Nay'dini'aa Na' Kayax

Chickaloon Native Village (Nay’dini’aa Na’ Kayax) is an Ahtna Dene’ (Athabascan) federally-recognized Tribal government located in southcentral Alaska and governed by the nine-member Chickaloon Village Traditional Council (CVTC).  Chickaloon Native Village's Ahtna name is Nay’dini’aa Na’ Kayax, meaning “the river with two logs across it,” and refers to the river where the most recent ancestral village site was located (now called the Chickaloon River, a tributary of the Matanuska River). Chickaloon Native Village's ancestral territory spans hundreds of miles between Canada and the Upper Cook Inlet of southcentral Alaska.

In 2018, through an American Native Administration Social and Economic Development Strategies grant, CVTC established the CVTC Collections, a formal collections and archives that houses the Ahtna cultural resource materials of Chickaloon Native Village. The CVTC Collections, a part of the Environmental Stewardship Department, is further supported through a Bureau of Indian Affairs grant that allows the Tribe to employ a full-time Museum Specialist who serves as the Tribe's Collections Caretaker (Curator).

The mission that governs the CVTC Collections is to collect, preserve, and interpret materials which elucidate the cultural heritage of Chickaloon Native Village and utilize those materials to inspire and create culturally relevant and sensitive events, publications and learning resources for the community.