Koyukon

Background

Several Upper Koyukon bands inhabited the Kantishna River drainage, running from the Tanana River south to Denali and from the Toklat River east to Lake Minchumina. The park's ethnographic account calls these people the Upper Koyukon and counts them among the Northern Athabaskan peoples of the interior, one of five Athabascan peoples whose homeland includes Denali National Park and Preserve. Their bands were small, usually 20 to 75 people, and two or more would join forces to harvest fish and wildlife, forming a regional band of as many as 200 to 300. Gates of the Arctic records the Alatna River valley as traditional hunting territory for the Koyukon, says the river runs 145 miles from the Endicott Mountains southeast to the Koyukuk, and records that it was dedicated a wild river on December 2, 1980. A Gates of the Arctic page on caribou groups the Koyukon with the Nunamiut and with the Iñupiat peoples of the Kobuk and Noatak rivers as the peoples whose homelands the park partly encompasses.

Parks on its homelands

Denali National Park and Preserve

Several Upper Koyukon bands worked the Kantishna River drainage, from the Tanana River south to Denali and from the Toklat River east to Lake Minchumina. Bands here ran small, usually 20 to 75 people, and two or more would join forces to harvest fish and wildlife, forming a regional band of as many as 200 to 300. Source

Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve

The Alatna River valley is traditional hunting territory for the Koyukon, and the river runs 83 miles inside Gates of the Arctic on its way from the Endicott Mountains down to the Koyukuk. It was dedicated a wild river on December 2, 1980. Source

Sources

• https://www.nps.gov/articles/aps-v5-i1-c15.htm
• https://www.nps.gov/gaar/alatna.htm
• https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/nunamiut-the-caribou-people.htm

Checked September 2026.

Found an error? Tell us.