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36-515: Their neighbors are other Athabaskan-speaking peoples: Koyukon (north and northeast), Holikachuk (northwest), Deg Hit'an (south and southwest), and Dena'ina (south and southeast). From a total of 6 separate band groupings in the upper Kuskokwim River area in late prehistoric times, the Kolchan have coalesced into one community, Nikolai Village. The Upper Kuskokwim regional bands: The Upper Kuskokwim communities: The first written account of

72-403: A sock from one's foot by grabbing the open end and pulling it over itself. The snake's skin is often left in one piece after the moulting process, including the discarded brille (ocular scale), so that the moult is vital for maintaining the animal's quality of vision. The skins of lizards , in contrast, generally fall off in pieces. Both frogs and salamanders moult regularly and consume

108-426: A bird's body weight, it takes a large amount of energy to replace them. For this reason, moults often occur immediately after the breeding season, but while food is still abundant. The plumage produced during this time is called postnuptial plumage. Prenuptial moulting occurs in red-collared widowbirds where the males replace their nonbreeding plumage with breeding plumage. It is thought that large birds can advance

144-451: A body weight loss of 25 to 35%, which stimulates the hen to lose her feathers, but also reinvigorates egg-production. Some flocks may be force-moulted several times. In 2003, more than 75% of all flocks were force-moulted in the US. Other methods of inducing a moult include low-density diets (e.g. grape pomace, cotton seed meal, alfalfa meal) or dietary manipulation to create an imbalance of

180-864: A favorite meal for people in Upper Kuskokwim region. People used to travel to Alaska Range to hunt them in November. Grizzly and black bears are rarely hunted in Upper Kuskokwim region. A traditional method of winter bear hunting uses dogs to locate dens. Hare or rabbits ( gwh ) are one a small game species. Small game species such as upland game birds ( ptarmigans and grouse ) were a valued source of fresh meat and are widely dispersed but their populations are cyclic and in some years they are very scarce. The spruce grouse ( dish ), sharp-tailed grouse ( ch'iłtwle ), ruffed grouse ( trok'wda ), willow ptarmigan ( dilgima ) and rock ptarmigan ( dziłk'ola ) were taken opportunistically throughout

216-571: A later moulting period. Some species of bird become flightless during an annual "wing moult" and must seek a protected habitat with a reliable food supply during that time. While the plumage may appear thin or uneven during the moult, the bird's general shape is maintained despite the loss of apparently many feathers; bald spots are typically signs of unrelated illnesses, such as gross injuries, parasites, feather pecking (especially in commercial poultry), or (in pet birds) feather plucking . Some birds will drop feathers, especially tail feathers, in what

252-404: A particular nutrient(s). The most important among these include manipulation of minerals including sodium (Na), calcium (Ca), iodine (I) and zinc (Zn), with full or partially reduced dietary intakes. Squamates periodically engage in moulting, as their skin is scaly . The most familiar example of moulting in such reptiles is when snakes "shed their skin". This is usually achieved by

288-661: A small post at Vinasale. With the U.S. purchase of Alaska in 1867, control of trading stations and the fur trade passed to Americans . The homeland of the Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskans is a part of Denali National Park and Preserve and located in the Tanana-Kuskokwim Lowlands ecoregion . The Upper Kuskokwim name of Denali mountain is Denaze /diˈnæzi/ (literally 'the tall one'). The Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskans were semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers who moved seasonally throughout

324-431: A year, although many moult twice and a few three times each year. It is generally a slow process: birds rarely shed all their feathers at any one time. The bird must retain sufficient feathers to regulate its body temperature and repel moisture. The number and area of feathers that are shed varies. In some moulting periods, a bird may renew only the feathers on the head and body, shedding the wing and tail feathers during

360-569: Is a process by which an animal casts off parts of its body to serve some beneficial purpose, either at specific times of the year, or at specific points in its life cycle. In medieval times, it was also known as "mewing" (from the French verb "muer", to moult), a term that lives on in the name of Britain's Royal Mews where the King's hawks used to be kept during moulting time before becoming horse stables after Tudor times. Moulting can involve shedding

396-417: Is based on what is formally known as an Iroquois kinship and reflects the matrilineal clan system and the importance of cross cousin marriage. The Upper Kuskokwim social system characterized by unilineal descent and a division into three named, matrilineal, common descent or clan-like groups. These groups were: St'chelayu (lit. 'fish people'), Tonay'tlil'tsitnah (lit. 'middle kind' or 'people in

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432-422: Is called a "fright moult". The process of moulting in birds is as follows: First, the bird begins to shed some old feathers, then pin feathers grow in to replace the old feathers. As the pin feathers become full feathers, other feathers are shed. This is a cyclical process that occurs in many phases. It is usually symmetrical , with feather loss equal on each side of the body. Because feathers make up 4–12% of

