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]

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

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

edit

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

Life and culture

edit

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

edit

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
 
1847 illustration of Gwich'in hunters

See also

edit

References

edit
  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.