1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Athapascan

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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 2 Athapascan

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See also Athabaskan languages on Wikipedia, and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.

ATHAPASCAN, a widely distributed linguistic stock of North American Indians, the chief tribes included being the Chippewyan, Navajo, Apache, Jicarilla, Lipan, Hupa and Wailaki. The Athapascan family is geographically divided into Northern, Pacific and Southern. The Northern division (Tinneh or Déné) is about Alaska, and the Yukon and Mackenzie rivers—the epnymous "Athabasca" tribe living round Lake Athabasca, in the province of Alberta in Canada. The Pacific division covers a strip of territory, some 400 m. in length, from Oregon southwest into California. The Southern division includes Arizona and New Mexico, parts of Utah, Colorado, Kansas and Texas, and the northern part of Mexico. The typical tribes are those of the Northern division.

See Handbook of American Indians (Washington, 1907).