Denaʼina


The Denaʼina, or formerly Tanaina, are an Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. They are the original inhabitants of the south central Alaska region ranging from Seldovia in the south to Chickaloon in the northeast, Talkeetna in the north, Lime Village in the Northwest and Pedro Bay in the Southwest. The Denaʼina homeland is more than 41,000 square miles in area. They arrived in the Southcentral Alaska sometime between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago. They were the only Alaskan Athabaskan group to live on the coast. Denaʼina culture is a hunter-gatherer culture and have a matrilineal system. The Iditarod Trail's antecedents were the native trails of the Denaʼina and Deg Hitʼan Athabaskan Indians and the Inupiaq Eskimos.
Their neighbors are other Athabaskan-speaking and Yupik Eskimo peoples: Deg Hitʼan, Upper Kuskokwim, Koyukon, Lower Tanana, Ahtna, Alutiiq and, and Yup'ik / Yupiaq .

Name

The name means "the people", and is related to the autonym for the Southern Athabaskan Navajo people "Diné." The Denaʼina name for Cook Inlet is Tikahtnu meaning "Big Water River" or Nuti meaning "Saltwater."

Culture

The Denaʼina are the only Northern Athabascan group to live on saltwater and this allowed them to have the most sedentary lifestyle of all Northern Athabascans. The Denaʼina were organized in regional bands or Ht’ana, which were composed of local bands. The regional bands had several villages or qayeh, each containing multi-family dwellings called Nichił. Each Nichił was led by a qeshqa who Russia and American traders and religious referred to as "Chiefs."
Men and women in villages belong to their mother's clan. The clans were grouped into two sides or "moieties." Villagers could only marry outside of their own clan and moiety, maintaining diversity in the gene pool and strength in the village lineage.

Language and bands

Their traditional language, Denaʼina, currently has about 70-75 fluent speakers out of a total population of about 1,400. Denaʼina is one of eleven Alaska Athabascan languages. There are four primary dialects of Denaʼina :
Cook Inlet Tribal Council
Alexander Creek, Incorporated
Calista Corporation
Bristol Bay Native Association
Pedro Bay Corporation
Kuskokwim Corporation
The city of Anchorage chose to honor the Denaʼina by naming the city's new convention center the Denaʼina Civic and Convention Center.

Notable Denaʼina people