Allakaket & Alatna Home

The community center in Allakaket,
September 2005.

Allakaket is on the south bank of the Koyukuk River, southwest of its junction with the Alatna River, approximately 190 air miles northwest of Fairbanks. The village of Alatna, is located directly across the river. Allakaket is predominantly a Koyukon Athabascan community, while most of the residents of Alatna are Kobuk Eskimo.

Elders from Allakaket, Alatna, Bettles and Evansville at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, November 12, 2009.

Traditionally, both groups lived a nomadic lifestyle living in different camps and following the wild game and fish as the seasons changed. The old site of Alatna was a traditional trading center for Athabascans and Eskimos. The first mission on the Koyukuk River, St. John's-in-the-Wilderness Episcopal Mission, was established there in 1906. In 1938, the name of the community was changed to Allakaket, and the name Alatna was assumed by the small Eskimo community across the river. In 1975, Allakaket and Alatna incorporated themselves together as a city. In September 1994, flood waters destroyed much of the area, but new homes and facilities have been rebuilt and relocated to higher ground. Allakaket’s estimated population in 2011 was 103, with Alatna’s being about 37. Both communities remain dependent upon subsistence activities, and host traditional potlatches and dances.

Debbie Nictune, Jean Stevens and Florence Nictune looking at historic photographs with faculty member Bill Schneider in the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives, November 11, 2009.

Elders from Allakaket and Alatna visited the University of Alaska Fairbanks on November 10-14, 2009 to look at collections and decide what they most wanted to have accessible online. Johnson Moses, Kitty and David David, Pauline Demientieff, Emily Bergman, Kenneth and Elsie Bergman, Jean Stevens, Betty Fleagle and Cora McGuire looked at photos in the Bertha Moses, and Episcopal Church Collections in the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections and Archives, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library. They watched film footage of fiddle playing, church activities, and being a health aide.

Searching for Koyukon Athabascan language material at the Alaska Native Language Archive, November 13, 2009.

They looked at stone artifacts, fur clothing, and dolls at the University of Alaska Museum of the North, and reviewed Native language material at the Alaska Native Language Archive. Several of these collections are now available online and accessible through this portal.