11
United States Air Force Headquarters, 3rd Wing Elmendorf AFB, Alaska
Debris Removal Actions at LF04 Elmendorf AFB, Alaska
FINAL REPORT
April 10, 2003 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Project Objectives ...... 1 1.2 Scope of Work ...... 1 1.3 Background Information ...... 1 1.3.1 Historical Investigations and Remedial Actions ...... 3 2 Project E xecution ...... 3 2.1 Mobilization ...... 3 2.2 E quipm ent ...... 4 2.3 T ransportation ...... 4 2.4 Ordnance Inspection ...... 4 2.5 Debris Removal ...... 4 2.6 Debris Transportation and Disposal ...... 5 2.7 Site Security ...... 5 2.8 Security Procedures ...... 5 2.9 Site Preparation Plan...... 5 2.9.1 Erosion Control ...... 2.9.2 Spill Prevention...... 6 2.9.3 Asbestos Identification and Removal Procedure ...... 6 2.10 Demobilization and Closure ...... 6 2.11 Photographic Log...... 2.12 Conclusions and Recommendations ...... 6 R eferences ...... 7
FIGURE 1 - SITE LOCATION
APPENDIX A - Disposal Certificates APPENDIX B - Project Photographs
i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Approximately 18 tons of nonhazardous solid waste was removed form the beach along LF04 during cleanup activities conducted in September-October 2002. Only exposed surface debris that could be removed without disturbance of the tidelands, vegetation, and bluff face was removed. Excavation activities were not conducted to remove debris. The debris removed included a few very heavy pieces, such as vehicle parts, as well as electrical parts, wire, rubber products, and metallic slag. The nonhazardous debris was disposed of at the Anchorage Municipal Landfill. No hazardous waste was encountered or removed during the cleanup. Approximately 40 pieces of rifle ordnance were discovered at LF04 during the cleanup. The ElmendorfUXO team was dispatched to the site, where the ordnance was collected and removed from the site.
ii 1 Introduction The LF04 cleanup involved the removal of approximately 18 tons of surface debris, an decrease of 16 tons from the previous year. Fieldwork was performed between September 16 and September 30, 2002.
This report describes the work performed during field activities. The project approach, work activities, and final site conditions are summarized.
1.1 Project Objectives Objectives of the cleanup activities were: · To mitigate human exposure to landfill wastes and debris; and * To conduct removal activities in a manner that minimized erosion and preserved existing soil and bluff surfaces. 1.2 Scope of Work The scope of work for this project included the following activities * Completion of applicable planning and reporting documents; · Removal of surface debris along the western perimeter of LF04 (base of the bluff and beach area) while not disturbing the tidelands, vegetation, and bluff face; * Characterization and removal of potentially hazardous waste encountered during removal of surface debris. 1.3 Background Information Elmendorf Air Force Base (AFB) occupies 13,103 acres of land in Anchorage, Alaska. The northwest side of the base is bordered by the Knik Arm of Cook Inlet (Figure 1). The project area is approximately 3,000 feet long and 600 feet wide. It is located along the beach of Cook Inlet near the western border of Elmendorf AFB, the site of LF04, an inactive landfill. During high tides, the sea level can rise to the base of the bluff. Tidal and wave action cause erosion along the base of the bluff resulting in landslides and slumping, which has exposed landfill debris.
The cleanup area is located along the beach below the bluff, which consists of sandy gravel with occasional cobbles and boulders. The lower beach face consists of sandy silt typical of the Cook Inlet tidal flats. The southern end of the cleanup area is bordered by a tidal marsh vegetated with short grasses. (Photograph 1.)
1 V
Figure 1 Historical Map of Project Area (USAF1996)
Note: Debris and wastes on figure hove been removed In subsequent removal actions.
2 1.3.1 Historical Investigations and Remedial Actions LF04 was used as a dump from 1945 to 1957. LF04 was used for the disposal of vehicles, equipment, electrical parts, 55-gallon drums, general trash, and garbage (USAF 1996). Debris removal actions have been conducted at LF04 annually since 1998. Cleanup activities in 1998 removed approximately 15 tons of general refuse and 10 tons of recyclable materials. No unexploded ordnance (UXO), asbestos containing material (ACM), or hazardous materials were discovered during the 1998 cleanup activities (USAF 1999a). Approximately 29 tons were recovered from the site during 1999 project activities. The recovered material consisted of general refuse. Abandoned munitions, including small arms, shells, casings, and a howitzer case were removed by the USAF Explosives and Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Unit during the completion of 1999 field activities. No ACM or hazardous materials were identified during the 1999 field activities (USAF 1999b). In 2000, approximately 20 cubic yards (12 tons) of nonhazardous solid waste was removed from the beach (USAF 2001). In 2001, approximately 34 tons of nonhazardous solid waste was removed from the beach. Additionally, in 2001, a steel cylinder approximately three feet long by one foot in diameter was discovered, the contents of which were unknown. The onset of winter in 2001 impeded the removal of this object in 2001. A delay to 2002 was agreed to by the USAF, EPA, and ADEC for safety (cold, snow, and ice) and associated cost issues that should not be a problem in the warmer summer months. After removal and testing in spring 2002, the conclusion was made that the liquid inside was seawater. The pH of this water was in the 6 to 7 range, which is similar to seawater. No unexploded ordnance was located at LF04 during site inspections or the cleanup during 2001.
2 Project Execution 2.1 Mobilization Mobilization activities were completed between September 16 and 30. Mobilization activities included the following:
* Set up equipment at the fenced staging area in the APA yard (gravel pad) located at the southern end of the project area; * Set up of the sanitary facilities, potable water, and end dump; * Construction of temporary barriers to control access to the work area during project activities; and, * Transportation of equipment and supplies to the site.
Personnel were transported to the site daily. Travel to and from the site was minimal during project activities to reduce impacts to the beach and tidal flats, particularly the marsh area at the southern end of the cleanup area. Cellular telephone service was used as the site communication system. For security purposes, an existing fenced yard was utilized on the edge of the cleanup
3 area (the APA yard). Equipment, waste bins, toilet facilities, and equipment fuel were stored in the fenced area. 2.2 Equipment Equipment on site included the following:
· Polaris Ranger six-wheeled all terrain vehicle (ATV) equipped with tracks (Photographs 10-11); * Caterpillar 315 tracked excavator with thumb (Photographs 2-5); * Caterpillar 966 front-end loader (Photographs 19-20; * Morooka tracked dump truck (Photographs 13-15, 18); * Kenworth end-dump truck (Photographs 21-22); * International water truck (Photographs 29-29); and * Hand tools including saws, cable-cutters, cutting torch, and shovels.
The contractor's facilities and resources were utilized to mobilize equipment to the site. 2.3 Transportation The purpose of the transportation plan was to ensure safe transportation of materials, equipment, and personnel to the project site and debris from the project site. To keep the environmental impact to an absolute minimum, crews cleared brush along the shoreline and constructed an expedient corduroy road to gain access to the site on stable ground.
Equipment used on the beach was exclusively tracked equipment, including the Morooka dump truck. The tracks spread the weight of the Morooka over a greater footprint which resulted in a minimal impacted to the traveled surface. (Photographs 13-15.) The front-end loader, Kenworth dump truck and International water truck were used only at the fenced staging area, not on the beach itself.
2.4 Ordnance Inspection Unexploded ordnance had been removed from the beach area during previous cleanup efforts in 1999. The Elmendorf EOD unit performed a site inspection prior to the September 2002 fieldwork. A site safety officer (SSO) participated in the training session put on by the ElmendorfAFB EOD Unit to identify potential UXO. The SSO briefed the field crew on UXO identification and the procedures to take if UXO was encountered. Approximately 40 pieces of rifle ordnance were discovered at LF04 during the cleanup. (Photograph 23.) The Elmendorf UXO team was dispatched to the site, where the ordnance was collected and removed from the site. (Photographs 24-25.) 2.5 Debris Removal Removal activities occurred September 16-30, 2002. Debris found on the beach included wire, pipes, cans, concrete, rebar, steel, rubber products, vehicle parts, electrical components, large chunks of melted metal, and other miscellaneous debris. (Photographs 6, 14-18. Smaller pieces were picked up by hand and loaded into the six-wheeler trailer or the Morooka dump vehicle
4 (Photographs 5, 7, 8-10, 12-13), then transported to the staging area where it was placed into the Kenworth end-dump for delivery to the Municipal landfill. Larger pieces were removed from the beach by the Caterpillar excavator and placed into the Morooka. (Photographs 3-4.) The tracked Morooka then transported the debris to the staging area and placed it into the front-end loader, which dumped the debris into the end dump for delivery to the Municipal landfill (Photographs 18-20.)
Approximately 36,580 pounds (lbs) (18 tons) of debris were collected from the site. All debris was nonhazardous solid waste, and approximately 50% was small enough to be collected manually. No drums with liquid, batteries or other potentially hazardous waste were found. Excavation activities were not conducted to remove debris. Only exposed debris that could be removed without disturbing the tidelands, vegetation, and bluff face was removed.
2.6 Debris Transportation and Disposal The debris was transported in an end-dump truck to the Anchorage Municipal Landfill. The load was properly secured and covered during transport. (Photographs 21-22.) Waste shipments were tracked with a bill of lading which are presented in Appendix A. All debris was nonhazardous in nature and a hazardous waste manifest was not required.
2.7 Site Security The objective of site security was to prevent unauthorized access to the site. Only trained, authorized project personnel were permitted access to the site and storage area during cleanup activities. Unauthorized access to the beach and storage area did not occur during project activities.
2.8 Security Procedures An existing fenced area was utilized to prevent access to the staging area. Signs were posted prohibiting unauthorized visitors on site. Equipment was either kept in the fenced area or removed from the project area on a daily basis.
2.9 Site Preparation Plan 2.9.1 Erosion Control The purpose of the erosion control plan was to limit erosion in the project area. Removal activities were not conducted above the base of the bluff, thereby avoiding disturbance of the slope. Tracked or low ground pressure vehicles were the only vehicles allowed on the beach. Vehicles did not travel on steep embankments. Debris was not removed from the project area if it appeared it would jeopardize slope stability or accelerate erosion.
5 2.9.2 Spill Prevention The potential sources for spills associated with project activities include the transfer of fluids during maintenance and refueling of equipment and vehicles. Fuel was stored on site in secondary containment consisting of a metal or plastic overpack. Spill response materials were maintained on site during the entire project. Spill response actions were not necessary for project activities. (Photograph 11.)
2.9.3 Asbestos Identification and Removal Procedure The site supervisor and environmental scientist were cognizant of the possibility of encountering ACM. No ACM was encountered during the 2002 operations, although the possibility remains that it may be in the future.
2.10 Demobilization and Closure At the completion of work each day, construction equipment was manually cleaned with brooms and brushes at the beach site. To prevent transporting soil from the project area off site, the equipment was then rinsed with water at the staging area. (Photographs 26-29.) The equipment and supplies were then demobilized from the project area. Rental equipment, including sanitary facilities and construction equipment, was returned to the appropriate vendor and contractor storage facilities. Backdragging of tracks below the high water line was not necessary. The majority of the new access road was on dry land and, therefore, did not need to be backdragged. An inspection by the site supervisor was completed to verify the removal of project items, including equipment and debris. Finally, the access road was graded and compacted after all equipment had been demobilized. (Photograph 30.)
2.11 Photographic Log A photographic log which records the pre-work and post-work site conditions is contained in Appendix B.
2.12 Conclusions and Recommendations Approximately 36,580 lbs (18 tons) ofnonhazardous solid waste was removed from LF04 during the 2002 cleanup activities. This is the fifth consecutive year that such activities have been conducted. The quantity of debris removed in 2002 year was less than that removed in 2001. Most of the debris was located beneath "Lookout Bluff," the steepest area of the bluff. (Figure 1.) It is anticipated that this is the area where the largest concentration of debris will be found in the future. While no hazardous debris was removed in 2002, the potential still remains for hazardous waste to become exposed in the future.
In the interest of personnel safety, environmental impact, and cost considerations, it is recommended that access to the work area continue to be accomplished by the route established in 2001 and 2002.
6 References
United State Air Force (USAF) 1996. LF04 Treatability Study Workplan Operable Unit 6. ElmendorfAir ForceBase. Prepared for the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence, Environmental Restoration Program Office, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas.
USAF 1999a. Technical Report - Study/Services Final, Surface DebrisRemoval at Area of Concern OT082 and Site LF04 at ElmendorfAir ForceBase, Alaska . Prepared for Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence, Environmental Restoration Program Office, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas.
USAF 1999b. Environmental Cleanup Plan and Quality Program Plan Final, Surface Debris and Removal at Site LF04. Prepared for Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence, Environmental Restoration Program Office, Brooks Air Force Base, Texas.
USAF 2000. 3rd Wing OPLAN 19-3 Hazardous Waster, Used Oil., and Hazardous Material rd Management Plan. Prepared by the USAF Headquarters 3 Wing, ElmendorfAFB, Alaska.
r d USAF 2001. Headquarters3 Wing, DebrisRemoval at LF04, ElmendorfAFB, FinalReport.
rd USAF 2002. Headquarters3 Wing, DebrisRemoval at LF04, ElmendorfAFB, FinalReport.
7 a APPENDIX A
DISPOSAL CERTIFICATES
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U APPENDIX B
PHOTOGRAPHIC LOG
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Debris Removal at LF04 (Sept 2002) R IO M, Contract # F41624-01- C-8060 VyELDIMV w H CONSTRUCTION EH ¥ - A d^^^ ^- Project Photographs M-- -- 0--- 0
Photograph 1 Project Area 0 4 Weldin crew hand-picks Photoaranh 2 debris from the site. 0 Weldin crew and Photograph 3 equipment on site. 0 Caterpillar 315 excavator PhotoaraDh 4 picking large debris along 0 Weldin crew and Photograph 5 equipment removing rlAhric 0 Largest concentration of Photograph 6 debris. 0 - M--- M-- -
Weldin crew cutting steel Photograph 7 debris embedded into mud.
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Removing steel Photograph 8 embedded in mud. 0 Saw cutting steel debris. Photograph 9 1- __ I __ I 0 Debris hand-picked from Photograph 10 the beach is loaded into the six-wheeler. I I 0 0 Spill protection and safety Photograph 11 equipment for the worksite. M- 1- - I- I - I
Crew hand picks debris Photograph 12 from beach site. M_ M - M 0 Hand-picked debris being Photograph 13 loaded into the Morooka
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Debris that was too heavy to load by hand was loaded into the Morooka using the 315 Photograph 15 excavator I 1- 0 Photograph 16 Typical load of debris removed from the site. * * 0
Typical load of debris Photograph 17 removed from the site. M- M- . Fully loaded Morooka transporting debris from the Photograph 18 site.
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Weldin crew covers the load of debris in preparation to haul it Photograph 21 to the landfill. m 0 Photograph 22
Covered, secured load ready for transport to the landfill. I - I ----- I 0 UXO located during Photograph 23 cleanup activities at site. Photograph 24 EOD team collecting UXO located at the site. I ---- 0- M 0-
EOD team collecting UXO Photograph 25 located at the site. I - I---
After sweeping equipment on site, it is rinsed with water Photograph 26 prior to demobilizing.
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After sweeping equipment on site, it is rinsed with water Photograph 27 prior to demobilizing. 1- - - 1- M- 0
Equipment is prepared for Photograph 28 demobilizing from the site Demobilization of Photograph 29 equipment from the 1- 1 - I --- 0
The access road was graded and compacted after Photograph 30 demobilization of equipment. An Overview of Dena'ina Athabascan Uses of Sites on and near Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska
by
James A. Fall,' Nancy Yaw Davis, 2 and The Dena'ina Team3
'Lead Author of this report: Division of Subsistence Alaska Department of Fish and Game
2 Cultural Dynamics Anchorage, Alaska
3 Over the course of the project, members of the Dena'ina Team included: Norman Chilligan, Irene McMillan, George Ondola, Susie Ondola, Alberta Stephan, Lee Stephan, Leo Stephan, Lester Stephan, Angela Theodore, Carol Theodore, and Larraine Wade
Report prepared for:
US Army Corps of Engineers Cooperative Agreement POA01-5055
333 Raspberry Road Anchorage, Alaska 99518
June 2003 I I
ADA PUBLICA TIONS STATEMENT
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game operates all of its public programs and activities free from discrimination on the basis of sex, color, race, religion, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, or disability. For information on alternativeformats availablefor this and other department publications, please contact the department ADA Coordinatorat (voice) 907-465-4120, (TDD) 1-800-478-3548 or (fax) 907-586-6595. Any person who believes she or he has been discriminatedagainst should write to:
Alaska Department ofFish and Game PO Box 25526 Juneau, AK 99802-5526
or
O.E.O. U.S. Department of the Interior Washington, D.C. 20240
I Frontispiece
It is important to the Athabascan Indian People that their history of a well organized lifestyle be known by everyone.
-- Alberta Stephan, Dena'ina Athabascan Historian, 1998a
Figure 1. The Dena'ina Team at EOD Creek, North Bluff, 1994. From left: Alberta Stephan, Leo Stephan, Larraine Wade, Norman Chilligan, Irene McMillan, Susie Ondola, George Ondola. Missing: Lee Stephan, Lester Stephan. Photo: Nancy Yaw Davis TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Tables ...... ii List of Figures ...... ii
PROJECT BACKGROUND ...... 1 Introduction: Purpose and Objectives ...... 1 Methods and Sources of Information ...... 3
ETHNOGRAPHIC AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ...... 6 The Upper Inlet Dena'ina and the K'enaht'ana...... 6 Subsistence Activities and Settlement Patterns ...... 11 Overview of Sociocultural Changes in the Euro-American Period ...... 18 Homesteading and the Creation of Military Bases ...... 20
SITES ...... 21 Tak 'at...... 25 C airn Point ...... 34 Knik Bluff Trail and Three Homestead Sites ...... 35 Green Lake and Its Outlet Stream: Moonshine Creek and Ch'ak'inlenghet ...... 36 Six Mile Creek: "Moonshine Creek"? ...... 39 EOD Creek and "Chabash Beach" ...... 40 "School Fish Camp Site": Nutl'eghghulk'et' ...... 42 Ship Creek: Dgheyaytnu ...... 44 Chester Creek: Chanshtnu ...... 45 Point Woronzof: Nuch'ishtunt ...... 46 Fire Island: Nutul'iy ...... 50 Point Campbell: Ulchena Bada Huch 'ilyut ...... 51 Point Possession: Tuyqun ...... 51
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ...... 51
REFERENCES CITED ...... 55
APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW WITH BILLY PETE (selections) ...... 63 APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW WITH ALICE THEODORE (selections) ...... 71
i I I LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Members of the Dena'ina Team, 1994 ...... 1 Table 2. Selected Dena'ina Population Estimates ...... 12 Table 3. Inventory of Dena'ina (K'enaht'ana)Villages in Knik Arm Drainage ...... 14 Table 4. Key Sites Identified by the Dena'ina Team, 1994, 1998, and 1999 ...... 23 Table 5. Selected Dena'ina Place Names on and near ElmendorfAir Force Base...... 24 I LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 The Dena'ina Team at EOD Creek, North Bluff, 1994 ...... Frontispiece Figure 2. Anchorage, Alaska, and ElmendorfAir Force Base Vicinity...... 4 Figure 3. Rufe Stephen Family at Knik, 1935.:...... 27 Figure 4. Remnant of a Blue Willow pattern Plate, found near possible site of Tak'at...... 32 Figure 5. Karen Workman at large, potential Culturally-Modified Tree at "Moonshine Creek" (Green Lake outlet stream) ...... 38 Figure 6. Leo Stephan Investigates Buried Posts at "Chabash Beach," 1998 ...... 41 Figure 7. Ezi Family at Fish Camp, Point Woronzof, 1942 ...... 48 Figure 8. YakasoffFamily at Fish Camp, Point Woronzof, late 1930s ...... 49
iiI I I I I I I I I PROJECT BACKGROUND
Introduction: Purpose and Objectives
The area presently occupied by the Elmendorf Air Force Base (Elmendorf AFB) in southcentral Alaska lies within the traditional territory of the Upper Cook Inlet Dena'ina (Tanaina) Athabascan Indians. In 1994, members of the Dena'ina Athabascan community of Eklutna formed the "Dena'ina Team," and, working with cultural anthropologist Nancy Yaw Davis and Elmendorf AFB personnel, began to investigate potential Dena'ina prehistoric and historic sites on the base (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 1994, 2003) (Table 1; Figure 1). The Dena'ina Team and Davis conducted additional research on the base in 1998 and 1999, and the Dena'ina Team continued its activities in 2001 and 2002 (Fall 2002). This report summarizes some of the Dena'ina Team's findings and discusses them within the context of the traditional ethnography and history of the Upper Inlet Dena'ina. The research demonstrates how the Dena'ina have adapted their traditional way of life to the changing socioeconomic and demographic conditions of their homeland, the Knik Arm and Anchorage areas.
