted an extensive tour through Alaska, the first comprehensive
investigation of Alaska by a congressional committee (De Armand,
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 99
1958, p. 39; Orth, 1967, p. 272). By 1905, New Kanakanak, as it
was coming to be called rather than Bradford, was the largest
village on the west side of the bay with a population of 120 (Hamil-
ton, 1906, p. 32), and a school had been established in the same
year. Official population figures in 1900 and 1910 have to be
questioned because of a tendency to confuse New Kanakanak with
Kanakanak and the village of Chogiung 8 km. to the north that was
also growing rapidly. It seems likely, however, that the population
varied between 140 and 170 over this period. In 1918 the Bureau
of Education building at New Kanakanak was enlarged and re-
modeled as a hospital and the following year construction was
begun on an orphanage to care for orphans created by the influenza
epidemic (VanStone, 1967, p. 104).
About a kilometer above the Kanakanak hospital and just to
the north of Bradford Creek, site of the old Bradford cannery, is a
small cluster of houses known today as Olsenville. This community
appears to have some antiquity, comparatively speaking, although
it has always been a settlement of whites and Creoles. Present
residents say that it was once much larger than it is now and it
doubtless was within the sphere of influence of the Bradford cannery
and the attendant development of Bradford, or New Kanakanak.
At one time the community was called Nelsonville, named perhaps
for Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, a member of Senator
Dillingham's subcommittee (Orth, 1967, p. 681). The name was
changed in recent years, apparently because so many Olsens live
there. Fassett's manuscript map shows an Eskimo village called
"Ke-ek-sel-hak" in this location but no information could be ob-
tained concerning it.
Olsenville, or Nelsonville, is not listed in any census reports and
its inhabitants were doubtless enumerated first with the residents
of Bradford-New Kanakanak and later with those of Chogiung-
Dillingham. An informant at Olsenville stated that her father was
born in the village in 1894. A single old cabin on the edge of the
bluff has 1903 San Francisco newspapers pasted on the wall under
the wallpaper. The area has been extensively bulldozed for the con-
struction of new houses so that there are no other remains of old
cabins. Also the bluff, about 10 m. high at this point, has cut
considerably during the period of occupation. These factors, and
the absence of information from informants, make it virtually im-
possible to estimate the population of Olsenville at the beginning
of the twentieth century. There is a small cemetery on a hill in
100 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
back of the village with burials dating back to 1913 and some un-
dated Orthodox crosses that appear to be older.
Dil-25 Chogiung, Dillingham, Snag Point
The settlement of Chogiung at the site of the present town of
Dillingham appears in the vital statistics of the Nushagak church
for the first time in 1894, although presumably the village was in
existence for some time before that date. According to informants,
the old village, which has been completely obliterated by the modern
town, was located at the front of a bluff along a gentle slope which
led to a small stream, long since filled in, flowing into Nushagak Bay.
The site apparently was an extensive one being at least 450 m. long
and as much as 200 m. deep. Informants born in Chogiung or the
surrounding area before 1918 are not numerous due to the depreda-
tions of the influenza epidemic. There are several, however, who
were born in the village near the turn of the century. They can re-
member a large number of old style Eskimo houses, but they also
remember a growing number of white residents and log cabins. The
cemetery on the bluff just above the northern end of the old village
has headstones dating back to 1883 with a particularly large number
in the decade between 1900 and 1910. Those buried there, however,
appear to be predominantly whites or Creoles. Remains of small
cemeteries with a few standing Orthodox crosses can still be seen at
several locations in town. The settlement is said to have received
its name, which means "bad water," from the fact that the only
good spring in the area was located just below one of the cemeteries
(Parker, 1951, p. 3; Anonymous, 1959, p. 9).
Perhaps the first major outside influence on Chogiung, an
influence that was to foreshadow the future importance of the
settlement, was the construction of the so-called "Scandinavian"
cannery less than 1 km. south of the old village in 1885. This was
only the second cannery to be constructed in Nushagak Bay and it
operated almost continuously for more than 50 years (VanStone,
1967, p. 68). Economic development began to concentrate in the
area and Chogiung grew rapidly at the expense of communities on
both sides of Nushagak Bay. As Rogers (1955, p. 4) has pointed
out, with economic activity increasing throughout the bay area,
it was natural that one point would develop as the economic and
population center of that area. Some time after 1904, the post
office which had been established under the name of Dillingham at
New Kanakanak was moved to Chogiung but the name Dillingham
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 101
does not seem to have been applied to the community until many
years later. A school was established at the new Dillingham in 1920.
Further confusion with regard to nomenclature is created by the
fact that the high bluff at the north end of Dillingham is called
Snag Point and is so designated on modern maps. The settlement,
in some sources, is also referred to as Snag Point. Thus it is neces-
sary to keep in mind that Chogiung, Dillingham and Snag Point
are all different names for the same community, just as Bradford
and New Kanakanak are also the same place but distinct from the
Eskimo village of Kanakanak.
As might be expected, this confusion of nomenclature makes
it difficult to use the various population estimates available for the
area, since the sources do not always correctly distinguish the various
communities and names. For example, the eleventh federal census,
as has been noted, gives a population of 166 for Bradford, but it is
not completely clear which communities are included in that figure
even though it has been assumed here to refer to Bradford-New
Kanakanak. Chogiung as a name does not occur in either the tenth
or the eleventh census. The population of "Knagnak-Chugiong" is
given by Elliott (1900, p. 740) as 140, while in 1900 a population of
145 is listed for "Kanakanak (Chogiung)" (Thirteenth Census of the
United States . . . 1910, vol. Ill, 1913, p. 1134). In 1905 Bishop
Hamilton (1906, p. 39) noted that Chogiung had a population of
40, which suggests that at that time, New Kanakanak was still the
largest community on the west side of the bay. Figures of 165 in
1910 and 182 in 1920 suggest that the population of New Kanakanak
and Chogiung were combined. Informants state that Chogiung
was particularly hard hit by the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919.
Only eight persons are said to have survived. It was not until 1930
that the Bureau of the Census correctly listed the town of Dillingham
in the census returns at which time it had a population of 85 (Fif-
teenth Census of the United States: 1930, vol. I, population, 1931,
p. 1222). After that the figures for the two settlements are again
combined but it is clear that Dillingham began to grow rapidly at
the expense of its southern neighbor (VanStone, 1967, pp. 153-155).
Before leaving the Nushagak Bay area, it is necessary to note
an old village that was reportedly located on the Snag Point bluff
north of Dillingham and slightly northwest of the old air field.
Elderly informants speak of this site as having been abandoned
long before they were born, although it seems to have been occupied
102 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
into the historic period. No traces of the site now remain as the
bluff is cutting rapidly in this area. Informants maintain that as
late as 1930 it was still possible to identify some of the old house
pits but beyond that no information could be obtained. It may be
that the old site on Snag Point overlapped Chogiung in time and,
for that matter, may even have been an extension of it.
Chapter 5
Settlements Along the Wood River
Introduction
The Wood River heads in Lake Aleknagik and flows south-
southeast 32 km. to the Nushagak River just northeast of Dilling-
ham (fig. 15). Along the lower reaches of the Wood the left bank
is low and marshy, reflecting the tidal flats type of vegetation that
characterizes the mouth of the Nushagak River. The right bank,
however, is consistently high and heavily forested with birch,
cottonwood, willow, and spruce. At the horseshoe-shaped bend
above the mouth of the Muklung River the Wood narrows con-
siderably and the bank tends to be high on both sides. Here the
water is shallow and, during mid-summer, extremely clear so that
salmon moving upstream can easily be seen. This upriver area is
consistently heavily forested as is the region around Lake Aleknagik.
Archaeological sites along the river are easily visible as cleared areas
in the forest.
The Eskimo name for the Wood River is aleknagik which simply
means "wood." The river was known to the Russians and is shown
in Sarychev's (1826, map 3) atlas where it is called the "Alyagnagik"
River and in Tebenkov's (1852, map 2) atlas where the name is
given as "Aleknagek." On Zagoskin's (1967, map opp. p. 358) map
of his explorations in 1843-1844 the section showing the "Aleknagik"
River and lake is based on surveys made by Ivan Filippovich
Vasiliev during his explorations in the summer of 1829 (VanStone,
1967, p. 10).
Site Descriptions
Dil-26
Just north of the Snag Point bluff is a small site situated on a
spit of land which at one time was the right bank of the Wood River
(fig. 15). Today the site is separated from the water by a grassy
103
104 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
plain that is more than 400 m. wide. The spit on which it is located
formed one side of the mouth of a bay which extended inland almost
a kilometer and separated the Dillingham-Snag Point area from
Wood River Village. The riverbank is 25 to 35 m. high at Snag
Point but it slowly descends until at the location of Dil-26, just
inside the mouth of the Wood River, it is about 5 m. high and slopes
off even further at the tip of the spit. The vegetation to the south
and southeast of the site is marshy in places with a thick covering
of salmon berries, blueberries, and blackberries. Dense clumps of
willows surround the site and separate the grass-covered spit from
the marshy, berry-covered area. The dry bay cuts well back to the
south so that the spit at one time must have been nearly surrounded
by water.
On the grass-covered occupation area, which appears to be
slightly less than 200 m. in length, there are four distinct house
depressions with tunnels facing the river (fig. 36). Two others are
close to the bank and appear to have been cutting out at one time.
At the extreme northwest end of the spit are a number of unidenti-
fied pits not shown on the site map.
Dil-26 was tested in 1949 by Helge Larsen of the Danish National
Museum. His party visited the Dillingham area as part of an
archaeological survey, but extensive excavations in the region were
not undertaken. Larsen (1950, p. 178) believed the site to belong
to the precontact period but did not consider it earlier than the
seventeenth century. His test cuts were small, however, and there
would not seem to be conclusive proof that the site is prehistoric.
