Athabaskan is a language group consisting of the languages spoken by the various Athabaskan (Dene) peoples.

Athabascans are a distinct racial group from Amerinds and came in a separate wave across the Bering Strait thousands of years after the Amerinds. Their languages were from the Na-dene language group, and were unrelated to those of the indigenous people they met here. A Sino-Tibetan link has been postulated.

Today's Navajo and Apache peoples are descendants of Athapaskan hunters migrating from Canada. They reached their current homelands over a period of time from approximately 1580 to 1750.

In northern Canada, you see this word everywhere. We have Athabasca University, Athabasca Falls, the Athabasca River, etc. I never knew what it meant until now.