Kwanlin Dun First Nation

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The Kwanlin Dün First Nation (KDFN) , Kwanlin Dun First Nation or Kwänlin Dän Kwächʼǟn ("People of Whitehorse") is numerically the largest of the First Nations in the Canadian Yukon and belongs to the tribal group of the Southern Tutchone . The First Nation's territories are in the Whitehorse (Kwänlin) area , the capital of the territory, where most of the tribal people live.

Culturally, they count together with the linguistically closely related Northern Tutchone , Tanana Athabasques and Tagish to the Northern Athabasques ; their language - the Ta'an / Whitehorse / Marsh Lake dialect of Southern Tutchone (Dän k'è) - belongs to the Central Alaska – Yukon subgroup of the Northern Athapaskan languages . The "Kwanlin Dün First Nation" consist mostly of Southern Tutchone, but also of descendants of the Tagish Ḵwáan ( Tágür Kwächʼan - "Carcross-Tagish people") and Tlingit ( Łìngit - "coastal people").

The Miles Canyon near Whitehorse

The name "Kwanlin" or "Kwänlin" ("water flowing through the canyon") refers to a section of the Yukon River between Miles Canyon and the White Horse Rapids near the present-day city of Whitehorse and together with "Dün" or " Dän " (" people "," people ") named the Southern Tutchone First Nation resident there after this place name.

Its traditional territory lies in the headwaters of the Yukon River (Chu Nínkwän) and extended between Marsh Lake (Southern Tutchone: Tàkádàdhà , Tagish Ḵwáan: Sāa Tl'áh Ni ) and Lake Labarge (Tàa'an Mǟn) ("Head of the Lake" ) and downstream to Hootalinqua . The Yukon River is usually simply referred to as the "Great River" by the indigenous peoples living in its river basin: the Southern Tutchone as Tágà Shäw , the Northern Tutchone as Tagé Cho and the Tagish Ḵwáan as Tahgàh Cho . Today's First Nation can be traced back to the Tagish Ḵwáan around Marsh Lake, who have lived in their traditional territory for a long time (hence the traditional Tutchone name for the Tagish Ḵwáan is also: Tatlʼān Kwächʼǟn - "Marsh Lake People").

In July 2020 , the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada calculated exactly 1,015 recognized Indians to be the "Kwanlin Dün First Nation" .

history

Early history

The earliest livelihoods were the caribou herds , but also moose , sheep and marmots , hares and Alaska piping hares . There were also birds and fish, especially salmon . They cover almost 4,000 km across the Yukon River. Grizzly bears, wolves, coyotes and lynx also live here.

The harsh climate required a semi-nomadic life, with families gathering in spring and summer camps to fish, but also in the short fall to hunt. The early groups lived in shelters made of twigs, branches, and hides. The clothing was also adapted to the climate.

The relationships between the groups who moved as nomads in the southern Yukon and Alaska were extremely close, although they spoke different languages ​​such as Southern and Northern Tutchone , Upper Tanana, Tagish or Tlingit. They consolidated these relationships through regular trade contacts and joint celebrations, as well as through family ties. Their view of the world and their relationship to their surroundings were also similar. Shamans excelled as healers and were responsible for making contact with spiritual powers. They also helped to find hunting prey.

During the less favorable times of the year, small groups of families, following their respective walking cycle with some variations each year, roamed the entire traditional area.

Finds at Annie Lake and Fish Lake indicate residents who lived here as early as 8000 BC. Lived. Few people lived here, only two large lance tips were found during an excavation in 1992. There were hardly any fish in the landscape that had just been released from the ice. Tiny blades known as microblades are characteristic of this era .

Around 4000 BC The area was covered by sand dunes, but a group of hunters left traces of a fire. The Northern Archaic could be assigned an unusual spearhead, which was first discovered at Annie Lake, and which is known as Annie Lake Point .

Forest fires paved the way for significant erosion and sand dunes piled up again. There are no human traces. There was a camp at Annie Lake where the men hunted sheep, caribou, and mountain goats. Around 500 AD the camp reached a high point of intensity of use, the climate was more humid and the forests denser.

