This is one of a series of handbooks designed to assist classroom teachers, bilingual-bicultural education and special education program staff, counselors, and school administrators in instructional services for students from native Alaskan language groups. The unique sociocultural and linguistic characteristics of Athabaskan language speakers as they relate to the school setting are addressed in this volume. Educational resources such as recommended readings; a listing of school districts enrolling students from this group; and sources of information, materials, and instructional assistance are provided. A prefatory section discusses language study in general, and an overview of Athabaskan languages, with distribution maps, introduces the text. Subsequent sections focus on aspects of Athabaskan languages and culture: historical and sociocultural factors (traditional forms of education, oral literature, present linguistic conditions, and the history of contact with European-American society), linguistic characteristics of Athabaskan and English (word order, verbs, tense and aspect, plurality, gender, sound systems, cultural patterns of communication, and the use of nonstandard English), recommended classroom language instruction strategies, and Athabaskan sound systems. Lists of additional resources and enrollment data are appended. (MSE)