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FIELDIANA
Anthropology

Published by Field Museum of Natural History

Volume 72

HISTORIC INGALIK SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE
YUKON, INNOKO, AND ANVIK RIVERS, ALASKA

JAMES W. VANSTONE

'nt,

°v

J (J, '"%

**<V

"t>9,

'<#n

March 30, 1979

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY

A Continuation of the

ANTHROPOLOGICAL SERIES

of

FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

VOLUME 72

FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
CHICAGO, U.S.A.

HISTORIC INGALIK SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE
YUKON, INNOKO, AND ANVIK RIVERS, ALASKA

FIELDIANA
Anthropology

Published by Field Museum of Natural History

Volume 72

HISTORIC INGALIK SETTLEMENTS ALONG THE
YUKON, INNOKO, AND ANVIK RIVERS, ALASKA

JAMES W. VANSTONE

Curator, North American Archaeology and Ethnology
Field Museum of Natural History

March 30, 1979
Publication 1296

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 78-60830
ISSN 0071-4739
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

CONTENTS

Page

List of Illustrations ix

Preface 1

Abbreviations 2

Introduction

The lower-middle Yukon and its inhabitants 3

Methodology 8

I Settlements on the Innoko River and Shageluk Slough 12

Introduction 12

Site descriptions 15

Population of the lower Innoko 26

The upper Innoko River 27

II Village Sites on the Anvik River and in the Vicinity of Anvik Village. . 31

Introduction 31

Site descriptions 31

III Settlements on the Yukon River: Anvik to the Confluence with
Shageluk Slough 45

Introduction 45

Site descriptions 45

IV Settlements on the Yukon River: Deadmans Slough to the Mouth of
the Innoko River 54

Introduction 54

Site descriptions 54

V Analysis and Conclusions 70

Settlement typology 70

Houses and community patterns 73

Population changes 77

Distribution of settlements 79

Settlement pattern continuity and change 84

Settlement pattern determinants - a comparison 86

References 88

Index 94

vu

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures

1. Map of Alaska 5

2. Map of the lower Innoko River 13

3. Map of the Anvik River and vicinity 32

4. Map of the Yukon River between Anvik and the confluence with

Shageluk Slough 46

5. Map of the Yukon River between Anvik and Holy Cross 55

Plates

1. Village of Old Shageluk (HC-8) about 1917 20

2. The mission and Anvik Point settlement (HC-14) about 1895 33

3. Anvik Point (HC-14) about 1920 34

4. The church at Anvik on January 1, 1919 35

5. Four Mile fish camp (HC-27) in 1919 47

6. The mission at Holy Cross (HC-54) about 1895 65

PREFACE

This study describes a series of historic archaeological sites along
the lower-middle Yukon River and its tributaries in west-central
Alaska. Changing settlement patterns in the area during the nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries are reconstructed and an
assessment is made of the factors responsible for changes with a
view to determining the manner in which cultural institutions are
reflected in settlement configurations. Comparisons are also made
with data on Eskimo settlement patterns in southwestern Alaska.
The specific methodology on which this study is based is discussed
in detail in the introduction.

The two seasons of field research on which this study is based
were supported financially by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for An-
thropological Research (1972) and the James R. Getz Fund of Field
Museum of Natural History (1974). In Alaska the following indi-
viduals were particularly helpful in contributing logistic support
and time and effort toward the assemblage of the historical and
ethnographic data utilized in this study: Mr. and Mrs. Charles
Lucier, Anchorage; Dr. Mim Harris Dixon, College; Mr. Adolph
Hamilton, Mr. Hamilton Hamilton, the late Mr. Joseph Hamilton,
and Mrs. Mathilda Dutchman of Shageluk; Mr. Henry Deacon and
Mr. John Deacon of Grayling; Mr. and Mrs. Terrance Wharton, Mr.
Terrance Wharton, Jr., Mr. Marcus Mailelle, Mr. Wilson Mailelle,
Mr. Calvin Chase, and Mr. Lucius Young of Anvik; also Mr. and
Mrs. James Fullton, formerly associated with the Episcopal Church
in that village.

For assistance in obtaining much of the historical material on
which this study is based, I wish to express my appreciation to the
following individuals and institutions: Mr. Max Plaut, formerly
reference librarian, Field Museum Library; Mr. Paul McCarthy, ar-
chivist, and Mrs. Renee Blahuta of the archives staff, Archives and
Manuscript Collections, University of Alaska, Fairbanks; Mrs.
Phyllis De Muth, librarian, State Historical Library, Juneau; Father

2 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

Clifford Carroll, archivist, Oregon Province Archives of the Society
of Jesus; Ms. Elinor S. Hearn, assistant to the archivist, Archives
and Historical Collections, the Episcopal Church.

Dr. Wendell H. Oswalt, University of California, Los Angeles read
an early draft of the manuscript and offered useful suggestions and
critical comments of a specific nature. It is with considerable grati-
tude that I acknowledge his valuable assistance. Drafts of the
manuscript were typed by Mrs. Sylvia Schueppert and Mr. Jim
Hanson. The maps were drawn by Mr. Zbigniew Jastrzebski.

AROCA
ECA

HCM

OPA

RACR/CS

UA

Abbreviations

Archives of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska
Archives and Historical Collections, the Episcopal

Church
Holy Cross Mission

Oregon Province Archives of the Society of Jesus
Russian- American Company Records: Communica-
tions Sent
Archives and Manuscript Collections, University of
Alaska, Fairbanks

INTRODUCTION

The Lower-Middle Yukon and its Inhabitants1

The region of west-central Alaska with which this study is con-
cerned includes a section of the lower Yukon River between Shage-
luk Slough on the north and the mouth of the Innoko River on the
south. Also included are the drainage systems of the Anvik River, a
locally important western tributary of the Yukon, and the lower
Innoko River, the only significant Yukon tributary entering on the
left or east bank. The entire area is part of a physiographic region
characterized by one geologist as the Innoko Lowlands consisting,
for the most part, of flat river flood plains (Wahrhaftig, 1965, p. 30).

For the purposes of this study, the area is divided into four sec-
tions: the Innoko River to its confluence with the Iditarod including
Holikachuk and Shageluk sloughs, but excluding the mouth of the
Innoko; the Anvik River from its mouth to Otter Creek and the
Yukon in the immediate vicinity of Anvik village; the Yukon River
from Deadman's Slough to and including the mouth of the Innoko
River. Geographical details of this extensive region and contiguous
areas are presented in the chapters that follow. In considering the
physiography of the Innoko Lowlands as a whole, however, impor-
tant factors are the presence of numerous navigable rivers which
have played a dominant role in the culture of the native inhabitants
and the virtual absence of high mountains and large lakes. The
rivers have provided access to major sources of food and have also
facilitated communication between villages built along their banks.
Similarly, they were avenues to the interior of central Alaska, first
for Russian explorers, traders, and missionaries and then for their
American counterparts as well as for subsequent gold seekers.

This geographical area is occupied by the Anvik-Shageluk Inga-
lik, an Athapaskan-speaking people who, at the time of their first
direct contact with Europeans in the late eighteenth or early nine-

■Most of this section has been summarized from VanStone, 1979.

3

4 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

teenth centuries, were one of four subdivisions of Ingalik living
along the lower-middle Yukon, lower Innoko, and a small portion of
the Kuskokwim River drainage (Osgood, 1940, p. 31). Several set-
tlements of Holikachuk Athapaskans, neighbors of the Ingalik on
the upper Innoko River (Krauss, 1974), are also included in the area
of this study. Total population of the region occupied by these two
groups may have been as high as 2,000 at the beginning of the his-
toric period, but this number was greatly reduced, perhaps by as
much as two-thirds, as the result of a severe smallpox epidemic that
swept southwestern Alaska in 1838 and 1839. At the beginning of
the present century they numbered approximately 500.

The neighbors of the Anvik-Shageluk Ingalik include Eskimos as
well as other Athapaskan speakers. West of the Anvik River and its
tributaries is the territory of the Unaligmiut Eskimos who inhabit
the coast of Norton Sound and the banks of the short rivers flowing
into it. Contact and trade between the Ingalik and Eskimos was im-
portant in this area. Kwikpagmiut Eskimos live along the Yukon
River south of Holy Cross to the river mouth. The only Athapaskan
group directly in contact with the Anvik-Shageluk area are, as just
noted, the Holikachuk, who today live along the Yukon River in the
village of Grayling. Because of frequent interaction with the Inga-
lik, the Holikachuk, most of whom formerly occupied the recently
abandoned village of that name on the Innoko River, are culturally
aligned to the Anvik-Shageluk people.

Ethnohistoric sources and the extensive field work of Cornelius
Osgood in the 1930's (Osgood, 1940, 1958, 1959) indicate that the
nineteenth-century Ingalik wintered at permanent villages along
the Yukon and Innoko rivers. In the spring small hunting parties
left the settlements to hunt caribou and moose in the high country
to the east and west. Beaver and muskrat were trapped in April. At
the first appearance of open water in the small lakes and ponds
which dot the lowlands of the river valleys, usually by mid-May,
ducks and geese were hunted as they migrated north. Spring fishing
for whitefish was also an important activity in the vicinity of the
river villages. Late spring was the time of trading expeditions to the
coast in the early contact period. Trading parties of Eskimos from
Norton Sound came to the Yukon and the Ingalik traveled to the
coast, usually by way of the Anvik River.

Salmon fishing was the most important subsistence activity dur-
ing the summer and by the time the rivers were clear of ice, the In-
dians had moved to their summer fish camps which were usually

<

CS

6 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

located near or adjacent to the permanent settlements. Ducks and
geese were also hunted throughout the summer and berries gathered
in the late summer and early fall. Shortly before the close of naviga-
tion on the rivers in late October, the people returned to their perma-
nent villages to prepare for late fall and early winter hunting and
trapping. Whitefish and lampreys were taken through the ice and
men went off to the high country seeking large game. By the end of
November, most hunters had returned to the villages and trapping
continued at least until the end of December. Small game hunting
and fishing for whitefish and pike continued throughout the winter.
Lavish winter entertainments and festivals took place during the
coldest months when outdoor subsistence activities were, of necessi-
ty, greatly restricted.

The Russian fur trade on the lower Yukon began with the estab-
lishment of Mikhailovskiy Redoubt (St. Michael) northeast of the
river's mouth in 1833 and the penetration of the Yukon Valley by
Andrey Glazunov's expedition the following year. Additional posts
were established at Ikogmiut in 1836 and Nulato on the middle river
in 1838.

At first, the fur harvest was abundant and meaningful economic
ties were established with the Ingalik and their neighbors. Soon,
however, the number of furs began to diminish, primarily because
the Russians had insufficient knowledge concerning the country,
the traditional economic patterns of its native inhabitants, and the
efforts necessary to develop new patterns that would benefit the
Russian- American Company. In spite of the presence of a number of
trading posts in west-central Alaska, the native inhabitants contin-
ued to depend on their Eskimo neighbors to the north who main-
tained direct contact with the Chukchi who had access to supplies
available from Siberian trading posts on the Kolyma River. For
more than 30 years the Russian-American Company struggled to
turn the fur trade to its own advantage, but was unsuccessful by the
time the country was relinquished to the United States in 1867.

During the early American period, the Ingalik benefited from com-
petition between the Alaska Commercial Company, successor to the
Russian-American Company, and the Western Fur and Trading
Company, but following the collapse of the latter in 1883 the situa-
tion changed drastically. Prices paid for furs were forced down and
the Indians' greater dependence on European goods, together with
a decline in numbers of fur-bearing and some large game animals,
gave traders the power and authority lacking earlier.

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 7

The introduction of commercial fur trapping necessitated a reori-
entation of Ingalik ecological and social patterns. As we have noted,
the aboriginal seasonal ecology of the Indians involved periods of
both dispersal and aggregation and the fur trade accentuated the
degree and duration of social isolation in every season of the year
except summer. Most fur bearers had been of little significance to
aboriginal subsistence and the effective deployment of trappers to
harvest thinly distributed furs was different from the traditional
arrangements utilized to take caribou, moose, small game, and fish.
Only the summer fishing season was unaffected by the demands of
the fur trade, a fact that doubtless insulated the Ingalik from some
of the hazards of an economy based primarily on trapping.

Beginning in 1845 with the establishment of a Russian Orthodox
mission at Ikogmiut, traditional Ingalik religion was confronted by
a small but highly dedicated group of church workers who became
increasingly significant as agents of culture change. The first Ortho-
dox priests were able to make infrequent visits to most of the widely
dispersed villages and this restricted their influence. Isolated by the
departure of the Russian- American Company in 1867, Orthodox
Church representatives were poorly equipped to withstand the
determined intrusion of Episcopalian and Roman Catholic mission-
aries 20 years later. Both denominations sent workers into the area
in 1887, the former at Anvik and the latter at Holy Cross opposite
the mouth of the Innoko River.

These missions, of course, emphasized programs aimed at chang-
ing the religious views of the people, but their efforts also affected
virtually every other aspect of Indian life as well. Educational pro-
grams opened up a new world to village young people and helped
them learn English, a valuable asset as face-to-face contacts with
Euro-Americans steadily increased. Traditional concepts of proper
social behavior were undermined and new concepts introduced since
both Episcopalians and Roman Catholics stressed the necessity of
living a Christian life, not just adhering to a new set of religious
practices. In the early years of the missions the authority of the mis-
sionaries became virtually complete since they controlled education,
medical services, and other areas of access to the outside world.
After the turn of the century, as the United States government
assumed greater responsibility for services in the communities, the
missionaries gradually became less significant as an acculturative
force. The effects of the missions and schools on settlement patterns
in the Anvik-Shageluk area is examined in the concluding chapter.

8 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

An influx of miners into the Yukon Valley began with the Klon-
dike gold rush in 1897 and continued until the decline of diggings on
the upper Innoko River just prior to 1920. As a result, new and
abundant opportunities for interaction with outsiders were pre-
sented to the Ingalik. For the first time, the Indians had an oppor-
tunity to observe Euro-Americans other than traders and mission-
aries. In the early years of the Klondike stampede, Indians worked
on river boats as deck hands and pilots. Although they were soon
forced out of these jobs by whites, employment as wood choppers
supplying fuel to the river boats continued to be available. The con-
version of river boats from wood to oil began in 1903 and following
the collapse of the Innoko diggings, the volume of river traffic
declined drastically. This meant that the Ingalik were forced once
more to rely primarily on income derived from trapping. The gold
rush was responsible for bringing about major seasonal fluctuations
of population and the establishment of wood camps at strategic
locations along the lower-middle Yukon and the Innoko.

Methodology

Methodologically, the research on which this study is based in-
volves three techniques: 1) archaeological survey; 2) ethnography; 3)
historical investigations. With reference to the survey, a total of 60
sites are numbered and reported on in the following pages including
four still occupied and 10 that have either disappeared because of
changing configurations of the river or, although physically intact,
were not personally visited or observed. Information concerning the
latter was either reported to me by informants or obtained from
historical sources. Speculations concerning the location and nature
of several additional settlements are also included. A great majority
of sites, however, were visited by boat, usually in the company of a
local resident who provided some on-the-spot ethnographic data.
These visits varied in length from a few minutes to the better part of
a day. Some sites were visited twice and a few were seen only from
the river, a landing being impossible at the time.

Most sites along the Yukon and its tributaries conform to the
same general pattern. They are located along a present river bank
and are easily visible as relatively open areas covered with a thick
growth of very tall grass, willows, and other scrub vegetation.
Many, perhaps most, have been partly eroded by river action. The
tall grass and other vegetation covering most sites often made it dif-
ficult to obtain an accurate identification and count of the individual
house pits and other features. Sites along the Innoko and lower

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 9

Anvik rivers were less easily visible than those on the Yukon
because of particularly thick willow growth near the river bank. In
the early summer of 1972, when most of the Innoko survey was con-
ducted, extensive flooding made the location of former settlements
or camps especially difficult.

The absence of sizeable midden deposits was characteristic of all
sites in the region. Since the research was oriented toward former
settlements belonging to the historic period, no attempt was made
to locate prehistoric sites or establish the extent of precontact occu-
pation. Since no excavation or testing was undertaken, it is not
known which, if any, of the readily identified historic sites had
prehistoric components. It is my impression, however, that evidence
for prehistoric occupation would be difficult to determine because of
the unstable banks of the Yukon and its major tributaries that have,
occasionally, changed dramatically in the course of a single year.

The task of discovering and collecting information about historic
settlements was greatly facilitated by the willingness of Indian and
white residents of the area to share their knowledge concerning the
location of sites, as well as to provide supplementary information
about such aspects of settlement patterns as span of occupation and
reasons for abandonment. There are four currently occupied villages
in the area of the Yukon drainage covered in this study; Anvik (HC-
14), at the mouth of the Anvik River; Grayling (HC-35), about 20
miles above Anvik, established in 1963 on the site of an old settle-
ment by the former residents of Holikachuk (HC-9) on the Innoko;
Holy Cross (HC-54) opposite the mouth of the Innoko River; and
New Shageluk on the Innoko about 45 river miles above its mouth.

Residents of Anvik are familiar with the Yukon between Fox
Point Island and the mouth of the Innoko River, but particularly
the section of the river above their village where, in the past, many
families maintained fish camps. The Anvik River was also the loca-
tion of fish and trapping camps as well as an overland route to Nor-
ton Sound used frequently in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. The residents of Grayling could be counted on to provide
information about settlements on Shageluk and Holikachuk sloughs
and that section of the Innoko in the vicinity of their former home at
Holikachuk, as well as on the Yukon near their present village where
Holikachuk residents had traditionally maintained summer fish
camps. Elderly informants at Holy Cross were likely to be familiar
with the lower Innoko River as well as the region in the vicinity of
their village, while at New Shageluk there were a few individuals

10 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

who had traveled extensively on the Innoko and its tributaries and
were also knowledgeable concerning the rather complicated settle-
ment patterns of the Innoko between Shageluk Slough and the
mouth of the river.

Although a large number of Indians and whites from all villages
in the area were helpful, the most profitable information was ob-
tained from a group of about 10 elderly and middle-aged men and
women whose memories were remarkably accurate for the years be-
tween about 1910 and 1930. There were, however, fewer informants
with decided historical interests than I encountered in carrying out
a similar project in the Nushagak River region in the mid-1960's.
Unlike my experiences with informants in Nushagak communities,
relatively little information was obtained from Ingalik informants
in response to the mention of settlement names derived from previ-
ous studies of historical sources. My Ingalik informants were equal-
ly as co-operative as those in Nushagak area villages, but these
names simply did not stimulate their memories to the same extent
and this study suffers accordingly.

With reference to the historical sources, both published and ar-
chival, utilized in the preparation of this study, a few comments
may be helpful. Without a doubt, the most useful published source
has been deLaguna's (1947) archaeological survey of portions of the
Yukon River and its tributaries undertaken in the summer of 1935.
Her surveys included all the area with which this study is concerned
and she visited and described many of the sites which I located
almost 40 years later. Her account of settlement patterns includes
reference to virtually all the published source material available at
the time as well as some archival sources, and she also mapped and
test excavated the more important sites. It has been almost impos-
sible to improve on deLaguna's careful work and if I have been suc-
cessful in doing so, it is because I have made use of archival materi-
als which, because of the much wider scope of her study, it was not
feasible for her to consult. Hrdlicka's (1944) entertaining account of
his Yukon surveys in 1926 and 1929 has also been useful. Other
published sources to which reference has been made in the following
pages are, of course, listed in the bibliography and do not require
comment at this point. It is worthwhile to note, however, the many
published articles by John Wight Chapman, pioneer Episcopalian
missionary at Anvik, which often contain brief but valuable com-
ments on settlement patterns and related subjects. Dr. Chapman
traveled extensively throughout the lower-middle Yukon-lower

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 1 1

Innoko area and was an astute observer of Indian life for more than
40 years.

Concerning archival sources, the Archives and Historical Collec-
tions of the Episcopal Church contain letters and unpublished writ-
ings by Dr. Chapman and others associated directly or indirectly
with the mission at Anvik. These materials have been utilized in the
preparation of this study. Of equal importance are documents
related to the Roman Catholic mission at Holy Cross deposited in
the Oregon Province Archives of the Society of Jesus. Among these,
the most useful have been the mission diaries maintained almost
continuously by the priests between 1889 and 1936. At one time or
another they contain references to most of the settlements and
camps within the area covered by this study.

In the chapters that follow, the procedure will be to describe the
various archaeological sites of the historic period as determined, for
the most part, during surveys in the summers of 1972 and 1974.
When available, evidence will be presented concerning length of oc-
cupancy and population. An attempt will also be made to relate a
given site to those around it.

In conclusion it is necessary to refer to 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. Virtually the entire area
with which this study is concerned is encompassed by a single quad-
rangle map: Holy Cross (HC). A few sites are located within the area
covered by the Unalakleet (Ukt) and Ophir (Oph) quadrangles. Since
"49" is the prefix for all Alaska, it is eliminated from the site de-
scriptions here to avoid repetition. Thus the total designation will
include one of the abbreviations listed above together with a
number.

The sites and occupied settlements will be described according to
convenient and logical subdivisions of the total region. A subdivi-
sion may include more than one quadrangle map and when that
occurs sites will not be designated in continuous numerical order.
The names of settlements and camps, when they are definitely
known, will be included with the appropriate abbreviations and
numbers.

I

SETTLEMENTS ON THE INNOKO RIVER
AND SHAGELUK SLOUGH

Introduction

In this chapter archaeological sites on the lower Innoko River,
exclusive of those at the river's mouth, and on Shageluk Slough will
be discussed. Sites at the mouth of the Innoko are more closely
related to settlement configurations on the Yukon and will be con-
sidered in Chapter IV.

Just below the present-day village of Holy Cross and on the oppo-
site river bank is the mouth of the Innoko River, fourth longest
tributary of the Yukon. The Innoko is approximately 500 miles in
length, and, together with its numerous tributaries, drains an area
in excess of 10,000 sq. miles that lies between the central and lower
portions of the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers.

