Ahtna

The Ahtna, or Copper River people, are an Alaska Native Athabaskan people whose homeland, Atna Nenn', covers the Copper River basin of southern Alaska from its Gulf of Alaska mouth to the Wrangell and Alaska ranges. Their ancestors lived in the upper Susitna country from about 5000 BC, and around the first century AD moved into the Wrangell Mountains and Chitina valley.

Four dialect divisions and eight bands grew up along the river. These Subarctic hunter-gatherers lived on salmon, caribou and mountain game. They traded copper, furs and mountain products with neighbours including the Dena'ina to the west, Eyak on the coast and Tlingit to the southeast.

They were formidable guardians of their valley: Russian traders reaching the Copper River mouth in 1781 were repeatedly driven back, and a Russian post at the Copper and Chitina confluence in 1819 was destroyed.