Chitina River
The Chitina River is a 112-mile tributary of the Copper River in the U. S. state of Alaska. It begins in the Saint Elias Mountains at the base of Chitana Glacier and flows northwest through the Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve to meet the larger river near Chitina; the watershed was once a major copper mining region. The Chitina River is suitable for floating in rafts and decked canoes by boaters with sufficient wilderness and whitewater skills. From a put-in place near Hubert's Landing downstream of Chitina Glacier, the river is Class II on the International Scale of River Difficulty all the way to the mouth at Chitina. Boaters starting from Hubert's Landing will have to make a difficult 2.5-mile portage to reach the main river channel. It is possible to put in at Jake's Bar, about halfway between the glacier and the river mouth; the shorter trip requires no portage. Hazards include cold silty water, bad weather, the remote location. Grizzlies pose a danger to boaters near the mouths of clear tributaries, where the bears tend to congregate.
A variety of salmon, attractive to bears, migrate to and from these tributaries. The most important tributaries of the Chitina are from the north and emanate principally from the south slope of the Wrangell Mountains. From the south the main affluents are the Tana and Tebay rivers, which rise in the Chugach Mountains. Kiagna River is a southern tributary of Chitina River; the Tebay River, an associated set of lakes and smaller streams in the Tebay watershed, offer "the potential for some of the finest wilderness angling experiences to be had in Southcentral Alaska", according to Alaska Fishing. The main game fish in the Tebay system are rainbow trout, lake trout, Arctic grayling. List of rivers of Alaska Media related to Chitina River at Wikimedia Commons
Alaskan Athabaskans
The Alaskan Athabascans, Alaskan Athabaskans, Alaskan Athapaskans are Alaska Native peoples of the Northern Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. They are the original inhabitants of the interior of Alaska and neighboring Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada to the east. In Alaska, where they are the oldest, there are eleven groups identified by the languages they speak; the word Tinneh was employed to designate the Alaskan Athabaskans, this word being taken from their own language Dinaa or Dena and signifying "men" or "people". The Alaskan Athabascan culture is an inland river fishing and hunter-gatherer culture; the Alaskan Athabascans have a matrilineal system in which children belong to the mother's clan, with the exception of the Yupikized Athabaskans. The Alaska Dene are divided into eleven tribal groups, some of which are found in the adjacent Yukon and Northwest-Territories. Koyukon Kaiyuhkhotana or Lower Yukon Koyukon Koyukukhotana or Koyukuk River Koyukon Yukonikhotana / Unakhotana or Upper Yukon Koyukon 2.
Gwich'in or Kutchin 3. Hän or Han 4. Holikachuk or Innoko 5. Deg Hit'an or Ingalik 6. Upper Kuskokwim or Kolchan / Goltsan Tanana Athabaskans 7. Tanana / Lower Tanana and / or Middle Tanana 8. Tanacross or Tanana Crossing 9. Upper Tanana 10. Dena'ina or Tanaina 11. Ahtna or Copper River Athabasken (Atna Hwt'aene - ″People along the'Atna' River, i.e. Copper River″, auch meist jedoch Koht'aene / Hwt'aene - „Bewohner einer Gegend“ oder „Volk entlang, vom...“, um durch eine Ortsangabe die Zugehörigkeit zu einer regionalen Band/Gruppe zu bestimmen.
Toboggan
A toboggan is a simple sled, a traditional form of transport used by the Innu and Cree of northern Canada. In modern times, it is used on snow to carry one or more people down a hill or other slope for recreation. Designs vary from traditional models to modern engineered composites. A toboggan differs from sleighs in that it has no runners or skis on the underside; the bottom of a toboggan rides directly on the snow. Some parks include designated toboggan hills where ordinary sleds are not allowed and which may include toboggan runs similar to bobsleigh courses. Toboggans can vary depending on the geographical region; such examples are Tangalooma where Toboggans are made from Masonite boards and used for travelling down steep sand dunes at speeds up to 40km per hour. The traditional toboggan is made of bound, parallel wood slats, all bent up and backwards at the front to form a recumbent'J' shape. A thin rope is run across the edge of end of the curved front to provide rudimentary steering; the frontmost rider sits on the flat bed.
