TANAINA

The Tanaina, living in the drainage areas of Cook Inlet and Clark Lake in present-day southern Alaska, were the only northern Athapascan-speaking Indians with extensive coastal territory. Their name, pronounced TAH-nai-naw or tah-NAI-nuh and also written as Dena’ina, means “the people.” They have also been called Knaiakhotana (or Kaniakhotana or Kenaitze), meaning “people of the Kenai Peninsula.” At least four separate dialects of the Tanaina language have been identified: as spoken on the Kenai Peninsula along eastern Cook Inlet; as spoken in coastal areas of western Cook Inlet; as spoken inland from western Cook Inlet; and as spoken on the upper Cook Inlet north of present-day Anchorage. The Tanaina, like other ATHA PASCANS in the region, such as the AHTENA and TANANA to their east, are classified as SUBARCTIC INDIANS. Neighboring INUIT on Kodiak Island and the southern Kenai Peninsula are classified as ARCTIC PEOPLES.

According to Tanaina mythology, the culture hero Raven created two women who founded the tribe’s moieties (two distinct social groups). The moieties in turn were divided into clans. Tanaina villages usually had a chief (who in some cases also acted as the shaman) who furthered his prestige in gift-giving ceremonies similar to the potlatches of NORTHWEST COAST INDIANS. The villages, occupied in winter and early spring, typically consisted of four or five large rectangular and gabled semi-subterranean log structures with roofs of split planks or spruce bark. Several nuclear families of the same clan inhabited the dwellings. A main room where families slept had a central fireplace with a smoke hole;

Adjoining rooms included additional sleeping space for the elderly as well as sweat lodges. In summertime, Tanaina families relocated to camps along the rivers, where salmon and other fish might be caught. Houses in these camps were of lighter construction. In late summer and early fall, hunting groups seeking caribou and other game traveled to the mountains, living in temporary campsites along established travel routes; they used temporary dwellings on these trips, such as spruce boughs bent over alder framework. For transportation they used skin-covered kayaks and umiaks, acquired or copied from their Inuit neighbors, as well as snowshoes and sleds. The skins of caribou and mountain sheep were most commonly used for clothing, and rabbitskins, for robes and blankets. The Tanaina were the only Athapascans known to hunt sea mammals. To the Tanaina all living things and inanimate objects were infused with spirits. They believed that at death a human’s shadow-spirit remained on Earth for 40 days before traveling to the underworld.

A British expedition under James Cook, after whom Cook Inlet is named, explored the region in 1778, the first known European contact with the Tanaina. Russian traders established a fur-trading post on Kodiak Island in 1784; the next year, they sent out hunting parties, accompanied by ALEUT, to Cook Inlet. In 1786, the Russians built Fort George on the Kenai Peninsula; it evolved into the settlement of Kasilof. The Russian American Fur Company, chartered in 1799, led to expanded settlement. Commercial fishing was also devel-

Oped in the region. Susceptible to new diseases carried by the traders, the Tanaina endured outbreaks, such as a smallpox epidemic in 1838.

In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from Russia. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the advent of miners to Alaska in search of gold and the construction of numerous canneries along the coast further altered Tanaina existence. Anchorage was founded as a construction camp for the Alaska Railroad in 1914. In 1940, during World War II, it became the site of a military base. After oil was discovered on the Kenai Peninsula in 1957, the region became a center of the Alaskan oil industry. Over these years, many Tanaina became accul-turated wage earners, and tribal identity was at risk. In 1971, the U. S. Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), granting more than 40 million acres of land and more than $900 million to Alaska Natives, who formed corporations—the Tanaina partners with other Athapascans in Cook Inlet Region, Inc.—to manage tribal business development. The Tanaina have since become active with other tribes in protecting the rights and resources of indigenous peoples.