Chief John Silas' Cabin

For years this cabin belonged to Athabascan Chief John Silas. It was built at the original Chena Indian Village, just downstream on the Tanana River. The Binkley family acquired it in the 1980's after the old village was abandoned and the river threatened to swallow the cabin. In 1986 it was disassembled, loaded onto the deck of the Discovery I, brought to this site, and reassembled. Until the arrival of Westerners, the Athabascan people were semi-nomadic, following herds of large game and living off the land. With the arrival of fur traders, the discovery of gold, and the use of riverboats, they settled in small villages and lived in more permanent log structures like this cabin. Built in the early 1900s, the John Silas cabin is slightly more primitive than many of the other cabins around the village today. It is quite small, has minimal windows, and only a dirt floor. Its roof is an early design made of sheets of spruce bark laid over spruce poles as large shingles to shed the elements. Chief John Silas lived during a remarkable time and witnessed the Athabascan cultural transition from ancient ways to a Western lifestyle, a pivotal point in the history of Alaska Natives.

Chena Ridge, Alaska · United States