Alaska News

Archaeologists dig Native village site that predates Europeans' Arctic arrival

On the banks of the Kobuk River near Kiana, the history of a settlement of people who lived in the decades just before the white man first walked onto the shores of Alaska's Arctic has gradually been revealing itself in multiple ways.

Archeologists from Brown University have been uncovering a Native village site known as Igliqtiqsiugvigruak over the last two years, and none too soon. The river has been uncovering the site, too, slowly eating away at some remarkable discoveries.

Archeologist Doug Anderson, who has been leading the dig for Brown University with a team of archeologists from the university, said in his 50-plus years as an Arctic archeologist, this is one of the most extraordinary discoveries he's ever seen.

Anderson said the local residents of the area knew about the site — oral traditions spoke of the community's history and disbandment — but the importance of what was there wasn't clear until this summer. Testing of materials excavated at the site revealed that the people who lived in the homes currently being uncovered lived during the period just prior to European exploration, Anderson said — from 1790 to 1810. Otto Von Kotzebue arrived in the region in 1816.

"We hadn't realized how important the site was until this year for understanding early Native history," Anderson said.

Perhaps one of the most enticing parts of the discovery was that although the site's residents lived during a time prior to the arrival of Europeans, there were western trade goods found in the site. Anderson said archeologists uncovered bits of metal that people were using on the tips of their knives as well as others that were used as fish hooks. Glass beads were also found. Anderson said more work needs to be done to determine where these trade goods came from. Perhaps they were traded across the interior of Alaska from the Yukon or maybe they came over from Siberia, where tribes were known to have been trading earlier than in this area of Alaska.

Village holds mysteries

Igliqtiqsiugvigruaq holds more mysteries than the trade goods found prior to any known arrivals of Europeans. The village itself is significant in its size, but how the people survived and thrived is somewhat unknown, Anderson said.

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The village is huge in comparison to others in the Arctic at that time. Anderson's rough estimates put the population at about 200 people, but he said that is likely conservative as evidence indicates more homes below the surface that were previously undiscovered and do not show on the surface with the telltale dip common to dug-out homes.

Two houses have been excavated this summer and last, and those and others examined in the area are much larger than typical homes in the Arctic, with sides 15 to 20 feet long. A more typical size home is 6 to 10 feet long, making these homes almost twice the size of ones previously found. Anderson said they are by far the largest homes he's ever seen, and not only because of their square footage. These homes are dug deeply into the ground. While homes in the Arctic were typically dug into the ground to some extent, these were dug down as deep as six feet.

"It's hard to imagine how they did that," Anderson said. "These are gigantic houses and they are dug very deep."

And with what? Oddly, no shovels have ever been uncovered, Anderson said.

"Surely, they must have broken one," Anderson said.

A fish-eating people

One of the other interesting things found in the Igliqtiqsiugvigruaq village site is what is not found there — caribou bones. Anderson said in other sites in the Arctic, caribou bones are found everywhere. Not so here, where indications are the people ate mostly fish and waterfowl. Considering the village's size, it is likely they were fairly hard-pressed for food, the archeologist said.

The village was abandoned, possibly in the later part of the 1800s, and it's possible food scarcity was the reason. Anderson's wife, Wanni, has been interviewing people in the Kiana region, recording oral histories, and one of the stories talks about the fish being taken away, Anderson said.

Those who lived in Igliqtiqsiugvigruaq are said to have dispersed throughout the Nana region, Anderson said, with oral history of the village found throughout the region.

Human remains found in dwelling

One of the two dwellings excavated contained human remains — an adult male and a young child. Anderson said typically when human remains are found, the dig is over. While activity did stop in 2011 when the bodies were found until all involved were able to weigh in, an extraordinary effort by the Kiana Traditional Council kept the archeological work moving forward.

"This is a thing that has been one of the most interesting and gratifying aspects (of this dig)," Anderson said, adding that the village of Kiana told federal officials they really wanted to know what happened in Igliqtiqsiugvigruak — to find out more about the history of the village.

The site is found on National Park Service land, and Anderson said the Parks Service recently told him his excavation may well be the only time human remains were permitted to be excavated from National Parks Service land, due in no small part to the effort by the local residents.

The human remains will be returned to tribal leaders for burial.

Site eroding away

The timing of the dig is critical, Anderson said, because in a few decades, much of the site may be gone. The river is cutting into the village remains and stabilizing the bank is too monumental a task, he said.

"The old village is being washed away. The river is cutting in pretty bad and everybody's concerned about it. It's probably going to wipe out the entire village," he said. "Every year, another one or two homes get washed away."

Still, Anderson said he doesn't expect more homes in the area to be excavated. The process of uncovering the homes is expensive and complicated because there are structures underlying other structures.

"I don't see anybody stepping up to excavate more," he said, adding that excavation in the Arctic is complicated and specialized.

This site in particular appears to have many layers. Near the end of this season, the site was surveyed with ground-penetrating radar and more homes were found up to 10 feet down, covered up by flooding over the centuries.

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"They have no surface indications," he said.

That could expand the estimated size of the community that lived there to as large as 400 people, he said.

Oral history backs up archeology

One of the more interesting parts of this dig, Anderson said, is the correlation found between the oral history of the site and the evidence found buried beneath the surface.

"This is one of the nice examples of showing the correlation between the oral history and the archeology," he said. "The archeology is being checked out by the oral history and the oral history is being checked out by the archeology. There's been a real correspondence."

Both Anderson and his wife will present both in Kotzebue and Kiana when they return next spring with their final reports on the area. He said the community's enthusiasm about the project went a long way to make the dig possible. He said more analysis over the winter may help answer some of the mysteries uncovered at Igliqtiqsiugvigruaq.

Carey Restino writes for The Arctic Sounder, where this report was first published. Used with permission.

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