Tanana - Settlements

Aboriginally and in early contact times, Tanana Athapaskans traveled in small bands or extended family groups during the course of the year to harvest seasonally available fish and wildlife. Seasonal settlements were situated along salmon-bearing streams and at the mouths of major salmon-spawning streams during summer and early fall. Some bands occupied fishing settlements at the outlets of large lakes to harvest from the large migrations of whitefish during early summer and fall. During late fall and spring, families moved and set up seasonal camps from which they hunted caribou during their seasonal migrations. During winter families moved frequently, hunting moose and trapping fur animals. Some traveled to the foothills of the Alaska Range where they hunted sheep. The fishing stations were essentially semipermanent villages where family groups returned and the band joined Together for ceremonial and religious activities. Around 1900 there were about eight semipermanent villages of the Tanana; most were situated along the Tanana or at the mouth of major tributary streams. Numerous seasonal and temporary camps were dispersed throughout the area along lakes and smaller streams and in the flats and foothills. Band size ranged from about fifty to one hundred persons. By 1950 the population resided in two year-round villages as it does today, with many members also residing in the urban center of Fairbanks. Aboriginal housing included the use of semiPermanent log and sod houses and caribouor moose-skin tents. Throughout the twentieth century, canvas tents and log houses have been used for shelter along with wood-frame houses.