History and culture of Athabascan Indians, which inhabit most of Alaska’s interior regions
The community of Copper Center is located on the Copper River’s west bank, just north of the Klutina River. It was founded in 1898 as a trading post along the trail from Valdez to...
On July 5 and 6, 1915, one of the precursors to the 1971 meeting of Alaska Native elders to discuss the pending Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was held in Fairbanks, in the George...
Tall cache that used to stand at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks In modern Alaska, elevated storage caches (sometimes called fish or bear caches) typically consist of small rustic log cabins built atop four canted...
Fuller Thompson cabin at Scottie Creek in 2019. Thompson was a big-game guide and he and his wife were among the first homesteaders in the Scottie Creek area. Scottie Creek crosses the Alaska Highway...
It may surprise people that the picturesque fishwheels that are so much a part of Interior Alaska life, and so often associated with Athabascan Indian culture, are not indigenous to Alaska or Canada. Athabascans...
Old St. Nicholas church in Eklutna as it looked in the 1980s Eklutna, 25 miles northeast of Anchorage on the east shore of Upper Cook Inlet’s Knik Arm, is a small Dena’ina Athabascan community....
The Church of the Holy Assumption is an Orthodox church in Kenai. In Alison Hoagland’s book, Buildings of Alaska, she describes it as a dramatic and well-proportioned building. Built in 1895, it is one...
This traditional Athabascan birch-bark canoe is on display at the Morris Thompson Cultural & Visitors Center in Fairbanks. It was constructed in 2013 by a Folk School Fairbanks class. The boreal forest (also...
I took this is a photo on a recent trip to Circle. It is a small Native cemetery beside the Steese Highway just outside of town. Circle began in 1894 as a supply...
On the south slope of Toghotthele Hill (pronounced tog-hot-teelee), across the Tanana River from Nenana, sits the Nenana Native Cemetery. It is a wonderfully peaceful place, shaded by aspen, cottonwood, birch and spruce trees....