In size and general appearance, Dil-26 resembles a number of
other sites along the Wood River. The fact that the wide, grassy
plain has apparently formed since the site's occupation certainly
suggests antiquity. Informants maintain that this grassy area
has been roughly the same size and shape for at least 60 years and
the position of the ruined Wood River cannery buildings just above
Dil-26 also suggest that this is true. It is equally apparent, how-
ever, that this type of feature can grow rapidly as it did in the
vicinity of the Kanulik site across the bay. The appearance of the
site, including the distinctness of the house depressions, is similar
to those from other parts of the Nushagak River region that have
already been discussed. It seems likely, therefore, that it belongs
to the early historic period in spite of the absence of trade goods in
Larsen's test excavations and the lack of references to the settlement
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
105
grassy plain
grassy plain
Fig. 36. Sketch map of Dil-26. Not to scale.
in historic sources. A reasonable population estimate for the village
would be between 50 and 60 persons.
Dil-27 Wood River Village, Aleknagik (59° 04 'N, 158° 26 'W)
Wood River Village, although occupied by two families in 1964,
is discussed here because it was an important population center at
the beginning of this century and is mentioned in a number of
sources. The Eskimo name for the site, like the river, is Aleknagik.
As previously noted, there are a variety of spellings for this name
on some nineteenth century maps and in the sources.
The village is located at the end of a road which connects it with
Dillingham, constructed in the early 1930's when the Wood River
cannery was still in operation (Mertie, 1938, pp. 26-27). The
right bank of the Wood River is approximately 5 m. high in this
area and there is a grassy plain about 200 m. wide which extends
in front of the bank. Northwest of the road and about 300 m.
back from the bank at the top of a gently rising slope is a small
cemetery and the foundations of a church. Almost directly opposite
the end of the road and a little to the southeast are the remains of
the Wood River cannery, established in 1901 and finally abandoned
sometime in the late 1930's. It probably did not operate continu-
ously throughout this period, however. Also to the southeast of
the road is a small cannery cemetery in which most graves date
from the 1920's, although some are earlier. Approximately 75 to
106 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
100 m. on either side of the road is a grassy area on which most of
the village structures presumably stood. No traditional Eskimo
house pits were located, but there are at least 10 cabin foundations
and the remains of several structures presumably associated with
the cannery. The entire site is about 300 m. in length.
About 450 m. northwest of the Wood River Village site a small
creek enters the river and an old reindeer cold storage building in
use about 20 years ago is situated here. Families from Ekwok
have maintained a summer fish camp at this place in recent years.
It is impossible to determine with certainty the earliest reference
to Wood River Village in the sources. It may occur in the vital
statistics of the Nushagak church as early as 1846 and it definitely
appears there in 1863. The village is not mentioned frequently,
however, and it is doubtful whether a missionary visited there often.
Perhaps he would stop in the settlement on his occasional trips up
the Wood River. In the tenth federal census the village is referred
to as "Anagnak" but it is placed incorrectly on the map; a popula-
tion of 87 is given (Petroff, 1884, p. 17, map 1). In the eleventh
census the village is shown on the map (Porter, 1893, map 1) but
there are no population figures. In 1898, however, Elliott (1900,
p. 740) lists a surprisingly high figure of 196 inhabitants for the
settlement.
In 1901 the Alaska Salmon Company constructed a cannery
at the village and Dillingham informants believe that the settle-
ment flourished after that date. One elderly informant remembers
seeing many sod-covered houses shortly after the turn of the century.
A church had been built by 1900 (McElwaine, 1901, p. 181). The
village, however, is not listed in the census reports of 1900, 1910,
and 1920, although it is shown on Fassett's manuscript map. Per-
haps census enumerators visited the settlement before or after
fishing seasons when the population was low, possibly less than 25.
In 1930 it had a population of 55 (Fifteenth Census of the United
States: 1930, vol. I, 1931, p. 1222). Informants remembered that
the influenza epidemic was particularly severe just as it had been
at nearby Chogiung. The Wood River cannery was still in opera-
tion in 1931 (Mertie, 1938, pp. 26-27), but it must have closed
shortly thereafter. These events, together with the general con-
solidation of population in and around Dillingham, were doubtless
the most significant factors bringing about the decline of the village.
It would seem that Wood River Village was perhaps more im-
portant as a summer settlement than as a place of year around
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
107
Wood River
Fig. 37. Sketch map of Dil-29 Vuktuli. Not to scale.
habitation. Although there were doubtless always some permanent
residents, informants stated that the area became a large tent city
during the summer months when families from other villages
throughout the region camped for the purpose of drying fish for
their own subsistence and to work in the cannery. This summer
activity seems to have continued until the mid-1930's after which
the closing of the cannery, camping places closer to Dillingham,
or residence in the town itself drained away most of the people
who had formerly spent their summers at the mouth of the Wood
River.
Dil-28 (Ichuak)
This site was apparently overlooked during a survey of the
Wood River in 1964, but informants noted that there had been a
small settlement at the mouth of a creek on the right bank of the
river just above Sheep Island. The village was called Ichuak and
was on a low bank surrounded by a dense growth of spruce forest.
A village with a similar name is mentioned regularly in the vital
statistics of the Nushagak church between 1891 and 1912 but the
identification is not certain and the site is not shown on Fassett's
map.
Dil-29 Vuktuli
On the right bank approximately 4 km. above the mouth of the
Muklung is Vuktuli, next to Wood River Village, the best docu-
108 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
merited site on the river. The bank here is about 7 m. above the
level of the water and is cutting. A wooden tent frame stands near
the front of the site behind which are four well-defined house pits
with their tunnels pointing toward the bank and downriver (fig. 37).
To the south the bank slopes abruptly and there is a low, willow-
covered area which was probably once a creek bed. Birch and
willows surround the site along with a number of tall spruce trees.
The area of former occupation is approximately 140 m. long and
50 m. deep.
Vuktuli is mentioned frequently in the vital statistics of the
Nushagak church between 1859 and 1866. However, it would
seem to have been occupied, at least sporadically, for a considerable
period after that date. The only population figures for the settle-
ment are given by Bailey (1880, pp. 26-27) in 1879; 34 residents
are listed. A village called "Vuikhtuligmute" is shown on Petroff's
(1884, map 1) map, but it is located on the north shore of Lake
Aleknagik and no population figures are given. Vuktuli is not
mentioned in the eleventh federal census but it does appear on
Fassett's map as "Vukh-du-li." Thus it would appear to have been
occupied as late as 1901.
Dil-30 (Kaokliok, Nu-nuth-ha-mut)
On the left bank of the river about Q}/2 km. above Vuktuli is a
small site situated on a sloping, grass-covered bank approximately
15 m. above the river level. In this area the river makes a big
horseshoe bend from the northeast to the northwest and then to the
southwest. From the site there is a clear view downriver about 2
km. to the next bend, but no upriver view at all. The bank is not
cutting and the river is very shallow in front of the site. At the
top of the slope are two large house pits with their tunnels pointing
downriver. In back of one of these houses are the remains of a
small cabin, some logs of which are still in place (fig. 38). To the
right of the house pits looking downriver is a clump of small birch
trees and an outcropping of rock. The thick grass that covers the
formerly occupied area does not extend far beyond the house pits
and the peripheries of the site are heavily wooded.
Informants called the site Kaokliok, but it is not mentioned
under this name in any of the sources. On Fassett's map there is
a village designated "Nu-nuth-ha-mut" in this location. This
village and Vuktuli were apparently the only occupied settlements
on the river when Fassett collected the data for his map in 1901-
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
109
^
Wood River
\ rocli
o
\
S N.
\ small \
cabin
\
I
Dircn irees \
grass and moss\
Fig. 38. Sketch map of Dil-30 (Kaokliok). Not to scale.
1902. Like other sites along the Wood River, this one may have
been a summer fish camp. The houses and cabin would appear to
have accommodated from 20 to 30 people.
Dil-31 (Pikchivik)
From 3-4 km. upriver beyond Dil-30 and on the same side is
a flat, cleared area about 50 m. in length and 25 m. wide which
has been designated Dil-31. The site is covered with small pits,
but no house depressions could be identified. The riverbank in
this area is approximately 7 m. above the water level. Informants
called this place Pikchivik and said that it had always been known
as a good location for picking berries. In late summer, after people
had put up their dry fish and were on their way home, they would
frequently stop here to pick berries. The site may also have served
as a fish camp from time to time.
Dil-32
About lj/9 km. above Dil-31 on the same side of the river is a
long, narrow site at the point where the river makes a big bend to
the west. The formerly occupied area appears to be almost 400 m.
in length but nowhere does it exceed 35 m. in depth. Heavy forest
growth surrounds the grass-covered site and the riverbank is cutting
rapidly. Of all the former settlements observed in the Nushagak
River region, this one is one of the more puzzling largely because
110 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
of the difficulty of identifying individual houses. Nevertheless,
it seemed possible to make out 12 house pits strung along the bank.
In addition, there are many pits of varying sizes and these add to
the confusion in identifying houses. No midden material could be
seen weathering out along the extensively cutting bank.
Informants were not able to give a name for this site, but they
seemed of the opinion that it was very old. Hrdlicka (1944, p. 377)
appears to have examined it in 1931 and he mentions more than 20
houses. This is by far the largest site on the Wood River. It does
not differ essentially from the sites previously described except for
the difficulty in determining the outlines of the structures. Al-
though this site does not give the impression of antiquity, it never-
theless may belong to the prehistoric period.
Dil-33 (Tutgaralukilgik)
This is a small site on the right bank of the river less than 2 km.
below the entrance to Lake Aleknagik. It is situated on a flat bank
about 8 m. above the river and is approximately 75 m. long and
perhaps 15-25 m. in depth. There are two large house pits on the
site as well as a number of sizeable rectangular pits. The former
are very indistinct and in that respect somewhat resemble those
at Dil-32. A heavy growth of spruce and cottonwoods surround
the formerly occupied area, but there is a reasonably good view
along the river in both directions.
