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

VANSTONE: TIKCHIK VILLAGE 325River at least once a year where they had ample opportunity to acquirewhatever trade goods were available. As far as can be determined,however, the Russians did not establish any out stations orsubsidiary posts in the Nushagak River region with the exception ofan odinochka near the mouth of the King Salmon River on the upperNushagak which was a trans-shipment point between Kolmakovskiand Alexandrovski and not a post in itself. Thus the Tikchik Eskimoswere never actually close to the source of trade goods and thereforemay have lagged behind the residents of some Nushagak Rivervillages in their willingness to try out and eventually accept newideas and new items of material culture.In an earlier analysis of the imported manufactured goods fromTikchik an attempt was made to date the various trade items or atleast to suggest their chronological significance to the collection as awhole. This proved to be extremely difficult and it is not possible togo beyond the general statement that the trade materials, taken asa whole, appear to belong to the latter part of the nineteenth century.Since Tikchik was presumably occupied during a considerable partof the Russian period, it was expected that materials clearly recognizableas belonging to this period would occur in the collection.Unfortunately, no clear dichotomy emerged, either stratigraphicallyor in terms of the artifacts recovered. Therefore, it is necessary tomake some attempt to determine, if possible, which trade goods areof Russian origin and which were obtained from American traders.In order to make a reasonable attempt at answering this question,it is necessary to turn to whatever historical sources are availablethat might give some insight into specific types of trade goods whichthe Russians introduced to the Nushagak River region and surroundingareas. In 1841 the manager of the Russian-American Companyoffice at Kodiak visited Alexandrovski Redoubt to settle a disputeabout the prices paid for furs and his orders from the general managercontain a few references to specific trade goods. He was instructednot to raise the prices paid in tobacco, beads, cloth and otherso-called luxury items used by the Eskimos. On the other hand, ifthe payments were to be made in blankets, heavy cloth, canvas tentcloth and other materials which could be used for garments, then the(Russian -American Company Records: Com-price could be raisedmunications Sent, vol. 20, no. 43, folios 51-56).It is apparent that although guns and metal traps were introducedby the Russians soon after they expanded their activities intosouthwestern Alaska, these items were never readily available in