The Innoko Valley consists of two types of drainage patterns
which divide it into distinct sections corresponding approximately
with the lower and upper halves of the valley. The upper half, char-
acterized by hills and low mountains, is drained by clear streams. It
is separated from the Yukon Basin to the northwest by the Kaiyuh
Mountains which extend from the south side of the Yukon, opposite
the mouth of the Melozitna River, in a southwesterly direction to
the lower course of the Innoko near the point where it is joined by
Holikachuk Slough, a distance of approximately 175 miles. These
mountains are comparatively low, being little more than high hills
at their northeast and southwest extremities. To the southeast, the
valley of the upper Innoko is separated from that of the Kuskokwim
River by a range of the Kuskokwim Mountains. These mountains
are higher and more rugged than the Kaiyuh, in some places rising
to a height of 4,000 ft. (Maddren, 1909, pp. 242-244.)

In the lower half of the Innoko Valley the river and its principal
tributaries meander widely over a considerable extent of low, flat

12

OPH-1 DEMENTI

HC-8 OLD SHAGELUK
HC-7 ILTENLEYDEN'

. l^SHAGELUK LAKE
*NEW SHAGELUK

HC-3 OLD SWIFTWATER ,

» HC-2 LUSHKAS FISH CAMP

HC-5 NEW SWIFTWATER

(HC-6 INSELNOSTLENDE

Fig. 2. Map of the lower Innoko River.

13

14 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

country consisting primarily of silt and clay deposits. Where the
river emerges from the upper valley at approximately its confluence
with Holikachuk Slough, the banks are about 10 to 15 ft. above the
normal level of the river. Here and there, as it makes its way toward
the Yukon, the river cuts banks of silt that are from 20 to 35 ft. high
and even higher hills approach the east bank below the village of
New Shageluk. Generally speaking, however, the banks tend to
decrease in height downstream and toward the mouth they are
sometimes no more than 3 or 4 ft. above low water level. During
spring floods the entire lower valley is sometimes inundated with
only an occasional hillock rising above the water level and only tall
river bank vegetation to indicate the normal channel.

About 75 miles above its confluence with the Yukon, the Innoko is
joined to the latter by Shageluk Slough, an anabranch which runs in
a meandering north-south direction generally parallel to the two
rivers for a distance of some 40 miles and joins the Innoko approxi-
mately 15 river miles above the village of New Shageluk. A branch
of Shageluk Slough, Holikachuk Slough flows into the Innoko near
the abandoned village of Holikachuk.

A glance at the map (fig. 2) will show that Shageluk Slough,
together with the lower Innoko River, creates a large island roughly
in the shape of an inverted triangle with Fox Point Island in the
northwest corner, Holikachuk in the northeast corner, and Holy
Cross at the apex. This arrangement has created confusion in geo-
graphical naming and identification by early explorers, traders and
missionaries. In some written accounts Shageluk Slough is consid-
ered to include not only the slough, but the lower Innoko as well.
For these writers the name Innoko is applied only to the river above
the mouth of Holikachuk Slough. Since in spring both sloughs
deliver a considerable amount of Yukon water to the Innoko, it is
easy to see why some observers considered the entire complex of
sloughs and a section of the Innoko to be simply a large anabranch
of the Yukon.

According to the explorer L. A. Zagoskin (1967, pp. 201, 298), the
upper Innoko was called "Tlegon" by the Ingalik and the middle
river "Shiltonotno or Innoko." The lower river between the point
where Holikachuk Slough enters and its junction with the Yukon
was designated "Ittege" by the Indians and "Chagelyuk" or Shage-
luk by the neighboring Eskimos. Zagoskin believed the name Shage-
luk to mean "willow," a reference to the heavy growth of these trees
along the river's banks, while according to one source (Osgood,

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 15

1958, p. 27), Innoko is an Ingalik word meaning "in the woods."
Father Jules Jette (1907, p. 178), an early Roman Catholic mission-
ary at Nulato and long-time student of Indian culture, however,
insisted that the name is not Ingalik and there is no general agree-
ment concerning the meaning of this designation or its origin.

Site Descriptions

HC-1. This is probably the site referred to by Osgood (1958, p. 29)
as "Sleep on the other side." In 1956, at the time of his visit, it was
entirely overgrown with willows. According to my informants, the
name of the village means "across (or opposite) the hill," and there
is, in fact, a sizeable hill, known locally as St. Joe Hill, just opposite
the site. An elderly Shageluk resident, 77 years old in 1972, said
that he had been born in this settlement and that when he was a boy
there were many people living there. His parents were also born
there which suggests that the site dates at least to the early nine-
teenth century. Other informants noted that this settlement was
occupied until about 30 years ago and some could remember two
standing cabins that have been cut away by the river within the
past 20 years. The river bank is quite low in the vicinity of the site
and the same thick growth of willows noted by Osgood was ob-
served in the summer of 1972. No structures or the remains of struc-
tures could be identified and it is likely that much of the formerly
occupied area has been cut away. Informants reported that the site
was near a good fishing location for dog salmon and that many peo-
ple lived there in tents during part of the summer. There is reported
to have been a cemetery in the vicinity, but it could not be located.

HC-2. According to its present appearance, this site, known local-
ly as Lushka's Fish Camp, has been seasonally inhabited very
recently, but informants noted that it has served as a good fishing
location for many years. Like HC-1, it is said to be one of the few
locations along the Innoko for taking dog salmon, the only species
ascending the river in sufficient numbers to constitute a run. At the
present time there is a small frame cabin and large drying rack at
the site, but no other signs of occupation. This may be at or near the
"village" referred to by Osgood (1958, p. 30) as "Branches to put in
one place," which he described as covered with impenetrable willows
at the time of his visit.

HC-3. The identification of this site is very tentative. It may be
the one referred to by Zagoskin as "Khuingitetakhten," which, in
1844, had a population of 37 living in three houses (Zagoskin, 1967,

16 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

p. 307). A map of Alaska published in 1867 and based on Russian
charts, as well as surveys by the Western Union Telegraph Com-
pany Expedition (Map of Russian America . . . , 1867), shows a
village on the Innoko called "Hoeingitetakhten," but the location
seems incorrect.

If the above identification is correct, this site was occupied at
least as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century. Infor-
mants refer to it as "Old Swiftwater," a name also mentioned by
Osgood (1958, p. 30), although he appears to have confused its loca-
tion with that of HC-6. John Chapman visited a village called
"Quoloqutchiaku," tentatively equated with HC-3, in 1931 but the
definite date of abandonment is unknown. The site is located oppo-
site an island on a low bank that separates the Innoko from a small
lake. Only a collapsed cabin could be seen and much of the site now
appears to have been cut away.

HC-4. According to informants, the Ingalik name for this site
means "Spruce tree slough." Two families are said to have lived
here as recently as 30 years ago and the remains of two cabins were
visible in 1972. The site was frequently described as one where
many inhabitants died during influenza epidemics between 1900
and 1919. Today the area of former occupation appears low, flat, and
not more than 4 ft. above high water level. Informants believed that
the site, a year-round settlement, dated to the early nineteenth cen-
tury with the few remaining inhabitants eventually moving to Old
Shageluk.

HC-5. Informants identified this site as "New Swiftwater," but
the relationship to Old Swiftwater is not clear since the date of
abandonment of the latter is not known. This is a comparatively
large site with the remains of at least four cabins and one large old
style house pit, its entry tunnel facing downriver. Also visible are
the remains of a structure, approximately 15 ft. square, which infor-
mants described as a kashim in use within the past 35 years. Like
other sites in the immediate vicinity, this one is a low, flat, grass-
covered area surrounded by a thick growth of willows. Much of it
appears to have been cut away by the river. About 1 mile below New
Swiftwater and on the same side of the river is a cemetery; the
graves are rapidly being washed out. The village was occupied in
1938 when it had a population of 14 (Anonymous, 1938, pp. 1-2) and
there were still a few inhabitants as late as 1946 (Chapman, 1945, p.
10; Anonymous, 1947, p. 19).

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 17

HC-6. This is the location of a village which Father Jules Jette (On
the geographic names of the Tena, OPA) called "Ekarotsor" mean-
ing "big eddy." As noted previously, Osgood appears to have con-
fused this site with that of Old Swiftwater (HC-3). Its appearance in
1972 suggests that it is one of the oldest along the lower Innoko.
The remains of three old style houses are visible, their entry tunnels
facing in different directions. The remains of two small log cabins
and two elevated caches were also observed. The site is on a low,
narrow spit of land next to a slough and, like so many others on the
lower Innoko, much of it appears to have been cut away by the river.
A cemetery is located a short distance above on the same side of the
river and on slightly higher ground.

It seems likely that this is the site identified by Zagoskin as
"Inselnostlende" which, in 1844, had a population of 33 living in
two houses (Zagoskin, 1967, p. 307). His maps (Zagoskin, 1967, p.
84, opp. p. 358) show it on the right bank, but the general location is
approximately correct for HC-6. Informants stated that this settle-
ment had been occupied within the past 40 years, but that many
inhabitants died in the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919.

HC-7. This is the site identified by Zagoskin as "Iltenleyden" and
it is the largest and most impressive on the lower river. Located on
the right bank about halfway between new and old Shageluk, it is
probably no more than a mile from either community. The right
bank of the river in this area is low, flat, and cutting rapidly. The
site appears as a flat, cleared area approximately 400 yd. long and
varying in depth throughout its length. At either end it tapers and
is narrow, but in the center it is approximately 50 yd. deep. At the
river bank the ground surface is about 10 ft. above the water level in
late July. Toward the rear, the ground slopes downward and when
the water level is high in spring it is likely that flooding begins in
this area. It seems probable that water would stand in deep house
pits almost every spring. The site is surrounded by a thick growth
of willows which in some places have encroached on the formerly
occupied area. Willows have also begun to grow directly along the
river bank in a few places.

The formerly occupied area is divided about equally into two sec-
tions by an intrusion of willows that almost reaches the river bank.
The downriver half has been occupied more recently and in this area,
well toward the back of the site, are three standing cabins, the re-
mains and foundations of several more, at least two raised caches,

18 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

several fish racks, and two collapsed smokehouses. Although there
is a heavy growth of tall grass and fireweed in this area, seven or
eight old style house pits could be discerned, one of which is large
enough to have been a kashim. Entry ways could not be determined
for all of these, but where they occur, they face away from the river
bank. There are also a large number of unidentifiable depressions of
varying sizes. All the house pits are toward the front of the site on
higher ground and well in front of the cabins. Two houses are very
close to the river bank and it is likely that some have been cut away.
This lower section of the site was still occupied in the late 1940's
(Gordon, 1948, p. 11).

The upriver section of Iltenleyden contains at least six house pits,
including a very large structure that was almost certainly a kashim.
It is located well back from the bank and has a tunnel and entry way
which face the river. The other structures, widely dispersed over the
cleared area, do not have obvious tunnels and are not as close to the
bank as the houses in the downriver section. At the extreme upper
end of the site there is a small modern cemetery in which burials
were made as recently as 1971.

It is difficult to discern anything particularly suitable about the
location of this site, particularly since the area has obviously flood-
ed frequently in the past. There is no obvious source of drinking
water, although it is possible that a small creek may have existed
somewhere in the area.

Zagoskin noted six houses at Iltenleyden and estimated a popula-
tion of 100, although at the time of his visit in February, 1844 many
trappers were away from the village (Zagoskin, 1967, pp. 234, 307).
Elderly informants at New Shageluk believe that the upper end of
the village, the section occupied in Zagoskin' s time, was abandoned
early in the present century. The lower end, frequently referred to as
"Lower Village" with reference to Old Shageluk, was occupied at
least as early as 1905 (Chapman, 1906, p. 755) and, as previously
noted, up to approximately 25 years ago.

HC-8. This settlement, known today as Old Shageluk, was one of
the most important on the Innoko River throughout much of the
historic period. Zagoskin (1967, p. 235) called it "Tlegozhitno,"
which, according to Osgood (1958, p. 29), is a close approximation of
the Ingalik name meaning "rotten fish." John Chapman and other
missionaries sometimes referred to Old Shageluk as Schoolhouse
Village after a government school was built there about 1906.

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 19

The Old Shageluk site is located on a narrow strip of land which
separates the Innoko River from Shageluk Lake. The total occupied
area, narrowest (about 50 yd.) in the center and widening at either
end to about 100 yd., is a little more than a quarter of a mile long.
When the Innoko is low in midsummer, the houses and outbuildings
are from 3 to 8 ft. above the water level with the area bordering the
lake being consistently higher. As a result, known habitation has
always been back against the lake shore. In general, the upriver end
of the site is lowest and this area frequently floods in spring. In
years of severe flooding, the entire strip of land, and consequently
the village, lies submerged, the lake and river becoming a single
body of water. In winter, strong winds blow across the lake, some-
times creating snowdrifts that cover the houses.

In 1966 the Bureau of Indian Affairs built a new school approx-
imately 2V4 miles downriver and the residents of Old Shageluk
gradually moved to the new site. The above-mentioned flooding in
spring and blowing snow in winter were other reasons which encour-
aged the residents to move. Although three families remained in the
old village in 1972, it will clearly be only a matter of time before the
entire settlement is abandoned.

Today Old Shageluk has, as might be expected, the appearance of
a recently abandoned settlement or even one from which the inhabi-
tants are only temporarily absent. At the time of the move to the
new site, some houses were dismantled and the logs used for fire-
wood or to construct dwellings in the new location. However, many
abandoned cabins and the school still stand. As previously indi-
cated, houses were built close to the lake where the presence of
many birch stumps indicates that flooding was infrequent. Fish
racks, smoke houses, and dog tethering places were situated on
lower ground along the river bank. There may have been a summer
fish camp along the bank in earlier days.

The oldest part of the site appears to be at the downriver end
where the formerly occupied area slopes off into a swamp that joins
the river to Shageluk Lake. There are a number of house pits in this
area, but because of extremely tall grass only three could be located
with certainty. Others were doubtless destroyed by the construction
of cabins, gardens, and smokehouses. That the site has an archaeo-
logical component, however, is certain, both because of early ref-
erences in historic sources and the fact that in 1935 deLaguna pur-
chased artifacts found there from an Innoko River trader (deLa-

1

13

bD

I

>

20

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 21

guna, 1947, p. 76; pi. xi, 3; xxii, 1; fig. 32, no. 4). Through the years
the inhabitants appear to have moved gradually upriver.

The kashim at Old Shageluk still stands and is in a fairly good
state of repair. It is a large building, approximately 20 ft. square,
constructed of massive logs, six on a side. The roof is of split logs
supported by six cross pieces and there is a skylight approximately
4 ft. square. Inside is a plank floor and a wide bench of split logs run-
ning around all four sides. This structure was constructed about
1940 and was used as a community hall until the village moved.
Earlier, another and much larger kashim stood in the same place.

Old Shageluk would appear to have been well located in spite of
previously mentioned drawbacks. It is bright and open and there is
an unobstructed view downriver. Pike and whitefish are caught in
the lake and good drinking water is readily available. The continual
flooding was a problem, however, and is mentioned frequently by
informants as an important reason for moving the village. The new
site is located on the slope of a fairly steep bluff in an area character-
ized by stunted spruce growth and spongy, wet sphagnum. In spite
of the well-drained slope, there are few dry areas where houses can
be built. The new location appears to have been chosen because the
ground was high and the Bureau of Indian Affairs could construct a
school where flooding would never occur. Since the Bureau refused
to build the badly needed school in Old Shageluk, the villagers were
more or less forced to move in order to obtain the new facility. Prior
to the shift downriver, some consideration was given to the possibil-
ity of moving out to the Yukon as Holikachuk residents had done.
The Old Bonasila site (HC-47) was tentatively selected, but it is not
clear what prompted the eventual decision to remain on the Innoko.

At the time of Zagoskin's visit in February, 1844, Old Shageluk,
or Tlegozhitno, had a population of 45 living in three houses (Zagos-
kin, 1967, p. 307). His map, however, locates the settlement on the
wrong side of the river (Zagoskin, 1967, opp. p. 358). The village was
apparently visited by a Russian Orthodox priest in 1845, the year
that a mission was established at Ikogmiut. From 1847 through
1879 the parish records of the Kvikhpak mission simply list "two
Shageluk villages" giving population totals, but not naming or dif-
ferentiating between them. It is possible that Old Shageluk and
HC-7 (Zagoskin's Iltenleyden) are the settlements to which the re-
cords refer. Throughout these years the population of the two vil-
lages averaged approximately 145 persons living in 20 to 30 houses.

22 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

Beginning in 1880 Old Shageluk is differentiated from the other
village by a variety of names and the populations given are as fol-
lows (number of houses in parentheses):

1880 148 (32) 1887 166 (35)

1881 148 (32) 1888 172 (35)

1882 148 (32) 1889 215 (38)

1883 154 (35) 1890 214 (38)

1884 166 (35) 1891 no figures

1885 no figures 1892 234 (38)

1886 162 (35)

During this period the so-called "second village" may have been
deserted or nearly so since no populations are given (AROCA/parish
records: Kvikhpak mission, church register).

The records of the Kvikhpak mission contain no further popula-
tion data for Old Shageluk, although priests continued to make oc-
casional visits. During the winter of 1905 John Chapman journeyed
to the community and stayed with the trader, Mr. John Cristo. He
counted "10 or 11 houses" (Chapman, 1906, pp. 686-689). Five years
later census reports given to the Roman Catholic mission at Holy
Cross by the official census taker listed 53 Indian and seven white
inhabitants (HCM diary, July 27, 1908-Dec. 31, 1912, OPA/HCM,
box 3). Beginning in 1920 official census figures for the community
are as follows:

1920 130 1950 100

1930 88 1960 155

1940 92

(U.S. federal census reports, 1931, vol. 1; 1963, vol. 1, pp. 3/10-11).
The 1970 census data for villages listed in the Alaska Native Claims
Settlement Act gave a population of 167 for Old Shageluk, the fig-
ures which were apparently obtained just prior to the move to the
new site (Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1971). The considerable variation
in all these figures doubtless reflects the time of year at which the
census data were collected. As previously noted, a school was con-
structed at Old Shageluk about 1906; a post office was established
in 1924 (Orth, 1967, p. 858).

HC-9. One of the best documented settlements on the Innoko
River is Holikachuk, which, like Old Shageluk, probably was occu-
pied during prehistoric times. On nineteenth-century and modern
maps it sometimes appears as "Hologachaket." DeLaguna (1947, p.
74; pi. xi, 5) obtained a planing adze blade from the local trader at
the time of her visit in the summer of 1935. The settlement was vir-

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 23

tually abandoned in 1963 when most inhabitants moved to the
mouth of Grayling Creek on the Yukon.

The village of Holikachuk occupied a large, flat lip of land just
below the place where a branch of Shageluk Slough, known as Holi-
kachuk Slough, joins the Innoko River. The site is about 4 or 5 ft.
above the level of the river and some sections have flooded frequent-
ly in past years. The river is also cutting rapidly in this area and it is
apparent that much of the older sections of the site have been
washed away. Among the previously occupied buildings still stand-
ing are a church and a store; many more were destroyed by a fire in
the late 1960's after the settlement was completely abandoned.

About half a mile behind the settlement is a large lake where there
is good fishing for pike through the ice in winter. One house at Holi-
kachuk is still maintained in good condition for former residents
who wish to come to the lake to fish. Holikachuk, like Old Shageluk,
is thus situated between the river and a lake which provides fresh
water and a significant winter food supply. In 1935 deLaguna (1947,
p. 75) was told of a village site "on the far side of the lake" that was
75 years old. She did not visit this site nor could anything be learned
about it during a visit to the area in 1972.

Zagoskin (1967, pp. 235, 307) stopped briefly at Holikachuk,
which he called "Khuligichagat," on his way up the Innoko and
noted five winter houses occupied by "not over 70 inhabitants of
both sexes." A Russian Orthodox priest visited Holikachuk for the
first time in 1852 and there are virtually continuous population
records from 1853 to 1867 and from 1878 to 1892 as follows (num-
bers in parentheses refer to dwellings):

1853

5

(8)

1854

58

(10)

1855

58

(10)

1856

57

(10)

1857

57

(10)

1858

57

(10)

1859

57

(10)

1860

57

(10)

1861

59

(10)

1862

no

figures

1863

no

figures

1864

61

(10)

1865

61

(10)

1866

62

(12)

1867

71

(12)

1878

71 (12)

1879

70 (12)

1880

70 (12)

1881

70 (12)

1882

70 (12)

1883

70 (12)

1884

115 (15)

1885

115 (15)

1886

no figures

1887

no figures

1888

118 (14)

1889

172 (25)

1890

no figures

1891

no figures

1892

192 (40)

(AROCA/parish records: Kvikhpak mission, church register).

24 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

The federal census of 1910 listed only 29 inhabitants, suggesting
that the enumerator visited the settlement in summer when most
residents were in fish camps on the Yukon (HCM diary, July 27,
1908-Dec. 31, 1912, OPA/HCM, box 3). In 1939 the settlement had a
population of 77 and in 1950 the figure was 98; in 1960, the last year
for which official figures are available, 122 persons were enumer-
ated. (U.S. federal census reports: 1952, vol. 1, pp. 51/6-8; 1963, vol.
1, pp. 3/10-11).

In February, 1963 representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
and the Alaska State Housing Authority met with most of the men
to discuss the move to Grayling on the Yukon. At this meeting a
program of mutual-help housing sponsored by the Public Housing
Administration was discussed and the village voted in favor of such
a program that would enable the families to obtain loans for build-
ing materials. According to informants, the decision to move was
made because Holikachuk was believed to be too isolated. Lower
freight rates and other advantages were expected to result from
relocating on the Yukon and thus be served directly by supply
barges from Nenana rather than indirectly from Holy Cross as New
Shageluk is at the present time (see note, p. 30).

HC-10. In 1935 deLaguna was informed by the trader at Holika-
chuk of an old site on the west bank of the Innoko between Holika-
chuk and what she called Thompson (Holikachuk) Slough. She ob-
tained an adze blade and ulu blade from him which he found at this
site (deLaguna, 1947, p. 74; plates xi, 15; xiii, 7). DeLaguna did not
examine this location, which would appear to be a continuation of
Holikachuk village, but was told that the house pits were not more
than 50 years old.