Informants maintained that the site was called Tutgaralukilgik
and they told of a legend concerning an old woman and her grandson
who used to live there. The old woman is supposed to have blown
on the cottonwood trees that surround the site in order to make
their branches turn up in the manner that is actually characteristic
of the trees here. A single reference in the vital statistics of the
Nushagak church in 1863 seems to approximate the name of this
site, but whether or not it is the same village could not be definitely
established.
Chapter 6
Settlements On the Wood River Lakes and Tikchik Lakes
Introduction
Perhaps the most interesting geographical and geological feature
of the Nushagak River region is the series of parallel lakes that
drain all of the eastern slope of the Kilbuck Mountains. The six
northernmost lakes are known as the Tikchik Lakes. From north to
south these are Lakes Nishlik, Upnuk, Chikuminuk, Chauekuktuli,
Nuyakuk, and Tikchik. Lake Nuyakuk, with an area of 171 km.,
is the largest of this group. Tikchik Lake is really the lower end
of Lake Nuyakuk, but because of the bedrock peninsula that almost
separates them, it has been given a separate name (Mertie, 1938,
p. 15). Lakes Nishlik and Upnuk discharge into the Tikchik River
which empties into Tikchik Lake. Lake Chikuminuk discharges
into the Allen River which in turn empties into Lake Chauekuktuli.
Lake Chauekuktuli discharges through a short stretch of swift water
into Lake Nuyakuk. Tikchik Lake, therefore, eventually receives
the water from all five lakes. It drains into and is the source of the
Nuyakuk River (figs. 2, 39).
The northern region of the Tikchik Lakes above the mouth of the
Allen River is not included in this study. Apparently salmon do
not go into lakes Chikuminuk, Upnuk, and Nishlik in any great
numbers to spawn and informants maintained that there would be
little, if any, evidence of historic human occupation in this area.
South of the Tikchik Lakes is another group of four bodies of
water known as the Wood River Lakes. These, named in order from
north to south, are lakes Kulik, Beverley, Nerka, and Aleknagik.
They are connected with one another by short, fast rivers. Lake
Aleknagik receives the water from the other three and discharges
into the Wood River.
The higher parts of the Kilbuck Mountains considerably west
of the area considered here are composed of sharp, ragged divides,
pointed peaks, and high alpine valleys. Where the mountains meet
ill
112 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
the lakes, however, they are lower and still further east in the inter-
lake area their tops are either flat or rounded in outline. In many
places these rounded hills occur as isolated buttes or groups of
several buttes separated from one another by broad, low, alluviated
valleys. The eastward extension of these hills project outward into
the lowland of the Nushagak River (Mertie, 1938, pp. 14-15).
Site Descriptions
Dil-SU Imiak (59° 17'N, 158° 36' W)
At the headwaters of the Wood River on the north shore of
Lake Aleknagik is a large, well-known site called Imiak (fig. 39).
Here a point of land juts out into the lake and a gentle slope rises
about 15 m. above the water. All indications are that the site was
on the lower part of this slope, perhaps not more than 5 m. above
the level of the lake. It has been largely obliterated by the con-
struction, around 1945, of a Seventh Day Adventist mission school
(VanStone, 1967, pp. 155-156). This is an excellent location for
fishing as well as affording a commanding position in terms of up-
river traffic.
Imiak appears to have been an important settlement during
the early Russian period as it is shown in Tebenkov's atlas (1852,
chart 4). The village is also shown on Fassett's map where it is
recorded as "I-gi-ahk," and on a sketch map of the Wood River
and Lake Aleknagik in Moser (1902, opp. p. 200) drawn in July,
1900. The site is mentioned by Baker (1902, p. 215), Cobb (1907,
p. 33), and Bower (1924, p. 42). There are, however, no references
to the settlement in the vital statistics of the Nushagak church nor
is it mentioned in the tenth and eleventh federal census reports.
The only possible population estimate is Elliott's (1900, p. 740)
reference to a village called "Alaknak" located "on Wood River
Lake" and inhabited in 1898 by 114 persons.
Informants maintain that Imiak was the most important village
in the area and, in fact, suggest that those sites along the upper
Wood River (Dil 30-33) were simply "out camps" where Imiak
people fished or perhaps trapped in winter. The village is said to
have been virtually wiped out by the influenza epidemic of 1918-
1919. At that time cannery workers from Nushagak Bay went up
to the settlement and found only one infant alive. They poured
gasoline on the bodies in the houses and burned them.
10 Km.
35
(Koyagamiut)
Dii-34 Imiak
Wood R.
Fig. 39. Map of the Tikchik Lakes and Wood River Lakes.
113
114 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Dil-35 (Koyagamiut)
This small site is mentioned by Hrdlidka (1944, p. 376) as being
opposite "Smith's place," now the village of Aleknagik (VanStone,
1967, pp. 155-156). Its existence was confirmed by informants,
although the site has been obliterated by buildings and gardens.
The settlement was located on a small point of land with a gradual
rise of about 10 m. This point forms the northeast corner of a small
bay-like area at the east end of Lake Aleknagik. The area would
have had definite advantages for fishing since nearly all the salmon
coming up the Wood River to spawn in the lakes could be con-
trolled at this point. It is not difficult to imagine the huge numbers
of fish that could be taken in this headwaters area before they had
an opportunity to spread out into the main body of the lake. In-
formants called this site Koyagamiut. It is not mentioned in any of
the sources nor is it shown on Fassett's map or the above-mentioned
sketch map of approximately the same date in Moser (1902, opp. p.
200).
Dil-36 Agulowak
The Agulowak site is close to the mouth on the right bank of the
Agulowak River which connects lakes Nerka and Aleknagik. The
name is said to mean "many rapids" (Fassett's map), an apt de-
scription of this river. The bank in the vicinity of the site is low
and flat, not more than 2 m. above the river level. Spruce, cotton-
woods, and alders are plentiful in the area but they do not appear
to be encroaching on the site to any great extent. There is a small
island just opposite the former settlement and a sizeable stand of
willows has grown up in front along the riverbank partially obscuring
the view toward the lake.
Six large house pits appear like small mounds on the relatively
flat surface of the site and there are at least three more which are
less well defined. The large structures are very deep and one of
them could have been a kashgee. Tunnels with entryrooms face
either the riverbank or the lake, the latter being about 400 m. to
the southwest. There are low areas between the structures sug-
gesting that there is probably very little midden deposit on the site
except in the immediate vicinity of the houses. In addition to the
nine Eskimo structures identified, the remains of two log cabins
were also noted.
Although Agulowak appears to have been a fairly sizeable and
important settlement during the nineteenth century, there are few
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 115
references to it in the sources. It is not mentioned in the Nushagak
church records, nor were its inhabitants enumerated in any census.
The village is shown, however, on Fassett's map as "Ah-guh-le-puk,"
and on the sketch map in Moser (1902, opp. p. 200). Thus it would
appear to have been occupied at the beginning of the present cen-
tury. Hrdlicka (1944, p. 379) visited the site in June, 1931, and
spent two days excavating for burials. However, he gives no de-
scription of the settlement. It would appear that Agulowak might
have had as many as 100 inhabitants at the height of its importance
which is likely to have been in the last two decades of the nineteenth
century.
Dil-37 Agulukpak
The best documented site in the lakes area is Agulukpak, located
at both ends of a short river of the same name that connects lakes
Beverly and Nerka. This river is typical of those which connect
the Wood River Lakes and Tikchik Lakes. It is comparatively
wide, swift, and very shallow with a heavy growth of willows, alders,
spruce, and birch along the banks. Within a short distance of the
riverbank and lakeshores, however, the timbered area quickly gives
way to tundra.
At the upper end of the river where it flows out of Lake Beverly
there is an extensive cleared area on both sides. The grass-covered
banks rise sharply to a height of about 10 m. and on the left side
of the river there is a single house pit located well back on top of
the bank. The remainder of the large cleared area may have been
covered with fish drying racks or perhaps tents. Across the river
the cleared area is a^o large and there are four poorly defined house
depressions on the brow of the steep bank some distance from the
water. These structures were more or less in a straight row with
their tunnels facing the lake.
At the lower end of the Agulukpak River the banks are flat on
both sides with spruce and cottonwoods growing close to the shore
of Lake Nerka. Here the site is on the lakeshore about 3 m. above
the water level and 400 m. west of the mouth of the river. The
formerly occupied area is about 100 m. long and 75 m. wide. There
are four large, well-defined house depressions, each at least 6 m.
square, three of which have their tunnels and entryrooms facing the
lake; the tunnel of a fourth structure parallels the lake to the west.
In addition to the obvious house pits, there are two deep rectangular
structures lacking entrance tunnels. The site is high enough above
116 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
the lake and the surrounding country to suggest that there may be
some midden deposit.
In terms of appearance, that part of the Agulukpak site at the
north or upper end of the river appears to be the oldest. This is
confirmed by elderly informants who maintain that in their youth,
shortly after the turn of the century, the only occupation was at
the lower end. A village called "Ahkoolichpuk" is said by Bailey
(1880, pp. 26-27) to have had a population of 52 in 1879. In the
tenth federal census Petroff (1884, p. 17) lists the village of "Akuli-
akhpuk" with 83 inhabitants while ten years later in 1890 there
were 22 residents in the settlement of "Agulukpukmiut" ; four
families in three houses (Porter, 1893, p. 5). The village is not
mentioned in later census reports, but it is shown on Fassett's map
as "Ah-guh-lok-puk." He indicated occupation at the south end
of the river only, suggesting that the northern part must have been
abandoned at least by 1900 and probably earlier. It is likely, how-
ever, that this area continued to be the location of fish camps,
probably until the entire site was abandoned and possibly later.
The date of this final abandonment of Agulukpak cannot be deter-
mined from the sources. Several informants were born in the village,
one as late as 1904, and it may be that the community continued to
be occupied until the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919.
