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Before Fairbanks was Founded
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The first people to inhabit this great land are now known as Athabascan
Indians. Their mythology contains many stories about man's creation and
evolution on this continent. Throughout history, the Athabascans' respect
for the animals has run through the fiber of their lives. Athabascans
paid homage to the animal spirits to prevent them from leaving the land.
Some animals were considered the masters and creators of the universe and
were the subject of many legends.
Early day Athabascans led a nomadic lifestyle. They traveled in small
family groups of clans, following the seasons in search of food. In the
late fall and early winter they hunted the migrating caribou. The caribou
were most important for their flesh and hides, which provided food,
clothing and shelter.
Winter days and nights were spent surviving the cold and darkness. During
this time of confinement, the history of the people was passed from
generation to generation through stories and legends. In early spring,
the people traveled to spring camps and the winter's supply of food was
depleted. They hunted ducks, geese, muskrats and beaver on the lakes. The
fresh food was a welcome change of diet. After long winters of separation
and hardships, the tribes gathered to celebrate and discuss mutual
concerns. Summers were busy in the fish camps along the rivers. Once the
salmon runs began, fish were caught, smoked and stored for winter. The
rivers were the lifeblood of the Athabascans, providing food and
transportation. Each fall the tribes gathered berries and hunted
waterfowl. After the snow had fallen, the men hunted hibernating bears.
As it was with the first Athabascans, the cycle was complete and began
again. Such were the old ways and such are the new. From season to
season, life is a never-ending cycle. The integrity of life is in this
understanding. To an Athabascan, the only things that change are the ways
of survival.
From the "Athabascan Circle" - Commissioned by Tanana Chiefs
Conference.
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Athabascan Circle
Commisioned by the
Tanana Chiefs
Conference.
Tanana Chiefs Conference
1915
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The Exploration of the Tanana Valley
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E.T. Barnette and Captain C.W. Adams, Felix Pedro
and Thomas Gilmore, and the other merchants and miners who followed them
to the riverbank town that grew up around Barnette's Cache, as it was
known for a time, are easily among the more prominent of the first white
men to explore and settle along the Chena River. But they were by no
means the first men in the Tanana Valley. Archaeologists believe the
forefathers of Interior Alaska's Athabascan people migrated from Asia
across the Bering Land Bridge as long ago as 9,000 to 14,000 years.
Theirs was the second of three migrations that may have come from
Beringia. An earlier migration, before a period of intense cold and
glaciation blocked the route across Alaska, brought the forefathers of
many of the American Indian tribes. A later migration brought the people
who became Alaska's coastal tribes of Aleuts and Eskimos.
The early Athabascans who settled in the Interior would have lived off
the mammals that had also migrated from Beringia. The herds of giant
mammoths, the horses, bison, tiaga antelope, and caribou were less
numerous than they had been centuries earlier, their numbers cut back by
the years of severe cold and increasing glaciation.
These early Athabascans would have had to be a highly mobile people,
following the animals upon which they depended. Archaeologists know that
their material goods were portable - probably, they lived in tents much
of the year, perhaps settling into more substantial shelters during the
winter. As the hunting and fishing varied from year to year, and as small
groups split up and established new territories, gradually these people
spread south. Archaeologists believe this migration of Athabascan
forbears spread into central Canada and northern British Columbia. Later,
they also moved farther south, to the Pacific Northwest, Great Plains,
and American Southwest. By the time E.T. Barnette cached his goods along
the Chena River, the Athabascan people had a history there thousands of
years old.
Had the Athabascan people camped and fished on the site that was to
become Barnette's Landing? Archaeologists would not be surprised were the
answer to be yes. Fishing camps may have dotted the Chena, temporary
stopovers for the wide-ranging tribes. A more permanent settlement on the
University of Alaska campus - on a bluff overlooking the Tanana Valley -
has been found and studied.
The harsh climate of Interior Alaska has not made the job of modern
archaeology easy. Northern archaeologists say they have uncovered a tiny
fraction of the amount of material used by a single band during one
generation. And any one individual may have used dozens of camps,
activity spots and trails during a single year - it could be hundreds
during a lifetime.
The coming of the white traders, explorers and miners to the banks of the
Chena was to mean a change for the Athabascan people. At a conference in
Fairbanks in 1915, the Tanana Chiefs elected not to go on reservations.
Judge James Wickersham had suggested they might set up a few
reservations, but the Athabascan elders looked to their centuries of
roaming over the vast Interior, hunting and gathering with the seasons,
and decided their people could not live on plots of a few acres.
The story of Alaska's Native peoples' adaptation to the encroachment of
white man could consume a whole volume. Suffice it to say here that it
wasn't until 1924 that they were recognized as full-fledged citizens of
the territory of Alaska. And in 1971, Congress recognized their claims to
the land they had used for thousands of years with the passage of the
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
Thus, the story of this spot on the river is rich with life. Stretching
back eons. But only the general outline is known before Barnette's time.
From his time forward we know many specifics.
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E.T. Barnette
Felix Pedro
Judge James Wickersham
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