Athapascan

British  

/ ˌæθəˈpæskən, ˌæθəˈbæskən /

noun

1. a group of North American Indian languages belonging to the Na-Dene phylum, including Apache and Navaho

2. a speaker of one of these languages

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Etymology

Origin of Athapascan

from Cree athapaskaaw scattered grass or reeds

Example Sentences

Savage and most of the smart money favored George Attla, a lame, one-eyed Athapascan Indian from Fairbanks, Alaska.

From Time Magazine Archive

This Athapascan Indian points to her childhood in the small village of Rampart and her success in the state legislature as examples of her experience with Alaska's varied cultures.

From Time Magazine Archive

Only in two places do the Indians of the Athapascan family intrude upon Eskimo territory, about Cook’s Inlet, and at the mouth of Copper River.

From Indian Linguistic Families Of America, North Of Mexico Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 1-142 by Powell, John Wesley

North and west from the Algonquins and Huron-Iroquois were the family of tribes belonging to the Athapascan stock.

From The Dawn of Canadian History : A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada by Langton, H. H. (Hugh Hornby)

The Athapascan stock in all probability has moved southward, sending one arm down the Pacific coast, and a larger body presumably through the Plains which reached as far as northern Mexico.

From Man, Past and Present by Haddon, Alfred Court