The Chitina River, installment 3

The Chitina River is the principal eastern tributary of the Copper River, draining the entire southern slope of the Wrangell Mountains and much of the north-facing slope of the Chugach Range.  In the Ahtna language the Chitina is called Tsedi Na' or 'copper river.'  In other words, it is the true Copper River.  What is marked on maps as Copper River is called is simply called 'river' or Atna'.  In Upper Ahtna the river is called K'etna'.  


 The Chitina River is approximately 112 miles long,  swift and turbid with water flow dependent chiefly on mountain runoff, so that the greatest flow occurs during hot, dry weather.  On the upper Chitina the grade is 33 feet to the mile but becomes less steep on the lower river.  The major tributaries of the Chitina are the Nizina, Lakina, and Kuskulana on the north bank, and the Tebay and Tana on the south bank.

Allen and the expedition made their way up the Chitina River accompanied by one Ahtna guide.  They tried to live off the country but found only hares or rabbits.  The snow was nearly gone.  Initially they traveled along the riverbed and found rough going over boulders and gravel.  On April 13 they caught up with Skilly, one of the Ahtna who had accompanied Allen up the Copper River to Taral.  Skilly had parts of a moose that some wolves had killed.  In addition an old woman brought in another small piece of moose meat and a moose’s nose.  The old woman was Wahnie’s mother who lived near the Chitina River.  A little later on they met a hunting party composed of 2 men and 2 women along with several children.

Allen learned that Nicolai was further up the Chitina near the headwaters of the Chittystone River.  Allen describes the Chitina as having two forks, and he says Skilly lived some way up the central fork of the Chitina – possibly on the Tana or Kiagna rivers.  This is confusing because Allen says the Ahtna told him the south fork of the Chitina is uninhabited. Looking at a map the south branch referred to may be the Tana River.  It is known that Ahtna lived on the smaller tributary of the Kiagna River.  The Chitina has one major fork the Nizina River.  The Chittystone River flows into the Nizina.

The Ahtna, as do most Natives, make short fast marches and never load themselves down with packs that exceed 20 pounds.  The men carry only a light gun and a skin blanket while the women and workers (who Allen refers to as slaves) are loaded down with camp paraphernalia. 

As discussed in an earlier posting, skilly is Allen’s interpretation of the Ahtna word ciile’.  The term means clan helper.  Ciile’ were usually the nephews of the headmen, that is his sister’s sons. In the 19^th century Ahtna society was highly stratified; at the top was a headman who often had several wives.  These wives were frequently from different clans.  In this way the headman could spread his influence to many different segments of Ahtna society.  Second and third wives did most of the work.  The Ahtna word for slave is ‘elnaa.  In the Ahtna dictionary slaves are defined as drudge, helper, servant or second wife who works in the home.  Below the headman and his family were lesser families and then orphans and widows, people who had no family support and were dependent on the largess of the headman and more prosperous families.  Allen often commented on the refusal of Ahtna men to carry anything on the trail except their gun or weapon.  When Allen tried to carry a load that is equal to those of his men the headmen ridiculed him for acting like a slave or drudge.

Skilly agreed to accompany the party to Nicolai’s camp but refused to carry anything but Allen’s pack.  After several hours of travel the party lunched on moose meat and 2 or 3 blue geese.  Allen noted that the party was weak because they could not get enough meat to keep up their strength.  They ate all of the food and moved on.

As they approached Nicolai’s camp, the chief gave them a salute of gunfire, which the expedition returned. Allen says the more shots fired the higher the status of the headman.  On one occasion 150 shots were fired in welcome.

Nicolai’s house was supposed to be in the heart of the “mineral region” and Allen writes that he showed them the locality of a vein of copper that in April was above the snow line.  Nicolai told Allen the pure Copper was on the “Chittyto River” and on other tributaries of the “Chittyna’.”  Nicolai had bullets of pure copper that he said he had obtained from Natives on the other side of the Mountains (no direction given).

