Background
According
to southern Yukon tradition Crow created the world and human beings.
In the beginning the whole world was water and Sea Lion owned the
only island. Crow stole Sea Lion's baby and refused to give it back
until he was given some sand which he sprinkled over the water to
create the world. Then, because he was lonely, he carved women and
men from poplar tree bark and breathed life into them.
Archeologists
have another explanation for how and when people came to the Yukon.
They theorize that the first North Americans came to Northern Canda
from Asia across a alnd bridge from Siberia during the Pleistocene
Ice Age between 10,000 qnd 25,000 years ago. This bridge between continents,
estimated to be 2,400 kilometres wide, was created when water taken
up in massive icecaps caused world sea levels to drop.
Parts
of northern Alaska and the yukon remained ice-free during the last
ice age and provided a haven for many animals and humans fleeing from
colder regions. Archeologists suggest early aboriginal inhabitants
of the Yukon hunted wooly mammoths, bison, horses, and caribou. They
lived in small family groups travelling with the animals.
Some
of the earliest evidence of human activity in the New World has been
found in caves on the Bluefish River near Old Crow in the northern
Yukon. Stone tools and animal bones found at this sie may be 20,000
years old.
The cultural
and linguistic tradition to which most Yukon First Nations belong
is more than 1,000 years old. An archeological site near Old Crow
has uneartheda spring caribou hunting site 1,200 years old which has
provided evidence about the culture of early Athapaskans. It is believed
these people lived in small groups and followed a regular cycle of
seaonal activities. They humted caribou, moose and mountain sheep
in spring and fall and spent summers fishing for salmon.
Contact
History
There
were few permanent First Nations settlements in the Yukon until the
turn of the century. However, a number of Indian family groups were
trading furs for tobacco, guns and other European goods by 1825. At
first, the Tlingit acted as intermediaries between Athapaskans and
Russian, American and British traders. By the mid-1800’s, the
Hudson Bay company and independent American traders had set up posts
along major Yukon rivers. Most Yukon First Nations were able to continue
to live their semi-nomadic subsistence lifestyle through this period,
incorporating trapping and trading into their yearly round.
The Klondike
Gold Rush of 1898 had a much more dramatic impact. More than 40,000
outsiders came across the mountain passes and down the Yukon River
to Dawson City. Some First Nations people found work for wages packing
supplies for goldseekers or working as deckhands or woodcutters for
the paddlewheelers that plied the rivers to Dawson but most lived
apart from the non-native newcomers. By 1900, the rush was over and
hunting and trapping again dominated the economics of the First Nations
until the late 1940’s.
The next
flood of outsiders came to build the Alaska Highway in 1942-43. An
estimated 34,000 U.S. army personnel arrived the Yukon in April, 1942
to construct a series of airstrips and a highway to transport war
supplies to Alaska. In the 1950’s paddlewheelers were pulled
from the water and First Nations families that had lived along the
rivers and lakes moved to communities on the highways.
Changes
in hunting and fishing regulations and falling fur prices made it
more difficult to make a living as a hunter and trapper through the
1940s. Family allowances were introduced in the 1950s but were only
available to families whose children attended school. When the federal
Department of Indian and Northern Affairs proposed changes to the
Indian Act in the late 1960’s, Yukon Indians organized to define
their rights to land and resources. In 1973, they began negotiation
of a comprehensive land claim settlement with Ottawa. The recent history
of the land claim process began in 1973, when a delegation of Yukon
Indian People, headed by Elijah Smith, made a presentation to the
Government of Canada entitled, “Together Today For Our Children
Tomorrow”. This document was more than a statement of grievances;
in it, Yukon Indian People made clear their desire to protect their
cultures and to develop economic opportunities for future generations.
Twenty years later, in 1993, the Umbrella Final Agreement (UFA) was
signed, setting the stage for the completion of modernday treaties
for each of the Yukon’s 14 First Nations. Seven of these agreements
came into effect in 1998. They recognize the interests and rights
of First Nations to protect the land and resources which have sustained
them for thousands of years. The agreements provide the First Nations
with 41,000 sq. km. of land, financial compensation, and a clear role
in managing natural and heritage resources throughout the Yukon. Self-government
agreements also were negotiated and give First Nations more legal
control over the management of their own affairs and land.
First
Nations of the Yukon
First
Nations of The Yukon The Yukon’s First Nations presently constitute
about a third of the territory’s population. There are 14 First
Nations in eight language groups.
Gwich’in
The Gwich’in
people live in the northern Yukon along the Peel and Porcupine River
systems. Before contact with Europeans, Gwich’in family groups
were nomadic and relied on migrating caribou to provide them with
meat, hides and other necessities of life. Working cooperatively,
they constructed large caribou corrals or surrounds and herded animals
into them for the kill. Old Crow is the major Vuntut Gwich’in
community in the Yukon today.
Han
The Han
people live along the Yukon River and its tributaries north of Dawson
City. The mainstay of their pre-contact economy was salmon. The Han
gathered in large groups along the river during summer to harvest,
smoke and dry salmon. In winter they broke into smaller family units
to hunt for game. The Han were the people most affected by the Klondike
Gold Rush. Today, they are concentrated in Dawson City and several
Han people still occupy the old Moosehide settlement downriver from
Dawson City.
Tutchone:
Northern and Southern
The Tutchone
people are found in the central Yukon in a large area stretching from
Aishihik and Kluane lakes in the west to the Ogilvie and Selwyn mountains
in the northeast. Pre-contact Tutchone lived in semi-nomadic groups
fishing for salmon and whitefish in spring and summer and hunting
moose, sheep, and woodland caribou in the fall. Fur trapping and trading
had become a central part of their domestic economy before 1900. The
Tutchone are separated into two distinct language groups, with the
Northern Tutchone being centred in Mayo, Pelly Crossing, Carmacks
and Beaver Creek and the Southern Tutchone in Whitehorse, Haines Junction
and Burwash Landing.
Kaska
The Kaska
people live in the mountainous headwaters of the Pelly and Liard Rivers
in the eastern Yukon. They hunted caribou, moose and Dall sheep and
traded furs with coastal Indians. Today, most Yukon Kaskas have congregated
in the communities of Ross River, Upper Liard, Two Mile and Lower
Post, B.C.
Tagish
The Yukon’s
southern lakes are the traditional territory of the Tagish people.
Their yearly round followed the movements of moose, woodland caribou,
sheep and fish. In the 1800’s they were drawn into the fur trade,
acting as middlemen between coastal Tlingit and the inland Kaska and
Tutchone. Over time many Tagish people adopted the Tlingit social
institutions. Today, the Tagish are found mostly in the Carcross area
south of Whitehorse. As the Yukon’s smallest language group,
they are working hard to preserve their language.
Tlingit
The Inland
Tlingit migrated into the southern Yukon from the Taku River area
on the Alaskan coast over the past 100 years. They came to the interior
to trade with the Athapaskans and quickly integrated with the Yukon
Indians through intermarriage and trading partnerships. Teslin, Carcross
and Atlin (in northern British Columbia) are home to most of the Inland
Tlingit today.
Upper
Tanana
Most
of the Upper Tanana people live in Alaska, but are related to the
Yukon’s White River First Nation, centred in the Beaver Creek
area. Some White River people have been moving back to Beaver Creek.
The Upper Tanana and Northern Tutchone languages are indigenous to
the region.
Text
© Teaching in the Yukon Handbook