In 1972 this site appeared as a flat, cleared area approximately 75
yd. long and 25 yd. deep. Four or five house pits could be located
along with the remains of a large, deep kashim out of which grew
sizeable willows. Middle-aged informants could not recall any occu-
pation in this area during their lifetime.

HC-11. DeLaguna also described another site just above Holika-
chuk but on the other side of the river where she conducted excava-
tions in 1935. She identified eight house pits and a kashim and exca-
vated a single house (deLaguna, 1947, pp. 75-76; pis. xiv, 48; xvi, 29;
xxii, 2-3; figs. 19, 20, 32, nos. 3, 5). A few trade goods were recovered
leading her to believe that the settlement was of no great antiquity.

In 1972 this site, a cleared area approximately 75 yd. long and 30

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 25

yd. deep, served as the Holikachuk cemetery. Five poorly defined
house pits could be seen among the graves and it was apparent that
willows had encroached upon the formerly occupied area since
deLaguna's excavations. Elderly informants at New Shageluk were
unwilling to hazard a guess concerning the age of this site, but
agreed that they could not recall a time when it had been occupied.

HC-12. Informants at New Shageluk mentioned that there used to
be a village or a fish camp opposite the mouth of Shageluk Slough.
Nets are occasionally set there at the present time, but there are no
indications of former habitation. Zagoskin (1967, p. 235) referred to
a small settlement which he called "Tozhgelede" and which was
located 7 miles below Holikachuk on the left bank of the Innoko.
This is approximately the correct location for the site described by
informants, but it would appear to have been cut away by the river
since his visit. Unfortunately, he gave no further information nor
did he include population figures as he did for other settlements on
the Innoko.

HC-13. Several informants mentioned a site located at the junc-
tion of Shageluk and Holikachuk sloughs and although it could not
be located during surveys in the summer of 1972, its existence was
verified by historical sources. Slough channels alter rapidly and it is
likely that this site, now heavily overgrown with willows, is no
longer located along an open waterway. According to informants,
the settlement was at a particularly good location for taking white-
fish in the fall.

Jette referred to this site as "Nikadodellenten" or "Niltchado-
delenten" meaning "where it flows apart" (Jette, Ethnological dic-
tionary of the Tena language; On the geographical names of the
Tena, OPA). DeLaguna (1947, p. 74) was told of the existence of this
site in 1935 and informants agreed that it was known to white men
as "two sloughs" or "the forks." An elderly informant at Grayling,
born at Holikachuk about 1893, described a visit to this site as a
boy when he noted houses with collapsed roofs. This would suggest
that the settlement was abandoned at that time, but it is shown on a
map printed in 1910 (Sleem, 1910). Among those villages listed in
official census figures obtained by the mission at Holy Cross in 1910
was one called "Nilteelihten," a name which resembles Jette's des-
ignation for HC-13; it had a population of 54 (HCM diary, July 27,
1908-Dec. 31, 1912, OPA/HCM, box 3). The inhabitants are said to
have moved to Holikachuk.

26 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

Population of the Lower Innoko

The confusing terminology characteristic of historic source
materials concerning the Innoko River and Shageluk Slough to
which previous reference has been made greatly complicates the
matter of determining the accuracy of population estimates for this
area. Zagoskin (1967, p. 307) listed six settlements below the en-
trance of Holikachuk Slough, including the village of Holikachuk.
The combined population of five of these was 285 in 1843. The tenth
federal census in 1880 enumerated 150 persons living on "Chageluk
Slough and Innok River" (Petroff, 1884, p. 12). The enumerator did
not visit the area and the figure seems unrealistically low even
allowing for the ravages of epidemics during the years following
Zagoskin 's explorations. This appears particularly likely in view of
the figures obtained by later nineteenth and early twentieth century
visitors. John Chapman (1898, p. 167) listed a population of 273 on
"Chageluk Slough," presumably referring to the Innoko below
Holikachuk, in 1898 and five years later he noted eight settlements
with a total population of 318 (J. W. Chapman to J. W. Witten, Aug.
29, 1903, ECA/J. W. and H. H. Chapman papers). On the other
hand, in 1910 a geologist working in the area (Maddren, 1910, pp.
19-20) believed that there were no more than 100 natives in the en-
tire Innoko Valley. He counted three occupied settlements on the
lower river and the ruins of four or five others. The same year,
however, Chapman referred to 216 individuals living in four com-
munities (Chapman, 1911a, p. 10).

Some of the discrepancies in the above figures are doubtless
related to the time of year during which they were obtained. As
previously noted, salmon do not run in the Innoko to any extent and
many inhabitants of the area move to the Yukon during the summer
months to inhabit temporary fish camps. Thus some communities
were virtually completely abandoned at this time. It is probable
that some population figures were obtained in the summer when
visitors to the area were numerous and travel relatively easy. Zagos-
kin's data was collected during the winter months and since he was
a careful and accurate observer, it is likely that his population esti-
mates are reasonably accurate. Similarly, John Chapman, another
good observer with a strong interest in Indian culture, visited the
Innoko country at various seasons of the year over a period of more
than 40 years. It is probable, therefore, that the population of the
lower Innoko varied between 250 and 300 during the period between
1845 and the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919. Since that time, the

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 27

population of the area has varied between 200 and 250 until the
early 1960's when, as previously noted, the inhabitants of Holika-
chuk established a new settlement at Grayling on the Yukon River.

The Upper Innoko River

The inhabitants of the upper Innoko spoke a different language,
which has been designated by the name of their largest contempo-
rary village, Holikachuk (Krauss, 1974); those closest to Ingalik
territory were culturally aligned with that group. There were, at
various times during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a
number of small Holikachuk communities on the Innoko and its
tributaries above the village after which the group is named. Zagos-
kin (1967, p. 168) met a party of Indians from the upper Innoko in
the summer of 1843 when he was traveling on the Yukon above
Nulato. They informed him that they frequently came to the Yukon
to trade their furs either at the Russian- American Company post at
Nulato or with Malemiut Eskimo who came to the mouth of the
Innoko River.

Except for the short stretch of river between Holikachuk village
and the mouth of the Iditarod, an important tributary, the upper
Innoko was not included in surveys made during the summer of
1972. Therefore, most of the information that follows is taken from
historical sources, although some data were obtained from infor-
mants at New Shagluk and Yukon River villages.

Oph-1. The best documented settlement on the upper Innoko was
Dementi, located opposite the mouth of the Iditarod River. Al-
though this area was examined in 1972, widespread flooding pre-
vented a definite location of the site. There appeared to be no high
ground in the immediate vicinity of the Iditarod's mouth.

In the fall of 1839 Petr Fedorovich Kolmakov, pioneer explorer of
the upper Innoko, reached this settlement during his descent of the
river. While there, he learned that the Russian-American Company
post at Ikogmiut had been attacked, destroyed, and the inhabitants
massacred in the spring of that year, probably by Eskimos from the
Kuskokwim in retaliation for the smallpox epidemic of 1838-1839
for which the Russians were held responsible. Kolmakov decided to
turn back and the inhabitants of Dementi showed him a short route
to the Kuskokwim (Chernenko 1967, p. 10; Zagoskin, 1967, pp. 81,
236-237, 275, 300; RACR/CS, vol. 20, no. 486, folios 403-404, Oc-
tober 14, 1841).

In 1844 Zagoskin (1967, pp. 236-237, 307) visited the settlement,

28 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

which he called "Ttality," and noted that it consisted of three winter
houses with a population of 45. The village may also be referred to
indirectly in the earliest Russian Orthodox Church records for the
area which indicate that three upper Innoko villages were visited
annually by a priest beginning in 1854. The only settlement identi-
fied by name, however, is Holikachuk. From 1880 to 1884 a settle-
ment identified as "second village" is listed as being located 30
miles above Holikachuk, approximately the correct location for
Dementi. Throughout these five years "second village" had a popu-
lation of 79 living in 12 houses (AROC A/parish records: Kvikhpak
mission, church register).

During the early years of the Innoko gold rush, which began in
1907, a boat landing and store were apparently maintained at
Dementi to serve miners on the Iditarod and further up the Innoko
(Orth, 1967, p. 266), but the operation must have been a small one
and of short duration. The settlement is shown as "Deminti" on a
map (Sleem, 1910) published at that time and John Chapman visited
the village in the summer of 1911 when there were only two families
in residence (Chapman, 1911b, pp. 1,025-1,026). Hudson Stuck,
Episcopal missionary at Fort Yukon, also paid the community a
visit in 1917 and referred to it as "tiny" (Stuck, 1917, p. 373). It
would appear that Dementi was abandoned shortly thereafter as
elderly residents of New Shageluk have no clear memories concern-
ing the place.

Unfortunately, it has been impossible to learn anything definite
concerning derivation of the settlement's name. New Shageluk in-
formants believe the village to have been named after an early
native resident, while Orth (1967, p. 266) suggested that the desig-
nation was possibly derived from the name of Nikolai Dementov,
the last Russian post manager at Kolmakovskiy Redoubt on the
Kuskokwim (Oswalt, 1963, p. 15). Father Jette (On the geographical
names of the Tena, OPA) referred to the village as "Radiloten" and
believed that Iditarod was a corruption of this name.

The Iditarod River was known to Zagoskin (1967, p. 238) as the
Yalchikatna. He made no attempt to ascend it, nor were any Indian
settlements on its banks reported to him. This agrees with informa-
tion obtained from informants who noted that the banks of the river
are low on both sides and there are few suitable locations for human
habitation. In 1908 gold was discovered along tributaries of the
Iditarod and by the summer of 1909 several hundred prospectors
were on the river. The town of Iditarod was established in June,

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 29

1910, located at the head of navigation during the greater part of
the open season. During low water the larger steamboats ascended
only as far as Dikeman, another mining camp established about 80
miles below Iditarod. Both communities were ghost towns by 1920,
but during the years of mining activity there were temporary camps
of Indians who were seasonally resident on the river while cutting
wood for the steamboats (Sleem, 1910, pp. 376-377; Maddren, 1911,
pp. 240-241).

Zagoskin (1967, pp. 237-238) mentioned the existence of three
small villages on the upper Innoko between "Tlegon," a settlement
above the mouth of the Sulatna mentioned by Petr Kolmakov, and
Ttality, but none of these are shown on his map. One,
"Kkholikakat," is very likely near the village shown on later maps
as Dishkakat and the other two may have been fish camps. Infor-
mants at New Shageluk and Grayling were firmly of the opinion that
there were no permanent settlements between Dementi and Dishka-
kat but that at various times in the past a number of fishing or trap-
ping camps may have been located along this stretch of the Innoko.

According to Jette (On the geographical names of the Tena, OPA),
there was an abandoned village at the confluence of the Dishna and
Innoko Rivers known as "Tihkakat" and he noted that this name
was often applied by whites to another village approximately 20
miles downriver the native name of which was "Korotsenaledalten."
Thus the Tihkakat of Jette may be the Kkholikakat of Zagoskin, a
site that was apparently abandoned long before Korotsenaledalten
(Dishkakat) became the only significant native village on the upper
Innoko and of considerable importance to whites during the gold
rush. In 1907, those prospectors who came up the Innoko by boat or
across from Kaltag by winter trail made Dishkakat their stopping
place since dried salmon for dog food could be obtained in winter
and Indians were often available for service as guides (Maddren,
1910, pp. 24-26; Orth, 1967, p. 274). The "Innoko" post office was
maintained at Dishkakat from 1907 to 1915 (Ricks, 1965, p. 29).

One of the most elaborate attempts to start a new settlement on
the Innoko during the gold rush was at the mouth of the Dishna
River, presumably at or near the site or Jetty's Tihkakat. The loca-
tion was selected on the supposition that it had geographical advan-
tages with reference to future development of the region. It was at
or near the usual upstream limit of steamboat navigation in sum-
mer, and was assumed to be a good location for a large commercial
company to establish a central distributing station for the valley. A

30 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

number of substantial log and lumber buildings were constructed in
the summer of 1907 and the settlement was named Innoko City. The
expected boom did not materialize, however, and by September,
1908 the few remaining inhabitants had moved to Dishkakat (Mad-
dren, 1910, pp. 24-26). Dishkakat itself would appear to have been
abandoned before 1920.

Although several thousand miners entered the upper Innoko
country between 1906 and 1920, the total Indian population appears
to have been small throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. In 1880 E. W. Nelson (VanStone, 1978, p. 45) noted that
disease had reduced the population to no more than 125 and in 1898
Chapman (1898, p. 167) estimated a similar number. In 1911, how-
ever, he enumerated only 52 individuals (Chapman, 1911a, p. 10) and
it is probable that with the decline of gold mining activity the re-
maining inhabitants of the area between Holikachuk and Dishkakat
moved to the lower river or the Yukon not long after that date.

Note

Zagoskin (1967, p. 235) noted that "Khuligichagat" was on the
left bank of the Innoko and he may have stopped at HC-11. It is
possible that the settlement known as Holikachuk, or a variant
spelling, was not established until after the explorer's visit and that
the old name was retained for the new settlement. Another possibili-
ty is that a single name was applied to the three sites (HC-9-11) at or
near the confluence of the Innoko River and Holikachuk Slough.

II

VILLAGE SITES ON THE ANVIK RIVER AND IN THE
VICINITY OF ANVIK VILLAGE

Introduction

After the Innoko, the major Yukon tributary in the area of this
study is the Anvik River which heads near latitude 64° north, not
far from Norton Sound, and flows southeast 140 miles, paralleling
the Yukon for much of that distance. Approximately 50 miles from
its mouth, the Anvik turns abruptly eastward and enters the Yukon
1 Vz miles north of Anvik village. The upper river is largely confined
to a single channel flowing in a broad valley between steep, spruce-
covered hills. The lower river meanders considerably and is conse-
quently characterized by abundant sloughs and split channels. The
ends of many of these sloughs have been sealed off and they exist
only as ox-bow lakes. After the river turns eastward, the banks are
generally low and bordered by an abundant growth of willows and
alders interspersed with a few clumps of spruce and birch in the
higher places. Just above the village of Anvik, the right bank of the
Yukon rises 50 or 60 ft. above the river, while immediately below the
village is Hawk Bluff, approximately the same height. The left bank
of the river is low in this area.

According to Jette (On the geographical names of the Tena, OPA),
the Ingalik name for the Anvik River is "Kedzono," meaning "Leg-
ging River," possibly a reference to the excellent caribou hunting
that formerly characterized the upper river region, providing cari-
bou leg skins which were made into boots. In a variant copy of his
study of geographical names, Jette noted that Anvik was an
Eskimo expression meaning "exit" or "going out place," a transla-
tion confirmed by recent research (Correll, 1972, p. 152).

Site descriptions

In this section the village of Anvik and those sites in the immedi-
ate vicinity will be discussed first, followed by an account of set-
tlements formerly located along the Anvik River.

31

32

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

Fig. 3. Map of the Anvik River and vicinity.

HC-14. Two totally different native names have been recorded by
previous investigators for the village of Anvik, the oldest continu-
ally occupied Ingalik settlement on the Yukon River. Jette (On the
geographical names of the Tena.OPA), referred to it as"Kedzokakat,"
meaning "mouth of the Kedzono," his name for the Anvik River as
noted above. Parsons (1921-1922, p. 51), on the other hand, recorded
the name as "Gudrinethchax," meaning "middle people." This des-
ignation apparently refers to that part of the settlement located in
the vicinity of the mission buildings (deLaguna, 1947, p. 67). As far
as I have been able to determine, the name Anvik, or an approxima-
tion of the present spelling, is the only name for the community to
appear in other published or archival source materials.

Although direct evidence is lacking, it seems certain that the
mouth of the Anvik River has been the site of human habitation
since prehistoric times. As Osgood (1958, p. 28) has noted, it is an
excellent location for building houses and for fishing. The settle-
ment is also strategically located for meeting travellers along the
Yukon River and those who were on the way to Old Shageluk and
the upper Innoko region.

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36 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

The present Anvik village is located on the right bank just inside
the old mouth of the Anvik River. In 1934 the Anvik cut through
the narrow tongue of land separating it from the Yukon, thus turn-
ing the lower 2 miles of the former into a slough. A small creek
enters the Anvik on the right bank just above its old mouth and it
was at this point that the Episcopal mission constructed its build-
ings in 1889, having moved from 2VS miles further up the river
where John Chapman and his colleague, Octavius Parker, had begun
teaching school in 1887. The mission purchased approximately 172
acres from the villagers, whose main settlement at that time was
directly across the river on a point of land extending out into the
Yukon. Gradually, the inhabitants moved across the river onto
church land and not long after 1915 the old village site was used
only as a summer fish camp.

At the time of her visit in the summer of 1935, deLaguna confused
the fish camp on the point with the "modern Indian settlement"
(deLaguna, 1947, p. 67), probably because there were, at that time, a
number of substantial structures still standing on the point and the
camp was fully inhabited during the summer fishing season. She
correctly noted, however, that the Anvik Point site is the only area
of habitation at the mouth of the Anvik River and its general vicini-
ty that can lay claim to any age. In her description she noted two
terraces, both running at right angles to the Yukon, one gently slop-
ing and swampy and the other rising to a height of 10 or 12 ft. at the
Yukon bank where the bank was cutting rapidly. In 1935 there were
occupied houses and abandoned house pits along this terrace. The
pits of the older houses extended along the second terrace for a
distance of 600 ft. or more from the Yukon. DeLaguna was told that
those nearest the modern cabins were about 50 years old while those
further back were older. She noted some midden deposits and
counted approximately 35 houses and two kashims. A number of
artifacts were recovered by her party and are illustrated, along with
a plan of the settlement, in her report (deLaguna, 1947, pp. 67-68,
pis. iv, 36; x, 2; xi, 4, 10-12, 16; xvi, 3, 13, 18-19; xxiv, 3, 6, 12, 15,
18-19; fig. 16; fig. 28, no. 4).

In the 30 years that have passed since deLaguna's visit, the Anvik
Point site has changed in appearance to some extent. More willows
have grown up and it is impossible to see as many house pits as are
indicated on her plan. The lower terrace which faces modern Anvik
is extremely low and swampy as deLaguna indicated, and it floods
when the ice jams above Holy Cross at the time of spring breakup as

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 37

it has done numerous times in the past. Elderly residents of Anvik
believe that as much as 300 ft. may have been cut from the Yukon
side of the site in the past 50 years. This would appear to include vir-
tually all the area where the "modern cabins" were located in 1935
(deLaguna, 1947, fig. 10), as well as many of the house pits in two
rows on the upper terrace that runs away from the Yukon bank and
follows the contour of the mouth of the Anvik.

Today there is a thick covering of grass over the formerly occupied
area and many drift logs have been carried in by spring flooding. In
the area where the site is cutting there appears to be 3 or 4 ft. of
midden. Burials are cutting out at several points. Although deLa-
guna (1947, p. 68) believed that the artifacts she recovered indicated
a prehistoric component at the Anvik Point site, materials from the
midden observed and recovered in the summer of 1974 included
glass beads and a variety of metal artifacts at the lowest level of
occupation.

When Chapman and Parker first came to Anvik in 1887 they lived
in cabins located about 2V2 miles above the Anvik Point site at the
upper end of the peninsula that separated the Yukon and Anvik
rivers before the new confluence was created in 1934. This area was
also the location of traders' cabins in the late nineteenth century
and was known as Anvik Old Station. It is probable that one or
more Indian families may have lived in the immediate vicinity of the
post buildings. The site of these structures was destroyed when the
Anvik and Yukon joined, thus creating an island of the former pen-
insula on which the Anvik Point site still stands.

Early photographs of the Episcopal mission buildings and the
surrounding area indicate that by 1918 the new village had spread
along the right bank of the Anvik River for more than a mile above
the creek that separated mission structures from the houses of the
villagers (Chapman, 1918, pp. 245-247; see pi. 4). A sketch plan of
Anvik published in 1924 (Chapman, 1924, p. 107) also shows a simi-
lar arrangement and seems to indicate that by this date all residents
had moved onto church land.

Considerable population information is available for the Anvik
area. Andrey Glazunov, who explored the lower Yukon for the Rus-
sian-American Company in 1834, noted 10 large dwellings at the
time of his visit to Anvik and counted 240 persons who came to the
kashim to hear him talk about the fur trade (VanStone, 1959, p. 43).
Nine years later Zagoskin enumerated 120 individuals living in five

38 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

houses (Zagoskin, 1967, p. 307), a figure which doubtless reflects the
severity of the smallpox epidemic. Russian Orthodox priests began
visiting Anvik two years after the mission was established at Ikog-
miut in 1845, but population figures do not appear in the church rec-
ords until 1853. Between that year and 1863 fewer than 50 inhabi-
tants were enumerated each year, although the number of occupied
dwellings (10) is constant. Obviously, many residents were away
from the settlement when the priest obtained his figures. From 1864
to 1867 less than 60 inhabitants were enumerated each year and the
number of occupied dwellings increased to 12. Population figures
for the decade between 1868 and 1877 are missing, but the enumera-
tions between 1878 and 1892 are as follows:

1878

94

(14)

1885

139

(14)

1879

94

(14)

1886

136

(14)

1880

93

(14)

1887

139

(15)

1881

95

(14)

1888

151

(23)

1882

94

(14)

1889

158

(23)

1883

93

(14)

1890

157

(23)

1884

139

(14)

1892

170

(23)

(AROC A/parish records: Kvikhpak mission, church register).

The figures prior to 1883 would appear to be very much on the
conservative side as indicated by Dall's reference to Anvik in 1868
as "a large village of some 10 to 12 houses, each of which may con-
tain 20 inhabitants" (Dall, 1870, p. 217). However, the enumerator
for the 10th federal census (1880) noted only 95 inhabitants and his
figures included Anvik Old Station (Petroff, 1884, p. 12). In 1890
the official population was 191 (Porter, 1893, p. 3), a figure that com-
pares favorably with the church statistics, and 10 years later John
Chapman enumerated 157 (J. W. Chapman to J. W. Witten, Aug. 29,
1903, ECA/J. W. and H. H. Chapman papers). Official census
figures from 1910 to 1970 are as follows:

1910 151

1950

99

1920 140

1960

120

1930 79

1970

83

1939 110

(U.S. federal census reports, 1931, vol. 1; 1963, vol. 1, pp. 3/10-11;
1973, vol. 1, table 6).

