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The life (lives) and times of native copper inNorthwest North AmericaH. Kory Cooper aa Purdue University
Available online: 14 Jul 2011
To cite this article: H. Kory Cooper (2011): The life (lives) and times of native copper in Northwest NorthAmerica, World Archaeology, 43:2, 252-270
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The life (lives) and times of native copperin Northwest North America
H. Kory Cooper
Abstract
Native copper was used by several different indigenous ethno-linguistic groups in Alaska and Yukonstarting in the Late Prehistoric period and continuing into the early twentieth century. This paperapplies a relational biography approach to an analysis of the possible roles of native copper in
northern Athabascan and northern Tlingit society. Native copper was used in a variety of contexts,both as practical and prestige technology, and also possessed animacy and agency, two importantand closely intertwined concepts in the ontology of northern hunter-gatherers.
Keywords
Athabascan; native copper; hunter-gatherer; animacy; agency; object biography.
Native copper (copper occurring in a pure metallic state, 99.9þ per cent Cu) was used by
several indigenous groups in south-central Alaska and southwestern Yukon including:
Ahtna, Dena’ina, Tutchone, Upper Tanana and Tanana Athabascans, Yakutat and other
northern Tlingit and Chugach Eskimo (Fig. 1). In this paper I follow an object biography
approach in examining the roles of native copper in indigenous society. This analysis
capitalizes on the convergence of material culture studies (e.g. Bennett 2010; Brey 2005;
Gell 1998; Hoskins 2006), archaeology (e.g. Alberti and Marshall 2009; Brown
and Walker 2008; Bruck 2006; Haber 2009; Zedeno 2009) and non-Western ontologies
(Bird-David 1999; Ingold 2000, 2006) regarding the attribution of animacy and agency to
non-human things. Ethnographic studies provide a wealth of information regarding this
world-wide phenomenon and it is a central tenet of northern Athabascan ontology (e.g.
Boraas and Peter 2008; de Laguna 1969; Nelson 1983; Osgood 1966; Ridington 1982,
1988, 1994). The potential for objects to have animacy and agency makes a biographical
approach (Gosden and Marshall 1999; Kopytoff 1986) useful to the study of northern
Athabascan archaeology and material culture. This discussion provides an example of
World Archaeology Vol. 43(2): 252–270 New Approaches to Stone Mines and Quarries:
Materials and Materiality
ª 2011 Taylor & Francis ISSN 0043-8243 print/1470-1375 online
DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2011.581444
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the inseparability of ideology, material culture and ranking (social complexity) among
hunter-gatherers, and puts ‘the magic back’ into metallurgy by highlighting the non-
material, ideological aspects of native copper innovation (Budd and Taylor 1995: 138).
Animacy, agency and biography
Indigenous ontologies attributing life (soul or spirit and emotion) to non-human animals
and objects have traditionally been described in anthropology using the term animism
(Ingold 2006: 10), an early focus of study in anthropology (Tylor 1958 [1871]). Animism
was viewed as an early stage in the evolution of religious thought and characterized as a
childlike mistaken epistemology (see discussion by Bird-David 1999: 67–8). Its
classification as religion (Groleau 2009: 398) and emphasis on spirits combined with the
ethnographic attention given to ritual ‘over-exoticiz[ed]’ (Sillar 2009: 374) animism,
distancing it from daily life. But animacy is ‘a condition of being in’, not ‘a way of
believing about’, the world (Ingold 2006: 10). Referring to indigenous non-Western
theories as epistemologies (world-views) instead of ontologies (worlds) reifies the Western
Cartesian duality of active people/passive objects and projects it onto people who
experience the world differently. Recent studies of animism and agency have focused on
the interdependence of humans and non-human agents as relational (Sillar 2009) or, more
specifically, as a relational epistemology (Bird-David 1999) or relational ontology (Alberti
and Marshall 2009; Ingold 2006; Viveiros de Castro 2003).
In this paper I use ontology, rather than epistemology, as it better articulates the
experiential relationship northern Athabascans have with their environment on both a
Figure 1 Ethnolinguistic map of study region showing place names of locations of copper and
significant archaeological sites.
Native copper in Northwest North America 253
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physical and a metaphysical level. Similarly, because of the negative implications
associated with the term animism, this paper follows Zedeno (2009) in using animacy to
refer to the agentive potential of non-human animals and things. This perspective
emphasizes that relational ontology is deeply embedded in social practice, learning and the
experiences of individuals, and not just a set of religious beliefs to be drawn on at special
occasions (Zedeno 2009: 408).
