Innovative language revitalization projects are underway to document the language and to enhance the writing and translation skills of younger Gwichʼin speakers. However, according to the UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, Gwichʼin is now a 'severely endangered' language, with fewer than 150 fluent speakers in Alaska and another 250 in northwest Canada. The Old Crow people in the northern Yukon have approximately the same dialect as those bands living in Venetie and Arctic Village, Alaska.Īpproximately 300 Alaskan Gwichʼin speak their language, according to the Alaska Native Language Center. Each village has unique dialect differences, idioms, and expressions. The Gwichʼin language, part of the Athabaskan language family, has two main dialects, eastern and western, which are delineated roughly at the United States-Canada border. Main article: Gwichʼin language A Gwich’in speaker, recorded in Alaska. Dinjii Zhuu literally translates as 'Small People,' but figuratively it refers to all First Nations, not just Gwichʼin. Gwichʼin often refer to themselves by the term Dinjii Zhuu instead of Gwichʼin. Sometimes, these terms may refer (explicitly or implicitly) to particular dialects of the Gwichʼin language (or to the communities that speak them). ' Historically, the French called the Gwichʼin Loucheux ('squinters'), as well as Tukudh or Takudh, a term also used by Anglican missionaries. Their name is sometimes spelled Kutchin or Gwitchin and translates as 'one who dwells' or 'resident of.

Today, the Gwich’in economy consists mostly of hunting, fishing, and seasonal wage-paying employment. They also continue to make traditional caribou-skin clothing and porcupine quillwork embroidery, both of which are highly regarded among Gwichʼin. They are renowned for their intricate and ornate beadwork.

Gwichʼin are well-known for their crafting of snowshoes, birchbark canoes, and the two-way sled. They live in the northwestern part of North America, mostly above the Arctic Circle. The Gwichʼin (or Kutchin) are an Athabaskan-speaking First Nations people of Canada and an Alaska Native people. Former Grand Chief Clarence Alexander, Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award ceremony, Portland, Oregon, 2004

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