The native population of the Tanana has always been remarkably
scarce. Dall obtained an estimate of their whole number as about 150
families.[7] Petrof, in 1880, thought they numbered perhaps seven
or eight hundred;[8] Allen in 1885 estimated them at between 550
and 600;[9] Brooks, in 1898, thought there were less than 400;[10]
and the 1910 United States Census gives the total number of the
"Tenan-kutchin," full bloods and mix bloods, as 415.[11]
According to Brooks (Reconnaissance, 490-491), the Tanana natives were
separated into two geographic contingents, the eastern or highland and
the northwestern or lowland groups. The most easterly group included
the Indian settlements in the vicinity of Forty-mile and Mentasta Pass
trail; the northwestern comprises to-day those from Nenana to the mouth
of the river.
The Tanana Indians were generally regarded by other natives as
warlike and dangerous, but so far as their relation with the whites
was concerned there was little justification for this notion.[12]
Physically they were reported by Brooks to "average rather better than
the Indians of the Yukon" (Reconnaissance, 492). There are but a few
and scanty other references to them in this connection.