Dil-38 (Gui-guok-lok-puk)
There is a small site on the shore of Lake Beverly about 400 m.
west of the mouth of the Peace River. The land is low in this
area but rises abruptly not far from the lakeshore. There are two
house depressions approximately 5 m. square with their tunnels
facing the lake. These structures are located on a slight rise about
2 m. from the lakeshore and appear to be quite recent. The entire
area of occupation is no more than 75 m. long and about 50 m. wide.
A heavy growth of spruce and cottonwoods surround the site.
Although Dil-38 cannot be of great age, the settlement is not
mentioned in any of the sources and it proved difficult to learn much
concerning it from informants. An old man, born in the late 1870's
and currently living at New Koliganek, seemed certain that there
was no one living there when he was a young man. On the other
hand, a site called "Gui-guok-lok-puk" is shown in this location on
Fassett's map. The appearance of the site suggests occupation in
this century by not more than 20 or 30 persons.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 117
Dil-39
There are two small houses almost at the mouth of the Tikchik
River on the left bank. The four center posts in both structures
are still standing, suggesting that they are of no great age. The
riverbank in this area is relatively flat with a scattering of spruce
trees. According to an informant at New Koliganek, he and his
family lived at this site during the winter for a period of 12 or 13
years beginning about 1916.
Dil-UO Tikchik (59° 59 'N, 158° 22 'W)
The Tikchik village site, which was excavated in 1965 (VanStone,
1968b), is located on the left bank of the Tikchik River about 2 km.
above its mouth. The old settlement appears as a cleared area
roughly 90 m. long by 38 m. wide on a low bluff about 43 2 m. above
the level of the river. In the general area of the site the bank is
relatively high only at the location of the village and for about
one-half kilometer to the south. Below and above this point the
land is low and a heavy growth of alders borders the river on both
sides. Directly opposite the site the bank is also very low and there
is dense alder growth. Thus, in the general area, the settlement
was located at the only place suitable on either side of the river.
The village was situated so as to afford a good view down the
river toward Tikchik Lake. The riverbank rises gradually to a
crest at the very rear of the site which is approximately 10 ! j meters
above the level of the river rising to 15 m. in the eastern corner.
Four house pits are located near the front of the site not far from
the bank, while the other six and two kashgees are clustered toward
the rear near the crest of the rise (fig. 40). The prominent location
of the larger kashgee on the highest point in the general area adds to
its impressiveness.
Vegetation in the area consists of spruce, birch, willows, and
alders. The latter two virtually surround the site and behind them
is an extensive stand of spruce. Although willows and spruce are
slowly encroaching on the site, 65 years after abandonment this
encroachment has made no real progress. It is not difficult to
imagine, however, that within another 200 years the site may be
completely tree-covered.
Tikchik was apparently an important village but there are few
references to it in the sources. The settlement is mentioned, how-
ever, by Vasiliev at the time of his first attempt to penetrate to the
118
FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Fig. 40. Map of Dil-40 Tikchik.
interior of southwestern Alaska (VanStone, 1967, pp. 9-10; 1968b,
pp. 223-224). In the summer of 1829 he ascended the Nushagak
and Nuyakuk rivers to Tikchik Lake at which point his Aglegmiut
guides refused to go farther because of their fear of the Kuskowaga-
miut. The party then stopped at a settlement called "Tuksa" and
Vasiliev attempted to persuade some of the inhabitants to guide
him across the mountains to the Kuskokwim River. This they
refused to do and the party was forced to return to Aleksandrovski
Redoubt (Russian- American Company Records: Communications
Sent, vol. 6, no. 244, folio 478). It seems certain that the village
referred to as "Tuksa" is actually Tikchik since it is described as
being in approximately the correct location.
The settlement is first mentioned in the vital statistics of the
Nushagak church in 1847 and residents continue to be listed more
or less regularly until 1882. There is some indication that the
village may have been visited by a missionary as early as 1850.
Unfortunately, Tikchik does not appear in any of the census enu-
merations of the late nineteenth century. It was probably too far
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 119
inland to be easily accessible. The settlement is incorrectly located
on Petroff s map (1884, map 1) and there is no reference to it in the
text. The only population listing is Bailey's (1880, pp. 26-27)
figure of 31 in 1879. This seems low in light of the appearance of
the site today. There is no reason, however, to believe that all of
the houses, the remains of which are presently visible, were occupied
at the same time.
An informant at New Koliganek reported that her father, who
had lived at Tikchik as a young man, often told her that many
residents of the settlement had died from illnesses before he was
born. The population was virtually wiped out by the "great sick-
ness," as the influenza and measles epidemic of 1899-1900 is known
locally. A single family survived and moved away shortly thereafter.
Burials found on the benches in three excavated structures give elo-
quent evidence of the depredations caused by epidemics (VanStone,
1968b, pp. 260-261, 350-351). Tikchik village is shown on Fassett's
map as "Tuk-shik-ha-mut." It had just been abandoned at the
time he was collecting his data.
Tay-2
Although there apparently were no settlements at either end
of the short stretch of water connecting Nuyakuk Lake and Lake
Chauekuktuli, there is a small site just west of the mouth of the
Allen River. The land is low in this area and the mouth of the
river is segmented by several small islands. The site is probably
not more than 150 m. long, 50 m. wide, and about 2 m. above the
water level. There are three small house depressions with their
tunnels facing the lake. Informants could no longer remember
the name of this settlement and even the oldest could not recall a
time when it was occupied. It may have been a winter camp for
Nushagak River residents, and it is doubtful if it was ever inhabited
by more than 25 persons.
Chapter 7
Analysis and Conclusions
Settlement Typology
In the introduction to this report some attention was paid to
settlement pattern classifications developed by Chang (1962) and
Beardsley et. al (1956). Both systems are clearly applicable to
data that have been presented in previous chapters. In this section
some aspects of these data will be discussed in terms of the two
typologies.
The settlement classification developed by Chang with reference
to circumpolar societies appears to fit the circumstances that existed
in the Nushagak River region during the historic period. This area
conforms to Chang's definition of an annual subsistence region and
the various sites that have been described can be designated as
seasonal settlements within this region. Some of the village sites
along the Nushagak River and its tributaries, as well as on Nushagak
Bay, can be identified as sedentary seasonal settlements since they
were occupied for lengthy periods of time and their value as fishing
sites made it possible for their inhabitants to return year after year
for the summer salmon fishing even though they may have spent
other parts of the year hunting and trapping in the interior. The
fact that some of these settlements were occupied during the winter
months also emphasizes the sedentary inclinations of the inhabi-
tants. It is probably true, as previously noted, that the residents
of Nushagak Bay settlements were more sedentary than inhabitants
of the river and Lakes villages. Here the significance of sea mammal
hunting as well as summer fishing created an element of stability in
the settlement pattern that did not exist elsewhere.
When it comes to a consideration of Chang's distinction between
sedentary seasonal settlements with permanent bases and those
with transient bases, the situation is less clear. The question here
concerns the length of time that a seasonal settlement must be
occupied before it can be considered as a permanent base. It is
120
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 121
true that a number of settlements in the Nushagak River region
were occupied for no more than 20 or 30 years and sometimes even
less. Their occupancy, however, was probably continuous and the
reasons for their abandonment can usually be attributed to some-
thing other than a decline in the economic potential of the locale
or the exploitative abilities of the occupants. In fact, it was more
often factors external to the culture which caused the abandonment
of the sites. This being the case, and given the yearly predictability
of the salmon runs, it would appear reasonable to consider a majority
of the Nushagak area villages as having been sedentary settlements
with permanent bases.
There are, however, at least 24 sites discussed in the previous
pages that would appear without question to qualify as seasonal
settlements with transient bases. These are the hunting and
fishing camps that were probably occupied at irregular intervals.
On the Nushagak River and its tributaries seven sites (Dil-2-3, 9,
17-18, NB-2-3) have been tentatively identified as summer fish
camps, while one (Dil-14) was apparently occupied for a brief
period in the fall. On Nushagak Bay seven settlements (NB-4-5,
13-17) may have been associated with seasonal commercial fishing
activity and thus occupied only when canneries or salteries were
in operation. An additional two (NB-18-19) were probably sub-
sistence fishing or spring sea mammal hunting camps. Most of the
Wood River sites may have been fish camps and it has been noted
that those along its upper reaches (Dil-30-33) were possibly used
seasonally by residents of Imiak on Aleknagik Lake. In the Lakes
area one site (Dil-35) is likely to have been a fish camp, while at least
two (Dil-39, Tay-2) were occupied by hunters during the winter.
It is unfortunate that the distinction between the two types of
seasonal settlements cannot be drawn more accurately. On the
basis of appearance alone, however, it proved impossible to dis-
tinguish with certainty between small seasonal settlements with
permanent bases and intermittently occupied fishing or hunting
camps.
The Beardsley concept of community pattern, similar to Willey's
definition of settlement pattern quoted in the introduction, com-
bines the cultural ecological factors and the sociological factors
which Chang sees as characterizing the distinction between settle-
ment and community patterns. The Central-Based Wandering
type, as defined by Beardsley and his colleagues, closely fits the
seasonal cycle of the Nushagak River Eskimos. This form of
122 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
settlement pattern was possible because of the abundance of fish
that were the most predictable aspect of the economy from year
to year. Fish were taken in large numbers, dried, and stored
against shortage of other foods during the remainder of the year.
To some extent, this is still the pattern of subsistence at the present
time (VanStone, 1967, pp. 137-138).
At the same time, however, the type of inland hunting practiced
by the nineteenth century inhabitants of the area necessitated the
breaking up of the community into small functional groups that
wandered over the interior in search of caribou, moose, and other
wild game. These small groups, in some cases perhaps not more
than a single nuclear family, also functioned as trappers throughout
the contact period. In fact, the advent of trapping probably fos-
tered a more complete segmentation of the communities than had
occurred during the pre-contact period. These smaller segments
undoubtedly were economically self-sufficient when away from their
central bases, and the importance of individual trapping skill is
likely to have emphasized this self-sufficiency.
