EARLY HISTORY
OF FAMOUS
MT. KATMAI
Many years ago the settlement of
Katmai, across the Shellkof Straits
from Kodiak Island, was once a pros
perous and thriving settlement. It
was not only thronged with hundreds
of trappers and traders, but was the
outfitting post for the sea otter hunt
er, and was the center of transit for
traffic and travel across the penin
sula. Three different routes converg
ed here and made the station of much
importance. Now its glory has de
parted and beyond .a few houses, a
cannery and a hundred or so natives
nothing is left to denote its former
grandeur. In former days it was no
uncommon sight to see a small fleet
of vessels in the bay, and the post
doing a thriving business with the
natives and traveling adventurers.
The people of the two villages,
Naknek and Ugaguk, came down to
Katmai to do their shopping, and to
dispose of their furs, undertaking
a very arduous and dangerous tramp
over mountains and glaciers and
across deep and dangerous streams in
preference to taking the equally dan
gerous canoe or bidarky voyage to
Bristol bay posts. Only at long in
tervals would a party proceed to
Nushagak to visit the Russian priest
to whose spiritual care they had been
assigned without regard to locality or
convenience.
Kat.mai, neiore tne mountain oi
the same name blew its head off sev
eral years ago, was a district rich in
furs and fish, with indications of pe
troleum, sulphur, coal and other min
eral being found, the Russians under
Baranoff thoroughly exploring the
coast and interior for precious metals.
The sea was filled with salmon and
codfish, and the native and Russian
hunter only had to climb the hills that
rear their snow covered summits im
mediately beind the summit to se
cure all the caribou, goats and bears
they desired.
Most of them, however, preferred
to brave the perils of the deep and
put up with the dangers and discom
forts of sea otter hunting, and in
case of a shortage of food to leave
the deer and goats on the mountain
undisturbed.
Sea otter parties were fitted out
here and were taken to the hunting
grounds by small sloops or schooners
owned and operated by the trading
companies. The old men and youths
remained at hijme and employed
their time hunting or trapping bears
and foxes, the latter principally of
the black or cross variety. Salmon
filled the streams, and codfish were
to be found everywhere in the vicin
ity; and formed a staple article of
food for the Kenai who waxed strong
and prosperous.
When the Russian companies first
penetrated this district under the
leadership of two powerful compa
Hies HI 1(01 ctliu nos lucj »«•
upon each other unmercifully. Pirati
cal deeds and bloodshed were of fre
quent occurrence for ten years until
Baranoff with his iron will and hand
settled the disputes by sending the
combatants packing back to the Si
berian prisoners, or made short shrift
of them, confiscating their outfits.
Historically this whole region- is
one of the most interesting in Alaska.
It Is also of great interest to ethnolo
gists because here are found the only
instances where the Interior native
tribes of the Athabaskan family in
fringed on the coast. The people
known as Kanaites, Kinnats or Tin
nats are a strongly defined race, but
with none of the characteristics of the
natives inhabiting Kodiak and the sur
rounding district. The height of the
Kenai natives is greater than that of
the Aleut Eskimo, and a full grown
man of less than 5 feet 8 inches was
rarely encountered. The natives were
slim, lithe and sinewy; the eyes were
set straight in the head without the
Mongolian charactristlcs of the
Aleuts, the nose was aquiline and
prominent; the mouth was large with
full lips, the chin frequently receding;
the skin was perceptibly darker than
that of the Eskimo or Aleut; and the
hair was thick and coarse and worn
much longer than by the other na
tives. The males gathered it into a
*> thick stubby braid, hanging down over
the back, and smeared with grease
x and sometimes powdered over with
\ gull feathers and down.
