The interior of Alaska is chiefly occupied by tribes of this family. Eskimo tribes have encroached somewhat upon the interior along the Yukon, Kuskokwim, Kowak, and Noatak Rivers, reaching on the Yukon to somewhat below Shageluk Island,[7] and on the Kuskokwim nearly or quite to Kolmakoff Redoubt.[8] Upon the two latter they reach quite to their heads.[9] A few Kutchin tribes are (or have been) north of the Porcupine and Yukon Rivers, but until recently it has not been known that they extended north beyond the Yukon and Romanzoff Mountains. Explorations of Lieutenant Stoney, in 1885, establish the fact that the region to the north of those mountains is occupied by Athapascan tribes, and the map is colored accordingly. Only in two places in Alaska do the Athapascan tribes reach the coast--the K'naia-khotana, on Cook's Inlet, and the Ahtena, of Copper River.
[Footnote 8: Fide Nelson in Dall's address, Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1885, p. 13.]
[Footnote 9: Cruise of the _Corwin_, 1887.]
_Pacific group_.--Unlike the tribes of the Northern group, most of those of the Pacific group have removed from their priscan habitats since the advent of the white race. The Pacific group embraces the following: Kwalhioqua, formerly on Willopah River, Washington, near the Lower Chinook;[10] Owilapsh, formerly between Shoalwater Bay and the heads of the Chehalis River, Washington, the territory of these two tribes being practically continuous; Tlatscanai, formerly on a small stream on the northwest side of Wapatoo Island.[11] Gibbs was informed by an old Indian that this tribe "formerly owned the prairies on the Tsihalis at the mouth of the Skukumchuck, but, on the failure of game, left the country, crossed the Columbia River, and occupied the mountains to the south"--a statement of too uncertain character to be depended upon; the Athapascan tribes now on the Grande Ronde and Siletz Reservations, Oregon,[12] whose villages on and near the coast extended from Coquille River southward to the California line, including, among others, the Upper Coquille, Sixes, Euchre, Creek, Joshua, Tutu tûnn[ve], and other "Rogue River" or "Tou-touten bands," Chasta Costa, Galice Creek, Naltunne tûnn[ve] and Chetco villages;[13] the Athapascan villages formerly on Smith River and tributaries, California;[14] those villages extending southward from Smith River along the California coast to the mouth of Klamath River;[15] the Hupâ villages or "clans" formerly on Lower Trinity River, California;[16] the Kenesti or Wailakki (2), located as follows: "They live along the western slope of the Shasta Mountains, from North Eel River, above Round Valley, to Hay Fork; along Eel and Mad Rivers, extending down the latter about to Low Gap; also on Dobbins and Larrabie Creeks;"[17] and Saiaz, who "formerly occupied the tongue of land jutting down between Eel River and Van Dusen's Fork."[18]