Trade

As Athabaskans traveled to hunt, fish, and trap, they came into contact with other Native groups. These interactions led to trade. Trade was a principal activity of Athabaskan men, who formed trading partnerships with men in other communities as part of a network of diplomacy and exchange. Partners from other tribes were also, at times, enemies, and traveling through enemy territory was dangerous. 

Athabaskans along the lower Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers traded with coastal Yupik. At Nulato on the Yukon River, Koyukon Athabaskans met with neighboring Yupik to exchange beaver, marten, and mink furs for sea lion skins and fancy tanned parkas. At Unalakleet, on the coast of Norton Sound, Athabaskans traded with Yupik and Inupiaq groups. Reindeer hides, tobacco, and iron pots from Siberia might be exchanged for black fox and beaver skins, wood bowls, and caribou skins from Interior Alaska. Kutchin Athabaskans traveled to the Arctic Ocean coast, where they traded with the Inupiaq. Tlingits crossed the Coast Mountains to trade seal and eulachon oil for furs and copper of Ahtna Athabaskans. 

Besides using the natural routes of rivers, Athabaskans had overland trade and travel trails. Some trails crossed the Brooks Range to the north, and others went to Southcentral, Southwest, and Southeast Alaska. Trade routes extended along the Porcupine and Yukon rivers into Canada. 

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