Rethinking the Redoubt: Kolmakovskiy Redoubt, a fur trading post on the middle Kuskokwim

Abstract

"Kolmakovskiy Redoubt is a multi-component site in the Middle Kuskokwim River region. It operated from 1840 to 1925 and includes evidence of Russian, Eskimo, Deg Hit'aan, and Euro-American occupations. Dissatisfaction with the report and the availability of the collection at the University of Alaska Museum led to reexamination of the site. The collection of artifacts was examined, identified and recorded. Information about the stratigraphy, details of construction, and function of excavated structures are presented in a clearer fashion. Historical information about the people who lived or traded there and historical information about the material culture left behind was synthesized. New conclusions were reached that differ significantly in some cases from Oswalt's original conclusions. Alaska Natives and Creoles operated the Redoubt, and little material culture evidence separates them. American period occupation results in the advent of vast amounts of manufactured imported goods, dubbed technofacts, which clearly distinguish this occupation"--Leaf iii.