The metaphorical analogy between the trajectory of a human life and that of an object
has appealed to many scholars interested in material culture (Herva and Nurmi 2009: 161).
Just as humans are born, move through successive stages of life and then die, objects are
made, have a use-life and are discarded (Schiffer 1972: 159, 1987). Whereas Schiffer (1972:
156, 1987: 13) used ‘life history’ to denote the various processes in a systemic context that
impact on the form of an object, Appadurai (1986: 3) used ‘social lives’ to emphasize the
changes that can occur in the meaning and value of objects in the context of exchange.
Kopytoff (1986: 66–7) also focused on the context of exchange when he applied cultural
anthropology’s use of biography in developing generalized human life cycles (‘idealized
biographies’) to discuss the ‘cultural biography’ of objects. Asking similar questions about
the biography of objects as one asked about the biographies of people would provide a
better understanding of the changing value of commodities as they moved through a social
network (Kopytoff 1986: 64). The concept of biography incorporates use-life but is more
inclusive because it also recognizes that objects are employed to create and maintain
identity and social relations (Gosden and Marshall 1999: 169; Jones 2002: 84; Joy 2009:
545), including relations with non-human agents (Zedeno 2009). Brown and Walker (2008:
298) used ‘object agency’ to highlight the fact that objects and their ‘performance
characteristics’ impact on human behavior. In Western ontology objects do not have
goals, so the agency of an object is ‘relational’: it exists in only relation to a ‘patient’
(counterpart to an agent) (Gell 1998: 22). In non-Western ontologies things with animacy
can exert their will upon humans. They are animate because they have agency, and they
are agentive because they have animacy; the two attributes are inseparable.
Metals, minerals and shells were appreciated in North America and elsewhere for their
visual appeal (Hayden 1998; Renfrew 1986) and association with supernatural spirits and
power (Saunders 1998, 2002). Native American consultants working with Zedeno (2009:
412) referred to copper, red paint, fossils and crystals as ‘inherently animate’. Such
materials are often referred to as prestige goods by archaeologists (e.g. Brumfiel and Earle
1987) due to their presence in special contexts such as human burials and are used to infer
socioeconomic inequality and, by extension, social complexity (Hayden 1998). Prestige
technologies are meant to be shown in community contexts where their ability to ‘elicit
pan-human aesthetic responses’ can be used to attract the positive attention of potential
followers, allies and mates (Hayden 1998: 13). Embedded in Gell’s (1988: 7) concept of the
‘technology of enchantment’ is the idea that the human imagination is greatly affected by
objects that stimulate our senses and cause us to question our understanding of the world.
The political use of prestige technology to initiate or expand social relations connects its
value and exchange (Appadurai 1986: 57). The association of metals and metallurgy with
leaders and leadership has been attributed to the transformative (Budd and Taylor 1995)
and sensorily stimulating (Herbert 1984) physical, and hence spiritual, qualities of copper
and other metals.
254 H. Kory Cooper
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Northern Athabascan ontology and technology
Northern Athabascans are divided into twenty-three separate languages spread across the
Subarctic from the Alaskan interior in the west, east to the south-west corner of Hudson
Bay and extending south into the Canadian Plains (Krauss and Golla 1981: 67–8). The
Ahtna and other northern Athabascans were traditionally hunter-gatherer-fishers. Salmon
and caribou were the two most important species in the past and are still important today.
Good fishing locations might be occupied much of the year and become important centers
of trade but there was a great deal of seasonal mobility (Ives 1990; de Laguna and
McClellan 1981; McClellan and Denniston 1981; VanStone 1974). Northern Athabascans
self-identified with small local bands but movement between bands was facilitated by kin
ties created through the exchange of marriage partners. Northern Athabascans have been
characterized as egalitarian but at the time of Russian contact, in the mid to late
eighteenth century, the Ahtna, Dena’ina and Tutchone were ranked societies with nobles,
slaves and commoners (Ives 1990; Townsend 1980; VanStone 1974).
