Description
Eyak Athabaskan people have lived along the Copper River Delta and eastern Prince William Sound for the last 3,500 years. They migrated from the interior of Alaska over the glaciers to the Gulf of Alaska coastline where retreating glaciers formed a thin green strip of habitat and rivers near Yakutat (an Eyak word that means “Lagoon behind the Sea, where the Canoes Rest”). Today, Eyak people live in Cordova, Yakutat, across Alaska, and the U.S. Many Eyak descendants do not qualify to be tribal members in the Native Village of Eyak, a federally recognized Alaska Native tribe which was established through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. This is due to the enrollment qualifications that extend tribal citizenship only to those who reside in the town of Cordova for the majority of the year.
Language
Eyak was a Na-Dene language, historically spoken by the Eyak people
Culture
Eyak Social Structure The Eyak had an exogamous (meaning they married outside of their own group), the children trace their lineage and names from their mother. They also inherited the use of the clan fishing, hunting, and gathering land from the mother. Eyak Clans The Eyak clan system is divided into two moieties, the Raven and the Eagle. Their moieties, Raven and the Eagle, equated with the Tlingit Raven and Eagle/Wolf and with the Ahtna Crow and Sea Gull moieties. The names and stories of the clans in these moieties show relationships with the Tlingit and Ahtna. Traditionally, clans owned the salmon streams, halibut banks, berry patches, land for hunting, intertidal regions, and egg harvesting areas. As long as the area was used by the clan, they owned the area.