It is difficult to interpret these figures given the many unknown
factors involved in the various enumerations, but it would appear
that by the late 1880's the population of Anvik had recovered from
the effects of the smallpox epidemic and in spite of other periods of
severe illnesses, maintained its size consistently into the modern

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 39

period. The latest census figures indicate the effects of movement of
some families to the urban centers of Alaska, a trend that could
eventually result in consolidation of the Ingalik population into
fewer villages. For a variety of reasons, among which is the scarcity
of drinking water since the change in the mouth of the Anvik River,
Anvik is now the least desirable settlement location in the Ingalik
area.

HC-15. This site is located on what is now Anvik Slough about
three-quarters of a mile above the present village on the right bank.
Here a stream, originating in a small lake behind Anvik, enters the
slough. At the mouth of this stream is a large cleared area approxi-
mately 500 yd. long and 100 yd. deep. High grass covers the entire
site and willows are encroaching on the cleared area in a number of
places. There appear to be two parallel terraces, one along the bank
of the slough approximately 25 ft. above the present water level and
the other behind and slightly lower. In between is a grassy area
about 3 ft. lower than the terraces.

At the lower end of the site, which extends well up the creek, there
are no house pits, but the foundations of several cabins are appar-
ent. At the upriver end are three house pits and a large kashim. All
are at the extreme front of the site and have been partially cut away,
although the cutting process stopped when the mouth of the Anvik
River shifted. Informants stated that at one time there had been a
large number of house pits and it is true that the front terrace disap-
pears before it reaches the upper end of the cleared area. It is obvi-
ous that the oldest part of the site, most of which has disappeared,
was at the upper end and that the lower end inside the creek mouth
was occupied later. The entire area has been used as a fish camp in
recent years and there is a large smoke house standing at the pres-
ent time, as well as a functioning sawmill located inside the mouth
of the creek.

Informants and deLaguna (1947, p. 67) referred to this site as Old
Anvik and, according to the latter, the native name means "at the
foot of the rocks." She did not consider it to be prehistoric, and an
informant, aged 65 in 1974, recalled that people were living there
when she was a little girl. A comment by John Chapman seems to
suggest that the settlement was occupied at least as late as 1906
(Notes on the eclipse of the moon of February 8, 1906, ECA/ J. W.
and H. H. Chapman papers). Since neither Glazunov nor Zagoskin
referred to the site, it may not have existed in the 1830's and 1840's
or have been occupied only as a summer fish camp.

40 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

HC-16. This site, located in a draw on Hawk Bluff, is sometimes
referred to as "The Post," although informants noted that in Inga-
lik its name means "big eddy," a reference to the movement of the
river in this area. Fish wheels are frequently set there at the present
time. In this location William Chase, an early white resident of
Anvik, maintained a trading post for many years, beginning not
long after the turn of the century. It may have been the site of a fish
camp at an earlier date. Informants recall that one other family
lived there at the time the post was in operation. In addition to the
store, Chase also maintained a roadhouse that was frequented by
miners on their way to the Iditarod country. The Chase family
moved from this location to Anvik more than 50 years ago and
William Chase died in the early 1940's. The site is now overgrown
with grass and willows and there are no obvious evidences of former
habitation.

HC-17. This is the site of Peter Hamilton's Fish Camp which,
according to informants, has not been used for at least 40 years. It
occupies the mouth of a narrow gulch in the hills extending inland
from the lower end of Hawk Bluff and is heavily overgrown with
willows. There is an extensive sand bar in front of the gulch which
extends upriver approximately 400 yd. where it has been cleared to
form a picnic area for the present-day residents of Anvik. It is possi-
ble that the entire area was utilized as a camp at an earlier time. A
small spring in the vicinity of the fish camp provides an excellent
supply of fresh water. Still standing on the site is a large smoke-
house with walls made of strips of bark, as well as a collapsed cache.

Both Zagoskin (1967, p. 191) and Nelson (VanStone, 1978, p. 31)
mentioned a village located below the mouth of the Anvik River and
Nelson referred to it as a summer village where people go to fish.
They may have been referring to this site or to HC-18.

HC-18. This site, known as Lower Village, occupies a rather steep
draw between two hills about three-quarters of a mile downriver
from HC-17. About 300 yd. of sand bar, thickly covered with small
willows, has formed in front of the site, probably most of it in recent
years. There is a cleared area covered with high grass, but little indi-
cation of previous occupation. The river is wide and straight here
and the site may have been located on a slough at the time it was oc-
cupied. Lower Village is an excellent example of how rapidly a re-
cently abandoned settlement can become overgrown and separated
from the main channel of the river.

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 41

Lower Village was established by Indians who fled from Anvik
following an outbreak of influenza in 1927 (deLaguna, 1947, p. 67;
Rowe, 1927, p. 465), although portions of the site may have been
occupied earlier. In fact, the site of Lower Village could be the fish
camp referred to by Zagoskin and Nelson as noted above. The settle-
ment was still occupied in 1935 (H. H. Chapman to J. W. Wood,
Nov. 18, 1935, EC A/ Alaska papers, box 14) and there may have
been at least a few families living there as late as 1950. At the height
of its occupation, there are said to have been eight or nine houses
and a native-owned store. It was also the residence of Nikolai Doc-
tor, an important Anvik shaman who died in the 1930's. Some resi-
dents may have returned to Anvik shortly after his death.

HC-19. Moving up the Anvik River, this is the first old settlement
encountered. It may have been the summer fishing village which
Osgood (1958, p. 28) called "Place where something is left,"
although it is on the opposite side of the river. Today, however, peo-
ple refer to it as "First Fish Camp." When occupied, the camp was
along a slough, but in recent years the main channel has cut over in
its direction and as a result, much of the habitation area has been
cut away. Willows and tall cottonwoods cover the site and no re-
mains of houses or other structures could be located.

According to informants, First Fish Camp was an excellent loca-
tion for fishing because the water is shallow and a fence or weir
could be built to span the river with traps set at intervals. In fact,
this was an important attribute of most fish camp locations along
the Anvik River. If traps were not used, fish could be speared as
their progress up the river was impeded by a fence or weir.

The site appears to have been occupied at least as early as the late
1860's since it is noted on Raymond's map (1871, map). Two other
settlements are also noted by Raymond. An elderly white man liv-
ing in Anvik in 1974 noted that this settlement was the only fish
camp on the Anvik at the time of his first trip up the river in 1924.

HC-20. Located between a small lake and a bend in the river, the
Ingalik name for this site is said to mean "tamarack tree." Like
HC-19 it was also a summer fish camp and its location suggests that
it may be the camp referred to by Osgood (1958, p. 28) as "Village at
the end." An informant in his fifties was certain that the site had
not been occupied in his lifetime. The river is deep here and has
doubtless cut away much of the previously occupied area. It would
not, at the present time, appear to be a suitable location for the con-
struction of a fence or weir.

42 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

HC-21-22. According to informants, these were winter trapping
camps that may also have been used occasionally in summer.
Neither location showed signs of previous human occupation and
they would never have been recognized as such had they not been
pointed out by informants. The Ingalik name for HC-22 was said to
mean "willow grass in slough" and may be the site that Osgood
(1958, p. 28) referred to as "Spruce branches shaking in the current."
Both HC-21 and 22 are on the right bank of the river, as is Osgood's
village, but he located it much further upriver and gave the general
impression of considerable size.

HC-23. Called "Red Mountain" by informants, this is the "red
stone village" visited by deLaguna in 1935, and referred to by Os-
good as "Red-stone." By far the largest settlement on the Anvik
River, this site was occupied in both winter and summer. DeLaguna
(1947, p. 71) described the site in some detail noting 20 house pits
and a kashim and she illustrated two artifacts recovered from a
grave (ibid., pi. xiv, 24, 29). Her account also includes a sketch map
of the site (ibid., p. 69).

Red Mountain is on a loop slough that was formerly the main
channel of the river. At the time of deLaguna's visit, much of the
formerly occupied area was open and grass covered. Now it is almost
entirely covered with willows making the house pits very difficult to
locate. Informants noted that fishing was once very good in an eddy
in front of the village. DeLaguna's informants told her that the set-
tlement was abandoned in 1898 when the inhabitants moved to
Anvik.

HC-24. This was a winter and summer camp situated at the mouth
of a small slough. The Ingalik name is said to translate as "big
under the tree." It is in the approximately correct location for
Osgood's (1958, p. 28) "Spruce branches shaking in the current." In-
formants noted that this area was the approximate upper limit of
fishing on the Anvik. Beyond this point salmon were considered
unfit for human consumption and there are said to be no fish camps
further up the river. One man, aged 57 in 1972, noted that his grand-
father had lived at HC-24 and that the place was noted for the many
large burls on the trees that could be used for making bowls for local
use and for trade. Today people travel to pick berries on a hill just
above the site on the opposite side of the river. There is a winter trail
near here that crosses over to Jackson Creek, a tributary of the
upper Bonasila River.

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 43

HC-25. Not far above the previously described site and on the
same side of the river is the location of a small winter camp at the
end of a winter trail to Anvik. According to informants, the site was
called "crystal rocks" because of the shape of stones found along
the river bank. Today people pick berries on the opposite side of the
river along a bluff that extends upriver from the vicinity of HC-24.

HC-26. This is the site of a small winter camp on the left bank just
above the mouth of Theodore Creek. An informant, aged 57 in 1972,
said it was occupied long before he was born and called by an Ingalik
name meaning "camp robber takes somebody's fish." One family
stayed here all winter to hunt and trap along Theodore Creek.

This small site is one of many winter camps on the Anvik River
which have their counterparts in the trapping cabins of more recent
times. There were many such camps in this area; some had names,
but many were known simply as "so-and-so's camp." Some have
been washed away, while the locations of others have long since
been forgotten. For example, there are two trapping cabins, one on
either side of the river, just above the mouth of Beaver Creek. The
one on the right bank is older and the cabin has disappeared,
nothing remaining but a small cleared area covered with high grass
and fireweed. The camp on the left bank is in use at the present time.
In 1972 there were also functioning trapping camps on both sides of
the Anvik near the mouth of the Yellow River.

Informants maintained that there were no camps above this point
but several claimed knowledge of a sizeable winter village formerly
located just below the mouth of the Yellow River on the opposite
side of the Anvik. Although described as being clearly visible at the
present time, the site could not be located during surveys in the
summer of 1972. Osgood (1958, p. 28 referred to a village called
"Under the rocks" on the left bank between the mouth of Swift
River and Otter Creek, but that location would appear to be too far
upriver to be a reference to this site. Otter Creek was on the route
used by the Ingalik in their trading trips to St. Michael and Unala-
kleet and by the Eskimos of Norton Sound traveling to the lower
Yukon for similar purposes. Glazunov (VanStone, 1959, p. 40) en-
countered a camp at the junction of Otter Creek and the Anvik in
1834. An Indian had been forced to winter there because of the ill-
ness of his wife. Anvik informants noted that it took five days to
paddle and pole their wooden river boats to the mouth of Beaver
Creek. The trip could probably be made more quickly in traditional

44 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

birchbark-covered canoes. The upper Anvik was an excellent area
for caribou hunting in the late nineteenth century, although even as
early as the 1870's the herds may have been decimated due to eco-
logical changes and the introduction of firearms (Raymond, 1871).

It is virtually impossible to make a reasonable estimate of popula-
tion on the Anvik River in the nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
turies. Most of the settlements along its banks were either summer
fishing villages, winter trapping camps, or occasionally both. Only
Red Mountain appears to have had a year-round population and if
deLaguna's estimate of the number of houses is correct and they
were all occupied simultaneously, the population could have been in
the vicinity of 300. It is significant, however, that Glazunov encoun-
tered only one Indian and his family during his journey down the
Anvik in the winter of 1834. The population of the Anvik River thus
appears to have been primarily seasonal. Anvik Point village was
the base from which the Ingalik exploited the summer and winter
resources of this major Yukon tributary.

Ill

SETTLEMENTS ON THE YUKON RIVER:
ANVIK TO THE CONFLUENCE WITH SHAGELUK SLOUGH

Introduction

A characteristic feature of the Yukon River between Anvik and
the upper end of Fox Point Island is the consistently steep right
bank. This represents the eastern extremity of a range of low and
rolling hills rising in places to heights in excess of 2,000 ft. which
separate the Yukon Valley from the coastal region of Norton Sound.
Where spurs of these hills run out to the river bank, their bluffs,
which occasionally rise 50 to 60 ft. above the river, serve as conveni-
ent landmarks for the river traveler. The left bank of the Yukon in
this area is consistently low, a part of the flat river flood plain that
is a characteristic feature of the Innoko Lowlands (Wahrhaftig,
1965, p. 30).

A consequence of this physiographic characteristic is that settle-
ments in this area are located almost exclusively along the steep
and stable right bank, usually at places where creeks enter the
Yukon. Such locations are often small, narrow valleys or gullies
which widen and flatten out at the river bank. Two sites reported by
informants were located on the low left bank and there probably
were more in the past. The river is cutting rapidly on this side and
settlements of any antiquity would have long since been washed
away.

Site Descriptions

The sites described in this section begin with those closest to
Anvik and continue northward to the upper end of Fox Point Island,
the northern limit of the area included in this study.

HC-27. The first site above Anvik is known locally as "Four Mile,"
although its name in Ingalik is said to mean "end of the bluff," a
name very similar to that recorded for Old Anvik (HC-15). Primarily
a summer fish camp, informants agreed that HC-27 also served oc-

45

46

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

Fig. 4. Map of the Yukon River between Anvik and the confluence with Shageluk
Slough.

casionally as a winter village. The site appears today as a narrow
flat area in front of a steep bluff; a small creek runs through the
formerly occupied area. Six standing structures including a cabin, a
large smokehouse, and various outbuildings were observed at the
time of a brief visit in the summer of 1974.

HC-27 may be one of the older camps along this stretch of the
Yukon. It appears on an undated, but probably early twentieth cen-
tury, chart (Pilot chart of the Yukon, nd.) and elderly informants at
Anvik confirm an occupation in the late nineteenth century. They
further note that the site has been used regularly during the sum-
mer until recent years when the virtual replacement of dog transpor-

47

48 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

tation by mechanized snow vehicles reduced the necessity for catch-
ing and drying large numbers of salmon during the summer runs.
As late as 1929 families were regularly wintering at this site (H. H.
Chapman to Mrs. J. W. Chapman, Jan. 2, 1929, ECA/J. W. and H.
H. Chapman papers) and it may have been one of the places to which
people moved at the time of epidemics and other sustained periods
of illness.

Sites located between HC-27 and the mouth of Grayling Creek
served primarily as fish camps, although it is probable that some
were used occasionally during the winter. With few exceptions to be
noted, historical maps and charts do not show occupation along this
section of the river bank.

HC-28. The area in the vicinity of this site is known locally as
Charlie Wulf's Point after a white settler who lived there in the
1940's. The site is located 9 miles above Anvik and appears as a
broad, willow-covered flat area at the foot of a high bluff. Infor-
mants noted that it was both a summer and winter camp, and that it
had not been occupied since the early 1950 's.

HC-29. Known locally as Joe Hamilton's Fish Camp, this site was
used by a former Old Shageluk resident from the 1920's until some-
time in the mid-1960's. However, informants believe that the loca-
tion was occupied considerably earlier. The size of the cleared area
suggests that several families may have fished there in the past.

HC-30. This is another fish camp about which it was possible to
learn very little from informants. An old cabin and cache remain
standing at the mouth of a small stream which runs between two
hills. One informant offered the information that two families lived
there in the 1930's, but he believed the site to be much older.

HC-31. Lucius Young's Fish Camp. This site, which was occupied
in the summer of 1974, has been used for the past 30 years by Mr.
Young and his family. However, it is apparently much older as Mr.
Young's wife mentioned that at one time an old house pit was visible
in the area and artifacts are occasionally dug up by dogs. The site,
like others in this area, is located on a slight slope at the foot of a
steep bluff and a small stream enters the river about 90 yd. down-
stream from Mr. Young's house. The camp at present consists of a
well-built log house, a large smokehouse, and a storage shed. There
are covered fish drying racks along the riverbank in front of the resi-
dence. Most of the sites in this area probably looked much like Mr.

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 49

Young's camp at the time they were occupied with traditional Inga-
lik summer houses being characteristic of the older ones.

HC-32. This site, one of the few mentioned as being located along
the lower left bank of the Yukon, has long since been washed away.
Several informants referred to it as a fish camp occupied by the
great-grandfather of a young resident of Anvik; this would make it
at least 100 years old. Elderly informants recalled that it had been
occupied during their childhood. Osgood (1958, p. 29) noted two set-
tlements on this bank of the river, one of which, "Up-trail," is identi-
fied as a winter camp. HC-32 appears to have been located further
upriver than either one of them. It is significant that neither
deLaguna nor Hrdlicka mentioned sites along the left bank in this
area. Left bank camps were likely to have been winter hunting and
trapping camps providing access to the broad lowland east of the
Yukon. Adequate drinking water would have been difficult to obtain
at these camps in summer.

HC-33. Little could be learned about this site, although a cache
and fish rack are still standing. Informants referred to it as Victor
Vent's Camp, occupied sporadically for fishing at least since the
summer of 1929 when Hrdlicka stopped there. At that time the in-
habitants included an elderly white man and his Indian wife (Hrd-
licka, 1944, pp. 207-208). A chart of the Yukon dated 1899 (Ed-
wards, 1899) shows cabins in this general area, but they could be a
reference to either HC-32 or HC-34.

HC-34. The right bank of the lengthy stretch of river between
HC-33 and HC-34 is extremely precipitous and the beach is not wide
enough to provide locations for settlements or camps of any kind.
These bluffs begin to recede inland in the vicinity of HC-34 which is
within a mile of the mouth of Grayling Creek. This is a fish camp
occupied in 1974 by John Deacon of Grayling and his family. Mr.
Deacon was born in 1893, but the camp was used by his family
before his birth. A small creek enters the river in the vicinity of his
cabin and smokehouse.

HC-35. The present-day village of Grayling is located on a flat
tongue of land at the mouth of Grayling Creek. Behind the settle-
ment tree-covered hills rise abruptly, but around the village there
are only a few scattered birch and spruce. This sparseness of tree
cover is the result of extensive cutting in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries when a major wood camp to supply fuel
for steamboats was located at the mouth of Grayling Creek. Most of

50 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

the people living at Grayling today were formerly inhabitants of
Holikachuk (HC-9) on the Innoko River.

Although Grayling's present population is a recent phenomenon,
the mouth of Grayling Creek has been occupied at various times in
the past. Jette gave the name "Maadzikat" to a settlement that was
present in the early twentieth century and noted that it meant
"amulet river mouth" (On the geographical names of the Tena,
OPA). The place is said to have been known as "Dois-Brats" and
"Shaman's Village" in Russian times. On a terrace half a mile south
of the creek mouth deLaguna identified the site which she refers to
as Old Grayling, noting that it consisted of a number of modern
house pits and the ruins of a kashim. Hrdlicka (1944, pp. 48-49, fig.
32) examined this site in 1926 and 1928 and removed a small number
of burials. DeLaguna also noted an older site above the mouth of
Grayling Creek which she surveyed and from which she obtained a
number of artifacts (deLaguna, 1947, pp. 64-66, pis. viii, 1; fig. 15;
pis. xiii-xvi, xxiii-xxiv). Both of these sites have been almost oblit-
erated by the construction of modern residences, an air strip, and
other buildings and roads on both sides of Grayling Creek.

Although there is little doubt that there was human occupation at
the mouth of Grayling Creek at the time of first European contact,
the earliest identifiable historic reference to the settlement occurs in
1869 when Raymond (1871, map) noted "native houses" at the
mouth of the creek. There is a reference to the settlement in 1888
(Giordano memoirs, OPA/Giordano, box 2) when one family was in
residence, and the name Grayling is on a track chart of the Yukon
used at the end of the nineteenth century (Edwards, 1899). On this
chart there are notations of wood camps both above and below the
name as well as the name "Pickett's Wood," an indication of the im-
portance of this location to the steamboat captains whose vessels
plied the river in considerable numbers following the discovery of
gold in the Klondike.

In the summer of 1900, according to Cantwell (1902, p. 267), there
were 32 people in residence at Grayling and the settlement was
described as a rendezvous where the Indians came in summer to fish
and cut wood and in winter to trade, a way station for native travel
with a largely transitory population. However, sizeable winter gath-
erings were also mentioned by Cantwell and he described the
kashim, probably the one from the new settlement that deLaguna
noted, in some detail. In the same year John Chapman enumerated

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 51

41 individuals at Grayling (J. W. Chapman to J. W. Witten, Aug.
29, 1903, ECA/J. W. and H. H. Chapman papers).

It has not been possible to ascertain with certainty when the
Grayling site referred to in the previous two paragraphs was aban-
doned, if, in fact, it ever was. Holikachuk residents probably used it
intermittently as a fish camp, although it had no permanent resi-
dents after 1930. The site appeared to have been recently abandoned
at the time of Hrdlicka's visit in June, 1926 when he remarked that
it "seems just to call for a new settler" (Hrdlicka, 1944, p. 48). The
settlement does not appear in official census records until 1970
when there were 139 inhabitants representing all or most of those
who had moved from the Innoko a few years earlier (U.S. federal
census report, 1973, table 6).

In the summer of 1972 five fish camps, three of them in use, were
observed between Grayling and HC-43, all of them located along the
high right bank of the river and all at the mouths of creeks where
there are flat open areas and the hills are set back slightly from the
river bank. In 1974 six camps (HC-36-41) were noted in this area, all
of them abandoned. These were associated by informants with liv-
ing individuals, but each appeared to have been occupied earlier,
even though specific evidence in the form of house pits or midden
was lacking. It is probable that there have been seasonally occupied
camps along this section of the Yukon for many years, doubtless
back into prehistoric times, many of them associated with families
from the Innoko who came over to the Yukon each summer to fish
for salmon.