Northern Athabascan technology has been characterized by both archaeologists and
ethnographers as materially sparse, many tools were made using readily available animal
or plant materials (e.g. Dumond 1980; McClellan and Denniston 1981; Nelson 1983;
Oswalt 1976; Ridington 1982, 1988, 1994; VanStone 1974). The foundation of northern
Athabascan technology is the intimate, socially constructed knowledge of the environment
and animal behavior (Nelson 1983; Ridington 1982, 1988, 1994). Much of this information
is encoded in stories about proper behavior toward nature (animals, plants, landscape)
and nature spirits (supernatural) from the Distant Time when non-human life had human
characteristics (de Laguna 1969; McClellan and Denniston 1981; Nelson 1983: 16–19).
Distant Time stories provide an oral manual for proper interaction with sentient beings
aware of humans’ adherence to these rules, such as proper distribution and disposal of the
parts of an animal by a hunter (Boraas and Peter 2008; Nelson 1983). Views of animism
distanced it from daily practice (Groleau 2009: 398; Sillar 2009: 374) but the concept of
animacy is an integral part of northern Athabascan ontology and technology. The
potential for animacy and agency found in the environment means that hunting, fishing
and gathering are ritual and spiritual acts by which northern Athabascans maintain social
relations with their ‘watchful world’ (Nelson 1983: 14).
Animacy is not a substitute for detailed knowledge of the environment. Landscapes are
dynamic cultural constructions tied to cultural perceptions of the environment (e.g.
Anschuetz et al. 2001; Basso 1996; Ingold 2000) and an important aspect of the northern
Athabascan landscape and technology is the use of resource-specific place names. A
consistent naming system was established by northern Athabascans allowing place names,
especially for streams and mountains, to be easily memorized and used as ‘cognitive maps’
(Kari 1996: 465, 2011). Most Ahtna place names are environmental, derived from
names for plants and animals or landscape features, but some are derived from specific
historical or Distant Time events (Kari 1996, 2005, 2011: 248–50; Nelson 1983: 243–5).
The northern Athabascan landscape is alive with history and memory (e.g. Andrews 2004;
Nelson 1983). Because there is no separation between natural-supernatural in northern
Athabascan ontology, or society-nature and society-technology, humans are constantly
and simultaneously interacting with other humans, animals, objects and the landscape
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both physically and metaphysically developing and experiencing their ‘local theory of
relatedness’ (Haber 2009: 424).
Native copper biography(ies)
Details about an object’s manufacture, use, exchange and deposition can be investigated
using a variety of methods (Jones 2002), but cultural anthropologists can write more
detailed biographies of people (Watson and Watson-Franke 1985) than can be established
for individual archaeological artifacts (Herva and Nurmi 2009: 162; Joy 2009: 543). I
address this issue three ways. First, I examine the biographical possibilities of native
copper in different forms and contexts, instead of a single artifact (following Kopytoff’s
(1986: 66–8) suggestion to focus on a class of artifact). Second, I follow Joy’s ‘relational
biography’ (2009: 544) approach, synthesizing Strathern’s (1988: 131) ideas about the
biographies of people and Gell’s (1998: 17–18) concept of relational agency. A person’s
biography is the sum of their social relationships. The biography of an object can be
similarly viewed as the entirety of its social relationships. The object biography of native
copper offered here broadly follows a chronological narrative but moves in a non-linear
fashion between different contexts to reveal the aggregate of possible social relationships
native copper could acquire during its life. Third, archaeologists working in the north have
long used ethnography and oral history to interpret archaeological data and inform on
past social processes (see discussions in Arundale et al. 1989; Frink and Harry 2008). I
combine aspects of northern Athabascan ontology and technology derived from
ethnography and ethnohistory, including native copper oral history, with archaeology
and materials science data to construct a relational biography(ies) for native copper.
Following Kopytoff (1986: 66), I will examine the ‘biographical possibilities’ of native
copper and how those possibilities were achieved. Who made and used copper artifacts?
Were there recognized stages, or an ‘ideal career’, for the life of a native copper artifact?
Additionally, what is the origin of this technology and what was its relationship to prestige
and rank?
Birth
I begin this biographical perspective on native copper with an overview of the origin of this
technology. Native copper was being used by northern Athabascans before AD 1000, but
most well-dated contexts fall between AD 1000 and the arrival of Europeans in the mid-
eighteenth century (Cooper forthcoming). Geological native copper has been reported at
forty-six discrete locations in south-central Alaska and southwestern Yukon (Cooper et al.
