Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

E. W. Nelson's Notes on the Indians of the Yukon and Innoko Rivers, Alaska

1983; Duke University Press; Volume: 30; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/481502

1527-5477

Edward H. Hosley, James W. VanStone, James W. VanStone,

Indigenous Studies and Ecology

0 FIELDIANA River, a major tributary of the lower-middle Yukon, and descended it to the Ingalik Indian village of Anvik at the mouth.After distributing trade goods and exhorting the Indians to bring their furs to Mikhailovskiy to trade, Glazunov proceeded down the Yukon trading, and taking a similar message to the inhabitants of Magimiut (Bonasila) and Anilukhtakpak (near Holy Cross).From Anilukhtfikpak he proceeded over the portage to the Kuskokwim River and reached the company's small trading post, later known as Kolmakovskiy Redoubt, in mid-February.In an attempt to reach Cook Inlet, Glazunov ascended the Kuskokwim and the Stony River as far as the Lime Hills, but was forced to turn back after experienc- ing extreme hardship and starvation.His return route is not definitely known, but was probably by way of the Kuskokwim.In any event, Glazunov and his party arrived back at Mikhailovskiy Redoubt in mid-April (VanStone, 1959).Glazunov's account, which has never been pubhshed in full (Fedorova, 1973b, p. 31), provides the first ethnographic infor- mation concerning the Ingalik, westernmost members of the Atha- paskan language family, and his explorations, together with those of other explorers in the Nushagak and Kuskokwim drainages (VanStone, 1967, pp.3-11), served to open all of southwestern Alaska to the fur trade.Glazunov's success led to further explora- tion of the Yukon Delta and to the establishment of a trading post at Ikogmiut in 1836.Of equal significance, it also led to Petr Vasilevich Malakhov's travels on the upper-middle Yukon for the purpose of extending the fur trade in that direction Malakhov, Uke Glazunov an employee of the Russian-American Company, left Mikhailovskiy Redoubt in February, 1838 and reach- ed the Yukon by way of the Unalakleet River portage.He ascended as far as the mouth of the Koyukuk and was undoubtedly the first European to see that river.After establishing the Nulato trading post, he descended the Yukon to its mouth the next spring, and was thus the first Russian to navigate a significant portion of its great length.During his descent he apparently entered Shageluk Slough and may have continued down the lower Innoko to its confluence with the Yukon.If so, he was probably the first Russian to navigate any portion of that important Yukon tributary (Chernenko, 1967, p. 10; Zagoskin, 1967, p. 298).By 1839 the Russians were reasonably familiar with the Unalakleet and Anvik rivers, the Yukon between Nulato and its 4 FIELDIANA: ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME 70 mouth, and considerable portions of the Kuskokwim and Nushagak drainages.The Russian-American Company now needed to fill gaps in its knowledge of the interior of west-central Alaska by obtaining more information concerning the area between the Yukon and Kuskokwim drainage systems.Glazunov had failed to bridge this particular geographical gap, being unable to reach Cook Inlet by way of the Stony River, so it was still necessary to explore a route from the Kuskokwim to the Yukon well above the usual portages and at the same time to obtain first-hand information concerning the potentially rich fur-bearing area of the Innoko River and its tributaries.In the fall of 1839 Petr Fedorovich Kolmakov, son of Fedor Kolmakov, pioneer explorer of the Kuskokwim and Nushagak rivers, crossed over from the Takotna, a tributary of the Kuskokwim below the present village of McGrath, to the upper reaches of the Innoko which he called the Tlegon.His journal indicates that he collected a large number of beaver pelts and descend- ed the Innoko in search of a short route to the Yukon.At some point during his journey, probably at the village of Dementi opposite the mouth of the Iditarod River, a major Innoko tributary, Kolmakov learned that the post at Ikogmiut had been attacked and destroyed, and the occupants massacred in the spring of 1839.He was therefore obliged to turn back.It is not clear whether this attack was per- petrated by the natives of the Kuskokwim or the lower Yukon, but it seems likely that Kuskokwim Eskimos from near the present village of Bethel were responsible.Destruction of the post may have been in retaliation for the disastrous smallpox epidemic of 1838-1839 for which the Indians and Eskimos of western Alaska held the Russians responsible (Chernenko, 1967, p. 10;Zagoskin,