HC-42. Informants reported the existence of a site "more than one
hundred years old" above Eagle Island, locally called Grayling
Island, at the mouth of the slough which separates the island from
the mainland. Attempts to locate it were unsuccessful because of
extremely low water in the slough. The left bank of the river is
building in this area and the site may now be at some distance from
the water and covered with a thick growth of willows.

HC-43. The best documented site above Grayling is located at
Hall's Rapids, locally known as Anvik Rapids, a narrowing of the
Yukon where the water is somewhat swifter than it is elsewhere in
the area covered by this study. According to informants, this was
the location of a large fish camp occupied seasonally by people from
Holikachuk until the inhabitants of that settlement moved to the
Yukon in 1963. The camp was situated along two terraces and on

52 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

both sides of a sizeable creek. There are a number of standing fish
racks, cabins, and smokehouses, all in considerable disrepair but
none of any great age. Sections of this site are heavily overgrown
with tall grass and willows, and a careful examination of the cleared
areas along both terraces revealed no house pits or other signs of
earlier occupations.

Jette (Ethnological dictionary of the Tena language, OPA) gave
the name "tanedilenten" ("where it flows upon the rocks") to the
Anvik Rapids site, while Dall (1870, p. 21) rendered it "klan-ti-
linten" meaning "rocks and strong water." The settlement is shown
on Raymond's (1871) map. Schwatka (1892, p. 326) camped at Hall's
Rapids in August, 1883 but he made no reference to native in-
habitants. The camp also appears on a late nineteenth-century track
chart of the Yukon River (Edwards, 1899).

Informants insisted that the Anvik Rapids site was never any-
thing but a summer fish camp. When Hrdlicka stopped there in
July, 1929 only a white man and his Indian wife were in residence
and the location was described as "a large former camp of the
Shageluk people" (Hrdlicka, 1944, p. 206). Hrdlicka was informed
that the camp had been abandoned because a woman died there. He
noted a burial ground upriver from the occupied area. The site was
also apparently abandoned at the time of deLaguna's visit in the
summer of 1935. She saw four pits which could have been houses
and was informed that a standing cabin was on the site of an old
kashim (deLaguna, 1947, p. 65). The Anvik Rapids site has certainly
been used as a summer fish camp since deLaguna's visit and if she
did, in fact, see house pits, winter occupation at some time in the
past would appear to be indicated.

Ukt-1. Another summer fish camp of Holikachuk people was
located at the mouth of a small creek, unnamed on modern maps but
locally called Refuge Creek, along the right bank of the Yukon oppo-
site Fox Point Island. It is situated along a high bank on the down-
river side of the creek and is heavily overgrown with willows and
other trees. A single poorly defined house pit was located and there
may be others in the overgrown areas.

It is apparent that this site has been abandoned for some time and
may be of some antiquity. Lieutenant Henry T. Allen passed the
camp on his way down the river in 1885 and placed it on his map
(Allen, 1887, map 1). The site was abandoned in July, 1929 when
Hrdlicka stopped there (Hrdlicka, 1944, p. 217). According to infor-
mants, an inhabitant of Grayling who was 81 in 1974 and was born

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 53

at HC-13 spent summers at this camp when he was a small child. He
is believed to be the only person now living who has lived there.

Ukt-2. Another small fish camp not far above Ukt-1 is said to have
been occupied for many years by a Holikachuk resident born in
1890. A cabin and fish drying racks are still standing.

Ukt-3. In the summer of 1843, Zagoskin, on his journey from
Nulato to Ikogmiut, stopped at a settlement he called
"Vazhichagat" located at the confluence of Shageluk Slough with
the Yukon. He described the village as having a population of 80 liv-
ing in five houses and noted that it was an important stopping place
for Indians from the lower Innoko River traveling to Norton Sound
to trade. The crossing from Vazhichagat to the village of Klikitarik
east of Mikhailovskiy Redoubt took three days by way of the upper
Anvik River and its tributaries (Zagoskin, 1967, pp. 191, 307). The
settlement also appears to have been visited by Frederick Whymper
and his party of the Western Union Telegraph Company Expedition
on their trip down the river in July, 1867. Whymper called it
"Yakutzkelignik" and noted that it was temporarily uninhabited
(Whymper, 1869, pp. 264-265).

This settlement could not be located by deLaguna (1947, p. 65) in
1935 nor was I able to find it in 1972 and 1974. Informants had no
definite memories concerning its location and some insisted there
had never been a settlement at the entrance to Shageluk Slough.
The Yukon is cutting rapidly in this area and any settlement at this
point would doubtless have long since been cut away.

With the possible exception of Vazhichagat, the only consistently
occupied year-round settlement on the Yukon above Anvik and
within the area of this study was at the mouth of Grayling Creek.
All others were summer fishing camps, although a few may have
been occupied occasionally in the winter. The largest fish camp in
this area was at Anvik Rapids, although Holikachuk people had
other camps in the vicinity and as far up the river as the mouth of
Simon Creek (see fig. 2) not far above the entrance to Shageluk
Slough. The fish camps closest to Anvik were used by Anvik people,
while the area above Grayling was inhabited in summer almost ex-
clusively by people from Holikachuk. Fishermen from the village of
Old Shageluk were more likely to have had their fish camps along
the stretch of river between Anvik and Holy Cross. The present-day
inhabitants of Grayling thus settled in an area already familiar to
most of them.

IV

SETTLEMENTS ON THE YUKON RIVER: .
DEADMAN'S SLOUGH TO THE MOUTH OF THE
INNOKO RIVER

Introduction

Below the village of Anvik the banks of the Yukon River are low
on both sides except in two places where small ranges of hills with
peaks that rise to approximately 1,000 feet reach the river. In this
general area along the east bank of the Yukon are many meandering
sloughs and streams and one important river, the Bonasila. This
tributary heads near latitude 62° north and flows in a generally
southeast direction 125 miles to Bonasila Slough, which in turn
empties into the Yukon. Like the banks of the lower Anvik, those of
the lower Bonasila are bordered primarily by willows and alders.
There is also a heavy growth of willows along both sides of the
Yukon in this area. The river banks are probably changing more
rapidly along this section of the Yukon than in any other part of the
region with which this study is concerned.

Site Descriptions

HC-44-45. The former, a small fish camp on Deadman's Slough, is
said to have been occupied off and on during the summer for the
past 30 years. The latter, on Bonasila Slough near a small lake, was
reportedly the winter camp of an Anvik resident whose family has
used it for the past 15 years. Although Zagoskin reported passing
two small settlements between Anvik and the mouth of the
Bonasila River in the summer of 1843 (Zagoskin, 1967, p. 192), it is
doubtful if anything more extensive than fishing or trapping camps
like these were ever located in this area of frequent shifts in the river
channel.

HC-46. Opposite the upper end of Turtle Island, on the right bank,
is a small fish camp reported by informants to have been used in re-
cent years during the early summer for the taking of king salmon. It

54

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS

55

Fig. 5. Map of the Yukon River between Anvik and Holy Cross.

is located on a flat spit heavily overgrown with willows and is about
15 ft. back from the present bank of the slough. A fish rack is still
standing, but there is nothing to indicate antiquity at this site. A
late nineteenth-century track chart of the Yukon shows a fish camp
in this approximate location (Edwards, 1899).

HC-47. This is the important settlement of Old Bonasila, largest
between Anvik and the Holy Cross area and located on the upriver
side of a creek locally known as Cold Creek just below Cement Hill.
Jette (On the geographical names of the Tena, OPA) gave the name
"Netsene'anten" ("launching canoes") to this site and was of the
opinion that Bonasila was a native name "somewhat mutilated."

56 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

Others have suggested that the word is a mutilated Russian
designation. Glazunov (VanStone, 1959, p. 44) called the settlement
"Magimiut" and other explorers and travelers in both the Russian
and early American periods were likely to use variations of this
designation.

According to deLaguna who examined and mapped the site in
August, 1935 (deLaguna, 1947, pp. 70-72, fig. 18), there are two ter-
races between Cold Creek and Cement Hill. The old settlement is
located on the second which was, at that time, about 10 ft. above the
water level and sloped up to a wooded hillside. Today the formerly
occupied area is much further from the river bank than it was at the
time of deLaguna 's visit and more completely covered with willows
and tall grass. In fact, it cannot be seen from a boat traveling in
either direction on the river.

The earliest reference to Old Bonasila in the historical literature is
Glazunov's and Zagoskin (1967, pp. 197, 307) stopped there in the
summer of 1843; the settlement apparently flourished well into the
American period. DeLaguna (1947, p. 72) believed that Old Bonasila
was probably the village visited by Dall in 1867 and described by
him as a "large winter village between two hills, known to the Rus-
sians as the Murderer's Village" (Dall, 1870, p. 220). On August 23,
1883 Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka passed "Makagamute" and
noted that it consisted of "eight to ten houses of a most substantial
build, flanked and backed by fifteen to twenty caches, and had al-
together a most prosperous appearance" (Schwatka, 1892, p. 331).

Hrdlicka visited the Old Bonasila site in 1926 and again in 1929.
The first summer he was not particularly impressed by the site
itself, but his interest was aroused by the "remarkably primitive"
looking stone tools and pottery he found along the adjacent beach
and which he described as a "paleolithic industry" (Hrdlicka, 1930,
pp. 60, 142-147; 1944, pp. 51-53). During his second visit three years
later, he opened two trenches but quickly encountered frost and
recovered few artifacts. Since he professed to see evidence that the
"stone and pottery culture" encountered on the beach belonged to
the same people who had occupied house pits on the site, he
postulated that "Bonasila, therefore, was an old settlement that
persisted to Russian times, but probably not for long" (Hrdlicka,
1944, pp. 208-210).

DeLaguna 's excavations at Old Bonasila are described and il-
lustrated in some detail in her report (deLaguna, 1947, pp. 72-74
with associated plates and figures). She believed the site to have

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 57

been occupied both in historic and prehistoric times, but was unable
to separate the two horizons stratigraphically. She, too, found crude
stone tools, but believed that most of these were naturally broken
flakes which, because of their sharp edges, could have been used
without further working.

In 1834 at the time of Glazunov's visit Old Bonasila consisted of
five dwellings, 40 caches, and a large kashim; the population was
120 (VanStone, 1959, p. 44). Nine years later, Zagoskin enumerated
44 people inhabiting three structures, a decline in population that
presumably reflects the severity of the smallpox epidemic of
1838-1839 (Zagoskin, 1967, p. 307). Although Old Bonasila appears
to have been visited by the Russian Orthodox priest stationed at
Ikogmiut as early as 1845, the year the mission was established,
meaningful population records were not kept until five years later
and more or less regularly thereafter until 1892 as follows (figures in
parentheses indicate dwellings):

1850 5 1867 49 (8)

1851 5 (5) 1878 84 (20)

1853 30 (6) 1879 84 (20)

1854 30 (6) 1880 84 (20)

1855 30 (6) 1881 84 (20)

1856 30 (6) 1882 85 (20)

1857 30 (6) 1883 83 (20)

1858 30 (6) 1884 88 (20)

1859 30 (6) 1885 86 (20)

1860 29 (6) 1886 87 (20)

1861 42 (8) 1887 88 (20)

1863 44 (8) 1888 94 (20)

1864 45 (8) 1889 96 (23)

1865 45 (9) 1890 96 (23)

1866 45 (8) 1892 96 (23)

(AROCA/parish records: Kvikhpak mission, church register)

The reliability of these figures is subject to the constraints men-
tioned previously for those for other sites, but they appear to in-
dicate that by 1892 Old Bonasila was close to achieving once again
the population it supported at the time of Glazunov's visit. In fact,
the official government enumeration in 1880 was 121 (Petroff, 1884,
p. 12) which, together with the statement by Schwatka quoted
above, suggests that the settlement may have regained its early
contact size much earlier than the church records would indicate.

According to deLaguna (1947, p. 71), Old Bonasila was abandoned
in 1898 following an epidemic of measles and the survivors
established New Bonasila. In 1900 John Chapman enumerated 22

58 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

individuals for "Bonasila," but it is not clear whether he is referring
to the old or the new village ( J.W. Chapman to J.W. Witten, Aug. 29,
1903, ECA/J.W. and H.H. Chapman papers).

HC-48. New Bonasila. This settlement, established by the former
residents of Old Bonasila, is located approximately one-quarter of a
mile below Long Mountain and approximately 2 miles downriver
from the parent village. According to deLaguna (1947, p. 74), the
Ingalik name means "at the point of the hill." An unnamed creek
enters the Yukon here and several small lakes are located a short
distance inland from the river bank.

There appear to have been three occupied terraces at New
Bonasila and deLaguna (1947, p. 74) counted 12 house pits and the
pit of a kashim on the highest of these. Also on this terrace at the
time of her visit, approximately 8 to 10 ft. above the river, were
modern cabins and a graveyard. Indians reported finding stone
adzes on the beach and deLaguna believed the site to have had a
prehistoric component (deLaguna, 1947, p. 74). The formerly
occupied area extends on both sides of the creek, but most of it is on
the downriver side. There is a good view up the river but downriver
the view is obstructed by Cement Hill. The site appears to have
been used as a fish camp in recent years as two standing tent frames
and some collapsed caches were noted. Nothing remains of the
cabins noted by deLaguna.

Although deLaguna implied that the New Bonasila site was oc-
cupied immediately following the abandonment of Old Bonasila,
there are no references to the new village in the Holy Cross Mission
diaries until June, 1920 (July 1, 1919-Dec. 31, 1923, OPA/HCM, box
3). Neither is the settlement enumerated in any official government
census records. It is probable that the 8 or 10 house pits counted by
deLaguna belonged to an earlier occupation, one possibly concur-
rent with the occupation of Old Bonasila.

It is not clear from deLaguna's account whether there was anyone
living at New Bonasila at the time of her visit, but if not, the aban-
donment was presumably temporary since the Episcopal Bishop of
Alaska visited the community in June, 1935 (The Newsletter, Mis-
sionary District of Alaska, no. 21, July-Aug., 1935, ECA/Alaska
papers, box 91) and again in January, 1945 (The Episcopal Church
in Alaska. Notes from a report by the Bishop, January, 1945,
ECA/Alaska papers, box 91). Informants at Anvik in 1974 noted
that the last residents left about 20 or 25 years ago. They were said
to have been under the influence of an important shaman and aban-

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 59

doned the settlement when he died; some moved to Anvik and
others to Holy Cross.

Anvik informants mentioned a "camp" across the Yukon from the
New Bonasila site, but they were unable to remember anything
about it except its location at the mouth of a slough. Jette (On the
geographical names of the Tena, OPA) gave a place name,
"Tseyozaron," ("canoe") opposite "Bonasila." Informants spoke of
a number of small summer fish camps just above Holy Cross on the
left bank of the Yukon and noted that at one time there was a slough
in this area that led directly to the Innoko and was considerably
shorter than the main channel. It eventually silted up, however, and
the fish camps have long since been cut away by the river.

HC-49. Below Paradise the river bank flattens considerably as one
approaches the lower reaches of the Koseref ski River and Deer Hun-
ting Slough. The location on the U.S.G.S. reconnaissance series map
(Holy Cross quadrangle) designated Paradise is at the front of a fair-
ly steep bluff on the downriver side of Long Mountain. A flat bar
covered with willows extends out from the bluff but no indications
of occupation could be seen from a boat and no landing was made
during surveys in the summer of 1974. According to informants,
Indians never lived at Paradise, but a white man who planned to
farm the area is said to have lived there for at least a year in the
1920's or perhaps earlier. No other information could be obtained
locally with reference to Paradise.

On a hill at the mouth of the Koserefski River is a site that looks
to be old, but is known locally as Johnny Paul's Camp after a Holy
Cross resident who in 1974 was in his sixties. The formerly occupied
area is right up against the bluff and well above the present river
level. Informants were unable to give any additional information
concerning this site and it was not possible to contact Mr. Paul in
Holy Cross. The location is approximately correct for "Aleksi's Bar-
bora," a settlement where two families lived at the time Father
Robaut and Brother Giordano stopped there on their way from
Anvik to Koseref sky in the winter of 1887 (Giordano memoirs,
OPA/Giordano, box 2).

HC-50. Several standing structures, including two cabins, mark
the site known as Nick Dementief 's Fish Camp near the mouth of a
creek at the foot of a bluff. This may be the site reported to
deLaguna (1947, p. 77) as being located near "Victor's Point" just
above the upper end of Walker Slough. Two Holy Cross families had
gill nets in the vicinity of HC-50 in the summer of 1974.

60 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

HC-51. Just above the present village of Holy Cross is Ghost
Creek (Gost Creek on the Holy Cross quadrangle, U.S.G.S. recon-
naissance series map), so named, according to Hrdlicka, because of
the many burials in the vicinity of the creek. He visited the site in
July, 1926 at which time James Walker, even then a long-time Holy
Cross resident, had a house and trading post there. Hrdlicka found
artifacts weathering out of the bank and although "Russian"
influence was evident in the graves, he believed, in his usual
optimistic fashion, that there was probably a prehistoric component
at the site (Hrdlicka, 1930, p. 63; 1944, p. 55). DeLaguna (1947, p.
77) also believed that Ghost Creek was occupied in both historic and
prehistoric times. Her informants give the name "old town" to the
prehistoric site, while a more recent settlement had an Ingalik name
meaning "the end of the big eddy."

It was impossible to confirm either of these names during a visit
in the summer of 1974, and at that time there was little to indicate
either graves or previous occupation at Ghost Creek. The creek
mouth is wide and opens onto Walker Slough, formed by an exten-
sive sandbar which extends as far downriver as Holy Cross, but it
was either absent or much smaller at the time of Hrdlicka's visit.
The creek valley is deep and wide and not heavily covered by vegeta-
tion. Informants said that it was on the slopes on the upriver side of
the valley that Hrdlicka excavated graves. Today much of the area
on both sides of the creek near its mouth has been disturbed by the
building of roads and structures by the Walker family. James
Walker's original house still stands and there are a number of more
recently constructed dwellings and outbuildings. Local tradition
tells of a battleground in the vicinity, possibly on an island that
once was visible just opposite the mouth of Ghost Creek, where a
battle of major proportions took place between Indians and
Eskimos in the early or mid-nineteenth century (see deLaguna,
1947, p. 77).

Whatever may have been the extent of historic occupation in the
area, it is clear that nobody was living at Ghost Creek when Father
Robaut and Brother Giordano came to Koserefsky in the winter of
1887. Upon their arrival, they lived first in the village kashim but
then moved across the river into a cabin belonging to an Indian
from Anvik. It seems clear that this cabin was located on or near
Ghost Creek, but there are no references to other inhabitants along
the creek at that time (Giordano memoirs, OPA/Giordano, box 2).
Although a village at Ghost Creek is shown on a Yukon navigation

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 61

chart, circa 1912 (UA), the first specific reference to people living
there occurs in December, 1918 in the Holy Cross Mission diary
(Jan. 1, 1913-June 30, 1919, OPA/HCM, box 3), probably a reference
to James Walker and his family who were "exiled" from Holy Cross
village by the mission. The Walker family has lived there since that
time.

HC-52. On February 8, 1834 Glazunov arrived at a village he call-
ed "Anulychtychpack," the first settlement on the left bank
downriver below Old Bonasila. As he did at Anvik and Old
Bonasila, Glazunov visited the kashim which he described as the
largest he had ever seen, and counted 300 men. In describing the
village he noted 16 dwellings and approximately 65 additional
structures that he called dwellings located about 2 miles from
Anulychtychpack "on the banks of the river" (VanStone, 1959, pp.
44-45). He estimated the population of the area at 700 and noted
that it was the last Athapaskan village on the Yukon. Glazunov's
population estimate seems large and may include visitors from
other settlements who were present to trade or participate in one of
the Ingalik winter ceremonies. It should be kept in mind, however,
that the explorer was apparently referring to at least two com-
munities. A population of 700 in this general area at the beginning
of the historic period is at least possible, if not entirely probable.

Eight years later in August, 1843, Zagoskin also stopped at
"Anilukhtakpak," as he spelled it, and, like Glazunov, was impress-
ed with the size of the kashim. He described it as "a remarkable
building, 12 sazhens square and over 6 sazhens high, with three
tiers of benches made of pine [spruce] planks that are 3% feet wide
and have obviously been split and hewn with stone axes" (Zagoskin,
1967, p. 193). Zagoskin counted eight houses inhabited by 170 per-
sons and made no reference to any other settlement in the im-
mediate area (Zagoskin, 1967, p. 307).

Neither Glazunov nor Zagoskin were at all explicit about the ex-
act location of Anilukhtakpak, although the latter did refer vaguely
to its being situated on "an island or rather islands formed by the
Ittege [Innoko], the Yukon, and its tributaries" (Zagoskin, 1967, p.
239). The area around the mouth of the Innoko is, and probably
always has been, a confusing jumble of islands, sand bars, sloughs,
and true river channels. Zagoskin further stated that "before the
smallpox epidemic the native houses [at Anilukhtakpak] were in a
little ravine near the river bank, but now they have been moved a
short way downstream into another. The summer houses are built in

62

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

a straight line along the bank and appear from a distance to have
the regularity of a European settlement" (Zagoskin, 1976, p. 193).

Zagoskin located Anilukhtakpak at latitude 62° 13' 33" N.,
longitude 159° 49' 38" W., close to the correct location for Holy
Cross which is 62° 12' N. and 159° 46' W. DeLaguna (1947, p. 77)
believed that Ghost Creek was the site of the settlement and this
location would conform with Zagoskin's statement concerning a
"little ravine." Holmberg (1873, map) rendered the name as
"Aniluchtakpakh" and also located it at Ghost Creek. Hrdlicka, on
the other hand, identified Anilukhtakpak with a site that formerly
existed at or near the present Holy Cross village (Hrdlicka, 1930, p.
129). Conceivably, both locations could be correct if, as Zagoskin
noted, the settlement was moved a short distance downstream after
the smallpox epidemic of 1838-1839.

