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FIELDIANA Anthropology Published by Field Museum of Natural History VOLUME 61 HISTORIC SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION, ALASKA JAMES W. VANSTONE Curator, North American Archaeology and Ethnology FEBRUARY 25, 1971 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY A Continuation of the ANTHROPOLOGICAL SERIES of FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY VOLUME 61 V ~V of **, N /.S NATURAL Y*\ !"> HISTORY >\ FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY CHICAGO, U.S.A. HISTORIC SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION, ALASKA FIELDIANA Anthropology Published by Field Museum of Natural History VOLUME 61 HISTORIC SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION, ALASKA JAMES W. VANSTONE Curator, North American Archaeology and Ethnology FEBRUARY 25, 1971 PUBLICATION 1120 PATRICIA M. WILLIAMS Managing Editor, Scientific Publications Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-H.8857 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS Contents PAGE List of Illustrations 5 Acknowledgements 7 Preface 9 Introduction Settlement pattern studies 13 The Nushagak River and its inhabitants 16 Methodology 22 I. Village Sites on the Nuyakuk and Upper Nushagak Rivers Introduction 27 Site descriptions 29 II. Village Sites on the Middle and Lower Nushagak River Introduction 46 Site descriptions 48 III. Settlements on the Lower Mulchatna River Introduction 66 Site descriptions 69 IV. Village Sites on Nushagak Bay Introduction 72 Site descriptions 74 V. Settlements along the Wood River Introduction 103 Site descriptions 103 VI. Settlements on the Wood River Lakes and Tikchik Lakes Introduction Ill Site descriptions 112 VII. Analysis and Conclusions Settlement typology 120 Prehistory in the Nushagak River region 122 Distribution of settlements 126 Houses and community patterns 129 Changing settlement patterns 133 Settlement pattern determinants—a summary 143 References 146 List of Illustrations TEXT FIGURES PAGE 1. Map of Alaska 10 2. Map of the Nushagak River region 12 3. Map of the Nuyakuk, lower Mulchatna, and upper Nushagak rivers. 28 4. Dil-4 Old Koliganek 31 5. Sketch map of Dil-4 Old Koliganek. Not to scale 32 6. Dil-6 Akokpak 34 7. Sketch map of Dil-6 Akokpak. Not to scale 35 8. Dil-7 Nunachuak 37 9. Sketch map of Dil-7 Nunachuak. Not to scale 37 10. Church at Nunachuak 38 11. Sketch map of Dil-8 Elilakok. Not to scale 39 12. Dil-10 Tunravik 41 13. Sketch map of Dil-10 Tunravik. Not to scale 42 14. Sketch map of Dil-11 Agivavik. Not to scale 43 15. Map of the middle and lower Nushagak River 47 16. Dil-13 Akulivikchuk 48 17. Map of Dil-13 Akulivikchuk 49 18. Dil-16 Kokwok 53 19. Sketch map of Dil-16 Kokwok. Not to scale 53 20. Dil-17 (Kauktun) 55 21. Sketch map of Dil-17 (Kauktun) 56 22. Dil-18 (Nautauagavik) 57 23. Dil-19 Greek Church or Grant's Village 58 24. Sketch map of Dil-19 Greek Church or Grant's Village. Not to scale . 59 25. Dil-20 (Chaiwaiyaguk) 60 26. Dil-21 61 27. Sketch map of Nak-1 (Konogoluk). Not to scale 62 28. Sketch map of NB-2 (Aouguluk). Not to scale 63 29. Sketch map of NB-3 (Nunauwalik). Not to scale 64 30. Fassett's map of Nushagak Bay (redrawn) 73 31. Cannery of the Arctic Packing Company at Kanulik 77 32. Moravian mission buildings at Carmel 79 5 6 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61 33. Sketch map of NB-11 Ekuk. Not to scale 87 34. Sketch map of NB-18 Tuchuktovik. Not to scale 93 35. Sketch map of NB-20 Kanakanak. Not to scale 95 36. Sketch map of Dll-26. Not to scale 105 37. Sketch map of Dil-29 Vuktuli. Not to scale 107 38. Sketch map of Dil-30 (Kaokliok). Not to scale 109 39. Map of the Tikchik Lakes and Wood River Lakes 113 40. Map of Dil-40 Tikchik 118 41. Settlement chronology on the Nuyakuk and Nushagak rivers 134 42. Settlement chronology on Nushagak Bay 137 43. Settlement chronology on the Wood River 139 44. Settlement chronology on the Wood River Lakes and Tikchik Lakes 141 Acknowledgements The five seasons of field work on which this study is based were supported financially by various institutions. In 1964 and 1965 research funds were obtained from the Canada Council, the Uni- versity of Toronto, and the National Museum of Canada. I am grateful to Drs. David J. Damas and A. D. DeBlois, both formerly of the latter institution, for their assistance and encouragement. In 1967 I received a grant (H67-0-51) from the National Foundation for the Humanities for archaeological excavations along the Nu- shagak River and settlement pattern data was collected as an adjunct to this work. During the summer of 1969 additional archaeological investigations were conducted and the collection of settlement pattern data completed with financial support from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. In the field the following individuals were particularly helpful in contributing