With these factors in mind, therefore, it is apparent that the
Eskimos of the Nushagak River region were Central-Based Wan-
derers inhabiting an area that can be called their annual subsistence
region. They occupied sedentary seasonal settlements with perma-
nent and transient bases. Inhabitants of the Nushagak Bay area,
while exhibiting all the characteristics just mentioned, were some-
what more sedentary than the river people because of previously
mentioned characteristics of their ecological setting. This was
probably also true of some settlements in the Lakes area. In-
formants noted, for example, that Tikchik was virtually a year-
around settlement. There was good caribou hunting and trapping
in the immediate vicinity of the village which, when combined with
extensive salmon runs in the Tikchik River in July and August
and the good winter fishing for whitefish and trout in Tikchik Lake,
allowed the residents to practice all the subsistence activities that
were characteristic of riverine Eskimos without making long trips
away from the village (VanStone, 1968b, p. 348).
Prehistory in the Nushagak River Region
Although this study is concerned specifically with the historic
occupation of the Nushagak River region, it is necessary to spec-
ulate briefly concerning the prehistoric base on which this occupa-
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 123
tion was founded. Very few indications of a prehistoric population
were encountered during the extensive surveys that were under-
taken during five summers of field research. One reason for this,
of course, is that the special focus of the project precluded a sys-
tematic search for evidences of such occupation. Nevertheless, it
is apparent that historic settlements in the region were characterized
by a special set of features and that these could be recognized again
and again as the various villages of the contact period were visited
and described. These features included location along a present
riverbank or lakeshore, the existence of cleared areas covered with
a thick growth of tall grass, house depressions that were usually
easily identifiable, deep, and distinctly outlined, and the general
absence of extensive midden deposits.
Since all the sites described in previous chapters exhibited, to
a greater or lesser degree, the characteristics just mentioned, it
follows that prehistoric sites in the area must be quite different in
location or appearance or both. Another alternative, of course, is
that there was no prehistoric occupation of the region and that the
area was uninhabited until penetrated late in the prehistoric period
by peoples moving inland from the coast. For reasons that will be
examined shortly, this does not appear likely. Therefore, it would
seem worthwhile to at least speculate on what prehistoric sites in the
Nushagak River region might look like and where they might be
located.
During the initial survey of the Nushagak River in the summer
of 1964 one site was located which differed from those that have
been described in previous chapters. This was a small settlement
of four houses on a bluff at the location of New Koliganek. At this
point a small creek, now practically dry, flows into the Nushagak
and its right bank rises abruptly to a height of 15 m. or more. The
house depressions were set 10-15 m. back from the riverbank and,
with one exception, their tunnels faced inland toward the creek
which runs parallel to the main river for a short distance before
emptying into it.
The most significant fact about this site is that a person ap-
proaching by water or air today would see no evidence of human
occupation at this location. Instead of being covered with a thick
growth of tall grass like other sites that have been described, the
undergrowth resembled that of the surrounding tundra. In addi-
tion, large spruce trees were growing out of the house pits and the
pattern of tree growth was the same on the site as it is all along the
124 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
riverbank in this area. On close observation, the location does
appear satisfactory for human habitation because the bank is high
and there is a stream entering the river. Many historic sites along
the Nushagak are similarly located. It is probable too that the
stream was much larger when the site was occupied and would have
provided clear drinking water and perhaps a sheltered place for
keeping boats.
This interesting site was discovered by accident while I was
taking an evening stroll in the vicinity of New Koliganek. Two of
the structures were tested rather extensively, but no artifacts were
recovered. By 1969 the site had been destroyed as a result of the
expansion of New Koliganek. It was completely unknown to
informants.
The right bank of the Nushagak River is stable throughout the
greater part of its length as far as its confluence with the Nuyakuk;
the bank is high in most places. It is likely, therefore, that pre-
historic sites similar to the one just described might be located
along this bank. Any search for such sites would have to pay
special attention to the type of environment in which historic sites
are situated: high banks at or near points where small creeks enter
the river. Such places would have to be investigated even though
they were heavily overgrown with trees and other vegetation. An
observer should expect the surface indications of prehistoric sites
along this right bank to resemble those just described for the site
at New Koliganek as well as the presumably prehistoric parts of
such settlements as Agivavik (Dil-11), Nautauagavik (Dil-18), and
Dil-21.
The left bank of the river is low, although there is slightly higher
country resembling an old riverbank to the east. Prehistoric sites
might be located on these higher ridges. Again such sites would be
difficult to find unless the investigator could make shrewd guesses
based on knowledge of settlement patterns in historic times. It
should be emphasized, however, that such guesses would presuppose
a way of life in the prehistoric past not greatly different from that
practiced by Eskimos in the area at the time of historic contact. A
population relying more on hunting than on fishing might not neces-
sarily occupy the riverbanks but perhaps would be more likely to
frequent the higher country to the north in the Nushagak Hills
outside the area covered by this study.
As far as the Mulchatna and Wood rivers are concerned, the
same factors that have been discussed for the Nushagak apply.
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 125
In the Lakes area the situation is less clear. It might be assumed,
however, that the most favorable locations for prehistoric settlement
would be the same as those utilized by historic peoples. On Nu-
shagak Bay the old sites have long since been cut away as the shore
line is constantly changing in this area. It seems clear, however,
that such settlements as Ekuk (NB-11), Igushik (NB-12), and
Kanakanak (NB-20) had prehistoric components and others may
have too.
The length of time that might be required for an abandoned
village along the rivers of the region to become completely over-
grown with trees and undergrowth is important. With reference
to Tikchik (Dil-40), it has been noted that although there has been
some encroachment by willows and spruce since the settlement was
abandoned nearly 70 years ago, the cleared area is essentially the
same size it was when the last residents moved away shortly after
the measles and influenza epidemic of 1899-1900. While some
encroachment was noted at other sites in the area, at none had it
progressed to the point where the formerly occupied area could be
said to be even partially hidden from view. Although encroach-
ment, once begun, might progress rapidly, it seems certain that any
site in the area would have to have been totally abandoned for at
least 200 years and probably longer before the natural vegetation
completely reasserted itself. It is difficult to believe that an area
as rich in fish and game as the Nushagak River region was not
occupied extensively and for a long period of time before the begin-
ning of the historic era. Prehistoric sites are almost certainly there
but no one has looked for them and under the best of circumstances,
they will be difficult to locate.
In fact, evidence for an extended occupation of the area is to be
found in linguistics. Bergsland (1958, pp. 625-626) has noted
traces of Indian influences on the Aleut language, even though the
Aleuts and Indians are now separated by an extended area of Eskimo
population. Hammerich (1960, p. 88) attempts to explain both the
isolation of the language and its trace of Indian influence by sug-
gesting that at some time in the past, probably 3,000 or 4,000 years
ago, a common Eskimo-Aleut community was divided in two by a
wedge of Indians moving into the Lake Iliamna area. These In-
dians pushed those who were to be the Aleuts westward along the
Alaska Peninsula and onto the Aleutian chain. Later, but still a
long time ago, Eskimos re-entered the Iliamna area and those
adjacent to it, permanently separating Indians and Aleuts.
126 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
This hypothesis, based entirely on linguistic evidence, received
support from extensive archaeological excavations recently carried
out in the Naknek River region on the Alaska Peninsula. As a,
result of this work, Dumond (1969, p. 1114) has postulated that
by 2500 B.C. the interior portion of the Alaska Peninsula north-
west of the Aleutian Range was inhabited by an inland oriented
people who were probably Indians. Around 1900 B.C. these people
were displaced by a movement of ancestral Eskimos from the north
bearing the so-called Arctic Small Tool tradition who by 1000 B.C.
had moved out to the coast. By 200 B.C. the upper portion of the
Naknek drainage had been reinhabited by descendents of the Arctic
Small Tool people and from that time continuity of population
down to historic times can be demonstrated. Although it is risky
to assume that prehistoric movements of people in the Nushagak
River region paralleled exactly those in the Naknek drainage, it at
least seems possible that such a pattern might apply to a wider
area of southwestern Alaska. In that case, it should be possible
to locate the settlements of these prehistoric peoples, particularly
those who had repopulated the interior by 200 B.C., in the Nushagak
River region.
Distribution of Settlements
In order to assess the significance of environmental determinants
of settlement patterns in the Nushagak River region, the data on
settlement location from previous chapters will now be summarized.
It should be kept in mind, however, that during the historic period
factors other than environment were frequently of greater im-
portance to the Eskimos when it came to selecting locations for their
villages. These additional factors are intimately connected with
changes brought about as a result of contact and they will be dis-
cussed in a later section of this chapter which emphasizes changing
settlement patterns. At this point it can simply be stated that
during the period under discussion it was only rarely that the loca-
tion of a settlement was changed exclusively for environmental
reasons.
Some indication has already been given in this chapter of the
kind of locale that residents of the Nushagak River region found
suitable for their settlements. The situation along the river is so
consistent, however, that it seems worthwhile to deal with the
matter in some detail. As previously noted, the Nushagak is the
only major river in Alaska that has one stable bank for a consider-
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 127
able part of its total length. This presents one clear advantage
from the standpoint of settlement location; the opportunity to
construct a village where there is no danger of spring flooding. The
Nushagak Eskimos utilized these favorable locations during the
historic period and probably earlier. Of the 18 sites on the river
that were seen, 12 are on the stable right bank, not including Dil-15
which is on a slough. Furthermore, all of these are situated where
a small creek enters the river. These right bank settlements are
consistently located on the sloping banks of such streams, often in
a ravine or small valley formed by it. This suggests that in addition
to protection from flooding, the availability of fresh water, as
opposed to the somewhat muddy water of the main river, was
important to the inhabitants. Other environmental factors that
seem to have been important to the Eskimos in selecting a village
site along the river include the presence of wood for building and
fuel, an unobstructed view downriver (most structures are on the
upriver side of creek valleys), and access to good hunting and
fishing locations.
In spite of the real advantages of locating settlements on the
right bank of the Nushagak, there were nevertheless five villages
along the left bank. Three of these, however, are along the lower
river where many of the advantages of the right bank are present.