Table 1. Members of the Dena'ina Team, 1994
Norman Chilligan Irene McMillen George Ondola Susie Ondola Alberta Stephan Lee Stephan Leo Stephan Lester Stephan Larraine Wade
Source: Davis and the Dena'ina Team 1994; 2003:10-15
This report was prepared by James Fall through a contract between the Army Corps of Engineers (on behalf of the Elmendorf Air Force Base) and his employer, the Division of Subsistence of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). The goal of the contract was to summarize the previous research by Davis and the Dena'ina Team, supplement it with
1 I I additional key respondent interviews, draw on previous research conducted by Fall and by University of Alaska linguist James Kari, and place this combined and integrated work in the larger historical and cultural context of the area. Cooperative agreements between ADF&G, the Native Village of Eklutna, and the Knik Tribal Council supported the Eklutna Tribe's and the Knik Tribe's involvement in this phase of the project. A subcontract with the Native Village of Eklutna supported Nancy Yaw Davis' continued contributions to the research. The joint authorship of this summary document reflects the substantial contributions of Davis and the Dena'ina Team. However, the lead author (Fall) is responsible for the selection and organization of information and its interpretation in this account and is also responsible for any errors of omission or commission that the report may contain. Accordingly, the following admonition I from Dena'ina elder Leo Stephan (2002) has been kept in mind while preparing this report:
One thing you've got to be careful of [is] don't make assumptions. If you make assumptions, you will create a false history. A lot of things that's been written [can] mislead others.
It should also be noted that the lead author is a cultural anthropologist, not an I archaeologist. Therefore, this document does not evaluate the sites and observations from an archaeological perspective, but rather from the perspective of what is known about traditional and more recent Dena'ina land uses and cultural patterns. This paper serves two interrelated purposes. First, it presents the available information specifically about potential Dena'ina sites on Elmendorf Air Force Base. Of particular interest to the AFB staff is a location on Knik Arm at the southwest corer of the base called LF04, the potential specific site of a former Dena'ina fish camp called Tak'at, which was certainly located in this general area. A second purpose of the report is to explore the broader question of how the present Elmendorf AFB was used by the Dena'ina in the past. This necessitates a review not only of specific uses of the base itself, but also a more general discussion of the historical ethnography of Upper Cook Inlet Dena'ina, including some other sites not within the present boundaries of the base. Thus, in the report the available information about the investigated sites is presented, as much as possible, within the context of the cultural traditions, ethnography, and history of the Upper Inlet Dena'ina people. I 2 Finally, it must be noted that a short summary such as this cannot review all the available information about Dena'ina and Cook Inlet prehistory, history, linguistics, and ethnography, or cover any specific topic in great detail. Nor can it more than scratch the surface of all that needs to be said about the experiences of the Dena'ina of the greater Anchorage area in the 20 th Century. Further, it is not the intent of this overview to list, comment upon, or discuss all the observations and suggestions made by Davis and the Dena'ina Team during their research. (Another report [Davis and the Dena'ina Team 1994; revised 2003] provides the details on the Dena'ina Team's activities.) Rather, the goal of this document is to provide a general overview with enough background to aid further identification and documentation of sites on Elmendorf AFB as a step towards exploring broader topics. It is hoped that this report will promote more discussion, investigation, and understanding.
Methods and Sources of Information
This paper draws upon three general sources of information. The first is previously published documents, the second is interviews with members of the Dena'ina community, and the third is site visits and subsequent reports by the Dena'ina Team and Nancy Yaw Davis. It should be noted at the outset that the bulk of this summary is based on prior research. What is specifically new here is the summary and integration of previous work in order to present an overview. Figure 2 shows the location of key places that are discussed in the text. Beginning in 1994, four major recent documents provide information based on research directly focused on questions about historic uses of the lands within the Elmendorf AFB. These include:
"Ethnohistoric Land Use Patterns: Elmendorf Air Force Base (Knik Arm) Area, Alaska" by Nancy Yaw Davis and the Dena'ina Team (draft 1994); revised as: "Exploring Land Use Patterns: Elmendorf Air Force Base (Knik Arm) Area, Alaska" by Nancy Yaw Davis and the Dena'ina Team (2003). This report is the primary, detailed summary of the activities of the Dena'ina Team through 1999. The 1994 draft describes the formation of the team and gives details about each of its five field
3 P C I I COOK INLET I Pt. Possession
; i;i ENINSUl A- I [!? ~S--,,I I---- Figure 2. Anchorage, Alaska, and Elmendorf Air Force Base Vicinity I I I I 4 1I investigations in 1994. For the current project, Nancy Yaw Davis revised and updated the draft report based on subsequent fieldwork in 1998 and 1999 and comments provided by several reviewers. (See also the numerous, specific field reports prepared by Davis and members of the Dena'ina Team [Davis 1994a, 1994b, 1994c, 1994d, 1994e, 1998a, 1998b, 1998c, 1998d, 1998e, 1998f, 1998g, 1998h, 1999a, 1999b] [G. Ondola 1998, 1999a, 1999b, 1999c, 1999d] [A. Stephan 1994, 1998a, 1998b].)
"Archaeological Survey of Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska: Final Report" by J. David McMahan and Charles E. Holmes (1996) summarizes findings of a cultural resources reconnaissance of the AFB conducted in September and October 1994 and the spring of 1995. Many of the sites investigated during the survey were earlier identified by the Dena'ina Team.
"The Geoarcheological Potential of Elmendorf Air Force Base" by Thomas Dilley (1996) investigates the geological history and geomorphology of the area to identify and rank 48 potential archaeological sites.
"Elmendorf Air Force Base Homestead Study" by Paula M. Daugherty and Becky M. Saleeby (1998) provides a detailed history of homesteading in the area that would become the Elmendorf AFB from 1914 until World War II. It includes a series of maps and describes the physical remains on the sites.'
In addition, there are numerous shorter reports of field visits prepared by Davis and several members of the Dena'ina Team, including George Ondola, Lester Stephan, and Alberta Stephan. These appear as appendices in Davis and the Dena'ina Team (2003). Finally, there are tapes of nine interviews conducted by Nancy Yaw Davis and James Fall, and notes from a tenth interview. Two of the taped interviews are particularly important
' The questionnaire used to interview members of former homesteader families included this question: "Were you aware of any Native (Indian) activity in the area? In particular, did you know of any hunting or fishing by Indians?" None of those interviewed (eight) could provide any information in these topics (Saleeby, personal communication, October 2002). This of course does not mean that such activities were not occurring (since we know from Dena'ina oral histories that they were), but just that these activities were not observed by these individuals.
5 I I because they provide eyewitness accounts of Tak'at. The first is an interview that Davis, assisted by George Ondola, conducted in August 1994 with the late Billy Pete, a Dena'ina originally from Susitna Station, who visited the Tak'at site as a child and young man in the 1920s and 1930s. The second is a discussion with the late Alice Stephan Theodore, conducted by Davis and assisted by Tom Liebscher of the AFB staff, in May 1998. Mrs. Theodore lived at the Tak'at fish camp as a child and young married woman with her mother and her mother's sisters in the 1920s | and 1930s. In accordance with Dena'ina traditions, Tak'at appears to have belonged to her mother's family. Selected transcribed portions of these two interviews appear in Appendix A | (Pete) and Appendix B (Theodore). In August 1994, Davis conducted an interview with the late Andy Yakasoff of Knik and Eklutna, which was not audio taped. Mr. Yakasoff also provided I additional details about Tak'at based upon his visits to the site in the 1930s and 1940s. His mother Mary and Alice Theodore's mother Annie were sisters. Also providing information were interviews conducted in 2001 and 2002 with Dan Alex, George and Susie Ondola, Alberta and Leo Stephan, Art Theodore, Paul Theodore, Carol Theodore, and Patsy Theodore Garcia.
ETHNOGRAPHIC AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The Upper Inlet Dena'ina and the Kenaht'ana2 I The Dena'ina Athabascan Indians are the indigenous inhabitants of most of the Cook Inlet Basin, including all of the area in the present-day Anchorage Municipality, of which the Elmendorf Air Force Base is a part (Osgood 1937, Fall 1981, Fall 1987, Kari and Fall 1987, Kari and Fall 2003).3 The Dena'ina were firmly established along the shores of upper Cook Inlet | th when Euro-American explorers arrived in the late 18 century. Including the population of the
2 This and the subsequent ethnographic and historical section are largely derived from Fall 1997, with additional information. 3 The late Cornelius Osgood was a cultural anthropologist from Yale University who conducted research about the Dena'ina in 1931 and 1932 and wrote the first detailed ethnography about them, which was published in 1937. Osgood's principal source about the Dena'ina of Knik Arm was Jim Nikita, also known as Eklutna Jim and Indian Jim (Osgood 1937:23; see also Davis 1981:47). James Fall is a cultural anthropologist who as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin began ethnographic research with Upper Inlet Dena'ina in 1978 (Fall 1981, 1987). His principal sources were Shem Pete, Billy Pete, Johnny Shaginoff, Katherine Nicolie, and Bailey Theodore, all of whom are now deceased. James Kari is a linguist who began studying the Dena'ina language and culture in the early
6 entire language area, the Dena'ina were the most numerous of all Alaska Athabascan peoples, with an aboriginal population of perhaps 4,000 to 5,000 (Townsend 1981:637). The upper inlet dialect of the Dena'ina language is quite distinct from those of the other Dena'ina of the Kenai Peninsula, Iliamna Lake, Lake Clark, and the Stony River (Kari 1977a). This suggests that the speakers of this dialect separated from other Dena'ina many centuries ago. At the time of contact with Euro-Americans, there were three Upper Cook Inlet Dena'ina regional bands, each with its own territory where its members followed their seasonal round of hunting, fishing, and gathering activities. These were the Tubughna ("Beach People") of the Tyonek area on the northwest shore of Cook Inlet, the Susitnuht'ana ("Sand River People") of the lower and middle Susitna River drainage, and the K'enaht'ana(exact meaning unknown) of the Knik Arm and Matanuska River drainages.4 Elmendorf AFB and the greater Anchorage area are within the traditional territory of the K'enaht'ana. Within each regional band were "local bands" whose activities centered around winter villages (qayeh), the sites of one or more multi- family dwellings called "nichil" Occupying each village and house were people related through matrilineal kinship.5 The clans with the most members in the Knik Arm area appear to have been the K'kalayi (K'kali) (Fish Tail Clan), the Chishyi (Red Paint Clan), the Nulchina (Sky Clan), and the Tulchina (Water Clan). Traditional leaders called "qeshqa" ("rich man") were responsible for organizing economic, political, and social activities of kin groups and villages (Fall 1987:3-6; Kari and Fall 1987:12-15,21-25; Kari and Fall 2003:22-27). The origins of the Dena'ina and the approximate time of their arrival in the Cook Inlet area have long been of scholarly and popular interest. The Dena'ina are the only northern Athabascans whose territory borders salt water; all the others live inland along rivers and in mountainous terrain. Linguistic and ethnographic evidence thus suggest an interior origin. For example, writing in the 1830s, Wrangell (1970:12) suggested that:
nd 1970s. He and Fall collaborated on Shem Pete's Alaska (1987; revised 2 edition to appear in 2003), an ethnogeography of the Upper Inlet Dena'ina area. 4 All spellings of Dena'ina words use the standard orthography (alphabet) developed by James Kari of the Alaska Native Language Center in consultation with Dena'ina speakers from all four dialect areas. For a description of the orthography, see Kari and Fall (1987:15; 2003:xx-xxi). See the Dena'ina Noun Dictionary (Kari 1977b; draft revised and expanded version 1994) for standard spellings of many Dena'ina words. 5 "Matrilineal" means tracing descent through the female line. Each Dena'ina was a member of one of about 15 named matrilineal clans. These clans were exogamous, meaning that people had to marry outside their own descent group. Hence, each person was of the same clan as their mother, but not their father. Most Dena'ina clans had equivalents among other Athabascan groups (Fall 1981:409-427; Fall 1987:39-40).
7 It is probable that the Kenay [Dena'ina] came to the place they now occupy from I across the mountains. These migrant mountain people ultimately became coastal and semisettled; they formerly used birch bark canoes on lakes and rivers, and these have remained with them even now, but they also use baidarkas and baidaras covered with laftak (the tanned hides of sea mammals), probably adopted from the Kadyaks or Chugach. They cannot compete with the latter in skill and courage of navigation. Their favorite occupation remains the hunting of animals in the forests beyond the mountains.
Likewise, based upon an analysis of the linguistic and ethnographic evidence, Kari | (1988:336) concluded that:
The ancient Dena'ina were a mountain people. The area west of the Alaska Range in the Inland dialect area is probably the oldest Dena'ina homeland. Some bands of Dena'ina may have been participating in coastal activities on Cook Inlet for as long as 1,500 years. In the middle and upper Cook Inlet, the Dena'ina developed well-established routes for sharing in the labor and the products of both upland and coastal areas. By maintaining control of the key passes and transportation corridors in the Alaska Range and an aggressive posture, Dena'ina bands gradually annexed areas east and south -- Lake Clark and Iliamna Lake and Cook Inlet basin -- some of the finest resource areas in Alaska.
Kari (1996) suggests that the Dena'ina reached Cook Inlet in two migrations. The first, I through either Rainy Pass or Ptarmigan Pass, brought the Upper Inlet people into the Susitna River country. From there they occupied the coastal area around Tyonek as well as Knik Arm and its tributaries. In a second, later movement, the Dena'ina reached the middle inlet from Iliamna Lake, establishing the Outer Inlet dialect on the Kenai Peninsula. Given the significant differences between the Upper Inlet dialect and the other three Dena'ina dialects, it is very likely that the upper inlet regional bands were separated from the others for a substantial period of time. Additional evidence of the considerable length of Dena'ina occupation of the upper inlet is the diffusion of linguistic and cultural traits to the Upper Inlet people from the Ahtna Athabascans of the Copper River drainage to the northeast (Kari 1977a). | The discovery of two stone lamps in the shape of bowls with a human figure in the center at Fish Creek near Knik Arm in the 1910s suggested to anthropologists that an Eskimo population had preceded the Dena'ina occupation of Cook Inlet (de Laguna 1975:7,141). Subsequent archaeological research has established a sequence of prehistoric cultures in the
8 Cook Inlet Basin that preceded the arrival of the Athabascan Dena'ina (e.g. Workman 1980, Reger 1981, Workman 1996). Nevertheless, from the archaeological evidence, the length of Dena'ina presence in the area remains uncertain. Dumond and Mace (1968:19) concluded that "Pacific Eskimos or their direct ancestors" occupied Knik Arm, at least seasonally, from before A.D. 1000 to perhaps as late as A.D. 1700, with the Dena'ina movement into Knik Arm occurring no earlier than 1650. Their conclusion regarding the Eskimo occupation was based on the presence of few potsherds, a labret, and some stone lamps in several Knik Arm sites. They concluded that the Dena'ina were not present prior to AD 1650 based on "negative evidence," that is, the absence of archaeological remains that were clearly of Dena'ina manufacture. Commenting on this assertion by Dumond and Mace and others about a late arrival of the Dena'ina to Cook Inlet, Workman (1980:85) noted that the "evidence, charitably speaking, is not very good." And Lee Stephan and Leo Stephan (2002) of Eklutna have plausibly suggested that the stone lamps might have been war trophies captured from the Alutiiq by Dena'ina raiding parties, and not evidence of Eskimo villages at all. Alternatively, Workman (1980:85) suggested a more lengthy Dena'ina presence in the upper and middle inlet by A.D. 1000, that might have helped cause the abandonment of most of Cook Inlet by Kachemak tradition Eskimo people of the lower inlet by preventing their seasonal use of upper inlet salmon runs. 6 In this context, it should also be noted that archaeological remains in Dena'ina sites are notoriously sparse. The Dena'ina themselves acknowledge an origin outside the Cook Inlet Basin, although they do not concede a relatively recent arrival (A. Stephan 2002). Their oral traditions tell of battles with the Alutiiq (Ulchena),7 perhaps for control of the upper inlet area. One Dena'ina tradition of their arrival in Cook Inlet is provided by Alberta Stephan of Eklutna (1994:85; see also Stephan 1996a:147).
Many years before the influx of the Russian fur traders and Russian settlements in Cook Inlet, there were wars with other Natives that had settled along the coastal regions of Alaska. The Athabascan Natives lived in the central mountain regions. They had winter homes where there was drinking water, meat and fur-bearing animals. Every spring there was a migration to their summer fish camps. Each
6For background on the Kachemak tradition, see de Laguna (1975), Workman (1980), and Workman et al (1980). 7 In the ethnographic literature, the Alutiiq have also been called Pacific Eskimo and Sugpiaq. They often refer to themselves as "Aleuts," not to be confused with the Aleuts (Unangan) of the Aleutian Islands.
9 family had their own fish camp along the coast of Knik Arm and Cook Inlet. You will note that the Athabascan place names are a description of the area. We don't know how long after the last war with the other Natives that the Athabascans start settling along Knik Arm and Cook Inlet. We do know that there is a definite difference in how the language is spoken.
Following the Dena'ina's successful occupation of their historic territory, the conflicts continued as raids back and forth between Alutiiq and Indian villages, a goal being the capture of slaves and other valuables (Fall 1987:62; Osgood 1937:109-113). In what was perhaps the final battle, the Knik Arm Dena'ina defeated the Utchena at Point Campbell in present-day Anchorage (Kari and Fall 1987:294; 2003:338). (Although another oral tradition describes a final battle at Green Lake on the present-day AFB - see below.) The late Bailey Theodore of Eklutna and Knik related this story on February 13, 1979 (Fall 1978/79). 8 A brief synopsis of this story follows. 9
An Alutiiq raiding party crossed the Knik River Glacier with eight skin boats and came down the Knik River. A young Dena'ina man, son of the qeshqa ("rich man" or "chief") of a village at Bilni Ch 'unaghelqeni near Knik and his new wife were camped along the Knik River. He detected the raiding party and managed to escape, but the Alutiiq raiders captured his wife. The young man returned quickly to his father's village and reported the incident. The qeshqa sent word to Eklutna, and while he kept watch for the Alutiiq from Bilni Ch 'unaghelqeni, the Eklutna people watched from Idlika'a (the larger hill or "knob" at their village).'l The Alutiiq attempted to escape by disguising their boats as "chunks of ground" floating down Knik Arm, but the Dena'ina were not deceived. At Point Campbell (ULchena Bada Huch'ilyut; "Where We Pulled Up the Alutiiqs' Boats"), the Dena'ina attacked the unsuspecting Alutiiq while they were asleep, and killed all but two young boys, who were sent home along Turnagain Arm. One boy died while crossing the Portage Glacier (Portage Pass in Dena'ina is "Ulchena Hch 'aqedelt, "Where the Alutiiq Came Out"), while the other reached his village and reported the massacre of the war party through sign language, because due to I his ordeal he was unable to speak." The Alutiiq never again attacked the Upper Inlet Dena'ina.
