A forest-dwelling culture of hunters and trappers, originally from the American North West (Alaska & Canada). A nomadic people, they filtered down into the deserts and southern prairies of North America many centuries ago. Athapaskans were the ancestors of the Navajos and Apaches.
Found on http://www.digitalstroud.co.uk/glossary.php?glossgroup=W-Z
The Athapaskans (Dena) are a tribe of Indians living along the Yukon and Koyukuk rivers in central-north Alaska since at least 1300 BC, when they are thought to have settled, coming from wandering Asian tribes. They are hunters, trappers and fishermen, typical of aboriginal people they live in harmony with the land and the animals and plants with w... Found on http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/browse/CXAA.HTM
or Athabascan. a grouping (or family) of Native American languages within the NaDene Phylum . Athapaskan speakers were originally distributed from the arctic to the American southwest and as far west coastal California. The principal Athapaskans in Maitoba at contact were the Chipewyan who occupied the extreme north of the province. Found on http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/manarchnet/appendices/g
[n] - a member of any of the North American Indian groups speaking an Athapaskan language and living in the subarctic regions of western Canada and central Alaska 2. [n] - a group of Amerindian languages (the name coined by an American anthropologist, Edward Sapir) Found on http://www.webdictionary.co.uk/definition.php?query=Athapaskan