Mythologies of the Deg Hit'an Tribe


Deg Hitʼan (Degexit'an pronunciation: [tek χitʼan]) (also Deg Xitʼan, Deg Hitan, Degexitʼan, Kaiyuhkhotana[pronunciation?], Russian: Дег-хитан) is a group of Athabaskan peoples in Alaska. Their native language is called Deg Xinag. They reside in Alaska along the Anvik River in Anvik, along the Innoko River in Shageluk, and at Holy Cross along the lower Yukon River. The Deg Hitʼan are members of the federally recognized Alaska Native tribes of Anvik Village, Shageluk Native Village, and Holy Cross Village. The Iditarod Trail's antecedents were the native trails of the Dena'ina and Deg Hitʼan Athabaskan Indians and the Inupiaq Eskimos. Their neighbors are other Athabaskan-speaking and Yupik Eskimo peoples: Yup'ik (west an  south), Holikachuk (north), Upper Kuskokwim (north and east), and Dena'ina (south). The autonyms used by this group of Athabaskan people are: Deg Xitʼan (local people) and Deg Xinag (local language). Sometimes the Deg Xitʼan or Deg Hitʼan is used for the language in English. There is no contrast between /χ/ and /h/ in the verb prefixes of Deg Xinag, and acoustic evidence indicates that the normative pronunciation in that context is [χ] rather than [h].[The most common older name is Ingalik (from Yup'ik Ingqiliq «traditionally Athabaskan; now also any other Indian», literally «having louse's eggs» < ingqiq «nit, louse nit, egg of louse» + a postbase -liq «one who is V; one who Vs; one having V; one similar to N» and its derivatives are offensive to the Deg Hitʼan. In the old literature, the name Anvik-Shageluk Ingalik (also Kuskokwim Ingalik and Yukon Ingalik) is used for Deg Hitʼan, and the name McGrath Ingalik is used for Upper Kuskokwim people.


Deg Hit'an is pronounced similar to "degg-heet-an." This means "people from here" in their native language. You will also see it spelled many other ways, such as Deg Hitan, Deg Xit'an, or Degexit'an. Since the Athabaskan languages were traditionally unwritten, the spellings of Athabaskan words in English sometimes vary a lot. The Deg Hit'an have also frequently been known as the Ingalik Indians, which is their name in the language of their Inuit neighbors. Some Deg Hit'an people still call themselves Ingaliks, but others do not like this name. Deg Hit'ans in the United States do not have reservations. Like most Alaska Natives, they live in Native villages instead. The three Deg Hit'an Native villages are independent from one another, but they have joined two coalitions, Doyon Limited and the Tanana Chiefs Conference, to handle tribal government and land management on behalf of Koyukon villages. In the past, each Deg Hit'an village was governed by a headman, or village chief. The headman was always male, and was chosen by clan leaders, usually on the basis of his leadership skills or medicine power and his family's prestige. Today, Deg Hit'an villages are governed by tribal councils. Councilmembers are elected and can be either male or female. Deg Hit'an people speak English today, but some Deg Hit'ans, especially elders, also speak their native Deg Xinag language. Deg Xinag is a complicated language with many sounds that don't exist in English. If you'd like to know an easy Deg Xinag word, "dogedinh'" (sounds similar to doh-ge-deen) is a friendly greeting in Degexitan. 


Deg Xinag (Deg Hitʼan) is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken by the Deg Hitʼan peoples of the GASH region. The GASH region consists of the villages of Grayling, Anvik, Shageluk, and Holy Cross along the lower Yukon River in Interior Alaska. The language is severely endangered; out of an ethnic population of approximately 250 people, only 2 people still speak the language. The language was referred to as Ingalik by Osgood (1936). While this term sometimes still appears in the literature, it is today considered pejorative. The word "Ingalik" is from the Yupʼik Eskimo language: Ingqiliq, meaning "Indian". Engithidong Xugixudhoy (Their Stories of Long Ago), a collection of traditional folk tales in Deg Xinag by the elder Belle Deacon, was published in 1987 by the Alaska Native Language Center. A literacy manual with accompanying audiotapes was published in 1993. There are two main dialects: Yukon and Kuskokwim. The Yukon dialect (Yukon Deg Xinag, Yukon Ingalik) is the traditional language of the villages of the Lower Yukon River (Anvik, Shageluk and Holy Cross). As of 2009, there are no longer any speakers living in Anvik and Holy Cross. The other dialect (Kuskokwim Deg Xinag, Kuskokwim Ingalik) is the traditional language of the settlements of Middle Kuskokwim.


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