8 Other versions of this story told by the late Mike Alex of Eklutna in 1976 and by Shem Pete in 1977, remain I unpublished. 9 This story, told by Bailey Theodore to James Fall in English, was not tape recorded. The following synopsis is based on detailed notes taken as the story was told. I 10 Bailey Theodore's son Paul added the detail about the location of the Eklutna people's lookout, in 1997. Dan Alex of Eklutna also described the use of hills as lookout sites for war parties, including possibly the larger knob. " Art Theodore added this detail about the hand signals in September 2002. He said that the Dena'ina learned of what happened to these two survivors of the battle through the activities of shamans (A. Theodore 2002).
10! Soon after this incident, according to Dena'ina oral traditions, the Russians arrived in Cook Inlet. th This places the events of the story in the mid 18 Century.
Subsistence Activities and Settlement Patterns
Knik Arm once supported a large Dena'ina population (Osgood 1937:18). Eklutna elder Leo Stephan (in Davis 1998c:3) recalls renowned Dena'ina elder Shem Pete (who was born in the mid 1890s) telling him about the many tents of Dena'ina fish camps lining Knik Arm when he, Shem, first came to the Anchorage area from Susitina Station in the late 1890s or early 1900s. But by that time, the Dena'ina population had already been decimated by a series of epidemics and conflicts with the Russians. By 1900, the upper Inlet Dena'ina population was perhaps a few hundred, small compared to a hundred years before, but relatively large compared to the 1920s, after the disastrous influenza epidemic of 1918. Osgood estimated a total Dena'ina population of 650 in the 1930s. Table 2 summarizes some of the available Dena'ina population data. The Upper Inlet Dena'ina settlement pattern can be described as one with a "complex of seasonal settlements with permanent bases" (Fall 1987:28-29). The permanent or, perhaps more precisely, "semi-permanent," bases were villages (qayeh), the sites of one or more multifamily houses called "nichil". Villages were occupied in late fall, winter, and into early spring. Here, supplies of dry fish, meat, oil, and other staples were stored for winter subsistence, trade, and potlatching. Villages also served as bases for winter hunting, trapping, and fishing activities. Dena'ina elders state that traditionally, they were "village people, not nomads." By this they mean that while the Dena'ina moved extensively within their traditional territories, and often established seasonal fishing, hunting, and trapping camps, they were based out of, and identified with, particular villages to which they returned year after year. Movements were deliberate and patterned, reflecting an intimate knowledge of the landscape, as well as detailed knowledge of fish, wildlife, and plant resources. The most important Dena'ina ceremony, the memorial potlatch, took place in winter at villages (Osgood 1937:149-160; Fall 1987:63-65). Although Dena'ina potlatches were held for a number of reasons, the most elaborate were memorial feasts for the dead, at which time the matrilineal relatives of the deceased honored those who had assisted with the funeral with gifts
11 I I I
Table 2. Selected Dena'ina Population Estimates I Year Estimate Notes Source' I Pre-contact 5000 All Dena'ina Townsend Pre-contact 3000 All Dena'ina Lisiansky 1817 1508 All Dena'ina Khlebnikov I 1845 816 All Dena'ina Fedorova 1867 708 All Dena'ina Townsend 1880 972 All Dena'ina Petroff I
1880 254 Knik Arm Petroff 1880 146 Susitna Petroff I 1890 817 All Dena'ina Porter I 1890 200-300 Knik Arm Porter 1890 142 Susitna Porter I 1899 1170 All Dena'ina Elliot 1899 100 Knik Thomas I 1899 170 Susitna Thomas 1899 149 Knik Glenn 1899 183 Susitna Glenn I 1900 250 Knik Arm Orth
1910 672 All Dena'ina US Census I 1932 soonnd ·--- 650 All Dena'ina . . v----- I 1 For specific sources, see Fall 1981:110-11, 122; 1987:16) I I I I 12 I and feasting. "Funeral potlatches" occurred soon after a death, and were less elaborate but also important. Memorial and funeral potlatches attracted guests from many other villages. They were a matter of honor and prestige for the host family. Dena'ina experts stress that both environmental and sociopolitical criteria figured in the choice of winter village sites. Of particular importance was proximity to good fishing locations. An adequate supply of wood for building, fuel, and preparing smoked fish and meat was essential, as was a good water supply. Elders state that all villages were eventually abandoned when wood supplies were exhausted. People then moved to other appropriate, familiar places. New villages also were founded when individuals achieved qeshqa status, built a new nichil, and attracted follower kin from other locations (Fall 1987). In this sense, village locations were "recycled," probably over the course of several decades. Also, another important factor in the selection of village sites was ease of defense. Each village was usually situated on high bluffs or near hills or "knobs" so that water accesses could be carefully surveyed for the approach of enemy war parties. (This was related in the story of the battle with the Alutiiq related above.) Also, each village usually had one or more hidden camps to which its inhabitants could retreat when under attack (Fall 1987:29). Lookout sites in the Knik Arm area included: * Hninaghi'iy Ka 'a ("Big One That is Embedded"), the hill at junction of Glenn Highway and Old Palmer Highway, probably associated with Eklutna village and Niteh; * Idlika'a ("Large Plural Object"), the larger Eklutna hill or "knob," associated with Eklutna that appears in the story of the last battle with the Alutiiq (see above); * Bilni Ch'unaghelqeni ("Bitter Water"), a site three-quarters of a mile north of Knik, on Knik Arm, associated with villages in the general Knik vicinity that also plays a role in the story of the last battle between the Dena'ina and the Alutiiq that culminates at Point Campbell; and * K'unast'in Gga or K'unast'inshla ("Little One that Stands Apart"), Bodenburg Butte; associated with the village of Hutnaynut'i, the birthplace of Eklutna Alex, ancestor of many Eklutna people. Table 3 provides a list of village sites reported by Dena'ina in the Knik Arm area. The residents of these villages likely used seasonal fish camps in the present-day Elmendorf AFB and
13 Table 3. Inventory of Dena'ina (K'enaht'ana) Villages in Knik Arm Drainage
1enag'inl Name Iocation IEnlish Translation English N-ame Ts'es I'unt Mosquito Point, between Fish Creek 'VWhere there is a rock" Mosquito Point and Goose Bay ICenakatnu Fish Creek and village site; Knik "??-river" Fish Creek, Knik K'enaka Bena Big Lake "??-lake" Big Lake Tuq'ets'ghet Site one mile below Knik "By Spring Water" Ch'ak'nileght Soldiers Creek, 2 miles south of Knik 'Where Fish Swim Out" Soldiers Creek Ggih Qughijaq Bena White Lake "Lake Where a Monster White Lake Came Up" Nughay Bena Knik Lake "Frog Lake" Knik Lake Bekidaghiluyi Gga lake to the east of Knik Lake (?) "Little One that is Connected to the End" BiMni Ch'unaghelqeni Site 3/4 mile north of Knik on Knik Arm "Bitter Water"
Htidaghitunt Site at Hughes Creek, between "Where the Trail Meets Cottonwood Creek and Crocker Creek the Place"
Laiat Site on Cottonwood Creek "Mud Place" Cottonwood Village Benteh Wasilla Area, between Wasilla and "Among the Lakes" Wasilla Cottonwood lakes Chuqilintnu Wasilla Creek "Fermented Fish Creek" Wasilla Creek Nik'udatl'ech'a Site near Palmer Slough and Rabbit "Dark Color Extends Slough Away" Tuhnaghilkitst Bluff and site at Parks-Glenn Highway 'Where Bank Extends" Junction Niteh Matanuska village site; "Old Knik" "Among Islands" Matanuska; Old Knik Kentsiis T'aax Site on east bank of Matanuska River "Beneath Moccasins" near Palmer Nil'atsa'it'ut Site at Old Matanuska River Bridge "Where Boulders Come Together" Kiydlent Site below confluence of Wolverine "Where Current Flows to a Creek and Matanuska River Point" Nuk'din'itnu Chickaloon River and village site "River that Bridge extends Chickaloon River Across" and village Hutnaynut'l Site in Bodenberg Butte Area 'That Which is Shining" Skintuk'elaha Swan Lake and village site "Fish Run Through Brush" Swan Lake
Idlughet Eklutna "By the Objects" Eklutna Ch'ak'dinlenghet Perhaps mouth creek from Green "By the Stream that Flows Moonshine Creek; Lake, locally "Moonshine Creek"; or Out" or perhaps Six-Mile mouth of Six-Mile Creek Creek Tak'at Site near Cairn Point "Dipnet Platform" Sources: Kari and Fall 1987, Kari and Fall 2003
14 Anchorage areas. It should be noted that it is unlikely that all of these village sites were occupied simultaneously, or that all sites have been documented. Of the known village sites, only Eklutna is primarily a Dena'ina community today, although Knik Arm Dena'ina live in other parts of the Anchorage Municipality and in communities of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. The Knik Tribe, with headquarters in Wasilla, is comprised of Dena'ina with ancestral and contemporary ties to Knik (C. Theodore 2002). According to Dena'ina oral traditions, Eklutna (Idlughet) is an old village location (Fall 1981:397). 12 It appears in several traditional stories, in addition to the two already presented above. For example, in the origin story of the Point Clan (Yusdi Kinughelchina), two sisters from Eklutna are swept out to sea on an ice floe while fishing for tomcod in Knik Arm. They eventually land at Kustatan (at West Foreland on Cook Inlet), where they became the ancestors of the Point Clan (Chickalusion 1980). Another story, told by Shem Pete in 1978, called "The Eklutna Rich Man Story," relates how a qeshqa at Eklutna, who was also a shaman, predicted the return of spruce grouse after his own death. In commenting on such stories, Billy Pete (in Fall 1978/79) explained that,
Eklutna is an old, old village. Nobody knows when they first moved there. [Dena'ina] people came down the Matanuska River when they returned to Cook Inlet after the ice age.'3
The Dena'ina name Idlughet was recorded as "Zdluiat" and mislocated several miles to the south on the map prepared for the 1880 census report by Ivan Petroff (reprinted in Kari and Fall 1987:298; 2003:19). Because Eklutna was near the site of an old Alaska Commercial Company store, it has also been known in some English language sources as "Old Knik" (Fall 1981:391-397; cf. Orth 1967:306).
12 Writing in 1934, de Laguna (1975:140) noted that, "The old village of Eklutna was called klduat. We found several house pits near the modem houses, but they did not seem to be very old. I do not know if there are any prehistoric sites here. "Old Kinik" is the name given to a village site near Eklutna, which was inhabited in the last century. "Nitak" [note: this is Niteh] is another name given to a village in this vicinity, but I am not sure if either Old Knik or Nitak were distinct from the old houses of Ikluat." 13 As noted earlier, linguistic evidence suggests an origin of the Dena'ina to the west across the Alaska Range, but it is not unusual for Dena'ina themselves to point to the Copper River area as the source of people and ideas. For example, an old story traces the origin of three clans to three sisters who traveled down the Matanuska Valley from the Copper River country. For a review of the glacial history of the Cook Inlet basin and its implications for the peopling of the area, see Reger and Pinney (1996).
15 As noted in Table 3, several Dena'ina villages were also located near the present site of Knik on the western shore of Knik Arm. Due to the presence of a trading post there from the late 1860s, Knik Arm Dena'ina began concentrating at Knik, which became for a time the largest Dena'ina village in the area (Fall 1981:391-395; Yarborough 1996:112). It should also be noted that the term "Knik" was not itself a Dena'ina name for any single place, but a Euro-American adaptation of the Dena'ina names for the general area (K'enaka Nen), Fish Creek (K'enakatnu), and the Knik Arm Indians (K'enaht'ana)(Fall 1981:391). In addition to villages, Dena'ina traditionally occupied seasonal camps. In spring, they established camps for migratory bird hunting, marine mammal hunting, and salmon and eulachon fishing. Fish camps were occupied through most of the summer, with supplies of fish later I moved to caches at the village. Evidently, fish camps were associated with particular extended families and perhaps with particular clans. It appears that in the Knik Arm area, most camps I were relatively small but they were numerous, reflecting the size of salmon runs to local streams. Dena'ina historian Alberta Stephan (1998a) explained why the Dena'ina dried fish at camps, and not at villages.
Fish was the staple diet of the Athabascan People. The families moved to the shores of any river in their area where the fish were plentiful. The village people around upper Cook Inlet moved to the shores of Knik Arm and Cook Inlet to put up their winter's supply of fish. The fish caught in the salt water is much fresher and tastes better than any caught in the rivers. The fish dried at fish camp near the I [salt] water dries with a much better texture than in the villages, the reason being that by the shores there is always wind blowing and the fish don't dry too fast or I hard.
The traditional seasonal round of subsistence patterns of the K'enaht'ana,the Dena'ina of Knik Arm, was similar to that of the other two upper Inlet regional bands. People left their villages in spring to set up fish camps on lower Knik Arm and the present-day Anchorage area. Some traveled to the mouth of the Susitna River to catch eulachon, or traded for eulachon (candlefish or hooligan) with the Susitna River people at Point MacKenzie (Dilhi Tunch'del 'usht 3 Beydegh, "Point Where We Transport Eulachon"). Most of the summer was spent putting up salmon for winter use. As the summer progressed, some families moved back to the winter I villages, where late runs of coho salmon were fished. In late summer and fall, the Upper Inlet
16 3 Dena'ina traveled to the mountains to hunt caribou, sheep, goats, bears, and small game. They returned down river with supplies of meat before freeze-up. This pattern persisted in the Knik Arm area at least into the 1930s and early 1940s (A. Stephan 2001:14-15). Some K'enaht'ana traveled into the Chugach Mountains along Eklutna Lake or the Knik River. Others traveled into the Talkeetna Mountains along the Matanuska and Chickaloon rivers. Winter subsistence activities included taking large and small game, ice fishing, and trapping (Fall 1987:31-36). Edible plants were primarily harvested in the spring (such as "Indian potatoes," wild celery, and others.; see P. Kari 1987) and in late summer and early fall (mostly berries). Correspondingly, Shem Pete (Kari and Fall 1987:281; 2003:321) provided the following summary of the subsistence activities of the Eklutna people.
[They] caught fish at Knik River and they were close to the mountains. They go to the mountains to catch bear, sheep, and ground squirrel. And there used to be caribou around Anchorage in those mountains.
Alberta Stephan (1996a:147; cf. Stephan 1996b:18) summarized the seasonal round as follows:
The nomadic Athabascans migrated with the seasons to put up their winter's supply of food. They moved from the mountains to Knik Arm and the shores of Cook Inlet in early spring for fish and sea mammals. In the fall they moved to hunting camps for sheep and goat and river fish.
The traditional technology of the Dena'ina was well suited to an effective adaptation to the Cook Inlet area, one of diverse, often abundant, and seasonal resources (Osgood 1937, Kari and Kari 1982, Fall 1987, Kari 1988). In some cases, the Dena'ina evidently adopted items from their Alutiiq neighbors. Seal skin boats are one clear example. The Dena'ina also modified traditional Athabascan technology for use in the coastal environment. One example is the yuyqul, the beluga spearing platform, probably an adaptation of the game lookout platform (dehq 'a) built in trees along rivers to hunt bears (Fall 1981:192; Kari and Fall 2003:75). Another is the tanik'edi, dipnetting platforms built on tidal flats and similar to those used by other Athabascans (such as the Ahtna) in interior rivers (discussed further below). Dena'ina traditions tell of trade between Tyonek and Knik Arm villages. The "beach people" of Tyonek could harvest more salmon than could the Knik Arm Dena'ina, which they
17 traded for hides, dried meat, and sinew "since the Knik people [were] lot closer to the mountain where there is lots of caribou, moose, goat, sheep, and other meat" (Alexan 1981:1). There was also trade between the Knik Arm Dena'ina and the Ahtna of the Tyone Lake area, who traveled down trails paralleling the Matanuska River to obtain dry fish in exchange for meat and fur (A. Stephan 1996a:147). Intermarriage took place between the Upper Inlet Dena'ina and these Ahtna, accounting for the continued close ties between these two groups, as demonstrated by shared clans, similar potlatching traditions, and linguistic diffusion.
Overview of Sociocultural Changes in the Euro-American Period
This section will provide a brief overview of certain historical events that led to changes to Upper Inlet Dena'ina economy, society, and culture. For more detail, the reader should consult Fall (1981, 1987), Townsend (1981), and Davis (1965), among other sources. While Fall (1981, 1987) discusses Upper Inlet Dena'ina sociocultural change up to about 1918, there is yet no detailed study of this topic from 1918 until the present. Euro-American exploration of the Cook Inlet region began in 1778 with Captain James Cook's voyage. In the 1780s, Russian trading companies established posts on the Kenai I Peninsula. The Dena'ina became involved in the fur trade. Most upper inlet trade funneled through Dena'ina middlemen (usually qeshqa) enabling Upper Inlet Dena'ina communities to remain largely independent of direct Russian control (Fall 1987:48-52). Russian penetration into the upper inlet area was minimal (Kari and Fall 1987:16-20; 2003:17-21). Of particular significance was the devastating decline in Dena'ina population of 50 percent or more resulting from a smallpox epidemic in the late 1830s. Abandonment of villages and consolidation of people at a few sites was one result of this loss of population. Another was conversion of the upper inlet people to Christianity by Russian Orthodox priests based in Kenai (Fall 1987:18-19). 3 With the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867, holdings of the Russian America Company passed to the Alaska Commercial Company. Probably for the first time, permanent trading posts were established in the Knik Ann area. One was at "Old Knik" near modem Eklutna. Although the precise location of "Old Knik" is uncertain, it was probably the site of I George Palmer's "Old Store" as depicted in an 1899 map by Johnston and Herning (reprinted in
18 Kari and Fall 1987: 250; 2003:161). Another store was established at "Knik Station" near present-day Knik (Fall 1981:391-397; Fall 1987:19-23; Yarborough 1996:112). In the American period, the trend towards fewer Dena'ina villages, concentrated at trading posts, continued, although the traditional seasonal round, the use of seasonal fishing and hunting camps, and dependence on subsistence resources, persisted. With the development of commercial fishing and processing, mining, and homesteading, a permanent non-native population was established in the Knik Arm area by the early 20th Century. Of particular significance were the founding of Anchorage as a base for the construction of the Alaska Railroad in 1915, the construction of the railroad itself, and a devastating influenza epidemic in 1918 which killed hundreds of Dena'ina and severely disrupted the traditional culture and economy (Fall 1987:22-23). In the early 20th Century, too, the Dena'ina became more directly involved in commercial salmon fishing, adding this activity to their spring and summer subsistence fishing at such traditional sites as Fire Island, Anchorage area sites such as Chester Creek and Point Woronzof, and Point Possession, among others. On the other hand, the growth of the non-Native population, the privatization of lands, and the introduction of compulsory schooling, among other factors, resulted in a far more sedentary settlement pattern and a reduction in areas used for subsistence activities. As Alberta Stephan (1996a: 150) noted:
After the start of territorial laws in 1914, the Natives had to give up much of their traditional ways. There were hunting laws and hunting seasons and trapping laws and trapping seasons. Soon it was hard to live their subsistence way of life. There were people all over the place. The Natives were called "trespassers."
