TANANA

The Tanana share the name of the Tanana River, flowing south to north though their homeland in present-day east-central Alaska. Their name, pronounced TAH-nuh-naw, is close to that of the neighboring TANAINA, whose name means “the people,” but it is thought that the river was first known as Tanana, and as a result its meaning is uncertain. The people so known occupied lands from the Tok River, a tributary of the Tanana to the Tanana’s confluence with the Yukon River. The Nabesna, living along the Nabesna and Chisana Rivers, and other tributaries of the Upper Tanana south of the Tok, have been discussed by some scholars as a subtribe of Tanana and in fact are sometimes referred to as the Upper Tanana. The Tanana, as well as the Tanaina to the east, AHTENA to the south, HAN to the east, KOYUKON to the northeast, and KUTCHIN to the northwest (among whom the Tanana were once mistakenly grouped), as well as other tribes in the region, were ATHAPASCANS, that is, Athapascanspeaking, and classified as SUBARCTIC INDIANS, that is, part of the Subarctic Culture Area.

The Tanana, although they maintained villages in their territory, were seminomadic, often traveling and camping in small groups to hunt, fish, and gather wild plant foods. They also traded with neighboring tribes; the Tutchone living to their east, in present-day Canada’s Yukon Territory, were known as a regular trading partner. The Koyukon, competing for territory along the Yukon River, were traditional enemies of the Tanana.

The interior tribes of Alaska and the Yukon Territory were among the most isolated Native North Americans. Traders had contacts with them at least by the first part of the 18th century, representing both the Russian American Company from the west and the Hudson’s Bay Company from the east. From them the Tanana gained use of new technologies. Yet the Tanana maintained an independent, traditional hunting-gathering way of life into the 20th century. The arrival of miners in the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries accelerated change among them. The construction of the Alaska Highway in 1942 led to their further acculturation.

In 1971, the U. S. Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), granting lands and funds to Alaska Natives. At that time the Tanana villages, along with those of the Ingalik, Koyukon, and other Athapascans, became part of Doyon Limited, a corporation organized to manage tribal business development. Through Doyon and intertribal not-for-profit organizations, the Tanana have been involved with other Native peoples in protecting tribal lands and resources. In 2002, in response to efforts by oil corporations to drill new lands on Alaska’s Arctic North Slope, Pat Sweetsir, a Tanana chief and leader of a consortium of 42 Alaska tribes, at a meeting hosted by the Kutchin, presented a statement making the point that 95 percent of the North Slope is already open for drilling, resulting in regular spills that severely damage the permafrost, and that remaining untouched lands should be protected.