Modern recreational toboggans are manufactured from wood or plastic or aluminum. Larger, more rugged models are made for commercial or rescue use; the Mountaineer method is the only one adapted for the interior parts of the country: their sleds are made of two thin boards of birch. Each individual, able to walk, is furnished with one of these. On them they stow all their goods, their infants; the two ends of a leather thong are tied to the corners of the sled. The men go first; the toboggan is a recurring prop in the Hobbes comic. Comic author Bill Watterson uses it as "a simple device to add some physical comedy to the strip, most use it when Calvin gets longwinded or philosophical."In Home Alone Kevin McCallister rides a toboggan down the stairs after his family “disappears”. Bobsled Luge Pulk, a Scandinavian low, flat load-carrying sled. Skeleton Sled Toboggan Bum slider "Toboggan". New International Encyclopedia. 1905
Copper River (Alaska)
The Copper River or Ahtna River, Ahtna Athabascan ‘Atna’tuu, "river of the Ahtnas", Tlingit Eeḵhéeni, "river of copper", is a 290-mile river in south-central Alaska in the United States. It drains a large region of the Wrangell Mountains and Chugach Mountains into the Gulf of Alaska, it is known for its extensive delta ecosystem, as well as for its prolific runs of wild salmon, which are among the most prized stocks in the world. The river is the tenth largest in the United States, as ranked by average discharge volume at its mouth; the Copper River rises out of the Copper Glacier, which lies on the northeast side of Mount Wrangell, in the Wrangell Mountains, within Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park. It begins by flowing due north in a valley that lies on the east side of Mount Sanford, turns west, forming the northwest edge of the Wrangell Mountains and separating them from the Mentasta Mountains to the northeast, it continues to turn southeast, through a wide marshy plain to Chitina, where it is joined from the southeast by the Chitina River.
The Copper River is 290 miles long. It drops an average of about 12 feet per mile, drains more than 24,000 square miles —an area the size of West Virginia; the river runs at an average of 7 miles per hour. Downstream from its confluence with the Chitina it flows southwest, passing through a narrow glacier-lined gap in the Chugach Mountains within the Chugach National Forest east of Cordova Peak. There is an extensive area of linear sand dunes up to 250 feet in height radiating from the mouth of the Copper River. Both Miles Glacier and Childs Glacier calve directly into the river; the Copper enters the Gulf of Alaska southeast of Cordova where it creates a delta nearly 50 miles wide. The name of the river comes from the abundant copper deposits along the upper river that were used by Alaska Native population and later by settlers from the Russian Empire and the United States. Extraction of the copper resources was problematic due to navigation difficulties at the river's mouth; the construction of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway from Cordova through the upper river valley from 1908 to 1911 allowed widespread extraction of the mineral resources, in particular from the Kennecott Mine, discovered in 1898.
The mine was abandoned in 1938 and is now a ghost town tourist attraction and historic district maintained by the National Park Service. Copper River Highway runs from Cordova to the lower Copper River near Childs Glacier, following the old railroad route and ending at the reconstructed Million Dollar Bridge across the river; the Tok Cut-Off follows the Copper River Valley on the north side of the Chugach Mountains. The river's famous salmon runs arise from the use of the river watershed by over 2 million salmon each year for spawning; the extensive runs result in many unique varieties, prized for their fat content. The river's commercial salmon season is brief, beginning in May for chinook salmon and sockeye salmon for periods lasting days or hours at a time. Sport fishing by contrast is open all year long, but peak season on the Copper River lasts from August to September when the coho salmon runs; the fisheries are co-managed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Department of the Interior Federal Subsistence Board.
Management data are obtained by ADF&G at the Miles Lake sonar station and the native village of Eyak at the Baird Canyon and Canyon Creek research stations. The Copper River Delta, which extends for 700,000 acres, is the largest contiguous wetlands along the Pacific coast of North America, it is used annually by 16 million shorebirds, including the world's entire population of western sandpipers and dunlins. It is home to the world's largest population of nesting trumpeter swans and is the only known nesting site for the dusky Canada goose subspecies. List of rivers of Alaska Brabets, Timothy P.. Geomorphology of the Lower Copper River, Alaska. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey. Ecotrust Copper River Program Copper River salmon habitat management study Prepared for Ecotrust by Marie E. Lowe of the Institute of Social and Economic Research, hosted by Alaska State Publications Program Alaska Department of Fish and Game: Copper River Salmon Eyak Preservation Council Nature Conservancy: Copper River Delta The Copper River Watershed Project NVE Fisheries Research and Seasonal Employment on the Copper River Cordova District Fishermen United Wrangell-St.