Nevertheless, as the results of this research in this project show (see below), the Dena'ina continued to use traditional sites in the Anchorage area well into the mid 20 th Century as part of a modified seasonal round of subsistence and other economic activities. The 20 th Century history of Eklutna is reviewed by Davis (1965). 14 Of particular note are the founding of Anchorage and military bases, which resulted in the loss to the Eklutna people of traditional fishing sites, as discussed below. The Alaska Railroad was constructed through the village in the late 1910s, and provided employment for Dena'ina men. Eklutna was also the site
14 See also Davis and the Dena'ina Team (1994, 2003) and McMahan and Holmes (1996) for reviews of the history and archaeology of portions of the Knik Arm area.
19 I
of the Eklutna Industrial (or "vocational" school), operated by the United States government from 1924 until 1945 (Davis 1965, Chandonnet 1979:21-23; George Ondola, p.c., 2002). An additional effect of the demographic, sociocultural, and economic changes of the early and mid 20th Century in the Cook Inlet area was the decline of the use of the Dena'ina language. Policies of the United States Bureau of Education discouraged the use of Alaska Native languages, and children were physically punished for speaking their languages (Krauss 1980:18- 24). Interviewed for this project, Dan Alex (Alex 2002) recalled that his parents stopped teaching their younger children Dena'ina because his oldest brother was treated so badly when he entered school without knowledge of English. Today, only a few elders in their 60s or older are able to speak the Upper Inlet Dena'ina dialect. These elders themselves recall the fear and shame I they associated with speaking Dena'ina as children as a result of their experiences and the experience of their siblings in school. These elders explain that linked to this suppression of the language by the school system was a dismissal of the Dena'ina way of life and identity. An important consequence of this loss of the Dena'ina language was a disruption in the passing on of Dena'ina oral traditions as expressed in tsukdu (traditional stories). 15 Evidently, the most knowledgeable elders of past generations were unwilling, and likely unable, to teach these stories to their children and grandchildren in English. As a result, important stories and oral traditions about particular locations are today totally or almost completely lost or known to just a small segment of the population. It is important to add, however, that such traditions may well live on as oral or written English texts if the Dena'ina originals are preserved, especially if such materials are incorporated into school curricula and the contents of such stories are viewed as relevant by present and future generations. More recent developments of profound significance for the Dena'ina, such as the implementation of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, are beyond the scope of this report.
Homesteading and the Creation of Military Bases
The history of homesteading in that part of Anchorage that became the Elmendorf Air Force Base is described in detail in Daugherty and Saleeby (1998) and need not be repeated here. I
15 For a discussion of the role of oral traditions in Dena'ina culture, see Fall (1990). |
20 I As noted in that report, 40 individuals or families filed applications for homesteads in the future Elmendorf AFB area beginning in 1914 and ending in 1939. In addition, 18 other individuals purchased parcels from the original homesteaders. The homesteading program is important for understanding the history of Dena'ina uses of the AFB since it took place in an area that at the time was actively used by the Dena'ina for subsistence fishing and hunting. Homesteaders used the land for a variety of purposes, including raising livestock, gardening and farming, dairy farming, mink ranching, and hunting. Some made and sold "moonshine" as well (Daugherty and Saleeby 1998). Daugherty and Saleeby's review provides no evidence that the homesteading program took into consideration any existing Dena'ina uses of the area. Some Dena'ina activities, as discussed below, were likely displaced by the newcomers, while other uses persisted. The activities of the homesteaders also of course complicate the search for physical evidence of previous Dena'ina presence. The homesteading era in this area ended in 1942 when the federal government completed buying the land from the homesteaders for use as part of the newly created military base. Development of the US Army base at Fort Richardson began near the onset of World War II in 1940. The base's airfield was named after Captain Hugh Elmendorf, who had died in an aircraft accident in 1933 (Daugherty and Saleeby 1998:56). Purchase of the homesteads and removal of the homestead families was completed by 1943. Billy Pete, who was interviewed for this project, was one of the Dena'ina who found employment during base construction, starting in 1941 as part of the cement pouring crew (B. Pete 1994). The development of the military presence in this area effectively ended any remaining Dena'ina uses. Members of the Dena'ina Team recalled being warned not to land along the shore of the bases while they were traveling in boats to their fish camps (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 1994:108,121; 2003).
SITES
This section summarizes information about documented and potential Dena'ina sites on and near Elmendorf AFB that were investigated as part of this project. Davis and the Dena'ina Team in 1994 identified 15 sites (14 on Elmendorf AFB and one just to the northeast on Fort
21 Richardson), and added four more in 1998 and 1999. These are listed in Table 4, and are discussed first, below, generally from southwest to northeast. Additionally, in order to provide a broader cultural and historical context, this section discusses six other locations associated with the same Dena'ina communities and families that used the Elmendorf AFB area. Table 5 lists a selection of Dena'ina place names within and near Elmendorf AFB. McMahan and Holmes (1996:2-10) discuss the geology, vegetation, and fauna of the AFB, which will not be repeated 3 here (see also Dilley 1996). It should be noted at this point that in the lead author's opinion, it is unnecessary to prove | or verify the Dena'ina's general use of the lands and waters in and bordering Elmendorf AFB with physical evidence. That these uses occurred is certain given the traditional seasonal round of subsistence activities and is clearly demonstrated by oral traditions. For example, as in other parts of Knik Arm and the wider Upper Inlet Dena'ina territory, fish camps were established along the coast near sources of fresh water and where technologies such as dip net platforms, traps, and set nets could be employed and the catch processed effectively. Streambeds provided access to inland hunting locations (P. Theodore 2002). The goal here is to fill in the details about specific locations and activities, and to enhance knowledge about and awareness of these Dena'ina activities and Dena'ina history. 3 It should also be noted at this point that the field investigations, first by Davis and the Dena'ina Team and then by McMahan and Holmes encountered the complexities resulting from multiple layers of use by Dena'ina, homesteaders, and the military (cf. Dilley 1996:12). As Alberta Stephan (1998a) noted: I
Looking for any Athabascan Indian homesites or evidence of occupation is almost a thing of the past. In and around the Anchorage bowl area and Elmendorf Airforce Base the settlers had the lands torn up for homesteads and farms. Any artifacts that could be found was taken with any evidence of homesites. 3
Nevertheless, the research uncovered evidence of the long history of Dena'ina uses of the AFB area, as well as their continued use of seasonal camps in Anchorage area, including at least one I on the future base itself despite the growing non-native presence and restricted access resulting from changing systems of land ownership.
22 22 3 Table 4. Key Sites Identified by Denaina Team, 1994, 1998, and 1999
Name Dates Visited Type of Site Evidence/Observations
15 ites pi-mber-nandpl de^' in 1994Q
1. Tankedi or Tak'at 7/20/1994, Fish camp Cluster of rocks for dip net platform? Blue Willow 4/27/98, pattern; chabash; twisted cottonwood tree; string of 5/12/98, beads; memories of visits 9/24/99 2. "History Haven" July 13 1994 Military dump over debris; proximity to fish camp site Denaina fish camp? 3. Homestead Debris 1 July 13 1994 debris; proximity to fish camp site
4. Cairn Point 5/27/94, Fish camp? Cremation storage pits; potentially culturally modifed trees; T 6/7/94, site? carved in tree 4/27/98, 5/12/98 5. Knik Bluff Trail 6/7/94, Trail potential culturally modified trees 7/20/94 6. Homestead 2 6/7/94, Homesteader cabin ? cabin (?) remains of birch 7/20/94 7. Homestead 3; aka 7/20/94 Homesteader cabin? cabin (?) remains "Bee Sting Hill" 8. Homestead 4 6/7/1994, Homesteader site dog houses; two wells; two house pits 7/20/94 9. Chakdinlenghet/ 5/27/1994, homesteader cabin and remains of buildings, pits, etc, potential culturally- Homestead 5 8/19/98, other building remnants, modified trees 5/13/99 fomer Dena'ina fish camp & village
10. Nottviet Cabin/ Homesteader cabin Single story cabin Homestead 6 11. Sixmile Creek; 8/19/98 Possible fish camp, storage pites; homesteader debris; WWN II debris Homestead 7 village? Homestead 12. EOD Creek; 6/2/1994; Possible fish camp, silver salmon creek; collapsed house; spring Homestead Site 8 6/24/98; village? 6/8/99 13. EOD Creek: Bluff 6/2/1994; Possible fish camp? storage pits Area 6/24/98 14. Chabash Beach 7/13/94 Set net site old posts; possible chopping tool I 15. School Fish Camp 7/13/1994; Fishing and hunting site bed springs, tent frames, etc; fish storage pits; ..Sitetq ------...... 9/23/98 'hWhtey...... ---.--.-.-....-----...Point'survey. . marker - - 3 additionital'l t inventory in 1998 andl 1 in 1999 I 16. "the beads" near 5/12/98 Evidence of burial? String of small beads Cairn Point 17. upper Ship Creek 6/24/98 Hunting cabin House depressions, culturally modified trees? 18. Whitney Beach site village site? potential culturally modified trees; poles and sticks I on beach below school 9/23/1998; under layer of peat; rolled birch bark; metal artifacts; fish camp. Is this "Klila 10/2/98; glass bottle. Beach"? 10/23/98 I 19.Area south of EOD 6/8/99 petroglyphs? Chipped rocks creek I Sources: Davis and the Denaina Team 1994, 2003; Davis 1998c I I 23 Table 5. Selected Dena'ina Place Names on and near Elmendorf Air Force Base
Place Number Dena'ina Name English Name/location
North of Elmendorf Air Force Base
15.118 K'anakatnu Lower Peters Creek 15.54 Htestighitun Betnu Upper Peters Creek 15.58 Tuq'eyghi'ut Point at beach at Birchwood 15.59 Ch'eneltash Betnu Fire Creek 15.60 Ch'eneltash Bena Fire Lake 15.61 Nutl'eghghulk'et' Eklutna School Fish Camp 15.62 K'qiydulghakt Point marked "Whitney"; north of Eagle Bay 15.63 K'e Taydeqht Bluff and point 2 miles north of Eagle River 15.121 Tsal Tl'u Gulley 1/2 mile north of Eagle River Flats 15.64 Nik'elehitnu Kaq' Eagle Bay, mouth of Eagle River 15.65 Nik'elehitnu Eagle River 15.66 T'usq'a possibly Clunie Creek 15.67 Ben Ka'a Lake Clunie 15.68 K'ulch'eytnu Meadow Creek I On ElmendorfAir Force Base 15.73 K'ka Bena Otter Lake I 15.74 Ch'ak'dinlenghet "Moonshine Creek:" either the Green Lake outlet stream or Six-Mile Creek 15.124 Ch'ak'dinlen Bena Green Lake or Six-Mile Lake I 15.75 Tak'at Site near Cairn Point 15.125 Tak'atnu Stream near Cairn Point 15.76 Tak'at Qenuch'en Site 1/4 mile south of Tak'at I South of Elmendorf Air Force Base I 15.77 Dgheyay Kaq' Mouth of Ship Creek 15.78 Dgheyaytnu Ship Creek 15.81 Tl'egh Dink'et' Standard Oil Dock area I 15.83 Chansh Kaq' Mouth of Chester Creek 15.84 Chanshtnu Chester Creek 15.91 Nuch'ishtunt Point Woronzof 15.92 Ulchena Bada Huch'ilyut Point Campbell I 15.93 NutuViv Fire Island
1 Numbers are those assigned in Shem Pete's Alaska, second edition (Kari and Fall 2003) I Source: Karl and Fall 2003 I I 24 I Tak'at
This important Dena'ina site, its name, and its use as a Dena'ina fish camp were first reported by Dena'ina elders Mike Alex (of Eklutna) (Kari 1978:16) and Shem Pete (originally from Susitna Station) (Kari and Fall 1987:290; Kari and Fall 2003:330-331). Two other places with Dena'ina names are nearby: Tak'at Qenuts'en ("across from dipnet platform"), a site /4 mile south of Tak'at; and Tak'atnu ("dipnet platform stream"), a stream or spring near Cairn Point (Table 5). Discussed here are Sites 1 (Tak'at), 2 ("History Haven"), and 3 ("Homestead Debris 1") as investigated by the Dena'ina Team (Table 4). The place name "Tak'at" is a variation of the word "tanik'edi," which refers to dip net platforms that the Dena'ina built of logs out over the mud flats to harvest salmon.'6 Tak'at was the northern-most site in Cook Inlet where these platforms were customarily used. Other tanik'edi sites were at Point Woronzof, Fire Island, and Tyonek, among others. The late Tyonek elder Nikafor Alexan published a description of tanik'edi along with a sketch by Diane L. Theide (Alexan 1965, 2003). Henry W. Elliot drew a tanik'edi being used at Tyonek in the 1880s. (Alexan's account and the two sketches appear in Kari and Fall 2003:65.) It is uncertain when tanik'edi were last used at Tak'at. Billy Pete reported that the last dip net platforms in Cook Inlet th were used by Dena'ina in the first decade of the 2 0 Century, after which they had all been replaced by gillnets. According to Shem Pete, there had once been a Dena'ina village with nichil near Tak'at at Government Hill, but since at least the late 19th Century the site had been used primarily as a summer fish camp. It was not unusual, as Dena'ina population dropped, for the people to consolidate at fewer villages near stores, churches, and schools, and use former village sites as fish camps (Fall 1987:29). Shem Pete reported (Kari and Fall 1987:290; 2003:330):
At Tak'at the water [in the inlet] swirls around. I used to walk over there on the trail [from the Ship Creek-downtown Anchorage area]. That Stepankda (Rufe Stephan) had a cabin upriver from where Ship Creek flows out, at the Army camp. His village was there in that elevated clearing [apparently just inland from Tak'at]. They say that there were nichil there, above Government Hill. That was when the people were not very old. Some people killed each other off here. And the people disappeared, and there were
16 Note that the Ahtna, close relatives of the Dena'ina, traditionally built dipnet platforms in the Copper River to harvest salmon. These were smaller than the Dena'ina tanik'edi,but were based on a similar principle.
25 I I very few people left in the time since I was born. They had a cemetery there. Stepankda told me that there were big nichil there. They used to use that place a lot. They say there were nichil there, but I didn't see any. It was already clear when I saw the place. But Stepankda told me that he had seen the [occupied] nichil there. He owned that country there. Last man. The soldiers took it. They [Dena'ina] don't get no money for it. He [Stepankda] was asleep [i.e., politically unaware].
In an interview conducted in 1998, Alice Theodore, Rufe Stephan's daughter, described her family's uses of their Tak'at fish camp in the 1920s and 1930s (A. Theodore 1998). (Figure 3 is a photograph of Rufe Stephan's family, at Knik, in 1935.) She recalled that there were three tent frames and three smokehouses there, belonging to her mother Annie and her mother's two sisters. In an interview in August 1994, Andy Yakasoff noted that the two sisters were Mary Yakasoff (his mother) and Olga Nikita, who also lived in Knik He recalled a fourth smokehouse at Tak'at belonging to Old Man Theodore, although others report that this smokehouse was further to the southwest near Chester Creek (see below). Mr. Yakasoff also remembered a spring at Tak'at and another toward Cairn Point, northeast from the fish camp (perhaps one of these | streams was Tak'atnu) (Yakasoff 1994; Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:26-28). Alice Theodore reported that there was also a steam bath ("banya") at Tak'at. She also I remembered the many Dena'ina visitors to the camp, who came to take a steam bath and eat smoked fish soup (ta'adi). That Alice Theodore's mother and her mother's two sisters had established camps at Tak'at suggests an affiliation of the site with the matrilineal K'kalayi clan, even though today respondents refer to the camp as belonging to Rufe Stephan (as did Shem Pete). It should be noted that Alice Theodore's account does not indicate that Rufe Stephan himself fished at the site - only his wife and his wife's two sisters. Mrs. Theodore's family lived in Knik in the fall and winter. In the spring, her father and oldest brother rowed her mother and sisters from Knik to Tak'at, where the women stayed all summer putting up fish for subsistence use while the men worked for the Alaska Railroad. I (Andy Yakasoff also recalled rowing from Knik to Tak'at.) In her words:
I remember, every spring we go down there. They put us in a boat [at Knik]. And they row that. They didn't have no motor them days. They just row. Two oar they use. My dad and my oldest brother. They row and they took us down there [to Tak'at]. | Sometime they come back up for another load. They get blankets and dishes and stuff. Pans and stuff. We stay down there all summer. They go to work in Whitney Section. That's two mile out of Anchorage. That's Glenn Highway.
26 1 iN1-sf^ A^., A;,i,~~1 . -.*4(11
9"
Figure 3. Rufe Stephan's Family Fished at Tak'at until the late 1930s. From Left (back): Rufe Stephan, Annie Stephan, Alice Stephan (Theodore), Helen Stephan; (front) Doris Stephan, Irene Stephan, Victor Stephan, Jimmy Stephan. At Knik, 1935. Photo courtesy Alice Theodore and family.
27 They bring us down and they put [up] a tent for us and then we stay there by ourselves. My mom used to cut wood like a man. He [sic] carry wood like a man. On her shoulder. Dry wood. Throw it down the hill and roll it down there and then bring it over to fish camp. And then we saw it. And we had a smokehouse there. All the time. Every year we come down and I then we move back over there. We had a steam bath and everything around there. They all like that. My aunt. Two of my aunties there. They had a smokehouse too. They had the same thing. They had a smokehouse too. My mother's two sisters used to live down there.
Mrs. Theodore explained that her family transported their summer catch of salmon that | they put up at Tak'at back to their winter homes at Knik, where the fish were stored in platform caches. She believed that she last stayed at Tak'at in the summer of 1938, when her first child, Elsie, was born. After that, she accompanied her husband Bailey Theodore to the camp that he and his father Wasilla Theodore had established on Fire Island. The Theodore family fished on Fire Island until the late 1970s. I Alice Theodore also recalled that while they were camped at Tak'at, they would occasionally climb a path up the bluff and walk into Anchorage to buy groceries. She also remembered seeing a fence, a house, cattle, and a garden on the top of the hill. But they never stopped at what was most likely a homesteader's property because they did not know who the people were. Several years later, probably in the early 1940s, Alice Theodore stood at the dock in I Anchorage during the Fourth of July celebration. From there she looked northwest towards where her family's fish camp had been. She recalled: I
I look that way, where that tent, smokehouse, big smoke house used to be all lined up .. My two aunts' smokehouse. Our dad's smokehouse too. All gone. They all gone... They tear it down. Smokehouse and steam bath house and everything. All them tent frame and everything they throw it down and then nothing around there. .. It didn't I look like a fish camp anymore.
Other former users of Tak'at such as Alice Theodore's parents shifted their subsistence | fishing efforts about 100 miles (by railroad) to the north, to Montana Creek, where some of their
28 28 I relatives lived. The Dena'ina users of Tak'at received no compensation for the loss of their traditional fishing site and the buildings that were on it.17 On August 19, 1994, Nancy Yaw Davis and George Ondola interviewed Billy Pete, Shem Pete's son.'8 Billy Pete visited the fish camp at Tak'at frequently while he lived with his grandmother Annie Jacko during the summers in Anchorage, from the early 1920s until about 1931. Billy Pete recalled:
From Fourth Avenue they had a back road. They used to go across Government Hill and then they had a back road. Once in a while we used to take a taxi down there. And it used to cost the big money of fifty cents. And we used to go down there and visit Rufe Stephan's wife (Annie) . . . [Question from George Ondola: Could you drive right down to the beach?] No, just on top of the hill they [the taxi] used to stop and then we walk down... Early in the morning we used to go down there, about 9 o'clock. And we used to stay there until about 4 o'clock in the evening. We used to walk back. It was about a pretty good 2/2-mile walk, I believe. We used to follow the road. I was about 9 years old I guess. As far as I can remember, we used to spend all summer here in Anchorage after my grandma put up king salmon at Susitna Station. And then we'd come to Anchorage here and spend the summer in Anchorage. And we just used to go to Tak'at, and we used to go to Point Woronzof and just visit around. My grandma used to rent a house for $15 a month, I think it was.