2008). Most sources are found within the traditional territories of the Ahtna, Tutchone,
Dena’ina and Chugach as reflected in the use of place names incorporating indigenous
terms for copper (Fig. 1 and Table 1). Twenty-two such names are known for the region;
twenty are Athabascan and thirteen of those are from the southern Ahtna region, home to
speakers of the Lower Ahtna dialect (Kari 1986, 1990, 2005, 2008; Kari and Fall 2003;
Orth 1967: 530). The Tlingit name for the White River in Tutchone territory means
‘copper river’ (Glave 1892). Two copper place names in Prince William Sound are
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Table
1Copper
place
names
inAlaskaandYukon
No.
Place
names
Translation
Culturalaffiliation
Reference
1TsediNa
copper
river
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
2TsediCae’e
copper
mouth
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
3TsediTu’
copper
water
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
4TsediTs’ese’
Na’
copper
stonecreek
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
5TsediTs’ese’
Cae’e
copper
stonemouth
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
6TsediTs’ese
copper
stone
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
7TsediTs’ese’
Tates
copper
stonepass
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
8TsediTl’aa
copper
headwaters
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
9TsediNa’Ngge’
copper
river
uplands(entire
drainage,
notonmap)
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
10
TsediNa’Luu’(Łuu)
copper
river
uplands(C
hitinaGlacier)
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
11
TsediGgalaaye’
copper
mountain
(locationuncertain,notonmap)
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
12
TsediKulaenden
wherecopper
exists
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
13
TsediKulaen
Na’
wherecopper
exists
creek
Ahtna
Kari(2008)
14
Tsetsaan’Na’
copper
river
(Chisana)
Upper
Tanana
Kari(2008)
?Tsetsaan’Na’Tates
copper
river
pass
Upper
Tanana
Kari(2008)
16
Tsetsaan’Na’Luu’
copper
river
glacier
Upper
Tanana
Kari(2008)
17
Klet-san-dek
(Tsetsaan-digh)
copper
creek
Upper
Tanana/Tutchone
Orth(1967)
18
Eark-heene-nee
copper
river
Tutchone/Tlingit
Glave(1892)
19
TsediBak’ilani
theonein
whichthereiscopper
Dena’ina
KariandFall(2003)
20
TsediBak’ilanitnu
creekin
whichthereiscopper
Dena’ina
KariandFall(2003)
21
Kanawalek
copper
place
Chugach
Birket-Smith(1953)
22
Kanuwalem
Kuiya
creekofonethathascopper
Chugach
Bright(2004)
Native copper in Northwest North America 257
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Chugach (Birket-Smith 1953; Bright 2004). Tsedi, literally ‘that which is hammered’, was
the term used for copper in the Central, Lower and Western Ahtna dialects and by the
Dena’ina. Among the Mentasta Ahtna and other northern Athapaskans the term
tsetsaan’, ‘rock excrement’ was used (Kari 1990: 375; Kari and Fall 2003). Northern
Athabascan groups in the Northwest Territories referred to copper as sa-tson, ‘bear
smoke’ or tsa-intsanne, ‘beaver dung’. Petitot (2005 [1893]: 96) claimed this was because
the dung of these animals is red but referring to rounded globular copper nuggets as dung
may be due to their similarity in form.
Oral history accounts of native copper inform on both its agency and animacy. A
Yakutat Bay narrative describes the discovery of copper by a young Ahtna Athabascan
man prior to the migration of the Ahtna Kwackwan lineage from the confluence of the
Copper and Chitina Rivers to the coast where they were integrated into northern Tlingit
society. A female slave had a son and, being poor and of low status, they were disrespected
in their village and chose to leave and live in the mountains. Four years later the boy had
grown into a young man. One night he was visited in his sleep by a spirit that told him
‘Pass one mountain more. Stay up there.’ The young man went sheep hunting the next day
where the spirit had told him to go. That night the spirit came to him again saying, ‘If you
see four blue flames on the fire, that’s me.’ Four days later while hunting moose he saw
four blue flames in his campfire but was afraid. The next morning the young man found
four fist-sized pieces of copper in the ashes where the four blue flames had been. He did not
know what they were but used part of one to make an arrowhead, which he then used to
kill a moose. After revealing this gift to his mother they returned to their former village.
When the chief saw the copper he became excited and wanted to know where they had
found it but the mother demanded he first recognize them as ‘brave’ (de Laguna 1972:
899–900).
