Alaskan Athabaskans

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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).

{{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).{{Cite web|url=https://www.aaanativearts.com/alaskan-natives/athabascan.htm|title=athabascan indians|website=www.aaanativearts.com}}

The Athabascan people hold potlatches 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.{{Cite book|title=A dogs history of America|author=Derr, Mark |year=2004|publisher=North Point Press}} p. 12

Athabascans are descended from Asian hunter-gatherers, likely originally native to Mongolia, who crossed the Bering Strait and settled in North America.{{cite book |last1=Stockel |first1=Henrietta |title=Salvation Through Slavery: Chiricahua Apaches and Priests on the Spanish Colonial Frontier |date=15 September 2022 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=978-0-8263-4327-7 |language=en |quote=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.}}

File:210 gwichin hunter summerclothing.jpg

• George Attla (1933–2015) was a champion sprint dog musher.{{Cite news |last=Bragg |first=Beth |date=15 February 2015 |title=Famed Alaska musher George Attla dead at 81 |url=https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/famed-alaska-musher-attla-dead-81/2015/02/16/ |access-date=5 February 2025 |work=Anchorage Daily News}}
• Emil Notti, an American engineer, indigenous activist and democratic politician. Key in the development of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.{{Cite news |last=Rockey |first=Tim |date=7 November 2021 |title=ANCSA leader Notti inducted into Native American Hall of Fame |url=https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2021/11/08/ancsa-leader-notti-inducted-into-native-american-hall-fame/ |access-date=5 February 2025 |work=Alaska's News Source}}
• 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.{{Cite news |last=Cornish |first=Audie |last2=O'Connor |first2=Gabe |date=16 May 2019 |title=Meet Quinn Christopherson, Winner Of The 2019 Tiny Desk Contest |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2019/05/16/723554077/meet-quinn-christopherson-winner-of-the-2019-tiny-desk-contest |access-date=5 February 2025 |work=NPR - All Things Considered}}
• John Sackett (1944–2021) served in the Alaska House of Representatives from 1967 to 1971 and in the Alaska Senate from 1973 to 1987.{{Cite news |last=Sullivan |first=Meghan |date=8 March 2021 |title=John C. Sackett: Champion of rural Alaska |url=https://ictnews.org/obituaries/john-c-sackett-champion-of-rural-alaska |access-date=5 February 2025 |work=ICT News}}
• Michael J. Stickman, First Chief of the Nulato Tribal Council.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}
• 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.{{Cite news |last=Keenan |first=John |date=15 July 2021 |title=Siobhan Wescott, MD, named LaFlesche Professor |url=https://www.unmc.edu/newsroom/2021/07/15/siobhan-wescott-md-named-laflesche-professor/ |access-date=5 February 2025 |work=University of Nebraska Medical Center}}
• Poldine Carlo{{Cite news |last=Bohman |first=Amanda |date=18 June 2017 |title=Athabascan elder reflects on her 96 years |url=https://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/athabascan-elder-reflects-on-her-96-years/article_cf1ccc4a-54c4-11e7-935b-f306dbcf59f8.html |access-date=5 February 2025 |work=Fairbanks Daily News-Miner}}
• Kathleen Carlo-Kendall, sculptor {{Cite web |date=2018 |title=Kathleen Carlo Kendall |url=https://www.nativeartsandcultures.org/kathleen-carlo-kendall |access-date=5 February 2025 |website=Native Arts & Cultures Foundation}}
• Peter Kalifornsky, author and oral storyteller {{Cite web |date=2014-01-30 |title=From the First Beginning, When the Animals Were Talking |url=https://artistsproofeditions.com/from-the-first-beginning/ |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=Artist’s Proof Editions |language=en-US}}
• Mary TallMountain, poet {{Cite journal |last=Welford |first=Gabrielle |date=1997 |title=Reflections on Mary TallMountain's Life and Writing: Facing Mirrors |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20739399 |journal=Studies in American Indian Literatures |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=61–68}}
• F. Kay Wallis (born {{Circa|1944}}), traditional healer and member of Alaska House of Representatives{{Cite news |last=McBride |first=Rhonda |date=25 November 2022 |title=Giving thanks in 3 Alaska Native languages |url=https://www.ktoo.org/2022/11/25/giving-thanks-in-3-alaska-native-languages/ |access-date=5 February 2025 |work=KTOO Public Media}}{{Cite news |last=Lowen |first=Sara |date=16 June 1988 |title=Bones of Contention |url=https://chicagoreader.com/news/bones-of-contention/ |access-date=5 February 2025 |work=Chicago Reader}}

• 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

{{Reflist}}

{{Indigenous peoples of Alaska}}

{{Authority control}}