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→ Celebrate Nuch’ishtunt, the Place Protected From the Wind
The Anchorage Park Foundation is celebrating the history and culture of one of Anchorage’s earliest Dena’ina fish camps.
A celebration will be held Friday August 18 at 2:00 PM at the Point Woronzof Overlook to celebrate Nuch’ishtunt, the Place Protected From the Wind. Speakers include Aaron Leggett, President of the Native Village of Eklutna, and Senior Curator of Alaska History & Indigenous Cultures at the Anchorage Museum. Limited seating will be available for Elders and people with special needs. Pop-up tents will be provided for shelter rain or shine. Biking and walking along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail is encouraged.
History of Nuch’ishtunt: The Place Protected from Wind
Shared by the Anchorage Park Foundation
For many centuries Anchorage’s First People – the Dena’ina – established spring and summer salmon fish camps at Nuch’ishtunt, “the place protected from wind,” now commonly called “Point Woronzof.”
On the mud flats, they constructed platforms from wooden poles, called tanik’edi. Standing on the platforms as the tide came in, they dipnetted salmon. The salmon were preserved by drying, smoking, and fermenting.
In late summer, the Dena’ina families transported their salmon harvests to their villages at Knik, Łajat, Niteh, and Idlughet (Eklutna), among others, where they were a major component of the winter food supply.
In the early and mid 20th century, the Dena’ina continued to harvest salmon at Nuch’ishtunt with more modern set gill nets for subsistence use and commercial sale. By the early 1950s, federal authorities had closed this site to commercial fishing. The displaced Dena’ina families moved their camps to Fire Island (Nutuł’iy) and Point Possession (Tuyqun).
Pt. Woronzof park was created in 1994. It was named to remind people of the British Vancouver Expedition to Cook Inlet in 1794. Woronzof was the Russian Ambassador to England at that time.
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