There was just a smokehouse there and Old Man Rufe Stephan used to have a tent set over there. There was about two or three tents sent over there. I don't know who used to own those other tents. He (Rufe Stephan) used to have one or two nets set over there. When there's too many fish, why they just put half a net out. That was good enough, when there was lots of fish. There used to be lots of fish (at Tak'at) a long time ago... In 1929 or 1930 in the summer the last Dena'ina potlatch was held there at Tak'at. Stepankda had the potlatch. People were there from Eklutna, Knik, and Susitna.
Billy Pete recalled attending this potlatch as a young boy of about nine years of age with his grandmother. Billy's grandmother brought bundles of fish and loaves of bread. He remembered that, "They call us [all the children] and give us soup and tea and lots of bread and things. Then we [the children] run back out and play." The potlatch lasted three days. There
17 In contrast, J.C. Morris, who received the patent for the homestead parcel nearest to Tak'at in 1938, received $8,000 when the government condemned the property in the 1940s to clear the way for the military base. Morris never constructed any buildings on the property (Daugherty and Saleeby 1998:48,A36). 18 Billy Pete passed away in Tyonek on June 7, 1995.
29 was singing and drumming on a seven-foot long plank - this was before it was common for the Upper Inlet Dena'ina to use skin drums. | Billy Pete did not remember whom the potlatch was for - he said he was too young to care about such things. However, Alice Theodore also attended this potlatch as a child and had vivid memories of what she observed.
They had a potlatch too [at Tak'at]. My grandpa [her mother's father] made a potlatch. I remember. Everybody. A lot of strange people come from Tyonek come down. I I don't know them and I was crying. They pack me around. They try to stop me from crying. I remember that. Yeah, Tyonek people. They all look different. They funny singing and they all funny way dressed. They all got long dress. The lady got. Yeah, they special way, Indian way I think. They got big poncho on. The ladies walk around there. I was scared and I was crying. I ask my mother, "Why that people here come down?" I remember. She told me, "Your grandpa make a potlatch, that's why." That's why Tyonek people come down she told me.
According to Alice Theodore, this potlatch was a funeral potlatch held for someone who had died that summer at Point Woronzof after drinking from a hidden cache of "moonshine" made by non-natives that had gone bad and turned to poison. She could not recall the name of this person or where the person was buried. Billy Pete recalled his last visit to the Tak'at fish camp: |
About 1936 was the last time I visit that place there. (Billy was working at the Emard cannery.) I used to walk the beach (to Tak'at) at that time. And Rufe Stephan's wife used to stay there with all her kids. And she used to put up fish. Old man Rufe Stephan used to work on the railroad. And when I'm not working I used to go up there and play with the kids up there.
Dena'ina Team member Alberta Stephan (1994:87) also had memories of visiting Tak'at I as a small child, and wrote: I
Some of the things I remember is stopping at my Mother's Great-Uncle's fish camp which was located about 14 miles from where Ocean Dock is now. That was Rufe I Stephan from Knik. They had a fish camp to put [up] their winter's supply of fish, as did every other family from Knik and Ekiutna village.
These recollections by Alice Theodore, Alberta Stephan, Sava Stephan (see below on Chester Creek), and Billy Pete and others also demonstrate how Tak'at and other fish camps in
30 the Anchorage area (such as those at Chester Creek and Point Woronzof) were focal points for visiting and sharing for the Dena'ina people during the summer. Oral traditions about these places emphasize the frequency of visits by relatives and friends, taking steam baths, telling stories, sharing meals of fish, or just playing. Amid a growing non-Native presence and dominance in their homeland, the Dena'ina could still gather at these traditional locations. Not only were these sites of important economic activity, they were locations where cultural identity could be expressed and maintained. Billy Pete recalled that because there was a road to the bluff at Tak'at already, the military began using the area as a dump in the early 1940s when base construction began. The smokehouse was burned down. The area where the smokehouse and tents became covered with refuse. Billy Pete reported that:
The army guys burned that smokehouse down and they used that place for garbage dump. Tak'at is right where that army dump used to be. And that Tak'at, 1941, that's the last time they use that place and after that there was nothing over there. The army destroyed that smokehouse, so they (Rufe Stephan's family) used to go up Montana Creek to put up fish, after there was no more smokehouse at Tak'at.
The probable location of Tak'at about /2 mile north of Ocean Dock was identified by Nancy Yaw Davis and the Dena'ina Team on July 13 and 20, 1994 (Davis and the Dena'ina
Team 2003:25). They discovered a cluster of large stones at about 3/4 tide level that may be supports for a dip net platform as described by Nikafor Alexan (1965, 2003). Also located by the Dena'ina Team was a single piece of a Blue Willow pattern plate, which they identified as a type used by Knik Arm Dena'ina (Figure 4). Upon seeing a photograph of this piece, Billy Pete recalled:
There was a second-hand store on 4th Avenue by Chauncy Peterson's, this side of Chauncy Peterson's. Towards C Street. All the Natives used to go there... All the Natives used to go to that second hand store and sit around on the couch. They weren't couch, they were bench. And that man, he found one like this one and he send it outside and he had whole bunch of them made and Natives like that so they used to buy maybe dozen of these plates and cups, little cups. They didn't have too much use for those pretty looking little cup and saucer but the plates they liked. They were about this big.
31 I I a a I I I I I I I
Figure 4. Remnant of Blue Willow pattern plate, found near possible site of Tak'at. I Photo by Nancy Yaw Davis.
I I I I
I
I
32 | Billy Pete said the Dena'ina name for this kind of plate, actually a bowl used for drinking soup, was ts'uk'. In 1994, he still had four of them in his home at Tyonek that he'd purchased in a second-hand store in Anchorage. He said that these were the everyday dishes preferred by Dena'ina when he was a boy. "Everybody and his brother had plates like that," he said. The Dena'ina Team located additional examples of these plates during a visit to this site in May 1998 (Davis 1998c:2). Members of the Team reported the ceremonial breaking of dishes at potlatches, suggesting that perhaps they were uncovered evidence of the potlatch at Tak'at remembered by Alice Theodore and Billy Pete. Upon returning to this site, Dena'ina Team member Leo Stephan recalled visiting the Rufe Stephan family there in the 1930s. He remembered a large rock near Cairn Point where he and his family landed before walking the beach to Tak'at. He also recalled playing on the rock at low tide. This rock off Cairn Point is well known to Dena'ina navigators, who steer their boats wide of it while passing the point. The Dena'ina Team spotted this rock in May 1998 (Davis 1998a:3). Andy Yakasoff recalled visiting the former fish campsite with Oscar Munson of Eklutna in about 1944 or 1945. By this time, the dump was located just to the northeast of the former camp. They retrieved copper wire, oil drums, and cases of food from the dump. Subsequently, they were chased away by military authorities (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:29-30). Site 2 on Dena'ina Team list is the military dump north of the possible site of Tak'at (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:28-30). Site 3, "Homestead Debris 1," is on the north edge of the dump, where "in undisturbed woods" surface items suggested to the Dena'ina Team the possibility that this was a campsite or homesteader's debris (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:31-32). Use of this area as a dump by the military has likely obscured physical evidence of its former use as a Dena'ina fish camp. Subsidence of the area following the 1964 earthquake and subsequent accumulation of storm debris also complicate the search for physical evidence of the Dena'ina camp (McMahan and Holmes 1996:20). As noted above, Shem Pete reported that he had learned of a Dena'ina cemetery near Government Hill and Tak'at from Rufe Stephan. No physical evidence or precise oral history
33 I I concerning a cemetery resulted from the Dena'ina Team investigations and oral history interviews. However, on May 12, 1998, George Ondola made the following discovery:
The biggest discovery of the day was made by George on the south side of a small creek running just south of the Cottonwood tree site [south of Cairn Point]. There, [partly exposed out of] several inches of cover, and in association with a large plank, was a fragile string of tiny red, blue, and black beads, embedded in soft dirt (Davis 1998c:5; Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:38).
There were about 21 red, 50 black, and a few blue beads on a string of sinew (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 1003:39). Team members speculated that the beads might be associated with a burial in the area. This site was added to the Dena'ina Team list (Number 16 in Table 4). On I May 22, further investigation of this site by two archaeologists on behalf of the Air Force found no additional artifacts (Hansen 1998).
Cairn Point
This is Site 4 on the Dena'ina Team list (Table 4). The name "Tak'at" may also refer to this point (Kari and Fall 2003:330), suggesting that the fish camp was close to it. At the western I edge of the trail the Dena'ina Team located an old cottonwood tree with a "T" carved into the side. Davis (1998c:6) suggested that the "T" might stand for the Theodore family but this has not been verified by the memories of anyone now alive. Also observed were several depressions that might be fish storage pits and potentially culturally modified trees (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:40-43; Davis 1998a). Davis (1998c:6) suggested that the trees' unusual shapes might have resulted from hanging the remains of cremations in birch bark baskets from their limbs. Osgood (1937:166) notes that usually these remains were buried, but "at Tyonek one informant claims that in winter when cremators bum a body and there is nothing left but ashes, they wrap | this residue in birch bark and hang it in a tree. The birch bark is secure against rot for years." Because cremations mostly ended with the conversion of the Dena'ina to Christianity in the second half of the 19th Century, these trees would need to be quite old to have been shaped in this manner. An alternative explanation is that the trees were naturally deformed during their early stages of growth.
34 McMahan and Holmes (1996:29,31) investigated the circular pit (ANC-837) as a possible fish storage pit. They suggested a more recent origin, perhaps a foxhole from the World War II period.
Knik Bluff Trail and Three Homestead Sites
Site 5 on the Dena'ina Team list is the Knik Bluff Trail (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:43-44). They suggested this might be an old Dena'ina trail because of the "culturally marked trees (e.g. twisted branches)" along it: birch trees with loops, perhaps the result of tying young saplings as trail markers. Sites 6, 7, and 8 were identified as likely homesteader sites along the trail, with the potential for earlier Dena'ina use (Table 4). The Dena'ina Team investigated three different sites along this trail in 1994 (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:45-49). The first, called "Homestead 2" (Site 6), encountered while walking northeast from Cairn Point (on 6/7/94 and again on 6/20/94), consisted of the remains of a birch log cabin about 10' by 16', evidently heated by a barrel stove, on the south side of a hill. Leo Stephan (p. 46) noted that "Native people would not make this, because they know birch rots right away." McMahan and Holmes (1996:30-31) evidently mapped this site as a "recent log structure" but describe it as two clusters of pit features, perhaps trash or latrine pits from recent military or recreational use. The second location along the Knik Bluff Trail investigated by the Dena'ina Team in 1994 (Site 7) is on the south side of a hill that Lester Stephan named "Bee Sting Hill (see Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:47,107-108). They concluded that this was the remains of a small cabin of birch logs. Members of the Dena'ina Team, including Knik Tribe representatives, visited this site again in 2002 (Fall 2002). McMahon and Holmes (1996:31-32) briefly investigated this site (ANC-838). They too noted that birch logs are not usually used in cabin construction because of poor preservation. They suggested that the building might be a cribbed foxhole or bunker. The third location along both sides of the trail (Site 8), visited twice by the Dena'ina Team in 1994, consists of a house pit, wells, and four doghouses, which when first observed had been suspected to be grave houses (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:47-49). This is likely a
35 homestead complex (ANC-839) belonging to George Rosenbohm (McMahan and Holmes 1996:32-34). Nothing is known of Rosenbohm except that he applied for the property in 1933, | was granted it in 1938, and sold it to the federal government in 1942 (Daugherty and Saleeby 1998:44). ANC-840 is another cabin ruin on the Rosenbohm homestead tract (McMahan and Holmes 1996:34-35). It evidently was not investigated by the Dena'ina Team. |
Green Lake and Its Outlet Stream: Moonshine Creek and Ch'ak'dinlenghet I
In 1930, the anthropologist Frederica de Laguna (1975[originall934]:140) learned of a I village site called "Tcukti'ntlinat" on the north bank of "Moonshine Creek" from Theodore of Eklutna (Wasilla Theodore), who had found "a T-shaped hunting adze or pick here." The late Mike Alex of Eklutna called this site "Ch'ak'dinkenghet," or "by the current that flows out" (Table 5; Kari 1978:15). This evidently was an important Knik Arm fishing site for Dena'ina families based at Eklutna. The Alex family fished here until 1918 (Kari 1978:15; Kari and Fall 3 1987: 289). In the first edition of Shem Pete's Alaska (Kari and Fall 1987:289), the definitive compilation of Upper Inlet Dena'ina place names, Ch'ak'dinlenghetwas placed at the mouth of the outlet stream of Green Lake, now locally called "Moonshine Creek" (e.g. McMahan and Holmes 1996:35-37; Daugherty and Saleeby 1998:66). However, this placement is now uncertain, as discussed below.19 Davis and the Dena'ina Team in 1994 (2003:49-52) located pits and house depressions north of the mouth of the Green Lake outlet stream along the Knik Arm bluff, which is Site 9 on their list. Following the Dena'ina Team's lead, McMahan and Holmes (1996:35-40) later examined this site on "Moonshine Creek," labeled ANC-443, including the log cabin ruin and seven pit features. They noted (p. 38) that "It is likely that this location... was used for a range | of activities during late prehistoric and historic times." They could not find conclusive evidence that the pits were Dena'ina caches. I
19 In their study of homesteading on the present-day ElmendorfAir Force Base during the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, Dougherty and Saleeby (1998:27) note that making "moonshine" was a pass time and source of income for some homesteaders. It should be noted that this was during the prohibition era.
36 Subsequently, Daugherty and Saleeby (1998) identified this location as the site of the homestead of John and Nellie Brown, who lived there from 1915 to 1923. The cabin remains on the site are thought to be those of the cabin built by the Browns (1998:16). The Browns called their homestead "Alderbrook" (Barry 2000:53-58), which raises a question as to whether the nearby stream is the "Moonshine Creek" referred to by de Laguna. Based on Barry's account, it is unlikely that the Browns were producers of "moonshine." (Correspondingly, the second edition of Shem Pete's Alaska locates Ch 'ak'dinlenghet at either the mouth of the outlet stream of Green Lake or the mouth of Six-Mile Creek [Kari and Fall 2003:329-330].) It is also uncertain how the homesteading at this site is related to abandonment of Ch'ak'dinlenghet (if indeed this is the correct location) by the Dena'ina in 1918. During visits to this site, Davis and the Dena'ina Team observed evidence of what they concluded are culturally modified trees. These are large, old birch trees with extremely twisted and looped branches, suggesting to Team members that perhaps items such as nets had been hung in them. During a visit to the south side of "Moonshine Creek" on August 19, 1998, Nancy Yaw Davis (1998e:5) noted one very large, old tree in particular (Figure 5) with "at least five large loops on the lower limbs, and several small loops in the upper limbs," that "would have been visible and a clear marker [of a Dena'ina settlement] from the beach, standing out in an otherwise clear area." While visiting Green Lake in 2002, Leo Stephan noted its likely use as a fishing site or village by the Dena'ina. Specifically, he mentioned the possibility of placing traps for rainbow trout in spring at the lake outlet (Fall 2002). There are other locations in Upper Inlet Dena'ina territory where such traps were used, including Hewitt Lake and Red Shirt Lake (Kari and Fall 1987:136,89; Kari and Fall 2003:101,149). Dan Alex, whose family traditionally fished at Ch'ak'dinlenghet, recalled an oral tradition related to him by his father Mike Alex, that Green Lake (which would be Ch 'ak'dinlen Bena if the village site was on the lake's outlet stream) was the site of the last battle between the Knik Arm Dena'ina and "invaders" from the south, most likely Alutiiq (D. Alex 2002). He summarized the story as follows:
Now, the story about that Green Lake on Elmendorf was told to me by my father. In the days when my grandfather was a young man there was the last battle with invaders from
37 I I I I I I I I I I I I
Figure 5. Karen Workman at large potential culturally-modified tree near one possible location of Ch'ak'dinlenghetat the outlet of "Moonshine Creek," the Green Lake outlet stream, Elmendorf Air Force Base, 1998. Photo by Nancy Yaw Davis. I I I I 38| the lower inlet. They used to come up to take slaves. And they were waiting for them this one year. I have no idea when it was but it was when my grandfather was a young man. They were prepared for the invaders and they ambushed them. And they had a battle and they killed all of them but one and they let one get away and go back down the inlet and tell them it's not a good idea to come up. The battle site was Green Lake.
Mr. Alex added that those who had been killed in the battle, both Dena'ina and their enemies, were cremated at the battle scene. He suggested that other potential physical evidence of this battle might be weapons such as the large horn clubs soaked in grease (k'duhet). Art Theodore (2002) commented that the Dena'ina traditionally hid buried caches of weapons away from their villages and camps in case of surprise attack, and such caches might yet be located in the Elmendorf and greater Anchorage area. Site 10 on the Dena'ina Team list is the Nottviet Cabin (ANC-908, Building 52-650) on the northeast side of Green Lake (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:52). This cabin, built by Iver Nottviet in 1941, is on the former Emil Savola homestead. Also at this site is ANC-425 (Building 52-560), the Green Lake Chalet. This was originally Savola's second cabin on his homestead and was unfinished at the time of his death, and later renovated by the military (Daugherty and Saleeby 1998:59). It does not appear that this site has any specific Dena'ina affiliations.
Six Mile Creek: "Moonshine Creek"?
The first edition of Shem Pete's Alaska contained no Dena'ina name for this stream (Site 11 in the Dena'ina Team's list; south side site ANC-841; north side site ANC-842). However, Davis and the Dena'ina Team (1994:107; 2003:49-50,56) suggested that de Laguna's "Moonshine Creek" might be Six-Mile Creek rather than the Green Lake outlet stream. They pointed out that there are still salmon runs in Six-Mile Creek, making it a likely location for a Dena'ina village or fish camp. They suggested that Site 11 might be the site that de Laguna, from information provided by Wasilla Theodore, referred to as "Tcukti'ntlinat" (Ch'ak'dinlenghet). Also of interest is that the map in de Laguna's report shows "Moonshine Creek" flowing from the southeast to the northwest, as does Six-Mile Creek, and not draining a lake. Six Mile Lake was created by the US Army Corps of Engineers in 1951 as a float plane landing (McMahan and
39 Holmes 1996:7), while Green Lake is a natural water body. On the other hand, the name "Moonshine Creek" has been linked to the Green Lake outlet stream since the "homesteader era" (Allen Richmond, Elmendorf AFB, personal communication, 2002) and Alex Family oral traditions link their fish camp site to the Green Lake outlet stream as well (Dan Alex 2002). Nevertheless, Six-Mile Creek appears to be a likely location for a Dena'ina village or fish camp. No oral traditions about Dena'ina uses of this site have been recorded (unless the traditions about Ch 'ak'dinkenghet do indeed refer to this location and not the Green Lake outlet stream). The Davis and the Dena'ina Team (2003:52-57) investigated this site in 1994. They found what they suggested was a Dena'ina fish storage pit, homestead debris, and "considerable evidence of World War II." A white spruce tree cored by Allen Richmond of the AFB suggested that the pit was last used more than 70 years ago. McMahan and Holmes (1996:42-44) investigated this site in 1994. They noted that "historic cultural features are located on the bluffs both north and south of Six Mile Creek and are believed to represent multiple periods of use." However, these sites are "severely disturbed" and they were unable to link any of the features definitively to Dena'ina uses. I Daugherty and Saleeby (1998:13,16,67) established that this was the site of the first homestead application on what was to become the Elmendorf AFB, filed by Axel Hirvela in 1914. He lived on the property until 1943 when he was evicted by the military. Little information has been uncovered about Hirvela. This site deserves further investigation.
