The Ahtna population in the Copper Basin was small and scattered because game was never plentiful enough to support large groups. Ahtna natives traveled the river corridors, foothills, and passes of what we currently refer to as the Wrangell Mountains for several hundred years prior to European arrival in the area. They lived in semi-permanent camps, leaving for weeks at a time to hunt and to gather berries, birch wood, and other resources. Trade routes with other native peoples were well established. Copper, found near the present-day town of McCarthy, was used for tools and for trade with other native groups. Most villages contained twenty to thirty members of a familial clan and were situated where a major tributary entered the Copper River. There were two larger villages: Taghaelden (Taral) near the mouth of the Chitina River, and Nataelde (Batzulnetas) on Tanada Creek along the route leading northward to the Tanana and Yukon Rivers.