Alaskan Athabaskans

Athabaskan-speaking Alaska Native group

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Ethnic group

Alaskan Athabascans

Former Gwichʼin grand chief Clarence Alexander in 2004

Total population
6,400[1]
Regions with significant populations
Alaska
Languages
Northern Athabaskan languages, American English (Alaskan variant), Russian (historically)
Religion
Shamanism (largely ex), Christianity

The Alaskan Athabascans,[2][3][4][5][6][7] Alaskan Athapascans[8] or Dena[9] (Russian: атабаски Аляски, атапаски Аляски)[10] are Alaska Native peoples of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. They are the original inhabitants of the interior of Alaska.[citation needed]

Formerly they identified as a people by the word Tinneh (nowadays Dena; cf. Dene for Canadian Athabaskans). Taken from their own language, it means simply "men" or "people".[11]

## Subgroups

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In Alaska, where they are the oldest, there are eleven groups identified by the languages they speak. These are:

* Dena’ina or Tanaina (Ht’ana)
* Ahtna or Copper River Athabascan (Hwt’aene)
* Deg Hit’an or Ingalik (Hitʼan)
* Holikachuk (Hitʼan)
* Koyukon (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)
* Hän (Hwëch’in).

## Life and culture

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See also: Shamanism among Alaska Natives

The Alaskan Athabascan culture is an inland creek and river fishing (also coastal fishing by only Dena'ina of Cook Inlet) and hunter-gatherer culture. The Alaskan Athabascans have a matrilineal system in which children belong to the mother's clan, with the exception of the Yupikized Athabaskans (Holikachuk and Deg Hit'an).[12]

The Athabascan people hold potlatches which have religious, social and economic significance.[8]

Dogs were their only domesticated animal, but were and are an integral element in their culture for the Athabascan population in North America.[13]

## History

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Athabascans are descended from Asian hunter-gatherers, likely originally native to Mongolia, who crossed the Bering Strait and settled in North America.[14]

## Notable Alaskan Athabascans

[edit]

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1847 illustration of Gwich'in hunters

* George Attla (1933–2015) was a champion sprint dog musher.
* Emil Notti, an American engineer, indigenous activist and democratic politician. Key in the development of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
* Quinn Christopherson is an American singer-songwriter. He won the 2019 Tiny Desk Contest with his entry "Erase Me," a song describing his experience with male privilege and erasure as a transgender man.
* John Sackett (1944–2021) served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1967 to 1971 and in the Alaska Senate from 1973 to 1987.
* Michael J. Stickman, First Chief of the Nulato Tribal Council.
* Siobhan Wescott, 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.
* Poldine Carlo
* Kathleen Carlo-Kendall
* Peter Kalifornsky
* Mary TallMountain
* F. Kay Wallis (born c. 1944), traditional healer and politician

## See also

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* Tanana Chiefs Conference (all Alaskan Athabaskans' [excl. Ahtna and Dena'ina] a territorial-level organization)
* Doyon, Limited
* Alaska Native Language Center
* Alaska Federation of Natives
* Indian ice cream (Alaska)
* Athabascan fiddle

## References

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1. ^ "Athabascans of Interior Alaska". www.ankn.uaf.edu.
2. ^ "Athabascans of Interior Alaska". www.ankn.uaf.edu.
3. ^ "Appendix E: Race Code List" (PDF).
4. ^ "South Dakota Department of Education, Race/Ethnicity Guidance, Race Identification" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-06-23. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
5. ^ "athabascan". www.aa.tufs.ac.jp.
6. ^ "Alaska's Heritage: Alaskan Athabascans". Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
7. ^ Susan W. Fair (2006). Alaska Native Art: Tradition, Innovation, Continuity
8. ^ a b William Simeone, A History of Alaskan Athapaskans, 1982, Alaska Historical Commission
9. ^ "

- Dena Languages 

--". anlorg.
10. ^ Дзенискевич Г. И. Атапаски Аляски. — Л.: «Наука», Ленинградское отд., 1987
11. ^ U.S. Government Printing Office (1900), Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey to the Secretary of the Interior
12. ^ "athabascan indians". www.aaanativearts.com.
13. ^ Derr, Mark (2004). A dogs history of America. North Point Press. p. 12
14. ^ Stockel, Henrietta (15 September 2022). Salvation Through Slavery: Chiricahua Apaches and Priests on the Spanish Colonial Frontier. University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-4327-7. "These words do not explain why the Athapaskans initially left their home somewhere in Asia, probably Mongolia, to settle in cold country just south of the Arctic Circle."

* v
* t
* e

Indigenous peoples of Alaska (Tribal entities)

Athabaskans|

* Ahtna
* Deg Hitʼan
* Denaʼina
* Gwichʼin
* Hän
* Holikachuk
* Koyukon
* Tanana
* Upper Kuskokwim

Eskimo|

* Iñupiat
* Yupik
* Alutiiq–Sugpiaq
* Chugach
* Central Alaskan
* Siberian

Other|

* Aleut
* Eyak
* Haida
* Tlingit
* Tsimshian

Authority control databases: National |

* United States
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* Israel

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