Around a.d. 1400 communities moved up the
coastal rivers, including the Yukon, to form set-
tlements farther inland.
Rather than the frigid northern lands of what
is now Alaska, the climate in these areas was
milder. The waterways supplied the Yup’ik
with food; from the shore or within their kay-
aks, hunters used harpoons or bows and arrows
to catch salmon and hunt mammals. During the
year, people would travel to different seasonal
camps to harvest different food sources. In the
colder months, they would shelter in structures
made out of earth.
It was around the perimeter of what was once
one of these large sod structures that Knecht and
his team of archaeologists made an astonishing
find. They uncovered traces of a centuries-old fire
that was used to smoke out the residents—some
50 people, probably an alliance of extended fami-
lies, who lived here when they weren’t out
hunting, fishing, and gathering
plants. No one, it seems,
was spared.
ULUS ARE TRADITIONAL HUNTING KNIVES USED FOR CENTURIES BY THE
YUP’IK PEOPLE TO CLEAN FISH AND SKIN GAME.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONERIKA LARSEN/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC IMAGE COLLECTION
BOW, ARROWS, QUIVER, AND CASE
19TH CENTURY, YUP’IK PEOPLE, YUKON
RIVER DELTA, ALASKA