Koyukon

[ koi-yoo-kon, kah- ]

noun

1. a member of a North American Indian people living in the Yukon River valley in west-central Alaska.
2. the Athabascan language of the Koyukon.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Koyukon¹

Respelling, after the Koyukuk and Yukon Rivers, of earlier Co-Youkon, from Russian kuyukantsy (plural), derivative of Kuyukak “the Koyukuk River,” ultimately derived from Inupiaq kuiyuk

Example Sentences

The weeklong Koyukon Athabascan burial ceremony in September was traditional in all ways but one: McCormick died in 1931.

From Seattle Times

The games all have origins in Native villages and go beyond living memory, explains Kalloch, who is of Koyukon Dena and Creole descent.

From BBC

That name, meaning “the great one” or “the high one” in the Alaska Native language Koyukon, pays tribute to the state’s Indigenous population.

From New York Times

Denali, the mountain’s federally recognized name since 2015, is a Koyukon word that meaning “the tall one” that has been in use for 10,000 to 12,000 years by many Athabascan peoples, an Alaska Native group.

From Scientific American

The Interior Department said in a statement that the road proposal — which includes about 50 miles of Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service land — would cross the traditional homelands of Alaska Native communities including the Koyukon, Tanana Athabascans and Iñupiat peoples.

From Washington Post