AHTENA

The name Ahtena, pronounced AH-TEE-nuh and also written as Ahtna and Atnatana, translates as “ice people.” (A similar-sounding word, Atna, is used by the Athapascan CARRIER (DAKELH) Indians in reference to non-ATHAPASCANS.) The Ahtena have been referred to in some texts as Copper Indians because their ancestral homeland is in the basin of the Copper River and its tributaries in present-day southeastern Alaska. The name Yellowknife has also been applied to them for the copper color of their knives. Another Athapascan tribe, the YELLOWKNIFE (tatSANOTTINE), living along the Coppermine River in Canada, have also been referred to as Copper Indians. The Ahtena are an Athapascanspeaking tribe of the Subarctic Culture Area, thus classified among both Athapascans and SUBARCTIC INDIANS. Location along the Copper River has determined dialectal differences: The Upper Ahtena (Tate’ahwt’aene) live on the upper courses; the Middle Ahtena (Dan’ehwt’aene), downriver a distance; and the Lower Ahtena (Ahtna’ht’aene), near the river’s mouth opening to the Gulf of Alaska. Their closest linguistic relatives are their neighbors to the west, the Tanaina.

The Ahtena hunted a variety of animals, including moose, caribou, mountain sheep, and rabbits. Salmon, which they caught mostly with nets in the rivers and streams, was a staple. Tribal members also collected roots and berries. In order to allow for the growth of prey populations, the Ahtena, like other peoples of the region, monitored and reduced predator populations, in particular wolves, bears, and eagles. One way they did this was by keeping track of wolf dens in their traditional hunting areas and killing cubs. Wolves were central to their mythology. They sometimes propped up and fed ceremonial meals to dead wolves.

The Ahtena shared cultural traits with NORTHWEST COAST INDIANS to the south, such as a stratified social structure. Each village was ruled by a tyone, or chief. Skilles, or subchiefs, sat in council and helped rule the commoners and a servant class. Shamans also wielded great influence. The giveaway ceremony—known generally as the potlatch—was practiced. In wintertime, families lived together in semisubterranean homes, constructed of a wooden framework covered with spruce bark, as large as 10 feet wide by 36 feet long. Sometimes an attached second room was used for sweats. Summer dwellings included temporary rectangular spruce and cottonwood structures, with bark-covered sides and skin-covered ends providing access.

The Ahtena were part of a trade network with other Athapascans, as well as with INUIT and TLINGIT, bartering furs and hides and copper (and, in postcontact times, European trade goods) three times a year at Nuchek on Prince William Sound. They often traveled by moose-hide boats. In wintertime, snowshoes and load-bearing toboggans were utilized. When carrying items on foot, tribal members, especially women, made use of a tumpline, a piece of animal skin or cloth slung across the forehead or chest to support a load on the back.

Russians reached the mouth of the Copper River in 1781. Over the next decades, a number of Russian attempts to ascend the river were repulsed by Ahtena warriors. A Russian post, established at the confluence of the Copper and Chitina Rivers in 1819, was soon overrun. In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia. In 1885, a U. S. military expedition headed by Lieutenant Henry T. Allen explored the Copper River and surrounding areas, marking the beginning of extensive contacts between the region’s tribes and non-Indians.

The Ahtena formed the corporation Ahtna, Inc., to take advantage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971, which settled aboriginal claims to ancestral lands. Eight villages—Cantwell, Chis-tochina, Chitina, Copper Center, Gakona, Gulkana, Mentasta, and Tazlina—within the Ahtna region were allocated 714,240 acres as well as a cash settlement paid out over a number of years. The Ahtena language is spoken by a minority of tribal members; a dictionary was published in 1990 in the hope of preserving it.