Elias National Park information Copper River | Chitina Dipnet Fishery Escapement Charts
Russians
Russians are a nation and an East Slavic ethnic group native to European Russia in Eastern Europe. Outside Russia, notable minorities exist in other former Soviet states such as Belarus, Moldova and the Baltic states. A large Russian diaspora exists all over the world, with notable numbers in the United States, Germany and Canada; the Russians share many cultural traits with other East Slavic ethnic groups Belarusians and Ukrainians. They are predominantly Orthodox Christians by religion; the Russian language is official in Russia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, spoken as a secondary language in many former Soviet states. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as "Russians". One is "русский", which most means "ethnic Russians". Another is "россияне", which means "citizens of Russia"; the former word refers to ethnic Russians, regardless of what country they live in and irrespective of whether or not they hold Russian citizenship. Under certain circumstances this term may or may not extend to denote members of other Russian-speaking ethnic groups from Russia, or from the former Soviet Union.
The latter word refers to all people holding citizenship of Russia, regardless of their ethnicity, does not include ethnic Russians living outside Russia. Translations into other languages do not distinguish these two groups; the name of the Russians derives from the Rus' people. According to the most prevalent theory, the name Rus', like the Finnish name for Sweden, is derived from an Old Norse term for "the men who row" as rowing was the main method of navigating the rivers of Eastern Europe, that it could be linked to the Swedish coastal area of Roslagen or Roden, as it was known in earlier times; the name Rus' would have the same origin as the Finnish and Estonian names for Sweden: Ruotsi and Rootsi. According to other theories the name Rus' is derived from Proto-Slavic *roud-s-ь, connected with red color or from Indo-Iranian; until the 1917 revolution, Russian authorities never called them "Russians", calling them "Great Russians" instead, a part of "Russians". The modern Russians formed from two groups of East Slavic tribes: Northern and Southern.
The tribes involved included the Krivichs, Ilmen Slavs, Radimichs and Severians. Genetic studies show that modern Russians do not differ from Belarusians and Ukrainians; some ethnographers, like Dmitry Konstantinovich Zelenin, affirm that Russians are more similar to Belarusians and to Ukrainians than southern Russians are to northern Russians. Russians in northern European Russia share moderate genetic similarities with Uralic peoples, who lived in modern north-central European Russia and were assimilated by the Slavs as the Slavs migrated northeastwards; such Uralic peoples included the Muromians. The territory of Russia has been inhabited since 2nd Millennium BCE by Indo-European, Ural-Altaic, various other peoples. Outside archaeological remains, little is known about the predecessors to Russians in general prior to 859 AD when the Primary Chronicle starts its records, it is thought that by 600 AD, the Slavs had split linguistically into southern and eastern branches. The eastern branch settled between the Dnieper Rivers in present-day Ukraine.
Both Belarusians and South Russians formed on this ethnic linguistic ground. From the 6th century onwards, another group of Slavs moved from Pomerania to the northeast of the Baltic Sea, where they encountered the Varangians of the Rus' Khaganate and established the important regional center of Novgorod; the same Slavic ethnic population settled the present-day Tver Oblast and the region of Beloozero. With the Uralic substratum, they formed the tribes of the Ilmen Slavs. Kievan Rus' was a loose federation of states. Modern Russians derive their name and cultural ancestry from Kievan Rus'. In 2010, the world's Russian population was 129 million people of which 86% were in Russia, 11.5% in the CIS and Baltic countries, with a further 2.5% living in other countries. 111 million ethnic Russians live in Russia, 80% of whom live in the European part of Russia, 20% in the Asian part of the country. After the Dissolution of the Soviet Union an estimated 25 million Russians began living outside of the Russian Federation, most of them in the former Soviet Republics.
