The Alaskan Athabascans, Alaskan Athabascans, Alaskan AthapascansWilliam Simeone, ''A History of Alaskan Athapaskans'', 1982, Alaska Historical Commission or Dena (russian: атабаски Аляски, атапаски Аляски) are

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a num ...

peoples of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. They are the original inhabitants of the

interior of Alaska Interior Alaska is the central region of Alaska's territory, roughly bounded by the Alaska Range to the south and the Brooks Range to the north. It is largely wilderness. Mountains include Denali in the Alaska Range, the Wrangell Mountains, and ...

. In Alaska, where they are the oldest, there are eleven groups identified by the languages they speak. These are the Dena’ina or Tanaina (''Ht’ana''),

Ahtna The Ahtna (also Ahtena, Atna, Ahtna-kohtaene, or Copper River) are an Alaska Native Alaskan Athabaskans, Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan languages, Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. The people's homeland called Atna Nenn', is loca ...

or Copper River Athabascan (''Hwt’aene''), Deg Hit’an or Ingalik (''Hitʼan''),

Holikachuk Holikachuk (also Innoko, Organized Village of Grayling, Innoka-khotana, Tlëgon-khotana) are a Yupikized Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group to western Alaska. Their native territory includes the a ...

(''Hitʼan''),

Koyukon The Koyukon (russian: Коюконы) are an Alaska Native Athabascan people of the Athabascan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. Their traditional territory is along the Koyukuk and Yukon rivers where they subsisted for thousands of years b ...

(''Hut’aane''), Upper Kuskokwim or Kolchan (''Hwt’ana''), Tanana or Lower Tanana (''Kokht’ana''), Tanacross or Tanana Crossing (''Koxt’een''), Upper Tanana (''Kohtʼiin''), Gwich'in or Kutchin (''Gwich’in''), and Hän (''Hwëch’in''). The Alaskan Athabascan culture is an inland creek and river fishing (also coastal fishing by only Dena'ina of

Cook Inlet Cook Inlet ( tfn, Tikahtnu; Sugpiaq: ''Cungaaciq'') stretches from the Gulf of Alaska to Anchorage in south-central Alaska. Cook Inlet branches into the Knik Arm and Turnagain Arm at its northern end, almost surrounding Anchorage. On its so ...

) and

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fung ...

culture. The Alaskan Athabascans have a

matrilineal Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. It may also correlate with a social system in which each person is identified with their matriline – their mother's lineage – and which can involve the inheritance ...

system in which children belong to the mother's clan, with the exception of the Yupikized Athabaskans (Holikachuk and Deg Hit'an). Formerly they identified as a people by the word Tinneh (nowadays Dena; cf.

Dene The Dene people () are an indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages. ''Dene'' is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term "Dene" ha ...

for Canadian Athabaskans). Taken from their own language, it means simply "men" or "people".

Life and culture

The Athabascan people hold

potlatch A potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States,Harkin, Michael E., 2001, Potlatch in Anthropology, International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Scie ...

es which have religious, social and economic significance. Dogs were their only domesticated animal, but were and are an integral element in their culture for the Athabascan population in North America. p. 12

Notable Alaskan Athabascans

George Attla George Attla (August 8, 1933 – February 15, 2015) was a champion sprint dog musher. Attla won ten Anchorage Fur Rendezvous Championships and eight North American Open championships with a career that spanned from 1958 to 2011. Attla was the su ...

(1933 – 2015) was a champion sprint dog musher. *

Emil Notti Emil Reynold Notti (born March 11, 1933) is an American engineer, indigenous activist, businessman, government employee, and political candidate of Koyukon Athabaskan heritage. Early life and education Born in Koyukuk, Alaska, Notti earned a ...

, an American engineer, indigenous activist and democratic politician. Key in the development of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. *

Quinn Christopherson Quinn Christopherson is an American singer-songwriter. He won the 2019 Tiny Desk Contest with his entry "Erase Me," a song exploring his experience coming out as a transgender man. Christopherson was recognized by NPR for his submission in the 2018 ...

is an American singer-songwriter. He won the 2019

Tiny Desk Contest Tiny Desk Concerts is a video series of live concerts hosted by NPR Music at the desk of ''All Songs Considered'' host Bob Boilen in Washington, D.C. The first Tiny Desk Concert came about in 2008 after Boilen and NPR Music editor Stephen Th ...

with his entry "Erase Me," a song exploring his experience coming out as a transgender man. * John Sackett served in the

Alaska House of Representatives The Alaska State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. The House is composed of 40 members, each of whom represents a district of approximately 17,756 people per ...

from 1967 to 1971 and in the

Alaska Senate The Alaska State Senate is the upper house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. It convenes in the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau, Alaska and is responsible for making laws and confirming or rejecting gu ...

from 1973 to 1987. * Michael J. Stickman, First Chief of the Nuwato Tribal Council *

Siobhan Wescott Siobhan Wescott is an American educator who is Professor of American Indian Health at the Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health. She was previously Director of the Indians into Medicine program at the University of North Dakota, where ...

, physician and public health advocate; she has served as Director of the American Indian Health Program and is a Professor of American Indian Health at the University of Nebraska.

References

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Life and culture

Notable Alaskan Athabascans

See also

References