Tanana /ˈtænənɑː/ (Hohudodetlaatl Denh in Koyukon) is a city in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska.

Almost 80% of the town's population are Native Americans, traditionally Koyukon (Denaakk'e) speakers of the large Athabaskan (Dené) language family.

[6] Prior to arrival of colonizers in early 1860, the point of land at the confluence of the Tanana and Yukon Rivers (Nuchalawoyyet, spelled differently in historic accounts) was a traditional meeting and trading place used by members of several indigenous groups.

Noukelakayet Station, later known as Fort Adams, was located on the north bank of the Yukon, about 15 miles downstream from the mouth of the Tanana River.

Ft. Gibbon's purpose was to oversee shipping and trading, maintain civil order, and install and take care of telegraph lines connecting to Nome and to Tanana Crossing, on the way to Valdez.

All other Euro-American activities in the area near the Tanana-Yukon confluence moved upriver to accommodate Ft. Gibbon and the increased steamboat traffic caused by gold seekers.

St. James Church moved to the present site of Tanana to serve the Euro-American population, and the Mission of Our Savior was constructed at the bottom of a hill opposite the confluence.

During World War II Tanana's airfield was one of the stops for aircraft en route to Russia as part of the Lend-Lease program.

Postwar, a White Alice communications site was built on a hill nine miles behind Tanana, as a part of the Cold War Era's Distant Early Warning system (DEW-Line).

[13] Tanana first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as the unincorporated Tinneh village and trading post of "Nuklukaiet.

[19] The census of 1890 also reported "Upper Tanana River Settlements", which featured 203 residents (all native).

Adjacent to Tanana on the west side was the military installation of Fort Gibbon, which reported 181 residents in 1920.

[21] The last twelve miles of road is private property owned by the village corporation Tozitna Limited.