Ta'an Kwach'an

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The Ta'an Kwach'an or Ta'an Kwäch'än ("people of Lake Laberge / the settlement on Lake Laberge") are one of the First Nations in the Canadian Yukon . Most of them live on Lake Laberge (Tàa'an Mǟn) north of Whitehorse , the territory's capital. They belong to the Athabaskan language family , more precisely to the Southern Tutchone , but they are also closely related to Tagish and Tlingit .

Their traditional territory extends from Hootalinqua in the north, where the Teslin and Yukon Rivers meet, in the south to Marsh Lake , in the west to White Bank Village at the confluence of the Takhini and Little Rivers , and in the east to Winter Crossing on the Teslin River . It covers over 12,000 km².

In December 2009 , the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development counted exactly 235 recognized Indians among the Ta'an Kwach'an .

history

Early history

The earliest livelihoods were, like everywhere in the north, the caribou herds , but also moose , sheep and marmots , hares and Alaskan potters . Since the salmon migrations through the Yukon and its tributaries had prevailed, there were also birds and fish, especially salmon . They cover a distance of over 3000 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 autumn to hunt. The early groups lived in shelters made of twigs, branches, and hides; clothing was also adapted to the climate.

The relationships between the groups that moved as nomads in the southern Yukon 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.

The oldest find comes from the Ibex River . It is 5 to 8,000 years old. In addition to the villages on Lake Laberge, there were villages on the Takhini River and at the southern end of Fox Lake to the west of the lake , which had existed there since 1000 AD at the latest.

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

The traditional territory was opened up by numerous paths. Along the Laurier and Thomas Creek one reached the caribou hunting areas in the Big Salmon Mountains as well as fish storage at Mason's Landing and Boswell Creek at the Teslin River. The Teslin was crossed at Winter Crossing and reached the Livingstone Creek Trail, which extends northeast to the Ross River . To the west a path leads to Fox Lake, from there on to Braeburn and Carmacks . From Shallow Bay a path leads to the Takhini River and Takhini Hot Springs , and northwards one goes to 52 Mile Lake , where camp was located. Sheep and gophers , small rodents, were hunted in the southern Golden Horn Mountain (Simà) . A path leads north to the Thirty Mile River , where beavers were also hunted. From there it went on to Hootalinqua. From Upper Laberge south to the Yukon River, a path leads to Swan Lake, salmon fishing grounds and a village on Marsh Lake.

The trade revolved around red agate from Miller's Ridge west of Carmacks and dates back over a thousand years. The Kwächäl Kwäch'ǟn (Champagne) and Äshèyi Kwäch'ǟn (Aishihik) was a trade in obsidian , volcanic glass from the Saint Elias Mountains .

At Lake Laberge there were villages on Deep Creek and Jackfish Bay, the former trading in rare tuff as far as the Mackenzie area in the Northwest Territories . One of the main fishing spots for whitefish was on Horse Creek, where people gathered in October and November. Here one met with the Jilḵáat Ḵwáan (Chilkat-Tlingit) from the coast, who once a year climbed the Chilkat Pass and drove down the Kusawa Lake to trade. Estimates of the age of these places range up to 4000 years. The path can be found on a map drawn by Klukwan chief Koh-Klux in 1852. Young men were deployed at Naalen or Lookout Mountain and signaled the arrival of the Chilkat dealers, whose copper was particularly popular, by means of light signals.

The closest relationships existed with the Tā̀gish kotʼīnèʼ (later they mostly adopted the language of the dominant Tlingit (Łìngit) ("coastal people"), regarded themselves as a regional Tlingit group and referred to themselves as the "Tagish Kwän"), but also to other groups There were family relationships in the area. The "Ta'an Kwach'an" can even be traced back to two ancestors, the members of the neighboring "Tā̀gish kotʼīnèʼ / Tagish Kwän" (Tutchone name: Tatlʼān Kwächʼǟn - "Marsh Lake people", these were not Tutchones) and the Chu ʼEna kwächʼǟn / Chu Yena kwächʼǟn ("Hutchi / Hutshi Lakes Volk", another Southern Tutchone band) and the T'aaku Kwáan-Tlingit were in Alaska .

Most of the villages were at the confluence of the Little River and Takhini River, below the Whitehorse Rapids , then around Hootalinqua and at the mouth of the M'Clintock River . The village on Takhini was the most important salmon fishing ground and at the same time the main trading place with the coastal groups, and whitefish were mainly caught at Shallow Bay .