Elilakok (Dil-8) and Nunachuak (Dil-7), two fairly important
middle river settlements, are located in low, flat areas whose only
favorable aspects, seemingly, are good views down the river. Both
are said to have been abandoned partly because of the damages
inflicted by frequent spring flooding. Koliganek, abandoned in
1964 when the inhabitants moved to New Koliganek, has not been
discussed in this study, but it too is located on the low left bank of
the river. Informants stated that the major reason for establishing
the settlement in that location around 1940 was the presence of
good timber for building, and that the decision to abandon the spot
was made because of frequent floods, both in the spring and during
periods of unusual winter thaw (VanStone, 1967, pp. 143-144).
It is thus apparent that occasionally the importance of a single
environmental factor could result in the selection of village sites
that, within a short time, would prove to be unsuitable.
There is little that can be added to what has been said con-
cerning Eskimo occupation of the lower Mulchatna River. It has
already been noted that Eskimo movement onto the river took
place relatively late, perhaps not more than 50 or 60 years ago,
128 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
and that by 1940 or shortly thereafter, the three settlements had
been abandoned. The impetus that brought about this brief pene-
tration into an area that is very close to the Athapaskan boundary
was probably almost exclusively an environmental one and may
have been associated with a desire to exploit the hunting potential
of this area. Factors responsible for the abandonment of the lower
Mulchatna, however, are probably not environmental but related
to economic changes influencing the entire Nushagak region.
Of all the areas of the Nushagak River region, the one in which
environment played the least role in settlement distribution during
the historic period is Nushagak Bay. This, of course, is due to the
fact that the bay area was the center of economic development for
the entire region, and communities grew and declined in response
to these external factors. Nevertheless, the environment must have
played some role, particularly in the location of older communities
like Ekuk, Kanakanak, and Igushik. Fishing and sea mammal
hunting formed the subsistence base for the people of Nushagak
Bay and it seems likely that the older settlements were located with
these activities in mind. The necessity of being close to a source
of fresh water is even more important in this area than along the
river and it is significant that creeks occur in the immediate vicinity
of most of the sites along the bay. Those settlements located near
the mouths of the Igushik, Snake, and Wood rivers were almost
certainly so situated to take advantage of the seasonal runs of
salmon up these rivers, both for commercial and subsistence pur-
poses. Since there are no rivers entering the bay along its east
shore, it is not surprising to find that Ekuk was the only settlement
in that area that with certainty can be said to date back into the
prehistoric period.
In examining settlement distribution on the Wood River, the
most striking fact is that all the sites on the river are either at or
near its mouth (Dil-26-28), or very close to the point where the
river flows out of Lake Aleknagik (Dil-29-33). This arrangement
is almost certainly associated with the taking of salmon. As noted
previously, the Wood narrows considerably above the mouth of the
Muklung River and also becomes shallower. Fish were doubtless
much easier to take in this upriver area. Unfortunately, the extent
to which Wood River settlements were occupied seasonally cannot
be determined with certainty.
Settlements on the Lakes also appear to have been located with
reference to good fishing locations. Here the pattern is clearer
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 129
than on any of the rivers. All the settlements are situated at one
end or the other of the short stretches of water that connect the
lakes. Here fish congregate in large numbers to spawn during the
late summer. Because of the strong emphasis on fishing in this
area, it is tempting to suggest that all the settlements were summer
fish camps. But this is apparently not the case. At least three of
the settlements are of substantial size. Tikchik (Dil-40) had two
kashgees and it is probable that there were ceremonial houses at
Agulowak (Dil-36) and Imiak and perhaps also Agulukpak (Dil-37).
This would surely indicate that these settlements were occupied at
least part of the time during the winter months when most of the
ceremonies in the kashgee were held. It is thus apparent that there
was a rather sizeable permanent population in the Lakes area during
the nineteenth century practicing a more sedentary way of life than
those living in river villages.
Houses and Community Patterns
Villages in the Nushagak River region were an irregular scat-
tering of semi-subterranean houses having square or rectangular
living rooms with tunnels opening off them. Although these tunnels
could point in a variety of directions, they generally faced the river,
lake, or bay. The typical Eskimo house of this area was constructed
of spruce logs, although cottonwood and birch were sometimes used.
The builders generally made an excavation in the ground slightly
larger than the proposed house before the actual construction was
begun.
In over-all plan the houses ranged from square to rectangular
with hard-packed dirt floors and central fireplaces. Sleeping benches
along the walls were characteristic of some structures and the roofs
were almost always supported by four central posts. Roof beams
were frequently covered with sheets of birch bark to form a water-
proof protective cover over which sod and dirt was placed. There
was a sky-light in the center of the roof to admit light and to allow
smoke from the fire to be drawn out. As was the case with Eskimo
houses everywhere, the entrance tunnels of those in the Nushagak
River region had floors which were usually lower than the floors of
the living areas, thus forming a trap for the cold air. Entryrooms
or storm sheds opening off the tunnels were also a common feature.
The amount of variation that occurred in this type of house
plan was not great and was usually confined to relatively minor
130 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
differences, such as the number of wall benches, horizontal or vertical
logs in the tunnels, presence or absence of cribbed corners, etc.
(VanStone, 1967, pp. 124-125; 1968b, pp. 233-252; 1970, pp. 20-33).
In many villages during the early historic period the focal point
for community life was the kashgee, or men's house. It was always
the largest structure in every village and the place where the men
and boys spent most of their time. It was the center of religious
observances and the place where many social obligations were ful-
filled. Another characteristic of the kashgee was the absence of
women and young girls. Females could enter the structure on
errands and to bring food, but such visits were always brief and
women played no part in the various kashgee activities.
In Nushagak area villages the kashgee was located near the
physical center of the community or at the peripheries. These
structures were similar in construction to the dwellings but much
larger. The two kashgees at Tikchik and one at Akulivikchuk had
deep center areas surrounded by benches on all four sides. This
center section could be covered during ceremonies or opened to
contain a fire and hot rocks when sweat baths were taken by the
men (VanStone, 1967, pp. 125-126; 1968b, pp. 252-258; 1970, pp.
33-38).
Although kashgees must have been impressive structures in
occupied settlements, they are sometimes difficult to distinguish
from large houses once their roofs have collapsed and they have
become filled with sod and overgrown with grass. Thus the exact
number of villages with kashgees in the Nushagak River region
cannot be determined with certainty. It is probable, however,
that as many as eight of the Nushagak River villages had these
structures and presumably at least six bay communities did too.
On the river it was the old, long-established communities of Old
Koliganek (Dil-4), Kokwok (Dil-16), Akulivikchuk (Dil-13), and
Ekwok (Dil-12) where kashgees were found. There was also one
at Elilakok, and possibly at Agivavik, Tunravik (Dil-10), and
Nunachuak.
On Nushagak Bay it can be assumed that there were kashgees
at Ekuk, Kanulik (NB-7), Igushik, Kanakanak, and Chogiung
(Dil-25) and there definitely was one at Nushagak (NB-8)
(VanStone, 1967, pp. 125-126). For the Mulchatna and Wood
Rivers the situation is less clear. No kashgees were observed on
either river, and with reference to Old Stuyahok (Dil-24) on the
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 131
Mulchatna, informants mentioned specifically that there had been
no kashgee in that community. It is probable that the settlements
on these rivers are too recent to have had these structures. In
the Lakes area there probably was a kashgee at Imiak, the major
settlement at the southeast end of Lake Aleknagik, and perhaps at
Agulowak and Agulukpak, along with the two at Tikchik.
Since the kashgee played such an important part in the social
life of the Nushagak Eskimos, it seems worthwhile to consider in
some detail the decline of this institution and its effect on com-
munity patterning. It is no exaggeration that some of the most
significant changes that took place in the region as a result of contact
were those involving the kashgee and its associated activities. As
Christianity began to replace the aboriginal system of supernatural
beliefs, the ceremonial functions of the kashgee declined. Although
both Moravian and Russian Orthodox services were first held in the
kashgees, the missionaries of both denominations encouraged their
new converts to build chapels. As early as 1878 Father Shishkin
made the first reference to Orthodox chapels. Although he was not
specific concerning their location, it seems safe to assume that at
least one was on the Nushagak River and one or more in bay com-
munities (DRHA, vol. 1, pp. 329, 331, 333). In 1882 there were
154 Orthodox converts at Kokwok, but there is no mention of a
chapel (DRHA, vol. 2, p. 144). For the Moravians information is
more specific and it has already been noted that chapels were con-
structed at Grant's Village (Dil-19) in 1896-1897 and at Kokwok
the following year.
It is probable, therefore, that by 1900 chapels of either the
Russian Orthodox or Moravian faith had been constructed at a
number of settlements in the Nushagak River region. It also
seems likely that many of the functions of the kashgee would have
been undermined prior to this time, particularly the ceremonial
functions. The kashgee as a workshop and lounging, sleeping and
bathing place for the men would continue to be important for some
time to come, but obviously once the ceremonial aspects of kashgee
activities were diminished, the structure as an institution in Eskimo
life would never be the same again. Informants maintain that the
kashgee at Ekwok stood until 1938 and it is possible that the one at
Old Koliganek survived almost as long or perhaps until the aban-
donment of that community about 1940.
The decline in importance of the kashgee in Nushagak region
communities could have been one factor that encouraged the
132 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
proliferation of small villages throughout the area between 1880
and 1940. Although other factors, which will be discussed presently,
were also involved, and although the residents of such communities
may have retained their affiliation with kashgees in the larger
settlements throughout the area, the fact that the kashgee as an
institution was diminishing in importance may have made it at least
conceivable that a small village could exist without one. The
kashgee and its activities symbolized the large, closely knit com-
munity. With the collective ceremonies disappearing and growing
interest in Christianity with its emphasis on individual salvation,
many families may have seen no reason why they should continue
to maintain residence in the larger settlements, particularly when
there may have been compelling economic reasons for doing otherwise.
