Culture

Tyonek land gift protects centuries-old Dena'ina Athabascan sites

WASILLA -- A unique gift of land will preserve one of Alaska's most significant Dena'ina Athabascan settlements along the western shores of Cook Inlet near Tyonek.

The 160-acre property known as the Smith Homestead now belongs to the Native Village of Tyonek after a land donation from The Nature Conservancy. A potlatch attended by 50 to 75 people, including the organizations involved, was held in Tyonek on Wednesday to celebrate.

An archaeological team two years ago discovered an early cemetery, home sites and cold storage pits, relics of the western Cook Inlet Dena'ina people who fished and lived there for nearly 1,000 years, according to Heather Kendall-Miller, an Anchorage-based attorney for the Native American Rights Fund, which represented the village in the land transfer.

The land gift marks the first time an Alaska tribe has partnered with a conservation group to protect tribal land through a conservation easement, participants say.

The easement allows for traditional activities like subsistence hunting, fishing and berry picking by tribal members, according to the Conservancy. The agreement allows limited development on 12 acres, including commercial activities connected to tribal traditions such as putting up salmon as well as information signs, kiosks, trails and structures used for cultural activities.

Village children already use the area for an annual summer culture camp, said Al Goozmer, president of the Native Village of Tyonek.

Last summer, campers got to visit the site and learn about its cultural importance, Goozmer said.

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The children reached the spot after passing through a forest from the Inlet beach where they were goofing off, swimming -- "noisy things like that, running around, playing," he said. "But when they were at the site, you could hear the birds chirping they were so quiet."

Great Land Trust, an Anchorage-based nonprofit, will partner with the Tebughna people under the conservation easement on the property. Tebughna -- "the Beach People" -- is the Dena'ina name for people from Tyonek.

The property is part of a larger historic area that holds hundreds, if not thousands, of Dena'ina sites, according to Kendall-Miller.

"It is the most well-preserved Dena'ina Athabascan area in Alaska," Kendall-Miller said.

The large occupation sprang from a newly sedentary, uniquely marine-based culture of Dena'ina people harvesting belugas and other marine mammals, she said. They developed winter storage pits lined with birch bark and layered with salmon allowed to freeze to prevent bacterial growth, separated by grasses and covered to keep out the elements.

"They were in the crossroads for trade," Kendall-Miller said. "Once it became apparent that this particular site was connected to the modern-day people there it became very much of an important project to work with."

The sites were discovered by archaeologists during the ongoing permitting process for a coal mine proposed for the upper reaches of the Chuitt River by PacRim Coal LP, she said.

No mine project has ever been proposed for the 160-acre parcel donated to the Native Village of Tyonek, a PacRim spokesman said.

Proposed port facilities to ship coal for export are located north of the homestead parcel and about a mile north of the Chuitt River, according to PacRim's Joe Lucas. The mine area is about nine miles inland.

The donated property is locally known as the Smith Homestead. Mary and Frank Smith homesteaded it in 1936 and lived a subsistence lifestyle, growing food, milking cows and eating moose and salmon while they "enjoyed their relationship with the nearby village," according to a press release from the Conservancy. The family eventually donated the land to the Alaska Diocese of the Catholic Church, which conveyed the land to the group in 2008.

The Conservancy officially gave the land to the Native Village of Tyonek in a signing ceremony with the Great Land Trust in mid-March.

The value of the property is around $400,000, according to Rand Hagenstein, Alaska director for the Conservancy.

The group bought the land in part because of the coal mine proposal, Hagenstein said. The Chuitt is one of the Conservancy's highest-priority Cook Inlet chinook salmon streams, he said.

But the land donation more broadly represents the group's first conveyance of property to a tribal government, Hagenstein said, in a state where tribes are not typically landholders.

"This is an important step for the tribal government to feel they've got a start of a land base and a seat at the table in discussions about what happens on lands around their community," he said.

Zaz Hollander

Zaz Hollander is a veteran journalist based in the Mat-Su and is currently an ADN local news editor and reporter. She covers breaking news, the Mat-Su region, aviation and general assignments. Contact her at zhollander@adn.com.

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