Draft Final Report: Native Place Names Mapping in Denali National Park and Preserve by James Kari DENA'INAQ TITA:!TUN August 1999 Revised draft, December, 1999 NPS, Denali National Park and Preserve contract through Alaska and Polar Regions Dept., UAF, Fund # 337662 Draft Final Report: Native Place Names Mapping in Denali National Park and Preserve by James Kari DENA'INAQ TITAzTUN August 1999 Revised draft, December, 1999 Author's Address: James Kari Professor Emeritus of Linguistics University of Alaska Fairbanks 1089 Bruhn Rd. Fairbanks, AK 99709 [email protected] National Park Service, Denali National Park and Preserve contract through Alaska and Polar Regions Dept., UAF, Fund # 337662 Draft Final Report: Native Place Names Mapping in Denali National Park and Preserve NPS contract through Alaska and Polar Regions Dept., UAF, Fund # 337662 By James Kari, DENA ')NAQ TIT A"lTUN Revised draft, December, 1999 Outline of Final Report: 1.0 Project Summary ........................................................... 3 1.1 Acknowledgments .......................................................... 4 2.0 General Introduction ........................................................ 6 2.1 Introductory Topics on the Athabaskan Peoples of the Central Alaska Range ......... 6 2.2 Names for DenaliIMount McKinley in Alaskan Native Languages .................. 7 2.3 Introductory Concepts in the Study of Place Names .............................. 9 2.4 Summary of Systemic Features of Athabaskan Toponymy ........................ 11 3.1 Sources and Methods: On-going Review and Place Name Reconstruction ............ 12 3.2 Mapping Materials and Section and Feature Numbering ......................... 14 4.1 Discussion of the Distribution of Athabaskan Place Name Data .................... 16 4.2 Discussion of Regional Prehistory ............................................ 20 4.3 Inaccurate Stereotypes of Athabaskan Geographic Knowledge .................... 22 4.4 Summary of Athabaskan Language Materials on Regional Ethnogeography ........ 23 5.0 Ideas for Materials and Vignettes Featuring Athabaskan Place Names .............. 24 6.0 References ............................................................... 26 Appendices to Sections 1-5 ..................................................... 31 Appendix 1. Activity report ....................................................... 31 Appendix 2. Toponymic Generic Tenns of Athabaskan Languages Surrounding the Central Alaska Range .................................................................. 33 Appendix 3. Athabaskan Travel Narratives: Summer Travel: Mouth of Brushkana River to Yanert Fork to Valdez Creek, by lake Tansy ........................................ 36 7.0 Place Names Lists .......................................................... 40 7.0.1 Section and Subsection Summary ............................................ 40 7.0.2 Spelling Conventions ...................................................... 41 7.0.3 Key to band labels and abbreviations ......................................... 42 7.1 Ahtna Place Names Approaching Denali National Park and Preserve ............... 43 7.2 Dena'ina Place Names Approaching Denali National Park and Preserve ............. 63 7.3 Upper Kuskokwim Place Names Approaching Denali National Park and Preserve .... 83 7.4 Koyukon Place Names Approaching Denali National Park and Preserve ........... 104 7.5 Lower Tanana Place Names Approaching Denali National Park and Preserve ....... 123 Introduction: Native Place Names Mapping in Denali National Park and Preserve 2 List of maps and figures Fig. 1 Athabaskan Place Names surrounding the Central Alaska Range (11 x 17 map, more detail) ........ 2A Fig. 2 Athabaskan Place Names surrounding the Central Alaska Range (8 :4 x 11 map, less detail) . .. 135A Fig. 3. Summary Chart: Athabaskan place names surrounding the Central Alaska Range ............. SA Fig. 4. Some of the consultants for "Native Place Names Mapping in Denali National Park and Preserve" 5 Fig. 5. Distribution of Athabaskan and Na-Dene languages .................................... 6A Fig. 6. Names for DenalilMount McKinley in Alaskan Native languages (map & text) .............. 7A Fig. 7. Wrangell map of 1839 (eastern portion) .............................................. 8A Fig. 8. Place name entry format: Teklanika River . .. lOA Fig. 9. Shem Pete's lifetime travel map ................................................... IIA Fig. 10. Athabaskan place name clusters: Yidateni .......................................... 12A Fig. 11. 1922 map of McKinley National Park region by Foster with first sources for Native names ... 13A Fig. 12. List of numbered or labeled maps for the project. .. 