Taral, installment 2

Ahtna house located near the mouth of the Chitina River, circa 1900.  This photo taken by the USGS geologist Frank G. Schrader.  To the left is a house made from spruce bark.  The man and boy wear the most modern style, clothes brought in by miners and non-Native traders.  The woman is wearing a traditional style of dress made from cloth instead of skin.  

Mouth of the Chitina River in about 1900.  This photo was taken by the USGS geologist Frank G. Schrader.

Allen called Taral the metropolis of the Copper River country. In the Ahtna language Taral is called Taghaelden or ‘dike place.’ The name Taghaelden comes from the Ahtna word taghael, which Ahtna elder Andy Brown said was derived from the word takalghael, a term for willow brush that was cut and bound up or made into bundles from 6 to 8 feet long.  Bundles of brush were used to build fish weirs.  A fish weir was like a fence that was used to block a small creek, such as Taral Creek, which flows into the Copper River near  Taral.  A small fish trap was inserted into an opening in the weir.  The trap was used to catch grayling, trout, and Dolly Varden.  Ahtna elder Frank Billum explained: "Taral, tay’delghael they put brush in creek to make a weir with a small trap, only for trout and grayling.” 

Taral had an inherited chief’s title.  The chiefs of a least 12 of the most important Ahtna villages had an inherited chief's name associated with the village.  The title was based on the place name of the village plus the term denen or ghaxa (the Ahtna words for chief or headman).  Such a system of inherited titles is unusual.  The chief of Taral was known as Taghael Denen or ‘Person of Barrier in Water.’  

Taral, which is no longer inhabited, was located on the east bank of the Copper River just below the mouth of the Chitina River. In the 1800s two other villages were located near Taral.  Three brothers were headmen or chiefs of these villages.  Allen only saw one of these villages, Taral.  The other two places were located near the mouth of O'Brien Creek, and the mouth of Fox Creek, across the river from Taral.  

 When the three brothers died sometime in the mid 19^th century a man named Nicolai took over as chief.  Nicolai and his younger brothers Hanagita and Eskilida were nephews of the chief at O’Brien Creek.  Nicolai controlled a territory that encompassed most of the Chitina River drainage.  He had houses in several places, but Taral was his wife’s fish camp.  At Taral Allen first heard about Nicolai, but in order to meet him he had to go to one of Nicolai's houses up the Chitina River.  

As Allen approached Taral the Natives with him asked to salute the village with gunfire, a tradition or accepted method for announcing your arrival – probably meant to assure the residents that you came in peace with empty firearms.  The salute was answered with a single shot.  As they approached the village they saw a single man, one woman and two children.  

The man was John Bremner – “certainly the most uncouth specimen of manhood that I had, up to that time, ever seen.”  

Bremner was expecting the return of an Ahtna trading party and had been reduced to a single round.  He had been living on rabbits or hares – snaring them in the vicinity of the village.  Bremner had spent the winter at Taral and had almost starved to death.  

Allen and his party had reached Taral on April 10 with 230 pounds of food, which was supposed to sustain them until they reached the Yukon.  Food would be a problem throughout the entire trip and without help from the Natives it is doubtful that Allen and his part would have survived.  

Those Eyak which had come up river with Allen were dismissed and headed back down river – a perilous journey since the ice was nearly gone.  All of the Ahtna, expect one called Wahnie. went their separate ways – two going up the Chitina River and the other further up the Copper River.  

Taral consisted of a summer and winter house.  Bremner lived in the winter house.  Located about 1.5 miles from Taral was a rectangular house made of spruce boughs used by several women and children.  This may have been a house used to sequester young woman who are having their first period.  

At Taral Allen found a larger Russian Orthodox cross and the remnants of a Russian trading post.  He  sent one of the Ahtna to purchase dried fish and the man returned with 25 dried salmon, ten of which they gave to the women.  The explorers cached 180 pounds of provisions at Taral before leaving to explore the Chitina River. 

People of Taral.  This photo was taken circa 1910-1920.  Chief Eskilida is sitting in the front row.