Around 750 a massive volcanic eruption occurred on the upper reaches of the White River, which covered large parts of the area with ash. At Annie Lake, however, there was only a thin layer of ash that probably allowed it to stay, or at least to return a little later.

In 1994, the Yukon Heritage Branch and Kwanlin Dün First Nation, in collaboration with the Yukon Conservation Society and MacBride Museum, conducted an archaeological dig in the ghost town of Canyon City at Miles Canyon. People probably lived here after the end of the Ice Age, but they can only be proven from 500 BC. A projectile tip can be assigned to the Agate Basin complex due to the way it was processed, i.e. the time around 7000 BC. BC, but the tip was in a charcoal layer that dates back to 600 BC. Can be dated BC.

The fur trade came to the region shortly after 1800 through the Tlingit, which for the first time tied local trade to world trade. Large numbers came here around 1880. This brought European goods such as rifles, metal goods, axes, knives, but also tobacco, tea, sugar and flour to the Kwanlin Dun and their neighbors. However, food procurement and social reasons for migration continued to be a priority. This was also due to the fact that the Tlingit defended their fur trade monopoly until the 1980s.

George M. Dawson, who toured the region on behalf of the government in 1887, registered trails and portages around Miles Canyon.

Klondike Gold Rush, Whitehorse

When the Klondike gold rush struck the sparsely populated region in 1897, and especially in 1898, around 100,000 people flocked to the gold fields. Most of them came from the Pacific via the only two passes to Lake Lindeman or Lake Bennett . There they built rafts and boats to cover the 500 miles to Dawson. The consumption of wood rose by leaps and bounds. As early as the winter of 1897/98, 10,000 men wintered in tents at both lakes. In May 1898 around 7,000 boats drove down the Yukon. The journey led through numerous rapids such as in Miles Canyon or through those of White Horse, Five Fingers and The Rink.

Norman Macaulay, a 28-year-old Victoria entrepreneur , built a roadhouse and saloon on the path along Miles Canyon and White Horse Rapids in 1897. In three weeks, 18 men converted it into a horse-drawn tramway over a stretch of 5.5 miles, with wagons that were pulled by horses on railroad tracks. When tens of thousands of prospectors arrived, as Macaulay had foreseen, this orbit offered an alternative to the dangerous waterway and Canyon City emerged there overnight. The Canyon and White Horse Rapids Tramway Company charged 3 cents a pound and $ 25 a boat. Macaulay's men and 23 horses carried up to 90 tons a day. The fact that Superintendent Samuel B. Steele of the local police force subjected travel on the river to strict restrictions contributed to this success. Women and children were not allowed on board at all.

Already in the summer of 1898 a hotel, saloon, restaurant, shop, huts and numerous tents were built, as well as a Northwest Mounted Police station and a forge. In 1899, John Hepburn, who also came from Victoria, tried to compete with Macaulay by building a railway line on the other side of the river. For his part, Macaulay also built one and was able to take over the competitor's for $ 60,000 in June. Meanwhile, the White Pass and Yukon Railway was started, which took its starting point from the Pacific coast in Skagway . In August 1899 she bought the Macaulay railroad for $ 185,000. In June 1900 the Macaulays tramway became superfluous with the completion of the railway connection. Canyon City disappeared within a very short time, and the police station was probably abandoned soon after October 1901. However, at least one Indian family moved to the ghost town.

In 1900, at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush , requested Chief Jim Boss (Kishxóot) of the Ta'an Kwäch'än the Commissioner of the Yukon William Ogilvie , a 1,600 acre large reserve at Ta'an Mens. But he was only allowed 320 acres . So the chief wrote in 1902 to the Department of Indian Affairs in Ottawa that the game was being hunted down and that his people needed compensation and compensation. He wrote: “Tell the King very hard we want something for our Indians, because they take our land and our game.” Ottawa only promised to protect the people and the tiny reservation. This correspondence is considered the first attempt to enforce land claims in the Yukon.

