Walking Dena'ina: A Cultural Landscape Report for the Telaquana Trail

Deur, Douglas; Hebert, Jamie; Branson, John; Brown, Tricia

The Telaquana Trail is an ancient pathway ascending from the shores of Qizhjeh Vena, Lake Clark, through tundra and timbered valleys, into a high-elevation expanse of rolling tundra and smaller interior lakes nearly 50 miles north of Lake Clark. The pathway is an ancestral corridor used by Native peoples since the beginning of remembered time. Though the archaeological record of the trail is still coming into focus, it lends us important clues about the trail and how it was used. For example, archaeological evidence at places like Twin Lakes and Snipe Lake suggests that ancestral Native communities occupied and traveled along what is today the Telaquana Trail soon after the glaciers retreated from the landscape, millennia ago. The depth of human association with the trail is thus considerable and profound. And as a pathway lined with places of ancestral importance, linking modern Native communities to one-another and to places of reliable substance harvests, it continues to be valued by Dena’ina people today. The Telaquana Trail is a unique landscape, at once rich with cultural and historical significance, but difficult to reconcile with cultural landscape protocols related to built environments. As the pages of this report attest, very few tangible, above-ground built features remain along the trail; remaining landscape elements constructed by human hands are either archaeological sites or, at this point, structures effectively degraded into “archaeological sites,” existing largely below the soil’s surface. Other landscape elements consist primarily of natural features that serve as loci of historical importance and cultural meaning to Dena’ina peoples. So few people visit the Telaquana Trail that visitor pressures create only modest impacts on this dramatic landscape. Thus, while there may be a few minor threats to the “integrity of condition” of landscape features in the sense of National Register Bulletin 38, the greater challenge is in sustaining the “integrity of relationship” between Dena’ina peoples and this place of unique significance in their culture and history. Together, these facts demand an innovative treatment strategy and limit certain conventional treatment options. By necessity, a treatment strategy for Telaquana Trail must focus on two primary objectives that emanate from the National Register analysis of the preceding sections: protecting archaeological resources, and sustaining the integrity of Dena’ina cultural associations with the Telaquana Trail corridor. We outline here prescribed treatments of Telaquana Trail lands and resources, including the following seven general recommendations: 1. Continue and Expand Consultation with Dena’ina Villages and Corporations 2. Develop Dena’ina Educational Opportunities Relating to Telaquana Trail 3. Develop Archival Resources Relating to Telaquana Trail 4. Develop Interpretation as a Tool for Public Education and Cultural Landscape Protection 5. Undertake Archaeological Survey, Research, Protection, and Reclassification where Appropriate 6. Monitor Telaquana Trail Integrity, Facilitate Access, and Reduce Adverse Effects on Resources 7. Reassess and Develop Strategies for Discontinuous Properties

Walking Dena'ina: A Cultural Landscape Report for the Telaquana Trail

Series