Another copper origin story concerning the Ahtna told by Jim McKinley credits the
discovery of copper, and subsequent Ahtna wealth, to a boy whose uncle did not like him
and sent him away from his village. While ostracized the boy heard singing coming from
the ground and in digging down to find the source of the singing found a big piece of
copper (Kari and Tuttle forthcoming). Another story told by McKinley concerns an old
Ahtna village site on the east bank of the Copper River, Tsedi Kulaende, ‘where copper
exists’. This village was so-named because sometime after the initial discovery of copper
someone floating downriver saw light reflecting off a large piece of copper sticking out of
the river bank. After an attempt to pull the large nugget out of the riverbank using ropes it
fell into the water and could not be recovered but the nearby village was renamed as a
result (Kari 2010; Kari and Tuttle forthcoming).
In a Dena’ina story a man named Tcu-Kun killed his wife because she was unfaithful
and afterward lived alone in the woods but continued to commit murder. He found metal,
presumably copper, in a creek and made several tools including an ax, spear and knife.
After living alone for forty years Tcu-kun approached a young boy of ‘poor class’ saying,
‘Don’t cry little boy, I won’t hurt you. I want you to kill me, I’m tired and old.’ Tcu-kun
piled up his metal and offered it to the boy as payment for killing him. The boy did as
instructed and after killing Tcu-kun went to the house of the chief and told of his killing of
the notorious Tcu-kun. The chief took a metal knife and ax for himself, allowed the boy to
have the rest and married the boy to his daughter (Osgood 1966: 188–9).
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Another Dena’ina story about the discovery of copper told by Shem Pete relates to a
specific location, Tsedi Bak’ilani:
way before the Russians came they found a big [piece of] copper walking around. It
looked like a big porcupine. He [the man who found the copper] peed on that copper
walking around. They found the [that?] maybe four hundred or five hundred years ago,
before the Russians came to Alaska. A rich man’s cousin hunted around Dghelishla. He
saw that copper kinda walk around, come alive, I don’t know. It gave him luck. That’s
where that chief got lucky. That porcupine copper died. He got lucky. They cut a little
piece and make arrow point. They got rich outa that copper. They sell that.
(Kari and Fall 2003: 111; italic text added by author)
I have suggested autochthonous development as the most likely explanation for the
presence of native copper technology in the region based on the abundance of native
copper, oral history emphasizing its local origin and the reasonable expectation that
northern Athabascans were capable of noticing native copper and learning how to work it
(Cooper forthcoming).
Life
Procurement Native copper nuggets range in size from a few millimeters to a few tons.
Indigenous people in Alaska and Yukon used 3–4 gram nuggets obtained from streams.
Sometimes caribou or moose antler was used to rake through gravel looking for nuggets
(Brooks 1900; Schwatka 1996 [1892]). Many native copper sources are at high elevation
with steep slopes. Temporary campsites established in this active erosional environment
are unlikely to survive due to the movement of large amounts of water and sediment
during spring runoff. The Ahtna sometimes coordinated the collection of copper with
hunting sheep, also found at higher elevations, but copper was worked at winter village
sites (Reckord 1983: 82). Copper place names are most abundant in the traditional
territory of the Ahtna, who monopolized its trade (Grinev 1993; Shinkwin 1979). These
place names facilitated the transmission of geographical knowledge of native copper over
time (Kari 1996, 2011), but could also be interpreted as making claims of ownership on
copper (Vine de Loria 1981 in Basso 1996: 156). de Laguna and McClellan (1981: 645)
stated that, among the Ahtna, copper ‘demanded religious precautions to secure the
nuggets, and specialized knowledge to shape it into knives, daggers, spear heads, and
harpoon heads’. Like the spirits of animals copper was aware of human action and intent
and could be offended, with negative consequences (Boraas and Peter 2008; de Laguna
1969; Nelson 1983).
Trade and exchange A native copper provenance study demonstrated the possibility of
differentiating between some sources in the region on the basis of trace elements, but too
few sources have been sampled at present to source artifacts confidently (Cooper et al.
2008). According to ethnohistoric accounts (Grinev 1993; Reckord 1983; Shinkwin 1979)
the Ahtna controlled the movement of native copper to the coast in Alaska. The Udzisyu,
a Lower Ahtna lineage, may have had the most influence on this trade as they lived in the
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southern portion of Ahtna territory where native copper sources are concentrated, and
were closer to coastal trading partners than other Ahtna (McClellan 1971: 231).
