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Chapter II: The Tena Indians and Their Country

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2018

Frederica De Laguna
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Extract

The material on which this report is based was gathered in 1935 on an archaeological and geological reconnassiance under the author's leadership along the lower Tanana and middle and lower Yukon valleys, between Nenana and Holy Cross. One of the main purposes of the expedition was to study the Pleistocene and Recent geology of the region, with reference to the problem of early human migrations. Dr. Eardley, our geologist, naturally assumed charge of this task. Considerable attention was also paid to more recent archaeological problems, especially to the relationship of the Indian culture to that of the Eskimo near the mouth of the Yukon. Preliminary reports have been published by the author, and Dr. Eardley has also published two geological papers. Although we visited a number of sites at which the bones of Pleistocene animals are exposed, we found no trace of contemporary man. From late Tertiary times to the present, the Yukon has experienced complicated cycles of deposition and erosion; in the valley, the land surface on which Pleistocene or early Recent man would have hunted and camped is now largely destroyed, and the present topography gives no clues to likely camping places.

Type
Research Article
Information
Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology , Volume 3: The Prehistory of Northern North America as Seen from the Yukon , 1947 , pp. 24 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1947

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References

1 de Laguna, 1935; 1936a, b, c; Eardley, 1938a, b.

2 P.S. Smith and Eakin, 1911; Eakin, 1916; G. L. Harrington, 1918; Mertie and Harrington, 1924.

3 Eardley, 1938a, p. 307.

4 Rainey, 1939, Figs. 9 to 11.

5 Dall, 1870, pp. 118 f., confirmed by our native informants.

6 “Ten'a,” cf. Jettfi, 1908-1909. All other references to Jettfi's work apply to the unpublished manuscript of his Ethnological Dictionary of the Ten'a Language, which Father MacElmeel of the Jesuit Mission at Nulato most generously gave me permission to consult and use in this present study.

7 Osgood, 1936, pp. 12 f., 14,19; cf. 1940, Appendix D.

8 Porter, 1893, p. 126.

9 Petroff, 1884, p. 161; Dall, 1877a, p. 29; Porter, 1893, p. 126. Porter reports a permanent population of 120 in 1890 (p. 165).

10 Dall, 1870, p. 53.

11 Dall, 1877a, p. 28; Porter, 1893, p. 119.

14 Op. cit., p. 174. Cf. p. 170 for mention of caribou skin boats made by the lower Koyukuk Indians after the hunt.

15 Op. cit., pp. 330, 139 f. On the map, the Koyukuk is rendered as Yunaka. A barabara is a semi-subterranean winter house, see Chapter IV.

16 Dall, 1870, pp. 26ff.; 1877a, p. 25; Handbook, II, p. 865.

17 Zagoskin, (1935), pp. 218, 330.

18 Op. cit., p. 198.

19 Dall (1877a, pp. 25 f.) wants to apply the name Takai'yakho-tan'a to the people of the “Shag'eluk River,” which is, of course, quite unjustified. Since Dall's whole system of terminology is hopelessly confused we need not pursue the matter further. However, it is with some justice that he translates the name Kai'-yǔh-kho-ta'na as “Lowlanders,” even though he extends it to cover too wide a group. (For Jetty's translation of Kayar [Kaiyuh] see page 57.)

20 Zagoskin, (1935), pp. 311 f., 331.

21 Osgood, 1940, p. 480.

22 Zagoskin (1935), p. 331.

23 Op. cit., p. 220.

24 Op. cit., p. 226.

25 Op. cit., p. 310.

26 Op. cit., p. 331.

27 Op. cit., pp. 331 f.

28 Osgood, 1936, p. 22.

29 Dall, 1877a, pp. 25 f. under the name Kai'-yǔh-khotâ'nâ.

30 Zagoskin (1935), pp. 330 f.

31 Dall, 1877a, p. 22.

32 Dall, 1870, p. 53.

33 Op. cit., pp. 31-41.

34 Bancroft, 1890, pp. 547, 550, note 31, 551.

35 Op. cit., p. 552.

36 Zagoskin (1935), pp. 117, 138 i., 158, 222.

37 Op. cit., pp. 169, 234, 317.

38 Op. cit., pp. 105 f., 127, 190, 198.

39 Op. cit., pp. 220 f., 234, 309, 321.

40 Op. cit., p. 112.

41 Op. cit., p. 233. Does he mean Bering Strait Eskimo or Chukchee?

42 Op. cit., pp. 332 f., 399.

43 Op. cit., pp. 252, 297, 305, 333.

44 Whymper, 1869, pp. 162 f.

45 Op. cit., pp. 171, 180, 229, 239, 255.

46 Op. cit., p. 265.

47 Dall, 1870, p. 218.

48 Op. cit., pp. 216-220.

49 Petroff, 1884, p. 161.

50 Porter, 1893, pp. 103, 107 f.