PROBLEMS IN PROTOHISTORIC ETHNOGENESIS IN ALASKA - THE NAKNEK DRAINAGE AND THE PACIFIC ESKIMO AREA

Ethnographic analogues are used as paradigms for systematically interp reting archaeological data. For the Naknek drainage, late prehistoric data are relatively substantial, while early historic records are lack ing in specific information about the ethnicity of the inhabitants of the upper drainage and their relationships with contemporaneous people of Bering Sea and northwest Gulf of Alaska Eskimos. Critical reviews and evaluations of several different lines of available evidence, incl uding language dialects, artifact assemblages, settlement and subsiste nce patterns, and characteristics of human physical remains, reveal ga ps in current knowledge of the late prehistory of the area. Based on t his review, I propose a provisional protohistoric Ikak phase for the u pper drainage, as distinguished from the Pavik phase of the lower drai nage, and describe similar cultural/territorial units for the Pacific Eskimo area. I further suggest that a locality-focused approach in ana lyzing the different types of evidence from the area will produce more substantial results than the trans-regional approach that is presentl y in vogue.