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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]
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 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 |
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]
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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).
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]
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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]
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- 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
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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
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