Koyukon people

The Koyukon are a group athapaskischer people in northern Alaska. Their original home is where they fed along the Koyukuk River and Yukon River itself for thousands of years by hunting and trapping. Many Koyukon are now living in a similar manner.

History

The first Europeans to reach the Koyukon territory, were Russians who came in 1838 over the Yukon River to Nulato. They found items such as iron pots, glass beads, clothing and tobacco, items that received the Koyukon through trade with coastal Inuit. The first white men spread a smallpox epidemic. In subsequent years, European diseases should decimate the population of the Koyukon drastically. The relative isolation along the Koyukuk River lasted until 1898, when the gold rush more than a thousand White drove to the river. Many of them left the area during the following winter again.