KSKA: Kiana Tribe discovers connection with historic village

Researchers also found two sets of human remains in a one dwelling – one adult male with a broken leg and one young child. Stories from local residents tell of attacks by Indians from the Interior on the village and of possible food shortages. Inupiat Elder Thomas Jackson says that when he was a child, his mother told him that his ancestors had lived at an old village in the area.

“You, you’re a descendant from these people. That’s the first time I’ve heard of this as a child. She says from Hunt River down to Coal Mine area. And that’s where the village, the large village is at,” Jackson said.

Jackson is a member of the Kiana Traditional Council, which is working with Brown University and the Park Service to insure the project moves forward. Elders also told Jackson a few things that had been passed down to them about the people who lived in the village, and they gave him its name.

“They’re at the site called Igliqtiqsiugvigruak which was a large village,” Jackson said. “All what we know about that place, what the people talked about were that of skillful people, a place of strong shamanism acts, a strong dog.”