time and effort toward the assemblage of the histori- cal and ethnographic data in this study: Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lucier and Mrs. H. P. Nicholson of Anchorage; Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Stovall, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Andree, Mr. and Mrs. Joe McGill, Mr. John Nelson, Mr. Peter Nelson, Mr. Charles Franklin, and Mr. Elmer L. Smith of Dillingham; Mr. Paul Romie, Mr. William Hurley, Mr. Fred Hurley, Mr. William Nelson, Mr. Wasily Nikolai and Mr. Luki Aleklok of Ekwok; Mr. and Mrs. John Dull, Jr. of New Stuyahok and Mr. A. Backford of Nushagak; Mr. Ivan Ishnook, Mr. Blunka Ishnook, Mr. Charles Nelson, Mr. Antoine Johnson, and Mr. Nikolai Tungiung of New Koliganek; also Mr. and Mrs. Maurice Miller, former Bureau of Indian Affairs teachers in that village. Air transportation which enabled me to visit sites in the Tikchik Lakes and Wood River Lakes area in 1966 was provided by Mr. Leon R. Alsworth of Port Alsworth on Lake Clark. Father Vsevolod Rochcau, formerly of Dillingham, took an active interest in the research and helped me make valuable contacts with informants in that community. Dr. Donald J. Orth, United States Geological 7 8 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 61 Survey, provided me with a copy of the Fassett manuscript map that figures so prominently in the pages that follow. The text figures and maps were drawn by Miss Kathleen Kuhlman of Field Museum of Natural History. For critical comments on an early draft of this study I am grate- ful to Drs. Wendell H. Oswalt, University of California, Los Angeles, and Don E. Dumond, University of Oregon. My wife, Mary Helms VanStone, read the manuscript and her useful suggestions have greatly enhanced the final presentation; it is with gratitude that I acknowledge her valuable assistance and encouragement. Preface The purposes of this study are threefold: 1) to describe a series of historic archaeological sites in the Nushagak River region of southwestern Alaska with reference to their geographical and chronological position; 2) to reconstruct changing settlement pat- terns in the area during the nineteenth and early twentieth cen- turies; 3) to assess the factors responsible for changing settlement patterns, and to suggest the manner in which cultural institutions are reflected in settlement configurations. The specific methodology on which this study is based will be discussed in detail in the intro- duction, but it is necessary at this point to say something concerning the Nushagak research program and its results up to the present time. Field work was begun in the summer of 1964 with an archaeologi- cal survey of Nushagak Bay, the Nushagak River, and three of its major tributaries, the Wood, Nuyakuk, and lower Mulchatna rivers (figs. 1, 2). Forty-five former settlements belonging to the period of historic contact were located and many of them mapped. In addition, considerable ethnographic information was obtained from residents in the present-day villages of the area. On the basis of the survey, the Tikchik site (Dil-40), a nineteenth-century settlement at the mouth of the Tikchik River, was selected for extensive excavation during the summer of 1965. During that summer, it was also possible to obtain additional ethnographic data, primarily at the village of New Koliganek on the Nushagak just below the mouth of the Nuyakuk River. Much of the 1966 field season was spent in the Lake Clark area north and east of the Nushagak, but toward the end of the summer it was possible to extend the archaeological survey of the Nushagak region so as to include the Tikchik Lakes and Wood River Lakes west of the river (fig. 2). In 1967 archaeological excavations were undertaken at Akulivikchuk (Dil-13) near the present-day village of Ekwok (Dil-12). It was also possible to examine for a second time many sites along the middle Nushagak and the lower Mulchatna rivers as well as on Nushagak Bay. As a result of these second visits, much new data were obtained and some new sites discovered. 10 VANSTONE: NUSHAGAK RIVER REGION 11 A final field season in the Nushagak River region took place during the summer of 1969. At that time test excavations were made at the Nushagak site (NB-8) on the bay opposite Dillingham and additional information concerning sites on both sides of Nushagak Bay was obtained from Eskimo informants. As a result of these five field seasons, there is now more or less complete information on 64 historic sites in the Nushagak River region. This number seems sufficient to allow for the preparation of a detailed report on nineteenth and early twentieth century settlement patterns throughout the river system. The present study should be considered as one of a series of publications dealing with the culture of the Nushagak River Eskimos during the historic period.
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