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

338 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 56Fall and winterTrapping in the Tikchik area appears to have begun in the earlyfall and continued more or less continuously throughout the winter.Marten were very plentiful in the vicinity of the village and deadfallswere set for them. Tikchik men trapped farther up the TikchikRiver. They had a few steel traps but most of the fox and beaverwere taken with snares and deadfalls. Caribou were hunted alongthe Nuyakuk River and to the north in the area between the TikchikLakes and the upper Nushagak River.This was relatively high,open country and caribou were usually plentiful within a day's journeyof the settlement. Moose, on the other hand, were comparativelyscarce, although Ivan Ishnook noted that the residents ofTikchik saw these animals more frequently than did those peoplewho lived along the Nushagak.When ice began to form on the river about the end of October orearly in November, traps for whitefish were placed under it and graylingwere taken with hooks through holes. Later on in mid-winterwhen the ice on Tikchik Lake was solid, fishing through the ice fortrout became a relatively important activity. A small bone fishinglure was used to attract the large fish close to the hole where it wouldbe harpooned with a harpoon dart.Spruce hens are plentiful in theforested area around the site today and doubtless these birds supplementeda diet of fish and meat in winter. Further inland at the footof Tikchik Mountain, ptarmigan were plentiful and were taken withsnares.The major winter activities in the villages of the Nushagak Riverwere dances and dance festivals that began in late December or earlyJanuary and lasted until February. Unfortunately, the winter ceremoniesof this area were never described in detail by contemporaryobservers. Some of them appear to have been purely secular, whileothers doubtless had supernatural implications and seem to have centeredaround the propitiation of the dead and possibly the magicalrevival of game animals. The center of these winter festivities wasthe kashgee and frequently residents of other settlements would beinvited and the singing and dancing in the kashgee would continuefor many days (Porter, 1893, pp. 93-94). It was doubtless throughthis cycle of festivals and ceremonies that the people of Tikchikmaintained social contacts and friendly relations with the inhabitantsof other settlements in the upper Nushagak region and also gaveexpression to their religious beliefs.