Ethnic Russians migrated throughout the area of former Russian Empire and Soviet Union, sometimes encouraged to re-settle in borderlands by the Tsarist and Soviet government. On some occasions ethnic Russian communities, such as Lipovans who settled in the Danube delta or Doukhobors in Canada, emigrated as religious dissidents fleeing the central authority. After the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War starting in 1917, many Russians were forced to leave their homeland fleeing the Bolshevik regime, millions became refugees. Many white émigrés were participants in the White movement, although the term is broadly applied to anyone who may have left the country due to the change in regime. Today the largest ethnic Russian diasporas outside Russia live in former
University of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks is a public research university in College, Alaska. It is a flagship campus of the University of Alaska system and a land-grant, sea-grant, space-grant institution. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for classes in 1922. Named the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, it became the University of Alaska in 1935. Fairbanks-based programs became the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1975. UAF is home to several major research units, including the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. Located just 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle, the Fairbanks campus' unique location favors Arctic and northern research. UAF's research specialties are renowned worldwide, most notably Arctic biology, Arctic engineering, geophysics and Alaska Native studies; the University of Alaska Museum of the North is on the Fairbanks campus. In addition to the Fairbanks campus, UAF encompasses six rural and urban campuses: Bristol Bay Campus in Dillingham. UAF is the home of eLearning and Distance Education, an independent learning and distance delivery program.
In fall 2017, UAF enrolled 8,720 students. Of those students, 58% were female and 41% were male; as of May 2018, 1,352 students had graduated during the preceding summer and spring semesters. The University of Alaska Fairbanks was established in 1917 as the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, but its origins lie in the creation of a federal agricultural experiment station in Fairbanks in 1906; the station set the tone for the research-oriented university that developed later. In the spring of 1915, the U. S. Congress approved legislation that reserved about 2,250 acres of land for a campus around the research station, it allowed the federal government to give the college land, surveyed and unclaimed in the Tanana Valley. However, because most of the land in Tanana Valley remained unsurveyed for years, the college only received 12,000 acres. In 1929, Congress attempted to remedy the situation by granting the college an additional 100,000 acres anywhere in Alaska, but those rights were extinguished in 1959 when Alaska became a state.
Four months after Congress approved the legislation for the campus land in 1915, a cornerstone for the college was laid by Territorial Delegate James Wickersham on a bluff overlooking the lower Chena River valley. The ridge, which the indigenous Athabaskan people called Troth Yeddha', soon became known as College Hill. Charles E. Bunnell was appointed the university’s chief executive and served the university for 28 years. Classes began at the new institution on September 18, 1922, it offered 16 different courses to a student body of six on opening day. In 1923, the first commencement produced John Sexton Shanly. In 1935, the Alaska Legislature passed a bill that changed the name of the college to the University of Alaska; when William R. Wood became the university’s president in 1960, he divided the academic departments of the university into six select colleges: Arts and Letters. From that point on, both the university’s student population and research mission grew tremendously. With the appointment of Chancellor Howard A. Cutler in 1975, the University of Alaska became the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The two other primary UA institutions are the University of Alaska Anchorage and the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau. The Alaska Constitutional Convention was held in the freshly constructed Student Union Building on the Fairbanks campus from November 1955 to February 1956. While the convention progressed, the building became known as Constitution Hall, where the 55 delegates drafted the legal foundation of the 49th state; the campus’ old library and gymnasium was renamed Signers’ Hall after the Alaska Constitution was signed there in February 1956. UAF has nine academic schools and colleges: College of Engineering and Mines College of Liberal Arts College of Natural Science and Mathematics College of Rural and Community Development Graduate School School of Education College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences School of Management School of Natural Resources and Extension There are 190 different degree and certificate programs available in more than 120 disciplines; the UAF Honors Program was created in 1983 and provides additional opportunities for students to prepare for professional school admission.
