Upper Kuskokwim

Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskans
Dichinanek' Hwt'ana

Nr.5 Upper Kuskokwim homeland
Total population
(100)
Regions with significant populations
Alaska, USA
Languages
Upper Kuskokwim language, American English (Alaskan variant)
Religion
Shamanism (largely ex), Christianity

The Upper Kuskokwim people or Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskans, Upper Kuskokwim Athabascans (own native name Dichinanek' Hwt'ana), and historically Kolchan, Goltsan, Tundra Kolosh, and McGrath Ingalik are an Alaskan Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. First delineation of this ethnolinguistic group was described by anthropologist Edward Howard Hosley (who has specialized in the study of Alaskan Athabaskan cultures) in 1968, as Kolchan. According to Hosley, Nevertheless, as a group possessing a history and a culture differing from those of its neighbours, the Kolchan deserve to be recognized as an independent group of Alaskan Athapaskans. They are the original inhabitants of the Upper Kuskokwim River villages of Nikolai, Telida, and McGrath, Alaska. About 25 of a total of 100 Upper Kuskokwim people still speak the language. They speak a distinct Athabaskan language (as Upper Kuskokwim language or Dinak'i) more closely related to Lower Tanana language than to Deg Xinag language (formerly Ingalik), spoken on the middle Kuskokwim. The term used by the Kolchan themselves is Dina'ena (lit. «the people» as Tenaynah by Hosley), but this is too similar to the adjacent Tanana and Tanaina (today Dena'ina) for introduction into the literature. Nowadays, the term used by the Kolchan themselves is Dichinanek' Hwt'ana (lit. «Timber River people»). Their neighbors also knew them by this name. In Tanaina they were Kenaniq' ht'an while the Koyukon people to the north referred to them as Dikinanek Hut'ana. The Upper Kuskokwim Athabaskan culture is an hunter-gatherer culture and have a matrilineal system. They are were semi-nomadic and as living in semi-permanent settlements.