Tyonek

Tyonek stands on the western shore of Cook Inlet, in the country of the Tubughna Dena’ina. The inlet and its rivers supplied fish and marine resources, while travel and exchange linked its people to Dena’ina communities farther inland. In the 1790s the Russian Lebedev-Lastochkin Company established a trading post near Tyonek; the British navigator George Vancouver saw it in 1794. Relations deteriorated as Russian traders mistreated local people. In 1797 Tubughna warriors led by Quq’ey destroyed the post, part of a wider Dena’ina resistance to Russian intrusion.