Editing Tanacross language (section)

== Overview ==
The word Tanacross (from "[[Tanana Athabaskans|Tanana]] Crossing") has been used to refer both to a village in eastern Alaska and to an [[ethnolinguistic]] group. The modern village of [[Tanacross, Alaska|Tanacross]] is accessible by a short access road from the [[Alaska Highway]], and some speakers now reside in the regional center of [[Tok, Alaska|Tok]], located approximately ten miles east of the village on the highway. In addition several speakers now reside in the nearest commercial center of [[Fairbanks, Alaska|Fairbanks]], located two hundred miles downstream from Tanacross village and accessible by all-weather highway.

[[Image:tanacross-map.png|frame|Location of Tanacross language area]]
Tanacross is the ancestral language of the Mansfield-Kechumstuk and [[Healy Lake, Alaska|Healy Lake]]-Joseph Village bands of [[Tanana Athabaskans|Tanana Athabaskan]] people, whose ancestral territory encompassed an area bounded by the [[Goodpaster River]] to the west, the [[Alaska Range]] to the south, the [[Fortymile River|Fortymile]] and [[Tok River|Tok]] rivers to the east, and the [[Yukon]] [[Upland (geology)|Uplands]] to the north.

In the late nineteenth century [[trading post]]s were established at [[Tanana Crossing]], a [[Ford (crossing)|ford]] along the [[Eagle Trail]], directly across the [[Tanana River]] from the present-day village of Tanacross. A telegraph station followed in 1902, and an Episcopal mission in 1909. Both the Mansfield-Kechumstuk and Healy Lake-Joseph Village bands eventually settled in Tanana Crossing, eventually shortened to Tanacross (McKennan 1959). The village was relocated across the river to its present location in the early 1970s, and most present-day Tanacross speakers live in or near the village of Tanacross.