Deg Xitʼan
Deg Hitʼan (also Deg Xitʼan, Deg Hitan, Degexitʼan, Kaiyuhkhotana, ) is a group of Athabaskan peoples in Alaska. Their native language is called Deg Xinag. They reside in Alaska along the Anvik River in Anvik, along the Innoko River in Shageluk, and at Holy Cross along the lower Yukon River. The Deg Hitʼan are members of the federally recognized Alaska Native tribes of Anvik Village, Shageluk Native Village, and Holy Cross Village. The Iditarod Trail's antecedents were the native trails of the Dena'ina and Deg Hitʼan Athabaskan Indians and the Inupiaq Eskimos. Their neighbors are other Athabaskan-speaking  and Yupik Eskimo peoples: Yup'ik (west and south), Holikachuk (north), Upper Kuskokwim (north and east), and Dena'ina (south). Name. The autonyms used by this group of Athabaskan people are: Deg Xitʼan (local people) and Deg Xinag (local language). Sometimes the "Deg Xitʼan" or "Deg Hitʼan" is used for the language in English. Deg Hitʼan rather than Deg Xitʼan is a somewhat unfortunate spelling choice. There is no contrast between /χ/ and /h/ in the verb prefixes of Deg Xinag, and acoustic evidence indicates that the normative pronunciation in that context is [χ] rather than [h]. The most common older name  is Ingalik (from Yup'ik "Ingqiliq" «traditionally Athabaskan; now also any other Indian», literally «having louse's eggs» < "ingqiq" «nit, louse nit, egg of louse» + a postbase "-liq" «one who is V; one who Vs; one having V; one similar to N») and its derivatives are offensive to the Deg Hitʼan. In the old literature, the name "Anvik-Shageluk Ingalik" (also "Kuskokwim Ingalik" and "Yukon Ingalik") is used for Deg Hitʼan, and the name "McGrath Ingalik" is used for Upper Kuskokwim people.