468-510: Is main non-monetary economy system. Cash is often a rare commodity in foraging economies, because of lack of employment opportunities or perceived conflicts in the demands of wage employment and subsistence harvesting activities. Wild resource use in many Athabaskan villages is overwhelmingly for domestic consumption . The large animals most harvested were Dall sheep ( drodeya , drodiya ), caribou ( midzish ), black bear ( shisr ) and grizzly bear ( tsone , chone ). Until

504-680: The Athabascan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. Their traditional territory is along the Koyukuk and Yukon rivers where they subsisted for thousands of years by hunting and trapping. Many Koyukon live in a similar manner today. The Koyukon language belongs to a large family called Na-Dené or Athabascan , traditionally spoken by numerous groups of native people throughout northwestern North America . In addition, due to ancient migrations of related peoples, other Na-Dené languages, such as Navajo and Apachean varieties, are spoken in

540-656: The common bulbul , breeding seasonality is weak at the population level, instead moult can show high seasonality with individuals probably under strong selection to match moult with peak environmental conditions. A 2023 paleontological analysis concluded that moulting probably evolved late in the evolutionary lineage of birds. In some countries, flocks of commercial layer hens are force-moulted to reinvigorate egg-laying. This usually involves complete withdrawal of their food and sometimes water for 7–14 days or up to 28 days under experimental conditions, which presumably reflect standard farming practice in some countries. This causes

576-478: The epidermis (skin), pelage ( hair , feathers , fur , wool ), or other external layer. In some groups, other body parts may be shed, for example, the entire exoskeleton in arthropods , including the wings in some insects . In birds , moulting is the periodic replacement of feathers by shedding old feathers while producing new ones. Feathers are dead structures at maturity which are gradually abraded and need to be replaced. Adult birds moult at least once

612-496: The Alaska Range, inhabiting almost every type of river and freshwater habitat in this section of Alaska. Northern pike ( ch'ighilduda , ch'ulkoy ) are harvested by people of Upper Kuskokwim region in summer, fall and during freeze-up. In Upper Kuskokwim region, Arctic grayling ( ts'idat'ana ) are harvested in summer, fall and early winter, using rod and reel gear or nets. Sheefish ( zidlaghe ) are harvested in

648-617: The American Southwest and in Mexico . The first Europeans to enter Koyukon territory were Russians , who came up the Yukon River to Nulato in 1838. When they arrived, they found that items such as iron pots, glass beads, cloth apparel, and tobacco had already reached the people through their trade with coastal Eskimos , who had long traded with Russians. An epidemic of smallpox had preceded them, causing high fatalities in

684-615: The Kuskokwim River, by the time they reach the headwaters only a few thousand or even a few hundred are left to spawn in any given stream. In the Upper Kuskokwim Athabascan language, August is nosdlagheno'o (lit. 'coho salmon month'). Whitefish, northern pike, Arctic grayling, inconnu (sheefish), suckers, burbot (lingcod, lush) and a few resident Dolly Varden trout are present but these are also widely dispersed and not present in every stream. According to

720-575: The North. There are five species of Pacific salmon recognized in Alaska, but only three of them (king or chinook, dog or chum and silver or coho) regularly venture up to the Upper Kuskokwim region. Currently, king or chinook ( gas ) salmon occupies the majority of the harvest of salmonids in this region, followed by dog or chum ( srughat'aye ) and silver or coho ( nosdlaghe ) salmon. Whereas hundreds of thousands, and even millions, of salmon enter

756-674: The United States Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA). The Tanana Chiefs Conference is a traditional tribal consortium of the all Central Alaskan Athabaskans , with the exception of the Southern Alaskan Athabaskans Dena'ina and Ahtna ). Koyukon people The Koyukon , Dinaa , or Denaa ( Denaakk'e : Tl’eeyegge Hut’aane ) are an Alaska Native Athabascan people of

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792-539: The Upper Kuskokwim drainage mainly in summer months between June and August and less frequently in September and October. Burbot or lingcod ( ts’onya ) used to be harvested with nets in Upper Kuskokwim region. Traditionally, people set up a fish trap made out of spruce to catch Alaska blackfish ( hozrighe , tułnuna ) beneath the ice in winter. Other fish species include the longnose sucker ( donts'oda ). Beginning in late spring and continuing throughout

828-757: The birds and collected eggs from their nests. Fishing (creek and river) was done near the village sites, and the fish were stored in large subsurface caches and is domestic and most common. All band members except the very young children assisted in harvesting and processing the catch. Available fish species include chinook salmon, silver salmon, chum salmon, broad whitefish, humpback whitefish, round whitefish, least cisco, sheefish, grayling, Dolly Varden, burbot (loche), pike, sucker, eel, blackfish, lake trout, and one non-fish species, freshwater mussels. The main economical fish ( łuk'a ) species are mostly Pacific salmon species. In Upper Kuskokwim region, salmon have been an important food resource as well as in other places in

864-748: The early 1900s. The Alaskan Athabaskan Indian ice cream ( nemaje ) is dessert-like berries, Indian potato, and fish (whitefish, sheefish) mixed with fat (commonly Crisco now, but bear fat is occasionally used) and different from the Canadian Indian ice cream of First Nations in British Columbia . Alaska Native tribal entities for Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskans are recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs : The Alaska Native Regional Corporations of Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskans were established in 1971 when

