we are Dena, original people; hardy Mongol blood runs in the veins of our ancestors. The icy north, Canada, Alaska, became our home for countless thousands of years until a fiery mountain destroyed our lands, poisoned our food, elk, deer, caribou, many fish in the lakes and rivers. All around, sickened or died from starvation, blindness, poison rain; Dena began a long journey in search of food, shelter; a better life. For over five hundred years, and through many of our generations, we walked south; leaving Canada, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Utah, Colorado, finally into New Mexico. Dena stopped for a generation, mined obsidian in Idaho. Other generations painted rock art in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota, but eventually kept migrating, looking for home.

        We found our future southern children hungry in times of famine and drought; as hunters, we fed and clothed them. In time we intermingled, Apache adorned their shields with our castle rock shield art, Navajo used it to paint in Dinetah, their traditional homeland. We are diverse, we are traditional; Apacheans both Apache and Navajo speak several words of a tongue known only to Athabascan peoples of the far north, two thousand miles away. 



        We are Athabascan, Inuit, Aleut, and Dena, we are Apachean, Navajo using the land of Dinetah, and Apache who roamed the land in freedom. We are the original people.