EOD Creek and "Chabash Beach"
This small stream has no recorded Dena'ina name. It is called "Explosive Ordinance Disposal Creek," or "EOD Creek" for short. (Numbers 12 and 13, in the Dena'ina Team's list; Table 4). The stream supports a small run of coho salmon. The Dena'ina Team found a number of promising features, including potential storage pits, a possible house depression, and what may be culturally modified trees (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:57-62). In July 1994, the Dena'ina Team investigated the stretch of beach to the northeast of EOD Creek (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:63-68). Leo Stephan located six wooden posts driven into the ground, approximately 5 inches in diameter (Figure 6). The Dena'ina Team suggested
40 - -.
c ~'
Figure 6. Leo Stephan Investigates Buried Posts at "Chabash Beach," 1998. Photo by Nancy Yaw Davis.
41 I
that they might be the remains of a setnet site (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:65). On the beach at high tide level, Leo Stephan also found a 5-inch by 4-inch rock with about 10 chips removed from one end. It appeared to be a chopping tool. The Team collected this potential artifact. This discovery prompted Leo Stephan to make a scraping tool called a "chabash" by carefully dropping a small round rock on another rock, producing a boulder chip. The chabash is still used by some Dena'ina for cleaning moose hides (P. Garcia 2002). The name "Chabash Beach" commemorates this event (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:66-68). In June 1999, the Dena'ina Team for the first time explored the stretch of beach south of EOD Creek (Davis 1999a; G. Ondola 1999b). (This is Site 19 in Table 4.) They found rocks with "unusual marks," which Davis photographed and believes are petroglyphs (pecked pictures) of boats, and other rocks that were chipped. An archaeological survey of this stretch of beach in 1994 (McMahan and Holmes 1996:44) noted disturbance of the bluff area by military activity and "only moderate potential for locating earlier cultural material due to generally poor access to the beach and to fresh water sources." This survey noted two historic sites in the EOD Creek I area (ANC-843 and ANC 844), concluding that "as with the Moonshine and Six Mile Creek localities, sites and features in the EOD Creek bluffs area appear to represent intermittent use over multiple time periods" (McMahan and Holmes 1996:45). ANC-843 has two pit features that are perhaps Dena'ina fish storage pits that were abandoned after homesteading began in the general area. Maps compiled by Daugherty and Saleeby (1998:15,28,40,51) do not document any homestead claim along Knik Arm near EOD Creek. Homestead claims inland from this location date no earlier than the 1930s.
"School Fish Camp" Site: Nutl'eghghulk'et'
This important site is within the Fort Richardson U. S. Army Base, to the northeast of the Elmendorf AFB boundary, across Eagle Bay on the northeast corer of Whitney Point. When the Dena'ina Team visited this site in 1994, Leo Stephan found the location of the large smokehouse, about 14 feet by 20 feet, that was used to put up fish by the students of the Eklutna Vocational School, which operated between 1923 and 1945 (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:68-78; see also Chandonnet 1979:21-23). Nearby were remnants of a tent frame and the water supply. I 42 I Alberta Stephan (1998b; also included in Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003) has written a short account of the "school fish camp site." She notes that it had long been a hunting and fishing location for the Eklutna Dena'ina, and an important stop on the way home from fish camps. About the school camp itself, she writes:
In 1923 . . . the Bureau of Indian Affairs moved the orphanage at Tyonek Village to Eklutna Village. The school used the site for putting up fish for the school. There was a large smoke house there. The orphanage by this time was called Eklutna Vocational st th School and the school taught the children from 1 to the 12 grades. They taught them to make a living any way they could. They had farm animals and potato fields and they grew vegetables. The soil in this area was not very good but they managed.
In the same account, Alberta Stephan noted that Eklutna people continued to use the site for moose hunting and fall silver salmon fishing after the school moved in 1945. However, "the Army at Fort Richardson warned them not to stop any where near the base but keep moving. One of the fishermen had motor trouble and he was approached by the army guards and watched until he was able to start his motor." The last time the area was used for moose hunting by Eklutna People was about 1969. The last time it was fished for fall silvers was about 1957. The smokehouse was still standing then. Another former fishing site for Eklutna Dena'ina was K'qiydulghakt, also at Whitney Point north of Eagle Bay. According to Shem Pete, dry and fermented fish were prepared here and k'tl'ila ("Indian potatoes"; Hedysarum alpinum) dug up (Kari and Fall 1987:287; 2003:325). Davis and the Dena'ina Team explored the stretch of beach south of the School Fish Camp site in 1998, which they dubbed "Keklila Beach" (from k'tl'ila, "Indian potato") (Davis 1998f:2; Davis 1998g; Davis 1998h). (This is Site 18 in Table 4.) They noted numerous poles and sticks eroding on to the beach from under a deep layer of peat. They also found a double roll of birch bark and a digging stick, which they retrieved from the exposed deposit, 18 inches below the surface. In total, the materials noted at this site might be evidence of a former Dena'ina village or fish camp, as Davis suggested, or may be tidal deposits that built up rapidly following subsidence of the area after the 1964 earthquake (Hamilton 1998).
43 I
Ship Creek: Dghevavtnu I Lower Ship Creek is just south of the Elmendorf AFB; portions of the stream flow through the base and Fort Richardson. Davis (1965:15, 18) noted that Ship Creek was the hereditary fish camp site for several Eklutna families, but that they lost access to these sites after the founding of Anchorage in 1915. Chandonnet (1985:38) wrote that Mike Alex recalled an epidemic at the Ship Creek fish camp during the summer of 1916, which killed many Dena'ina. Shem Pete (Kari and Fall 2003:332) described Dena'ina uses of this stream: |
They talk about Dgheyay Leht. That was a good place to save ourselves [from | starvation]. A lot of king salmon swim in there, and they still go upstream there. Needlefish [stickleback] run along with them. You put your hand in, it is just full of needle fish. No one uses this anymore. They used to survive on needlefish. And salmon spawn there, and they used to put up salmon. That Eklutna Alex and Old Man Theodore put up salmon there. . . [At Ship Creek] the hooligan and the needlefish run first. They run mixed together. No one went to bed at this season, they say. They may have been starving and may have barely survived [the winter]. Wherever they had stopped in the uplands-Yentna, Susitna, or I Kichatna-when some of the people feel sorry for themselves, they drag themselves down here and they become really satisfied. At that Dgheyay Leht we save ourselves nicely. Those Knik Arm Dena'ina bring themselves there and survive on needlefish. After the needlefish, they put up salmon. That is the only place like this.
Correspondingly, Alberta Stephan (1996a: 18) wrote:
Each spring the Indians had used all their supplies and begun looking for food. They knew the first fresh fish in the spring would be stickle-back fish, which they boiled for soup. Then hooligan (smelt) would become available. Ducks and other migrating birds came back in the early spring, and the Indians were able to gather duck and sea gull eggs. Trout were also caught in traps.
In 1998, several members of the Dena'ina Team investigated possible sites of a cabin on | upper Ship Creek that Leo Stephan had lived in as a child (Davis and the Dena'ina Team 2003:78-82). They explored possible locations along Arctic Valley Road on Fort Richardson. (This is one of four new sites added to the original list of 15 compiled by the Dena'ina Team and is Number 16 in Table 4.) This general area was used by the Dena'ina for hunting (Kari and Fall 1987:292; 2003:332).
44 Chester Creek: Chanshtnu
Chester Creek is called Chanshtnu ("Grass Creek") in Dena'ina, and the mouth of the creek is Chansh Kaq' (Table 5). (Note that "Chester" appears to be the anglicized version of Chanshtnu.) Several Dena'ina used to fish for salmon near the mouth of Chester Creek. Bailey Theodore said that his father Wasilla Theodore and Bobby Stephan fished for king salmon here as did John Stump (Kari and Fall 2003:332). Alberta Stephan (1996a:149) notes that Eklutna Alex had a fish camp near Chester Creek mouth, "but he had to move to Fire Island when Anchorage became a town." In 2002, Leo Stephan suggested that Wasilla Theodore's house and the adjacent fish camp of his brother Eklutna Alex were near the present intersection of Stolt and Ninth Avenue, just east of the railroad tracks. He recalled visiting these sites as a boy by walking down what is now the hill at the west end of Fifth Avenue and then south along the railroad tracks. According to Leo, Wasilla Theodore had a house, smokehouse, and bathhouse. Eklutna Alex had a smokehouse and tent just to the northeast. Both locations were served by a single spring. Leo Stephan's family camped south of this location close to present-day Westchester Lagoon, after completing their fishing at Point Woronzof. Similarly, Alberta Stephan (1994:88) recalled:
Another place I remember stopping was at Eklutna Alex's fish camp, which was located at [the] Chester Creek area, near the end of Fifth Avenue. He had a smoke house and a summer home there. He had to move because Anchorage was becoming a city, and the land was being surveyed and sold. The original people that lived here had to move in spite of having homes there for a number of years.
After losing their fishing sites in Anchorage, both Wasilla Theodore and Eklutna Alex established fish camps on Fire Island. (See below) It should be noted that oral traditions link several people, such as Wasilla Theodore and Eklutna Alex, with both Ship Creek and Chester Creek. Given the proximity of the house site pointed out by Leo Stephan to both streams, this is not necessarily contradictory information. They could have used both streams, or moved their camps over time. Another Dena'ina person who had a house and fish camp on Chester Creek was Chief Stephan of Knik, also known as Qatsen and Stepankda (not to be confused with Rufe Stephan,
45 who was also called Stepankda). Dena'ina elder Sava Stephan, formerly of Susitna Station and Tyonek (no relation to Rufe Stephan or Leo Stephan) recalled (in Kari and Fall 2003:337):
The one they call Stepankda stayed there. Qatsen I think his name was Stepankda. I He lived in Anchorage, his home was at Chester Creek, on Anchorage side. They had a building house for him. Just on the side of the hill up Chester Creek. We had to go over the railroad and on the other side is a sand bar. And Inlet was there already. I was two or three years old. That's [he is from] Old Knik, old fella. I think he got about 11 or 12 girls. All his daughters. We come there, and we stayed there with my dad [Anderson Stephan, brother to Bobby Stephan]. And Chidashla and my grandma we walked there next. Back trail and they know where they go. They drag us over there. They had a couple of cabins there. Them ladies they walked the beach on the mud flat. We come back there [to Chester Creek]. [Later in 1940s] the old ladies, one of them was his wife I think, I don't know, his widow. I remember about 5 or 6 years after that we come back to them, my dad, my grandma took me over to that place over there next. Same one, same guy. He got about 5 or 6 girls and about 3 boys. They got a whole bunch of kids out of him. Stepankda, he was from Knik. He had a house up Knik too. And down Chester Creek that's where he built a house. There were lots of Dena'ina [living in Anchorage].
Again, as with the recollections of Billy Pete, Alice Theodore, and others, Sava Stephan remembers the frequent visiting between Anchorage sites by Dena'ina families. It is interesting that this visiting involved not only Knik Arm Dena'ina, but also people from the Susitna River and Tyonek. This demonstrates the shared sense of identity among the three traditional Upper Inlet regional bands that was reinforced through common experiences in Anchorage.
Point Woronzof: Nuch'ishtunt I
Point Woronzof was a Dena'ina fish camp long before the arrival of Euro-Americans and into the 1960s. Its history provides additional clues about how sites on Elmendorf AFB such as Tak'at and Ch 'ak'dinlenghetwere most likely used by the Dena'ina. De Laguna (1975:140) reported a summer fishing camp at Point Woronzof "about a mile | south of the point called Nuti'ctunt" (1975:140). Shem Pete (Kari and Fall 1987:294; 2003:334) stated that in the early nineteenth century Nuch'ishtunt was a tanik'edi fishing site. A log fish | dock was set in the mud flats for dipnetting salmon, similar to the one used at Tak'at. This may
46 also be the "village" called "Nukitun" mentioned in the Wrangell notes from the 1830s said to be near Point Possession (Arndt 1985). According to the Cook Inlet Historic Sites Project (1975:84), Leo Stephan reported two sites at this general location. (See also page 89 in that report for a sketch map of the second site.) The first site was said to contain "pits on bluff south of Pt. Woronzof." The second is more extensive and "contains remains of fish camps, smokehouse, bath house and graves; site area utilized by Natives from Knik, Susitna, and Matanuska areas for at least 100 years." As recalled by Shem Pete (Kari and Fall 1987:294; 2003:334),
[Nuch'ishtunt] was Ezi's fish camp and also Qalbis, Wassilli Theodore. There was a steam bath and five or six smokehouses there. Billy Ezi stayed there until 1945 or 1946.
Alberta Stephan (1996a:149) recalled that her grandmother Olga Ezi's father and stepmother used to put up fish at Point Woronzof, coming down the Matanuska Valley by foot from Tyone Lake. (Figure 7 shows some members of the Ezi family at Point Woronzof in 1942.) And Leo Stephen (in Kari and Fall 2003:338) provided this detail about the seasonal use of this site by families based out of the village of Niteh on the lower Knik River while visiting the site in 2001:
They would all come up from Niteh. They might stay from May until August. They used to row down here in a dory, catching the tide. All the way out to end of where of this grass there used to be ten, fifteen other fish camps... My grandfather was here. There was a bath house right here. That was the last thing standing and it's gone. There used to be a tent frame right here. That's the wall of the bath house... The smoke house they burned down here was made out of big logs, like this, and no nails. They used wooden pins [dowels] to hold them together.
Susie Yakasoff Ondola was born at Point Woronzof and spent summers from May to August there as a girl with her father, mother, and siblings in the 1930s and early 1940s (Figure 8). She and her husband George Ondola, who fished with his grandfather Eklutna Alex on Fire Island during the same period, recalled that Dena'ina families lived in tents at Point Woronzof (S. Ondola 1999; G. and S. Ondola 2001). There were also smokehouses and steam baths. Salmon were caught for commercial sale and subsistence use. They were preserved by smoking, drying, and salting. Susie's father worked for the Alaska Railroad the rest of the year.
47 I I I I I I I I I I I
Figure 7. Members of the Ezi Family at Their Fish Camp, Point Woronzof, 1942. From left: Pete Ezi, Sr., Pete Ezi, Jr., Margie Rousseau Rosser, Knik Prince. Photo courtesy of Alberta Stephan.
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48 Figure 8. YakasoffFamily at Fish Camp, Point Woronzof, Late 1930s. From left: Mike Yakasoff, Sr., Jimmy Ezi, Mike Yakasoff, Jr., Felix Yakasoff. Photo Courtesy George and Susie Ondola and William Churchill.
49 Alberta Stephan (1994:87) describes the displacement of Dena'ina and non-Native fishers from this site. |
The Territorial Fish and Game Department closed Point Woronzof to commercial fishing approximately 1946. The closure of Point Woronzof to commercial I fishing left five Native families and three white men without a place to fish. The Native families were Bill Ezi, Pete Ezi, Leo Stephan, Wasilla Theodore, and Mike Yakasoff. The white men as far as I can remember were John Wif, Ed Hall, and John Hedberg who fished around Point Campbell. All of these fishermen did not receive any kind of compensation for losing their fishing | sites.
Alberta Stephan (2002) believes that Bill Ezi Sr. continued to use his Point Woronzof I camp for subsistence salmon fishing until about 1950.
Fire Island: Nutul'iv
This is old fishing location for the Dena'ina. Shem Pete said that before contact with non-Natives, the Knik Arm Dena'ina operated a tanik'edi (dip net platform) on the west shore of Fire Island (Kari and Fall 1987:295; 2003:339). De Laguna (1975:136) reported that Theodore of Eklutna (Wasilla Theodore) told her that an epidemic had destroyed a village on Fire Island and that the survivors moved to Point Possession. Patsy Garcia (2002) and Art Theodore (2002) recall learning from their parents (Bailey and Alice Theodore) of a former fish campsite whose occupants had all died and they were warned to stay away from it. The Alex and Theodore families maintained fish camps here from about 1918 to the 1970s. George Ondola fished here with his grandfather, Eklutna Alex, and more recently assisted his uncle Roy Alex at his site (G. and S. Ondola 2001). Both the Alex and Theodore families began using Fire Island for fishing after being displaced from their mainland sites in the Anchorage area (see above). Patsy Garcia (2002) and Art Theodore (2002) provided details of their family's activities on Fire Island in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
50 I
50 I Point Campbell: Ukchena Bada Huch 'ilvut
As noted above, this is the site of the final episode in an account of a battle between Alutiiq (Ulchena) raiders from Prince William Sound and the Knik Arm Dena'ina. The site was fished by "Moose Meat" John Hedberg, a non-Native man married to a Dena'ina woman, until he was forced to leave due to the closure of the area to commercial fishing by federal authorities in the 1940s (A. Stephan 1994:87).
Point Possession: Tuvqun
th Although located on the Kenai Peninsula, Point Possession from the late 19 century was associated with Upper Inlet Dena'ina from the Anchorage, Knik Arm, and Matanuska River area rather than with lower or outer inlet Dena'ina from the Kenai area. There was a year-round village here, sometimes called Nicholai Village after the family that lived there, until 1927 when the inhabitants began to spend winters in Anchorage so the children could go to school (Pennington 1986:25). It continued to be an important fishing site for the Kallendar family, Shem and Billy Pete, Leo Stephan, Mike Theodore, and others, who spent the winter in Anchorage, Eklutna, and Nancy Lake. For an account of life at Point Possession, see Pennington (1986). (See also Kari and Fall 1987:312-314 and Kari and Fall 2003:352-354.) Point Possession is still used by members of the Kallendar family today. It remains one of the few examples of the traditional Dena'ina seasonal camp in the Cook Inlet area other than those affiliated with Tyonek Dena'ina families along western Cook Inlet.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The destruction of the traditional fish camp at Tak'at in the early 1940s ended centuries of Dena'ina uses of the natural resources of what became the Elmendorf Air Force Base. Because access to the AFB was severely restricted to the Dena'ina community for 60 years, few additional details from oral history can now be learned about this and other former Dena'ina sites on the present-day base. However, much can be understood through an examination of general
51 I
patterns of Dena'ina subsistence activities in the Knik Arm area. And through additional I archaeological investigations, more details about specific sites and general land use patterns may emerge. What has been summarized here should only be the foundation for further research. As has been shown in this short overview, Dena'ina presence in the area on and near the Elmendorf Air Force Base and the Anchorage area is of long duration and has been persistent. The review of the traditional seasonal round of the Knik Arm Dena'ina and their use of a set of fish camps within the boundaries of Anchorage until the mid-20t h Century shows the continuity of the Dena'ina way of life despite almost overwhelming demographic, economic, and sociocultural changes. Before the arrival of Euro-Americans and probably throughout the 19h Century and into the early 20th Century, there were Dena'ina fish camps, and probably several I villages, stretching along southern Knik Arm from its head at the mouth of the Knik River to Point Campbell. Gradually, the Dena'ina lost access to some of these sites through changing rules of property ownership, or stopped using some of them as the Dena'ina population dropped. But as remembered by elders today, use of other places continued at least into the 1940s, even as the non-Native population of Anchorage grew. While many Dena'ina found jobs with the Alaska Railroad and engaged in commercial fishing to earn the cash needed in a transformed economy, summer subsistence fishing at Tak'at, Chester Creek, Point Woronzof, Fire Island, and other sites, remained important. Just as important, these sites were a physical representation of Dena'ina social organization, associated with particular families, and the focal points of rounds of visiting that linked Dena'ina from throughout the Upper Inlet area, as well as their Ahtna relatives. This pattern of use of these sites was well-organized, deliberate, and consistent with longstanding Dena'ina cultural traditions and economic strategies. The loss of Tak'at was one event in a series of restrictions that began with the founding of Anchorage and continued into the 1960s and 1970s. As discussed above, sites at Ship Creek and Chester Creek were lost to Dena'ina families as others claimed the sites as their own, taking advantage of the new rules that they themselves had imposed on the existing Dena'ina system of land tenure. Changes to the rules governing commercial fishing forced Dena'ina families to leave Point Woronzof and Point Campbell, although the former may have been used for another decade or more for subsistence fishing until that activity was banned entirely from Knik Arm
52 I after statehood. Dena'ina families continued using fish camps on Fire Island and Point Possession, the former into the 1970s, and the latter up to the present. The formation of the Dena'ina Team in 1994 and the support of its activities by the AFB enabled a return of members of the Dena'ina community to the base after 50 years. It also began a renewed interest in Dena'ina history and provided a forum for Dena'ina people to share their knowledge and skills. Through the continuation of this process, some of the lost information about this history can be restored and the history itself acknowledged by all who now live in the Dena'ina homeland. We conclude this report with several recommendations. These recommendations are directed not only to Elmendorf AFB personnel, but also to members of the Dena'ina community and their tribal governments.
