FOUR DIRECTIONS INSTITUTE

Tanana

  

 

Ethnie: TANANA
Language: Upper and Lower Tanana
Family: Athapaskan
Stock: Nuclear Na-Dene
Phylum: Na-Dene
Macro-Culture: Northwest

 

 

 

 

       The Tanana were an Alaskan inland hunter culture that relied heavily on fishing. They lived along the drainage of the lower Tanana River below the Tok and down to the Yukon and up river along the Yukon. Their remote and sparsely populated territory resulted in late and minimal White contact.
Aboriginal Locations (Villages)
AK   Clatchotin, Huntlatin, Nuklukalet, Nutluktana, Tatsa, Tolwatin, Tozikatat, Tutlut, Weare
Present Locations
AK  Doyon Limited, Fairbanks 
Year History
1838 Smallpox epidemic
1851 Scarlet fever epidemic
1875 Territory traversed overland by Harper and Bates from Belle Isle
1880 Began trading
1885 Visited by Lt. Henry T. Allen
1887 First school at Tanana
1901 Fairbanks gold discovery
1917 Alaska Railroad reached Nenana
192X Measles and influenza epidemics
Year Total AK Population   Source
1700 500   NAHDB calculation
1740 500   Mooney estimate (includes Nabesna)
1800 450   NAHDB calculation
1880 700   Petroff
1885 600   Lt. Henry T. Allen
1890 373   Census
1898 370   Swanton
1900 400   NAHDB calculation
1910 415   Census
1995 680   Krausse
2000 700   NAHDB calculation
Other speakers of the same language:
None
Tanana Sites
Arctic Contents  http://www.aina.ucalgary.ca/scripts/minisa.dll/144/proe/proarc/se+arctic,+v.+21,+no.++1,+Mar.+1968,*?COMMANDSEARCH
Denali  http://www.nps.gov/dena/home/hrs/hrs1.htm
Doyon Limited  http://www.doyon.com/
Gold Rush Impact  http://www.library.state.ak.us/goldrush/LEGACY/natives.htm
Lower Tanana Language  http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=taa
Minchumina Area History  http://www.nps.gov/akso/ParkWise/Students/ReferenceLibrary/DENA/Denali_People_Land/Minchumina.html
Native Village of Tanacross  http://www.nativevillageoftanacross.com/index.html
Nenana Photos  http://henkbinnendijk.tripod.com/fairbanks/id20.html
Tales from the Dena  http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3712/is_199709/ai_n8773842
Tanana  http://www.beringsea.com/communities/index.php?community=357
Tanana Chiefs Conference  http://www.tananachiefs.org/
Tanana Language  http://www.native-languages.org/tanana.htm
Tanana Linguistic Lineage  http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=92589
Tanana Photos  http://henkbinnendijk.tripod.com/fairbanks/id21.html
Upper Tanana Lnaguage  http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=tau
Upper Tanana Language  http://www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/ynlc/YNLCinfo/UpTanana.html
White River First Nation  http://www.theyukon.ca/dbs/wrfn/
Yukon Culture  http://www.gov.yk.ca/yukonglance/culture.html

Last updated 10/26/05  Copyright © 2005 by Four Directions Press