Boundaries and borders in early contact north-central Alaska

Recent research has yielded data which call into question several elements in the standard anthropological view of social and linguistic borders in ea rly contact north-central Alaska. This is particularly true of the region w here the Inupiaq, Koyukon, and Kutchin language areas converge. This paper reviews the issues involved and summarizes the evidence relating to them, m ost of which is not widely known. Conclusions based an that evidence are ex pressed in maps of early contact social and linguistic borders in north-cen tral and northern Alaska.