The Dena'ina are an Alaska Native people, an extended tribe of American Indian

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 lineage. They are the original inhabitants of the southcentral Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

 region ranging from Seldovia

Seldovia, Alaska

Seldovia is a city in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, United States. The population was 286 at the 2000 census. There is no road system connecting the town to other communities, so planes and boats are used for transportation....

 in the south to Chickaloon

Chickaloon, Alaska

Chickaloon is a census-designated place in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States. It is part of the Anchorage, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area...

 in the northeast, Talkeetna

Talkeetna, Alaska

Talkeetna is a census-designated place in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States. It is part of the Anchorage, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2000 census the population was 772.-Geography:...

 in the north, Lime Village

Lime Village, Alaska

Lime Village is a census-designated place in Bethel Census Area, Alaska, United States. The 2000 census found a population of six.In July 2008, Lime Village gained notoriety when it was reported that their gasoline prices were more than double of the already-high national average of over $4/gallon...

 in the Northwest and Pedro Bay

Pedro Bay, Alaska

Pedro Bay is a census-designated place in Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska, United States. The population was 50 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Pedro Bay is located at ....

 in the Southwest.

The name means "The people," and is related to the preferred name for the Navajo people "Dene". The Dena'ina name for Cook Inlet is Tikahtnu meaning "Big Water River" or Nuti meaning "Saltwater." The Dena'ina are the only Northern Athabascan group to live on saltwater and this allowed them to have the most sedentary lifestyle of all Northern Athabascans.
Their traditional language, Dena'ina, currently has about 70-75 fluent speakers out of a total population of about 1,400. Dena'ina is one of eleven Alaska Athabascan languages. There are four primary dialects of Dena'ina: Inland, Iliamna, Upper Inlet, and Outer Inlet.

The city of Anchorage

Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...

 chose to honor the Dena’ina by naming the city's new convention center the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center.