Gold rush, reservation, Chief Jim Boss

When the Klondike gold rush struck the sparsely populated region in 1897 and 1898 , around 100,000 people flocked here. 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 . In May 1898, around 7,000 boats went down the Yukon. At that time, Mundessa was the chief of the Ta'an Kwach'an. His son was Kashxóot from the Wolf Clan, better known as Chief Jim Boss . He was married three times and had 7 children. Many of today's Indians at Lake Laberge can be traced back to Mundessa.

In 1900, at the height of the Gold Rush, requested Chief Jim Boss (Kishxóot) the Commissioner of the Yukon William Ogilvie , a 1600 acre large reserve at Ta'an Mens. But he was only allowed 320 acres . Therefore the chief wrote to the Department of Indian Affairs in Ottawa in 1902 that the game was being hunted down and that his people needed compensation and compensation: “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. Boss hired a Whitehorse lawyer named TW Jackson to enforce his legal claims. The Lake Laberge 1 reservation now covers 129.6 hectares.

The Ta'an Kwäch'än were the first to receive a reservation in the territory. The place was first known as "Russian Town". Jim Boss, together with his brother-in-law Henry Broeren, built a roadhouse for shipping on the lake at Horse Creek . Soon the place was called "Jim Boss Town" or "Upper Laberge". He was also involved in the supply of wood and fish to Whitehorse. Some also took part in the gold prospecting.

Today collapsed huts and a few graves testify to the presence of the gold diggers. Some of them were only forced to give up their huts after the Takhini Fire , a devastating forest fire in 1958. Upper Laberge, Lower Laberge and 31 Mile were built on traditional Ta'an-Kwäch'än territory. Upper Laberge stands today at camp at Joe Creek on the east side of the lake. Maggie Boss and her husband Henry Broeren lived here. He was one of the first - together with Amy Laberge, the daughter of Laberge Billy and Jenny Laberge, and her husband William Cletheroe - to dig for minerals at Livingstone Creek . In 31 Mile, Angus and Kitty McLeod, as well as other Ta'an, ran a fox and mink breed in the 1920s . Finally, there was a salmon trap near Whitehorse before it was destroyed by dams, especially on Marsh Lake.

Alaska Highway, abandoned villages, self-employment

In 1942 the construction of the war important 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 . The way of life of the Indians changed drastically. Many moved from Lake Laberge to the construction sites on the Alaska Highway or looked for work in the vicinity.

The army practiced in two places in the Yukon, namely at Watson Lake and Lake Laberge. The Deep Creek region was hardest hit at Lake Laberge. The same goes for Richtofen Island , the southern end of which has been exposed to heavy fire.

In 1956 the Canadian government forced the amalgamation of several Indian tribes to form the Whitehorse Indian Band in order to save administrative costs. This went hand in hand with resettlements.

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 . This began disputes over the land rights of the Indians in the Yukon, which in most cases resulted in contracts.

In 1987 the Ta'an Kwäch'än separated from the Whitehorse Indian Band after 33 years . In July 1998, the Ta'an Kwäch'än Council split from the Whitehorse band . The Ta'an Kwäch'än signed a 2002 treaty with the territory and with Ottawa , which guaranteed them a self-governed reservation around Lake Laberge. The tribe ratified the agreement in November 2004. On February 19, 2005, it was solemnly signed by representatives of the tribe and government of Yukon and Canada in Whitehorse.

Current situation

The government consists of the General Assembly , the chief and a deputy 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 the election on October 19, 2009, Brenda Sam prevailed as Chief and Richard Martin as Deputy Chief.

In 1995 the Lake Laberge Archeology Project began , a joint excavation project of the Ta'an Kwäch'än First Nation Council and the Yukon Heritage Branch , a cooperation between the local First Nation and archaeologists .

literature

  • Ken S. Coates: Best Left as Indians. Native-White Relations in the Yukon Territory, 1840-1973 , Montreal, Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press 1991, paperback 1993.
  • 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. ↑ Ta'an Kwach'an ( Memento of the original from January 16, 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. ↑ Ta'an Kwach'an, Reserves / Settlements / Villages ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pse5-esd5.ainc-inac.gc.ca
  3. ^ D. Davidge: A Report on a Preliminary Underwater Survey of Lake Laberge in the Vicinity of Deep Creek, Yukon , 2000
  4. ^ Ta'an Kwäch'än Council Self-Government Agreement