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.