The Russian Orthodox priest visited Anilukhtakpak in 1845 and
the first population figures are listed in the parish records two years
later. From that time on, village population figures are recorded
more or less regularly as follows (number of houses in parentheses):

1847

101

14)

1867

99 (15)

1850

100

14)

1878

133 (35)

1851

99

14)

1879

132 (35)

1853

122

15)

1880

132 (35)

1854

124

15)

1881

132 (35)

1855

121

15)

1882

165 (35)

1856

120

15)

1883

164 (35)

1857

120

15)

1884

187 (35)

1858

120

15)

1885

198 (35)

1859

120

15)

1886

197 (35)

1860

118

15)

1887

197 (35)

1861

117

15)

1888

203 (35)

1863

120

15)

1889

205 (35)

1864

97

15)

1890

205 (35)

1865

95

12)

1892

204 (35)

1866

96

15)

(AROCA/parish records: Kvikhpak mission, church register).

Anilkhtakpak does not appear under that name in any federal cen-
sus and, as we have noted, the site at Ghost Creek was abandoned in
1887 when Father Robaut and Brother Giordano moved there from
Koserefsky, as was the site at the present location of Holy Cross
when the first mission buildings were constructed there during the
following year. This being the case, the church population records in
the later years must refer to another settlement in the immediate

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 63

vicinity, possibly the one called Koserefsky in many published and
archival accounts.

HC-53. Although the village of Koserefsky would appear to have
been one of the largest in the area covered by this study, informa-
tion concerning its size, appearance, and even its exact location is
extremely uncertain. Zagoskin made no mention of the settlement
at all, although it must have been in existence at the time of his
travels. Glazunov, it will be recalled, mentioned 65 dwelling houses,
a number that may include caches, located "a verst and a half from
there [Anilukhtakpak] on the banks of the river" (VanStone, 1959, p.
44) which certainly suggests another community in the immediate
vicinity. Unfortunately, Glazunov did not name this settlement nor
did he note its direction from Anilukhtakpak.

On June 9, 1868 while descending the Yukon from Nulato on his
way to St. Michael, Dall entered the mouth of the Innoko River and
after "ascending a little way, reached the Leather Village of the
Russians" (Dall, 1870, p. 220) which he described as a large Ingalik
summer camp. The inhabitants were said to have come from a place
on the Yukon known to the Russians as Murderer's Village, iden-
tified here as Old Bonasila (HC-47). Jette (1907, p. 178) believed that
Koserefsky was a Russian name meaning Leather Village,
presumably derived from "kozha" (skin, hide), but he located the
settlement on the "south" bank of the Yukon. On Raymond's (1871)
map, "Leather Village" is also shown inside the mouth of the
Innoko near where Railroad City appears on more recent maps.
There is always the possibility, of course, that Leather Village is not
Koserefsky but rather a name applied to one of the lower Innoko
settlements, possibly HC-55.

More reliable, but still incomplete, evidence seems to locate
Koserefsky across the Yukon from and slightly above the eventual
site of the Holy Cross mission. When Father Robaut and Brother
Giordano were looking for a place to construct the first mission
buildings, the Indians at Koserefsky told them about a place across
the river and "three or four miles below" (Giordano memoirs,
OPA/Giordano, box 3). The mission is indeed 3 or 4 miles below the
cabin which the priest and brother occupied at Ghost Creek during
the winter of 1887, a cabin which, as previously noted, was opposite
Koserefsky.

Sister M.J. Calasanctius, a member of the first group of Sisters of
St. Ann to come to the Holy Cross mission in the summer of 1888,

64 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

noted that Koserefsky was located across the Yukon from the mis-
sion and "three miles above" (Calasanctius, 1935, p. 309). A late
nineteenth-century track chart of the Yukon (Edwards, 1899) shows
a number of houses and other structures on the river bank opposite
Ghost Creek, but no name is given to this camp or settlement.
Hrdlicka visited the Koserefsky site in July, 1929 and located it
about 4 miles above the mouth of the Innoko. However, he gave no
details concerning its appearance other than to note that it was be-
ing rapidly washed away (Hrdlicka, 1944, pp. 221-222). DeLaguna
was told of the site in 1935, but did not go there (deLaguna, 1947, p.
77). Her map (p. 64), however, shows it situated inside the mouth of
the Innoko.

Koserefsky must have been the most important settlement in the
vicinity of the mouth of the Innoko by the time the Jesuits arrived
in the winter of 1887, and in 1890 it had a population of 131 (Porter,
1893, p. 7). Ghost Creek was either a seasonal settlement or com-
pletely abandoned by this time and if there were people living at the
location eventually chosen for the mission, the priest and brother
make no mention of the fact. Regardless of its location, however, it
was the village of Koserefsky that supplied inhabitants for the new
mission settlement called Holy Cross. In fact, the post office
established at the mission in 1899 was first called Koserefsky and
not changed to the mission's name until 1912 (Ricks, 1965, p. 36)
when most Indians had moved across the river.

It is impossible to say with certainty when the last families left
Koserefsky, but the settlement is not mentioned by name in the mis-
sion diaries after March, 1908 (HCM diary, July 17, 1904-July 26,
1908, OPA/HCM, box 3). Movement onto mission land was
doubtless the most important factor in the abandonment of the
village, but action of the river must also be taken into account. Mis-
sion records indicate that between 1890 and 1897 200 ft. eroded
from the bank of the river in front of Koserefsky (Koserefsky
records, OPA/HCM, box 5).

HC-54. When Father Robaut and Brother Giordano inquired con-
cerning a location for their mission, they were told of a place below
Koserefsky and on the other side of the Yukon where there had been
an old village and a creek flowed at the foot of a hill. In the spring of
1888, land was cleared for the first mission buildings (Giordano
memoirs, OPA/Giordano, box 2) at the place called "Tihloyikeyit"
(in the angle of a hill), a reference, presumably, to the hill at the
upriver end of the new settlement ( Jette, On the geographical names

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65

66 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

of the Tena, OPA). Jette further noted that an Eskimo name for
Holy Cross was "Inreal'ra-meut" (ugly hill).

The Indian families who first moved from Koserefsky to the site
of the new mission were doubtless those who, as at Anvik, had em-
braced, at least superficially, the teachings of the church. The first
residents apparently moved to the upriver end of the mission site in
the lee of the hill. Later these early members of the church's flock
lived below the mission buildings near the river bank and the
upriver location came to be associated with those who were
lukewarm about the Catholic faith or rejected it entirely. By the fall
of 1914, the entire "Upper Village," as it was called, appears to have
been abandoned, implying, presumably, that all remaining in-
habitants of Holy Cross were at least nominal church members
(Koserefsky records, OPA/HCM, box 5).

From that time on Holy Cross became the dominant, and even-
tually the only, settlement in the area and its recorded population
statistics are as follows:

1910 123

(In addition to 92 children

and 17 staff associated

with the mission)

1920 approx. 200

(Harrington 1918, p. 20; U.S. federal census reports, 1931, vol. 1;
1952, vol. 1, pp. 51/6-8; 1973, vol. 1, table 6; HCM diary, July 27,
1908-Dec. 31, 1912, OPA/HCM, box 3).

At the beginning of the Innoko gold rush in 1908, Holy Cross was
an important transport point for supplies going to miners on the
upper Innoko and its tributaries. Following the decline of mining
after about 1915, the community also declined in importance and in
1957 the Roman Catholic Mission was closed. Children attending
the mission's boarding school were transferred to another church
school at Glenallen.

Changes in the river channel, so frequent along the lower Yukon,
greatly affected Holy Cross. At the time of Hrdlicka's visit in 1929,
the priests told him that within the past 25 years at least 900 feet
had been cut from the bank in front of the mission (Hrdlicka, 1944,
p. 221). This rapid cutting partially destroyed the mission gardens
which were an important element in the support of the school
children. In addition, a large sandbar which had begun to form
upriver from the mission and the community sometime after 1900,
extended further down each year, eventually cutting off Holy Cross

1930

337

1939

226

1950

157

1960

256

1970

199

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 67

from the main channel and making it difficult to bring in supplies.
These factors were, among others, responsible for the closing of the
mission and a decline in population which Holy Cross has experienc-
ed in the last 10 years.

HC-55. This site, one of the largest abandoned settlements on the
Innoko, is located on the right bank at the point where the river
empties into Red Wing Slough. At the upriver end of the site are at
least six large, deep house pits near the bank of a small dried-up
slough. There are also five collapsed cabins of more recent vintage
at the opposite end. The river bank is building in front of the former-
ly occupied area and there are about 50 feet of mud flats covered
with young willows in this area. Near the cabin remains is an exten-
sive cleared area and the foundation logs of a large rectangular
structure which may have been a store or warehouse.

This is probably the site that was known locally as Shageluk
Point and it may have been occupied at least as early as the 1860's
when two members of the Western Union Telegraph Company Ex-
pedition, George R. Adams and P. H. Smith, mentioned a large set-
tlement "of over one hundred inhabitants" within the mouth of the
Innoko (diaries of Adams and Smith, UA). Adams and Smith were
members of Dall's party and the location of HC-55 suggests the lat-
ter's "Leather Village of the Russians" (Dall, 1870, p. 220). In the
Holy Cross mission diaries for the 1920's there are numerous
references to Shageluk Point and the resident trader, Alec Richard-
son (HCM diaries, July 1, 1919-Dec. 31, 1923; Jan. 1, 1924-Aug. 31,
1936, OPA/HCM, boxes 3-4). According to Anvik informants, the
store was still in operation into the early 1930's and the site may
have been abandoned at about that time. Some inhabitants are said
to have moved up the Innoko to Old Shageluk and others to Holy
Cross.

HC-56. In 1901 the construction of a railroad from Iliamna Bay on
Cook Inlet to the Yukon was proposed. This ambitious project was
intended to open the great inland region of western Alaska
previously serviced only by circuitous water routes. The promoters
of the Alaska Shortline Railway, as it was to be known, considered
the Yukon Valley to have great agricultural potential, but believed
that development would be impossible without a rail connection to
the coast (The Alaska Shortline Railway and Navigation Co., 1903,
p. 8; Railway routes in Alaska, 1913, pp. 90-91).

In October, 1901 a party of 20 men and a number of horses arrived
at Holy Cross and set up a camp inside the mouth of the Innoko

68 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

River at a place later to be referred to as Railroad City, but known
at the mission and Koserefsky as "the horse camp." (HCM diary,
Oct. 1, 1900-May 12, 1902, OPA/HCM, box 2). The survey party
stayed through the winter, but the proposed route was abandoned
as being too far to the southwest to permit its use as a trunk line
into the interior. The surveyors and their horses had departed from
Railroad City by the following winter (Smith, 1915, p. 255; 1917, pp.
15-16).

Although a few Indians from Koserefsky and Shageluk Point may
have lived at Railroad City following the departure of the survey
crew, the site was of little importance until October, 1910 when, at
the height of the Innoko gold rush, an enterprising entrepreneur ap-
proached the mission at Holy Cross with plans for a "future town"
at or near the site of the former horse camp. He explained to un-
enthusiastic mission personnel that he wished to draw a population
of Indians from Holy Cross and painted a glowing picture of a town
with sidewalks, gardens, a fishery, well-built houses, curio store,
hotel, station for the Northern Navigation Company, and regular
wood-cutting contracts to provide fuel for the steamboats and
employment for the Indians. The mission, fearing increased secular
influence, was distinctly cool to these optimistic arrangements and,
in fact, the grandiose plans apparently fell through rapidly before
any construction was accomplished (HCM, July 27, 1908-Dec. 31,
1912, OPA/HCM, box 3).

The following year the Northern Commercial Company moved
their warehouses and oil tanks from Holy Cross to Railroad City
and renamed the "town" Red Wing. This established a new transfer
point for freight bound overland to Iditarod or up the Innoko River
(Kitchner, 1954, pp. 112-113). From that time on until at least the
beginning of World War II, Railroad City was an important tran-
shipment point for freight going up the Innoko to Flat, the only
mining town to continue operations after the collapse of the Innoko
gold rush. Informants stated that as many as 8 or 10 families of In-
dians lived at Railroad City and worked as longshoremen or in other
capacities during the shipping season. There were a number of oil
storage tanks and a large warehouse as well as residences and other
structures at the site.

The site has been completely abandoned since the early 1950's.
Dilapidated cabins are all that remain of what was once a bustling
settlement during the navigation season in the years when traffic on

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 69

the Yukon and Innoko Rivers reflected the diverse requirements of
gold mining operations in a remote area.

Settlement patterns between Anvik and the mouth of the Innoko
River represent a combination of traditional patterning as reflected
by Old Bonasila, Anilukhtakpak, Koserefsky, and probably a
number of fish and trapping camps, and contact patterns reflected
by the mission at Holy Cross and Railroad City. It is significant,
however, that the mouth of the Innoko has been an important
population center at least since protohistoric times. Anilukhtakpak
played a significant role in the exchange of furs and other local pro-
ducts even before the Russian presence was felt on the Yukon. Its
location at the mouth of the Innoko River close to much-used por-
tages to the Kuskokwim River and to the Indian-Eskimo boundary
assured its strategic importance to the trade with coastal peoples
and therefore a place of considerable interest to the Russians
(Zagoskin, 1967, p. 197). In the American period, the establishment
of the Holy Cross mission and school and the discovery of gold on
the upper Innoko and its tributaries assured the importance of this
area and its settlements well into the modern period.

V

ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS

Settlement Typology

Of the many published settlement pattern studies, two appear to
be particularly applicable to an understanding of the settlement
configuration of the Anvik-Shageluk Ingalik and the upper Innoko
Holikachuk described in the preceding pages. K-C. Chang (1962)
developed a typology for circumpolar societies that emphasizes the
importance of the annual subsistence region. This is defined as the
total area utilized by a group of people for subsistence throughout
the year. 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 within
the annual subsistence region at a permanent locale are called seden-
tary seasonal settlements with permanent bases, and those remain-
ing within the limits of the annual subsistence region, but moving to
a different locale after several years of occupancy are called seden-
tary seasonal settlements with transient bases (Chang, 1962, pp.
29-30).

Another useful socio-cultural classification is that of Beardsley et
al. (1956) which formulates seven primary types of community pat-
terning among non-herding peoples. One of these, the Central-Based
Wandering type, is applicable to the area under discussion. For
Beardsley and his colleagues, the Central-Based Wandering com-
munity 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 return
in subsequent years" (1956, p. 138). This type of community patter-
ning is a form of compromise between wandering and sedentary life
and is possible in areas where wild foods are unusually abundant
and can thus be converted to storageable surpluses. Such com-
munities are further characterized by socio-cultural cohesion during

70

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 71

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 (Beardsley
etal., 1956, p. 138).

With reference to Chang's (1962) settlement classification, the
Anvik-Shageluk area conforms to his definition of an annual sub-
sistence region and the various sites described in the previous pages
can be designated as sedentary seasonal settlements within this
region. According to Osgood (1958, p. 30), the traditional Ingalik
utilized three types of settlements depending on the season of the
year: winter villages which were the permanent homes of their in-
habitants, spring fishing and trapping camps, sometimes referred
to as "canoe villages," to which people sledged their canoes in
spring before the ice broke up, and summer fish camps. The latter
were sometimes located directly in front of the winter villages, but
they were always smaller because some families preferred to move
to locations along the river to take advantage of good fishing sites.

When it comes to Chang's distinction between sedentary seasonal
settlements with permanent bases and those with transient bases,
certain problems arise. The question here concerns the length of
time that a seasonal settlement must be occupied before it can be
considered a permanent base. A number of village sites along the
lower-middle Yukon and its tributaries can, with certainty, be iden-
tified as seasonal settlements with permanent bases since they were
clearly occupied for a lengthy period of time and their inhabitants
returned year after year even though they may have spent part of
their time in settlements with transient bases.

On the Innoko River and Shageluk Slough at least nine sites
(HC-3-10, Oph-1) can be considered as winter villages and thus iden-
tified as sedentary seasonal settlements with permanent bases.
Three others (HC-1, 11, 13) may belong in this category, but there is
insufficient evidence to be certain. Two sites (HC-2, 12), only one of
which was intact at the time of this study, definitely appear to have
been fish camps and thus can be identified with certainty as seden-
tary seasonal settlements with transient bases.

On the Yukon in the vicinity of Anvik village, only that settle-
ment (HC-14) served as a permanent base, although two additional
sites (HC-1 5, 18) may have belonged in this category at one time or
another. Lower Village (HC-1 8), for example, was apparently a per-
manent base after 1927, but may have been a fish camp earlier. Two

72 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

sites (HC-16, 17) were presumably fish camps and thus transient
bases. The former was actually the location of a trading post, but
there are indications that, like Lower Village, it was once a site for
summer fishing. Along the Anvik River only Red Mountain (HC-23)
served as a permanent base. The others (HC-19-22, 24-26) were
either summer fishing sites, winter trapping camps, or both.

Like the Anvik River, the Yukon above Anvik village was, for the
most part, inhabited only seasonally. Of the 20 sites in this area
only Grayling (HC-35) appears to have served as a permanent base,
although Vazhichagat (Ukt-3) may also belong to this category. The
remaining were clearly summer fish camps utilized for varying
periods of time. Below Anvik village on the Yukon the situation is
similar although there were fewer settlements of any type. Four
sites have been identified as fishing or trapping camps (HC-44-46,
49-50), while Old Bonasila (HC-47) and New Bonasila (HC-48) were
definitely permanent bases.

In the Holy Cross-mouth of the Innoko area the settlement pat-
tern was, as previously noted, complicated by changes in the river
bank and the impossibility of identifying definitely some settle-
ments named in historical sources. Nevertheless, it is clear that this
area was the major population center in the region since five of the
six sites (HC-51-55) were important winter villages. The sixth
(HC-56) probably falls outside the categories being considered here
since it was originally occupied in response to the presence of a
railroad construction crew in the area.

According to the breakdown given above, there may have been as
many as 27 settlements with permanent bases in the area of this
study and 33 with transient bases. It should be emphasized again,
however, that the distinction between the two types of settlements
is not always clear. Many sites identified as seasonal settlements
with transient bases may have been occupied more or less con-
tinuously for many years even though they were never anything
more than fishing or trapping camps. A good example of this is HC-
43, a fish camp located at Hall's Rapids below Fox Point Island on
the Yukon. Although probably never a winter village, it appears to
have been occupied seasonally at least as early as 1870 and until
sometime in the mid-1930's or even later. Thus it could easily
qualify as a permanent base. Nevertheless, there would appear to be
a clear distinction between the major villages in the area and those
of strictly seasonal and therefore secondary importance. It is clear
that the Ingalik occupied their fishing and trapping sites for shorter

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 73

periods, both seasonally and over a continuous period of time, than
they did their winter villages, many of which were occupied con-
tinuously throughout all or most of the contact period.

The Central-Based Wandering type of settlement pattern defined
by Beardsley and his colleagues closely fits the seasonal cycle of the
Ingalik and Holikachuk Athapaskans. This form of patterning was
possible, of course, because of the riverine emphasis that
characterized Indian culture in this area. At the same time,
however, the type of inland hunting practiced by the nineteenth-
century inhabitants of the lower-middle Yukon 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 not more than a single
nuclear family, also functioned as trappers throughout the proto-
contact and contact periods. It is probable that the advent of trap-
ping brought about a more complete segmentation of the com-
munities than had occurred under aboriginal conditions. However,
few sites identified with any certainty as trapping camps could be
located during the surveys reported in this study. Most were
doubtless situated along small creeks flowing into the larger
tributaries of the Yukon.

Houses and Community Patterns

A typical Ingalik winter village consisted of a large kashim which
served as a ceremonial house, men's social center, and workshop,
and a row of semi-subterranean residences. Behind the houses were
numerous caches for storing dried fish and other food, while
elevated racks for sledges and boats were situated between and in
front of the residences. The kashim was the most impressive struc-
ture in every winter village, as is evident from Zagoskin's (1967, p.
193) description of the structure at Anilukhatakpak quoted in the
previous chapter. The most common form of dwelling in the summer
fishing camps was above ground, of frame construction, and with
walls made of sheets of spruce or birch bark. Temporary shelters of
spruce poles and boughs were used during brief stays in the "canoe
villages" (Osgood, 1940, pp. 290-318, 323-328).

In 1843-1844 when Zagoskin explored the Ingalik country he
visited the nine winter villages listed below, all but one of which
have been described in the preceding pages, although some of the
identifications must be considered tentative (Zagoskin, 1967, p.
307).

74 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

Settlement

Houses

Population

Inselnostlende

2

33

Khuingitetakhten

3

37

Iltenleyden

6

100

Tlegozhitno (Shageluk)

3

45

Khuligichagat (Holikachuk)

5

70

Vazhichagat

5

80

Anvig (Anvik)

5

120

Makki (Bonasila)

3

44

Anilukhtakpak

8

170

Total

40

699

These figures indicate an average occupancy of a little more than 17
persons per house and suggest that a winter village with eight or
more houses should be considered very large indeed. A later
observer agreed that anywhere from 15 to 20 individuals, usually
members of at least two nuclear families, lived in a traditional semi-
subterranean winter house (Chapman, 1900, p. 6).

In Ingalik winter villages during the early historic period the focal
point for community life was the kashim. Always the largest struc-
ture in a settlement, it was the center of ceremonial life, the place
where many social obligations were fulfilled, and where men and
boys spent much of their time. Another characteristic of the kashim
was the absence of women and young girls, who could enter the
structure only on errands and to bring food. Women played no part
in the various kashim activities (Osgood, 1958, pp. 33-38).

Although kashims must have been impressive structures in oc-
cupied settlements, they are sometimes difficult to distinguish from
large houses once the roofs have collapsed and they have become
filled with sod and overgrown with grass. Also many sites in the
area of this study have been cut away by the river or are so heavily
overgrown with vegetation that an accurate determination of the
number and purpose of structures was impossible. Thus the exact
number of villages with kashims in the Anvik-Shageluk area could
not be determined with certainty. On the lower Innoko River and
Shageluk Slough the major, long-established winter villages of
Iltenleyden (HC-7), Old Shageluk (HC-8), and Holikachuk (HC-9) all
had kashims. The remains of a structure of this type was also noted
at HC-10 which, as previously noted, may have been a part of
Holikachuk; deLaguna identified a kashim at HC-11.