Students complete core curriculum courses for their degrees in the Honors Program, maintain at least a 3.25 grade-point average in all courses, complete a thesis project. Elmer E. Rasmuson Library The Alaska Film Archives, housed in the library's Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives, holds the largest collection of film-related material about Ala
Yellowknives
The Yellowknives, Yellow Knives, Copper Indians, Red Knives or T'atsaot'ine are indigenous peoples of Canada, one of the five main groups of the First Nations Dene who live in the Northwest Territories of Canada. The name, the source for the community of Yellowknife, derives from the colour of the tools made from copper deposits; the historic Yellowknives lived north and northeast of the Great Slave Lake around the Yellowknife River and Yellowknife Bay and northward along the Coppermine River, northeast to the Back River and east to the Thelon River. They used the major rivers of their traditional land as routes for travel and trade as far east as Hudson Bay, where early European explorers such as Samuel Hearne encountered them in the 1770s; the Yellowknives helped lead Hearne through the Canadian Arctic tundra from Hudson Bay to the Arctic Ocean in search of the legendary copper deposits that the Yellowknives, or'Copper Indians', had a hand in mining and trading for tools. European explorers who encountered and traded with Copper Indians marked on their maps the'Yellowknife River,' which drains into Great Slave Lake from headwaters originating near the headwaters of the Coppermine River, a traditional travel corridor.
In the early 1800s and 1900s, the Yellowknives were the largest and most powerful tribe in the geographic area. The Yellowknives and the Tłı̨chǫ, who lived on the north shores of Great Slave Lake, were ancestral enemies. In the 1830s it was reported that the Dogrib wiped out the Yellowknives, the remnants of which - although opinions vary - either scattered south of Great Slave Lake or inter-married with the Dogrib. Following the discovery of gold in the Yellowknife area, a great mix of Dogrib and remnant Yellowknife members congregated and settled in the community or within the traditional villages of Dettah or Trout Rock. With government funding, the Dene village of Ndilǫ was developed in the mid 1950s on the tip of Latham Island; the Yellowknives Dene First Nation was formed in 1991 following the collapse of a territorial-wide comprehensive land claim negotiation. They negotiate a land claim settlement for their lands as part of the Akaitcho Land Claim Process. Another organized Dene group has come forward claiming to be direct descendants of the historic'Yellowknife Indian' tribes, asserting independence from the mixed Dogrib-Chipewyan Yellowknives Dene First Nation.
Considered a distinct people, they are still seeking government recognition today under Treaty 8. Chief Snuff of the Yellowknives signed Treaty 8 in 1899. Chief Snuff lived on the south shore and east arm of Great Slave Lake; the people who lived on the Taltson River were dubbed the Rocher River People in the 1920s. Chief Snuff had a cabin located about ten miles from Rocher River on a little piece of land beside the water, called Snuff Channel, connected to the Taltson River; the Yellowknives continued to reside in this area until the early 1960s, when they were forced to relocate after their schoolhouse was burned down in a fire. Shortly after, the Taltson River hydro dam was built; the last chief of the Rocher River Yellowknives was Chief Pierre Frise in the 1960s. During this point the original Yellowknives were dispersed to Fort Resolution and other areas of Canada. All First Nations with Yellowknives descendants are organized in the Akaitcho Treaty 8 Tribal Corporation and in the Akaitcho Territory Government.
Yellowknives Dene First Nation: many are descendants of the Wuledehot'in regional group of the neighbouring Tłı̨chǫ. Communities: Dettah, Ndilǫ, Yellowknife; the Dettah-Ndilǫ-Tłįchǫ Yatıì, a dialect spoken in the communities of Dettah and Ndilǫ, developed from intermarriage between Yellowknives and Tłı̨chǫ peoples) Deninu K'ue First Nation. It is a settlement corporation in the South Slave Region of the Northwest Territories; the community is situated at the mouth of the Slave River, on the shore of Great Slave Lake, Deninu K'ue or Dene Nu Kwen are/were called Chipewyan and Yellowknives, which came to Fort Resolution to trade their furs. Lutsel K'e Dene First Nation (Lutselk'e spelled Lutsel K'e, is a designated authority in the North Slave Region of the Northwest Territories; the community is located on the south shore near the eastern end of Great Slave Lake and until 1 July 1992, it was known as Snowdrift. The First Nation was known as the Snowdrift Band; the most northerly Chipewyan First Nation, once nomadic caribou hunters, this band included some Chipewyan and Yellowknives who settled permanently at the trading post established in 1925 by the Hudson's Bay Company near today's Łutselk'e.
In 1954 they moved to the community of Łutselk'e. Main languages in the community are Chipewyan and English. Catholic Encyclopedia article Weledeh Yellowknives Dene - A History
