What is "dena'ina"

The Dena'ina ( ; own name: in the Inland dialect [dənʌʔɪnʌ], in the Upper Inlet dialect [dənʌ͡ɪnʌ]) or formerly Tanaina are an Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. 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 Dena’ina homeland (Dena’ina Ełnena) is more than 41,000 square miles in area. They arrived in the Southcentral Alaska sometime between 1,000 and 1,500 years ago. They were the only Alaskan Athabaskan group to live on the coast. Dena'ina culture is an hunter-gatherer culture and have a matrilineal system. The Iditarod Trail's antecedents were the native trails of the Dena'ina and Deg Hit'an Athabaskan Indians and the Inupiaq Eskimos.

Their neighbors are other Athabaskan-speaking and Yupik Eskimo peoples: Deg Hit'an (northwest), Upper Kuskokwim (central north), Koyukon (northeast), Lower Tanana (a little part of northeast), Ahtna (east), Chugach Sugpiaq (south-southeast), Koniag Alutiiq (south), and Yup'ik (west and southwest).