The Tanana Athabaskans, Tanana Athabascans, or Tanana Athapaskans are an Alaskan Athabaskan people from the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. They are the original inhabitants of the Tanana River (in Tanana languages , literally 'straight water,' in Koyukon language , literally 'trail water') drainage basin in east-central Alaska Interior, United States and a little part (White River First Nation) lived in Yukon, Canada. Tanana River Athabaskan peoples are called in Lower Tanana and Koyukon language (literally 'trail people'), in Gwich'in language (literally 'people of Tanana River').James Kari (1996). Names as Signs: 'Stream' and 'Mountain' in Alaska Athabaskan Languages. In Athabaskan Papers in Honor of Robert W. Young, edited by L. Jelinek, K. Rice, and L. Saxon. Pp 443–476. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. In Alaska, where they are the oldest, there are three or fourHolton, Gary. 2010. Behind the Map: The reification of indigenous language boundaries in Alaska. Working Papers in Athabaskan Languages, ed. by S. Tuttle & J. Spence, 75–87. (Alaska Native Language Center Working Papers 8). Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Fairbanks. groups identified by the languages they speak. These are the Tanana proper or Lower Tanana () and/or Middle Tanana, Tanacross or Tanana Crossing (), and Upper Tanana (). The Tanana Athabaskan culture is a hunter-gatherer culture with a matrilineal system. Tanana Athabaskans were semi-nomadic and lived in semi-permanent settlements in the Tanana Valley lowlands. Traditional Athabaskan land use includes fall hunting of moose, caribou, Dall sheep, and small terrestrial animals, as well as trapping. The Athabaskans did not have any formal tribal organization. Tanana Athabaskans were strictly territorial and used hunting and gathering practices in their semi-nomadic way of life and dispersed habitation patterns. Each small band of 20–40 people normally had a central winter camp with several seasonal hunting and fishing camps, and they moved cyclically, depending on the season and availability of resources.Terry L. Haynes and William E. Simeone (2007). Upper Tanana ethnographic overview and assessment, Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve. Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence. Technical Paper Number 325. [This overview of Alaska Native history and culture in the upper Tanana region in eastern interior Alaska focuses on the predominantly Northern Athabascan Indian villages of Dot Lake, Healy Lake, Northway, Tanacross, and Tetlin.]Anne Shinkwin and Martha Case (1984). Modern Foragers: Wild resource use in Nenana village, Alaska. Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence. Technical Paper Number 91.Libby Halpin (1987). Living off the land: contemporary subsistence in Tetlin, Alaska. Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Subsistence. Technical Paper Number 149.Alaska Native Knowledge Network: Athabascans of Interior Alaska: 4th Grade Social Studies Unit: Appendix A. Written by Patricia H. Partnow
Their neighbors are other Athabaskan-speaking peoples: in Alaska, Koyukon (north and northwest), Gwich'in (north and northeast), Hän (northeast), Dena'ina (a little part of the southwest), and Ahtna (south); in Canada Hän (northeast) and Northern and Southern Tutchone (east). The language of the Upper Kuskokwim people is more closely related to the Lower Tanana language, but not neighbor.
Bands
The homeland of the Tanana Athabaskan people can be generally divided into four distinct sections. 1) the Yukon Tanana upland draining to the Tanana River, 2) the Northway-Tanacross Lowlands, 3) the Eastern Alaskan range draining into the Tanana River, and 4) the Northern foothills.dice.missouri.edu: Tanana Description
The Goodpaster River, a 91-mile (146 km) tributary of the Tanana River, is considered to be a natural break in the Tanana Athabaskan language area, separating upriver speakers of the Tanacross and Upper Tanana languages from the Lower (and Middle) Tanana speakers living farther downriver.McKennan, Robert A. 1969. Athabascan grouping and social organization in Central Alaska. In Contributions to Anthropology: Band Societies. David Damas, ed. pp 93–114. National Museum of Canada bulletin 228. National Museum of Canada, Ottawa.
The Tanana Athabaskans have a system of matrilineal kinship. The Athabaskans loosely recognized membership in a larger bilateral group called the regional band (or dialect group), but the more important social unit was the local band (or family group or family/hunting units). In the winter, the regional band might split up into smaller units, called local bands, each one made up of perhaps four nuclear families. The regional band might meet again at a predetermined place and time in mid-winter for a gathering ceremony called a potlatch and then split up again for beaver and muskrat trapping.
At the end of the 19th century there were twelve regional bands living in the Tanana Athabaskan homeland: six downriver bands (four Lower Tanana and two Middle Tanana) and six upriver bands (two Tanacross and four Upper Tanana).
Lower Tanana The Lower Tanana regional bands: (language: proper dialect of Lower Tanana) Minto band or Minto Flats band – inhabiting the Minto Flats and Old Minto () area. Neighbors: Gwich'in people (north), Koyukon people (west), Nenana-Toklat band (southwest), Wood River band (southeast), Chena band (east). Nenana-Toklat band – inhabiting the Nenana River (), Nenana Valley and Toklat River () area. Neighbors: Koyukon people (west), Dena'ina people (south), Minto band (north), Wood River band (east). Wood River band – inhabiting the Wood River area. Neighbors: Dena'ina people (south), Nenana-Toklat band (west), Minto and Chena bands (north), Salcha band (east). Chena band — inhabiting the Chena River and Chena Village () area (also formerly Fairbanks area). Neighbors: Gwich'in people (north), Minto band (west), Salcha band (east).
