Athabaskan or
Athabascan (also
Dene,
Athapascan,
Athapaskan) is a large family of
indigenous languages of
North America, located in western North America in three groups of contiguous languages: Northern, Pacific Coast and Southern (or Apachean). Kari and Potter 2010:10 place the total territory of the 53 Athabaskan languages at 1,563,000 mi
2 or 4,022,000 km
2.
Chipewyan is spoken over the largest area of any North American native language.