\ At the head of the inlet and on the
iWrs emptying into the north these
pefinle thirty years ago were much
mor\ primitive in their manners an(|
customs than the natives on the coast,
dressing in skins, the women and
men wiring garments Identically
alike. Mfqy of their hunting shirts
and breeches were decorated with
porcupine quills after the fashion of
the Delawares, the Algonquins or
other Indian tribes in the east. The
nose and ears of both men and wom
en were pierced for the intention of
the white shells of the dentalium or
hyqua, here called "sukii.” This
shell, which was in great demand
among the natives of the Territory
from Prince Rupert to Nome, is now
rarely seen.
The women were treated well and
kindly but had much heavier burdens
laid upon them in the line of manual
labor than those imposed upon the
women by the Kodiaks or Aleuts. The
Kenai natives were land travelers and
the women were used as pack horses.
In building their houses they employ
ed a different style of architecture
than the Aleut with his barabara or
dirt house. The Kenai home was al
ways erected above ground of logs and
roofed with bark, the under side of
each log being hollowed out to fit
tightly over the one below. The roofs
were built with rafters, pitched suffi
ciently to shed the rain and melting
snow and a fireplace was reserved in
the center with a small aperture di
rectly above in the roof. The door
was a low, square hole at one end of
the building, barely large enough to
admit a stooping person and generally
hung with a bear skin or a plank
placed before it.
The floor was of natural earth,
while around the sides of the room,
a foot or two from the ground and
wide enough to allow the occupants
to stretch out upon at night, was a
sort of rude staging upon which was
laid grass, skins and mats for cover
ing. This was the most primitive
style of dwelling. Those who had
intercourse with the traders had wings
added to their houses, or small hox
like additions, tightly framed with an
entrance only from the main struc
ture. These little additions were used
as sleeping apartments and sometimes
as both rooms, and were often furn
ished with the luxury of a hewed log
floor and had small windows of trans
parent intestines or bladder of the
bear.
On the principal hunting grounds
of the Kenai natives could be found
structures similar to those mentioned
with additions built very compact and
low, which served as shelters for
hunting parties or travelers in time of
storm and cold. A party of hunters
could crawl into one of the small shel
ters and keep up quite a degree of
temperature with their own animal
heat for many days,even if the storm
was prolonged, being at least safe
from freezing although the air was
hardly of the best.
The Kenaitze in disposition were
much more taciturn than their Innuit
or Aleut neighbors, and were more
dignified in demeanor. They were
arden hunters, spending most of their
time and energy in the chase on land,
where the fur bearing animals peculiar
to the country were numerous, varied
and valuable, and often made long
journeys to the interior, up and
through the mountain defiles, and
even over the summits and gla'ciers,
erecting at every convenient camping
ground the temporary shelters re
ferred to above. At localities where
the tribes or families met for traffic
or huntng they built a larger struc
ture, consisting of • two open sheds
with sloping roofs facing each other,
allowing the inmates to warm by one
and the same fire. These people along
the rivers and the northern portion of
the inlet also built birchbark canoes,
but when they came in contact with
the Aleuts they bought bidarkys or
skin boats for the purpose of fishing
or navigating the salt water. Wooden
canoes or dugouts are not known to
the natives' west of the mouth of the
Copper river.
The Kenai natives i,were expert fish
ermen and enjoyed an abundance of
piscatorial food, salmon of large size
and quality running up their rivers,
and trout and grayling crowding the
hundreds of lakes in their country
where they were caught through the
ice. The fishermen descended to tide
water only when the king salmon or
“Chavitcha” came up from the sea in
dense masses, or when the big schools
of white whale or beluga followed up
the "oolichan” or candlefish, until they
were left high and dry by the reced
ing tide and fell easy victims to the
natives.
The variety of native mammals in
these days was very great. Bears,
both black and brown,—the latter of
great size and ferocity, frequently
from ten to twelve feet in length,
strongly --suggestive of the grizzly of
the rockies, were killed in great
numbers by the hunters every year.
The deer are a special of the reindeer,
the woodland caribou (rangifer ter
andus) could be found in immense
herds; moose, single and in familr
groups fed through the lower brush
woods and alder swamps, and the
.. .! „
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