Athabascan
From NativeWiki
Athabaskan or Athabascan (also Athapascan or Athapaskan) is the name of a large group of closely related Native American peoples, also known as the Athabasca Indians or Athapaskes, located in two main Southern and Northern groups in western North America, and of their language family. The Athabaskan family is the second largest family in North America in terms of number of languages and the number of speakers, following the Uto-Aztecan family which extends into Mexico. In terms of territory, only the Algic language family covers a larger area.
The word Athabaskan is an anglicized version of the Woods Cree name for Lake Athabasca (aðapaskāw, “[where] there are plants one after another”) in Canada.<ref>Bright, William (2004). Native American Place Names of the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, pg. 52</ref> The name was assigned by Albert Gallatin in his 1836 (written 1826) classification of the languages of North America. He acknowledged that the name for these related languages was entirely his own individual preference, writing:
- "I have designated them by the arbitrary denomination of Athabascas, which derived from the original name of the lake." (1836:116-7)