Middle Tanana The Middle Tanana regional bands: (language: extinct (1993) separate dialect of Lower Tanana. Some authors consider the Salcha-Goodpaster dialect of Lower Tanana to be a distinct language known as Middle Tanana. Linguist James Kari has been a strong advocate for Middle Tanana, referring to the former language of the Salcha-Goodpaster bands along the middle Tanana RiverAlaska Native Language Center: Mapping Alaska's Native languages by Gary Holton) Salcha(ket) band – inhabiting the Salcha River () area. Neighbors: Hän people (northeast), Ahtna people (south), Chena band (north), Wood River band (west), Delta-Goodpaster band (east). (Big) Delta-Goodpaster band – inhabiting the Big Delta, Delta River (incl. Delta Junction and Deltana) and Goodpaster River () area. Neighbors: Hän people (northeast), Ahtna people (south), Salcha band (north and west), Healy River-Joseph band (east).
Tanacross The Tanacross (Tanana Crossing; first documented by Ferdinand von Wrangel in 1839 as Copper River Kolchan) regional bands: (language: Tanacross) Healy River-Joseph band – inhabiting the formerly Joseph Village (), Healy Lake (), Lake George (), Sam Lake (official United States Geological Survey name is Sand Lake – ) area. Neighbors: Delta-Goodpaster band (west), Hän people (north), Ahtna people (south), Mansfeld-Kechumstuk band (west), Healy River-Joseph band (east). Mansfeld-Kechumstuk band — inhabiting nowadays Tanacross () and Dot Lake (), formerly Ketchumsuk (), Mosquito Fork, Lake Mansfield (), Mansfield Hill (), Old Mansfield Village (), Mansfield Village (), Robertson River (), Tok River (), Tok area. Neighbors: Healy River-Joseph band (west), Hän people (north), Ahtna people (south), Tetlin-Last Tetlin band (east). ('Mansfield area people') ('Ketchumstuck people', lit. 'inland area people').
Upper Tanana The Upper Tanana regional bands: (language: Upper Tanana) Tetlin-Last Tetlin band – formerly inhabiting the Tetlin (), Last Tetlin () and Tetlin Lake area (nowadays Tetlin). Neighbors: Mansfeld-Kechumstuk band (west), Hän people (north), Ahtna people (south), Lower Nabesna band (east). Lower Nabesna band — formerly inhabiting the Northway, Jol, Nabesna Village, Gardiner Creek (Cheejil Niign), Nabesna River (lower), Chisana River (lower) area (nowadays Northway). Neighbors: Tetlin-Last Tetlin band (west), Hän people (north), Ahtna people (south), Scottie Creek band (east). Scottie Creek band — formerly inhabiting the Scottie Creek area (nowadays in Alaska Northway; in Canada Whitehorse, Yukon and Beaver Creek, Yukon, called as White River First Nation). Neighbors: Lower Nabesna band (west), Hän people (north), Ahtna people (south), Northern Tutchone people of Canada (east). Upper Nabesna-Upper Chisana/Upper Chisana-Upper Nabesna band (own name 'among the mountain people'James J. Simon and Caroline L. Brown (2010). Customary and traditional use worksheet: Chisana Caribou Herd, GMU 12, Upper Tanana–White River Area) – formerly inhabiting the Nabesna, Nabesna River (upper), Chisana River (upper), Cross Creek (Nach'etay Cheeg), Chisana area (nowadays Northway, Mentasta, Chistochina). Neighbors: Ahtna people (west), other Upper Tanana bands (north), Southern Tutchone people of Canada (east).
Prehistory Archaeological sites in Alaska (East Beringia) are where some of the earliest evidence has been found of Paleo-Indians. Alaska Interior or Interior Alaska has been continuously inhabited for the last 14,000U.S. Army Garrison, Fort Wainwright. Integrated Cultural Resources Management Plan, April 2013 ~ 12,000 years, and evidence of this continuum of human (ancestors of the Athabaskans) activity is preserved within and around Fort Wainwright's training lands. Interior Alaska's icefree status during the last glacial period provided a corridor connecting the Bering Land Bridge and northeastern Asia (West Beringia/Siberia) to North America. The earliest cultural remains in interior Alaska, as on the coast, are chipped stone blade complexes about 10,000 years old, with close relationships to Siberian materials. In February 2008, a proposal connecting Asiatic Yeniseian languages of central Siberia to American Na-Dené languages (Athabaskan–Eyak–Tlingit) into a Dené–Yeniseian family was published and well received by a number of linguists.Dene–Yeniseic Symposium, University of Alaska Fairbanks, February 2008, accessed March 30, 2010 The homeland of the Athabaskan languages is northwestern Canada and southern/eastern Alaska.Gary Holton. Alaska Native Language Relationships and Family Treesydli.org: Classified List of British Columbia Native Languages
After initial colonization, archaeologists generally divide Interior Alaska's prehistory into three broad archaeological themes:Potter, B. A. 2008. "Radiocarbon chronology of Central Alaska: technological continuity and economic change." Radiocarbon 50(2): 181–204.
Paleo-Arctic tradition
Paleo-Arctic tradition (12,000–6,000 years ago) is a term now generally used by archaeologists to refer to the earliest settled people known from all over Alaska. In Interior Alaska, Paleo-Arctic tradition historically included two cultural divisions called the Nenana and Denali complexes.
Nenana complex