An Ahtna story that demonstrates both the high value afforded to copper and its ability
to act as an agent of social change focuses on Cuuy (literally ‘least weasel’ – Kari 1990;
Kari and Tuttle forthcoming). Cuuy was a chief of small physical stature, approximately
2½ feet tall (dwarf or midget), who lived near the Gulkana site. Cuuy was not well-liked,
presumably due to his size and having been born to a woman of low status. He attached
himself to different wealthy chiefs living around the confluence of the Copper and Chitina
Rivers and from them learned how to work copper, an activity at which he excelled. After
making fifty arrowheads of copper he took them inland to trade with the Tanana people.
This was the first time they saw copper. He was so successful in trading he had to acquire
slaves from among the Tanana to help him carry back his furs (Kari and Tuttle
forthcoming; Reckord 1983: 53). Cuuy became a chief with sixty followers and lived in a
big house held together with the aid of copper nails (Gibson and Mischler 1984: 23).
A story about copper that involves the Kwackwan migration from Ahtna territory to
Yakutat Bay was collected by Swanton (1909: 347–68) from the Tlingit. After travelling to
the coast and living there several years a man sent six of his nephews along the shore in a
canoe to look for people. They found people living in Yakutat Bay but those people sent
the newcomers away. The brothers returned to their uncle who then sent them on another
trip, this time back to their homeland in the interior to retrieve a large piece of copper
(referred to as a ‘plate’), possibly a large nugget (Keithahn 1964). The brothers found the
copper, which was ‘very long’ with ‘eyes and hands’, and cut it down the middle before
carrying it back to the coast. The Kwackwan gave the copper, whose value was said to be
worth ten slaves, to the Yakutat people who accepted it as payment for a salmon stream.
Manufacture Cold-hammering native copper compresses individual metal grains
resulting in a microstructure with multiple linear striations (Fig. 2). Heating cold-worked
copper at a temperature of around 3008C for a few minutes causes the nucleation and
growth of a new set of equiaxed strain-free grains (Fig. 3). This re-crystallization restores
malleability. The microstructure of worked and annealed copper shows equiaxed grains
and annealing twins. Twins are a result of the growth of new crystals during annealing
which creates a mirrored plane within the crystal and appears microscopically as parallel
straight lines. Though twins may be present in geological specimens of native copper due
to re-crystallization caused by strain associated with geological events, they are much more
numerous in samples of native copper that have been worked and annealed (Wayman
1989). Metallographic examination of native copper artifacts from the Gulkana site
(GUL-077) (Cooper 2007: 122–4; Franklin et al. 1981) and oral history (Kari and Fall
2003; McClellan 1975; McKennan 1959; Osgood 1966; Rainey 1939) corroborates the
hammering and annealing of native copper in Alaska-Yukon, which was the basic
technique used in North America (Leader 1988) and Eurasia (Craddock 1995; Stech 1999).
The chaıne operatoire involved beating nuggets into sheets which were then folded to
build up bulk. Small pieces were removed during manufacture but instead of fracturing
when subjected to force, like lithic, bone or wood, native copper undergoes plastic
deformation (Franklin et al. 1981; Wayman 1989; Workman 1976). Native copper
technology blends aspects of lithic technology and metallurgy. The Ahtna and Dena’ina
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term for native copper, tsedi, ‘that which is hammered’, refers specifically to how this
material was worked. Those especially skilled at working copper were known among the
Ahtna as c’etseden, ‘one who hammers’ (Kari 1990: 375) and among the Dena’ina as
nuk’qetset, ‘they pound it’ (Kari and Fall 2003: 111).
The archaeological distribution of native copper in Alaska and Yukon suggests supply
zone behavior (Renfrew 1977), whereby native copper was obtained either directly from a
source or in trade from someone with direct access. The most numerous native copper
artifacts in Alaska and Yukon are small pieces of scrap, usually thin sheets, left over from
the manufacturing process. Seventy-one such artifacts were recovered from the Gulkana
site (GUL-077) (Hanson 2008; Workman 1976) and 106 from Dakah De’nin’s Village
(VAL-065) (Shinkwin 1979), demonstrating that these two sites were important copper-
working centers. Dakah De’nin’s Village is near the confluence of the Chitina and Copper
Rivers, which became the focal point of native copper knowledge and expertise (Reckord
1983) probably during the Late Prehistoric period. The biographies of copper artifacts
would be similar during the manufacturing stage because they had not yet acquired their
unique histories (Appadurai 1986: 42; Schiffer 1972). Their life histories would be
temporarily fixed during manufacture into various specific forms but native copper’s
potential to be re-worked through annealing means it could begin life anew in a different
form, which may have contributed to its animacy.
