Alice E. Brown was a member of the Kenaitze Tribe of Dena'ina peoples, who worked for Native Alaskan rights. She was involved in defending the rights of Alaska Natives and disenfranchised groups in Alaska. She was the only woman to serve on the original Alaska Federation of Natives' Board of Directors and pressed for passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. Brown was posthumously inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2010.

The Denaʼina, or formerly Tanaina, are an Alaska Native Athabaskan people. 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 Denaʼina homeland is more than 41,000 sq mi (110,000 km2) in area. They arrived in the south-central Alaska sometime between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago. They were the only Alaskan Athabaskan group to live on the coast. The Denaʼina have a hunter-gatherer culture and a matrilineal system. The Iditarod Trail's antecedents were the native trails of the Denaʼina and Deg Hitʼan Athabaskan Native Alaskans and the Inupiaq Inuit.