When the White Pass and Yukon Route (WPYR) company acquired the area of ​​what is now Whitehorse, the local Indians had to leave the area and move to the east bank of the Yukon - just north of the site of what is now the General Hospital. In 1912 the group was relocated again, this time to the place where the Robert Service Campground is today. From there to Kishwoot Island, several villages emerged.

In 1915, Superintendent John Hawksley requested a reservation for the Indians. It took six years for his call for a reservation north of Whitehorse to be implemented. The area of ​​282.3 acres (Lot 226) was what is now the Marwell industrial area .

Alaska Highway, Assimilation Policy

In 1942 the construction of the Alaska Highway began . The population of Whitehorse rose by leaps and bounds from 700 to 25,000, in 1953 the town became the capital of the territory, replacing Dawson . By 1948, after land had been confiscated for road construction and military reasons, Ottawa withdrew from Indian Reserve No. 8 the legal basis and thus protection under the Indian Act . This means that the tribe again had no territory of their own, but all Indians from Whitehorse had to move there.

Land Claims and Self-Government, Kwanlin Dun First Nation

In 1956, the Department of Indian Affairs forced several tribes to merge, leaving only three of six tribes. The trunks between Marsh Lake and Lake Laberge , especially Tagish Kwan and Ta'an Kwäch'än, were amalgamated. So the Whitehorse Indian Band , today's Kwanlin Dün First Nation, came into being. In 1962 the last Indian houses on the riverside path in Whitehorse (waterfront), where the SS Klondike is today, were demolished and their residents had to move to the reservation.

It was not until 1987 that the Ta'an Kwäch'än broke away from this association. In 2002 they signed a contract with the government that gave them a self-governed reservation around Lake Laberge.

In 1972, a group of elders led by Elijah Smith , an elder of the Kwanlin Dün, presented demands to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau entitled Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow . The core of their message was: "Without land, Indians have no soul - no life, no identity - no goal". This began disputes over the land rights of the Indians in the Yukon.

It was not until 1988 that the Kwanlin Dün First Nation was able to move to their present home west of the Alaska Highway, on land that was earmarked for the construction of a pipeline that was never built (McIntyre subdivision). In July 1998, the Ta'an Kwäch'än Council separated from the Whitehorse band. In 2001, Lot 226 was recognized as a reserve by the Supreme Court.

On February 19, 2005, the tribe signed the final treaty on land claims and self-government, with provisions effective April 1. This made the Kwanlin Dun the tenth nation on the territory of the territory to rule itself. The extremely lengthy negotiations were due to the complicated situation in the comparatively densely populated region. Whitehorse, where two thirds of the population of the territory live, belongs to the traditional territory.

The tribe was given a total area of ​​10,380 km², with some points being designated as Special Management Areas (SMAs) that are under special protection. They include Kusawa Park and the Lewes Marsh Habitat Protection Area .

Current situation

The government consists of the General Assembly , the chief and his seven advisors, who are elected every three years, the Elders Council, the Youth Council and the Legal Council. The seat of government is at 35 MacIntyre, Whitehorse. The transition from a government under the Indian law to a self-government required financial support, because the funds for programs for health, house building, economic development, environmental protection and cultural and historical projects were initially limited. The Waterfront Cultural Center is also to be built in Whitehorse .

In 2011, Rick O'Brien was elected as the new chief.

literature

  • Back to the river. Celebrating Our Culture , Kwanlin Dün First Nation, 2003
  • Paul Nadasdy: Hunters and Bureaucrats: Power, Knowledge, and Aboriginal-State Relations in the Southwest Yukon , University of British Columbia Press 2003.
  • Catharine McClellan, "Tutchone," in: Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 6, Subarctic, Ed. June Helm, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution 1981, 493-505.

See also

Web links

Remarks

  1. Kwanlin Dun First Nation ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pse5-esd5.ainc-inac.gc.ca
  2. A description is provided by Désdélé Méné The Archeology of Annie Lake
  3. From Trail to Tramway - The Archeology of Canyon City ( Memento from June 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ SS Klondike National Historic Site of Canada , Parks Canada
  5. Roxanne Stasyszyn: Kwanlin Dun's new chief focuses on employment and housing ( Memento of the original of October 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Yukon News, March 18, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / yukon-news.com