Athapascan
Britishnoun
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a group of North American Indian languages belonging to the Na-Dene phylum, including Apache and Navaho
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a speaker of one of these languages
Etymology
Origin of Athapascan
from Cree athapaskaaw scattered grass or reeds
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
Savage and most of the smart money favored George Attla, a lame, one-eyed Athapascan Indian from Fairbanks, Alaska.
From Time Magazine Archive
Only in two places in Alaska do the Athapascan tribes reach the coast—the K’naia-khotana, on Cook’s Inlet, and the Ahtena, 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 John Wesley Powell
The Umpqua language is now placed under the Athapascan family.
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 John Wesley Powell
Merriam deviated from Kroeber very widely in his tribal names for the Athapascan groups.
From The Aboriginal Population of the North Coast of California by Sherburne Friend Cook
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