Figure 2 Metallograph of experimentally worked native copper showing typical cold-workedmicrostructure.
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Use-life A total of 569 native copper artifacts have been recovered from seventy-seven
sites in Alaska and Yukon. Most sites have only one or a few specimens, but four sites
(Fig. 1) have many, accounting for over half of all the artifacts. In Athabascan
archaeological contexts native copper occurs primarily as tools; its use as prestige
technology was limited. However, regional oral history emphasizes a connection between
native copper, wealth, prestige and ranking (Cooper 2006). Native copper continued to be
used into the early part of the twentieth century even after imported metal trade goods
were available (Cooper forthcoming).
The most common native copper artifacts after scrap are awls (and various awl-like
objects probably used as needles, drills and punches). Awls of various materials, most
likely bone and copper, were part of the toolkits of both men and women (McKennan
1959: 68). The Ahtna manufactured snowshoes using awls, lacing needles and drills all
made of copper (Kari 1990: 375). The next most common copper tools found
archaeologically and also attested to in oral history are spear and arrow points and
knives. One form of knife made from copper has been referred to as an ulu, an Eskimo
term for a knife with one straight edge for hafting and one semi-lunar edge. These knives
are also referred to as a ‘woman’s knife’ due to their association with women’s work, and
were also used by Athabascans. Copper knives and points were used to kill bears (Upper
Tanana, Ahtna and Tutchone) and people (Ahtna and Tutchone) (Kari 1990: 375;
Figure 3 Metallograph of experimentally worked native copper showing typical worked andannealed microstructure.
262 H. Kory Cooper
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McClellan 1975: 127; Oswalt 1973: 118; Shinkwin 1979: 26). Early in the twentieth century
the Ahtna were reported to use ‘ceremonial knives of copper. . .for cutting the first salmon
caught in the beginning of the season’s run’ (Moffit and Maddren 1909: 19). The First
Salmon ceremony was ubiquitous among northwest Native North Americans dependent
on salmon for subsistence (Gunther 1926). No indication was given that the copper knife
used in the First Salmon ceremony looked different from other fish knives or that it was
highly regarded at other times of the year.
During an episode of warfare between the Upper Tanana and Tutchone in the early
nineteenth century the Upper Tanana used ‘some copper, old copper arrowheads’
(Plate 1), to kill Tutchone. These arrowheads were retrieved from the bodies of the
deceased and hammered back into shape to be used again (Katie John in Kari 1986: 101);
a reworked and reused copper arrowhead had ‘special power’. Taking a human life was a
spiritually dangerous act that required the observance of several ‘life-crisis taboos’ (de
Laguna and McClellan 1981: 652). A copper weapon used to kill a human was spiritually
as well as physically dangerous. Similarly, during his 1891 travels through Yukon and
Alaska Schwatka (1996 [1892]: 129) was told by the Tutchone that if a person were to
strike a copper boulder with an ax or any other tool they will soon die. The quote from de
Laguna and McClellan (1981: 645) regarding the need for ‘precautions’ when obtaining
native copper also supports the idea that copper was potentially dangerous. Athabascan
technology was part of a ‘spiritual interchange’ (Nelson 1983: 232). Like the spirits of
animals, spirits associated with material objects can be offended by disrespectful humans
with the result that they become ineffective or dangerous.
In most situations contact with native copper had positive consequences. In Yakutat
Bay native copper was worn as an amulet for good luck (de Laguna 1972: 664). Among the
Tutchone copper was believed to ‘keep the body pretty good’ and was worn to ensure
good health. A young girl confined as part of her initiation into womanhood might keep
copper pieces in her mouth to ensure strong teeth in old age (McClellan 1975: 256). Only
at the northern Tlingit site of Old Town in Yakutat Bay, partly composed of Kwackwan
(Ahtna) emigrants, is there significant archaeological evidence of the use of native copper
as prestige technology. Out of a total of forty-eight copper artifacts from the site sixteen
are bracelets, beads or rings. While working there de Laguna was told that copper was
worn only by the ‘rich and noble’ (1972: 445).