15 Fig. 13. A portion oflabeled 1 :63,000 map from Cantwell area. .. (end foldout) Fig. 14. A portion of labeled 1:63,000 map from Nenana-Minto area ................... (end foldout) Fig. 15. A portion oflabeled 1 :63,000 map from Nikolai area .......................... (end foldout) Fig. 16. A portion oflabeled 1 :63,000 map from the Telida area ....................... (end foldout) Fig. 17. A portion of labeled 1 :63,000 map from the Muddy River area .................. (end foldout) Fig. 18. Athabaskan place names in the northeast area of Denali National Park and Preserve ......... 19A Fig. 19. Streams with documented Athabaskan place names colored in five languages at the 1 :2,000,000 scale ........................................................................ 19B Fig. 20. Map of Jake Tansy travel narrative ............................................... 36A Fig. 21. Summary of writing systems in five Athabaskan languages of the Central Alaska Range ...... 41 Fig. 22. Index map for Ahtna place names from Kari 1983 ................................... 43A Fig. 23. Index map for Dena'ina place names from Kari and Fall 1987 .......................... 63A Fig. 24. Sites on lower Kroto Creek known to Katherine Niolie and Shem Pete .................. 68A Fig. 25. Index map for Upper Kuskokwim place names from Stokes 1985 ...................... 83A Fig.26 Lt. Herron's 1899 map - Upper Kuskokwim River area ............................... 99A Fig. 27. Index map for Koyukon and Lower Tanana place names from Gudgel-Holmes 1990a ...... 104A Fig. 28. Jules Jette's list of Koyukon names on the lower Tanana River between Tanana and Fairbanks, 1909 ...................................................................... 105AB Fig. 29. Lt. Herron's 1899 map Lake Minchumina to Tanana River .......................... 109A Fig. 30. Location map for Toklat River area place names (Gudgel-Holmes 1990a:49) ............. 126A 3 Introduction: Native Place Names Mapping in Denali National Park and Preserve 1.0 Project Summary The proj ect entitled ''Native Place Name Mapping in Denali National Park and Preserve" was developed to provide current infonnation on the inventory and identification of place names used by Alaska Native groups associated with Denali National Park and Preserve. It has been recognized that Athabaskans have not used the areas within the park for many decades and that the ethnographic and historical records are rather sparce. This project is being coordinated with other projects now in progress for the Denali area, namely the Ethnographic Overview and Assessment, the Native Tribal Histories and Project Jukebox. In 1998 and 1999 in the course of the project we have added important details to the documentary record of an ancient rule-driven Athabaskan place name network in the Central Alaska Range. In my view no genre of linguistic or ethnographic field work is as challenging methodologically or editorially as is place names research. The most expert Athabaskan speakers, such as Shem Pete, Jake Tansy, Abbie Joseph, and Miska Deaphon, know the country in such breadth and detail that each and every demonstration ofthis knowledge has something to add to the cumulative record of the place name network. Clearly, the highest priority has been to add details and refinements to the place name network. The "crucible" in this process is the latest version ofthe place names files and maps for a given Athabaskan language area or band territory. This project has been very productive and successful. The most expert speakers in the five languages ofthe project have been highly interested participants in the work. The importance ofthe documentary effort has been acknowledged, and there have been positive comments from several communities. The support from the Denali National Park staffhas been very helpful. The air support by Ranger Hollis Twichell has facilitated the research effort and community participation. An initial problem for this project was to develop a workable and meaningful definition of the project study area. There are five Athabaskan languages that have some territory that approaches Denali National Park and Preserve: Ahtna, Dena'ina, Upper Kuskokwim, Koyukon, and Lower Tanana. It is best to treat Athabaskan band territories as whole units and with editorial consistency, because the traditional place name networks emanate from one of the home areas (e.g., the lower Susitna River for the Upper Inlet Dena'ina, from Nenana for the Lower Tanana). Based on ethnographic criteria we developed a project study area of about 50,000 square miles within a 100 to nearly 200 mile radius of the summit of Denali (with Rainy Pass and Broad Pass serving as delimiting corridors to the west and east). The index maps (Figs. 1,2 & 6) show how the Athabaskan language boundaries transect the park