On the Anvik River and in the immediate vicinity of the river
mouth there were kashims at Anvik village (HC-14), Old Anvik (HC-
15), and, according to deLaguna, at Red Mountain (HC-23), the only

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 75

winter village on the Anvik River. Along the Yukon from Anvik to
the confluence with Shageluk Slough the only settlement where a
kashim was identified with certainty by deLaguna was at Grayling
(HC-35), although one was reported to have been located at Anvik
Rapids (HC-43). If Vazhichagat (Ukt-3) was as important a settle-
ment as Zagoskin believed it to be, there was probably one there
too. Below Anvik on the Yukon there were kashims at Old Bonasila
(HC-47), reported by Glazunov and Zagoskin; New Bonasila
(HC-48), reported by deLaguna; Anilukhtakpak (HC-52), described
by Glazunov and Zagoskin; and Koserefsky (HC-53) where, as
previously noted, it served as a home for Father Robaut and Brother
Giordano for a short while after their arrival in the area in the
winter of 1887.

At various times during the nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
turies there may have been as many as 15 villages with these struc-
tures. It is questionable, however, whether even in Zagoskin 's time
there was a kashim in every winter village. If the site identifications
in Chapter I are correct, Khuingitetakhten (HC-3) and Inselnost-
lende (HC-6) apparently lacked ceremonial houses and the same may
also have been true of other small settlements not noted by the Rus-
sian explorer. Later, when the kashim declined in importance, these
structures may not have been built in some newly established
winter villages.

E. W. Nelson, who traveled on the Yukon and Innoko rivers dur-
ing the winter of 1880, believed that the kashim was a recent in-
novation in this area, having been borrowed from neighboring
Eskimos (VanStone, 1978, pp. 45-46, 71). This is probably not an ac-
curate statement but, in fact, the definite existence of prehistoric
structures of this type in settlements throughout the area has not
been documented. In some respects, the kashim in a village on the
upper Innoko described and illustrated by Nelson (VanStone, 1978,
pp. 45-46 more closely resembles the Eskimo kashim in south-
western Alaska (VanStone, 1968, pp. 252-258; 1970, pp. 33, 35-38)
than it does the Ingalik kashim described by Osgood (1940, pp.
290-302).

The cycle of masked dances and ceremonies that were held in the
kashim were the focal point of Ingalik religious and social life. As
might be expected, however, they created ambivalent feelings in the
minds of Russian Orthodox, Episcopalian, and Roman Catholic mis-
sionaries. On the one hand, such ceremonies were considered
wasteful in terms of food consumed and gifts distributed, and. of

76 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

course, generally inconsistent with Christian beliefs. On the other,
the missionaries were impressed with the solemnity and sincerity of
Indian participants and felt that in some ways the ceremonies
brought out much that was good in Indian character. Nevertheless,
as early as 1891 Roman Catholic priests noted that the young peo-
ple were beginning to lose some interest in the ceremonial cycle
(Judge, 1907, pp. 54-55). This may have been due in part to efforts
by the Russian Orthodox Church over the preceding 50 years, but
the various secularizing influences that were already making them-
selves felt in the Yukon Valley were doubtless primarily responsible.

The villages of Holikachuk, Anvik, and Old Shageluk were closely
bound by the series of annual ceremonies held in each community to
which residents of the other two were always invited. According to
one source, some ceremonies were not held as early as 1905 and it is
clear that mission influence was the reason (deLaguna, 1936, p. 569).
At Anvik in particular the old ceremonies continued to wither away
and those that remained lost at least some of their religious con-
notations. Some were dropped because they could no longer be per-
formed fully and properly. At Old Shageluk and Holikachuk,
however, a reasonably complete cycle of festivals persisted into the
1930's (Parsons, 1921-1922, p. 71; deLaguna, 1936, p. 569).

The decline of the Ingalik ceremonial cycle obviously affected the
importance and function of kashims in the various settlements. As
workshops and lounging and sleeping places for men, they would
continue to be important for some time to come, but once the
ceremonial aspects of kashim activities were diminished, the struc-
ture as an institution in Ingalik life would never be the same again.
The kashims at Old Shageluk and Holikachuk continued to be used
as meeting houses until the villages moved in 1966 and 1963 respec-
tively. The structure at Anvik was destroyed by fire in the 1940's
and not rebuilt.

Just as mission influence affected the kashim and its role in com-
munity life, so it was also responsible for major changes in house
construction. At Anvik, for example, the Episcopalians claimed
credit for the gradual abandonment of the traditional semi-
subterranean house and acceptance of above-ground log structures.
At the time of Chapman's and Parker's arrival in the village, the
only log houses to be seen in the area were those belonging to the
trader, S. A. Fredericks, which were purchased by the missionaries,
and a single log cabin belonging to the Alaska Commerical Com-
pany. In fact, Chapman suggested that the Anvik Indians may have

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 77

learned the rudiments of such construction from Fredericks.
Although it is certain that at least some Anvik men were familiar
with log construction before this time, the fact remains that such
familiarity must have had little impact since as late as 1892 all the
inhabitants of Anvik lived in traditional semi-subterranean houses
of the type described in considerable detail by Osgood (1940, pp.
302-312); it was only in the fall of that year that the first log cabins
were built in the Anvik Point settlement (Chapman, 1893, pp.
383-387).

Within three years, however, nearly one-third of the villagers liv-
ed in log structures and those that adopted Episcopalian Christiani-
ty, at least superficially, moved across the river and built their
cabins on mission land (Chapman, 1896, p. 523). Since the Anvik
Point site, as noted previously, flooded frequently in spring, this
doubtless provided an additional incentive for the inhabitants to
move into log houses across the river. By 1897 fully two-thirds of
the families residing in Anvik had log houses (Chapman, 1898, p.
168).

It is clear that Ingalik settlements underwent considerable
change in the last decade of the nineteenth century as a result of the
acceptance of log houses and the decline of the kashim. The
ceremonial house and its many, varied activites symbolized the
large, closely-knit community. With the collective ceremonies in
decline, a growing interest in Christianity with its emphasis on in-
dividual salvation, and economic changes which stressed the role of
the individual wage-earner, some families may have felt it un-
necessary to continue to reside in the larger settlements. The
smaller log cabins housed individual nuclear families as opposed to
the traditional winter houses inhabited by two or more such families
(Osgood, 1958, p. 157). Multiple factors including missionary in-
fluence and involvement in trapping and wage labor thus resulted in
major changes in the community pattern.

Population Changes

The earliest population figures for the Anvik-Shageluk area are
those of Andrey Glazunov who estimated that there were approx-
imately 1,000 inhabiting the villages he visited or was told about
during his explorations in 1834 (VanStone, 1959). Zagoskin's
previously noted enumeration of 699 individuals in 1843 includes
settlements on the Innoko River not visited by Glazunov (Zagoskin,
1967, p. 307). The lower figure has been interpreted as reflecting the

78 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

severity of the smallpox epidemic which swept western and south-
western Alaska in 1838 and 1839. If Glazunov had visited the
Innoko and if the settlements there were larger in 1834 than in 1843
in the same proportion as those on the Yukon, then it is conceivable
that the entire Anvik-Shageluk area might have supported a
population as high as 2,000 persons at the beginning of direct con-
tact with Russian traders.

Some idea of the effect of the smallpox epidemic on Ingalik
population can be achieved by taking a closer look at the population
figures obtained by these two Russian explorers. At Anvik,
Glazunov counted 10 houses which, based on his population figures
for other villages, may have been inhabited by as many as 240 per-
sons. Nine years later at the time of Zagoskin's visit there was, as
previously noted, a population of 120 living in half as many houses.
Similarly, for Old Bonasila, it will be remembered, Glazunov
enumerated 120 persons living in five houses, while Zagoskin
counted 44 people inhabiting three residences. Glazunov 's figure of
700 for the Anilukhtakpak area seems large even though the ex-
plorer was clearly referring to at least two communities. In any
event, Zagoskin, in 1843, estimated a population of 170 for
Anilukhtakpak alone (VanStone, 1959, pp. 43-45; Zagoskin, 1967, p.
307).

If the population estimates of the two explorers are reasonably ac-
curate, they show clearly that the Yukon Ingalik villages lost fully
two-thirds of their inhabitants as a result of the smallpox epidemic,
a much higher mortality rate than is apparent from the meager in-
formation available for other areas of western and southwestern
Alaska. The effects of this disaster on Indian life can only be sur-
mised since precise accounts are lacking. Nevertheless, we can
assume that sickness was accompanied by starvation and serious
social and economic disruption. The reduced population was forced
to reorient itself with reference to its modified traditional lifeways
at the very time when significant changes were being introduced
from without. Although the Ingalik population never recovered
from the effects of this epidemic, it is significant that apparently
none of the major Yukon River winter villages were abandoned at
this time.

Population estimates for the remainder of the nineteenth century
are not particularly reliable. The tenth federal census in 1880
reported an approximate figure of 413 including a dubious 150 in
"Chageluk settlements" and 10 years later the eleventh federal

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 79

census recorded 476 (Petroff, 1884, p. 12; Porter, 1893, p. 7). During
the first 30 years of the present century, however, more accurate
census data were gathered by John Chapman. In 1898 he
enumerated 652 in the Anvik-Shageluk area, while in 1900 the
figure was 562. A decline to 452 in 1914 was attributed to a severe
influenza epidemic which swept the lower Yukon and adjoining
areas in the summer of 1900 (Chapman, 1898, p. 167; 1931, pp.
398-400). Populations for the following 10 year intervals were as
follows:

Year

Population

1930

504

1939

505

1950

454

1960

653

1970

588

(U.S. federal census reports, vol. 1, 1931; 1952, pp. 31/56-58; 1963,
pp. 3/10-11; 1973; table 6).

It should be remembered that even the most carefully collected
census figures were never more than an approximation of the
population of an area like the lower-middle Yukon. Seasonal
movements of people are characteristic and the number of in-
habitants in any village always varied greatly depending on the
time of year that a count was made. A long-time, year-around resi-
dent like John Chapman was in a better position to make accurate
population estimates than federal enumerators whose visits to the
area at widely separated intervals were, of necessity, brief. Never-
theless, it seems clear that Osgood (1958, p. 30) was correct when he
noted that the population of the Anvik-Shageluk Ingalik and their
closest neighbors has, since the 1840's always been "nearer to five
hundred than a thousand."

Distribution of Settlements

As might be expected, the physical environment has been a major
factor in determining the distribution of settlements throughout the
Anvik-Shageluk area. Along the Yukon from the entrance to
Shageluk Slough to the mouth of the Innoko River, the right bank is
consistently high and as a result, all but a few sites and all major
settlements are located on this side of the river. Above Anvik the
steep right bank is broken at intervals by small open areas, usually
at the mouths of tributary creeks, where fish camps have been
located since the beginning of the historic period. Only at the
mouths of the Anvik River and Grayling Creek, however, are these

80 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

flat open areas of sufficient size to have accommodated winter
villages. Below Anvik the right bank of the Yukon is somewhat
lower and although areas suitable for human occupation are fewer,
those that exist are larger. As a result, the important winter villages
of New Bonasila, Old Bonasila, and Anilukhtakpak were located in
this area together with the modern settlement of Holy Cross.
Koserefsky and Vazhichagat were the only significant left bank
settlements. The rapid changes to which this bank of the Yukon is
subject are well illustrated by the fact that all indications of the
presence of both villages were apparently obliterated within a
relatively short span of years.

Along the lower Innoko River few locations suitable for human
habitation are immediately apparent; there are many open flat areas
but few high banks. Only at the recently chosen location for New
Shageluk has it been possible to utilize a gradual rise from the river
bank and the sloping side of a low hill. All other sites are located
where flooding was a distinct possibility, even a probability, each
spring. The lower Anvik River resembles the lower Innoko in this
respect, but the problem of settlement location is different since
with the exception of Red Mountain (HC-23), there were no winter
villages located along its banks. Fish camps were located where
fences could be most profitably constructed. The fact that fish
taken above the mouth of Yellow River, an Anvik tributary, are not
considered fit for human consumption or for dog food because of
their emaciated condition served to limit the placement of these
camps. The small sites reported further up the Anvik were all ap-
parently associated with winter trapping.

The location of many camps and settlements throughout the
Anvik-Shageluk area suggest that the possibility of spring flooding,
although doubtless of some concern to the inhabitants, was not of
sufficient importance to render a location unsuitable for human
occupation. Floods, often severe, are particularly likely to occur
above Holy Cross. The Yukon narrows in this area and cakes of mov-
ing ice jam and effectively dam the river, forcing water back up the
many tributary creeks and streams. Neither informants nor
historical sources record the abandonment of any settlement
because of recurrent flooding. Only in recent years when the village
of Old Shageluk was relocated does this factor seem to have entered
into the decision to move. Although particularly low places may
have been avoided when possible as locations for villages and
camps, if other factors such as good fishing, access to drinking

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 81

water, strategic location in terms of travel and trade, etc. were pre-
sent, periodic flooding appears to have been accepted as an annoy-
ing but inevitable feature of living along the banks of a river.

Environmental factors were doubtless the most significant deter-
minants of settlement distribution in the prehistoric period, but
during protohistoric and historic times historical factors have been
of even greater importance. It is likely that the most significant
shifts in settlement location in response to the fur trade took place
before the Russians entered the Yukon Valley and were the result of
adjustments made necessary by participation in the Siberia- Alaska
trade. Even a settlement like Anvik, presumed to be of considerable
antiquity, may owe its present location to the strategic necessity of
having a settlement at the beginning of the most important route to
Norton Sound. Anilukhtakpak was ideally situated to involve in-
habitants of the Kuskokwim and Innoko rivers in the coast-interior
trade. It will be recalled that Eskimos from the Kuskokwim were at
Anilukhtakpak at the time of Glazunov's visit in the winter of 1834
(VanStone, 1959, p. 45). Similarly, Zagoskin mentioned the strategic
location of Vazhichagat with reference to the creeks tributary to the
upper Anvik River (Zagoskin, 1967, p. 191). Although clear proof is
lacking, it may not be an exaggeration to suggest that the early con-
tact settlement pattern in the Anvik-Shageluk area reflected almost
entirely the requirements of the coast-interior trade. If this were in-
deed the case, it could mean that the major settlements in the area
do not predate the beginning of the nineteenth century and thus had
been occupied for only a few years at the time they were visited by
Glazunov and Zagoskin.

Whatever may be the accuracy of these speculations, it is clear
that the distribution of settlements along the lower-middle Yukon
and its tributaries was relatively little affected by the advent of
direct contact with Russian traders. The Russians established no
trading posts in Ingalik territory and, in any event, the profitable
trade relations which the Indians enjoyed with the Eskimos of
Norton Sound were more important than their relations with the
Russian- American Company's posts at Mikhailovskiy Redoubt,
Unalakleet, and Ikogmiut. There was little incentive to relocate set-
tlements in order to participate in trade with the Russians, par-
ticularly since both Russian traders and Norton Sound Eskimos
traveled extensively throughout the Ingalik area to obtain furs.

At the beginning of the American period, a trading post was
established at Anvik (Raymond, 1873, pp. 170-171) and by 1910

82 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

traders were resident more or less continuously at Old Shageluk,
Holy Cross, and Holikachuk. For the most part, the presence of
traders in these communities reinforced the importance of estab-
lished centers and reduced the mobility of the population. It is ap-
parent, therefore, that the fur traders, although important agents of
change, did not have a significant effect on the distribution of settle-
ments. The elimination of the Siberia- Alaska trade toward the end
of the nineteenth century and the resultant dependence of the Inga-
lik on materials received from American trading posts might, in the
long run, have affected settlement pattern changes. The presence of
free traders in the area, however, together with additional, more
significant agents of change, reduced the potential of the fur trade
to affect settlement location.

Like the Russian-American Company, the Russian Orthodox
Church did not locate in Ingalik territory. The priest stationed at
Ikogmiut after 1845 visited the Ingalik villages at infrequent inter-
vals. The Episcopalians and Roman Catholics, however, established
themselves at Anvik and Holy Cross, the latter a new community
which, as noted in Chapter IV, eventually absorbed the population
of several settlements in the vicinity of the mouth of the Innoko
River. These missions, therefore, must rank as the most significant
historical determinants of settlement distribution in the late nine-
teenth century. Together with the schools they established, mis-
sions brought about the only major changes in Ingalik settlement
patterns to have occurred since the advent of the Siberia-Alaska
trade at the end of the eighteenth century.

The intense competition between Christian missionaries and
native shamans who believed, with good reason, that their positions
of authority within their communities were in jeopardy occasionally
threatened to disrupt community life. At Anvik in 1904, for exam-
ple, friction between John Chapman and the shamans increased the
polarization of the community to the point where one particularly
strong shaman, Nikolai Doctor, founded a separate village about a
mile from the mission (Chapman et al., 1904, pp. 916-917). Although
there are no other examples of shamans founding separate settle-
ments, it is probable that certain subsidiary villages may have been
occupied longer than would otherwise have been the case because of
the presence of an influential shaman. As noted in the previous
chapter, New Bonasila (HC-48) may have been abandoned at the
time of the death of an important shaman. An influential shaman at
Koseref sky apparently was successful in persuading a number of his

VANSTONE:INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 83

adherents to continue residence in that community (HCM diary,
May 13, 1902-July 16, 1904; July 17, 1904-July 26, 1908,
OPA/HCM, boxes 2-3).

Gold rush activity, which began on the lower Yukon in the sum-
mer of 1897 and continued until about 1920, brought large numbers
of Euro-Americans into the country for the first time. The Yukon
was an important route to the Klondike diggings and, later, to dis-
coveries on the upper Innoko River. The presence of large numbers
of wood-burning riverboats on the Yukon and Innoko made it possi-
ble for the Indians to find employment as wood choppers supplying
fuel to these vessels. Although a large number of wood camps
sprang up along the river, most of them were not located near exist-
ing winter villages. Indians were attached to these camps during
the late winter and spring, but there is little indication that the
camps, or any other aspect of gold rush activity, had a sustained
affect on settlement patterns.

As in most areas of Alaska, services such as education and health
care were first offered to the Ingalik by missions and were the
means by which these organizations successfully established them-
selves. Government-sponsored medical services on the lower-middle
Yukon began about 1910 and public education in 1906. Following
the severe smallpox epidemic of 1838-1839, epidemics of various
introduced diseases, particularly influenza and measles, took an
almost yearly toll among the Ingalik and affected settlement pat-
terns, particularly on the Innoko River. As previously noted,
villagers at Anvik occasionally moved away and established at least
one settlement in an attempt to escape an epidemic. Although set-
tlements established for this purpose probably did not last long,
they were nonetheless important to the population history of the
Anvik-Shageluk area.

Public day schools remained in the shadow of the mission board-
ing schools for some years, but the steadily increasing importance
of the federal schools gave the government control over the lives of
the Indians to an increased extent. Families were strongly encour-
aged to keep their children in school from September through May
and these sanctions applied to everyone, whereas the influence of the
boarding schools was strong only among those who chose to enroll
their children. Families who failed to send their children to school or
withdrew them to go to trapping or fish camps risked the official
disapproval of a powerful force for change in the community. This
kind of pressure may have been effective in eliminating small settle-

84 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

ments and consolidating the population in the larger villages where
the schools were located. On the Innoko River, for example, a num-
ber of small settlements appear to have been abandoned between
1920 and 1940 and Old Shageluk and Holikachuk, both with schools,
soon became the only occupied villages.

Technological innovations also played a role in settlement distri-
bution. The introduction of the fish wheel, which was in general use
on the lower-middle Yukon by 1913 or 1914 (Chapman, 1913, p. 50),
changed summer settlement patterns to some extent as families
sought good locations for their wheels, locations that often were not
suitable for traps and nets. Another significant innovation which
greatly affected summer subsistence and residence was the gasoline-
powered outboard motor. These motors were in use by 1918 and
eliminated most of the arduous effort previously associated with
river transportation. According to informants, some Innoko River
residents maintained fish camps on the Yukon at considerable dis-
tances from Old Shageluk after the introduction of the outboard
motor, but the location of fish camps of the Yukon River Ingalik do
not seem to have been affected to the same degree.

Settlement Pattern Continuity and Change

It is apparent that the major Ingalik settlements on the Yukon
and Innoko rivers continued to be important into the modern period.
The settlement of Holikachuk, inhabited by members of that Atha-
paskan group, also retained its importance almost up to the present
time. This stability seems less significant, however, when it is re-
called that during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there
may have been, at one time or another, as many as 26 settlements
with permanent bases in the Anvik-Shageluk area. Since there are
only four at the present time, there has obviously been a consider-
able coalescence of population. Some of the reasons for this have
already been considered and others will be examined in this section.

The greatest amount of coalescence has taken place on the lower
Innoko River where nine and possibly 12 settlements may have
been winter villages, but only one remains. The significance of the
school at Old Shageluk in this respect has been suggested. Of equal
importance, perhaps, has been the marginal position of the Innoko
since the decline of gold mining on the upper river about 1920.
Although informants' statements and the historical record are not
as detailed as might be desired, it would appear that most of the
sites on the lower Innoko were abandoned by 1930 or shortly there-
after, a time that coincides with the decline of mining and the

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 85

serious influenza epidemic of 1918-1919. Some of the inhabitants of
these settlements moved to Old Shageluk and others to Yukon
River villages. Although Old Shageluk and its newer counterpart
have continued to maintain a sizeable population, the inhabitants of
Holikachuk moved to the Yukon when the inaccessibility of the old
settlement appeared a hindrance to the desire of its inhabitants to
benefit from improved communication facilities in west-central
Alaska. The gold rush itself may not have changed Innoko settle-
ment patterns, but the river was certainly a more isolated and thus
less favorable place to live once regular river traffic had disappeared
for good.

