Dane-zaa
indigenous people of North America
The Dane-zaa (ᑕᓀᖚ, also spelled Dunne-za, or Tsattine) are an Athabaskan-speaking group of First Nations people. Their traditional territory is around the Peace River in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. Today, about 1,600 Dane-zaa reside in British Columbia and 270 of them speak the Dane-zaa language. Approximately 770 Dane-zaa live in Alberta.
Europeans historically referred to the Dane-zaa as the Beaver.
Name
The name Dunne-za has been translated to "Those who live among the beaver." The spelling Dane-zaa is typically used for "the Real People." That spelling is used by the Dane-zaa Language Authority. Different tribes and First Nations use different spellings. For example, the Doig River First Nation (DRFN) and Halfway River First Nation (HRFN) use Dane-Zaa. Prophet River First Nation (PRFN) uses Dene Tsaa; and the West Moberly First Nations (WMFNs) use Dunne-za or Dunne Za. Where other spellings are used in citations, such as Dunne-Za (e.g., Ridington 1988), they are kept intact and are synonymous with Dane-zaa.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1028277. The Library of Congress control number is sh85138313. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dane-zaa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.