Hoonah

Hoonah (Tlingit: Xunaa or Gaaw Yat’aḵ Aan) is a largely Tlingit community on Chichagof Island, located in Alaska's panhandle in the southeast region of the state. It is 30 miles (48 km) west of Juneau, across the Alaskan Inside Passage. Hoonah is the only first-class city on Chichagof Island, the 109th-largest island in the world and the 5th-largest island in the U.S. At the 2020 census the population was 931, up from 760 in 2010. In the summer the population can swell to over 1,300 depending on fishing, boating, hiking and hunting conditions.

"Hoonah" became the official spelling in 1901, with establishment of the Hoonah branch of the United States Post Office. "Hoonah" is the approximate pronunciation of the Tlingit name Xunaa, which means “lee of the north wind”, i.e., protected from the north wind.