Koyukon

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Turkish. (March 2014) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Turkish article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must follow the LLM translation guideline, revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Turkish Wikipedia article at [[:tr:Koyukonlar]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|tr|Koyukonlar}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation. This article needs more citations. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Koyukon" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Koyukon

Poldine Carlo, Koyukon author, 2007
Regions with significant populations
United States (Alaska)	2,300
Languages
American Indian English, Koyukon, Russian (historically)
Religion
Christianity, Animism
Related ethnic groups
Deg Hit'an, Holikachuk, Gwich'in, other Northern Athabaskan peoples

The Koyukon, Dinaa, or Denaa (Denaakk'e: Tl’eeyegge Hut’aane) are an Alaska Native Athabascan people of the Athabascan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. Their traditional territory is along the Koyukuk and Yukon rivers where they subsisted for thousands of years by hunting and trapping. Many Koyukon live in a similar manner today.

The Koyukon language belongs to a large family called Athabascan, which in turn is a branch of the larger Na-Dené languages traditionally spoken by numerous groups of native people throughout northwestern North America. In addition, ancient migrations of related peoples led to other Na-Dené languages, such as Navajo and Apachean languages, being spoken in the American Southwest and in Mexico.

History

The first Europeans to enter Koyukon territory were Russians, who came up the Yukon River to Nulato in 1838. When they arrived, they found that items such as iron pots, glass beads, cloth apparel, and tobacco had already reached the people through their trade with coastal Eskimos, who had long traded with Russians. An epidemic of smallpox had preceded them, causing high fatalities in the village. In subsequent years, European infectious diseases drastically reduced the Koyukon population, who had no immunity to these new diseases.

Relative isolation persisted along the Koyukuk until 1898, when the Yukon Gold Rush brought more than a thousand men to the river. They found little gold, and most left the following winter.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Koyukon people have inhabited their region for at least 1,000 years, with cultural roots there that stretch back thousands of years earlier.

Ethnobotany

The Koyukon freeze lingonberries for winter use.

Notable Koyukon

• Nikoosh Carlo, PhD, scientist and policy advisor. Dr. Carlo served as Senior Advisor, Climate & Arctic Policy to the Governor of Alaska (2017–18), Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of State for the U.S. Chairmanship of the Arctic Council (2015–2017), Public Voices Fellow at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and as executive director, Alaska Arctic Policy Commission (2013–2015).
• Poldine Carlo, writer and elder
• Kathleen Carlo-Kendall, professional carver artist
• Mary Jane Fate, activist and leader
• Walter Harper, first man known to reach the summit of Denali (Mount McKinley), in June 1913
• Emil Notti, American engineer, Indigenous activist and Democratic politician
• Michael J. Stickman, First Chief of the Nuwato Tribal Council
• Morris Thompson, businessman and leader

References

Further reading

• Hunn, E.S. & Williams, N.M.(Eds.). (1982). Resource Managers: North American and Australian Hunter-Gatherers. Westview Press: Colorado. Nelson, R.K. “A Conservation Ethic and Environment: The Koykon of Alaska” p. 211-228 Rohrlich, R & Baruch, E. (Ed.). (1984).
• Naciente, Esperanza. "Indigenous Lifestyles: Lessons for the Industrialized World." Fighting For Freedom Because A Better World Is Possible Eds. Edgey Wildchild and Esperanza Naciente. New York: Planting Seeds Press. 2006. 121–126.
• Nelson, Richard K. Make Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. ISBN 0-226-57163-7
• Nelson, Richard K., Kathleen H. Mautner, and G. Ray Bane. Tracks in the Wildland: A Portrayal of Koyukon and Nunamiut Subsistence. [Fairbanks]: Anthropology and Historic Preservation, Cooperative Park Studies Unit, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 1982.
• Peter, Adeline. Iñuksuk: Northern Koyukon, Gwich'in & Lower Tanana, 1800-1901. Fairbanks, AK: Alaska Native Knowledge Network, 2001. ISBN 1-877962-37-6

External links

• Media related to Koyukon at Wikimedia Commons
• Aboriginal Languages and Hunting Terms