The Eyak (
Eyak: ʔi·ya·ɢdəlahɢəyu·, literally "inhabitants of Eyak Village at Mile 6"
[Krauss, Michael E. 1970. ''Eyak dictionary''. University of Alaska and Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1963-1970]) are a
Native American indigenous group historically located on the
Copper River Delta and near the town of
Cordova, Alaska
Cordova ( ) is a city in Chugach Census Area, Alaska, United States. It lies near the mouth of the Copper River, at the head of Orca Inlet on the east side of Prince William Sound. The population was 2,609 at the 2020 census, up from 2,239 i ...
. Today, Eyak people live in Cordova, Yakutat, across Alaska, and the U.S. Many of them do not qualify to be tribal members in the native village of Eyak, a federally recognized
Alaska Native tribe which was established through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. This is due to the enrollment qualifications that extend tribal membership only to those who reside in the town of Cordova for the majority of the year.
Territory
The Eyak's territory reached from present day Cordova east to the
Martin River and north to
Miles Glacier
Miles Glacier is a -long glacier in the U.S. state of Alaska. It flows west to its terminus at Miles Lake (Alaska), Miles Lake, north of Katalla, Alaska, Katalla. It was named in 1885 after U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles by a Lt. Allen during ...
.
There were four main villages:
*Alaganik, near Mile 21 of the present day Copper River Highway
*Eyak, located near Mile 5.5
*unnamed, 800 yards south of Eyak
*Orca, located within present day Cordova
In addition to these villages the Eyak would seasonally occupy fish camps at
Point Whitshed and Mountain Slough.
The now-common name ''Eyak'' for both the ethnic group and its language is an
exonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, o ...
and comes from the
Sugt'stun (Alutiit'stun) dialect of
Chugach Sugpiaq, a group of
Sugpiaq
The Alutiiq people (pronounced in English; from Promyshlenniki Russian Алеутъ, "Aleut"; plural often "Alutiit"), also called by their ancestral name ( or ; plural often "Sugpiat"), as well as Pacific Eskimo or Pacific Yupik, are a sout ...
("real people," better known as
Alutiiq
The Alutiiq people (pronounced in English; from Promyshlenniki Russian Алеутъ, " Aleut"; plural often "Alutiit"), also called by their ancestral name ( or ; plural often "Sugpiat"), as well as Pacific Eskimo or Pacific Yupik, are a s ...
) for an Eyak village as Igya'aq' at the mouth of the Eyak River.
The Eyak refer to themselves as dAXunhyuu ("the people") and the present-day Eyak Native Village as iiyaaGdaad' ("at Eyak Native Village") - but the now officially recognized tribe as iiyaaGdAlahGAyuu ("People from Eyak Native Village"), as the tribe consists of descendants of Chugach Sugpiaq, Eyak, and Tlingit.
History
The Eyak initially moved out of the interior down the Copper River to the coast. There they harvested the rich
salmon
Salmon () is the common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of ...
fishing grounds. When the Russians arrived they recognized the Eyak as a distinct culture and described their territory on their maps. They also traded with the Eyak and sent them
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
. Because of their small population, they were often raided and their territory boundaries were under pressure from the
Chugach
Chugach , Chugach Sugpiaq or Chugachigmiut is the name of an Alaska Native people in the region of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound on the southern coast of Alaska. The Chugach people are an Alutiiq ( Pacific Eskimo) people who spe ...
to the west. The
Tlingit
The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ), on the east side, had better relations with the Eyak leading to intermarriage and the assimilation of most Eyak. The Eyak's territorial boundary was pushed further contributing to the Eyak's decline. When the Americans arrived they opened
canneries and competed with the Eyak for salmon. The integration and
novel diseases which were introduced by non-native settlers led to the further decline of the Eyak.
As populations decreased the remaining Eyak began to congregate near the village of Orca.
In 1880 the population of the village of Alaganik was recorded at 117 and by 1890 it had declined to 48. In 1900 total population was estimated at 60. As more settlers arrived the last village became the town of Cordova. As of 1996, there were 120 partial Eyak descendants in the town.
The last full-blood Eyak,
Marie Smith Jones, died on January 21, 2008.
Language
The Eyak spoke a distinct language closely related to the
Athabaskan languages
Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific C ...
. Pressure from neighboring ethnic groups and the spread of English resulted in a decline of the Eyak language. Marie Smith Jones (1918–2008) was the last native speaker.
Michael Krauss is known first and foremost as an Eyak language specialist.
Shamanism
Notable Eyak people
*
Marie Smith Jones, last fluent speaker of traditional Eyak language
References
Further reading
*Birket-Smith, K., & De Laguna, F. (1938). ''The Eyak Indians of the Copper River Delta, Alaska.'' København: Levin & Munksgaard, E. Munksgaard.
*De Laguna, F. (1990). "Eyak." In ''Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 7 Northwest Coast''. W. Suttles, ed. Pp. 189–96. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
*Harry, A. N., & Krauss, M. E. (1982). ''In honor of Eyak: The art of Anna Nelson Harry.'' Fairbanks, Alaska: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska.
*Hund, Andrew. "Eyak." 2004. Encyclopedia of the Arctic. Taylor and Francis Publications.
*Hund, Andrew. 2008. "’Old Man Dude’ and Eyak Shamanism" Alaska Historical Society ~ University of Alaska's Statehood Conference, Alaska Visionaries: Seekers, Leaders, and Dreamers. Anchorage, AK. Unpublished manuscript.
External links
Eyak Preservation CouncilEyak Revitalization ProjectEyak CorporationAlaska Native Heritage Center
{{authority control
Alaska Native ethnic groups
Native American tribes in Alaska