Death Native copper artifacts in Alaska and Yukon, even those specimens that could be
considered prestige technology, are not associated with human burials or other obvious
ritual contexts. Native copper is associated with campsite hearths at Gulkana (GUL-077),
midden at Dixthada (TNX-004) and semi-subterranean house pits at Dakah De’nin’s
Village (VAL-065) and Old Town (YAK-007). In some cases native copper artifacts may
represent objects lost and forgotten. Regardless, the first three sites mentioned above are
notable exceptions to the generalization that northern Athabascan archaeological sites are
lacking in artifacts.
A number of explanations have been offered for this phenomenon including the de-
emphasis on technological materiality discussed earlier. An additional factor could be the
combined effect of dependence on organic materials and their unlikely preservation in the
Subarctic environment (Ives 1990). More recently, Boraas and Peter (2008: 215–21) have
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discussed the importance of the concepts of beggesh and beggesha in explaining the
dearth of artifacts at large late prehistoric Dena’ina village sites identified by the
presence of house and storage pits. Beggesh is the ‘negative or impure’ ‘trace’ or ‘scent’
that may become associated with objects or places; beggesha is the opposite, i.e. indicates
a state of purity. Beggesh can be sensed by animals, spirits and other Dena’ina. The
negative consequences resulting from the detection of beggesh by spirits dictated that
things such as animal bones be disposed of in bodies of water or burned. Similar beliefs
among the Ahtna (de Laguna and McClellan 1981: 658–9) and Tutchone (McClellan
1975: 348) regarding the dangerous and potentially contaminating power of the body
and spirit of a deceased individual encouraged the abandonment of the deceased’s house
as a method for avoiding lingering spirits. The degree to which any of these practices
may account for how and why a native copper artifact’s life came to an end is unclear.
Northern Athabascan rules governing proper disposal of material culture were
complicated and varied. Archaeological evidence of animacy among northern
Athabascans may be difficult to see, but an interpretation of the archaeological record
informed by indigenous ontology derived from ethnography, ethnohistory and linguistics
provides valuable insight into both the animacy and agency of northern Athabascan
technology, especially native copper.
Plate 1 Copper projectile point (University of Alaska Museum of the North Archaeology, UA73-020-0605).
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Summary
By applying a relational object biography approach (Joy 2009) to native copper I have
attempted to capture its sum total of social relationships and multiple biographical
possibilities in indigenous society in Alaska and Yukon. The value and meaning of copper
in Alaska and Yukon was in flux during its life depending on the context of use. One of the
more dramatic changes in the life history of native copper was its movement from practical
technology among northern Athabascans of the interior to prestige technology among the
Yakutat Tlingit on the coast, but this dichotomy fails to capture its qualities of animacy
and agency. It had eyes and hands, it walked around in the form of a porcupine, it was
aware of human behavior, chose to whom it would reveal itself and provided a way to
elevate one’s status. Copper was used for the spiritually dangerous activities of killing
humans and hunting bears and itself grew in spiritual power as a result of this interaction.
Not only was native copper an emblem of rank among the Yakutat Tlingit but as a form
of wealth it acted as an agent for elevating one’s rank. Just as the status of lower-ranking
people was raised via their association with native copper, copper’s status changed when
moving across space from interior to coast. Finally, native copper was not discovered by
people as a result of scientific experimentation but instead revealed itself to people.
Acknowledgments
This paper was based in part on research conducted in the course of my PhD studies in the
Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta, and was additionally funded by
the Canadian Circumpolar Institute. I wish to thank Peter Topping, Francois Giligny and
Gabriel Cooney for providing the opportunity to present an earlier version of this paper in
the session ‘From Tools to Tombs: the Creation of Identities in Stone’ at the 2008 World
Archaeological Congress in Dublin. I would also like to thank Melanie Giles and James
Kari for their valuable comments on this paper and James Kari and Siri Tuttle for access
to unpublished material. Any errors are, of course, my own.
Purdue University
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H. Kory Cooper is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Purdue
University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he also holds a courtesy appointment in the
School of Materials Engineering. His research combines archeology, archeometallurgy
and ethnohistory to investigate native copper innovation among diverse hunter-gatherers
in the Arctic, Subarctic and Northwest Coast culture areas.
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