Recent History

The Russian River settlement is where our Dena'ina ancestors gathered for the winters after a season of fishing, hunting and gathering along Kahtnu, the Kenai River. The site is located on the south shore of the river, and is comprised of Eskimo and Indian house pits, storage caches and fire-cracked rock middens used by inhabitants thousands of years ago. The area is historically unique due to the two distinct cultures represented at the site as well as the intensity of the prehistoric occupation.

Two separate cultures, the Riverine Kachemak and the Dena'ina Athabascan, made their winter camps in this area. The Kachemak people were hunters and fishermen who originated from Kodiak Island, the Alaska Peninsula and Kachemak Bay. They were a coastally adapted people who began to harvest the Kenai Peninsula’s rich subsistence environment between 3,000 and 1,000 years ago. Dena'ina Athabascans—originally interior Alaskan big game hunters—occupied the Peninsula around 1,000 AD and also adopted an economy that was based around the riverine environment.