Hoonah (Xunaa in Tlingit) is a largely Tlingit community on Chichagof Island, located in Alaska's panhandle in the southeast region of the state. It is 30 miles west of Juneau, across the Alaskan Inside Passage. Hoonah is the only first-class city on Chichagof Island, the 109th largest island in the world and the 5th largest island in the United States. At the 2000 census the population was 860, though summer population can swell to over 1,300 depending on fishing, boating, hiking and hunting conditions. Hoonah became the official spelling in 1901, with establishment of the Hoonah branch of the United States Post Office. Xunaa means "protected from the North Wind" in the Tlingit language.