At the mouth of the Anvik River, the settlement pattern has re-
mained relatively consistent throughout the period covered by this
study, largely because of the importance of Anvik village and its
strategic location as a "gateway" to the Anvik-Shageluk region.
Other settlements have existed in the immediate area but none have
lasted for any length of time and their inhabitants have invariably
returned to the main settlement. Throughout the historic period the
Anvik River has served primarily as the location of fish camps and
the prohibition of subsistence fishing on the river which went into
effect about 1930 has effectively prevented seasonal residence along
the river since that time.

Another area where fish camps predominated was along the
Yukon from Anvik to the confluence with Shageluk Slough. Here
were located camps occupied by Ingalik and Holikachuk Indians,
but with the possible exception of HC-43, there were no winter vil-
lages along this stretch of river. Of the various regions into which
the area covered by this study has been divided, this one has main-
tained the most stable settlement pattern throughout the historic
period.

Along the Yukon below Anvik a definite coalescence of population
has been documented and since the 1930's there have been no settle-
ments other than fish camps along this stretch of river except the
mission and village at Holy Cross. Both Bonasila and Koserefsky
would appear to have succumbed to the continually increasing im-
portance of the mission centers at Anvik and Holy Cross as did the
settlement of Shageluk Point (HC-55) inside the mouth of the In-
noko. As the twentieth century progressed, these missions increas-
ingly controlled communication with the outside world. Once river
traffic had declined, the attraction of these centers was strong
indeed.

86 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

Settlement Pattern Determinants - A Comparison

Between 1964 and 1969 I carried out studies of nineteenth and
early twentieth century settlement patterns along the Nushagak
River, its tributaries, and adjacent areas of Nushagak Bay in
southwestern Alaska (VanStone, 1971). The inhabitants of this bay
and river system, the Aglegmiut and Kiatagmiut Eskimos, were in-
fluenced by the fur trade, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the
Moravian Church which established a mission station near the
trading center of Nushagak in 1886. The influence of the latter,
however, was never great and the mission was abandoned in 1906
(VanStone, 1967, pp. 45-46). Of greater significance than either
Christianity or the fur trade for the acculturation of the Eskimos of
the Nushagak River region was the commercial salmon fishing in-
dustry that began to develop in Bristol Bay during the 1880 's
(VanStone, 1967, pp. 63-82). In the Nushagak region, as in the area
occupied by the Ingalik and Holikachuk Athapaskans, historical
events were more important than environmental factors in deter-
mining the distribution of settlements between 1800 and the pres-
ent. Although involvement in the fur trade greatly affected the
subsistence patterns in both areas, it is questionable whether it
brought about any greater change in Nushagak area settlement pat-
terns than it did on the Yukon. In both areas the major river villages
were sedentary seasonal settlements and there is no reason to think
that the shift to a trapping-trading economy changed this. The
riverine orientation of the Ingalik continued to focus their attention
on the Yukon and Innoko even though the Indians were dispersed
during the trapping season. As in the Nushagak area, involvement
by the Indians of the lower-middle Yukon in the fur trade may have
reduced the amount of time which the people spent in their river
villages, but not enough to bring about major shifts in the settle-
ment pattern.

In the Nushagak River region a proliferation of small settlements
occurred between 1880 and 1940 resulting in a more even spread of
population throughout the region. Although this trend toward pro-
liferation could not be interpreted with assurance, it appeared to be
tied in with the growing commercial fishing industry and a signifi-
cant movement of people into the Nushagak region from other parts
of southwestern Alaska. Also during this period the river villages
became more sedentary and less seasonal in their occupation as the
Eskimos became more involved in fishing and less dependent on
hunting and earnings from trapping.

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 87

On the lower-middle Yukon there was no indigenous commercial
development comparable to the commercial fishing industry in
Bristol Bay. The effects of the gold rush, although impressive for a
while, were transient since there was little actual mining in the
vicinity of Ingalik villages. Although a certain coalescence of
population may have taken place as a result of the gold rush, there
is no evidence that any major winter village was abandoned for
reasons related to mining activity with the possible exception of set-
tlements on the upper Innoko which were close to the actual mining
area.

On the Nushagak and its tributaries after 1900, epidemics, par-
ticularly the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, sharply reduced the
population and was responsible for the abandonment of some set-
tlements. This was true on the lower-middle Yukon as well, par-
ticularly, as previously noted, along the lower Innoko River.
Although Russian Orthodox chapels had been built in some
Nushagak area communities before the turn of the century,
churches did not influence settlement patterns until the 1920's. The
effects of the establishment of schools and government agencies
were not significant until even later. Among the Ingalik, however,
the t effects of these agents of change can be documented much
earlier and were, in fact, the major determinants of settlement
patterns.

A basic continuity of settlement distribution existed throughout
the historic period in both areas in spite of changes brought about
by the various agents of change that have been mentioned. On the
Innoko this continuity is represented by the settlements of Old
Shageluk (HC-8) and later New Shageluk and Holikachuk (HC-9).
On the Yukon it includes Grayling (HC-35), really an extension of
Holikachuk, Anvik (HC-14), and Holy Cross (HC-54).

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VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 89

1947. Christ Church Mission has busy year. Alaskan Churchman, 42, no. 2,
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Chang, K-C.
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686-689, 755-759.
1911a. Christ Church Mission. Alaskan Churchman, 5, no. 3, pp. 10-13.
1911b. Letter from Anvik. Spirit of Missions, 76, pp. 1,025-1,026.
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1900. In Anvik, Alaska. Publication no. 24, Church Missions Publishing Co.,
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INDEX

Aglegmiut Eskimos, 86

Alaska Shortline Railway, 67

Aleksi's Barbora. See Johnny Paul's
Camp (HC-49)

Aniluchtakpakh. See Anilukhtakpak
(HC-52)

Anilukhtakpak (HC-52), 72, 73, 74, 75,
78, 80, 81: abandonment of, 62;
described by Glazunov, 61; describ-
ed by Zagoskin, 61-62; importance
as trading center, 69; location of,
61-62; population of, 61-62

Anvik: meaning of name, 31

Anvik Old Station, 37, 38

Anvik Point. See Anvik Village
(HC-14)

Anvik Rapids. See Hall's Rapids
(HC-43)

Anvik River, 3, 4, 9, 32, 36, 37, 39, 53,
72, 74, 75, 79, 80, 81, 85; caribou
hunting on, 44; coalescence of set-
tlements on, 85; geography of, 31;
location of settlements on, 80;
population of, 44; settlements on,
41-42, 72; trade route to the coast,
43; travel on, 43-44; winter camps
on, 42-43

Anvik-Shageluk area: coalescence of
settlements in, 84; continuity of set-
tlement patterns in, 87; earliest
population estimates of, 77; location
of settlements in, 79, 80; population
of, 79

Anvik Slough, 39

Anvik Village (HC-14), 9, 31, 40, 42, 43,
45, 48, 53, 54, 55, 58, 59, 60, 71, 72,
74-78 {passim), 80-83 {passim), 85,
87; deLaguna's description of, 36;

description of, 32, 36-37; Episcopal
mission at, 36; growth of, 37; popula-
tion of, 37, 38, 39

Beardsley, R. etal.: settlement classifi-
cation of, 70-71

Beaver Creek, 43

Big under the tree (HC-24), 42, 72

Bonasila River, 42, 54

Branches to put in one place. See
Lushka's Fish Camp (HC-2)

Bristol Bay, 86, 87

Bureau of Indian Affairs: builds school
at New Shageluk, 19, 21

Camp robber takes somebody's fish

(HC-26), 43, 72
Cement Hill, 55, 56, 58
Ceremonies: among Ingalik Indians,

75; decline of, 76; effect of missions

on, 75, 76
Chagelyuk River. See Innoko River
Chageluk Slough. See Innoko River
Chang, K-C: settlement typology of,

70-71
Chapman, Rev. John W., 10, 16, 18, 22,

36; influence of on Ingalik houses,

76-77; population estimates of, 26,

28, 30, 38, 50, 57-58, 79
Charlie Wulf's Point (HC-28), 48
Chase, William (trader), 40
Cold Creek, 55, 56
Cook Inlet, 67
Cristo, John (trader), 22
Crystal rocks (HC-25), 43, 72

Deadman's Slough, 3, 54
Deer Hunting Slough, 59

94

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS

95

deLaguna, F.: describes Anvik Village,
36; describes Grayling, 50; describes
Hall's Rapids, 52; describes Old
Anvik, 39

Dementi (Oph-1), 29, 71; derivation of
name, 28; description of, 27-28;
population of, 28; visited by
Kolmakov, 27

Dementov, N., 28

Deminti. See Dementi (Oph-1)

Dikeman, 29

Dishkakat, 29, 31

Dishna River, 29

Doctor, Nikolai, 41, 82

Eagle Island, 51

Ekarotsor. See Inselnostlende (HC-6)

Environment: as determinant of set-
tlement patterns, 81

Epidemics: effects of on settlement
patterns, 83; influence of in
Nushagak River area, 87. See also in-
fluenza epidemic of 1918-1919;
smallpox epidemic of 1838-1839

Episcopal mission: established among
the Ingalik, 7; influence on Ingalik, 7

Eskimos: trade with Ingalik Indians,
4, 43

First Fish Camp (HC-19), 41, 72
Fish wheel: effect of on settlement

patterns, 84
Flat, 68
Forks, the. See Nikadoddelenten

(HC-13)
Four Mile (HC-27), 9, 14, 45-46, 48
Fox Point Island, 45, 72
Fur trade: patterns of, 6

Ghost Creek (HC-51), 62, 63, 64, 72;

description of, 60-61; excavations at,

60
Glazunov, A.: describes Anilukhtak-

pak, 61; explorations of, 6, 43, 44;

population estimates of, 37, 57, 61,

77
Gold rush: effects of on settlement

patterns, 8, 83; influence of on In-
galik, 8

Gost Creek. See Ghost Creek

(HC-51)
Government services: effects of on set-
tlement patterns, 83, 84
Grayling (HC-35), 9, 23. 25, 27, 29, 53,
72, 75, 87; described by deLaguna,
50; described by Hrdlic"ka, 50;
description of, 49-50; population of,
50-51
Grayling Creek, 23, 48, 49, 50, 53, 79
Grayling Island. See Eagle Island
Gudrinethchax. See Anvik Village
(HC-14)

Hall's Rapids (HC-43), 72, 85; describ-
ed by deLaguna, 52; description of,
51-52

Hawk Bluff, 31, 40

HC-10, 10, 11, 24, 30, 74

HC-11, 25, 30, 74

HC-21, 42, 72

HC-30, 48

HC-32, 49

HC-36-41, 51

HC-42, 51

HC-44-45, 54, 72

HC-46, 54-55, 72

Hoeingitetakhten. See Khuingitetakh-
ten (HC-3)

Holikachuk Indians, 9; area occupied
by, 4; changes in settlement pat-
terns of, 73; fish camps of, 51, 52, 63;
move to Yukon River, 4; relations
with Ingalik, 4; seasonal cycle of, 73;
trading and, 27

Holikachuk Slough, 3, 9, 12, 14, 25, 26,
30

Holikachuk Village (HC-9), 9, 14, 21,
25, 26, 27, 30, 53, 71, 74, 76, 82, 84,
85, 87; description of, 22-23; location
of, 30; population of, 23-24; residents
move to Yukon, 23, 27

Hologachaket. See Holikachuk Village
(HC-9)

Horse camp, the. See Railroad City
(HC-56)

Holy Cross (HC-54), 4, 9, 12, 24, 25, 36,
53, 59, 60, 62, 63. 67, 69, 72, 80, 82,
85, 87; changes in river channel near,

96

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

66; community pattern of, 66;
decline of, 66-67; description of, 64,
66; Innoko gold rush and, 66;
population of, 66; Roman Catholic
mission established at, 66; Roman
Catholic mission at closes, 66
Hrdlic'ka, A.: describes Grayling, 50

Iditarod River, 3, 37; discovery of gold
on, 28-29; inhabitants of, 28-29;
navigation of, 29

Iditarod (town), 28, 29

Ikogmiut, 21, 53, 57, 81; destruction
of, 27; establishment of, 6; establish-
ment of mission at, 7

Iltenleyden (HC-7), 21, 71, 74; describ-
ed by Zagoskin, 18; description of,
17-18

Iliamna Bay, 67

Influenza epidemic of 1918-1919: im-
portance of, 26. See also epidemics,
smallpox epidemic of 1838-1839

Ingalik Indians: area occupied by, 3, 4;
ceremonies of, 75, 76; changing com-
munity patterns of, 77; changing
settlement patterns of, 73; decline of
kashim among, 76; effects of mis-
sions on community patterns of, 77;
effects of missions on houses of, 76,
77; effects of smallpox epidemic of
1838-1839 on, 78; household size of,
74; houses of, 73, 76, 77; hunting by,
44; importance of fur trade to, 6, 7;
influence of gold rush on, 8; influence
of missions on, 7; kashims of, 73, 74;
neighbors of, 4; population of, 78-79;
role of fur trade in community pat-
terns of, 77; settlement types of, 71;
subsistence cycle of, 4, 6, 44, 73;
trade with Eskimos, 4, 43; wage
labor and community patterns of,
77; winter villages of, 73

Innoko City, 30

Innoko Lowlands, 3, 45

Innoko (post office), 29

Innoko River, 3, 4, 8, 9, 12, 16, 23, 25,
30, 53, 61, 63, 64, 67, 68, 69, 75, 79,
81, 83, 84, 86, 87; coalescence of set-
tlement on, 84-85; location of set-

tlements on, 80; named by Zagoskin,

14; settlement types along, 71. See

also Upper Innoko River
Innoko Valley: description of, 12, 14
Inreal'ra-meut. See Holy Cross

(HC-54)
Inselnostlende (HC-6), 17, 71, 75
Ittege River. See Innoko River

Jackson Creek, 42

Jette, Father Jules, 15, 17, 25, 28, 29,

31, 32, 52, 55, 59, 64, 66
Joe Hamilton's Fish Camp (HC-29), 48
John Deacon's Fish Camp (HC-34), 49
Johnny Paul's Camp (HC-49), 59

Kaiyuh Mountains, 12

Kaltag, 29

Kashim: antiquity of in Anvik-
Shageluk area, 75; decline in role of,
76; description of, 21, 61; function of
among Ingalik, 74; number in Anvik-
Shageluk area, 74, 75; resemble
those of southwestern Alaska, 75

Kedzokakat. See Anvik Village
(HC-14)

Kedzono. See Anvik River

Khuingitetakhten (HC-3), 15, 16, 71,
74, 75

Khuligichagat. See Holikachuk Village
(HC-9)

Kiatagmiut Eskimos, 86

Kkholikakat. See Dishkakat

Klan-ti-linten. See Hall's Rapids
(HC-43)

Klikitarik, 53

Kolmakov, Petr F.: explorations of, 27,
29

Kolmakovskiy Redoubt, 28

Korotsenaledalten. See Dishkakat

Koserefski River, 59

Koserefsky (HC-53), 59, 60, 62, 68, 69,
72, 75, 85; abandonment of, 64;
description of, 63; location of, 63-64

Kuskokwim Mountains, 12

Kuskokwim River, 12, 27, 28, 69, 81

Kwikpagmiut Eskimos, 4

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS

97

Leather Village. See Koserefsky
(HC-53)

Lower Innoko River: population of,
26-27. See also Innoko River

Lower Village (HC-18), 40-41, 71

Lower Yukon River: settlement pat-
terns along, 69. See also Yukon
River

Lucius Young's Fish Camp (HC-31),
48-49

Lushkas Fish Camp (HC-2), 15, 71

Long Mountain, 58, 59

Magimiut. See Old Bonasila (HC-47)

Makagamute. See Old Bonasila
(HC-47)

Malemiut Eskimos: trade with Ingalik
Indians, 27

Melozitna River, 12

Mikhailovskiy Redoubt, 6, 53, 81. See
also St. Michael

Missions: effect of on Ingalik com-
munity patterns, 77; effect of on In-
galik houses, 76; effect of on Ingalik
settlement patterns, 82; influence in
Nushagak River area, 86

Murderer's Village. See Old Bonasila
(HC-47)

Nulato, 6, 15, 27, 53, 63

Nushagak River area: determinants of
settlement patterns in, 86-87; in-
fluence of epidemic in, 87; influence
of missions in, 86; proliferation of
settlements in, 86; settlement pat-
terns compared with Anvik-
Shageluk area, 86-87

Old Anvik (HC-15), 45, 71, 74; describ-
ed by deLaguna. 39; description of,
39

Old Bonasila (HC-47), 21, 58, 61, 63,
69, 72, 74, 75, 78, 80, 85; description
of, 55-56; abandonment of, 57; ex-
cavations at, 56-57; population of,
56-58

Old Grayling. See Grayling (HC-35)

Old Shageluk (HC-8). 16, 17, 22, 23, 32,
52, 53, 67, 71, 74, 76, 80, 82, 84, 85,
87; abandonment of, 19; description
of, 18-19, 21-22; location of kashim
at, 21; population of, 21, 22

Old Swiftwater. See Khuingitetakhten
(HC-3)

Otter Creek, 3, 43

Outboard motors: effect on settlement
patterns of, 84

Nelson, E. W.: population estimates of,

30
Nenana, 24
Netsene'anten. See Old Bonasila

(HC-47)
New Bonasila (HC-48), 72, 75, 80, 82,

85; abandonment of, 58-59;

establishment of, 57; description of,

58
New Shageluk, 9, 14, 17, 19, 25, 27, 28,

29, 80, 87
New Swiftwater (HC-5), 16, 71
Nick Dementief's Fish Camp (HC-50),

59
Nikadodellenten (HC-13), 25, 71
Niltchadodelenten. See Nikadodellen-
ten (HC-13)
Nilteelihten. See Nikadodellenten

(HC-13)
Norton Sound, 31, 45, 53, 81

Paradise, 59

Peter Hamilton's Fish Camp (HC-17),

40, 72
Pickett's Wood. See Grayling (HC-35)
Place where something is left. See

First Fish Camp (HC-19)
Post, the (HC-16), 40, 72

Quologutchiaku. See Khuingitetakh-
ten

Radiloten. See Dementi (Oph-1)
Railroad City (HC-56), 63, 69, 72; aban-
donment of, 68-69; as transfer point
for freight, 68; description of, 67-68;
Indian inhabitants of, 68; renamed,
68
Red Mountain (HC-23), 42, 72, 74, 80
Red-stone. See Red Mountain (HC-23)
Red Wing. See Railroad City (HC-56)

98

FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 72

Red Wing Slough, 67

Refuge Creek, 52

Richardson, Alec (trader), 67

Roman Catholic mission: established
at Holy Cross, 7, 66; influence on In-
galik, 7; withdraws from Holy Cross,
66

St. Joe Hill, 15

St. Michael, 43, 63. See also Mikhailov-
skiy Redoubt

Schoolhouse Village. See Old Shageluk
(HC-8)

Schools: effect on settlement patterns
of, 83-84

Shageluk Lake, 19

Shageluk Point (HC-55), 63, 67, 68, 72,
85

Shageluk Slough, 3, 9, 12, 14, 23, 25,
26, 53, 79, 85

Shamanism: effect on settlement pat-
terns of, 82-83

Shiltonotno. See Innoko River

Siberia-Alaska trade: effects on settle-
ment patterns of, 81, 82; Russian-
American Co. and, 6

Simon Creek, 53

Sleep on the other side (HC-1), 15, 71

Smallpox epidemic of 1838-1839, 62,
83; destruction of Ikogmiut and, 27;
effects on population of Anvik
Village, 38; effects on population of
Ingalik, 78; severity of, 4. See also
epidemics, influenza epidemic of
1918-1919

Spruce branches shaking in the cur-
rent. See Big under the tree (HC-24),
Willow grass in slough (HC-22)

Spruce tree slough (HC-4), 16, 71

Sulatna River, 29

Swift River, 43

Tamarack tree (HC-20), 41, 72
Tanedilenten. See Hall's Rapids

(HC-43)
Theodore Creek, 43
Thompson Slough. See Holikachuk

Slough
Tihkakat, 29

Tihloyikeyit. See Holy Cross (HC-54)

Tlegon River. See Innoko River

Tlegon (settlement), 29

Tlegozhitno. See Old Shageluk (HC-8)

Tozhgelede (HC-12), 25, 71

Trade: as determinant of community
patterns, 77; as determinant of set-
tlement patterns, 81, 82

Tseyozaron, 59

Ttality. See Dementi (Oph-1)

Turtle Island, 54

Two sloughs. See Nikadoddellenten
(HC-13)

Ukt-1, 52-53

Ukt-2, 53

Unalakleet, 43, 81

Unaligmiut Eskimos, 4

Under the rocks (site), 43

Upper Innoko River: inhabitants of,

27, 28, 29-30. See also Innoko River,

lower Innoko River
Upper Village. See Holy Cross (HC-54)

Vazhichagat (Ukt-3), 53, 72, 74, 75, 81
Victor's Point, 59
Victor Vent's Camp (HC-33), 49
Village at the end. See Tamarack tree
(HC-20)

Wage labor: as determinant of com-
munity patterns, 77

Walker, James (trader), 60, 61

Walker Slough, 59

Western Fur and Trading Co.: collapse
of, 6

Willow grass in slough (HC-22), 42, 72

Yalchikatna. See Iditarod River

Yakutzkelignik. See Vazhichagat
(Ukt-3)

Yellow River, 43, 80

Yukon River: coalescence of set-
tlements on, 85; location of fish
camps along, 48, 51, 52, 53, 54; loca-
tion of settlements on, 80;
physiographic characteristics of, 45,
54; Russian fur trade on, 6; set-

VANSTONE: INGALIK SETTLEMENTS 99

tlements along, 53; settlement types
along, 71-72. See also lower Yukon
River

Zagoskin, Lieut. L. A.: describes
Anilukhtakpak, 61-62; describes II-
tenleyden, 18; names Innoko River,
14; population estimates of, 15, 18,
21, 23, 26, 27-28, 37-38, 57, 74, 77-78;
villages visited by, 73-74

Publication 1296

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