* The activities of the Dena'ina Team should continue. Perhaps the Team can be formalized through government-to-government agreements between the Air Force and the tribal governments of Eklutna and Knik. This could provide a procedure for consultation when decisions about known and potential prehistoric and historic sites need to be made. * Further formal investigation of sites documented through this project, and sites located in future research, needs to occur as a collaborative effort between the AFB and the tribes. Possibilities include archaeological field schools and research projects by university and graduate students. * A display featuring Dena'ina materials should be developed at the AFB museum. It could feature, among other things, photographs, maps, and artifacts located by the Dena'ina Team. It could address the broader Anchorage and Knik Arm area to provide a larger geographic context. * Perhaps to a small degree some Dena'ina uses of part of the base could be reintroduced. One possibility is including a former fishing location, such as Ch 'ak'dinlenghet at the mouth of Moonshine Creek (at the Green Lake outlet stream or Six-Mile Creek), within the educational fisheries now conducted by the Eklutna and Knik Tribes.
53 I
Finally, there is a need to inform everyone about Dena'ina history in the Anchorage area, including many members of the Dena'ina community and the larger Alaska Native community themselves. This educational process can utilize a variety of tools, including reports, presentations, museum displays, video programs, and informational signs and displays at sites and along trails. This process can be a partnership between many entities including land owners (such as the Air Force and Army), tribal and municipal governments, other government agencies, schools, and the university. It would be an excellent way to continue the momentum created by the Dena'ina Team. I I I I I I I I I I I I 54 I References Cited
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56 2003 Draft Report 2: Exploring Land Use Patterns: Elmendorf Air Force Base (Knik Arm) Area, Alaska. Prepared for the Native Village of Eklutna, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the National Park Service, and Elmendorf Air Force Base. March 2003.
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57 I
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2003 Shem Pete's Alaska: The Territory of the Upper Cook Inlet Dena'ina [second edition]. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press.
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58 McMahan, J. David and Charles E. Holmes 1996 Archaeological Survey of Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska: Final Report. Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Office of History and Archaeology Report Number 61. Anchorage.
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Pete, Billy 1994 Interviewed by Nancy Yaw Davis, with George Ondola, Susie Ondola, and Carolyn Ondola. August 19, 1994. Anchorage.
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59 Reger, Richard D. and DeAnne S. Pinney 1996 Late Wisconsin Glaciation of the Cook Inlet Region with Emphasis on the Kenai I Lowland and Implications for Early Peopling. In Adventures through Time: Readings in the Anthropology of Cook Inlet, Alaska, Nancy Yaw Davis and William E. Davis, editors, pp. 13 - 35. Anchorage: Cook Inlet Historical Society.
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1996b The First Athabascans of Alaska: Strawberries. Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishing Co.
nd 1998a The Dena'ina Team: 2 Trip on ElmendorfAFB Lands, August 19, 1998. I (corrections made 9/24/01)
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2001 Cheda (Athabascan Indian for grandma). Anchorage: Todd Communications. I
2002 Interviewed by James Fall. Anchorage, Alaska. March 28, 2002.
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Theodore, Alice 1998 Interviewed by Nancy Yaw Davis and Tom Liebscher. Knik, Alaska. May 1, 1998.
Theodore, Art 2002 Interviewed by James A. Fall and Nancy Yaw Davis. Knik, Alaska. September 19, 2002 Theodore, Carol I 2002 Interviewed by James A. Fall. Wasilla, Alaska. September 12, 2002.
60 Theodore, Paul 2002 Interviewed by James A. Fall and Nancy Yaw Davis. Knik, Alaska. September 19, 2002.
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61 62 Appendix A: Selections from Interview with Billy Pete
Background: This interview took place in Anchorage, Alaska on August 19, 1994, from about 4 to 5 p.m. It was audio-taped. The interviewers were Nancy Yaw Davis (NYD) and George Ondola (GO). Others Present were Susie Ondola (George's wife) and Carolyn Ondola (their granddaughter). Copies of the audio-tape and a full transcription are in the possession of James Fall and Nancy Yaw Davis.
NYD: This is August 19, 1994 at 10 minutes after 4. We are in the office of Nancy Yaw Davis and I'm the interviewer. But the person who is here is Bill Pete and we're going to talk to him about some topics. But first of all I'd like to know a little more about Bill and his background and who his parents were. With us also are George and Susie Ondola and their granddaughter Carolyn [Ondola]. And we have some specific topics to cover but if we get into other things, that's OK too. Now I'm going to put this here and I'm quite sure it's going to pick us up. If you ever want to stop it, you just push that button. Now Bill, tell me where you were born. Go ahead. BP: I was born at Susitna Station they used to call it. That was January the 18th, 1920. Actually, th I was born January the 19 , but you know how Indians count. If one in the morning comes, they count that day until the next day, next morning. I was born around 1:30 in the morning. That was 19th. But the Indians, the way they count, why I was born on the 18th. NYD: And you've lived at Nancy Lake and you've been written about with your father Shem Pete and now you live in Tyonek. You came in today and you understand that we're interested in anything that happened at Elmendorfthat you remember either going there to visit down on the beach. Can you tell us anything about what you remember before the war? BP: Oh, they had a back road from Fourth Avenue. They had a back road. They used to go across to Government Hill and then they had a back road. Once in a while we used to take a taxi down there. Chauncy Peterson's taxi. And it used to cost the big money of 50 cents. NYD: What was the last name? BP: Chauncy Peterson. NYD: Chauncy Peterson took you by cab down there. GO: I remember him. NYD: Oh, and George, you remember him. OK. BP: He used to have a big bunch of bus[es] when they built that Fort Richardson. And we used to go down there and visit Rufe Stephan's wife. I forgot her first name. NYD: Annie? Annie Stephan? BP: In fact, I never did hear her name. NYD: Alice Theodore's mother? B: Yeah. NYD: I think that was Annie. OK, but you'd go down there and visit. BP: Yeah. We used to go down there early in the morning we used to go down there, about 9 o- clock. And we used to stay there until about 4 o'clock in the evening. And then we used to walk 2 /2 mile back. It was about a pretty good 2 /2 mile walk I believe. NYD: Did you go along the top or down on the beach? BP: Use used to follow the road. NYD: How old were you then? BP: I was about 9 years old I guess.
63 NYD: Pretty young. In the 30s? BP: Yeah, back in '29 1 think. We used to go there, as far as I could remember, we used to spend all summer here in Anchorage after my grandma put up king salmon at Susitna Station. I And then we'd come to Anchorage here and spend the summer in Anchorage. And we just used to go to Tak'at and we used to go to Point Woronzoff and just visit around. NYD: Where were you living in Anchorage? BP: My grandma used to rent a house for $15 a month I think it was. NYD: Your grandmother - is your grandmother the one that raised you? I BP: Yeah, my mom died when I was five years old. NYD: So you would come in and stay with your grandma? BP: No, all my life I stayed with my grandma until I was about 11 years old, when she died. NYD: Then what did you do? BP: I stayed with my dad. Then 1934 we moved down to Tyonek. And after I become 16 I got old enough to go to work someplace and I went to work down at Emard's cannery. In 1938 1 guess we went back down Tyonek and they was building that airstrip so I got a job down there. I was their block and tackle man. NYD: Good for you. Is there anything more you can tell? Did you ever go back after you were nine years old to Tak'at? BP: About 1936 was the last time I visit that place there. NYD: Can you describe it to me? BP: I used to walk the beach at that time. And Rufe Stephan's wife used to stay there with all her kids. And she used to put up fish so, Old Man Rufe Stephan used to work on the railroad. And when I'm not working I used to go up there and play with the kids up there. | NYD: Do you remember the names of the kids? BP: There was Helen. Oh there was Irene. Irene was just a little girl then. The older girls, I didn't remember their names. Because they were old I guess. NYD: And you were a kid, a teenager. Do you remember what you did when you were there? BP: Oh, just play. You know how kids play. NYD: Did you play on the beach? BP: Yeah, just right on the beach. Nice beach over there. NYD: How about up in the woods? Did you go up on the bluff? BP: No. Look, I didn't want to get eaten up by a bear or anything. In fact, there was nothing up on the hill anyway. NYD: Could you walk from Ocean Dock all the way to Tak'at? BP: Yeah, I used to walk. There was a little creek there but low water I used to go across. I used to go up there and spend maybe an hour or two and come back down. That was back in 1936. I was working at the cannery at that time. NYD: That's another topic. You probably knew Feodora Kallander? BP: Oh, I used to know the whole family. NYD. They all worked down at Emard. That's a topic for the team to work on sometime. George, do you have some questions to ask him? Because you've already mentioned some of I the topics he knows. GO: I can't think of anything offhand, about Tak'at. Your father used to go over there too? BP: Yeah, before he used to go to work someplace, he used to go up there with my grandma and | quite a few people from Susitna, we used to all walk up there, or else get a taxi, two taxis. We used to go up there.
64 GO: Could you drive right down to the beach? BP: No, just on top of the hill they used to stop and then we walk down. NYD: And then you'd walk down from there. Who would you go with? That's a good question George. You went with your father. BP: Most of the time just me and my grandma and my sister [Mary Pete] and Tommy Nikolai's mother and her daughter was Doris, I think her name was. NYD: Can you tell me the name of your grandma? BP: My grandma's name was Annie, Annie Jacko. NYD: And Tommy Nikolai was there? BP: His mother used to go with us. Tommy Nikolai was an old man then. He was about 20 and he never go anyplace. NYD: Can you describe the buildings? BP: Oh, there was just a smokehouse over there and Old Man Rufe Stephan used to have a tent set over there and there was about two or three tents set over there. I don't know who used to own those other tents. NYD: Oh, tents. He had several tents there. OK. Do you remember his fishing right there on the beach? Did he fish right there? BP: Yeah. He used to have one or two nets set over there. When there's too many fish why they just put half a net out. That was good enough. When there was too many fish there. There used to be lots of fish long time ago. NYD: Have you heard the word "tanik'edi"? BP: Tanik'et. Tak'at, that's all they used to call it. Tanik'edi. I always call it wrong. NYD. What's the right one? BP: Tak'at. Yeah, that's what Fedora [Constantine] told me just about couple hours ago. NYD: Oh, you were talking to her. BP: She was at the landing field at Tyonek. NYD: Oh, wow, so you were asking her? BP: Yeah, I wanted to learn everything I could about [Tak'at]. NYD: That's wonderful. Tell me what she told you. BP: We just talk about Tak'at and then John Stump's father. I was talking about, there was an old man at Tak'at I used to be so scared of. And she start laughing at me and told me that was John Stump's father. And there was another old man but she couldn't remember who that was. They were from around Knik or Montana or somewhere around there. NYD: Do you know John Stump's father's name? BP: No, that was way before my time. Fedora mentioned his Indian name but I couldn't remember it. Look, about twenty years ago I had to go down Tyonek and go to bilingual school to learn how to talk Indian. GO: Do you remember Roy Alex at that last potlatch at Tak'at? He said he was there. BP: I think that was that funny looking man, boy that used to be over there. I'm pretty sure that was that funny looking boy that was over there. There was Mike Theodore and all those Theodore's [were there]. They had boats they used to call sloops. They were about 28 foot long I guess and about 6 foot wide and had a mast. They used to sail them around. GO: My grandfather had a boat. Round bottom. NYD: Did you go to the potlatch at Tak'at or did you hear about it? BP: No, I was over there [at potlatch]. GO: How long did it last?
65 BP: It lasted three days, I think. My grandma had big bunch of loaves of bread and bundle of fish. About 30 dollars worth of money I think. I GO: I wonder who was the potlatch for? BP: I was so young, I wasn't interested in potlatch. All I was interested in was Mike Theodore and all those other kids. And they'd call us and give us soup and tea and lots of bread and I things. Then we'd run back out and play. GO: Did you hear the drumming and dancing, singing? BP: They didn't have no drums at that time. They used to have board. About seven feet long. They used to hit that with a stick, like this. They didn't have no drums until about 1940 when them people start coming around Tyonek. And then my father bought one drum. GO: That's how he learned? To sing, and write songs, and sing. I know he did that well. BP: They use to just hit a board. They didn't know nothing about drums at that time.1 NYD: Was there singing though? BP: Yeah. Fedora know every song they singed over there. NYD: At Tak'at though. How about at Tak'at, at the potlatch? BP: That's what I mean. All the songs that they singed over there. There's only about four or five dozen songs that they singed. And Fedora know every one of them I believe. I NYD: Wouldn't that be something. She might remember. Is she older than you? BP: She's about a year or so younger than me but she had a brain. NYD: But she was so little. She would have only been about seven years old. I BP: I was only five or six years old. Six I think. Yeah, I was six years old. And she was five years old. NYD: Well, you're smart too there Bill. You remember a lot. BP: I remember from 1925 up to about five years ago. NYD: Are there other things you remember about Tak'at that you'd like to tell us for our history? | BP: Oh, after they got through with potlatch, then we got back in Old Man Theodore's sloop and right below, you remember that Chester Creek where they used to have, Theodore had a house? GO: Right down here, yeah. BP: They brought us back there. We had tent set over there. And they had two houses down there. Sam Pedro have a house down there and Theodore. GO: Sam Pedro? BP: Yeah. GO: I'm lining him up for an interview. I called his house. He's not around. BP: You should get that land back there, right at that Chester Creek. About quarter mile this side. There use to be spring water over there, about a quarter mile this side. GO: That's Theodore's cabin there? BP: Yeah. NYD: We could walk the Coastal Trail some time. And from there look up and see the different places. And you might remember. We could take pictures. Then what you remember there. Anyway, that's an idea for a project. But it sounds to me that Tak'at though it's at Elmendorf there was a lot of flow of people coming and going. And so it connects people together. Did I you ever go up to Eklutna when you were little? BP: Yeah, my grandma used to take me up there. GO: By boat?
66 BP: No, we used to go up there on a train. GO: Now that smokehouse? Was that right on the mudflats there? On the grass? BP: Yeah, right on that, there was lots of grass there. Tide never did go up there, as far as I know. And the army guys burned that smokehouse down and they used that place for garbage dump. NYD: That same place? BP: Yeah. It's right where that army dump used to be. NYD: Can you tell me anything more about what was happening in that part? BP: Up until about 1940, I think that's the last time they used that place. That Old Man Rufe. He put his wife over there to put up fish and then he went back to work on the railroad. Probably around 1944 I think. That's the last year they used that place. After that the army destroyed that place. About 1942 or somewhere along there when, yeah, 1942 when the army destroyed that place. In 1941. Yeah, 1941 that's the last time they used that place, I think. NYD: About in that time. BP: Yeah. NYD: Then what did the army do? Did they push stuff on it? What did they do? BP: They burned that smokehouse down in the spring. And then they start using that place for army dump. NYD: From on top of the bluff, down? BP: Yeah. NYD: Was there a cemetery anywhere nearby? BP: That's what I wanted to ask Fedora about... BP: ... And that Tak'at, 1941, that's the last year they use that place and after that there was nothing over there. The army guys destroyed that smokehouse, so they used to go up Montana Creek to put up fish. NYD: Is that where they went afterwards? BP: Yeah, after there was no more smokehouse at Tak'at, then they used to go up Montana Creek to put up fish. NYD: And that would be Rufe Stephan and his wife and his kids? BP: Yeah. Rufe Stephan used to work on the railroad but his wife and kids I guess used to go up there.
NYD: Is there anything more you can tell me about the army and what happened on Government Hill and Elmendorf? BP: Oh, the Elmendorf, when they built that place, why they needed a place to dump their garbage, so they, there was a road to that Tak'at already and so they just went down there and start dumping stuff over the bank over there. And that was 1941 I think. NYD: Do you think the stuff from the top hit on top of the smokehouse? BP: They burned that smokehouse down. NYD: Before, or did the garbage do it? BP: Probably the garbage burned it down. I don't know if they just simply walked down there and burned that place down. NYD: And the garbage came right down on top of where tents used to he. BP: Yeah. NYD: So nothing left. BP: There's nothing left over there except the garbage dump I guess.
67 I I NYD: ... [looking at a photo] Now this is looking from the beach, looking back towards Ocean Dock. And this is where we think there was a tent or something. But maybe it's not. BP: It's grown over and I can't tell you nothing now. There was no brush like this when I was around there. m NYD: What was it like? BP: It was just, there was a hill back here and there was just a mud flat out there with a bunch of tall grass. NYD: The tall grass is still there. BP: But all these trees wasn't around there. NYD: Now this is the tall grass and here's Anchorage down there. See? BP: These trees wasn't there. I NYD: OK, that's what's different, isn't it. BP: I can't tell you nothing. I know there's hills. [pause in tape] NYD: It's about five o'clock and I've just shown Bill Pete the piece of Blue Willow plate that was found at Tak'at and we're asking him if he remembers anything, if that brings back any memories. So before he answered I wanted to turn this on. Go ahead Bill. Tell us about the piece. BP: Yeah, there was a second-hand store on 4th Avenue by Chauncy Peterson's, this side of I Chauncy Peterson's. Towards C Street. All the Natives used to go there and there was a bench in front of, no, Peterson had bench in front of his place. But all the Natives used to go to that second hand store and sit around on the couch. They weren't couch, they were bench. | And that man used to, he found one like this one and he send it outside and he had whole bunch of them made and Natives like that so they used to buy maybe dozen of these plates and cups, little cups. They didn't have too much use for those pretty looking little cup and I saucer but the plates they liked. They were about this big. NYD: What did they use them for? BP: To eat out of! I NYD: They didn't use them as gifts? BP: No. NYD: You use them in your house. | BP and GO: Yeah. BP: Just about everybody had pretty looking plates like this and just some of them, there was two or three different colored ones. This is one of them. And some of them was real pretty. They were all blue far as I know. NYD: OK. Do you remember too George? I GO: Yeah, I remember them. I remember them plates, yeah. NYD: How about you Susie? SO: I remember them too but I remember they had red too cause we had kind of a red set. I NYD: With a design like that? BP: Kind of reddish brown they were. SO: Yeah. GO: My grandfather Chada used to have a whole pile of them. BP: You look around there you might find a plate. GO: [?] old house, yeah. [?] it's private property now. It's been sold.
