The Dihthâad Xt’een Iin Aanděeg’ (Tanacross) course includes 12 units, with up to six lessons per unit. Through the online course, students will learn how to speak Tanacross conversationally and in culturally relevant ways. It includes an alphabet lesson; conversational videos; practice activities in speaking, listening, reading and writing; information on Tanacross grammar and culture; and more.
The name “Tanacross Athabascan,” Dihthâad Xt’een Iin Aanděeg’ refers to the Dena (Athabascan) language spoken by people living in the upper Tanana valley in the area of present‑day Tanacross village. Tanacross communities include Tok, Taats’altęy (Tanacross), Dihthâad (Mansfield), Tehłuug Ninhdeex Ndiig (Joseph Village), and Saagéscheeg (Kechumstuk).
Irene Solomon Arnold and Rose Benson were early developers of this course; their dedicated efforts created the first drafts of the units and lessons. Additional contributors include Verna Hagen, Jerry Isaac, Chance Shank, Dollie Jonathan, Nellie Probert, and linguistic consultants Siri Tuttle and John Ritter. The team offers special recognition to the late Laura Sanford for her important contributions to the documentation of Tanacross language, as well as Elder Isabelle John.
Additional thanks go to Doyon Foundation staff Allan Diton Hayton, Myles Creed, Deloole’aanh Erickson, Doris Miller and Tiffany Simmons, as well as Transparent Language, 7000 Languages, and Doyon, Limited. This course was funded by the U.S. Department of Education Alaska Native Education Program, grant # S356A170021.
Yamaagh Telch'eegh (Round-the-World Man)
Video Credit: Alaska Native Languages
Tanacross is the ancestral language of the Mansfield-Ketchumstuk and Healy Lake-Joseph Village bands of Athabascan people, whose ancestral territory encompassed an area bounded by the Goodpaster River to the west, the Alaska Range to the south, the Fortymile and Tok Rivers to the east, and the Yukon Uplands to the north.
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