This fact emphasizes the significance of changes in the social
organization of Eskimo communities throughout the region that
were going on during the historic period and were related to the
decline of the kashgee as a village social center. As the structure
lost its essential meaning in the village and became little more than
a lounging place for elderly men, the men and boys began to live
in the houses that had previously been occupied by women only.
Oswalt (1963, p. 149) has noted that on the Kuskokwim this meant
that larger houses were built even though house form remained
much the same as during the aboriginal period. With the men and
boys leaving the kashgee to take up residence in the dwellings, it is
certain that in the Nushagak area, too, large houses were the rule
rather than the exception.
On the Kuskokwim, Moravian missionaries encouraged the
Eskimos to build log houses and such dwellings were constructed
as early as the last decade of the nineteenth century (Oswalt, 1963,
p. 149). Although missionary pressure of this kind does not seem
to have been as strong in the Nushagak region, the river Eskimos
nevertheless had ample opportunity, particularly during their visits
to the bay, to observe the white man's architecture. As noted
previously, the Moravians at Carmel, like their counterparts at
Bethel, encouraged the building of log houses.
Some of the abandoned settlements also show that the Eskimos
went through a transitional stage in their shift from the traditional,
semi-subterranean house to the above ground log house. This
involved the construction of a log framework, either without exca-
vation or with a very shallow one, which was then covered with sod.
The entrance chamber of this type of house was wide and also un-
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 133
excavated; simply a large storm shed. When completed, these
houses closely resembled the aboriginal type; this transitional house
is also known from northwest Alaska (VanStone, 1962, p. 68). On
Nushagak Bay cabins were built in the late nineteenth century and
upriver in the first decade of the twentieth. It is probably impossible
to date with any degree of certainty the various innovations that
were taking place in the traditional, semi-subterranean house, but
houses basically related to the traditional type were being built in
both areas until the 1930's.
In the early years of the historic period the extended family
was the basic residential unit throughout southwestern Alaska.
As the contact period progressed, the Eskimo household was re-
duced in size to the point where nuclear family residence units
became extremely common, eventually replacing the extended
family. This shift in the residence pattern was doubtless due to
multiple factors including missionary influence and involvement in
trapping and wage labor. The change brought about a shift back
to smaller dwellings, but this is probably reflected only in the cabin
remains at some of the more recent sites in the region, and in the
present-day community pattern.
Changing Settlement Patterns
Turning to a reconstruction of the historic settlement pattern,
first consideration will be given to those sites on the Nuyakuk and
Nushagak rivers. Figure 41 shows the estimated length of occu-
pancy for each of the sites along these rivers based primarily on
references in historic sources and information obtained from in-
formants. It will be noted that between 1800 and 1860 there were,
for certain, only three occupied sites with the possibility of four
more. Those definitely inhabited at this time were Agivavik,
Akulivikchuk, and Kokwok, all in the middle river area. It is also
possible that the occupation of Old Koliganek goes back into this
period as may such little known settlements as Ingrik (Tay-1),
Manasuk (Dil-5), and Dil-15. The lower river was something of a
mystery at this time. Information on Dil-21 and NB-1 is so slight
that any estimate of their period of occupancy must, of necessity,
be little more than a guess. On the basis of previously mentioned
population estimates for the sites in question, it seems likely that
the total number of inhabitants along the river between these dates
was somewhere around 300 to 400, a figure that corresponds roughly
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VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 135
to the data obtained by Vasiliev in 1829 (quoted in Zagoskin, 1967,
p. 308).
Between 1860 and 1890 a number of new settlements came into
existence to replace, in degree of importance, earlier ones. The
basic continuity of the population centers, however, was not greatly
altered. Old Koliganek emerged as an important upriver settlement
and in the middle river three new villages appeared ; Akokpak (Dil-
6), Elilakok, and Tunravik. It is doubtful if a total of more than
100 persons ever occupied these three settlements. In the Kokwok-
Akulivikchuk area it is possible to note a considerable shift in popu-
lation. Before the end of the period, Agivavik and Akulivikchuk
were abandoned and Kokwok was in a decided decline. Ekwok was
beginning to emerge as the major settlement for the middle river
and it has continued to maintain this position down to the present
time. It is interesting to note that Ekwok may have begun as a
fish camp temporarily inhabited by people from Kokwok (Osgood,
1904, p. 18). If this was indeed the case, it indicates the manner
in which some new settlements may have come into existence along
the river and perhaps elsewhere in the area.
The occupation of the lower river between 1860 and 1900 is by
no means clear. Figure 41 indicates that several small sites may
have been occupied during this period but there is no definite
evidence for this. Only at Greek Church (Dil-19) is it certain that
there were residents before the end of the nineteenth century. It
is doubtful if there were, during this period, more than 75 people
living between Ekwok and the mouth of the river. A conservative
population estimate for the entire river between 1860 and 1900
would be approximately 400 people.
Between 1900 and 1940 most of the villages mentioned in the
preceding two paragraphs continued to exist, and this period may
have seen a greater number of individual settlements along the
river than at any other time in its history. Nunachuak and Inakpuk
(Dil-9), probably a fish camp, were established, Tunravik was al-
most certainly abandoned, and Ekwok continued to grow in im-
portance. All of the small settlements below Ekwok with the
possible exception of Aouguluk (NB-2) and Nunauwalik (NB-3)
were abandoned during this period and the major center of Kokwok,
which had long since lost its important position, also died out.
Old Koliganek and Akokpak had shrunk considerably in size and
it is possible that in spite of the large number of settlements along
136 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
the river, the total population was smaller than at any other time
during the historic period; this in spite of the fact that there was
perhaps some movement onto the river from the Mulchatna. A
conservative population estimate for the river between 1900 and
1940 would be from 250 to 350 people.
After 1940 the settlement pattern along the Nushagak and
Nuyakuk rivers becomes much the same as it is today and this can
be considered the beginning of the modern period. Old Koliganek
was abandoned about that year and Koliganek established, to be
moved in its turn in 1964. Nunachuak continued to be inhabited
into the 1950's and New Stuyahok was founded by Mulchatna
River people about 1940. Ekwok, although declining in size, is
still an important center, but the river below this point, except for
the growing village of Portage Creek established in 1963, is unin-
habited. The population of the river in 1965 was approximately
375 persons.
As previously indicated, the Mulchatna River was occupied by
Athapaskans until fairly recent times and there is some indication
that the lower part of the river covered in this study was unoccupied
during the early historic period. The total span of historical Eskimo
occupancy of the river appears to fall between 1890 and 1940, al-
most the exact number of years during which the settlement of Old
Stuyahok was occupied. It is tempting to suggest that the early
inhabitants of this site were the first Eskimos on the river. Although
little information is available concerning the occupation of Nauluk-
tulik (Dil-23), it appears to have been occupied briefly during the
early years of this century. Kananakpok (Dil-22), a sizeable settle-
ment, belongs to the final 15 or 20 years of Eskimo occupancy along
the Mulchatna.
Since Old Stuyahok appears to have grown slowly and the
occupancy of Nauluktulik can only be surmised, it would seem that
the largest Eskimo population on the Mulchatna occurred between
1920 and perhaps 1935. A reasonable estimate of the number of
inhabitants at that time would be between 90 and 125. In the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it is doubtful if the popu-
lation ever exceeded 50 to 75. The lower river was abandoned about
1940 when the remaining inhabitants moved onto the Nushagak
River.
With reference to Nushagak Bay (fig. 42), there were, at the
time of earliest contact, at least three important settlements in the
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION
137
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Fig. 42. Settlement chronology on Nushagak Bay.
area; Kanulik and Ekuk on the east side of the bay and Kanakanak
on the west side. It is also possible that Igushik and Nushagak were
occupied at that time. Some combination of these communities
must have contained all or most of the population of the bay when
the Russians first appeared. Vasiliev estimated a population of
500 for the bay area in 1829, but 13 years later Zagoskin believed
the number to be roughly half that figure. A severe small-pox
epidemic in 1836-1837 is thought to have been responsible for the
difference (Zagoskin, 1967, p. 308).
It is probable that all these settlements began to grow after
Aleksandrovski Redoubt was established in 1818 and Nushagak
138 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
probably attracted the greatest number of new inhabitants. These
people came from interior regions of the Nushagak River region,
from the Kuskokwim River, from coastal and interior points in
between, and from the Alaska Peninsula. By 1860 there is every
reason to believe that Tikhmenev's (1939-1940, pt. 2, p. 396)
estimate of a population of 1,260 for the bay area may be only
slightly high. This estimate, however, like others for the area, is
unreliable because of the possibility that seasonal migrants were
included (VanStone, 1967, pp. 112-114).
The establishment of a commercial salmon fishery in Nushagak
Bay in 1884 had a profound effect on the population and the settle-
ment pattern. Kanulik, of course, was strongly affected by the
establishment of a cannery in its vicinity and the Moravian mission
two years later, in 1886. Nushagak and Ekuk received canneries
before the end of the century and the populations of Igushik,
Kanakanak, and Chogiung were certainly affected by economic
developments in their vicinity. Between 1880 and 1900 three small
settlements (NB-4-6) grew up north of Kanulik and it is probable
that all three arose in response to the commercial fishery. It is
also likely that the small sites at the mouths of the Igushik and
Snake rivers were related to fishing activities in that area as was the
settlement at Clarks Point.
About 1890 two new communities came into existence on the
west side of the bay; New Kanakanak-Bradford (NB-21) and
Chogiung, later to be called Dillingham. It is significant that the
only new communities of any importance to arise as a result of
economic change were located on the west side of the bay, signi-
fying the emergence of this area as the modern population center,
while the east side rapidly declined in importance.
The years 1908-1910 can be considered a high point of the
fishing industry in Nushagak Bay. There were at least ten can-
neries in operation at that time and it is likely that the permanent
Eskimo population of the area was from 500 to 600 persons, a num-
ber greatly augmented during the summer months by imported
oriental laborers, Eskimos from all over southwestern Alaska, and
perhaps some Indians from the Iliamna Lake area.
The influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 had an even greater effect
on the settlement pattern of Nushagak Bay than the fishing in-
dustry. Kanulik, which declined after the closing of its cannery
in the early years of the century and the departure of the Moravians
in 1906, was completely abandoned. So was Kanakanak and
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139
140 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
Igushik, both of which had already declined due to the establish-
ment of new communities to the north. Nushagak and Ekuk were
never completely abandoned, but the epidemic, together with the
shift of economic activity to the west side of the bay, meant that
they would not be important again. It is likely that in 1920 the
permanent population of the bay did not exceed 350.
From 1920 to the present Ekuk, Nushagak, and Clarks Point
have continued to be occupied, but it is the Dillingham-New
Kanakanak area that has attracted most of the population. Official
population figures are of dubious value, but it is certain that for
the past decade the number of permanent, year-around residents
of bay communities has not exceeded 500.
Reconstructing the settlement pattern for the Wood River
is complicated by the fact that there are fewer references to these
settlements in the sources than to those of any other part of the
Nushagak River region. Of the eight sites on the river, only two
can be dated with any degree of certainty and there are population
estimates for only two. Nevertheless, it is at least possible to make
a few general statements.
There are two sites (Dil-26, 32) on the river that may belong
to the late prehistoric or early historic period (fig. 43). It is also
possible that Wood River Village (Dil-27) was occupied at the time
of initial contact. It seems clear, however, that the population
remained low until the period between 1850 and 1880 when Wood
River Village, Vuktuli (Dil-29), Tutgaralukilgik (Dil-33), and
probably Ichuak (Dil-28) were inhabited. A reasonable population
estimate for the river at that time might be 125, but probably not
much more. The remaining sites on the river may have been occu-
pied in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but this
is not clear. Wood River Village presumably began to grow after
a cannery was constructed there in 1901 and it may be that the
Wood River had its heaviest population around the turn of the
century, particularly during the summer months.
Like other areas of the Nushagak River region, the Wood River
area was hard hit by the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919. After that
fateful event, only Wood River Village continued to be occupied.
Except for the two families living in that community, the Wood
River at the present time is uninhabited.
In the Lakes area there are two sites likely to have been occu-
pied when the Russians established their first foothold in south-
western Alaska in 1818. Both Imiak and Tikchik appear to date
SITES
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3
aoE
Q >«
O
TO
5
o
3
O)
<
CO
m
o.
X.
3
<
CO
o
XL
o
9
CM
i
CO
1970
1960
1950
1940
1930
1920
1910
1900
1890
1880
1870
1860
1850
1840
1830
1820
1810
1800
?
±.
Fig. 44. Settlement chronology on the Wood River Lakes
and Tikchik Lakes.
141
142 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
back at least to the beginning of the nineteenth century and these
are the only settlements in the area for which reasonably certain
details concerning occupancy exist (fig. 44). The total population
for the Lakes area toward the middle of the nineteenth century
might be estimated at about 150. Information on the period of
occupancy for other sites in the area is limited, but it would appear
that toward the end of the century Agulowak and Agulukpak were
established and this may have been the period of heaviest popula-
tion on the Lakes, with perhaps as many as 300 people inhabiting
the four above-mentioned settlements.
As might be expected, the effects of the influenza epidemic were
strongly felt in the area. Tikchik had been abandoned at the turn
of the century as a result of an earlier epidemic, but Imiak, Agulowak,
and Agulukpak all appear to have succumbed to the later concen-
trated period of illness that proved so devastating in other parts of
the region. Although there was a winter camp at the mouth of the
Tikchik River in the late 1920's, and possibly others in the area,
the Eskimo population of the Lakes was virtually wiped out in
1918-1919 and people did not begin to move back into the area
until the late 1920's when families from the Togiak region, the
Kuskokwim River, and Nushagak Bay began to populate the
shores of Lake Aleknagik (VanStone, 1967, pp. 155-156). The
other lakes to the north have remained uninhabited to the present
day, doubtless because of their remoteness from the centers of
economic development on Nushagak Bay.
There is some reason to believe that the inhabitants of the
Lakes were not Kiatagmiut as might be expected. The only popu-
lation listing for Tikchik in the historic sources indicates that 31
"Kuskoquims" were living there in 1879 (Bailey, 1880, pp. 26-27).
This suggests the possibility that all residents of the Lakes had
come from the Kuskokwim and that they may have entered the
area in the late prehistoric period at a time when it was uninhabited
or virtually so. Although most Kuskokwim immigrants into the
Nushagak region doubtless reached their new homes by way of the
Bering Sea coast, some could just as easily have come into the area
by way of the interior rivers and portages. The various routes
between the middle Kuskokwim and the upper tributaries of the
Nushagak must have been well known to the people of both areas
long before the pioneer explorations of Vasiliev and other Russians
opened this area to the fur trade (VanStone, 1968b, p. 345).
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 143
Settlement Pattern Determinants— A Summary
In an earlier section of this chapter the environmental deter-
minants that affected settlement patterns in the Nushagak River
region were noted. Here information concerning determinants
related to the contacts between Eskimos and Europeans will be
summarized. It has been noted that these were even more effective
in bringing about changes in the way in which communities were
distributed in the region during the period between 1800 and the
present.
With reference to the Nushagak River region as a whole, two
major aspects of historic contact brought about considerable change
in the subsistence pattern of the Eskimos. First, the establishment
of a trading post at the mouth of the river and the subsequent
involvement of the Eskimos of the area in the fur trade; second,
the beginning of the commercial salmon fishery in the late 1880's
which gradually introduced people to a wage economy. Although
involvement in the fur trade greatly affected the subsistence pat-
tern, one must question whether it brought about a very great
change in the settlement pattern. It has been noted that river
villages were sedentary seasonal settlements and there is no reason
to think that the shift to a trapping-trading economy changed this.
People still spent the summer and part of the winter on the river.
Trips to Nushagak were made in the late spring and perhaps in the
winter as well. A trapping-trading economy may have reduced
the actual amount of time which the Eskimos spent in their river
villages, but not enough to cause a major shift in the settlement
pattern. Thus throughout the contact period from its beginning
to about 1880 there were well established communities on the upper
and middle river, but little or no settlement on the lower river. It
is the period between 1880 and 1940 that witnessed the proliferation
of villages along the river and the more even spread of population,
although basic concentrations on the upper and middle river con-
tinued to be important.
This trend toward proliferation cannot be interpreted with as-
surance, but it would seem to be tied in with the growing commercial
fishing industry in some way. As a result of this economic develop-
ment, there was a significant movement of peoples into the Nushagak
River region from other parts of southwestern Alaska. Some of
these new inhabitants moved upriver from the bay in order to carry
out subsistence activities between fishing seasons and yet not be
too far removed from the center of economic development on the
144 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61
bay. For the same reason, residents of the older established settle-
ments on the river may have found it convenient to live closer to
the coast. It is also true that some of the small villages on the lower
river were seasonal fishing camps established by the expanding
population of Nushagak Bay.
There also is reason to believe that throughout the period be-
tween 1880 and 1940 the river villages were becoming more sedentary
and less seasonal in their occupation. As the Eskimos became
involved to a greater extent in the fishery, the less dependent they
were on hunting and earnings from trapping.
After 1900 the number of villages on the river began to decline.
The influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 sharply reduced the popula-
tion and was responsible for the abandonment of some settlements.
Although Orthodox chapels had been built in some communities
before the turn of the century, churches did not become a factor
for the coalescence of population until the 1920's. Later on the
establishment of schools and government agencies was to have
the same effect. As a result, after 1940 Koliganek (later New
Koliganek), Ekwok, and New Stuyahok were the only villages on
the river.
It is interesting to note that a basic continuity of population
existed throughout the entire historic period in the middle and
upriver regions in spite of the changes effected by the various
external agencies already mentioned. In the upriver region this
continuity is represented by the Koliganek villages and Tikchik,
the latter appearing to have had closer relations with river settle-
ments than with other villages in the Lakes region. Continuity
along the middle river encompasses Akulivikchuk, Kokwok, and
Ekwok. New Stuyahok, it will be recalled, was established about
1940 and is populated primarily by former Mulchatna River resi-
dents who moved off that river to be closer to economic develop-
ments in the bay.
With reference to Nushagak Bay, there is little that can be
added to what already has been said concerning the factors affecting
settlement patterns. It has been relatively easy to document the
relationship between cannery locations and Eskimo settlements
and some attention has also been given to the manner in which
economic growth favored the west wide of the bay and how the
settlements in this area, particularly New Kanakanak and Dilling-
ham, grew at the expense of all other communities in the area. In
fact, it is no exaggeration to say that since the beginning of the
VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 145
contact period, the bay settlements have grown, declined, or dis-
appeared almost exclusively as a result of external factors, whether
it was the trading activities of the Russians and Americans at
Nushagak, the building and abandonment of canneries, influences
of the Russian Orthodox and Moravian churches, or the effects of
introduced diseases. Here, perhaps better than anywhere else in
the Nushagak River region, it is possible to see that Chang's (1958,
p. 299) distinction between the cultural ecological factors that
affect settlement patterns and the social interactional factors that
bring about changes in community patterns are not always mu-
tually exclusive. In Nushagak Bay the two kinds of factors com-
bined to produce a marked effect on the settlement pattern. It
should be remembered, however, that Chang's scheme was devised
with aboriginal cultures in mind and not cultures affected by rapid
and profound change.
Concerning the Mulchatna and Wood Rivers and the Lakes
area, again it is not possible to add much to what has already
been said. The Mulchatna, occupied in part by Eskimos relatively
late in the historic period, was almost certainly depopulated in
response to economic developments on Nushagak Bay. The same
reason may also be advanced to explain why the Wood River and
the Lakes were not extensively re-populated after the influenza
epidemic. Only the southeastern end of Lake Aleknagik, with an
access road to Dillingham, churches, and a school, has been able
to attract a new and permanent population.
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