The
Dena'ina ( ; own name: in the Inland dialect [dənʌʔɪnʌ], in the Upper Inlet dialect [dənʌ͡ɪnʌ]) 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 Dena’ina homeland (
Dena’ina Ełnena) 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. Dena'ina culture is an
hunter-gatherer culture and have a
matrilineal system. The
Iditarod Trail's antecedents were the native trails of the Dena'ina and
Deg Hit'an Athabaskan Indians and the
Inupiaq Eskimos.