[4] Jules Jetté, a French Canadian Jesuit missionary, began recording the language and culture of the Koyukon people in 1898.

The Koyukon Athabaskan Dictionary is unusually comprehensive in terms of documentation of an American indigenous language, in part because Jetté's notes were of excellent quality and depth.

The use of the word, "Dictionary", in the title is perhaps misleading; the book is more similar to an encyclopedia, as it also is a record of the culture and traditions of the Koyukon people.

[5] In 2012, Susan Pavskan reported: On Thursday evenings Denaakk'e (Koyukon Athabascan) classes are held at Yukon-Koyukuk School District offices in Fairbanks and Huslia.

Sounds are given in IPA with the orthographic equivalent in angled brackets:[7] Plosives and affricates, other than the labial b and the glottal ', distinguish plain, aspirated and ejective forms.