Holikachuk (also Innoko, Organized Village of Grayling, Innoka-khotana, Tlëgon-khotana) are a Yupikized Alaska Native Athabaskan people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group to western Alaska. Their native territory includes the area surrounding the middle and upper Innoko River. Later in 1963 they moved to Grayling on the Yukon River.

Holikachuk
(Doogh Hit’an)
Holikachuk-speaking area: Nr.6
Total population
180[1]
Regions with significant populations
United States (Alaska)
Languages
Holikachuk, American English (Alaskan variant)
Religion
Shamanism ~ Animism (largely ex), Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Other Alaskan Athabaskans
Especially Deg Xitʼan and Koyukon

The Holikachuk call themselves Doogh Hit’an (IPA: [toʁhətʼan]). The name Holikachuk is derived from the name (in the Holikachuk language) of a village in native Holikachuk territory.

The Holikachuk have been neglected by anthropologists, resulting in little documentation (both published and unpublished). In the past they have erroneously (or out of convenience) been grouped with the Koyukon.

The peoples neighboring the Holikachuk are in the north the Yup'ik and Koyukon, in the east the Koyukon, in the south the Upper Kuskokwim people, and in the west the Deg Hit'an.

Holikachuk culture is a relative to the Deg Hit'an culture.

References

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Further reading

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  • Snow, Jeanne H. (1981). Ingalik. In Subarctic (pp. 602–617). Handbook of North American Indians (W. C. Sturtevant, General Ed.) (Vol. 6). Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution.
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