Anvik is a village on the Anvik River, a tributary of the Yukon River,
about four hundred miles from its mouth and about one hundred and
twenty-five miles from the coast. The village is populated by the
most northern of one of the Athabascan peoples, called Ingalik or
Ingilik by the Russians, meaning Lousy, according to Jetté, an Eskimo
name, or Tinneh or Ten’a, a native name. The native name for Anvik is
Gudrinethchax; it means Middle People, a place name, as are the other
native names for the river villages.
The only published accounts of the Ten’a are those of the French
missionary Jetté, stationed at Konkrines and the American missionary
Chapman, stationed at Anvik. At the American mission Mr. Reed was
educated, and his opportunities to observe his own people have been
in certain particulars limited. In spite of his knowledge of English,
and of American culture he is, however, unusually unsophisticated and
he has been an acute and sympathetic observer of the life at Anvik,
White and Indian. He is therefore what we frequently look for among
school-taught Indians but rarely find—a qualified interpreter of native
culture. As the time available for working with him was quite limited,
he was asked to present his information as if he were telling the story
of an Anvik villager from birth to death.