Allen concludes, “I do not believe that the natives guard as a secret treasure the copper or other mineral beds, but think that they would willingly reveal to the white man their knowledge in the matter.”

The Copper River gets its name because of the deposits of raw copper found there.  Nuggets of pure copper could be picked up off the ground and pounded into arrowheads, knife blades, and things like pedants.  Copper was an important item of trade and the Ahtna traded it to the Tlingit living at Yakutat on the Gulf of Alaska who then hammered copper ingots into bow tie shaped forms that were worth slaves and given away at potlatches.

Ahtna traders brought copper to Nuchek on Hinchenbrook Island in Prince William Sound.  Davidson, writing in the Alaska Coast Pilot of 1869 notes that “…the principal source of [pure copper] is on the Atna or Copper River, about twenty-five or thirty miles above its mouth, where discovery and research are retarded on account of the reported hostility of the natives.”

The Russian American Company sent people to locate the source of copper but they never did.  At end of the 19^th century American prospectors found the source and in the early 20^th century built a mine and railroad to bring the raw copper out to tide water.  Some say that Nicolai and the Ahtna were cheated and they blame Nicolai for revealing the source and making a bad deal.

Nicolai had food, a 5 gallon pot filled with meat.  The party ate their fill, consuming about 5 pounds of meat each along with gallons of soup.  Most of the food was fat run into the small intestines of a moose. They all immediately fell asleep after eating and when they awoke continued to eat more.  During the following days they ate moose, beaver, lynx, and rabbits. 

Allen convinced Nicolai that he should have a moose skin boat built and accompany the exploring party back to Taral.  Nicolai refused to go with Allen further up the Copper River.  Nicolai told Allen there were plenty of sheep (tebay in Ahtna) in the vicinity but the hunters were able to kill only two of them. 

On April 27, after a day of hunting, the women and children began hiking down river to join Allen, Nicolai and the moose skin boat at the mouth of the Chittystone.  The boat was 27 feet long with a beam 5ft. The boat was covered with untanned moose skins over a wood frame built with knives and ax of Native manufacture (meaning stone or copper?). Seams were double sewn with sinew and the hide strapped to the frame with rawhide.  The boat was extremely flexible but according to Allen, “unsightly.”  Not much water in the Chittystone and the boat often grounded so the crew had to jump out and push the boat along, most of the time they waded rather than rode.  The current averaged 6 miles an hour.  Ice, 4 to 6 feet lined the bank of the river.  Allen noted the passing of Chititu Creek that had yellow colored water caused by the presence of so much copper, and which salmon never ascend.

Nicloai acted as helmsmen.  He shouted “To Kwul-le” or “To Keelan” or A-to.  The first two words were shallow water and deep water, the last was “paddle.”  Allen writes that Nicolai provided him important lessons in steering a boat that later proved useful on the Tanana River.

Eventually the party reached the confluence of the Chitina and Nizina where they camped and were joined by the woman and children who had walked down. 

Started down the Chitina, and met another boatload of Ahtna.  All were stopped by the ice and had to camp in a patch of willows for the night.  As the neared the mouth of the Chitina the ice disappeared and the current ran about 6 miles and hour.  The snow had disappeared from the hills and riverbed, a wind blew, blowing up great clouds of dust that made it difficult to see.  Made an early camp, sent out hunters to kill sheep.  They were able to kill 6 animals.  The next day the party left camp in a snowstorm, which turned to rain in the afternoon.  Passed the mouth of the Tebay River.  Reached Taral late in the Afternoon of May 4th.

An aerial view  of Wood Canyon and railroad right of way used by the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad to transport copper from the Kenicott mines on the upper Chitina River.  The dotted line is a proposed hydro electric dam that was never built.

Cliffs along the Nizina River.  The Chittystone flows in from the right.

Aerial photo of the confluence of the Chitna and Copper rivers.  The Chitina flows in the from the upper right corner of the photo.  Taral is located just above the sand bar along the Copper River in the right hand side of the picture.