900-642: The early trade and contact was by Lavrenty Alekseyevich Zagoskin , a Russian naval officer, who was given the mission of exploring the Interior of Russian America for the Russian-American Company . In the 1830s the Russians established a series of trading posts within reach of the Upper Kuskokwim people. On the Kuskokwim River the Russian trading posts consisted of Kolmakof Redoubt and

936-410: The late 1800s and early 1900s moose ( dineje ) were absent in most of the area. Before moose started to appear in the late 19th century and gradually replaced caribou population in upper Kuskokwim regions, caribou were the main target species for native hunters. Caribou also spend much of the year in the mountains, moving down to the lowlands primarily during the winter. Traditionally, Dall sheep were

972-488: The middle'), and Medzisht'hut'anah (lit. 'caribou people'). Historically and traditionally, Upper Kuskokwim and other all Alaskan Athabaskans have practiced animism and shamanism . The Upper Kuskokwim people are today strongly Russian Orthodox in faith, the result of missionary influence from the lower Kuskokwim and Yukon rivers beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. Churches were built in Nikolai and Telida in

1008-424: The morphology of successive instars . A new skin can replace structures, such as by providing new external lenses for eyes. The new exoskeleton is initially soft but hardens after the moulting of the old exoskeleton. The old exoskeleton is called an exuviae . While moulting, insects cannot breathe. In the crustacean Ovalipes catharus molting must occur before they mate. Most dogs moult twice each year, in

1044-446: The moult of severely damaged feathers. Determining the process birds go through during moult can be useful in understanding breeding, migration and foraging strategies. One non-invasive method of studying moult in birds is through using field photography. The evolutionary and ecological forces driving moult can also be investigated using intrinsic markers such as stable hydrogen isotope ( δ2H ) analysis. In some tropical birds, such as

1080-418: The people in the Upper Kuskokwim region, Dolly Varden trout ( hoch'ilmoya ) used to be much more common in the past, spawning in the area where salmon also spawn. However, it seems that their number has decreased recently. The round whitefish ( hwstin' ), lake whitefish or broad whitefish ( tilaya , taghye ), and humpback whitefish ( sajila ) are the most abundant group of fish north of

1116-435: The skin, with some species moulting in pieces and others in one piece. In arthropods , such as insects , arachnids and crustaceans , moulting is the shedding of the exoskeleton , which is often called its shell , typically to let the organism grow. This process is called ecdysis . Most Arthropoda with soft, flexible skins also undergo ecdysis. Ecdysis permits metamorphosis , the sometimes radical difference between

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1152-413: The snake rubbing its head against a hard object, such as a rock (or between two rocks) or piece of wood, causing the already stretched skin to split. At this point, the snake continues to rub its skin on objects, causing the end nearest the head to peel back on itself, until the snake is able to crawl out of its skin, effectively turning the moulted skin inside-out. This is similar to how one might remove

1188-705: The summer and early fall months, both adults and children gathered a variety of plants and vegetative materials. Fruit and berries such as blueberries ( jija ), salmonberries ( tujija' ), lowbush cranberries ( netl' ), highbush cranberries ( tsaltsa , tsoltso ), raspberries ( dwhnikotl' ), crowberries ( dziłnołt'asr ), kinnikinnick berries ( dinish ), timberberries , and wild rose hips ( nichush , nitsush ), edible roots such as Hedysarum alpinum (Indian potato, Alaska carrot or wild carrot, tsosr ), and assorted plants were eaten fresh, preserved for later consumption, or used for medicinal purposes. The Upper Kuskokwim kinship

1224-944: The village. In subsequent years, European infectious diseases drastically reduced the Koyukon population, who had no immunity to these new diseases. Relative isolation persisted along the Koyukuk until 1898, when the Yukon Gold Rush brought more than a thousand men to the river. They found little gold, and most left the following winter. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Koyukon people have inhabited their region for at least 1,000 years, with cultural roots there that stretch back thousands of years earlier. The Koyukon freeze lingonberries for winter use. Molting In biology , moulting ( British English ), or molting ( American English ), also known as sloughing , shedding , or in many invertebrates , ecdysis ,

1260-566: The year with bow and arrows or with snares and fence-snare arrangements. Migratory waterfowl (ducks and geese) pass through the area by the thousands in the spring when the headwaters of the rivers first open, but most move on to nest elsewhere. During the fall migration, when there is plenty of open water, most fly over the area without stopping except for a brief rest. Ducks and geese were easily captured when molting . Men in birchbark canoes quietly approached waterfowl in bays and coves and shot them with bow and arrows. Women and children then caught

1296-461: The year within a reasonably well-defined territory to harvest fish, bird, mammal, berry and other renewable resources. The people of Nikolai and Telida hunted seasonally in the Alaska Range extensively for many generations, well into the 1900s. The economy of Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskans is a mixed cash-subsistence system, like other modern foraging economies in Alaska. The subsistence economy

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