Cook Inlet Villages

Dena'ina Athabascans primarily inhabit the villages within the region - Caswell, Gold Creek, Kenai, Knik, Montana Creek, Point Possession, Salamatof and Tyonek. The people of Alexander Creek are of Yup'ik descent and moved into the former Dena'ina village in the 1930s. The people of Chickaloon are a mixture of Ahtna and Dena'ina Athabascan, and the people of Ninilchik and Seldovia have ancestors of Aleut and Alutiiq descent, as well as some Dena'ina.

The Dena'ina are the only Athabascan group who lived near saltwater. Consequently, they utilized the marine resources of the region and adapted much of the marine technology of their neighbors and, in former times, sworn enemies, the Chugach Alutiiq.

* Names from Shem Pete's Alaska, by James Kari and James A. Fall; principal contributor, Shem Pete; and A Dena'ina Legacy, by Peter Kalifornsky and edited by James Kari and Alan Boraas