Tikchik village: a nineteenth century riverine community in ... - Cluster

VANSTONE: TIKCHIK VILLAGE 309Crow Village was explained by informants as being due to the factthat animal bones were thrown into the river to prevent the dogs fromchewing them, thus offending the spirit of the animal involved andmaking the species difficult to take in the future (Oswalt and Van-Stone, 1967, p. 70).Caribou bones occur with greater frequency than those of anyother animal and this is not surprising since, according to informants,the animal was plentiful in the area and hunted extensively byNushagak River residents as well as those of Tikchik. Moose bones,although considerably less plentiful than those of caribou, neverthelessoccur and are widely distributed throughout the site. Informantsreported that moose were rare throughout the Nushagak Riverregion until 25 or 30 years ago. With reference to the presence ofmoose bones in the Crow Village site, another area where the animalis supposed to have been absent or scarce during the early contactperiod, it was suggested that they must represent animals hunted,perhaps by fur trappers, at a considerable distance upstream fromthe settlement (Oswalt and VanStone, 1967, p. 72) Since the people.Although it is probablytrue that the animal bones recovered from the site give an attenuatedof Tikchik also hunted and trapped at some distance from their village,a similar explanation may be in order.picture of the species taken, there can be no doubt that the caribouwas the most important animal available for food and that muchtime and effort was directed toward taking this animal.The bone list offers an equal distortion with regard to the takingof fur-bearing animals. Only beaver bones were recovered and thesein no great numbers. From the 1830's until near the end of the century,beaver, muskrat, land otter, lynx, and various types of fox werethe most important fur-bearing animals in the Nushagak River region(Russian -American Company Records: Communications Sent,vol. 9, no. 321, folios 482-487; Elliott, 1875, p. 40). It was only byexchanging pelts for trade goods that the Eskimos could obtain thoseexotic items which they desired and which are represented in thecollection. The Tikchik people unquestionably were participants inthe fur trade and yet there is little evidence of the species that weretaken. And the collection contains no artifacts associated with trappingif one excepts the single metal trap which, as pointed out elsewhere,is probably not contemporaneous with the occupation of thesite, Zagoskin (1967, p. 221) mentions that although metal trapswere introduced for the trapping of beaver along the KuskokwimRiver, traditional trapping methods continued to be preferred.What