68 SO [to NYD]: His Chada's house. BP: He used to have bunch of plates like this when, 1927 I think my father made the potlatch over there. And they used to use this kind. NYD: For special occasions or everyday? BP: No, they use this for everyday. GO: Yep, everyday. NYD: Everyday, OK. It's pretty fancy plates. BP: Let's see. I forgot what they call them. There're bowls about this big and about this high with a flare on them. I got three or four them down at my house at Tyonek. I found them at old second hand store way up on 15th Avenue or someplace around there. I bought six of them. NYD: They remind you of the old days? BP: Yeah. They're the most useless things I ever found. And everybody had them when I was a small boy. Everybody had those big plate with a flare about something like this. And they were about this deep I guess. NYD: A couple inches deep. BP: Yeah and they used to use that for drinking soup and I couldn't drink soup out of that. I can't drink soup like this out of them. NYD: Because the bowls were too big? GO: Yes, it spills over. NYD: But they were kind of deep like a bowl? Not as flat as a plate. GO: They had flare around the edge. BP: Yeah, there was about inch and a half or so flare around the edge and they're the most useless bowls I ever seen in my life. NYD: But everybody wanted to have one. BP: Yeah. Everybody, everybody and his brother had plates like that.
69 70 I Appendix B: Selections from Interview with Alice Stephan Theodore
Background: This interview took place in Knik, Alaska, on May 1, 1998. It was audio-taped. Interviewers were Nancy Yaw Davis (NYD) and Tom Liebscher (TL). Also present was Sammy Theodore (ST), Alice's son. Copies of the audio tape and a full transcription are in the possession of James Fall and Nancy Yaw Davis.
NYD: What you're saying is just so important that I would like to record it. Well, Alice, let me introduce you. This is Alice Theodore in Knik. And Alice is one of the few persons that has ever been to Tak'at on Elmendorf. And we're here this afternoon which is May 1 and it's 10 minutes after two talking with Alice. And she remembers going down a trail going over to Anchorage and then getting groceries and then going down the trail. And if you can remember any other things about Tak'at. AT: They put up a lot of fish. They used to. I used to like that fish. In that barrel. Salt brine they call it. They put up king salmon and then they seal it in the barrel. Ten gallon. They roll it back. Put it in the boat. And they bring back too. And then in wintertime we open it and then we soak it and then we use it. I remember that. We used to eat, just live on the country, that's all. It was fish, king salmon, salt fish, king salmon, dry fish and all that. And right now these days I'm hungry for it sometime. NYD: For those fish? AT: Yeah. I remember that my mother used to, which way she would soak it and which way she cook it. I remember that. I used to do that. I put up fish down below. We set out net. And then I soak it and then wintertime I do the same thing. I cook it for my kids and they eat that. I remember that. There's lots of things I remember now. All of my sisters all died off. My brothers all they died off. I'm the only one left. I'm the only one live in Knik. A whole lot of Natives used to live around here. It's just Native town it used to be around here. Just like before this street down the hill and then both side all house lined up. And then big boat come in and then they bring the grocery in and then they unload it and they take it up to Wasilla. Herning's store. They took it up to the store and they unloading and unloading. Which one they look at them. We run down there. All piled down there. All piled down there and we watch them working down there. And [??] Bunch of goat. Bunch of cattle and everything. Horses and everything. They eat up all the grass and it just like smooth all over. Pretty outdoors. It's like somebody cut grass all the time. NYD: It was handy to have those cattle eating the grass. That's right here at Knik? AT: Yeah. Sheep and goat and everything. Cattle. NYD: Well tell us more about Tak'at, Alice. When you were a little kid were you there or, when did you go to Tak'at? AT: I remember ever since I was, I remember, every spring we go down there. They put us in a boat. And then they row that. They didn't have no motor them days. They just row. Two oar they use. NYD: From here to Tak'at? AT: Yeah. My dad and my oldest brother. They row and they took us down there. Sometime they come back up for another load. They get blankets and dishes and stuff. Pans and stuff. We used to stay down there all summer. They go to work in Whitney Section. That's two mile out of Anchorage. That's Glenn Highway. I don't know where that is now. NYD: We'll take you there. That's where Alberta Stephan was born, was at Whitney Station.
71 AT: Yeah, I remember that. NYD: Well we'll get you down there. I AT: My dad took us up there. I seen it up there. This kids here, their dad, before he marry me, he got ajob and every year he work in that Whitney Section. My dad, and my oldest brother they working same time. That's where they know each other. All of them. Every summer they worked together. NYD: But you and your mother and your sisters would stay at Tak'at in the summer? AT: Yeah. They bring us down and they put [up] a tent for us and then we stay there by I ourselves. My mom used to cut wood like a man. He [sic] carry wood like a man. On her shoulder. Dry wood. He [sic] throw it down the hill and roll it down there and then we bring it over to fish camp. And then we saw it. And use it for the wood. [?} And we had a smokehouse there. All the time. Every year we come down and then we move back over there. We had a steam bath and everything around there. They all like that. My aunt. Two of my aunties there. They had a smokehouse too. They had the same thing. They had a I smokehouse too. NYD: So there was another family? Your father's sister or your mother's sister? AT: Yeah, my mother's two sisters used to live down there. I NYD: And they also had tents? AT. Yeah. Two. All the summer, all the beach around, pretty. All the way to, you could see cannery down there. It don't know how far is that. NYD: From Tak'at you could look down the beach? AT: Yeah, long ways we could see that. Boat come in, we see that. Train, and everything, we see it. Sometimes we go up town when we ran out of groceries we go up town. We go up the I hill and then walk on the trail. Then, that's where we sometime, my aunt used to live in town and she had a house and a husband there. We spend the night with her sometime. And go to church or something. Then sometime they come back to fish camp. They live around there too. I remember that, they used to, she had white man husband, and she had blonde girl and a blonde boy she had. NYD: This was your aunt? Your mother's sister? | AT: Yeah, youngest sister. Billy Yakasoff and Jenny Yakasoffthey used to call them. NYD: Jennie Yakasoff, and what was your other aunt? Was it Annie? No, that was your mother's name, was Annie. | AT: Doris. Something like that. Doria. Daria or something like that. They used to call them Native names. That's the way they say it. NYD: Do you remember the native names? AT: Yeah. NYD: What was the Native name for your mother's sister? AT: She had a [pause] [?] [laughs]. I remember they used to call her Mary, the white people they used to call her. And then, b'dalkey, they used to call him [sic]. b'dalkey. That's the one we stay with Mike Yakasoff. Passed away. And then she stay by herself in Eklutna. That's where I first meet them I think. NYD: Mike Yakasoff, that's where you met the Yakasoffs, at Eklutna? AT: Yeah. NYD: You know Mary Yakasoffthen? AT: Yeah, Mary Yakasoff, that's their mother. NYD: Was she your aunt?
72 AT: Yeah, she's my aunt. NYD: Your mother's sister? AT: Yeah, my mother's youngest sister. NYD: We'll put her on that kinship chart too. Remember the one we made? We'll make sure we have her on. If we can get a sense of who was at Tak'at, this would be a start, you know, getting a sense of family history. So it was your mother who was Annie, and Jessie, and someone named Doria maybe. Their families were there in tents. AT: They had two brothers too. One named Harry Chilligan one of them. One, I don't know why they had different name, John Stump, that's their last youngest brother. NYD: John Stump is the grandfather of Norman Chilligan. He just mentioned him this morning. And so he was down there at Tak'at too. AT: Yeah, he used to be, off and on they used to come down and visit us. NYD: Oh, they would visit you. They wouldn't live there. AT: They used to live up north. Houston. They had a house. They built their own house, homemade house. Right now. [?] Laying on the ground. I seen it. Houston. Big log house. Just logs scattered all over. I see it from the highway. I go by there. NYD: Their place? John Stump's place? AT: No, that's Harry Chilligan's house. Used to be. Pauline Chilligan used to last stay in there. Her husband used to work on the railroad and then they stay there. I don't know how many years. That's when she had a bunch of kids. NYD: I met her. Joe Chilligan, her husband and those kids. Over at Eklutna. Did Harry Chilligan and Joe Chilligan go to Tak'at also? AT: Once in a while they come down but they live up north. That's the way I remember it. They come down and they visit us. They come down Knik too. My dad had a house up the hill. NYD: Oh, I remember walking with you over there and you showed me where that was. AT: We had a big house. Nice looking house used to be. We could see anyplace. Up, across there. Everyplace. I was born there. That's what they tell me. NYD: Do you remember when you were a little girl going to Taka't? Or do you remember it was only a few times? AT: Yes, they bring us down and then we spend -- One year, we spend a year in Anchorage, I remember. I don't know what year, 1930, around there. NYD: That long ago? AT: Yeah, that's what I remember. NYD: Do you think you could remember how Tak'at looked, from down below? AT: I don't know. That's what I -- Right across from Anchorage you could see that cannery. You could see that all the way to - NYD: To Tak'at? AT: To Tak'at. To Tak'at's around the point. Elmendorf, I don't know what they call it. That's where we going home right in the middle we're going home. Knik. I remember. NYD: I wonder if you were in a boat, if you would recognize where Tak'at was? Because there's that big cliff way up here. And then here's Anchorage, Ship Creek, the cannery, the docks, and then there's a coast like this. It's really high. AT: Over a mile from that, that cannery used to be. They used to have a big dock there. That's where we see, that's the farest town and about two mile from there. That's all the way from
73 the point. That big, big hill there. Big hill there. That's what I remember. I don't know, they call 'em all kinds of names, Reese [?] Point and all that they used to call them. NYD: Reese? Reese Point? I AT: Yeah, Reese Point. I don't know what they call them point. I remember that. I don't know why they go across there. And then they ride from there. Across there. Right across the Anchorage Point. They go around the corer. Go around all the way to Knik. I remember I want to look before we go. I want to look and they tell me, "Don't look." They work hard rowing. They don't want us to look. NYD: Do you remember the last time you were at Tak'at? Was that about 1930s? About when? AT: 1938 maybe, 38, around there. NYD: Were you married yet? AT: Yeah. I get married and then year after I get baby. That's when [?] over there. NYD: You were at Tak'at when you had the baby? AT: Yeah. NYD: Was that Elsie? AT: Yeah. She was born in at home I remember, at Tak'at. NYD: At Tak'at, in the summer, your first baby was born there. That's Sammy's older sister. Was Sammy born there too? AT: No, he was born in Anchorage hospital or something. [?] NYD: So Elsie was born there. Was Bailey there too? You were married to Bailey at this time? | AT: Yeah. We stay at fish camp. He come down and then he marry me and then we move down there. He stay down there. We used to have a little house down there. We used to live in there. That's when all the kids come from. They all move out of here. Everybody move | out of here. I'm the only one live down here. I remember, he go out beaver trapping or something. I didn't like that. I stay by myself. NYD: But you and Bailey stayed here? AT: Yeah. NYD: Do you know what happened to the fish campsite? What happened to Tak'at? AT: I don't know. They tear it down. Smokehouse and steam bath house and everything. All I them tent frame and everything they throw it down and then nothing around there. NYD: Did you go back after that happened? AT: No. We go around, 4th of July we come down up there. At that dock. We come down and then big ship come in. Navy bunch, bunch of navy got out on Fourth of July. We're looking at them and then that's when I remember. All them, I look that way, where that tent, I smokehouse, big smoke house used to be all lined up. My aunties all [?] My two aunts' smokehouse. Our dad's smokehouse too. All gone. They all gone. It don't look like fish camp anymore. We used to go right up the hill and go up there. Catch the taxi. It don't look like that anymore. I used to like that when we go up town. Fourth of July we go up town. And after we get done, they took us home with a taxicab. NYD: Would the taxi leave you at the top or come down a little bit? I AT: Close to there he stop. By a trail there. NYD: What was this about a dairy? AT: Highway there. Used to be. Old farmer used to be living round there. Cattle, house, and I everything. Up the hill. TL: Ohls dairy? NYD: Do you remember the dairy's name?
74 AT: I don't know. I don't remember it. I have to think about it. There's all kinds of house there. We get out of the car and then we go up on a special trail and then go home. We packing our groceries home. NYD: Was Bailey working fishing in the summer or did he work railroad? AT: He used to work at the railroad all the time. My mother. We'd be with my mother and he go back to work in the springtime. I stay with my mother and then I help her put up fish. And then fall time he get laid off, why he come back. I remember that. ... NYD: This certainly validates that there was a fish campsite below that bluff. TL: This information Alice is so important because there's so much, so many different projects all the time at Elmendorf where they are digging and stuff. We're trying to identify better where these sites are and that's why we're asking for your help so that we can stay away from those areas so we don't bother them. So there doesn't wind up being a pipeline through it or something. NYD: .... Do you remember any happy times, fun times there at fish camp? AT: Yeah. They had a potlatch too. My grandpa made a potlatch. I remember. Everybody. A lot of strange people come from Tyonek come down. I don't know them and I was crying, And they pack me around. They try to stop me from crying. I remember that. [laughs] NYD: So you remember a potlatch at Tak'at. And you were crying and they tried to make you stop. What else do you remember about that potlatch? Tyonek people came? AT: Yeah, Tyonek people came. They all look different. They funny singing and piled there. They all funny way dressed. They all got long dress. The lady get. NYD: Funny way dressed. Long, they were dressed up? AT: Yeah, they special way, Indian way I think. They got big poncho on. The ladies and them walk around there. I was scared and I was crying. I ask my mother, "Why that people here come down for?" I remember. She told me, "Your grandpa make a potlatch, that's why" he told me. That's why Tyonek people come down she told me. NYD: Was the grandpa that put this potlatch on, was he your mother's father or your father's father? AT: Yeah, I ask not too long ago. Before Annie Tuffluck, she died. I ask her, "What my grandpa used to name?" He [sic] told me, "His name used to be, white man's name used to be Harry Chilligan, " he told me. "How come my uncle was Harry Chilligan, they used to call him?" "That's his junior, that's his son," that's what she told me. NYD: So Annie Tuffluck, before she died, told you that Harry Chilligan was your grandfather and then his son was Harry Chilligan. And one of his kids may have been Joe Chilligan? AT: Yeah. NYD: And then you come along and you are Rufe Stephan and Annie's daughter. So I don't see how you are related to Chilligan. But that was your mother's father maybe. AT: Yeah, lot of way I don't remember [?]. Long time ago I used to ask. They tell me, "Why do you want to know for? [Why] you want to ask questions," they tell me. NYD: You're probably wondering why we're asking questions. But really, anything you can remember about that potlatch would be really helpful. TL: When they sampled, when they were looking to try to identify better where Tak'at was along the beach they were only able to sample a little area so if we've got a good indication with your help we can identify where it's at, we may be able to dig a little deeper and find more evidence that the site, more exacting things.
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NYD: We thought we found it four years ago when we were walking along there. George and Leo felt we were kind of in the right area, but it was 50 years ago and they weren't sure. But we found things like this on the top, on the surface and I don't know if you've ever seen | anything like that piece of china. AT: Yeah, we use that. Long time ago dishes. NYD: Is that like the dishes you had? AT: Yeah, that's what they, only old people, only rich people used to use that. Whole set of dishes like that. They so poor, they even, some of them people they eat in tin can.
NYD: The three tent sites and the banya and the smokehouse. Were there three smokehouses or one? AT: Yeah, three smokehouses I remember. Three smokehouse. My aunt, my other aunt, that's two, and my dad's smokehouse there. That's three places only. Going up the hill. Going up the hill, I remember. We go up town. NYD: Do you remember at the top of the hill, anything particular at the top, so you knew? AT: I don't know. There's fence. That big fence there. And a house there. I know cattle. They had a cattle in there and a garden or something like that. I don't know what, maybe they don't know him. I don't know. NYD: When the army came, they had to move too. Do you remember any Indians living in the wintertime in that area? 3 AT: No. Only summer time I remember. NYD: Do you know who it was they were honoring at the potlatch? The one you remember. Who it was who died? AT: I don't know. I didn't ask that. When I ask a question, they get mad at me. So I never ask. And the bunch of people come in. I remember. They all row. And then they all come up there. When they leaving, I don't know why, they said goodbye to each other or something, they shooting, they honk the horn or something like that. And they hollered and then they left. They hollered at each other and they left. I remember. NYD: They left in the boats? AT: Yeah. I told them, "Why they making noise for?" "They said their goodbye to us," she told me. NYD: I head there was a potlatch at Tak'at in 1929. And you would be about seven years old. Does that sound right? AT: I don't know. I don't remember. Once, I remember I talk to my mother. "You too small to remember. I thought you remember," she told me. A lot of people come in. Somebody died or something. Long time ago. I don't know what year. 1925 or something like that. They found a barrel of moonshine, they said. White people hide it. They find it and then some of them Indian they drink it and then they died from it. And then they all crying. I remember that. All them Ezi there. Ezi all it was. They used to have a... NYD: The Ezi's were there at the potlatch? AT: Yeah. NYD: But you were saying that the moonshine, they got some moonshine and it was bad stuff and they died? AT: Yeah, something like that my mother told me. NYD: Your mother told you this? AT: Yeah.
76 NYD: Was that why they had the potlatch? AT: Yeah. They were crying. "I wonder why they crying," I told her. "Somebody died," she told me. I don't know, some of them Ezi. A lot of people. A lot people there. Son-in-law and everybody. They got bunch of family and they all married and they all come over there. They didn't have no boat some of them. They had to help each other. They didn't have no good living some of them. NYD: But your family had a boat? So you could come back and forth. AT: Yeah. I come back and then I look back in our house. Boy I get happy when I come back from fish camp and go back in our house. I get tired living in fish camp. NYD: Was it this house down the hill here that you lived in? AT: Up the hill. We had a big house. NYD: Did you have a steam bath connected to the house? AT: Yeah. And then we had a cache, they put all the fish, put it in there. And then they put a stepladder and then when the fish, when they want the dry fish. They unlock it. They put a padlock on it I remember. NYD: Protect it? Was that fish they would catch here or would they bring fish from Tak'at? AT: Yeah. NYD: You were saying you'd tie it up. How would you fix the fish from Tak'at? Let's talk about Tak'at, fixing fish there. AT: They bundled it up. Rawhide, that's moose hide. They strip it. and then they wet 'em. They tie 'em up. They tie 'em up real tight. That rawhide get dry while tied real tight. And they bundle it up and put it in the cache way up high in the cache they put it in there. NYD: Over at Tak'at also they would store fish, or only here? AT: Only here. NYD: Bring it over. AT: Wintertime they open it and they use it. NYD: When you were fishing, did you help your sisters and your mother fish? AT: Yeah. NYD: How did you, when we go there, could you tell us how you fished? Did you put a net out? AT: They had a net out and then we pick the fish. NYD: Picked them out? AT: Yeah. NYD: I bet you would recognize the place when you got there. AT: Yeah, I could recognize that place. I used to, City Dock they used to call that. I used to look down there. It don't look like it anymore. Fish camp. It don't look like it, used to. No smokehouse down there, no nothing. Big rock around the corer someplace and tide go out. Tie up real, tide coming in way up real high too. I remember that. They had a boat. They had an anchor out below the fish camp. NYD: At fish camp there was a big rock and would they tie the rope to the rock? I mean the boat. The boat was tied to the rock? AT: No, it's only. The tide go out way down there. Sand. Just sand bar. Just only rock sticking out in the real low tide, that's all. NYD: Well, maybe we should go both at high tide and at low tide. Because at low tide the rocks might still be there. If it hasn't been sunk by the earthquake. They still might be there. I remember that on that trip in 94 there was a rock that Leo said be sure to go out this way or
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something. Because you knew that area I bet real well. Then you would split the fish, clean I it, put it up to dry in the smokehouse? AT: Yeah.
NYD: Do you remember anybody dying when and then being buried above Tak'at? Was anybody ever die there? AT: No, I don't think so. I don't think so... NYD: Were there any white men making moonshine at Elmendorf? AT: Yeah, they hide it out in the brush. ... NYD: Did you ever go by that place, cause there is a creek called "Moonshine Creek." Maybe that is where they were making it. AT: Maybe. I don't know .. I I I I I I I I I I I I
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