IN SEARCH OF A LEGACY
By John F. C. Johnson
The Chugach region is centered in Prince William Sound
and the lower Kenai Peninsula, southeast of Anchorage. The
first Euro-Siberian explorer, Vitus Bering, traveled through
here in 1741, and later explorers, including Captain Cook
and George Vancouver, wrote dramatic accounts of their
voyages through the Sound. Between 300 and 400 sites--
Native Alaskan villages and fishing camps, rock paintings,
trappers' cabins, and Russian settlements--mark the rich,
4,000- to 5,000-year-old cultural landscape.
Most sites have been located and recorded in the past 12
years through the systematic survey of the shorelines and
forest fringe. We are in the process of preparing National
Register and National Landmark nominations for many of these
sites, but meanwhile I stay in contact with members of the
Chugach villages, who are sometimes also relatives, to
survey lands not yet examined, estimated to be a little over
half of the holdings.
After attending college (as a business major) I worked
two years for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the National
Park Service locating and identifying sites described in the
archives and oral histories of Native Alaskans. These early
surveys, done in haste from helicopters and boats, missed
over half of the sites that I later relocated as cultural
resource manager for Chugach Natives Incorporated (now the
Chugach Alaska Corporation), where I've spent the last ten
years. I've collected oral histories and migration stories
from the Chugach, Eyak Athabascan, and Tlingit natives,
whose ancestors occupied many of the same sites in the area.
Many of these stories are about families. My own
grandmother, Mary Chemovitsky, was born on Nuchek Island, an
800-acre plot in Prince William Sound that was once the
tribe's largest settlement. The Chugach left the island in
1929 when the last chief--my grandmother's uncle, Peter
Chemovitsky--died.
Today, the island is seeing new life. A feasibility
study planned for Fort St. Constantine/Helen--built here by
the Russians and the Aleuts in the 1790s--will look at
possibly adapting it as a center to stimulate native culture
and attract passing cruise ships (a few years later these
same Russians erected Fort Ross, north of San Francisco,
which has been completely restored). The Chugach Heritage
Foundation, set up by the corporation to preserve, promote,
and educate the region's Native Americans, is helping fund
the Fort St. Constantine/Helen restoration project.
The Fort site has a rich archeological record; root mass
thrown up from giant downed Sitka Spruce has yielded Russian
trade beads, harmonicas, planks, pilings, pottery, and
metallurgical items from a blacksmith shop. The artifacts,
which we collected to prevent looting and vandalism, are
being temporarily housed at a facility in Anchorage until a
university or other organization can be found to assist in a
salvage excavation.
The archeological record of the Chugach region has been
subjected to a number of natural and cultural disasters. On
Good Friday of 1964, the Sound was the epicenter of North
America's largest recorded earthquake, setting off a tidal
wave that killed many people. One island rose 40 feet;
others sank 20 (the quake heaved up a large number of
prehistoric adzes and stone tools). Many sites, now below
high tide, were devastated by the recent Exxon Valdez oil
spill, which turned fire-cracked rocks black and
contaminated organic deposits. The cleanup was often
equally damaging, as some workers vandalized burial caves.
I believe that the $100 penalty levied against the vandals
under the Archeological Resources Protection Act was too
light given the nature of the transgressions.
To mask sites from the casual visitor, surface artifacts
will be collected and inventoried. We also plan to recruit
villagers as stewards to monitor sites. Restoration money
from the Valdez incident may be used to build mini-culture
centers in the villages, where the artifacts could be
displayed.
Recently, I initiated the return of the remains of nearly
50 individuals from the University of Pennsylvania Museum
and the Smithsonian Institution. We intend to rebury them
in the original locations from which they were taken. In
some cases, this will mean interpreting and recording what
we find after redigging the holes. We'd planned to reinter
the remains this summer, but lack of funds for building
coffins and reexcavating the sites is impeding our efforts.
For more information, or to volunteer for the Fort
Constantine restoration, contact John F. C. Johnson, 560
East 34th Ave., Suite 200, Ankorage, AK 99503-4196. Phone
(907) 563-8866.