Dena'ina Homeland
The Anchorage Museum sits on the traditional homeland of the Eklutna Dena'ina. The museum is committed to recognizing and celebrating the culture and language of the Dena'ina people. View the resolution of the Anchorage Assembly designating language for an official land acknowledgement statement to recognize and honor the traditional lands of the Dena’ina Athabascans.
Dena’ina Land/People/Culture
Identity. Landscape. Tradition. Resilience.
About half of Alaska’s residents live in traditional Dena’ina territory but most have little general knowledge about the indigenous people who have called Southcentral Alaska home for more than 1,000 years. Since the late 19th century, the Dena’ina homeland has been subject to the greatest settlement, urbanization and population growth of any Alaska region.
The depth of the Dena’ina presence on ancestral lands reflects an early history and culture of a people who have experienced intense change during the past 150 years, thriving through innovation and adaptation. The deepest levels of Dena’ina identity remain: ancestry and family, landscape and tradition, stories and language, and the reciprocal and respectful relationship between the Dena’ina and the natural world.
The Dena’ina language has been spoken in southcentral Alaska for at least the last 1000 years. Dena’ina, like all Indigenous languages of Alaska, was communicated orally until an alphabet was developed in the 1970s. Since then, many Dena’ina elders from the four Dena’ina dialects have worked closely with linguists to record the language for the future.
Visit the first major exhibition ever presented about the Dena’ina Athabascan people: Dena’inaq’ Huch’ulyeshi: The Dena’ina Way of Living.
