The Ahtna are an Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. The people's homeland called Atna Nenn', is located in the Copper River area of southern Alaska, and the name Ahtna derives from the local name for the Copper River. The total population of Ahtna is estimated at around 1,427.
Chief Stickwan's two daughters holding buckets and carrying burdens on backs with tumplines, Klutina-Copper Center band of Lower Ahtna, 1903
Ahtna women near Copper Center, Alaska
Ahtna family in 1898
Alaska Natives are the Indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Alaskan Creoles, Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a number of Northern Athabaskan cultures. They are often defined by their language groups. Many Alaska Natives are enrolled in federally recognized Alaska Native tribal entities, who in turn belong to 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations, who administer land and financial claims.
Alaska Native dancer performing in Fairbanks
Alaska Native Languages
Yupik mother and child, Nunivak Island, c. 1929; photographed by Edward S. Curtis.
Metlakahtla brass band