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

PrefaceThe present study is the result of my interest in the culture historyof the Nushagak River region in southwestern Alaska and myattempts to gather information about the population of the river systemfrom the time of earliest historic contact until the present (Fig. 1) .The area has been occupied in historic times by a coastal Eskimopopulation combining fishing with sea mammal hunting and by interiorEskimos who emphasize fishing and land hunting but makefrequent trips to the coast, particularly during the summer months.During the contact period, however, the cultural distinction betweenthe two groups has gradually been obliterated by the depradations ofepidemics and by migrations into the area, mostly from the AlaskaPeninsula to the south and the Kuskokwim River to the north.The Nushagak River region is a particularly suitable area for thestudy of nineteenth century culture change. The region was penetratedby the Russians early in that century, and the mouth of theriver was the site of the first Russian trading post north of the AlaskaPeninsula, constructed in 1818. A mission of the Russian OrthodoxChurch was established at the post in 1842 and the Moravian Churchentered the mission field in the area in 1886. The fur trade was welldeveloped throughout the period of contact and miners, the commercialfishing industry in Bristol Bay, the reindeer herding program,health and education services have all at various times been instrumentalin bringing about change in the culture of the population ofthe region. Of particular importance in this regard has been thecommercial salmon fishing industry which began in the 1880's andhas, since that time, been the major economic factor influencing thelives of the Eskimos of the Nushagak River and Nushagak Bay.As might be expected, all these agents of contact have provided arich store of published and archival information on the Eskimos ofthe region, information that covers most of the nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries. In 1963 I began a detailed study of these publishedand unpublished source materials and prepared an annotatedethnohistorical bibliography on the region (VanStone, 1968) for myown use and the use of others who might become interested in thearea.In addition to their value for the study of early phases of con-217